USA > Missouri > Greene County > Past and present of Greene County Missouri, early and recent history and genealogical records of many of the representative citizens, Volume I > Part 76
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Burge engaging in the blacksmith's trade. To these parents seven children were born, of whom George W., of this memoir, was the youngest, and of whom only two are now living.
George W. Burge spent his boyhood in his native city and was partly educated there, and when he was but fifteen years of age he and his brother, James Burge, came to Springfield, Missouri, where our subject finished his education, and here he spent the rest of his life, about forty-five years, during which period he saw the city whose interests he had at heart, grow from a mere village to the metropolis of southern Missouri. His first business venture was as a druggist on the south side of the public square, in which he continued about three years, then moved to a farm north of Doling Park and lived there four years, then moved back to town and began clerking in a drug store on the North Side. In the spring of 1876 he went into the general merchandise business on East Commercial street, in which he remained, enjoying a large and lucrative business and ranking among the leading merchants of the city, until his retirement from active life in 1886. He had been very successful in a business way, and accumulated considerable valuable property and a com- petency, and the last sixteen years of his life were spent in looking after his property interests, his death occurring, April 12. 1902. Politically, he was a Republican. He belonged to the United Workmen order. He was a charter member of Benton Avenue Methodist Episcopal church, was long a trustee in the same and was prominent in church work.
On January 4, 1865, Mr. Burge married in Rolla, Missouri, Ellen A. Starks, who was born in Ware, Massachusetts, near the city of Springfield. October 18, 1843. She is a daughter of Charles L. and Amelia Dorman (Whitman) Starks, also Massachusetts people, from which state in 1852 the family moved to Georgia, and after remaining there a short time came on to Tennessee, and in 1858 to Missouri, locating on a farm about fifteen miles from Springfield, and in 1860 they moved to this city. Mr. Starks devoted his life to agricultural pursuits. His birth occurred. July 4, 1819, and he died in January, 1887. His wife was born in March, 1820, and died in 1896. Politically he was a Democrat. Mr. and Mrs. Starks were the parents of four children, two of whom are now deceased. Mr. Starks was the owner of land near this city which is now known as the Starks Addition. In his earlier life he was a stone mason by trade. He sold the first lot on the corner of Camp- bell and Mill streets, on which a foundry was built. Religiously, Mr. and Mrs. Starks were members of the Methodist Episcopal church.
The union of George W. Burge and wife was without issue.
Mrs. Ellen A. Burge owns a beautiful home on Washington avenue, Springfield, and she is a great church worker, being a charter member of the Benton Avenue Methodist Episcopal church, being trustee of the local church
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ever since its organization ; she is also an influential member of the Ladies' Aid Society.
James T. Burge, brother of the subject of this memoir, first came to Springfield in 1855 from Troy, New York, returning to his home in 1857, and soon thereafter he brought George W. Burge to Springfield and they located here. He was a contractor and built many of the leading buildings, public and private, in this city and vicinity. He was born in England in 1831 and his death occurred February 25, 1911. He was never married. He was a resident of Springfield for a period of fifty-five years, and his name figures conspicuously in the early history of the city and county.
George W. Burge was a member of the Home Guards, organized in Springfield in 1861 under Colonel Holland, and served three months for the Union, aiding in the defense of this city against the Confederates. Both he and his brother worked in the government shops at Rolla, this state, for some time during the war.
