History of southeast Missouri : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people and its principal interests, Volume II, Part 95

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 95

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When twenty years of age Mr. Johnson came to Missouri, and as a member of the senior class at the State Normal School, in Cape Girardeau, continued his studies. He afterwards taught school eight years in Mis-

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souri, teaching in Stoddard county all the time, with the exception of one term. Very successful as a teacher, Mr. Johnson was called to higher positions in the profession, and for one year served as superintendent of the schools at Morley, Scott county. Re- turning to Essex, where he had previously taught, in 1910, Mr. Johnson has been em- inently successful in his efforts to raise the standard of the schools of which he has charge. When he began teaching in Essex there were but two schools in the village, and no high school. In 1906 the present brick high school building was erected at a cost of $5,000, and it has now two hundred and fifty pupils, being filled to its highest ca- pacity, and four teachers are employed. Mr. Johnson is a constant student, a member of the Institute, and is doing special work in History and English, and taking a four years' course in pedagogy. He is a strong advocate of school athletics, and endeavors to inspire his pupils with a love for clean and health- ful sports.

On May 6, 1909, Mr. Johnson was united in marriage with Zelzie Dowdy, a daughter of Joel W. and Cora Dowdy, and they have one child, Juanita. Fraternally Mr. John- son is a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Order of Masons and of the Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows. He is one of the leading members of the Methodist Epis- copal church, and is superintendent of its Sunday-school.

COL. CORNELIUS LARKIN KEATON. Among the men who have conferred honor upon the Missouri bar especial mention should be made of Cornelius Larkin Keaton, of Dexter, who has successfully practiced his profession for many years, and has also been prominent in public affairs. A son of Cornelius W. Keaton, he was born July 12, 1833, in Carroll county, Tennessee, of old Virginia stock.

His father, Cornelius W. Keaton, was born in Virginia, in 1796, and migrated to middle Tennessee in 1818, but five years later, in 1823, he moved to west Tennessee and pur- chased a home in Carroll county. And, on the farm which he wrested from its primeval wilderness, he spent the remainder of his life, passing away in March, 1890. His wife, a life-long resident of Tennessee, survived him about two years, passing away in her seventy-fifth year. She was born in middle Tennessee, a distant relative of President Hayes.

Cornelius L. Keaton grew to manhood on the parental farm, and was educated at Bethel College, a nearby educational institu- tion controlled by the Presbyterians, being there graduated in the class of 1858, with the degree of A. B., which he took in preference to that of M. A., which might have been his. He subsequently taught school and read law until the breaking out of the Civil war, when he offered his services to the South, enlisting in Company H, Ninth Tennessee Confederate Regiment, afterward consolidated with the Sixth Tennessee Regiment, each regiment be- ing reduced about one-half by the vicissitudes of war.

On October 8, 1862, the Colonel was wounded in the righ thigh, and as he turned to tell the captain of the wound his right hand was shattered by another minie ball. This occurred at Perryville, Kentucky. He was taken to the hospital at Harrodsburg. He was there captured and, afterward, was taken by the Federal soldiers to Camp Doug- las, Chicago, Illinois, in February, 1863. He was exchanged at Fortress Monroe, April 7, 1863. After an absence of six months he rejoined his command at Bellbuckle, Ten- nessee, and with his regiment marched to Atlanta, Georgia, where, on August 24, 1864, he was again wounded by a stone driven by a two hundred pound solid shot, the stone taking away part of his left foot.

While still in direct line with these deadly shots, small stones and gravel were thrown against his body with such force that he was seriously bruised. These wounds necessi- tated his removal to the hospital at Columbus, Georgia.

He had several other narrow escapes from death while in the army. At one time, while marching beside a fellow soldier, a shot passed directly toward his body-just one step carried him out of its line-that one step saved his life. The same ball took off his comrade's right arm. He was furloughed from the hospital and spent his furlough at the home of a Mr. Harris, who after the war became his father-in-law. He was afterward furloughed and visited his home in West Tennessee, returning to his duties in the army in February, 1865. He was stopped at Macon, Georgia, and while there the war ended. While at Macon, Georgia, a Federal command approached and he was ordered with others into the redoubts to defend the city. But soon the commanding officers di- rected the soldiers to surrender, as they de-

Joseph L. Moore

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clared the war was over. But he and a few of his comrades refusing to believe the report, left their guns in the redoubt, went to the rear, swam Ocmulgee river, and escaped and did not surrender. Afterward, however, he took the oath of allegiance at Columbus, Georgia.

