Shelby County, Missouri - Biographical sketches, 1911 (part 2 of 16)

Mr. Miles was born in ]\Ionroe county, this state, on April 19, 186J-, and is a son of "William F. and Nancy W. (Jackson) Miles, natives of Kentucky. The father passed many years of his life in his native state, coming to Missouri in 1849 with a colony of Kentuckiaus, who located near Paris, in the adjoining county of Monroe. There the father reared his family and passed his time in farming and raising live stock until 1866, when he sold the farm and moved to Shelbina, retiring from all active pursuits. He was married to Miss Nancy W. Jackson, a Kentuckian by birth and belonging to families long resident in that state. Mr. and Mrs. Miles became the parents of six children, three of whom are living - R. E., a resident of Santa Ana, California; Susie, the wife of N. H. Langford, of Hannibal, Missouri ; and John S., who still lives at Shelbina. The father is an ardent Democrat in political allegiance and adheres to the principles of his party with steadfast loyalty, giving it active and effective aid in all its campaig-ns. His church relations are with the Baptists.

John S. Miles obtained his education in the public schools of Shelbina. and having a decided turn toward merchandising, left school early to follow the path in life which nature and his owa predilection seeyied to have marked out for him. He began his mercantile career as a clerk and salesman in a hardware store, to which he rendered faithful service for three years, iisiug all his opportunities and facilities in learning the business in detail and the ins and outs of mercantile life in general. He then clerked in the clothing establishment of Thompson & Miles until 1892, all the while expanding his knowledge of business, his acquaintance with men and his general intelligence concerning mercantile pursuits.

In 1892 he formed a partnership with his older brother under the firm name of R. E. Miles & Bro., and during the next sixteen years they were extensively engaged in the clothing trade with great benefit to the community and considerable profit to themselves. In 1908 the store and business was sold to W. H. Hanly, and Mr. Miles formed a new association in the same line of trade with T. F. Bates, with whom he is still connected and carrying on a vigorous and flourishing business, the firm being known as Miles & Bates.

Mr. Miles is a man of substance and connected with a number of business enterprises in the city and surrounding country, among them being the Old Bank of Shelbina, of which he is one of the stockliolders. His political faith is fixed on the principles of the Democratic jiarty, whose campaigns always enlist his attention and bring forth his active efforts for success, although he has no ambition for official station or public life for himself. Fraternally he is a Knight of Pythias, and in religion he and his wife belong to the Baptist church. He is a zealous worker for both his fraternal order and his cluirch, and both enjoy the lienefit of his helpful zeal and energy. On October 19, 1892, he was married to

John T. Bailey

Almost from his boyhood John T. Bailey, of Shelbina, who is one of the leading business men of the city, has been contributing to the enjoyment of the people among whom he has lived, long as a teacher of vocal music and for nearly a quarter of a century as a dealer in musical instruments. All living in his range who find pleasure in the "concord of sweet sounds ' ' have been indebted to him for many a soothing or a stirring entertainment and have ever been willing to acknowledge the obligation. He is now conducting also a flourishing business in undertaking and embalming, in which he has been interested since 1892.

Mr. Bailey was born in Monroe county, in this state, on Se^jtember 25, 1851, and is a son of Tilmon 0. and Sarah A. (Stalcujo) Bailey, the former born in Harrison county, Kentucky, and the latter in Virginia. The father's life began on October 29, 1822, and the first twenty-one years of it were passed in his native state, where he obtained his education and fitted himself for the active duties of progressive farming, which was his occupation until he retired from all active pursuits in 1904. He left the home of his childhood and youth as soon as he reached his majority and strode with confident step into the wilderness of the farther AVest with a view to making a home and a name for himself, daring the dangers and privations of the frontier with resolute courage and depending on his own endeavors with manly self reliance. He took up a tract of land in Monroe county which was in a state of almost primeval wildness and converted it into a well-improved and highly cultivated farm. On this he lived, engaged in farming and raising live stock until he determined to heed the admonitions of advancing years and jiass the evening of his long and toilsome day of earthly existence in quiet and ease. In 1904 he moved to Slielbina, where he has ever since resided.

