USA > Missouri > Pike County > The history of Pike County, Missouri : an encyclopedia of useful information, and a compendium of actual facts > Part 21
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William Carson Modisett, station agent at Louisiana for the St. Louis, Keokuk and Northwestern Branch of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad. Mr. Modisett was born in Marion county, Missouri, near Pal- myra, May 31, 1836. When two years of age he came with his parents to
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Louisiana, where he was raised and educated. At the age of sixteen he began to learn telegraphing in the Pacific and Atlantic Telegraph Com- pany's office, and was so engaged for four months, when he was employed as night operator in the Chicago & Alton Railroad office at Louisiana for one year, when he was promoted to second clerk and day operator, and about one year after was again promoted agent's assistant, serving the company in all six years, when in August, 1879, he received the appointment of sta- tion agent at Louisiana on the St. Louis, Keokuk and Northwestern Branch of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad. He is a Master and Royal Arch Mason, and a member of Globe Lodge No. 425, and of Bond Chapter No. 23, of Louisiana. He has served his lodge three years as senior warden and four years as worshipful master, and now holds that position.
William Henry Mitchell was born near Lynchburg, Amherst county, Virginia, October 18, 1822, where he was raised a farmer and lived until October &, 1848, when he came to Louisiana city and was employed as a clerk by Robinson, Cash & Co., until the spring of 1853. He was then employed in the tobacco manufactory of Cash, Henderson, Strange & Co. until 1858, when he became associated with James Gray in the grocery business, doing business one year. In 185S he was elected and served as constable of Buffalo township until 1861, when he engaged in the livery business and dealing in horses and mules until 1864, when he went over- land to California with a stock of horses and mules. After disposing of his stock he returned to Louisiana in 1865. In 1866 he was appointed tobacco inspector for the fourth district of Missouri, and served until 1868. He then dealt in horses and innles until 1870, when he purchased a farm in the vicinity of Bowling Green, where he lived and pursued farming until 1878, when he sold his farm and became the proprietor of the Hendricks Hotel, at Bowling Green, which he kept until the summer of 1882, when he sold out and came to Louisiana and was employed as an agent for the marble works of John L. Cole. He was married August 30, 1854. They have seven children: Jennie, Lulu May, James Note, Clara Lee. Nellie Nora, Mand Myrtle, and Julia. Himself, wife, and two elder children, are mem- bers of the Christian Church, of Louisiana. He is an Odd Fellow and member of Evening Star Lodge No. 28, of Louisiana.
Hon. Nicholas Peter Minor, probate judge of Pike county, was born in Charlottsville, Virginia, August 26, 1523. He is the youngest of six sons of Samuel C. and Lydia L. (Lewis) Minor. When twelve years of age he came with his parents to Pike county, who engaged in farming. In his boyhood, our subject feeling the importance of having an education, early
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applied himself to attain that end. By private study and attending the ordinary subscription schools of that day and two sessions of a select school taught by J. B. Carr, he prepared himself for teaching. He finished his edu- cation by attending at Illinois College, at Jacksonville, Illinois, two terms. Before he was sixteen years of age he had lost both of his parents by death, and was thus early thrown upon the world to care for himself. At the age of seventeen he taught the public school at Bowling Green, after which, in the spring of 1841, he began to read law in the office of A. II. Buckner, at Bowling Green, and in the fall of 1842 was admitted to the bar in Camden county, where he practiced until 1844, when he returned to Pike county and practiced at Bowling Green and Louisiana. In 1833 he was appointed district attorney to fill a vacancy, and was afterwards elected and held that position for seven consecutive years. In 1854 he was also appointed by the county court to the office of judge of the Louisiana court of common pleas, holding it only during two terms of the court, and then resigned. In 1861 he entered the Confederate army as a private under General Price, and served during the war. Returning to Louisiana, he was debarred from the practice of law by provision of the Drake constitution. He then went to Callaway county, where that law was not enforced, and as soon as that re- striction was removed by the Supreme Court he returned to Lonisiana and engaged in the practice of the law until 1878, when he abandoned it and engaged in farming near Louisiana until the fall of 1882, when he was elected probate judge of Pike county, when he removed to Bowling Green. December 2, 1848, he married Susan H. Lewis, of Virginia, who died Oc- tober 14, 1859, by whom he had one son, Lewis, of Clarksville. He married for his second wife, Lizzie, daughter of Thomas R. Rootes, of Fredericks- burg, Virginia, June 26, 1866. They have one son, Merriwether, still at home. Himself and wife are members of the Calvary Episcopal Church, of Louisiana, of which he has been senior warden since 1858. Ile is a Mason and member of Perseverance Lodge No. 92, A. F. & A. M., of Louisiana.
