USA > Missouri > History of southeast Missouri : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people and its principal interests, Volume II > Part 93
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In politics Mr. Harty accords unswerving allegiance to the Democratic party and he has
been an influential factor in its councils in his native state. He is a valued member of the Democratic state central committee of Missouri, and has had the distinction of serv- ing as secretary of the same since 1908. Dur- ing his ineumbeney of this important office he has shown marked skill and discrimination in the manoeuvering of the political forces at his command and has gained the confidence and esteem of the party leaders in his home state, as well as a wide acquaintance with its representative men in other states of the Union. As secretary of the state central com- mittee he has managed local campaigns from his business office in Bloomfield, and during the state campaigns has maintained an office in the city of St. Louis. He has been regularly a delegate to the state conventions of his party, was an alternate delegate to its national con- vention in 1908 and represents his state as a delegate to the Democratie national convention of 1912, in the city of Baltimore.
Mr. Harty has been a close and appreciative student of the history and teachings of the time-honored Masonie fraternity, in which he has received the thirty-second degree of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, as a member of Missouri Consistory. in the city of St. Louis. He is affiliated in his home city with Bloomfield Lodge, No. 153, Free & Accepted Masons, in which he has passed all the official chairs and which he has also represented in the grand lodge of the state. He is also iden- tified with Poplar Bluff Chapter, No. 114. Royal Arch Masons, and Poplar Bluff Coun- cil Royal & Select Masters, being one of the leading representatives of the Masonic fra- ternity in his home city.
Mr. Harty has been twice married. In 1892 he wedded Miss Barbara Cunningham, of Bloomfield, who is survived by one child, Harry, who was born November 1, 1893, and is a student in the l'niversity of Missouri, in which he is a member of the class of 1910. Mrs. Barbara Harty died on August 26, 1896. On the 2nd of July, 1899, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Harty to Miss Kathryn Har- rison, daughter of A. A. Harrison, a repre- sentative citizen of Sikeston, Scott county, this state, and the two children of this union are Mary Pauline, who was born on the 31st of December, 1904. and Alfred Jackson, born on the 10th of July. 1906. Mrs. Harty proves a most gracious and popular chate- laine of the attractive family home, which is a center of much of the representative social activity of Bloomfield. She is a zealous and
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valued member of the First Methodist Epis- copal church, South, in her home city, and is a leader in the social life of the community.
JESSE J. DELISLE. To have maintained an irreproachable record as a publie official, as a business man and as a father of a family is to have attained as much of honor and re- speet as a man can well do. Such is the rep- utation of Jesse J. DeLisle, of Portageville. Missouri. He was born in New Madrid county, in 1861, at Point Pleasant, at the very beginning of the Civil war, which rent the country from end to end and wrought sorrow never to be forgotten in the hearts of thou- sands. He is the son of Amabo and Nancy ( Thompson) DeLisle, and the parents lived on a farm in New Madrid county. The father was born in that county and there he passed his life, dying at the age of fifty-seven years. His father was Eustis DeLisle, born, it is probable, in France, and coming thence to this country. The mother of Jesse De- Lisle was born in Dunklin county, Missouri, and died at the age of thirty-eight years.
Mr. DeLisle obtained his early schooling in the district schools of his home town, and that training was supplemented by a one- year course at the State Normal School at Cape Girardeau. In the following year, 1883, he set out on his independent career by ac- cepting a position as elerk for Murdoch Me- Giloney at Point Pleasant. In 1884 he bought out his employer and formed a partnership to carry on the business with Olive DeLisle, under the caption of J. & O. DeLisle. The partnership was maintained until 1896, when Mr. DeLisle bought out his partner and con- ducted the business alone until 1906, when he merged his interests with the DeLisle Store Company of Portageville, effeeting a reor- ganization under the title of the DeLisle Sup- ply Company, one of the most prosperous commercial organizations in this section.
When the Bank of Portageville was organ- ized in 1903, J. J. DeLisle was chosen presi- dent and he has retained that office up to the present time. This and the Supply Company, which does a business aggregating in volume about one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars yearly. are not. however, Mr. De- Lisle's only enterprises, for he is a stock- holder and second vice-president of the De- Lisle Lumber and Box Manufacturing Com- pany at Wardell. He is also the owner of one thousand and eighty acres of fertile farm land which, since his extensive interests do
not allow him time for management, he rents out to others. Recent enterprises of Mr. De- Lisle have raised the number of acres of land owned by him to one thousand five hun- dred, and he has become a stock-holder in the Pikney Supply Company, organized three years ago.
