History of southeast Missouri : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people and its principal interests, Volume II, Part 91

Author: Douglass, Robert Sidney. 4n
Publication date: 1912
Publisher: Chicago : The Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 802

USA > Missouri > History of southeast Missouri : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people and its principal interests, Volume II > Part 91

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To the discipline of farm life another and yet more severe training was added, for he was left an orphan at a very early age and was brought up by an uncle, Warren Rogers. When he could be spared from the farm he at- tended the subscription schools in the log school house of Mead county, Kentucky, where

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Lulu Calvin

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he was born. On the twenty-third day of Jan- mary, 1883, Mr. Calvin arrived in Sikeston. He was eighteen years old and his entire capital was three nickels in his trousers pocket. However, he had enough energy and ambition to make the lack of money certain to be only a temporary inconvenience.

For five years after coming to Sikeston Mr. Calvin worked on the farms in the vicinity by the day and by the month, and at the end of that time was able to begin renting. His first farm was only twenty-five acres, but in some- thing over twenty years he has increased this to six hundred acres, besides three hundred and twenty which he owns. He does not live on his farm land but rents it out. General farming is the line which Mr. Calvin follows, devoting most of his attention to the raising of wheat and corn. He uses up-to-date ma- chinery and is not one of the farmers who leave most of their work to Providence. An- other industry to which he gives especial care is the raising of Poland China hogs. He keeps about one hundred and fifty of these on hand, shipping some and selling some breeders, thus promoting the raising of pure breeds in the country near about. His other stock comprises about thirty-three horses and mules and twenty-five cattle.

In Sikeston Mr. Calvin owns three houses, one of which is his fine home, and twenty-one lots and is also one of the stockholders in the Citizens' Bank. He is a well known and popu- lar member of the Odd Fellows lodge here and also a valued member of the Methodist church. in which his wife was formerly a teacher in the Sunday-school. In politics he gives his vote and his support to the Democratic party.

Mrs. Calvin was Miss Lulu Wooldridge, who like her husband, is a Kentuckian, although she was born in Hardin county. Mrs. Calvin is a daughter of the late Rev. W. S. and Sallie A. (Crist) Wooldridge. The latter died in March, 1911, aged sixty-four years past, the mother of six children, all of whom grew to maturity but one daughter, Mrs. Oro Thomp- son, who died at the age of twenty-three years. Rev. W. S. Wooldridge, who died July 3, 1907, aged sixty-five years, was a minister of the Missionary Baptist church, being a life mem- ber of the church and a minister for some ten years of his later life. Mrs. Calvin came to Sikeston when a young girl of twelve years, and has grown up here. Her marriage to Mr. Calvin took place on Christmas day, 1892. Their family consists of four children. Robert Lee and Talbot C., the twins, are now de- Vol. II-31

ceased, having lived to be but three months old. Opal, born in 1894, and Nica, four years later, are now attending school. Both Mr. and Mrs. Calvin stand high in the honor and af- fection of the community because of their sterling qualities and kindly manners.

JAMES A. HARBIN. For over twenty-five years the subject of this sketch has been identified with Stoddard county, Missouri, living in the vicinity of Puxico, where he ranks as a representative citizen.

Mr. Harbin is a native of the "Hoosier state." He was born in Greene county, In- diana, October 3, 1857; was reared to farm life, and had only limited educational advan- tages. After his marriage he rented a forty- acre farm in Indiana, on which he made his home for three years, until 1885, when he de- cided to come to Missouri. He made the journey hither all the way by wagon, being nine days on the road, and not long after his arrival here he purchased his present place, locating on the same two years later. His wife came by rail, joining him soon after- ward. Here he bought forty acres of land, to which he added twenty acres by subsequent purchase, making a tract of sixty acres, of which fifty are under cultivation, devoted to the various erops common to the locality. The greater part of clearing and grubbing on the land Mr. Harbin has done himself, and he also, as a side line, works at the trade of pa- per hanging and painting. The first house he occupied here was a small one, containing only two rooms. This was long since re- placed by a comfortable seven-room house, and he has a good barn, thirty-two by forty feet in dimensions.

In May, 1882, in Indiana, Mr. Harbin and Miss Paulina Gilmore were united in mar- riage, and to them have been given two sons and two daughters, of whom one son, Claudie, died aged two years and five months. The son, Elmer A., married Claudia Mc Allister, and lives at Barnhart, Missouri, where he is an operator for the Frisco Railroad Com- pany. The elder daughter, Maude, who was a teacher for several years, married Charles Ashbaugh, and resided at Puxico until her death, January 2, 1912, leaving a baby daugh- ter, Myrtle Eveline, born December 5, 1911, while the younger daughter, Myrtle, is now teaching the third grade at Puxico. Mrs. Harbin was born in Sullivan county, Indiana, January 1, 1865.

