USA > Missouri > History of southeast Missouri : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people and its principal interests, Volume II > Part 96
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In the year 1877, while Mr. Mccutchen was living at Four Mile, he was united in mar- riage to Miss Martha E. Owen, daughter of Judge Given Owen. She has passed her whole life in Dunklin county, was there born, edu- cated and married, being known as an ex- cellent housekeeper. She bore seven children, whose names are as follows, Fannie, who mar- ried H. V. Merritt, a bookkeeper in Camp- bell; William W., manager of the hardware department of his father's business, married to Lannie Overall, of Campbell; Beulah, wife of C. L. Overall, whose father had the sale of the Campbell paper; Owen and Louis, who live at home; and Claudie and Ella, who are deceased.
Mr. Mccutchen lives a quarter of a mile west of the Bank of Campbell, in a beautiful frame building, containing thirteen large rooms. He owns sixty acres of ground in the neighborhood of his own lot, four hun- dred by four hundred and eighty feet. He has given to each of his sons-in-law a lot two hundred by four hundred and eighty feet, located one on each side of his own place. The three lots comprise a whole block and are called the Plain View Place. He has two sections of land near town, both farm land, and one, containing one hundred and twenty acres, adjoins the town. In all Mr. Mc- Cutchen owns about eighteen hundred acres of land, of which about six hundred acres are cleared, and he has erected several houses for his tenants.
Politically Mr. Mccutchen is a Democrat, has been central committeeman of the town- ship for several years and when he was younger he served as delegate to the state convention several times. For two terms he
served as coal oil inspector of Campbell under Governor Folk, from 1905 to 1909. He served on the board of education for about thirty years and was secretary during most of this time. He has seen the educational facilities of Campbell grow from a little box of a house, sixteen by twenty-five feet, to a fine building, with equipment worth $25,000. In 1906 the county court of Dunklin county appointed a levee board for Levee District No. 2 and Mr. Mccutchen was named as presi- dent of the board. The district was bonded at sixty thousand dollars and the levee was planned to be fifteen miles long, commene- ing a quarter of a mile south of the St. Francois village in Missouri, then continued south. At present about eight miles is com- pleted ; the levee is ten feet high at the head end and twelve feet at the lower end. The other members of this levee board, which still exists, are S. E. Bage, of Holcomb, and James McHaney, of White Oak, who was elected president of the board in 1911. Mr. Me- Cutchen's latest interprise is a $25,000 hotel at Campbell, Missouri, erected by himself and a business associate, which is a valuable institution for the city and a monument to his name.
The MeCutchen family is connected with the Baptist church and in fraternal affiliations Mr. Mccutchen is a member of the blue lodge of Campbell, Ancient, Free and Accepted Masons, and of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Forty-two years have elapsed since Louis Mccutchen first came to Dunklin county, penniless. He, in his modest way, attributes his first start in life to his brother's help when he first came to Missouri, but the brother and numerous friends know that Mr. Mccutchen is a man who is bound to rise to the top, partly because of his good judgment and executive abilities, but mainly on account of his stability of character. There are a few men of remarkable attainments who have dragged themselves to the top despite the handicap of instability, but without the hin- drance of their record in every instance they could and would have fared farther and fairer. In the case of Mr. MeCutchen, his gradual, steady progress has been based on staunch foundation, and the highest prin- ciples have characterized his every act.
WILLIAM T. FONVILLE, an honored veteran of the Civil war and one of the most promi- nent farmers and land owners in the vicinity of Bernie, in Stoddard county, Missouri, has
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attained to the venerable age of sixty-nine years. He has long been engaged in agri- cultural pursuits in this section of the state and is now residing at Bernie, his fine home- stead of two hundred and forty acres being eligibly located some two and one-half or three miles northwest from Bernie.