In 1886 Mr. DeLisle was united in marriage with one of the most charming young women the county has ever known,-Miss Emma LeSieur, a native of the county and a daugh- ter of Freeman and Emma (Till) LeSieur. Four children have been born of this union : Agnes, aged twenty-four, is the wife of Harry King, of Harrisburg, Illinois; Walter, twenty- three years old, is engaged as a bookkeeper; Paul, aged twenty, is a clerk; and Andy, twelve years old, attends school. Both Paul and Walter were fitted for future business careers by complete and thorough courses at the Quincy Commercial School in Quincy, Illinois.
Fraternally, Mr. DeLisle is a member of the Modern Woodmen of America, the Knights of Columbus, and of the Knights aud Ladies of Honor, in which organization he is a pro- tector. Both he and his entire family are members and communicants of the Catholic church. Politically Mr. DeLisle has ever been ready to serve the interests of the Dem- ocratie party, and his loyal support has ever been offered to the principles and candidates it endorsed. For several years he has been an active member of the Democratic Central Committee, and from 1909 until 1911 he of- ficiated as the mayor of Portageville, in which office he has shown what worthy publie serv- ants should be. He is a member of the St. Francis Levee District of Upper Missouri.
DAVID F. WALSER, cashier of the Bank of Puxico, is one of the town's leading citizens and has proven himself an able ineumbent of the office noted. In the management of the affairs of the bank he has shown marked dis- crimination, and the personal integrity and high standing of the interested principals in the institution constitute its most valuable as- set and give assurance of its eontinned growth and prosperity. The Bank of Puxico was or- ganized in 1898, with a capital of $10,000, but its scope has more than doubled and since 1906 it has based its operations upon a capital stock of $25,000. Its present surplus is $20,000, and its deposits amount to $85,000. The building in which this substantial mon- etary institution is housed is owned by the
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bank and it is modern in all its appoint- ments. Its officers are J. A. Hickman, presi- dent; and D. F. Walser, cashier.
Mr. Walser is a native son of the state, his birth having occurred in Cole county, March 7, 1873. His father was C. C. Walser, a na- tive of Tennessee, who came as a child to a farm in Cole county, near Jefferson City. The elder gentleman resided there throughout his life and had a record of more than eighty years residence in Missouri, his demise occurring at the age of eighty-four years, on February 27, 1908. Mr. Walser resided on the parental homestead until the age of seven- teen years, and in the manner of most country boys was called on for assistance in the mani- fold duties to be encountered upon the farm. Some years before attaining to his majority he went to St. Louis and secured a clerical position in that city. In the ensuing few years he became familiar with commercial and financial matters and eventually found his way to California, Missouri, where he en- gaged in the fire insurance business. He then removed to Poplar Bluff, where he was en- gaged as assistant cashier in the Butler county Bank and he remained in that city until 1898. His identification with Puxico dates from that year, when he came here to take charge of the bank as cashier. His coming here came about in the following wise. The Butler County Bank had been organized by Colonel Pace and Judge Edwards, of Jefferson City, and they had installed Mr. Walser in that in- stitution. These gentlemen were among the organizers of the Bank of Puxico and, realiz- ing the need of an efficient officer at its head, and knowing Mr. Walser's ability and faith- fulness, they brought him here and installed him as cashier of the bank with which he has remained for the ensning years. He has other additional interests. conducting the agency for a fire and life insurance business and also a long time loan business. He is interested in the agricultural development of the section and owns an excellent farm about three miles from Puxico.
ser is a Democrat in his political faith and gives to public affairs an interested consider- ation. He holds membership in the Independ- ent Order of Odd Fellows, the Knights of the Maccabees, the Modern Woodmen of Amer- ica, the Woodmen of the World, the Redmen and the Court of Honor. He is one to find great pleasure in his fraternal associations with his fellow men and is very popular in all these organizations.