This venerable citizen of the progressive community which he has known so long and helped so materially to build up and improve, is one of the patriarchs of the town. Not only is he far advanced in years, but he is also the father of a numerous family. He has been married twice, the first time in 1848, when he was united with Miss Mary Sherman, a native of Missouri. They had one child, their daughter ]\lary, who is now the wife of John AV. Chambers, of Clarence, in this county. His second marriage was with Miss Sarah A. Stalcup, who was born in Virginia and reared in Monroe county, Missouri. Tliey became the parents of thirteen children, seven of whom are living and are : John T., the subject of this sketch; Elijah M., Tilmon A. and AA^illiam B., all residents of Shelbiua; Isaac N., who lives at Moberly, this state ; and Ernest T., who is a prominent citizen of Shannon county, Missouri. The father still takes an active part in political affairs and still follows the banner of the Democratic party, behind which he has marclieil from his youth. He is a member of the IMasonic order and of the

John T. Bailey was reared to manhood on his father's farm in Monroe county and obtained his education in the district schools of the neighborhood. For ten years after leaving school he found continual and profitable occupation as a teacher of vocal music and made a reputation for skill and capacity in the art which spread throughout his own and adjoining counties. In 1886 he located in Shelbina and started a mercantile enterprise in the sale of pianos, organs and other musical instruments and musical supplies. He took his brother William into the business as a partner in 1891, and during the next seventeen years the firm of Bailey Bros, flourished as the leader in the musical implement and supply trade in this part of the state.

On June 19, 1908, Mr. Bailey bought the interest of his brother AVilliam in the business and took as a new partner his son, Roy L. Bailey, changing the firm name to J. T. Bailey & Son, under which two generations of the family are still doing an extensive and popular business. Since 1892 the house has also been carrying on extensively in the undertaking and embalming line, the father having received his certificate as a well qualified and licensed embalmer on October 16, 1895.

Mr. Bailey's political faith is that of his father and the greater part of the men living around him. He has never wavered in his loyalty to the Democratic cause, and has for many years given it faithful and effective service in all its camiKiigns. He has also long been an active and zealous member of the South- ern Methodist eliurcli, contributing liberally to its advancement by energetic partiei])atiou in church work and with material aid for all its undertakings. He is influential in both business and church circles and he and his family are among the leading lights in the social world of the community, throughout all of which they are lughly esteemed and everywhere warmly welcomed on all occasions. On June 20, 1880, Mr. Bailey was imited in marriage with Miss Eliza J. Baker, of Madison, Missouri. Of their four children three are living and all dwelling at the jjarental fireside. They are Mary Belle, Nannie Bess and Roy L. The social disposition of the parents and the presence of the children, who have inherited the same spirit, in the home make it a social center and a very popular and hospitable resort for persons of all ages acquainted with the members of the household, and that includes almost everybody in the county and hosts from elsewhere.

Newton E. Williams

Lawyer, editor, public official and man of affairs and winning high commendation in all lines of activity in which he has been engaged, Newton E. Williams, of Shelbina, is one of the most successful and popular men in Shelby county. He is almost wholly the product of his own aliilities and energies, and he has made the most of his opportunities for advancement in life. But he has not lived for himself alone. During all of his mature life he has been deeply and intelligently interested in the welfare of the town and county of his home and has done all in his power to promote it.

Mr. Williams was born in Adair county, Missouri, on October 10, 1869, and is a son of Gamaliel and Mary E. (Morgan) Williams, the fo]-mer a native of Indiana, where he was born on May 18, 1838, and the latter a native of Kentucky, but at the time of her marriage a resident of Adair coimty, Missouri. They had six children and five of them are living - Lucy E., the wife of J. E. Bowers, who has her home in Colby, Kansas; Mary E., the wife of H. F. Davis, who is also a resident of Colby, Kansas; Alice, the wife of J. D. Bean, of Grand Junction, Colorado; Newton E., of Shelbina; and Martha, the wife of Dr. M. W. Bailey, of Denver, Colorado.

The father came to Missouri in 1852, when he was fourteen years old, and found a home in Adair county, where he grew to manhood and completed his education. After leaving school he engaged in farming and raising live stock, continuing his operations with success and profit until 1904, when he retired from active pursuits and removed to Shelbina, and here he has ever since had his home. His marriage occurred in 1858. In politics he is and always has been a Democrat. Fraternally he has long been affiliated with the Masonic order, and in religious association he is connected with the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.

