USA > Missouri > History of southeast Missouri : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people and its principal interests, Volume II > Part 94
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In politics Mr. Garner is a loyal supporter of the Republican party but he does not par- ticipate actively in public affairs. He gives freely of his aid and influence in support of all matters affecting the general welfare and as a citizen and business man he com- mands the unalloyed confidence and esteem of his fellow men. He is a man of great kindliness of spirit and generous impulses, one whose charity knows only the bounds of his opportunities. Through extensive read- ing and association with men of affairs, Mr. Garner has become a man of broad informa- tion and remarkable mentality. His farm consists of reclaimed swamps, the most fertile soil in Missouri, the same being called the garden spot of creation.
MARK H. STALLCUP. Southeastern Missouri has lost in the passing of Mark H. Stalleup one of her most popular, prominent and alto- gether valuable citizens. Identified since his boyhood with Sikeston and its civic life, Mr. Stalleup was so closely connected with every good and worthy project in the advancement and development of the community that a de- tailed history of his life must show forth many points of similarity with a history of the growth of Sikeston during the past quar- ter century. His death occurred on January 21, 1912, in the fifty-eighth year of his life, at the Missouri Baptist Sanitarium of St. Louis,
M. So Statens
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whither he had been taken for treatment about a month previous to his passing.
Mark H. Stallcup was a scion of one of the finest old families in the state of Mis- souri. He was born on January 24, 1854, five miles south of Sikeston, and was the son of James and Katherine (Sikes) Stallcup, na- tives of this community, also. His grandpar- ents, Mr. and Mrs. Mark H. Stallcup, came to this section of the country early in the nineteenth century, from their Kentucky home, where the Stallcup family had been established for many generations. They set- tled in the wilderness of Southeastern Mis- souri, and from that day to the present time the name of Stallcup has been one of promi- nence in this section of the state, their chil- dren, grandchildren and great-grandchildren having successively added to the distinction for which the name has ever stood.
Mr. Stalleup was educated in the common schools of Arcadia, Missouri, after which he turned his attention for some time to agricul- tural matters. He was successful from the beginning of his business operations, and he conducted his farming affairs so aptly that in a few years he had gained a position of prom- inence in the county, which increased with the passing years until he was known as one of the leading men of the state in financial and political circles. Mr. Stallcup was the or- ganizer and later for several years president of the Citizens' Bank of Sikeston, an institu- tion with which his son, Lynn M., has been actively connected in recent years as cashier. Every business venture that Mr. Stallcup al- lied himself with during his lifetime proved a successful one, and his career was marked by the most worthy achievements from first to last. He was a man who ever stood high in the respect, confidence and esteem of his com- munity, and his circle of friends was one of goodly proportions. Always keeping the best interests of his city close to his heart, he was able to do much for the advancement of the community, and was always in sympathy with any movement calculated to enhance the civic welfare. He was a Mason and a Democrat of no little prominence, taking an active and worthy part in the political affairs of his county and state.
In 1876 Mr. Stalleup married Miss Sue A. Gregory, a native of Tennessee, born there on July 3, 1857, and she, with two sons. James and Lynn Mark, survive him. The elder son, James A., is an attorney and resi- dent of Hot Springs, while Lynn M., as prev- Vol. II-32
iously mentioned, is cashier of the Citizens' Bank of Sikeston. The only surviving mem- ber of the family of James and Katherine Stallcup, parents of the honored subject of this brief memoir, is Mrs. Mollie Long, a resi- dent of Sikeston, Missouri.
LYNN MARK STALLCUP. One of Sikeston's progressive and popular citizens who, by his own unaided efforts and individual worth, has gone forward step by step until he now holds the position of cashier in one of the leading financial institutions of Southeastern Mis- souri, the Citizens' Bank of Sikeston, is Lynn Mark Stalleup, a man who merits the respect and regard of all who know him. He was born in New Madrid county, Missouri, on the 10th of January, 1885, and is a son of Mark H. and Sue A. (Gregory) Stallcup, the former born in New Madrid county on Janu- ary 24, 1854, and the latter in Tennessee, July 3, 1857. The father of Lynn Stallcup was a man of considerable prominence in financial circles of Missouri, as well as in Dem- ocratic politics of his state, and was a man held in the universal esteem and confidence of his community, and wherever he was known.