JOSEPH L. JONES. Farming, the oldest of the industries, is at the same time one of the most wholesome, independent and interesting fields of endeavor, and among those who rep- resent it in Stoddard county is J. L. Jones, who is one of the large land owners and who is progressive in his methods, having brought the greater part of his three hundred and thirty-seven acres to a high state of cultiva- tion. While as a farmer he has given close attention to his private affairs, he has never forgotten or ignored the bond of common in- terest which should unite the people of every community, and he has always been ready to promote progress in every line.
Joseph L. Jones was born in Franklin county, Kentucky, on the 14th day of June, 1859, and is the son of Robert and Nancy A. ( Ross) Jones, both of whom claimed the Blue Grass state as their birthplace. They came to Stoddard county when Joseph L. was very small, the year of their migration being 1862. Mr. Jones spent his boyhood and youth upon his father's farm and learned the many secrets of agriculture under the ex- cellent tutelage of his father. He began farm- ing on his own account shortly after his early marriage in 1881, taking up his residence on one hundred acres of land, which is still his home. Ile now owns three hundred and thirty-seven acres of rolling land, all of which is advantageously situated and most of which is under cultivation. On this he has built sev- eral good buildings and he has made many other improvements, including such items as fences and ditches.
Mr. Walser married one of Puxico's fair Mr. Jones was married on the first day of August, 1881, in Stoddard county, to Miss Arminta T. Smith, who was born June 1, 1866, and is a daughter of B. G. Smith. They have an interesting family of children, which includes the following : Myrtle, Zettie, Lloyd, daughters, Ollie I. Hickman, daughter of J. A. Hickman, one of the prominent citizens of the place, becoming his wife. Their mar- riage was celebrated at Puxico June 5, 1898. Mrs. Walser, previous to her marriage, had been acting as assistant cashier in the bank. ' Jones, Clyde and Mary. In his political affil- They have a family of five young sons and daughters, as follows: John Carroll, David F., Emma, Pauline and Cornelia. Mr. Wal-
iation Mr. Jones is a Democrat, having given his suffrage to that party since his earliest voting days. His fraternal affiliations are
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with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows at Bloomfield and the Woodmen of the World at Ardeola.
THOMAS L. HOSKINS, of the Himmelberger- Harrison Lumber Company, is the only offi- cial of that company who is in residence here. When the company was organized, Mr. Himmelberger was president, W. II. Harri- son was vice-president and treasurer and Howard Rule, secretary. In 1904 the Him- melberger & Friant Company was taken into the Lumber Company and the fol- lowing officers were appointed: Mr. Him- melberger, president; Howard Rule, secre- tary; W. II. Harrison, vice-president and treasurer ; and J. H. Friant, general superin- tendent. In March, 1908, Mr. Rule severed his connection with the company and Mr. C. L. Harrison was elected secretary to succeed him. The office of auditor was created, to which position Mr. Hoskins was appointed.
Mr. Iloskins was born November 27, 1882, in Carter county, Missouri. His father, Wil- liam Thomas Hoskins, was a native of Jef- ferson county, Tennessee. At the age of fourteen he came to Carter county, Missouri, in the year 1854, accompanying his parents, who were among the earliest settlers of the county. Ilere he grew up on the farm and at the outbreak of the Civil war, although he was a Democrat, he entered the Union army. Besides farming, Mr. William Hos- kins conducted a store in Carter county until 1883, when he sold it and moved to his farm in Reynolds county. It was in Reynolds county that his marriage to Miss Rebecca Duncan took place in 1873. She was born twenty years earlier. in Fredericktown, Missouri, on the ninth of September. She is still living on the old farm in Reynolds county, where her husband died June 22, 1908. During his life Mr. Hoskins was the holder of various offices in Carter county and a conspicuous figure in the political cir- cle of the community. Lee Hoskins, his eld- est son, farms the Reynolds county home place. Ile is married to Mollie Ellington. Miss Nellie Hoskins, born May 23, 1890, lives with her mother, and the other daughter, Noma, now Mrs. Harry MeHenry also lives on the home place.
Thomas L. Hoskins remained on the farm until he was sixteen years old going to school. At that age he went to Piedmont to be bookkeeper in the Charles Carter & Com- pany Store. Abont three years later he
came to Morehouse to fill a like position in the Ilimmelberger-Harrison Lumber Company and has remained with the company since April 30, 1902. He is now auditor of the company and is a specialist in the auditing work.