Newton E. Williams began his education in the district schools of Adair county, continued it at a select school at Brashear, in that county, and completed it at the Kirksville State Normal school. He studied law in Kirskville under the direction of M. D. Campbell and Hon. Isaac Morgan, probate judge of Adair county, and served as probate clerk for one year after his admission to the bar in October, 1893. At the end of his service as a clerk of probate he began practicing his profession at Kirskville, where he remained nntil July, 1897. He then moved to Shelbina and formed a partnership with R. A. Cleek, with whom he continued to practice until 1902, the firm being Cleek & AVilliams. The partnership was dissolved in the year last mentioned and Mr. Williams practiced alone and edited the Shelbina Torchlight, which he and Mr. Cleek bought in 1900. -

In 1904 Mr. Williams was elected prosecuting attorney of Shelby county, and at the end of his first term was re-elected for another. This ended on January 1, 1909. At the time of his first election he sold his interest in the newspaper and devoted himself wholly to his official duties until they were ended. He then bought the Shelbina Torchlight and has since been its sole owner and publisher. He is also a stockholder in the Shelbina National Bank and connected with other enterprises of moment and value to the community, in wliich he has always felt the deepest interest, and to which he has rendered effective and valued service in hel]iing to promote every undertaking for its advancement which he has deemed of worth.

On August 29, 1895, Mr. Williams was united in marriage with Miss Rosa N. Deaton, a daughter of M. G. Deaton, of Kirskville. They have one child, their son Meredith, who is living at home with his ]iarents. The father's political allegiance is given warmly and consistently to the Democratic party, and he has always been very active and effective in its service, his work in its behalf being based on broad intelligence, good judgment and devoted loyalty to its principles. His fraternal relations are with the Masonic order, the Order of the Eastern Star, the Court of Honor and the Modern AVoodmen of America, and his religious connection is with the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. He has been very successful and is one of the leading and most influential citizens of the county, universally esteemed for his elevated manhood and his worth and usefulness as a force for good in the community of his home.

Joseph R. Ridge

For fifty-seven years this now venerable citizen of Shelbina has been a resident of Missouri and during all but two of them has dwelt in Shelby county. For more than half a century he was actively engaged in farming and raising live stock, first on the farm of his father as a boy and later on one of his own as a man. During his long activity in cultivating the soil he contributed extensively and notably to the development and improvement of the county and the aggregate of its wealth and influence. For he has always shown estimable public spirit and enterprise and given breadth of view and vitalizing force to worthy projects for the welfare of the section and the advantage of its people.

Mr. Ridge was born on January 31, 1838, in Hickman county, Kentucky, the state of which his parents were natives and in which his ancestors lived for at least two generations before him, his paternal grandfather, Isaac Ridge, having been born and passed his life in that state. He is a son of AVilliam and Anna (Robey) Eidge, both products of the blue grass soil, on which the father's life began on July 7, 181-1:. They were reared on farms and never sought any other occupation in life but that to which they were accustomed from childhood. In 1852 they adventured into the wilderness beyond the ^lississippi from their home, planting their hearthstone on the frontier and giving their children the benefit of its sturdy and invigorating lessons in endurance and self reliance. The iirst two years of their residence in this state were passed on a farm in Monroe county. The family then moved into Shelby county and this has ever since been its home.

The marriage of the parents occurred in Kentucky. They became the progenitors of six children, of whom three are living - Joseph E., the subject of this review; Martha E., the wife of Lewis Hale, of Shelbina; and William M., one of the prominent and influential citizens of this county. The father retired from the activities of life in 1875 and moved to Shelbina, where he died in 1877. He adhered to the Democratic party in all political affairs, and was to the end of his life vigorous and resourceful in the service of his party, although he never sought or accepted a public office. In religion he was a devout and consistent Catholic.