Mr. Harbin votes the Prohibition ticket

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and in every way possible supports the prin- ciples of the party with which he votes. For ten years he has been an officer in the ME. W. of A., and also for years he has been an ac- tive church worker, being identified with the Methodist Episcopal church, of which Mrs. Harbin is also a member. He is a man whose influence counts for good in the community in which he lives.

LAURIN C. GOODMAN. Practical industry, wisely and vigorously applied, never fails of success; it carries a man onward and up- ward, brings out his individual character and acts as a powerful stimulus to the efforts of others. The greatest results in life are nsnally attained by simple means, implying the exercise of the ordinary qualities of com- mon sense and self-improvement. The every- day life, with its cares, necessities and duties, affords ample opportunities for acquiring ex- perience of the best kind, and its most beaten paths provide a true worker with abundant scope for effort and self-improvement. A splendid example of that typically American prodnet,-the self-made man-is Laurin C. Goodman, postmaster of Advance. He is an essentially publie-spirited citizen, can be counted upon to give his support to every- thing advancing the welfare of the place and is generally popular. As postmaster since the year 1897, when appointed by James Garry, postmaster general, under MeKinley's first administration. he has proved a faithful and efficient servant of Unele Sam. On the third day of March, 1911. he was appointed postmaster by William II. Taft.

Mr. Goodman was born in Jefferson county, Illinois, on the 12th day of March, 1868. He is the son of R. J. Goodman and Nancy A. Goodman.

J. MORGAN BALL. Although Mr. Ball is a comparatively new resident of Pemiscot county he has identified himself with its in- terests in a manner which is as creditable to him as it is beneficial to his fellow citizens. Both by his influence and by his personal ef- forts he has been improving the public roads and in recognition of his services in this mat- ter he has been made road overseer of the township, a position which he has filled for three years. As Mr. Ball has only been in Missouri since 1903. it will readily occur to the reader that he is an eminently public- spirited person. Further evidence of this fact is his serving the township as justice of

the peace and the four years he spent in Butler township in the same capacity.

Previons to his coming to Missouri, Ten- nessee was Mr. Ball's home. Both he and his parents, Daniel and Mary Cross Ball, were born in Giles county. The year of Mr. Ball's birth was 1866. He attended the subscription schools and also the public schools in Giles county. He attended a writing school con- ducted by Dr. H. Marrable, who had been edu- cated at Bryant and Stratton's Commercial College. Mr. Ball mastered the Spencerian system of penmanship and taught it later himself.

As Mr. Ball's father was a farmer, he as- sisted him to manage the farm until his death, after which he remained with his mother until she, too, passed to the other life, some years after. A short time after his mother's death Mr. Ball moved to Lake county, Tennessee, and engaged in farming there until he came to Missouri.

Mr. Ball's first wife was Lucy Davis, of Tennessee. This union was blessed with five children: Albert, Lottie, Walter, Olla and Otis. Their mother died, and the father mar- ried Christina Killion. also a native of Ten- nessee. She bore him one daughter, Effie. Louie Williamson, of Kentucky, was Mr. Ball's third wife, who died without issue. The present Mrs. Ball was Miss Bertie Casby. Her marriage to Mr. Ball took place in 1909.

Steward, in this county, was Mr. Ball's first place of residence in the state. Until 1909 he rented and then bought his present farm of forty-five acres. At the time he pur- chased it the place was mostly in woods, but Mr. Ball has built a new house, fenced his place and improved it generally. He raises cotton, corn, hay and some stock.

Mr. Ball is a member of the Odd Fellows lodge. No. 620. at Portageville. He has at- tained the distinction of advisor in the Dry- byou camp of the Modern Woodmen's lodge. Mrs. Ball is a member of the Christian church.

W. J. DAVIS. Numbered among the fore- most citizens of Malden is W. J. Davis, cash- ier of the Dunklin County Bank, who is held in high regard by his associates, his influence and assistance being always sought in behalf of undertakings for the public good and the advancement of the best interests of the com- munity. A son of William H. Davis, he was born in 1866, in Ohion county, Tennessee.