Lynn Mark Stallcup was given the advan- tages of an excellent education, attending the grade and high schools of Sikeston, graduat- ing from Wallace's University School of Nashville, Tennessee, and then attending Vanderbilt University, Nashville. He subse- quently took a course in the Barnes Business College in St. Louis, and after his graduation therefrom he accepted a position with the Citizens' Bank of Sikeston, with which insti- tution he has since been continuously con- nected. Conscientious and faithful in his duties, and possessing exceptional ability in matters financial administration, his rise has been rapid, and he now acts as cashier of the bank, having formerly been assistant cashier. He is a Democrat in his political views, but has not been active in the political field, his . activities being confined to an interest in mat- ters pertaining to his city's welfare. He has not allied himself with any societies, but has given his whole attention to the duties of his position, and his enthusiasm and progress- iveness have done much to further the inter- ests of the bank and to make him decidedly popular with its depositors.
Mr. Stallcup was married at Sikeston, Au- gust 5. 1908, to Miss Frances Elizabeth Law- rence, daughter of Enly A. and Addie W.
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Lawrence, of McCredie, Missouri, and a granddaughter of James and Elizabeth Wise, of the same place. Mrs. Stallcup received her educational training at the William Woods College, of Fulton. Missouri, and is a brilliant and accomplished young matron. She is especially popular among the members of Sikeston's younger social set. One child has been born to Mr. and Mrs. Stallcup,-Anna Elizabeth, born July 15, 1909.
JAMES A. STALLCUP, an attorney of promi- nence and popularity of Hot Springs, Arkan- sas, is the son of Mark H. and Sue A. (Greg- ory) Stalleup, of Sikeston, Missouri. The father is now deceased, but the mother still lives in the old Missouri home. Mark H. Stallenp was one of the best known and most highly esteemed men in Southeastern Mis- souri. He was born in Sikeston on January 24, 1854, and was the son of James and Kath- erine (Sikes) Stallcup, and the grandson of Mr. and Mrs. Mark H. Stalleup, old Missouri pioneers who came to this state in the early years of the nineteenth century from their Kentucky home. Since that time the name of Stallcup has been familiar and honored in Southeastern Missouri, each succeeding gen- eration adding something to the prestige of the good old name. The death of Mark H. Stallcup, father of James A., of this brief re- view, occurred on January 21, 1912, in St. Louis, Missouri, whither he had gone for med- ical aid. He is survived by his widow and two sons, Lynn Mark and James A. Stallcup.
James A. Stalleup was born on December 12, 1877, at the old homestead in Sikeston, Missouri, or, more correctly speaking, five miles south of the town of Sikeston, in New Madrid county, Missouri. He was educated in the common schools of his native town, later completing his education in Vanderbilt University of Nashville, Tennessee, and in Columbian University (now the George Washington University), of Washington, D. C. He was graduated from the latter named institution with the class of 1900, in June, receiving at that time his degree of Master of Law. His first practice in a pro- fessional way was carried on in Sikeston, where he first located, and he remained there for about three years, enjoying a pleasing measure of popularity in his business and being elected to the office of city attorney, an office which he resigned to go to Hot Springs, Arkansas, whither he went to take over the management of the Garland County Abstract
Company of that place. He there located and in a short time purchased a controlling inter- est in the abstract company, in conjunction with the abstract business carrying on an ac- tive general law practice. He held the posi- tion of police judge during the remainder of an unexpired term and was city attorney two terms. He is a member of the firm of Beld- ing & Stallcup, dealers in real estate, insur- ance, etc., and the firm carries on a thriving business in the city, where it enjoys the confi- dence and esteem of the public in a most pleas- ing degree. Mr. Stallcup has proved himself to be that which the men of the house of Stallcup have ever been,-a valuable citizen and an honorable and trustworthy man, and as such his place in the public mind in Hot Springs is indeed secure.
In 1903 Mr. Stallcup was united in mar- riage at Hot Springs with Miss Dorothy Wa- ters, a daughter of W. W. Waters, a promi- nent capitalist and present mayor of Hot Springs. Mrs. Stallcup was born in this city and here has spent the greater part of her life thus far. One daughter, Dorothy Stallcup, has been born to them. She is now in her eighth year.