Joseph E. Eidge grew to manhood on his father's farm and was well schooled in farm work by energetic partici]iation in it from his boyhood. He obtained his education in the district schools near his home, which were fair samples for their day and location of the many temples of

Cadmus that stud the surface of our democratic empire, where liberty receives her purest worship, and where, though in humble and lowly guise, she secretly breathes her strength into the heart and sinews of the nation. When he left school he turned his attention to what was then the leading pursuit of the county, agriculture, and from that time until 1903 he gave his whole energy and time to farming and raising live stock. He was a good manager and an excellent farmer, and his farming operations brought him large returns for the period, so that when he retired he was in the enjoyment of a competence which he had gained by his own industry, frugality and skill. In the year last named he sold his farm and took up his residence in Shelbina, of which he is now one of the most substantial and respected citizens. He has ever shown a good citizen's interest in the public affairs of the country and general welfare of the community of his home. Believing firmly in a government by the people, he was a staunch and zealous Democrat until the formation of the Populist party, and since then he has been devoted to its principles and effective in supporting them and its candidates. On November 22, 1858, he was married to Miss Nancy Ann Hale, a native of Tennessee, and, like himself, an adventurer into the wilderness of this state, as it was when they came into it. Of their eight children five are living - William L., of Shelbyville; ]\Iinnie, the wife of John Boettcher, of this county; Annie, the wife of Hugh Sparks, of Shelbina; Joseph E., who lives in Illinois; and Allie, the wife of Theodore Bethards, of Shelbina.

Having- reached the age of three score and ten, Mr. Ridge might look upon himself as an old man and consider that his day is past. But his health, energy and clearness of faculty all forbid this view to all who know him and share the benefits of his wisdom, feel the force of his influence or yield to the stimulus of his worthy example. They know that the fire within him is not spent and the fruitfulness of his exemplary life is not over. And the esteem which all who know him bestow upon him as his due and the just tribute to his merit, shows that his years have been well passed in usefulness and the results of his labors are highly appreciated.

Shelbixa National Bank

With a capital stock of $30,000 and a wise and farseeing directorate and official staff, the Shelbina National Bank well sustains itself as one of the soundest, safest and best managed financial institutions in this portion of the state. It was founded in 1905 as the Farmers & Merchants Bank and became a national bank in 1908. The founders of the Farmers & Merchants Bank were : President, John Munch; vice-president, W. L. Shouse; cashier, E. J. King; directors, John Munch, George W. 0 'Bryan, James F. AUgaier, Thomas J. Rice, N. E. TVilliams, George Roff, AV. S. Fox, H. AL Pollard and Weldon Cotton. George W. O 'Bryan followed Mr. Munch as president, and T. A. Bailey succeeded E. J. King as cashier.

In January, 1907, J. H. Wood and W. H. Jones ]nirchased an interest in the bank and the next vear it was reorganized under its present name and with the following officers: President, J. H. Wood; vice-president, J. E. Ragsdale; cashier, W. H. Jones; directors, the above named ofiBcers and George W. 0 'Bryan, George Roff, E. W. AVorlaud, 0. F. Howell, G. G. Sanders and T. F. Bates. In March, 1910, Mr. W. H. Jones resigned as cashier and Oliver J. Lloyd was chosen to succeed him.

Hiram Collins

This veritable "Patriarch in Israel" among the people of Shelby county is not only one of the oldest and most esteemed citizens of this part of the state, but has been one of the most sturdy and industrious and one of those most truly representative of the founders and builders of the commonwealth, who laid the foundations of its greatness and planted in its soil the early seeds of civilization, which they and their successors have cultivated and developed into the magnitude, wealth and influence of the present day, when Missouri is an empire fragrant and fruitful in all the products of twentieth century life.

Mr. Collins was born in Monroe county, Missouri, on January 31. 1828, and is a son of James and Sarah (Oglesby) Collins, the father a Kentuckian by birth and rearing, and the mother a native of Illinois. They became residents of Missouri in 1836, making their home in Monroe county, where they engaged profitably in farming and raising live stock until the death of the father in 1853. He was always a Democrat in politics, a zealous promoter of the welfare of his commimity, an exemplar of sterling and pro- gressive citizenship aud a mau of great industry and frugality iu bis own affairs. Of liis two wives the one whose maiden name was Sarah Oglesby was the mother of his son Hiram aud seven other children, of whom but two are living - Jackson, of Boonville, iu this state, aud Marion, a resident of Eaudolph county.