William HI. Davis migrated with his fam-

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ily from Tennessee to Missouri in 1868, lo- cating near Old Four Mile in Dunklin county, where he took up land, on which he was engaged in general farming until his death, at the age of forty-eight years. He married Virginia H. Jones, who survived him many years, passing away at the age of sixty- four years. She brought up and educated their four children, of whom the eldest was sixteen years old when he died. and lived to see them all pass away with the exception of one son, W. J. Her children were as fol- lows: Dona, who married William Gold- smith, and died at the age of thirty-eight years; W. J .; Logan, who lived twenty-four years; and John, who passed away at the age of twenty-six years.

W. J. Davis remained on the home farm until sixteen years old, when he became clerk in a store at Four Mile. Coming from there to Malden, he was similarly employed in a mercantile establishment until he bought out his employer, operating a general store, in- cluding a drug department and a clothing department. Subsequently selling out his mercantile interests, Mr. Davis accepted the cashiership of the Dunklin County Bank, with which he is still connected. He was one of the original stockholders of this institu- tion, and is a director as well as the cashier. The Dunklin County Bank was organized in 1890, with a capital of fifteen thousand dol- lars, which has since been increased to twenty thousand dollars. The surplus and profits amount to nine thousand five hundred dol- lars; the deposits are from one hundred and thirty thousand to two hundred thousand dollars, and its dividends pay fifteen per cent. The first president, H. T. Smith, was suc- ceeded by Moses Wofford, the present head of the institution, and Otto A. Shulte, was suc- ceeded by W. J. Davis.

Mr. Davis married, in 1887, Cora V. Wil- kins, of Malden, and they have one son, Ilarry B. Davis. Mr. Davis is a man of strong religious convictions, and for many years has been an elder in the Christian church and the superintendent of its Sunday school, serving in the latter capacity fifteen consecutive years. Fraternally he is a Ma- son, being a member and past worthy master of the blue lodge, and a member and past em- inent commander of the Commandery, K. T.

A. L. BIFFLE. The little town of Bell City, Stoddard county, Missouri, has its quota of up-to-date, enterprising citizens, and well to

the front among the number is found A. L. Biffle, cashier of its financial institution, the Bank of Bell City.

Mr. Biffle claims Missouri as the state of his nativity. He was born on a farm in Mad- ison county, August 18, 1875. In his youth he attended the Doniphan high school, later he pursued a course of study in Bellevue Col- legiate Institute, which subsequently became Marvin College when it was moved to Fred- ericktown, and for several years he was a teacher. He taught two years in Dunklin county and three years in the northern part. of Stoddard county. Teaching, however, was to him only a stepping stone to a business career, and he left the school room to engage in merchandising at Advance, where he opened up a stock of goods. chiefly groceries. For a time he conducted business alone, af- terward was associated with a partner, and was successful in his undertakings until he met with disaster in the form of fire. He had no insurance and his loss was complete. Then, in January, 1907, he came to Bell City and accepted the position of cashier of the Bank of Bell City, which he has since filled, and since his identity with the institution its business has continually improved. He for- merly owned one-fourth of the stock of the Bell City Lumber Company, of which he was the principal promoter and of which he was secretary and treasurer.

Mr. Biffle had been in business at Advance for four years and had bought a home there. After the fire above mentioned he sold what was left of his belongings and moved his fam- ily to their present home. He and his wife have two children : Earl, born in December, 1903, and Dorothy, in September, 1907. Mrs. Biffle, formerly Miss Nellie K. Picker of Fredericktown, Missouri, was born and reared there, the date of her birth being February 12, 1879. Her father is now a resident of St. Louis. To this union was born a son on the 11th of April, 1912.

Mr. and Mrs. Biffle attend worship at the Southern Methodist church. Politically Mr. Biffle is a Democrat, and always takes an en- thusiastic interest in public affairs, but has never aspired to official preferment. Frater- nally he is identified with the M. W. of A., the I. O. O. F. and the F. and A. M.