A native of the old Blue Grass state, Wil- liam T. Fonville was born in MeCracken county, Kentucky, the date of his nativity being the 18th of August, 1842. He is a son of Thomas J. and Fannie (Murphy) Fonville, both of whom were born in North Carolina, whence they accompanied their respective parents to Kentucky in an early day. The father was of French descent. Mr. and Mrs. Thomas J. Fonville became the parents of eight children, of whom William T. of this review was the seventh in order of birth. Both parents died when William T. was a young boy and after completing his educa- tional training in Kentucky he decided to make an investigation of conditions in Mis- souri. He came to this state in February, 1861, and in the following May enlisted as a soldier in the Missouri State Guards, becom- ing a member of Colonel Brown's battalion. Six months later he received his honorable discharge from the state guards and he then enlisted in Kentucky as a member of Colonel Faulkner's Regiment. He was present at the battle of Fredericksburg and after the close of that sanguinary conflict returned to Ken- tucky, where he served in General Buford's command, under General Forrest, becoming a soldier in the First Kentucky Cavalry of the Confederate army. In 1864 his regiment made a raid to Paducah and Columbus, Ken- tucky, and, being near his old home, Mr. Fonville applied for and was granted a fur- lough. While he was visiting his old home friends his regiment was commanded to re- turn to Tennessee and Mr. Fonville, not be- ing able to rejoin his command, crossed the state line and under a Federal transfer was enabled to join Price's army in Missouri. On the ensuing raid into Missouri he was wounded at Glasgow, was taken prisoner on the field and was sent to Alton (Ill.) prison, where he was held in duress until the close of the war. Then he was sent with others to Paducah, Kentucky, and was then paroled. He is still carrying the musket-ball received at Glasgow, the same having shot through his clothing and entered his right leg. With the exception of a period of two months Mr. Fonville served with all of honor and
distinction throughout the Civil war. In the summer of 1866 he was again in his native place in Kentucky, but finding that his friends and relatives had scattered he returned to Missouri, where he met an old friend George Priddy, then living in Stoddard county. Mr. Priddy and Mr. Fonville had been old friends during the war times in Arkansas and on this occasion the friendship was re- newed. Priddy then resided on a farm two miles northwest of Bernie; he was formerly from Illinois and had come thence to Mis- souri in time to pre-empt his land; later he went to Arkansas, where he passed the clos- ing years of his life. During his visit in the home of George Priddy Mr. Fonville met and became very much interested in Mary Priddy, a daughter of his host, and in the fall of 1866 they were married. Immediately after that even they squatted on a tract of railroad land, which Mr. Fonville afterward purchased, paying for the same three and a half dollars per acre. He continued to add to his original tract until he was finally the owner of a farm of four hundred acres of some of the best land in the county. In con- nection with other tracts he became the owner of half of the old Priddy homestead, and at one time he had as much as three hun- dred and twenty-five acres under cultivation. He has recently given a great deal of his land to his children, so that he is now farming on a tract of two hundred and forty acres.
In his political proclivities Mr. Fonville is a stanch supporter of the principles and pol- icies for which the Democratic party stands sponsor. For a period of six years he was deputy sheriff and constable in Stoddard county and during that time he was in the saddle almost day and night. He was suc- cessful in running down a large number of criminals and he won the reputation for be- ing one of the most energetic constables the county has ever had. As a young man he was decidedly a sportsman and for years kept hunting horses and a pack of dogs, he and his friends killing many deer, turkey and foxes. At times so interested would he be- come in the chase that he would spend the entire night in the saddle on a fox-hunt. He . recalls the days in which bears would wander up close to the house and when it was a common thing for wolves to kill pigs. He has killed as many as four deer in one day and on one occasion killed three deer with a single shot, all being in range and the buck- shot having scattered enough to kill three out
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of seven which were together. On many oc- casions he has kill two deer at a time. Mr. Fonville has been a valued and appreciative member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows since 1872. In this connection he was formerly a member of Cotton Hill Lodge, No. 306, but later he was demitted to Bernie Lodge, No. 682. While he is not an office seeker he is very active in local politics and is a strong worker for his friends. In his religious faith he is a consistent member of the Church of Christ and he is a liberal con- tributor to all philanthropical movements.
Mr. Fonville has been twice married. As previously noted, he was united in wedlock to Miss Mary Priddy in the fall of 1866. She was summoned to the life eternal in the spring of 1871, at which time she was sur- vived by two children, Alonzo, who is now farming on a portion of the old Fonville homestead; and Mary Arabell, who died at the age of nine years. In the fall of 1871 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Fonville to Miss Lucy Smith, a daughter of John H. Smith and Mary Elizabeth (Osborn) Smith. Mr. and Mrs. John H. Smith were born in Humphrey county, Tennessee, whence they migrated to Missouri in an early day, locat- ing on land near Bernie. Mrs. Fonville was likewise born in Tennessee and she was a mere child at the time of her arrival in this state. Mr. and Mrs. Fonville became the parents of the following children: Fannie, who is the wife of Alfred Morgan, of Dexter, Missouri; Willie is engaged in farming near Bernie; Cornelia is the widow of Mack Ram- sey and she resides at Bernie; Dora married William Piatt, of Bernie; Laura is the wife of Monroe Hopkins, of Bernie; Ella is the wife of Dr. John Riddle, of Bernie; Minnie married George Jones, of Bernie; and Myrtle remains at the Fonville home in Bernie.