Hiram Collins grew to manhood on his father's farm in Monroe county and received his education in the district school near his home. When he reached the age of twenty-two he was roused to adventurous action by the alluring voices from the California gold mines and made his way to that then most promising region, which seemed to olTer all the wealth and wonders of the Arabian tales to men of endurance and enterprise. He remained on the Pacific slope five years, passing a part of his time in the mines and a part in mercantile life as a grocer, being located on the American river, near Sacramento. "What his adventures were, what measure of success he attained to, what hardships and privations he endured and what hopes and prospects he finally abandoned, need not be recited liere. It is enough to say that Missouri looked better to him than California, and that even prosaic life and slow accretions of fortune on one of her farms were more to his liking than the dramatic or romantic experiences or the wild dreams of affluence in what was at that time the Eldorado of the world.

In 1855 he returned to this state and located in Shelby county, where he has ever since made his home. He once more tuined his attention to farming and raising stock, continuing his efforts in these uneventful ]nirsuits until 1S94, when he gave up active exertions and entered upon a restful and undisturbed residence in Shelbina. He kept his farm for a number of years, however, and superintended its operations until 1908, when he sold it. For many years he has been a zealous member of the Christian church and a helpful factor in all its good work for the betterment of the people in and around it. His political activity has always been expended in behalf of the principles and candidates of the Democratic party, to which he has been earnestly devoted from his youth. On April 3, 1856, he was married to Miss Mary Gose, of Monroe county. They have had eight children, five of whom are living - Bettie, wife of C. W. Adams, of Clarence; Laura, wife of Calvin Garrison, of Shelbina ; James, a resident of Choteau county, Montana ; George, who lives in Jamestown, California; and Frank, who is one of the leading citizens of Sherburn, Minnesota. Mrs. Collins died in the fall of 1897.

Hon. Rice G. Maupin

This eminent citizen of Shelby county and successful farmer and stock breeder, who is also one of the leading professional men of Shelbina, is an ornament to the state of Missouri and a thoroughly representative man among her people. He has dig-nified and adorned several lines of serviceable endeavor, performing the duties of each in a manner highly creditable to himself and satisfactory to those ai'ound him, bearing himself in every walk of life in such a way as to win and hold the confidence and esteem of all who know him. He is a brother of William A. IMaupin, a sketch of whom will be found in this work. In that sketch the history of the parents is given at some length, and from the recital an idea can be had of the atmosphere of the home in which Judge Maupin was reared and the lessons and examples given him at his parental fireside.

Judge Maupin was reared on a farm and educated in the district schools of Monroe county, the circumstances of his early life affording no opportunity for farther jarogress into the domain of scholastic acquirements save what was furnished by his own reading and reflection. But he made good use of the means he had in this direction and cjualified himself well for the honorable career he has wrought out for himself. When he left school he was willing to freely dispense to others the stores of learning he had gathered, and did so as a school teacher for. a period of nineteen years, two of which he devoted to schools in Shelbina. In the spring of 1897 he was elected commissioner of the schools of Shelby county, and the next year was chosen probate judge of the county, an honorable and responsible post, in which he is still giving the jjeople excellent service.

While he was connected with the school system as teacher and commissioner he studied law as a matter of mental discipline and source of information, but not as yet with any view to ]iracticing the profession. But in 1900 he determined to become a lawyer in fact and began to devote himself to the study with seriousness and close a])])lication. He was admitted to the bar in April, 190.'], and since that time he has been actively engaged . in the practice of the profession with a steadily increasing clientage and elevation in rank as a practitioner, conducting his professional work in connection with his oflBcial duties and enlarging thereby his capacity for them. He also served as a member of the school board three years.