W. C. CLARK is one of the foremost repre- sentatives of the industrial and commercial life of Puxico and contributes in definite man- ner to its prosperity by a well-managed gen-

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eral merchandise business. He has been identified with the flourishing little city for nearly thirty years. having come here in 1884 as inspector for T. J. Moss, the noted tie manufacturer and dealer. The "Houck" Railroad, now a part of the Friseo Railroad, had just been built through Puxico and Mr. Clark handled two hundred and fifty thou- sand railway ties. These had been made by Mr. Moss, who bought the timber and manu- factured them. employing for the purpose no less than four hundred men. Mr. Clark was one of a trio of inspectors, he handling the product of about one hundred and fifty men. He remained in Mr. Moss' employ until that gentleman's death in the summer of 1893, and in truth for several months longer. Fol- lowing the dissolution of the Moss Company Mr. Clark engaged as a sub-contractor for one year, and at Puxico and other places along the road turned out about twenty thon- sand ties per month. Subsequently he en- gaged with the Ayer & Good Tie Company of Chicago and continued with them as inspector for seven years, making his headquarters meantime at Cape Girardeau. He was con- cerned with the building of the Cotton Belt Railroad in Missouri and Arkansas, and for five years subsequent made his headquarters at Cape Girardeau.

Mr. Clark eame to the decision to try out his fortunes in another field of endeavor and in 1903 he seeured farming property, about one mile east of Puxico, and for four years he engaged in agricultural pursuits, meet- ing with mueh snecess in this line, as in all his undertakings. His present enterprise dates from the year 1907, when he opened a general merchandise store, his ambition be- ing to keep a large, desirable and thoroughly up-to-date stock. He has built up a large and loyal patronage and enjoys high prestige in the business world.

Mr. Clark was born in Howard county, Missouri, January 5, 1853, his parents being Nicholas and Mary (Perkins) Clark. At the age of twenty-two years he was united in marriage to Mary Johnson, a native of the same county which had been the scene of his nativity. She died after a decade of happy married life, on March 4, 1885, of tuberculo- sis, leaving motherless three children, as fol- lows: Edward L., now a farmer of Stoddard county; George W., who is associated with his father in the store; and Fred C., who is interested in a mercantile business in Kansas

City, Kansas. Mr. Clark was married again, in 1886, in Puxico, Miss Etta Loveless, of Stoddard county, becoming his wife and the mistress of his household. She died in 1894, and her only child, Edgar, died in 1899, at the age of eight years. The present Mrs. Clark previous to her marriage was Mrs. Eva C. Dysart, widow of Thomas Dysart, a farmer. Her maiden name was Eva C. King There is no issue of this union.

Mr. Clark is one of the most prominent of Stoddard county Masons, belonging to the Blue Lodge, the Chapter, the Council and the Commandery at Cape Girardeau. Both Mr. and Mrs. Clark are members of the auxiliary Masonic order, the Eastern Star, at Cape Girardeau. The subject is affiliated also with the Modern Woodmen and is especially pop- ular in all of these organizations. Both Mr. and Mrs. Clark are valued and generous sup- porters of the Christian church of Puxico and are identified in a praiseworthy manner with the social and philanthropieal affairs of the community, in which the former represents one of the important business interests.

ELIAS J. MALONE. Tennessee is the native state of Sikeston's present mayor, also where his parents were born and spent their lives and where his two surviving brothers and their families are still living in the town of Pulaski. Both the father and the mother were born in Marshall county, Tennessee, the former in 1830 and the latter in 1835. Ilere, too, their marriage was solemnized on October 21, 1851, and their five sons, Elias, Wright M., D. Ilenry, L. Calvin and John W., were born. Both Wright Malone and all his family,-his wife, Molly Horn Wright, and his two sons- are dead. Calvin, too, passed away, at the age of twenty-one. D. Henry and Cassie Regan Malone have two children, a son and a daugh- ter. John W. married Hetty McMullin, and their family numbers five boys and one girl.

William A. Malone, the father, was twelve months a soldier in the Confederate army. Later he joined the Union army and served until the end of the war. He helonged to the Odd Fellows lodge and was a member of the Methodist church, to which his wife also be- longed. Ile was a Republican politically and held the office of collector of revenue in Giles county, Tennessee. He was for a number of years on the police foree in Pulaski, Tennes- see.

Both William A. Malone and his wife, Hattie Luna, died in Pulaski, Tennessee. Iler

malene

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demise occurred in 1885, and after mourning her ten years her husband followed her in July, 1895.

Elias J. Malone, the generous and pro- gressive mayor of Sikeston, was born Decem- ber 29, 1852. His early ambition was to be a doctor and so he studied medicine under Dr. J. C. Roberts, of Pulaski, Tennessee. He be- gan to practice under the same physician in 1872, and continued in the profession for five years. His last three years in medical work were spent in Pulaski, Illinois, where he had gone in 1874. Upon abandoning medicine he went into the manufacturing business in Pu- laski, Illinois.