Mr. Iloskins' business talent has identified him with numerous enterprises for the de- velopment of this section. He is president of the Hoskins Real-Estate and Mercantile Company, of Ruble, Missouri, and secretary and treasurer of the Missouri Drainage and Construction Company. In addition, he is making extensive purchases of land in Rey- nolds county.
In the Republican party Mr. Hoskins has been and continues to be a popular and pow- erful member. He is chairman of the cen- tral committee of that party and has served as city treasurer for more than three years. In short, Mr. Hoskins is a man born to be a leader in all in which he engages. Like his father, he is a Mason. This year (1911) he is serving as master of the lodge. He is a trustee and steward of the Methodist church being no less diligent in sacred than in secular business. He also holds member- ship in the Elks' lodge of Poplar Bluff.
The family of Mr. and Mrs. Hoskins con- sists of two daughters and one son: Lucille was born May 24, 1905; Helen, March 18, 1909; and Thomas L., Jr., March 27, 1911. Mrs. Hoskins was formerly Miss Ollie Grif- fin, daughter of Marion and Mary Griffin. Her marriage to Mr. Hoskins occurred May 23, 1904. Her natal day is March 28, 1881.
J. R. TROGDON. Morgan county, Indiana, was the birthplace of J. R. Trogdon. He lived on the farm where he was born until 1868, when his parents moved to southwest- ern Missouri. He was three years old when they settled in Greene county, near Spring- field, and he lived there until he was thir- teen. He went to school a little, but decided that he would like a change and so ran away from home and went to work in the iron mines of Franklin county. IIe did not pur- sue this occupation for a great while, but secured a job as bar tender in a small town, which he kept for two years before return- ing to Greene county, his parents' home.
Mr. Trogdon remained in Greene county only a short time and then went to Indiana for a year and worked on a farm in the county where he was born. The following
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year he spent on a farm in Greene county, Missouri. His next enterprise was a saloon in the same district. He ran this for a year and a half and found it profitable. How- ever, he left the business to go to Arkansas, where he spent a winter as a professional hunter. The following summer,-July, 1886, -he came to Southeastern Missouri and be- gan hunting for the market. At that time he had neither wife nor money. He spent fourteen years at hunting near Parma and was married in 1893 to Miss Alice Brevard.
In 1902 Mr. Trogdon began the saloon business in Parma. Since that time he has been engaged in farming and in running a saloon, not his original one, but one he moved to this location. Ilis farm is a quar- ter-section near town, and he has a residence in Parma. He has six children living, Stella, Grace, Joe, Mary, Pearl and Dorsa Lee. Irene who came between Joe and Mary, is dead. Mr. Trogdon is a Republican and was two years constable.
LEVI GARNER. Success along any line of endeavor would never be properly appre- ciated if it came with a single effort and un- accompanied by some hardships, for it is the knocks and bruises in life that make success taste so sweet. The failures accentuate the successes, thus making recollections of the former as dear as those of the latter for hav- ing been the stepping-stones to achievement. The career of Levi Garner but accentuates the fact that snecess is bound to come to those who join brains with ambition and are will- ing to work. Reared in the pioneer wilds of Missouri, with practically no schooling what- soever, the phenomenal snecess attained by Levi Garner is most gratifying to contem- plate. Beginning his active career with practically nothing to back him except a goodly store of pluck and a determination to succeed, Mr. Garner, through shrewd dis- cernment and keen foresight, has made the most of every opportunity that has come his way and to-day he is the owner of a fine landed estate of some twelve hundred acres, the same being eligibly located three miles west of Bernie.