James Edward Miller, M. D., was born on a farm near Milan, Sullivan county, Missouri, March 24, 1849. When he was one year old he came with his parents to Pike county, they settling on a farm near Spencersburg, where he lived with thein until he was fourteen, when he went with them to Marion county, they settling on a farin near Palmyra, where he lived with them until manhood. He left home in 1870 and went to Versailles, Illinois, where he was employed as a druggist's clerk until 1874. by his brother, when he came to Louisiana and engaged in the drug business on Main street. In 1878, while still carrying on the drug business, he began
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the study of medicine privately. In the winter of 1879-80 he took a course of lectures at the Missouri Medical College, at St. Louis, and also in the winter of 1880-S1, graduating as M. D. from that college in the spring of 1881, when he began the practice in connection with the drug business at Lonisiana. The Doctor is an energetic inan and knows no failure in what he undertakes. November 3, 1875, he was wedded to Mary F., daughter of the late Joseph T. Nelson, of Lewis county, Missouri. They have one child, Ira Hamilton, born at Louisiana, October 16, 1877. He is a member of Riverside Lodge, No. 22, A. O. U. W.
Benjamin Franklin Miller, manager of the City Flouring Mills, of Louisiana, Missouri, was born in York, Pennsylvania, September 9, 1852, where he was reared and educated. When sixteen he began to learn the trade of milling, and worked at that trade at York up to 1877, when in April of that year he came to Louisiana, Missouri, and was employed in the City Mills by Luce & Murray until 1879, when he, with George Blair and George Estes, rented the Diamond Mills, at Louisiana, for four years. He then purchased one-third interest in the Diamond Mills, and became asso- ciated with N. B. Griffith and W. A. Jordan in the firm name of Griffith, Jordan & Co. Selling out his interest in the mills October 1, 1881, he en- gaged in the grocery business until September, 1882, when he discontinued the grocery business and became manager for the City Mills. He is a member of the German Reformed Church, of York, Pennsylvania. He is a Master Mason and member of the lodge at Lonisiana.
Samuel Michael, Jr., member of the firm of Dreyfus & Michael, mer- chants, of Louisiana, was born in Kolmar, Germany, October 20, IS51. His parents emigrated to the United States in 1853, and located in Quincy, Illi- nois, where he was reared. He was educated in the public schools of Quincy up to his sixteenth year, when he began clerking in the clothing house of his uncle, M. Jacob, at Quincy, and was in his employ until he was twenty- two, in 1873, when he went to Trenton, Missouri, as manager in a store for his uncle until 1874, and from there he went to Mexico, where he remained a short time, when he came to Louisiana, and was employed as a clerk in the store of Joseph Younger until February, 1875, when he engaged in the mercantile business in a small way on Georgia street, between Main and Third. In March, 1876, Marcus Dreyfus became associated with him in the firm name of Dreyfus & Michael. They are now doing business in a block of two stories, recently erected by Mr. Dreyfus, on Georgia street, between Main and Third, and rank among the largest business firms of Pike county.
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Mr. Michael is a member of Riverside Lodge No. 285, I. O. B. B., a Hebrew society, of which he is treasurer.
Rev. John Hubert May, rector of St. Joseph's Catholic Church. of Louisiana, was born in St. Louis, Missouri, October 29, 1856, where he re- ceived his elementary education. When fourteen, in 1870, he entered St. Benedict's College, at Atchison, Kansas, attending one year, and in 1871 he went to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and entered the St. Francis' Seminary, where he finished his theological course in 1875, when he went to Rome, Italy, where he graduated from the American Catholic College as D. D. in June, 1880. In May previous to his graduation he was ordained a priest by Car- dinal Monaca La Valetta. He then made an extended tour through Italy, France, Belgium, Germany, Holland, and England, returning to America in November, 1860, where, after a visit of a few weeks with his parents at St. Lonis, he was sent to Crystal City, Missouri, by Bishop Kendrick, where he gathered a congregation composed of Germans, Irish, French, and Ital- ians, and built the church of the Sacred Heart, where he officiated as pastor nine months. When he left the church was completed and the congrega- tion out of debt. He was then sent to a new field-Bloomsdale, St. Gene- vieve county, Missouri-where he officiated six months, when, in the fall of 1882, his bishop sent him to Louisiana, Missouri, and placed him in charge of St. Joseph's Church, and is most probably permanently located.