The work of Mrs. Ellen A. Burge as a broad-minded, conscientious Christian woman can not be estimated. Her lasting monument will be the splendid Burge Deaconess Hospital of Springfield which she built in 1907, after Mr. Burge's death. She has turned the property over to the Woman's Home Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal church, she being still president of the local board of managers. This is one of the leading hospitals of the Southwest, is modern in every respect, sanitary, attractive and is well patronized. Its medical staff is composed of many of the leading physicians and surgeons of the city. Its training school for nurses has no superior. Dr. J. C. Matthews and Rev. J. W. Stewart, appreciating the inadequate hospital accommodations here, saw the possibilities of a Protestant hospital, and the former took the matter up with Mrs. Ellen A. Burge, who became interested at once, and offered a site on North Jefferson street to the Woman's Home Missionary Society of the Methodist church for a Deaconess hospital. The building on the site was remodeled so as to meet the requirements of an up- to-date hospital, and it was opened on Thanksgiving day, 1906, and during the early part of the following year the work was in proper swing, having opened up much better than had been expected, and soon it was found that the quarters would have to be increased. In August, 1907, Mrs. Burge purchased the lot adjoining on the south with a view of erecting in the future a large modern brick building. Ground was broken for the same the 21st of October following, and the building was dedicated March 20, 1908, and the first patients admitted to the new building the following July. The in- stitution has been a decided success, hundreds of patients being cared for, and hundreds of dollars' worth of charity work has been done. In fact, this excel- lent hospital has filled a long-felt want and is greatly appreciated by the people of Springfield.
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Those actively in charge of the hospital very appropriately paid Mrs. Burge the following tribute, entitled "A Fragrant Life," which was pub- lished in their first annual report of the work of this institution, and which we believe should be appended to this article :
"In the picturesque northwest of this country flow the Gallatin and Jefferson rivers, each unmindful of the existence of the other. They are drawn unconsciously together at Fort Benton, Montana. From this union of waters, commence the melodious annals of the muddy, yet mighty Missouri river, having many miles of river banks and encircling them with its alluvial deposits.
"Some years ago Charles Starks and Amelia Dorman, two helpful hopeful and loving lives, were flowing on unconscious of any future rela- tions. The Almighty guided these lives, made them strong and beautiful. Their life plans were merged, their lives became a unit. Into Ellen .1., their daughter, flowed the best of their souls' desires. And the symphony of their lives has been heard all these years as a sweet cadenced tone of glorified love. This daughter, a follower of Jesus Christ, was the helpmeet of George W. Burge, and their lives, though not blessed by the prattle and music of childish lips, a canse of regret to them, yet their love was not buried in the casket of selfishness, but became a beautiful shrine on the road- way of life, where many have worshipped. Their clouds have departed and its burning light on the altar, the beauty of its power have cheered the hearts and strengthened the souls who lingered as they passed, laying a wreath at its portals. Many and happy were the days of their united lives. God prospered them and they in gratitude gave to God's kingdom. For no fairer blossom casts its glorious sheen with richer color and balmer fragrance than true gratitude.
"Mrs. Burge is a charter member and first Sunday school superintend- ent of Benton Avenue Methodist Episcopal church in Springfield, Mis- souri. and the helper in the erection of four edifices on the present site. Her inspiration in this work was contagious. Others came laden with rare gifts from their heart's chamber of self-sacrifice. She came to God's altar, pre- sented her gifts to the Marionville College. the Burge Deaconess hospital and Benton Avenue Methodist Episcopal church. She went away with the modest glow of the graceful violet, happy because she could bloom, fill her niche in life and help bless men. She was always looking up and not down, believing that
'Pessimism 's but a screen, Thrust the light and you between- But the sun shines bright, I wean. Just behind it.'
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GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI.
"Mrs. Burge was always ready to listen to the good things about her friends. The unpleasant pained her heart. Ever loyal to her church, her sympathy was a deep well. When a life-long friend was sadly bereaved, she could not go to her at once, but after three or four days she brought the tribute of her soul's love. Like a well in the mountain side which you can neither see nor hear, because of its depth, yet its crystalline waters assuage the traveler's thirst. With loving hands to help in causes good and true, she finds that the light at the evening time doth brightly shine. You might see her as with hopeful step and buoyant heart she walks, Mrs. Ellen A. Burge, the donor of our hospital, in the devious ways of life. A hand- maid blessed of God, may her years be many in the service for her Lord. God grant that the mantle of her gentle nature may fall on every reader of these lines."
GEORGE WASHINGTON ANTHONY.