Locating in Stewart county, Georgia, he resumed teaching and for two years he was president of the Lumpkin Masonic Female College, an educational institution under the control of the Masonic order. Returning to Tennessee in 1867, he was elected president of the Masonic Co-educational Institute at Trezevant, Carroll county, Tennessee, but four miles from his parental homestead. He had charge of that Institute for three years. Continuing his law studies in the meantime, he was admitted to the bar in 1869. In 1871 he began the practice of his profession at Humboldt, Tennessee. On September 22, 1872, he located at Bloomfield, Missouri, form- ing a law partnership with H. H. Bedford, with whom he was associated for two years. Afterward he became probate clerk of the county under judges Henson and P. G. Wil- son. On January 22, 1888, he came to Dexter, having previously formed a partnership with Mr. George Houck. They opened a law office in Dexter, where the Colonel has practiced law, principally real estate, ever since. In 1894 Judge J. L. Fort entered the partner- ship. For the past twelve years, however, he has not been in partnership with any one. He was prosecuting attorney for the county one term, and made a lasting reputation. He has served as special judge many times.

· As a leading expansion Democrat he be- came active in politics. He attended several state conventions, and was a member of the convention that nominated Judge Bond when he was elected to the St. Louis court of appeals, who in 1911 was appointed commis- sioner of the supreme court of Missouri. He has dealt considerably in real estate and has been active in securing drainage for the low- lands of Southeast Missouri.

Since 1853 the Colonel has been an active member of the Cumberland Presbyterian church. When he went to Bloomfield in 1872 he was instrumental in organizing a church of that denomination there. When he moved to Dexter he became and still is a faithful member of said church, which is now reunited with the Presbyterian church U. S. A. He is a strong supporter of said reunion. He has served as a commissioner to the General

Assembly of the church twelve times. He was commissioner to the General Assembly on the part of the eldership of the reunited Presbyterian church, U. S. A., at its first General Assembly at Columbus, Ohio, in May, 1907. He has been president of the corpor- ation of the Presbytery since 1894, and has been at all times efficient as such officer. He has been a contributor to the church journals for many years, and insists that the union be- tween the churches is Constitutional and has a sublime future. He is a strong believer in tithing, and for years he has strictly given one-tenth of his gross income to the services of the true and living God.

In 1854 he became a Mason and arose to the eleventh degree in the order. He was thrice illustrious grand master of the Council at Trezevant, Tennessee, when he left there. He has served in the Grand Lodge Chapter and Council a number of times.

On May 3, 1866, he married Miss Sallie J. Harris, who died near Lumpkin, Georgia, November 25, 1866. On August 6, 1868, he married Miss Sallie E. Fuqua, of Trezevant, Tennessee. Both these ladies were college graduates of culture and refinement. Miss Fuqua was of old Virginia parentage and became the mother of his six children, three of whom died in childhood. He has three sons, William C. Keaton, a lawyer and real estate dealer of Bloomfield, Missouri; Clar- ence L. Keaton for the past ten years has been president of the McKnight-Keaton Grocery Company, of Cairo, Illinois; Charles L. Keaton is a member of the Blakemore Mer- cantile Company, of Kennett. Missouri, and a traveling salesman for the McKnight-Keaton Grocery Company of Cairo, Illinois.

Their mother died at Bloomfield, Missouri. February 28, 1887, aged forty-three years. On October 10, 1888, he married Mrs. Frances E. Shannon, nee McFarland, who was a niece of the late Judge McFarland, of the supreme court of Missouri. On January 30, 1901, he married his present wife, who was Mrs. J. E. Dudley, of Princeton, Kentucky, who at the time of her marriage with Colonel Keaton and for several years prior thereto was a resi- dent of St. Louis, Missouri.

JOSEPH HARVEY MOORE is the grand old man of Commerce, and a very young old man he is. Both his ancestors and his descendants, not to mention his brothers and sisters, are the sort of folks who make the sinews of a republic ; good fighters for their convictions,

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public-spirited and progressive, successful in business, the friends of education and good home-makers.