Mr. Fonville is a man of broad human sym- pathy and great benevolence. Charity in its widest and best sense is practiced by him, and his goodness has made smooth the rough way of many a weary traveler on life's jour- ney. In his private life he is distinguished by all that marks the true gentleman and in every sphere he is honored and esteemed by his fellow men.
CHRISTOPHER C. FLY. Although not at present in business, Mr. Fly has been one of the well known merchants of this region for over a quarter of a century and several of the enterprises which he inaugurated are still
in operation. He was born in Gibson county, Tennessee, in 1851 and lived there until he was twenty-four. He had no more educa- tional advantages than the poor schools of the region afforded at that time. When he came to Missouri he settled in Dunklin county, near what is now Malden, but was then only a corn field without even a rail- road through it. The trading point for the farmers was Dexter, seventeen miles away.
After a year at Malden Mr. Fly went back to Tennessee and stayed two years. By that time Malden had begun to build up and he came to the new town and started a saloon. For some reason-perhaps because there were too many very ambitious people intent on making good in the new place-the venture was not a success, so he went into the restau- rant business and in the seven years he worked at that, made enough to go into the grocery business.
Mr. Fly conducted his grocery alone for some time and then combined with Mr. W. L. Craig, of Malden, who is now in the lumber and undertaking business there. After five years of partnership Mr. Fly bought out Mr. Craig's interest and went into general mer- chandise business with his brother-in-law, the firm name being Fly & Company. For a time the concern made money, as they carried a good stock of wares, but later the busi- ness was discontinued, Mr. Fly selling his interest, and he then moved to Lotta, near Parma, in 1902, having some six hundred dol- lars, which amount he had borrowed to go into business again.
At Lotta Mr. Fly spent a year and three months in the grocery trade and he was very successful. In 1904 he moved to Parma, where he has since resided. Here he built another store and went into the handling of general merchandise alone. This venture was un- usually profitable and in 1905 he sold it out to F. P. Wrather, who is no longer in business. Another successful enterprise of Mr. Fly's was a furniture and hardware establishment, which is now operated by Leigh Brothers. They bought out the business in February, 1911.
Mr. Fly now owns a hotel, a half-interest in a two-story brick building, two desirable residences and several other houses. He has also a number of vacant lots and a half-in- terest in the only gin in town, a three thou- sand dollar plant. He was one of the pro- moters of the Parma Bank and is now the president of it, being the second to occupy
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that position, succeeding Dr. J. T. Blackman, resigned.
In the lodges of Parma Mr. Fly is a promi- nent member. He is affiliated with the In- dependent Order of Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pythias, the Woodmen of the World and with the Ben Hur. His church membership is at Malden in the Missionary Baptist de- nomination. At Malden in 1883 occurred the marriage of Christopher C. Fry and Mary Etta Davis. She was born in Tennessee- but grew up in Dexter, where her father, R. W. Davis, was the first marshal of the town. They have one child, Beatrice, born in 1897, at home. Mr. Fly is not in any sense a politician, but he is an adherent of the pol- icies of the Democratic party, and served two terms as mayor of Parma, being the first in- cumbent of that honorable position.