John W. Martin, clerk of the Louisiana court of common pleas, is a native of Virginia, and is the son of James M. and Mary S. (Edwards) Mar- tin. He was born near Louisa Court House, Louisa county, "July 6, 1834. His parents came to Missouri, when he was three years old, and lo- cated on a farm in Pike county near Louisiana where he lived with them until 1847, when his father, being elected clerk of the circuit court and re- corder of Pike county, removed to Bowling Green, the county seat, where he lived with them until attaining his majority. When he was fifteen, in 1849, he become his father's assistant in the clerk's office, filling that posi- tion under him until 1861, when he, being a Union man, became a member of Company G., Forty-seventh Regiment Missouri State Militia. and was elected captain of his company and commissioned as such by Governor Thomas C. Fletcher, and served until the regiment was disbanded in 1863, when he again became his father's assistant in the clerk's office and was under him until 1866. In 1877 he was employed as a clerk in the store of Woods & Hostetter at Louisiana, and was with them until 1870, when he returned to Bowling Green, and in the fall of that year he went to; Frank- ford and engaged in the grocery business until the fall of 1872, when having
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closed out that business, he was employed to clerk in the store of Lowe & Wood at Louisiana until the spring of 1873, when he was employed in the store of Lesem & Bro., and while with them in November of that year he was elected clerk of the court of common pleas of Louisiana. assuming the duties of that office, January 1, 1874, and has been re-elected and is still the incumbent of that office. September 29, 1857, he married Eva M., dangh- ter of Dr. W. W. Wise, of Pike county. They have two children, Homer W., of Chicago, Illinois, and Mary E., wife of J. D. Purse of Louisiana, Missouri. IIe is a member of River Side Lodge No. 22, A. O. U. W., of Louisiana.
Asbury Caldwell Marsh, proprietor of the Hotel Marsh and an insur- ance agent of Louisiana, was born in Springvale, York county, Maine, Sep- tember 22, 1834, where he lived with his parents until he was sixteen years old, when he went to Boston, Massachusetts, and was employed as a hotel clerk a few months, when he returned home and remained a year, when he again went to Boston and engaged in clerking in a hotel for several months, when he came west, prospecting through Illinois, and arriving in St. Louis, Missouri, in the fall of 1852, where he remained two months, when he went to Lincoln county and remained until the following spring, when he re- turned to Maine. In 1855 he again came to Missouri and was employed as a clerk at Cap An Gris, Lincoln county, until 1858, when he went to Troy, Missouri, and engaged in the mercantile business with B. Crump, as Cramp & Marsh, until 1862, when he retired from the firm and became major of the Second Provisional Regiment of Missouri. He served as such for seven months, when he received the appointment of provost marshal for the fourth subdistrict of Missouri, with headquarters at Troy, Missouri, and served until the close of the war in 1865. He remained at Troy and was engaged in teaching and in the insurance business until 1874, when he came to Lonisiana and followed the same avocation. From 1879 to 1881, he was employed in the abstract office of A. C. Sheldon, in connection with his insurance business. In 1881 he opened the Hotel Marsh, which he still keeps. January 18, 1857, he married Mary E. Gore of Troy, Missouri. They have five children: Nellie, wife of William H. Barnum, of Louisiana, Missouri; Flora, Gertrude, Emma S., and Claude Winthrop. He is a member of the Seventh Street M. E Church of Louisiana. He is a leading Good Templar and member of Louisiana Lodge No. 278, and is a P. W. C. T. He is also a member of James Wilson Post No. 20, G. A. R., of which he is adjutant.
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James Thornton Matson, M. D., is a native of Missouri. He was born near Frankford, Pike county, December 1, 1821. He is the sixth of ten sons of Enoch and Jane (Shobe) Matson. He was raised at his birth- place. aud educated in the common schools. In 1847 he began to study medieine in the office of Dr. John C. Webber at Frankford, and was under his preceptorship until the spring of 1849, when, after taking two courses, he graduated as M. D. from the Missouri State Medical College, St. Louis HIe then practiced one year at Frankford, when he went to Maeon county, and practiced in the country near Bloomington one year, when he went to Saverton, Ralls county, where he practiced nutil 1864, when he abandoned the practice of medicine and went to St. Louis and engaged in feeding and dealing in stock at the Broadway Stock Yards until 1869, when he returned to Pike county and engaged in farming bear Louisiana on an extensive farm which his wife inherited from her father. In 1861 he was a member of the Missouri Provisional Convention, and represented Marion, Ralls, and Mon- roe counties. In May, 1849, he married Elizabeth V. Donnelly, daughter of Peter Donnelly, of Tennessee. They have four children: Fanny, wife of R. J. Hawkins, cashier of the Exchange Bank of Louisiana; John W., attorney at law, Louisiana; and Eliza J. and Leonora, at home.