J. H. Moore's father was Charles Moore, born in Somerset county, Maryland, in 1788; his mother was Elizabeth Chalfant, born in 1797, and a native of Indiana. She was mar- ried to Charles Moore in Nelson county, Ken- tucky, in 1821. They had seven children, most of whom lived to a ripe old age. Their eldest, Eliza, who married Alexander God- dard, resided in Scott county, where she died in 1903, at the age of eighty-two years. Ben- jamin J. was a physicain in Mississippi county, which he represented several terms in the state legislature. He died in 1864. Eliza- beth A. is now eighty-six years old, and is liv- ing at Charleston, the widow of James Smith. In the same town lived Nancy, who married Milton Newman, of that city, and later was united in marriage with Beverly Parrott. Charles C. married Josephine Bridewell. She lives in Bullitt county, Kentucky. Susan A. became the wife of Abraham Swank, also of Charleston, and is now living.

Charles Moore was a man of learning in his time and was much respected by all his neighbors. He was a veteran of the War of 1812, serving throughout with the rank of captain. After coming to Missouri he de- voted the remainder of his life to farming interests, and became the owner of a fine estate of abont eight hundred acres, of which a large part was under cultivation, and the remainder heavily timbered with valuable forests. Previous to the war Mr. Moore was a large slave holder, and was at the time of his demise, as he did not live to witness the fall of the family fortunes, his death occur- ring in August, 1857, in Scott county, near Commerce. His wife, Elizabeth, had passed to her reward twenty years before, in Bullitt county, Kentucky.

Joseph H. Moore was born in 1836, in. Bul- litt county, and was the youngest child of the family. At the age of fourteen he was sent to the Arcadia high school in Arcadia, Mis- souri. This high school, as it was called, was in reality a Methodist academy, offering an excellent course of instruction, and here Jo- seph pursued a literary course of study. At the age of nineteen he entered the Cumber- land University and studied law. He was graduated after one year of work there and was admitted to the Missouri bar before he was twenty-one years old. He received his li- eense in 1857 and is still engaged in the prac-

tice of his profession. He is now in business with his son and V. L. Harris. Mr. Moore hegan the abstract work, which gives the name to the business of the firm, known as the Moore-Harris Abstract Company, in 1865, and he has continued it since that early date.

Mr. Moore's business career has not all been plain sailing. He lost everything at the close of the war and had to start over again. During the conflict he held. a commission as lieutenant, but was never called into active service. Since that period he has been emi- nently successful; his law practice has proved lucrative and he has branched out into other lines of business, and among other things is connected with the tiling factory at Com- merce, which has produced immense quanti- ties of tile. Mr. Moore is the owner of sev- eral thousand acres of valuable land, and is especially active in matters pertaining to the reclamation of the swamp districts of this section of the country.

Business, however, has not absorbed all of Mr. Moore's attention. He is an influential member of the Methodist church and also has been superintendent of schools for the county, a work for which his educational training especially fitted him, and he has been prose- cuting attorney of the county, and is one of the very few men so qualified that on a day's notice he might step in and successfully fill any office in the county.

Mr. Moore's first marriage took place on December 8, 1857, when he was united to Miss Annie E. Hunter, born April 21, 1839. Eight children were born to Joseph H. and Annie Moore. These included Lizzie Hunter, who is Mrs. Charles I. Anderson, of Commerce ; Charles A., who died in 1884, at the age of twenty-three; Susan, who married Colan Threadgill, a minister, and who later became a lawyer of St. Louis, and she died in 1892; Anna E., born in 1871, died while at college in Nashville, Tennessee; Bertie N., born Feb- ruary, 1874, married Dr. H. A. Davis, of Cairo, Illinois; one son died in infancy, and the other child, Joseph Lee, is in partnership with his father.

The younger Joseph Moore was born July 19, 1867. After attending school in Bellevue, Institute at Caledonia he took a collegiate and a law course. He was admitted to the bar in Angust, 1900. The following year he was elected prosecuting attorney of Scott county and held the office for eight years. During that time he sent fifty-seven men to the peni- tentiary and hanged one. His wife was for-

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merly Miss Julia Haw, daughter of Mollie Vernon and Dr. Joseph Haw, of Kentucky. The marriage of Miss Haw and Mr. Moore took place at Farmington, November 14, 1894. They have four children: Ella R., born Sep- tember 10, 1896; Martha E., born May 1, 1900; Joe Haw, born August 28, 1904; and Anna Lee, born November 14, 1908. The younger generation of the house of Moore is also Methodist in religion and Democratic in politics.