Mr. Stallcup is a loyal Democrat, and is active in the interests of the party at all times, being recognized as a leader in the county in political affairs. He is a fraternal- ist of some prominence, being a thirty-second degree Mason, holding membership in the Scottish Rite and Shriners. He is also a member of the Benevolent and Protective Or- der of Elks.
JUDGE LAFAYETT F. LAFONT, whose father was a merchant, a farmer and a county judge for over twenty years in New Madrid county, like him has been in all these occupations, and still continues in the first and last. The father was born in Mississippi county in 1818, but came to New Madrid county at the age of three. Mr. Lafont's mother was born in Henry county, Tennessee, in 1839. Her parents af- terwards moved to New Madrid county, and it was here that she was married to Mr. Lafont. They had four sons, John. Lafayett F., of this sketch, and R. L. and A. J., deceased. The mother died in 1899, and the father thir- teen years earlier. He left a farm of two hundred and forty acres, on which L. F. La- font was born June 23, 1863.
After completing the common schools and attending one term at the Cape Girardeau normal, Mr. Lafont spent seven years in
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teaching. In 1882 he was married to Marie Long, of Illinois, who was at that time living in Portageville, Missouri, with her parents. Mr. Lafont gave up teaching and farmed for many years, but at present he is not engaged in agriculture.
Mr. Lafont's service as county judge began in 1891 and has been continuous since that date. He has been especially interested in drainage projects for the county during his service and has done much to promote this and other measures for the benefit of the county.
When Mr. Lafont first invested in a place in Conran he bought a small house and lot; he now owns most of the land in Conran and has built a commodious, eleven room house in town. For twelve years prior to 1911 he had a general store in Conran, with a prosperous trade. The Byrd-Lafont Land and Mercan- tile Company was organized as a corporation in 1911, with Mr. Lafont as manager and owner of the greater part of the stock. He also has an interest in the Conran Cooperage Company. Like his father before him, he is a stanch Democrat. In addition to being county judge he has served several years as justice and as constable. In the venerable Masonic order he belongs to the Blue Lodge of Conran, of which he is a past master.
The oldest son of Mr. Lafont and his first wife was born in 1887. He is an ope- rator at Sikeston and unmarried. Two daughters were also born of this union, Var- ina and Hattie. The former is now Mrs. Frank Fitvinfelmer. Marie Long Lafont died in 1892, and nine years after her death Mr. Lafont married Clara Vaughn, whose hirthplace was Illinois. She, too, has borne Mr. Lafont three children: L. F., junior, Clara and Harold.
BURWELL A. DUNCAN, M. D. Grandson of a soldier of the Revolution, son of an ardent South Carolina secessionist and a member of the convention at Charleston, brother to three officers of the Confederate army, himself a soldier surgeon in the grew- some fields of battle. Dr. Burwell A. Duncan is a citizen whom Morehouse is proud to claim.
Robert Duncan, the grandfather of Re- volutionary fame, was married to Hannah Carr. Their union was blessed with twelve children, one of whom, John by name and the eldest by birth, came to Missouri early in the nineteenth century and had a family of twenty-four children. Those were times
of large families. Perry Duncan, father of Burwell, had eleven children.
The birthplace of Perry Duncan was Greenville, South Carolina, and May 26, 1800, was the date of his birth. His wife was Mary Hill, of Wilkes county, Georgia, where her father had his plantation. She was four- teen years younger than her husband, to whom she was married when she was nineteen years old. She was a mother fitted to "raise up heroes" and the children were worthy of their parents. A devout Methodist, she built a church in her home neighborhood at her own expense, costing some $5,000, and during the war she was untiringly active in procuring supplies for the Confederate sol- diers.
Perry Duncan had been prominent for years in the legislature of his state and he was a member of the secession convention held at Charleston, South Carolina. His name is carved on the marble tablet at Co- lumbia, South Carolina. It was to be ex- pected that his sons would go to. the front as they did. Robert P. was an adjutant and served on General Dick Anderson's staff. Wiley was one of Butler's guards in the Fourth South Carolina. James was a cap- tain and Burwell surgeon of the Second Mis- sissippi Regiment.
The Doctor was born at Greenville, South Carolina, March 24, 1835. He attended the academy at Greenville and then went to Fur- man University. In 1855 he began the study of medicine and graduated in 1857 from the Medical College of South Carolina, located at Charleston. After his graduation Dr. Duncan went to Mississippi and practiced his profession in that state until he came to Morehouse in 1906. It was in Mississippi that his mother, Mrs. Perry Duncan, died in 1868, three years after her husband had passed away on his plantation in Georgia.