George Marzolf, of the firm of Seibert & Co., cigar manufacturers, is a native of Elsass, Germany, and was born September 24, 1812. He lived with his parents until his seventeenth year, when he came to the United States. He located at York, York county, Pennsylvania, where he served three years as a carpenter's apprentice, and worked four years after the ex- piration of his apprenticeship, up to 1837, when he came to Missouri and located at St. Charles until February 8, 1838, when he came to Pike county and settled on a farm five miles west of Bowling Green, where, he pursued farming and working at the carpenter's trade up to 1861, when he came to Louisiana and engaged in the grocery business with John Seibert, in the firm name of Seibert & Marzolf. In 1846 they closed out the grocery busi- ness and became associated with Aaron Martin, and engaged in the mann- facture of plug tobacco as Marzolf, Martin & Seibert. In 1867 Mr. Martin retired from the firm, changing the name to Marzolf & Seibert. In 1879 they discontinued the manufacture of plug tobacco and began that of cigars, changing the name of the firm to John Seibert & Co. During 1866 and 1867 Mr. Marzolf was elected and served as councilman in Louisiana city. He has been twice married. His first wife was Mary E. Renner, of York, Pennsylvania. whom he married February 15, 1835, and who died at Lou- isiana, Missouri, April 30, 1877, by whom he had nine children, six sons
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and three daughters. He married for his second wife, Mrs. Mary A. Young, of Louisiana, September 24, 1578. Himself and wife are members of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church of Louisiana, Missouri.
William Campbell Orr. William Orr, the great-grandfather of W. C. Orr, was of Irish birth, and came to America about the middle of the seventeenth century and settled in the state of Pennsylvania and there mar- ried Miss Mary Gill, also of Irish origin. By this marriage there were three sons: Robert, who settled in Illinois; Thomas, who settled in Ten- nessee; and James, who was born in 1735. and in early manhood moved to Caswell county. North Carolina. In January 29, 1779, he married Miss Agnes Walker, of Scotch descent. He was a soldier in the Revolutionary War, and at his death was presiding justice of the county court of his county. He had eleven children, seven sons and four daughters. Isaac Orr, the eighth child and sixth son emigrated from North Carolina in the year 181S and arrived in Pike county, Missouri, in the fall of 1819. In 1826 he was married to Miss Joann Campbell, daughter of Wm. Campbell. The Campbell family was of Scotch descent and immigrated to America in the latter part of the sixteenth century. William Campbell was born in North Carolina in 1770. Ile afterwards removed to Tennessee, and later to Kentucky, and finally to Missouri. In 1818 he settled in Pike county near Bowling Green, where he died in 1846, and was buried at Antioch. W. C. Orr, the oldest child of Isaac Orr and Joann Campbell, was born on the fifth day of February, 1827. on the old home place, on which was afterwards located the Antioch church, said to be the oldest C. P. church organization in the state. He remained on the farm till 1849, when in company with the gold seekers, he made the overland trip to California. He returned in 1832, and in 1853 was married to Miss Eliza Jane Jordan, the daughter of Robert Jordan and Isiphine Allison, and granddaughter of Capt. Robert Jordan, who moved from South Carolina to Pike county in 1809, and who was shot by a band of hostile Indians between his farm and the Buffalo fort on the 30th of March, 1813. W. C. Orr made a second trip to California in 1854, taking a large herd of cattle, and returned to Missouri in 1856 and settled in Louisiana, April 27, 1857. Ilere he engaged in mercantile busi- ness under the firmn name of A. J. Dismakes & Co., and continued in business until 1861, when, the firm being unsuccessful, the partnership was dissolved and the business closed ont. Since then he has followed with varying success contracting on public works. During the late civil war, his judgment and sympathies were with the government. Under the pro- visional government of the state he was appointed by acting Governor Wil-
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Jard P. Hall, county justice for Pike county on January 29, 1862. He was elected to the same office in November of that year and commissioned by Gov. H. R. Gamble, December 10, 1862, for six years. By the adoption of the new constitution in 1864 he was removed, but was reappointed and com- missioned by Gov. T. C. Fletcher, April 4, 1865, and held his office until his successor was elected. He also held the office of mayor of the city of Louisiana from March, 1864, to March, 1868; and was director and vice- president in the Lonisiana & M. R. R. from the organization of the com- pany until the road-bed was completed through Pike and Andrain coanties to Mexico, Missouri. Then he withdrew to make room in the board for representatives from the more western counties. He was more or less con- nected with all of the public roads and railroads projected in the interest of Louisiana. His family consists of five children: Joann C., Emma I., Isaac 11., James. M., and Charley J. He has for a number of years been connected with the C. P. Church. His political belief's and convictions are for a strong government and one that will give perfect protection to individuals and equal protection to all classes of property.