Annie Hunter Moore died in June, 1874, at Commerce, and is there buried. Two years later Mr. Moore was united with Mrs. Emma Prince Ross, a daughter of William and Eliza Prince, and wife of a former merchant of Commerce, William Ross. She had one child by her first marriage, who died very young. One son was born of the latter union, -- Brumfield C. Moore. His birth took place on January 10, 1879, and his mother died in the same month. In 1899 Brumfield Moore mar- ried Susie Marshall, and they have three chil- dren.

Mr. Moore, despite his years, is active and interested in all matters pertaining to the growth and advancement of Commerce. He has ever been a citizen of the most admirable type, and advancing years have not dimin- ished his zeal for the civic welfare. One pro- jeet which has always claimed a generous share of his attention is the drainage problem, and he and his son are both leaders in drain- age activities. Mr. Moore and one of his neighbors at one time dredged a ditch three and a half miles long at their own expense, building what is known as the Moore Levee, across a hitherto impassable swamp.

JAMES T. CAMREN. During the greater portion of his active career thus far James T. Camren has been identified with the great basic industry of agriculture and with the general merchandise business, his present fine store at Greenbrier, Missouri, being one of the finest concerns of its kind in Bollinger county. At different times Mr. Camren has served as postmaster of Greenbrier and he is the efficient incumbent of that position in 1912. He is a man of remarkable executive ability and all his dealings have been char- acterized by fair and honorable methods.

A native of Barry county, Missouri, Mr. Camren was born on the 1st of January, 1856, and he is a son of Alexander and Katherine (Kelley) Camren, both of whom were born and reared in the state of Tennessee, whence

they removed to Missouri in the year 1854. The father was identified with farming ope- rations during the greater portion of his ac- tive career and he and his wife became the parents of thirteen children, of whom James T. was the third in order of birth and of whom eight are living, in 1912. Mr. Camren, of this notice, accompanied the family to Texas county, Missouri, in 1858 and in 1860 to Bollinger county, Missouri. In 1884 he initiated his independent career as a farmer, the scene of his operations being on a rented estate in Cape Girardeau county. In 1887 he came to Bollinger county, locating at Greenbrier, and some months later he en- gaged in the sawmill business in Wayne county, Missouri, for two years. In 1889 he again became interested in agricultural pur- suits and in that year he also purchased a general store at Greenbrier, continuing to operate the same during the long interven- ing years to the present time. In 1909 Mr. Camren purchased a farm of seventy acres in the close vicinity of Greenbrier and on that estate he is engaged in diversified agri- culture and the raising of high-grade stock. In 1890 he was appointed postmaster of Greenbrier and he continued to serve as such until 1896. In 1897 he was again given charge of the local postoffice and he con- ducted the same with the utmost efficiency until 1903, when he resigned. In 1910, how- ever, he was again urged to become post- master and he is the popular and able in- cumbent of that office at the present time, in 1912.

Mr. Camren has been twice married. In 1884 he wedded Miss Dora Miinch, who was born and reared in Bollinger county and who was a daughter of John Miinch, long a repre- sentative citizen of Bollinger county, Mis- souri. Mrs. Camren was summoned to the life eternal, and she is survived by four chil- dren, concerning whom the following brief record is here inserted-Orpah, born in 1887, is the wife of Ed. Waits, now of Deadwood, South Dakota; Audie, born in 1893, remains at the paternal home; and Opal and Odel, twins, were born in 1899. In 1908 Mr. Cam- ren was united in marriage to Miss Ada B. Null, a daughter of John Null, of Bollinger county. There have been no children born to this union.

In religious matters the Camren family at- tend the Methodist Episcopal church and in a fraternal way Mr. Camren is affiliated with a number of local organizations of representa-

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tive character. His interest in political ques- tions is deep and sincere and he gives an earnest support to Republican principles, be- lieving that the platform of that party con- tains the best elements of good government. He is decidedly loyal and public spirited in his civic attitude and in the various avenues of usefulness has so conducted himself as to command the unqualified confidence and es- teem of his fellow men.