H. A. BOLLINGER. Among the pioneer fam- ilies of the vicinity of Bell City, Stoddard county, Missouri, was the Bollinger family, a worthy representative of which is the sub- ject of this sketch, H. A. Bollinger, who was born and reared and has since maintained his home four miles west of Bell City. It was on his father's farm, about a quarter of a mile west of his present home, November 20, 1879, that he was born, son of William Bollinger. He attended the local schools, and until he was twenty years of age he worked on the farm for his father. Then he took to himself a wife, and engaged in farming on one hundred and twenty acres of the home farm, which his father deeded to him. To this he subsequently added by purchase forty acres of adjoining land, making one hundred and sixty acres, and still later, in 1904, two hundred and six acres of land three-quarters of a mile east of Bell City, all of which he now owns and nearly all of which is cleared and under cultivation, corn and wheat be- ing his chief crops. Also he is interested in the stock business, specializing somewhat in stock. He keeps on an average of ten to fif- teen horses, seventy-five to one hundred hogs, and about a hundred head of cattle. On his home farm he built at the time of his mar- riage a seven-room house, in which he and his family still live. Here he has two barns, one forty by sixty feet in dimensions and the other forty-five by seventy feet. His other farm also has good buildings, including a five- room house, three small tenant houses and one barn.
On January 2, 1900, at the Bollinger home-
stead, H. A. Bollinger and Miss Mary Barks were married, and their union has been blessed, in the birth of six sons, namely: Wil- liam Linnie, born September 10, 1900; Charles Glen, October 25, 1902; Phillip H., July 23, 1904; Alvin H., April 12, 1906; Wilson E., January 25, 1908; Noble Paul, October 30, 1909. Mrs. Bollinger was born in Bollinger county, Missouri, October 17, 1883, daughter of Philip and Katharine Barks, who had moved from Bollinger county to Stoddard county about 1896.
Mr. Bollinger maintains membership in the F. L. T. lodge at Bell City, and politically he affiliates with the Democratic party.
CHARLES L. SIGLER came to Parma in 1904 and went into the sawmill and veneer busi- ness. In 1910 this mill burned down and since that time he has been engaged only in the veneer business. His mill has a capacity of 6,000 feet of logs a day and makes from 40,000 to 50,000 feet of veneer in that pe- riod of time. The plant is situated in the town on a tract of seven and a half acres; thirty men are employed in the mill and its products are shipped to all parts of the coun- try.
Mr. Sigler has large realty interests in the county aside from his mill. He owns 1060 acres of land north of Parma, which he is having cleared and put under cultivation as fast as possible. Two hundred acres are now being farmed, seven different families renting parts of the tract.
Before coming to Parma Mr. Sigler's home was in Ohio. He was born in Springfield, January 19, 1863. His parents had come to Ohio from Maryland and settled in that town. Here Mr. Sigler lived until he was thirty-five, farming and buying and selling cattle. In 1898 he was married to Minnie Swartzbaugh, a young lady of German descent who grew up near Springfield, and almost immediately af- ter his marriage moved to a farm near Lima, Olio, where he bought one hundred acres. Six years later he came to Parma.
Mr. Sigler is a Democrat in political pref- erence. He belongs to the Methodist church and is connected with two lodges in Parma; that of the Knights of Pythias and of the Odd Fellows. Although he and his wife have no children, their marriage is a singularly happy one.
EMIL M. WEBER was born at Kamen, Ger- many, February 14, 1831. After completing
Emil m. Woher
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his education in Germany, about the year 1853, he and his brother Rudolph moved to America, and after making a short stay in New York and New Orleans, he went to the city of St. Louis, which place he decided to make his home. When the Civil war broke out he at once adopted the cause of the Fed- erals and joined Buell's battery, and was soon elevated to a lieutenant. He stayed in the service to the end of the war, making an hon- orable record. He was at the battle of Shiloh (Pittsburgh Landing), Corinth and others, and received honorable mention by General Sherman in his memoirs for his good work.
He assisted in the organization of the Fourth National Bank of St. Louis, Missouri, which for years was one of the strongest and most conservative of the city. In the year 1865 he and his brother Rudolph organ- ized a mercantile business at Bloomfield. Stoddard county, Missouri, under the firm name of E. & R. Weber, which business was a success and the largest in the state south of St. Louis. In the year 1869, his mercantile business having burned and many other com- mercial houses having sprung up, he decided not to rebuild, but in the year 1871 he went into the real estate and abstract business and amassed a handsome fortune thereby. On November 21, 1875, he married Mrs. Elizabeth A. Weber, the widow of his brother Rudolph. Four children were the result of this union : Franz Weber, a successful farmer; Carl Weber, president of the Weber Abstract, Land and Loan Company (a corporation) ; Mrs. J. L. Ashley, of Bloomfield, Missouri, and Mrs. B. T. Harvey, of Eldon, Missouri.