Dr. Duncan's first marriage took place in 1858 at Aberdeen, Mississippi. The bride was Miss Celestia Strong, daughter of Gen- eral Elisha Strong. She was two years younger than Dr. Duncan and their union lasted over thirty years, until it was dissolved by Mrs. Duncan's death in 1890. Their son, Rev. Perry E. Duncan, was born in 1862. He became a Methodist minister of note and was married to Mary, daughter of Lafayette Smith, who bore him five children. His death occurred February 9, 1905, at Iuka, Mississippi, where he was one of the most prominent men of his denomination. The
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daughter of this marriage, Anna Duncan, be- came Mrs. Thomas G. Blackwell, wife of the present judge of county court in New Madrid county, Missouri. She has two children.
On January 30, 1904, Dr. Duncan was married to Mrs. Julia Watson Manning, daughter of Asa Watson and widow of Pay- ton Manning, a colonel on General Long- street's staff.
Dr. Dunean is a well known figure in med- ical circles, where he is much esteemed for his knowledge of the science of medicine and for his skill in its practice. He has been a frequent and valued contributor to various medical publications. Though registered in St. Louis, Dr. Duncan has practiced in More- house for the past five years. He is a member of both the state and the county medical as- sociations in addition to holding membership in the American Medical Association. Until very recently the Doctor has been active in his lodge, the Royal Arch Masons. His church is the Methodist, South.
HERBERT L. BOAZ was born in Fulton, Ken- tucky, October 15, 1876. His father was a merchant who died when Herbert was nine- teen. The son had started out in the livery business, but at his father's death he took up his work in the mercantile line and for five years carried this on successfully. The mother died when Herbert was twenty-two years old, and he received one-half of the estate. He subsequently lost his money in business and in trading.
In 1902 Mr. Boaz came to Parma and be- gan business with a three-hundred-dollar stock of goods which he had bought in Dex- ter. He had lived in the latter place for sev- eral years. Since coming to Parma Mr. Boaz has built up a flourishing trade. He now owns one of the best general merchandise establishments in Parma and has a two-story building, one hundred and fifty by thirty- six feet in dimensions, constructed of con- crete blocks. He built this in September, 1905. He also owns the vacant lot next to his building. His business is constantly in- creasing and he is dealing in hogs and cattle in addition to operating his growing mer- cantile concern.
Mr. Boaz has served the town in the ca- pacity of alderman, for although he is prima- rily a business man, he is not indifferent to the claims of public duty. He belongs to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and to the Knights of Pythias. Mrs. Boaz is a
member of the Methodist church. He has no children of his own, but Maurene, Mrs. Boaz' daughter by her former marriage, lives with them. This child was born in 1902. Her mother's marriage to Mr. Boaz took place at Cairo, in March, 1906. She had previously lived at Essex and at Sikeston, and was Mrs. Alma MeMullen when she met Mr. Boaz.
JOHN W. STRICKLIN. An essentially repre- sentative farmer and land dealer in Stoddard county, Missouri, is John W. Stricklin, who has resided in this section of the state since the strenuous period of the Civil war and who is now the owner of a finely improved farm of ninety-nine acres adjoining the vil- lage of Bernie, some of his property being inside the city limits. Mr. Stricklin is a cit- izen whose loyalty and public spirit have ever been of the most insistent order and who on account of his square and honorable dealings is accorded the unalloyed confidence and esteem of all with whom he has come in contact.