Louis MCCUTCHEN is too well known to the residents of Campbell, Dunklin county, Mis- souri, to require many words of introduc- tion. Beginning life on his own responsi- bility in a very humble way, he has advanced step by step until he attained the prominent position which he today enjoys in the con- munity. In considering the sources of his efficiency it is evident that Mr. Mccutchen has not regarded trade as a privileged pro- fession in which the buyers and sellers are entitled to moral latitude. With Mr. Mc- Cutchen there is no such thing as approx- imate reliability-a man either delivers the goods according to his specifications or falls short ; he has always "delivered the goods."

Born in Jackson county, Alabama, Louis Mccutchen began life on the 27th of June, 1848. He is a son of William W. Mccutchen, also born in Alabama, and of Margaret (Har- rison) Mccutchen, whose nativity occurred in Tennessee. The father spent practically his entire life in the commonwealth to which he owed his birth, was there given the ad- vantages of a fair education, there followed the calling of a surveyor and occupied the position of justice of the peace; and there his life ended, as he was drowned in the Tennessee river, Marshall county, Alabama, in 1878.

The first twenty-one years of Louis Me- Cutchen's existence were spent under the parental roof in Jackson county, Alabama, and during those years he received the ad- vantages of a common school education. On attaining his majority he left home to make a visit to Dunklin county, Missouri, with his brother Charles, who was back home on a visit and loaned him the money to pay his expenses to Dunklin county, where the elder Mccutchen brother had settled three years earlier. In 1870 Louis Mccutchen took up his residence at what was then known as Four Mile, because of its being situated at a distance of four miles from three villages. He worked for two years for his brother, and

the following four years for Messrs. A. D. Bridges and Son, at a salary of $25 a month and board. To Messrs. Bridges and Son, as well as to his brother, Mr. Mccutchen owes much of his success. During these years he laid the foundations of his later commercial prosperity and in 1876 he engaged in the drug and grocery business, in partnership with Dr. Given Owen, his store being located at Four Mile until the fall of 1882. At that time Campbell was beginning to be built up and Mr. MeCutchen, foreseeing the oppor- tunities which the town promised in the fu- ture, built a store at Campbell, and thither moved his stock of goods. He became a reg- istered pharmacist and continued to operate his drug store until 1897, when he sold out to Cyrus Bray. From the 14th of July, 1875, until November 20, 1889, Mr. Mccutchen held the office of postmaster, his first appointment having been received under Grant's adminis- tration. In 1883 the postoffice at Four Mile was discontinued and on the 6th day of De- cember of that same year he received the ap- pointment to the Campbell postoffice, serv- ing under Harrison until November 20, 1889. On the 31st of March, 1892, he was re- appointed and served under Cleveland and under Mckinley until 1897, having served under all presidents between Johnston and Roosevelt.

In 1900 Mr. Mccutchen organized the Me- Cutchen Mercantile Company, of which con- cern his brother George was the general man- ager until 1909. At the present time Louis Mccutchen is the president, Robert Whit- taker, who gained his business experience in the store of Mr. William Bridges, is the gen- eral manager and C. H. Mccutchen is the secretary and treasurer. When the company was incorporated it had a capital stock of ten thousand dollars; later its capital was fifteen thousand dollars and now it is capitalized at twenty-one thousand dollars. It handles groceries, dry goods, hardware and farm im- plements and its annual business amounts to over one hundred thousand dollars. While occupying three rooms, two of which belong to Louis Mccutchen and the other to his brother, the company owns the whole of the building in which the store is situated, erected on a lot one hundred and four by one hun- dred and four feet, right in town. It also owns a half interest in the Mccutchen Gin of Campbell.

In 1897 Mr. Mccutchen helped to organize the Bank of Campbell, was its first president

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and has held that position ever since its in- ception. He is vice-president of the Mill and Light Company of Campbell, a corpora- tion which furnishes light and mill power to its members. He was one of the organizers of the Bank of Kennett and was a director of that bank until he assumed the responsi- ble position above mentioned in connection with the Campbell bank. He served as agent for the Cotton Belt Railroad at Campbell sev- eral years, until the office was made into a telegraph station. He received the first con- signment that was ever shipped to the place- a car of corn which came from St. Louis via Cairo. He was one of the organizers and original stockholders of the Campbell Lum- ber Company which operated here for sev- eral years, then moved to Kennett, Missouri.

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History of southeast Missouri : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people and its principal interests, Volume II, Part 95

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