The biographies of representative men of a city and county bring to light many hidden treasures of the mind, character and courage, well calcu- lated to arouse the pride of the family and of the community, and it is a source of regret that the people are not more familiar with the personal his- tory of such men, in the ranks of whom may be found tillers of the soil, mechanics, teachers, professional men, business men and those of varied vocations. George Washington Anthony, well known among the business element of Springfield, where he has resided many decades, is one of the creditable representatives of the class of men who do things and as such he has made his influence felt in the locality of which this history treats and earned a name for enterprise, integrity and honor.
Mr. Anthony was born in Adams, Massachusetts. September 10. 1839. He is a son of Abram and Eunice (Eddy) Anthony, the father also born in the above named city and state, while the mother was a native of the state of New York. Abram Anthony devoted his life. to farming and lumbering. and owned a large area of timbered land, and he had several mills. One of the principal mills was on the site of the present noted Renfrew Gingham Works started over fifty years ago. He spent his life at Adams and died there when past his eighty-sixth birthday. Politically. he was a Republican, and was a worker for temperance. His family consisted of ten children. all still living but two, namely : Henry died at the age of sixty-five : Charles L., George W., of this sketch; Edwin A., James, whose sketch appears on another page of this work; Hannah M., Amelia A .. Susan and Albert; the other one died in early life.
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George W. Anthony grew to manhood in his native state; his early school days were interrupted as he had to work with his father, but nothing daunted, he obtained his education after he was twenty-four years old, having attended school at Lynnsborough, Massachusetts, which was a board- ing school. In the fall of 1865 he went to the state of Alabama and operated a sawmill there the following winter, was superintendent of the mill and made good money there. Leaving there in the summer of 1866 he came to Liberty. Clay county, Missouri, where two of his brothers lived, both being engaged in the tobacco business, and our subject worked for them awhile, finally coming to Springfield, this state, and he and his two brothers bought a factory site of a Mr. Porter, in 1867, and here the three brothers soon engaged in the tobacco business, which gradually grew to large pro- portions and in which our subject is still engaged. With the three brothers, George McCann formed a partnership which continued until 1873, when it was dissolved, our subject owning land on St. Louis street and started in the tobacco business by himself in January, 1874, and is still operating this business, dealing in smoking tobacco only, having abandoned the manufac- ture of plug tobacco a number of years ago. His principal brand in the latter was the "Royal Gem," and "Old Bachelor" is his most famous brand of smoking tobacco. It has been sold over a very wide territory and is a favorite with all smokers who have used it. Mr. Anthony understands thoroughly ever phase of this business and his plant is equipped in an up-to-date manner and only skilled artisans are employed. He is one of the most widely known men in the tobacco world in the Middle West and has made a great success in this field of endeavor. Besides his plant he also owns a large and attractive home on St. Louis street.
Politically Mr. Anthony is a Republican and has been more or less active in local public affairs during his long residence in the Queen City, in which he was a member of the city council several years ago. Fraternally, he belongs to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. and was a charter member of the Knights of Pythias, with which he is no longer affiliated. He is an active member of Calvary Presbyterian church, in which he has been an elder for over thirty years, and he was formerly a deacon in the same.
Mr. AAnthony has been twice married, first, in April, 1868, to Sylvia A. Sales, who was a native of Adams, Massachusetts. Her death occurred in 1875. In December, 1877, Mr. Anthony married Mary L. Dean, who was born in Adams, Massachusetts, and is a daughter of Dallas J. and Henrietta Dean. To this second marriage two children were born, namely: Sylvia Carrie, who lives at home. and Dallas Dean, who is engaged in farming; he- married Ida Phillips, a native of Greene county.
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GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI.
WALTER BENNETT ROBBERSON.
As a man of twentieth century industry, Walter Bennett Robberson, vice-president of the Springfield Grocery Company, is well worthy of repre- sentation in a work of the nature of the one in hand, as a representative of that class of alert, far-seeing men of affairs who are giving an enduring character to the industrial and civic makeup of the Queen City of the Ozarks. and vicinity. He has shown both the power of initiative and that of concen- tration, and has made for himself a secure place as one of the leaders of his day and generation in Greene county.