A native of the commonwealth of Tennes- see, John W. Stricklin was born in Decatur county, that state, the date of his nativity being the 27th of June, 1842. He is a' son of John and Eliza (Woodall) Stricklin, the former of whom was born in easteru Ten- nessee and the latter of whom claimed Ala- bama as the place of her birth. In the fall of 1860 Mr. and Mrs. John Stricklin came to Missouri, but three years later they returned to Tennessee, where they passed the residue of their lives, their deaths having occurred in about 1897, aged ninety-three, and in 1877, aged fifty-five, respectively. John W. Strick- lin was reared and educated in Tennessee and in the fall of 1860 accompanied his par- ents on their removal to Missouri. Settlement was made first in Pemiscot county, at Cotton- wood Point, whence removal was made in the following year to Stoddard county. When the dark cloud of Civil war cast its gloom over the country Mr. Stricklin enlisted as a soldier in the Missouri State Guards, under General Jeff Thompson, and in that connection saw active service in the battle at Fredericktown. Being in Missouri in the fall of 1862, he served again for a short time with Dave Hicks and when his command left that state he decided to remain. But in the spring of 1863 he was taken from his home and put in Col- onel Kitchen's regiment; he was soon fur- loughed, however, and went into the Federal lines at Cape Girardeau. Soon thereafter he
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returned to Tennessee, where he remained until the close of the war. He then ventured again into Missouri, where his crop of that year, 1865, gave him a start. He located on a farm on Crowley's Ridge, where he re- mained until 1877 and whence he removed in that year to the bottom lands, living for fully a decade in the vicinity of Fish Pond. In 1887 he secured his present farm, on which he resided for a time but which he eventually traded. In the course of twelve years and during his many land transaction he again became the owner of this splendid estate, which is recognized as one of the very best farms in the entire county. The same con- sists of ninety-nine acres and is located nine miles south of Dexter, including a portion of the village of Bernie, as previously noted. Mr. Stricklin has been trading and dealing in land for a number of years and has real- ized a great deal of profit on some of his trans- actions. He has purchased land at five dol- lars per acre from Chouteau, the owner of extensive tracts of land formerly in the pos- session of the railroad. He has dealt mainly in improved land and his property is now worth about $100 dollars per acre. At one time he was the owner of several hundred acres of this fertile valley land. At present he is engaged in diversified agriculture and the growing of thorough-bred stock. His principal crops are cotton and corn, the former being his main cash crop. He is con- stantly making improvements on his place and he now devotes the major portion of his time and attention to agricultural pur- suits.
Mr. Stricklin has been thrice married. As a boy he was united in wedlock to Miss Mary Jane Beavers, who died nine years after their marriage. There were no children born to this union. In the early '70s was recorded the marriage of Mr. Stricklin to Miss Melinda Dyer, and this union was blessed with two children, namely, Martha, who is the wife of Robert Potter, of Malden, this state; and Clara, who married George Ray and who resides at Bedford, Arkansas. Mrs. Strick- lin was summoned to the life eternal on the 7th of March, 1903. On the 15th of Decem- ber, 1903, Mr. Stricklin was united in mar- riage to Miss Elizabeth Crawford, nee Gowin, who was born in Lawrence county, Illinois, and who came to Missouri about the year 1894, as the wife of Newton Crawford, their home having been near Bernie. By her former marriage Mrs. Stricklin became the
mother of six children, of whom five are liv- ing at the present time, and concerning whom the following brief data are here incor- porated, Ida married Frank Gibson, of Idalia, Missouri; Fay is the wife of Dave Walker, who is a farmer near Bernie; Flora is now Mrs. James Voliva, of Dalgreen, Illinois; Sherman Ray is engaged in farming in Stod- dard county ; and Cora remains at the Strick- lin home. Mr. Stricklin has no children by his present marriage.
In his political proclivities Mr. Stricklin is aligned as a stalwart supporter of the cause of the Democratic party and while he never participates actively in politics he is always ready to give his aid and influence in behalf of all projects advanced for the good of the general welfare. When remi- niscent he recalls the days when all kinds of wild game were plenteous in Stoddard county. He has counted as many as eighteen deer at once feeding in the open glades. He has killed dozens of turkeys, at one time bring- ing down as many as seventeen-four old ones and thirteen young ones. In fraternal circles he is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias and in their religious faith he and his wife are devout members of the Chris- tian church, to whose charities and benev- olences is a most liberal contributor. The Stricklin home is one of most generous hos- pitality and Mr. and Mrs. Stricklin are re- spected and beloved throughout a wide area in Stoddard county, which section has so long represented their home.
W. H. JOHNSON. A man of scholarly at- tainments, W. H. Johnson is widely known in educational circles for the good work which he is so ably carrying on as superintendent of the Essex public schools. In connection with his professional work he has proved him- self a man of practical judgment and sound sense, and well worthy of the high esteem in which he is held throughout the community. He was born on a farm near Raleigh, Saline county, Illinois, March 9, 1883, and obtained his elementary education in the common schools. He afterwards attended the high school at McLeansboro, Illinois, and subse- quently taught school three or more terms in his native state.
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