On October 24, 1875, Mr. Malone and Nora Kerby, daughter of James M. and Carrie Kerby, were united in marriage. Nora Kerby was born July 28, 1861. She was fourteen years the wife of Elias J. Malone, to whom she bore four children before her death in 1889. The oldest child, Ollie Otis, was born in 1877, July 24, and lived but three years, being killed in 1880. Effie M., born January 31, 1880, died at the age of eleven. Edna I., born May 28, 1882, lives in Clovis, New Mexico, where her husband, Frank R. Day, is chief dispatcher of the Santa Fe Railway. The other surviving child of Mr. Malone's first marriage is Earl J., born March 13, 1886, now married to Maggie Mocabee Malone, by whom he has one son, El- bert. Mr. Earl J. Malone acts as his father's assistant, and is also city clerk.

The present Mrs. Elias J. Malone is the daughter of Lieutenant John S. Bridges, of Carbondale, Illinois. She was born June 29, 1867, and christened Mamie Ethel. On June 30, 1890, she became Mrs. Elias J. Malone. Four sons and one daughter have been the fruit of this union. Their names and dates of birth are as follows : C. Lyle, June 7, 1891; William B., August 15, 1893; John R., August 20, 1896; Albert D., October 18, 1902. The daughter, Ruth, born September 9, 1905, died in infancy.

Mr. Malone sold his interests in Pulaski, Illinois, in the fall of 1877 and moved to Little River, Missouri. Here he erected a large sawmill two miles north of the present site of Morehouse. This was the first sawmill of that region and as it worked about three hundred men all the time, it was a great factor in the growth of the county. In 1880 Mr. Malone moved his plant from its original location to Morehouse, erected an improved mill and continued in business until 1889. That year he sold out to the Himmelberger

interests, a company which is now the IFim- melberger-Ilarrison Land & Lumber Com- pany.

After selling out his interests in Morehouse, Mr. Malone built his residence in Sikeston and has lived here ever since that time, de- voting himself to building up the city. There is little indeed in the way of religious, com- mercial, social or civic enterprise in which he does not participate. He is a Mason and an Odd Fellow in fraternal affiliations. The Republican party claims his political sup- port. but the entire community claim him as a public officer. He has been for years a member of the city council and thrice mayor. During his first administration the city hall bonds were issued and sold. sewerage system was installed and many miles of sidewalk were laid. Mr. Malone is president of the Sikeston commercial club, known as the "Sikeston 10,000" club, and is the largest owner of Sikeston residences.

Of his benevolences, Mr. Malone does not talk. following the injunction "Let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth." But he cannot altogether conceal his gifts, inasmuch as the recipients are bound to know about them, and they will tell. He donated twenty thousand dollars for a square, called Malone park, and contributed two thousand five hundred dollars to the new edifice of the Methodist church, of which he is a member, and is a liberal giver to all charitable insti- tutions. Nor must it be omitted to mention that he keeps an active interest in public edu- cation and serves on the school board.

JOHN W. BURROW. Among the residents of Stoddard county, Missouri, who have tried a hand at various lines of occupation and who, after well earned success, have had a farm home to retire to, may be included John W. Burrow.

Mr. Burrow was born July 9, 1857, in the southern part of Bollinger county, Missouri, on a farm near Marble Hill, where his child- hood was passed. Before he entered his 'teens he was left an orphan, his mother having died when he was three years of age and his father when he was twelve, and in consequence of this loss he had small advantage for obtain- ing an education. His first effort in earning his own way in the world was as a farm hand, and he was thus employed for two years. Afterward he carried the mail and worked at whatever odd jobs he could find until he was seventeen, when he went to work in a

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stave factory. And he continued with the stave company fourteen years, advancing right along until his work commanded as high a price as any employe of the mill. It was while with this company, about 1882 or 1883, that he came to Stoddard county, and for a year longer he was in the mill at Brownwood. Then he went back to Marble Hill and became a barber, a business he followed for seven years, two years of that time being spent in St. Louis. From St. Louis he returned to Brownwood, where he was successively in the restaurant, barber and saloon business, and where, when the county "went dry," he turned his attention to the hotel business. From the hotel he came to his farm, a well improved tract of fifty-four acres. Also he owns town property, including two houses and lots.

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History of southeast Missouri : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people and its principal interests, Volume II, Part 91

Author: Douglass, Robert Sidney. 4n Publication date: 1912 Publisher: Chicago : The Lewis Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 802

Author: Douglass, Robert Sidney. 4n
Publication date: 1912
Publisher: Chicago : The Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 802