Mr. Weber gave little attention to polities, favored the Republican party, but did not aspire to office. He was a man of public spirit and was a liberal contributor. He organized the Weber Abstract, Land and Loan Com- pany, and was its president at his death, on January 21, 1908.
CARL WEBER. One of the most difficult posi- tions that a man is called upon to fill is that of living up to an illustrious father. People either say, "He ought to do great things, look at his father," or "It's against human nature for him to be as great as his father was." Either attitude is hard to face, and Carl Weber has had to endure both of them. Feel- ing the necessity of living up to the expecta- tions of those who believed in him, and striving to prove that he was capable of
accomplishing things, he is now, though only a young man, one of the most important fig- ures in the business world in Southeastern Missouri. He is president of the Weber Ab- stract, Land and Loan Company, and holds other important positions, both in business enterprises and in the political field.
Carl Weber was born at Bloomfield, Mis- souri, on the 4th of February, 1881, a son of the late E. M. Weber. He was reared at Bloomfield and until the present date has re- sided here. He first attended the public schools, and at the age of fifteen was sent to a college at Farmington, Missouri. Later he attended a business college in St. Louis, re- maining there until he was about nineteen years old. It was in January, 1900, that he came home to go into the abstract, loan and real estate business with his father, and he has been closely connected with this business ever since. The abstract books were started in 1871, by the father of Carl Weber, and are now the only com- plete set of abstract books in Stoddard county. The Weber Abstract, Land and Loan Company was incorporated in February, 1907. The officers are Carl Weber, president ; John L. Ashley, secretary and treasurer, and in addition to these gentlemen the board of directors ineludes Elizabeth A. Weber, Emma Weber Ashley and Emil Weber. The corpora- tion does an extensive loan and real estate business, handling the greatest amount of loan business of any firm in the county. For the past twelve years Mr. Weber has devoted his entire attention to his business affairs, and especially to the interests of this corporation. He is also a director in the Stoddard County Trust Company and is vice-president of the Little Valley Land Company, having its head- quarters at Cape Girardeau, Missouri.
A Republican in politics, Mr. Weber was appointed by President Roosevelt in 1908 as postmaster at Bloomfield, but after serving for a year he resigned, not being able to do justice to the work and to his business at the same time. He is a highly valued member of the party, however, and has served as a member of the Republican county central committee, where his advice is listened to with respect. Socially Mr. Weber is a member of the Knights of Pythias, affiliating with Purity Lodge, No. 333.
No man in the county is more highly thought of than is this young business man. Having a natural ability for the work which
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he has made his own, and having had the splendid training which his father was able to give him, one can easily account for his business success, but his popularity is largely due to the strength of his character and to the charm of his personality.
W. J. WEBB was born in Stoddard county, Missouri, in 1866, near the present site of Dexter, a town which at that time was not on the map. After finishing school he taught school for six years, studying law during the time. He was admitted to the bar in 1895, and began to practice in New Madrid county in 1896.
After his admission to the bar Mr. Webb practiced one year in Franklin county and then in Pemiscot county another year, until the county seat was moved, after which he spent a twelvemonth in Hayti before locat- ing in Parma, which has been his home since 1904.
One year before he was admitted to the bar Mr. Webb was married to Miss Esther J. Huston, of Sullivan, Missouri, Miss Huston had been a teacher in New Madrid county and the wedding was celebrated in Cairo, Illi- nois. She and Mr. Webb have three chil- dren, William, born June 22, 1906; Ruby Elizabeth, February 7, 1909; and Elsie,, Au- gust 1, 1910.
When Mr. Webb came to Parma he had no capital and the town had almost no popu- lation but both have added numbers and re- sources in the last seven years. Mr. Webb began doing law and notary work and also engaged in the real estate business in a small way. Later he added insurance to his other list of enterprises in the commercial field. He gradually gave up his law practice and devoted himself more and more to real es- tate. At present he owns a fine residence in Parma with two lots, and two more lots in the business section of the town. He also has an interest in a block of fifty residence lots in Parma and owns a quarter-section of land near the town, which is partly under culti- vation. For two and a half years he was in the mercantile business, and disposed of his establishment at a good profit. Ever since the Bank of Parma was organized Mr. Webb has been on its board of directors and a stockholder in it. He is now vice-president of the institution.
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