Mr. Robberson, who is a scion of one of the prominent and honored old families of this locality, was born in Rolla, Phelps county, Missouri, February II, 1864. He is a son of Dr. Edwin T. and Elizabeth Jane (Sproul) Robberson, a complete sketch of whom appears on other pages of this volume, hence the chronicle of their interesting lives will not be repeated here. Suffice it to say however, that for many years Dr. Robberson was one of the leading physicians and business men of this section of the state, and did as much as any other .one man for the material development of Springfield a generation ago.
Walter B. Robberson was but a child when his parents removed to. Springfield and here he grew to manhood. He had excellent educational advantages. After passing through the public and high schools he took the regular course in Drury College, making an excellent record, and was gradu- ated from that institution with the class of 1885. receiving the degree of Bachelor of Arts. Soon thereafter he entered upon his business career, obtaining a position as receiving clerk in the Springfield Grocery Company. He was ambitious, and soon proved to be a faithful, painstaking and trust- worthy employee and his promotion was rapid. He has remained with this large and widely known concern to the present time and has done much to increase its present great volume of business and its prestige. He has long been a stockholder in the same. He was manager for a period of six years. and is now vice-president of the company. A wholesale business is carried on exclusively and no grocery house in the great Southwest is better or more favorably known. Prompt and honest service is the motto of the firm, and in view of the fact that many of its thousands of customers have remained with it for a quarter of a century or more would indicate that this high code of modern business ethics had been strictly adhered to. The. firm's modern, mammoth and substantial place of business is conveniently located in the heart of the wholesale district of Springfield, with excellent railroad facilities, and a large and carefully selected stock is carried at all'
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seasons, everything being handled that is found in an up-to-date grocery store, in the way of staple and fancy groceries.
Mr. Robberson was married on November 3, 1887 to Emma Hardin, who was born in Illinois in 1863. She received a good education, is a lady of culture and refinement, and is an active worker in the local clubs and especially in the work of the Women's Christian Temperance Union.
Three children have blessed the home of Mr. and Mrs. Robberson, namely: Edwin T., born June 1, 1889, died September 24, 1894; Susie Belle, born December 15, 1891 is studying for a trained nurse in the Burge Deaconess hospital, Springfield; Edwina, born September 29, 1894, is attend- ing Kindergarten Training School in Chicago. They are both young ladies of much promise.
Mr. Robberson has long been an active and influential worker in Demo- cratic politics, but has never sought or held public office. Fraternally, he belongs to the Masonic order, including Gate of the Temple Lodge No. 422, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons; Vincil Chapter No. 110, Royal Arch Masons; Zabud Council, Royal and Select Masters; St. John's Commandery No. 20, Knights Templar; and Abou Ben Adhem Temple, Ancient Arabic Order of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. He is also a member of Florence Lodge No. 409, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and Red Men. He and his wife belong to the First Congregational church.
Personally Mr. Robberson is a plain, unassuming gentleman, uniformly courteous and pleasant, and is one of Springfield's most representative men of affairs.
NORMAN FULLINWIDER TERRY, M. D.
Ceaselessly to and fro flies the deft shuttle which weaves the web of human destiny, and into the vast mosaic fabric enter the individuality, the effort, the accomplishment of each man, be his station that most lowly or one of majesty, pomp and power. Within the textile folds may be traced the line of each individuality, be it the one that lends the beautiful sheen of honest worth and useful endeavor, or one that, dark and zigzag, finds its way through warp and woof, marring the composite beauty by its blackened threads, ever in evidence of the shadowed and unprolific life. Into the great aggregate each individuality is merged, and yet the essence of each is never lost, be the angle of its influence wide-spreading and grateful. or narrow and baneful. That properly applied industry. faithfulness to duty, a wise economy and sound judgment, are the surest contributing elements to suc- cess, was exemplified in the life of the late Dr. Norman Fullinwider Terry, who for a number of years was one of the foremost physicians and surgeons
Inn by E & Williams & Bro MY
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of Springfield and southwestern Missouri. The cause of humanity never had a truer friend than this valued gentleman who has passed to the higher life. The stereotyped words customary on such occasions seem but mock- ery in writing of such a man when we remember all the grand traits that went to make the character of this noble man. In all the relations of life- family, church, civic, professional and society-he displayed that consistent gentlemanly spirit, that innate refinement and unswerving integrity that endeared him alike to man, woman and child.