As a means of relaxation from more serious and onerous work and as a source of entertainment and profit to himself, he has always been interested in farming and breeding stock, and is at this time (1911) giving considerable attention to liroducing a superior strain of registered saddle horses. It is manifest that his contributions to the development and improvement of the county and state have been and are still extensive, and that his usefulness is well worthy of the high apjireciation in whicli it is held. In other lines of endeavor besides those already mentioned he has done his part for the advancement and enjojTnent of his fellow men. In fraternal life he has long lield membership in several benevolent societies and devoted a liberal share of his time and energy to their advancement. He is a Knight of Pythias, a Knight of the Maccabess, a Modern Woodman of America and a member of the Court of Honor. His religious connection is with the Southern Methodist church and his political activity has always been devoted to the success and welfare of the Democratic party. In the work of both _church and party he is zealous and energetic, and is recognized as an important factor, showing wisdom in council and great industry and resourcefulness in action, his primary consideration being the welfare of the cause to which he is attached, his own advance- ment being a matter of secondary or incidental iuii)ortan('e. It is this patriotic devotion to the general weal that has given him so firm a hold on the regard of the people and rendered Ms services to them so vahial)]e and satisfactory.

On December 26, 1880, Judge Maupin was married to Miss Emma Chapman, of Monroe county, who is still the light and life of his pleasant home and the center of attraction for their hosts of admiring friends and appreciative acquaintances. Of the nine children which have brightened and sanctified their domestic shrine eight are living, one having died in infancy. Those living are: Elizabeth W., the wife of D. S. Buckman, of Chillicothe, Illinois; Minnie Lee, the wife of Arthur Lundin, of Orion, Illinois ; Charles Byron and Paul Anderson, residents of Shelbina ; and Anna Matt, Emma Ricie, Temple Graves and Bob N., who are still under the parental rooftree.

Judge jMaupin has been very successful in all his business undertakings and entirely faithful in the performance of his official duties in every post of public resiwnsibility he has held. He ranks high in his professon and is elevated and high-toned in his citizenship. He is devoted to the welfare of the commujiity in which he lives and interested earnestly and practically in the good of its people. His admirable qualities of head and heart, his wide fund of information and mastery and geniality in the use of it and his unvarying grace and gentility of manner, whether as advisor or companion, have united to make him one of the most popular men in the county and give him a well deserved eminence in the state.

Thomas L. Puckett

Connected with the mercantile and other business interests of Shelbina from the time when he was twenty-one years of age and before that for two years with those of Pilot Grove, in Cooper county, Thomas L. Puckett has passed the whole of his mature life in usefulness to the people of this state, and by the manliness of his course, the loftiness of his character, the inflexibility of his integrity and his devotion to the welfare of the community in which he lives, has risen to a position of prominence and universal popularity among them. He has been successful in his operations, accumulating a competence for his family and by this means enlarging his own power for good to the town and county and extending its use in the service of the people as rapidly as it increased.

Mr. Puckett was born on September 7, 1864, in Hardeman county, Tennessee, and is a scion of old North Carolina families who dwelt in the Old North State from an early period in American history. His grandfather, Leonard A. Puckett, was a native of that state, but left it while he was yet a young man for what was then the wildei'ness of Southwestern Tennessee. There he located and passed the remainder of his life jirofitably engaged in farming and rearing his family with the best surroundings and opportunities in life he was able to give it under the circumstances. His son, Thomas A. Puckett, was born in that section, his life beginning in Hardeman county on June 4, 1833. He grew to manhood on the farm, aiding zealously in its arduous labors and hel])ing to make it over from an unbroken wild into a cultivated and well improved farm. But profitable and independent as lie found the farmer's industry in that time and locality, he had a taste and found within him eajjacity for a career of a different kind. He studied medicine, received the degree of M. D. from a medical college, and during all the peaceful years of his subsecjuent life devoted himself faithfully to his practice in the region of his nativity. He had been reared in loyalty to the doctrine of state sovereignty, and when he felt that it was assailed by the trend of national politics, in common with most other Southern people, he thought it his duty to resist what he considered dangerous encroachments on the fundamental principles of the government. Accordingly, at the beginning of the Civil war he enlisted in the Confederate army and during the continuance of that memorable struggle freely offered his life on the altar of his faith.