Alexander Ovens, merchant tailor, was born in Berkshire, Scotland, August 17, 1853, where he was raised and educated. When thirteen years old he was apprenticed to learn the tailor's trade, and served three years, when he began to work at the trade as a journeyman tailor, and worked in New Castle, England, and Edinburgh, Scotland, until 1872, when he came to America. He first stopped in London, Canada, and worked at his trade a short time, and then came to Chicago, Illinois, and after working there and at St. Lonis, Clarksville, and Frankford, Missouri, up to 1877, he came to Lonisiana and established his present business. He is doing an exten- sive business, employing several hands constantly. July 95, 1878, he mar- ried Ella M. Kincaid, of Frankford, Pike county, Missouri. IIe is a Master Mason and member of Perseverance Lodge No. 92, A. F. & A. M., of Lou- isiana, of which he is secretary.
John William Paliner, of the firm of McCune, Palmer & Knight, man- ufacturers of plug tobacco, was born near Shelbyville, Shelby county, Ken- tncky, January 1, 1539. When he was two years of age his parents re- moved to Bowling Green, Kentucky, and from there to Missouri when he was sixteen, where they settled on a farin in Lincolu county, near Ellsbury, where he lived with them until manhood. In 1861 he began to work at the carpenter's trade, following it a short time, when he settled on a farin near Ellsbury, where, with farming, he engaged in saw-milling, and run a thresh- ing machine up to 1877, when he came to Pike county, and first settled on 45
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a farm near Prairieville and farmed one year, when he came to Louisiana and become a member of the tobacco manufacturing company of MeCune, Palmer & Knight, and is also its general manager. He has been three times married. His first wife was Mildred A. Harvey, of Lincoln county, Missouri, whom he married January 25, 1864, who died August 17. 1866, by whom he has one child, Virginia L. His second wife was Alice M. Edwards, of Pike county, Missouri, whom he married December 16, 1874, who died February 18, 1576, by whom he had one child, Nonie A. He married for his third wife, Mrs. Margaret R. Woodson, of Pike county, Missouri, May 15, 1878. They have two children, twins, Joseph and Eliza- beth. He is a member of the First Baptist Church, of Louisiana. Ile is a member of Unison Lodge No. 1875, K. of H., of Louisiana.
William Orr Parks, dealer in sewing machines, was born in Livonia, Livingston county, N. Y., February 28, 1820. When he was twelve years old he went with his parents to Euclid, New York, where his mother died, in 1837, and in 1838 he came with his father to Louisiana, Missouri, where, in 1840, he engaged in the tanning business, with a brother, about one year, when he engaged in plastering, having learned that trade of his father, who was a plasterer by trade. He followed plastering in Louisiana until the fall of 1854, when, becoming associated with A. Sladek, he established the first bakery in Louisiana. Mr. Sladek retired from the business in 1859. In 1869 he introduced dealing in sewing machines with his bakery, and con- tinned so until 1870, when he discontinued baking and continued in dealing in sewing machines and keeping the Parks Hotel. During the late war he was a Union man, and served in the M. S. M. as baker, on detached ser- vices. Ile is a Master, Royal Arch, and Knight Templar Mason, and be- long's to the lodge, chapter, and commandery at Louisiana. He bas been worshipful master of his lodge ten years, and high priest of his chapter twelve years. December 3, 1843, he married Eliza A. Robinson, of Louisi- ana, Missouri, by whom he has five children: Edgar, in business in Louis- iana, Missouri; Julia C., relict of the late Nicholas W. Parks; William S., late of Louisiana; Mollie A., wife of J. N. IIazelbaker, passenger conductor on the C. & A. R. R .; and William Wort.
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