Levi Garner was born on his parents' old homestead three miles west of Dexter, in Stoddard county, Missouri, the date of his nativity being the 23d of October, 1847, and he is a son of Jordan and Sarah (Lewis) Garner, the former of whom was born in the state of North Carolina. Jordan Garner
came to Missouri in 1828, at which time he was a young man of twenty-one years of age. He was extraordinarily fond of hunt- ing and of frontier life in general and for those reasons came to the far west in the pioneer period. He had one brother and three sisters, all of whom likewise came to this state. David Garner located in Stod- dard county, where he passed the major por- tion of his life time; Rebecca married John R. Dowdy, of Stoddard county; Betsy be- came the wife of John Minton and the other sister married a Mr. Leggitt, both of this county. Shortly after his arrival in Mis- souri Jordan Garner was united in marriage to Miss Sarah Lewis, a daughter of Norman Lewis, who came to Missouri with his fam- ily a little later than 1828. After his mar- riage Jordan settled on a farm on Crowley's Ridge, where he became noted far and wide as a skilled hunter and an exceedingly dar- ing sportsman. He frequently killed black bear with his knife while the bear was facing a pack of dogs. On one occasion he laid his hatchet and knife down while he crawled into a wolf's lair to catch some of the pup- pies. He had become excited else he would not have laid aside his weapons. Carrying out the puppies made a noise and he barely had time to aim his gun as the she wolf came up to be killed. He remained on his farm during the remainder of his life and his death occurred in the year 1887, at the age of eighty years, his wife having survived him for a period of ten years. He was a most zealous and active member of the Methodist Episcopal church, to whose chari- ties and benevolences he was a most liberal contributor. He was a man of remarkable mentality, was very outspoken in religion and politics and by his radical views made a number of enemies, who in spite of their difference of opinion admired the strong per- sonality of the man. In his political convic- tions he was a stanch advocate of the prin- ciples and policies for which the Republican party stands sponsor and he was an ardent supporter of the cause of the Union during the strenuous period of the Civil war. Ilis spacious, comfortable home was a veritable center of hospitality, being open to all com- ers. Of his fourteen children ten reached maturity and three are living, in 1912,- Levi is the immediate subject of this review; and Martin L. and Andrew J. are both liv- ing a few miles south of Dexter.
Levi Garner was reared to the invigorating
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influences of pioneer frontier life and his early schooling was of the most meager order. He remained at home, where he was associated with his father and brothers in the work of management of the home farm, until he had reached his twentieth year. At that time he undertook to make rails at the rate of fifty cents per hundred, a job of some months duration. His pay for this work was in corn valued at fifty cents per bushel. He held the corn until the following year, when he was able to dispose of it at one dol- lar a bushel. He invested his money in hogs, which he fattened and sold at a large profit. With his surplus money he then purchased a horse and a mule and after marrying began life in earnest as a farmer. During the first year he and his wife both plowed and the second year he worked steadily in the field while his wife brought him a change of horses. During the second year he sold thir- teen hundred bushels of corn at the rate of one dollar to one dollar and a quarter per bushel. This crop was grown on land eight miles southwest of Dexter, for which he paid eight dollars per acre and on which he re- sided for thirty-two years. From forty acres it grew to two hundred acres, and when he finally disposed of it, he received forty dol- lars per acre for it. In October. 1903, he came to his present farm, which he had pur- chased for from two dollars to twenty-six dollars an acre, in 1896, and to which he later added tracts at the rate of twenty-six dollars an acre. With the passage of years he increased his original acreage to an estate of ten hundred and forty acres, all of which is in one body, located three miles west of Bernie. Recently he added a tract of one hundred and sixty acres, four miles west of the village, thus making in all a farm of twelve hundred acres. Nine hundred acres of this estate are under cultivation, eight hundred having been placed so by himself. Ile has strictly a first-class line of improve- ments on his farm and his excellent stock and meadow form his main income. IIe has had outside range for his cattle and keeps mules. cattle and hogs, making a specialty of shipping stock. He has made a thorough study of his business, calculating the result of his various investments far in advance. Farming is not a matter of chance with him but a well ordered, systematic business that pays in spite of unlooked for climatie condi- tions. He has always favored drainage and in that connection holds that the digging
should be to quick sand, with tile placed in the sand so as to secure proper drainage even though the ditch fills up in time. He holds that all such work should be done by the state. It is not a matter of conjecture when it is stated that Mr. Garner is decidedly one of the most prosperous farmers in this sec- tion of the state, where he is prominent and influential in all improvements projected for the good of the country.
In the year 1869 was solemnized the mar- riage of Mr. Garner to Miss Piety Black, who was born in the state of Mississippi and who was a young girl at the time of her ar- rival in Missouri. Mr. and Mrs. Garner are the parents of one son, John J., whose birth occurred in October, 1881, and who remains at home, where he has assumed a great deal of the responsibility connected with the con- duct of the farm. In their religious faith the Garner family are devout members of the Church of Christ at Bernie, with which they have been connected for the past thirty-seven years.
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