Doctor Terry was born. October 3, 1853 in Kossuth, Iowa. He was a son of Sherman and Leah Jane (Bruce) Terry. The father was a native of the state of New York, from which he removed in pioneer times to Iowa and established the future home of the family. After living a number of years in Des Moines county heremoved to Mt. Pleasant, that state. His grandfather was a soldier in the Revolutionary war, and his eldest son Stewart Bruce Terry, served four years in the Civil war, in fact, throughout the struggle, in an Iowa regiment, and, being captured, he served ten months in Andersonville prison.
When Norman F. Terry was a small child he removed with his parents to Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, and there grew to manhood and received his early education in the public schools, later becoming a student in the Iowa Wesleyan University. Ambitious to become a physician and especially a great sur- geon. he taught school two years in order to get money to defray his ex- penses in medical college, meanwhile laying a foundation by home study during his spare time. In due course he entered Miami Medical College in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he made a brilliant record, and from which institu- tion he was graduated with the class of 1876. And in 1893 he took a post- graduate course at the Chicago Polyclinic Medical School. He first began practicing his profession in northern Iowa, but owing to the severity of the climate and the condition of his father's health he removed with his parents to Lyons. Kansas, where he built up a large practice, and while there was local surgeon for the Santa Fe and Frisco systems. He was especially suc- cessful in surgery and spared no pains and efforts to become a great surgeon, and he lived to see his laudable ambition gratified. He came to Springfield, Missouri, in 1894. where he remained in active practice until his death, or for a period of twenty years, during which he ranked in the fore-front of the medical men of Greene county and the Ozark region and was widely recog- nized as one of the greatest surgeons of the Southwest. Scores of calls from all over this locality made him see the great need of a modernly ap- pointed hospital in Springfield, and he founded one here, Springfield Hos- pital, of which he became president. Although it was a commodious one to begin with, it had to be enlarged from time to time to adequately meet the great demand. Under his able management it became very successful and
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still stands as a monument to his devotion to the public welfare, city pride and profession.
Doctor Terry was married on February 3, 1881, to Leora Hibler, a lady of many commendable attributes of head and heart, who has always been a favorite with a wide circle of friends. She is a daughter of Alton H. and Mary A. (Baxter) Hibler, of St. Louis, Missouri. She had the advantages of an excellent education. The union of Doctor and Mrs. Terry was with- out issue.
Politically, Doctor Terry was a Republican, and religiously he belonged to the Methodist church. He belonged to the Society of Sons of the Amer- ican Revolution, and was a member of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity when in the university. He was a member of the Association of Railway Surgeons, the Missouri State Medical Association, the American Medical Association, and the Greene County Medical Society, and at one time was president of the last named. He was a charter member of the Springfield Club. He was for several years a lecturer to advanced students in Drury College on physiology. He was a fluent, learned and entertaining writer and con- tributed numerous papers to various medical journals and for a number of organizations to which he belonged, and he left in manuscript a work of fiction which was intended to portray his ideal of a true man in medical practice. Personally, he was modest, unassuming, but progressive in his ideas and helpful to all those with whom he came in contact.
JAMES HARRISON HEDGES.
The name at the head of this sketch is one well known in business and construction circles in Springfield and the entire Southwest and probably stands for more completed work in his own line than that of any other one man in this community.
Mr. Hedges .comes of a Kentucky ancestry. His father was James Ferman Hedges, born in the old "Blue Grass State," where he married Miss Ruth Brown, also a native Kentuckian. While yet a young man Mr. Hedges moved to Illinois, where his son, the subject of this sketch, was born. Later the family removed to the state of Kansas, and afterwards to Missouri. The father died in this state in 1895, his wife having passed away fifteen years previously.
The family of this couple consisted of five boys and three girls, all of whom are still living with the exception of two. James H. Hedges is the younger of these five sons. He was born in Macoupin county, Illinois, on the 20th day of May, 1860. He attended the common schools during boy-
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