On June 19, 1860, he was united in marriage with Miss Susan Victoria Ford, who was born in Anderson county, Kentuclvj', in 1849. She shared his struggles and did her part toward winning his success. And when he felt impelled by his sense of duty to join the army, she did not resist his purpose, but rather fortified his convictions and helped him buckle on his armor. She was a woman of strong determination and purpose. After being left a widow she moved to Shelbina and taught in public schools of Shelbina for fourteen years. Of their offspring, which numbered five, namely: Jeremiah D., Thomas L., Charles F., Basil D., Mary A., their son Thomas, the immediate subject of this memoir, is the only one now living and the only sui*- vivor of his family. The father died at his Tennessee home on April 17, 1872. The mother and the four last named children then moved to Shelbina, where she died on April 26, 1892. She was a true and devoted Christian of the Baptist church, of which she had been a member for many years. Basil D. and Mary A. died soon after moving to Shelbina ; Jeremiah D. died in Tennessee; Charles F. grew to manhood in Shelbina.

Thomas L. Puckett obtained his early scholastic training in the public schools of Shelbina and completed the education begun in them at the Shelbina Collegiate Institute and the college at Pilot Grove, in Cooper county. After completing the course at Pilot Grove he passed a year in attendance at the St. Louis College of Pharmacy, and in 1882 began his mercantile career as a clerk in a drug store at Pilot Grove. Some time later he bought the business of his employer, W. F. AVliite, and during the next two years he conducted it himself. At the end of that period he sold it and returned to Shelbina, where for three years he was one of the proprietors of a flourishing grocery. In time he sold his interest in this establishment and in 1894 began operating in real estate, loans and insurance in company with Charles B. Martin, under the name and style of Puckett & Martin. The fiiTn is still in business and carrying on extensively. It is recogTiized as one of the leading ones in the line in this part of the state, and has a high reputation for integritj" and business enterprise and progressiveness.

business undertakings, being one of the stockholders in the Commercial Bank of Shelbina and owning and managing considerable real estate in business i^roperties in the city and farm lands in Shelby and other counties. On June 28, 1888, he was married to Miss Ida M. Lyell, who was born and reared in Shelby county. Tliey have two children, their sons, Thomas Lyell, born in Shelbina, August 27, 1891, and Charles E., born in Shelbina June 12, 1893, both of whom are still living at home with their parents.

Mr. Puckett has long been one of the leading and most active promoters of the development and improvement of the town and county. In 1906 he was elected mayor of Shelbina, and for a year he gave the city an excellent business administration of its affairs. But owing to the failing condition of the health of one of his sons (Charles), he resigned in 1907 and took the young man to California for the winter. During that year, while out driving, he was thrown from his buggy and sustained a broken leg. The fracture did not yield readily to treatment and the limb had to be amputated on account of dangerous complications. But notwithstanding his crippled condition, he still takes an active part in his business and the affairs of the community. He is a Democrat in political faith and a Southern Methodist in church connection and takes a leading place in the work of both his party and his church.

of mankind as to phj'sicians. They deal with all kinds of human ailments, both mental and physical, and are called upon to render services as wide in range as human suffering and human sorrow, and are often the only persons who can do it. To how many persons a country physician in active practice supplies aid in distress, hope in gloom, comfort in agony, solace in sorrow and even consolation in death, it would be idle to guess at. He is recjuired to have a strong combination of qualities for his work, of which his professional and technical requirements are but a small part, and the necessity for their activity is always at hand, the reservoir is always on draft. Among the physicians of northern Missouri Dr. H. T. Willis, of Shelbina, occupied high rank for the full possession of these qualifications and the skillful use of them.

Dr. Willis was born in Monroe county, this state, on July 3, 1864. He came of Kentucky stock, both of his parents, Samuel Pierson and Elizabeth (Thomas) Willis, having been born and reared in that state. The father's life began in April, 1825, in Shelbyville, Kentucky, where his father, John Pierce Willis, was a manufacturer of wagons and carriages until 1851, when he and his family moved to Missouri, located in Monroe county and engaged extensively in farming and raising live stock. The grandfather died in 1874. The doctor's father farmed in his native county until the Western fever took possession of him and in 1851 he too came td this state and located on a farm in Monroe county. He raised stock in considerable numbers on his farm and dealt extensively in mules, at that time a nearly new article of sale and production in this part of the state. In 1868 he sold his farm in Monroe county and bought one in this county, on which he lived and labored until 1885, when he moved to Shelbina, detennined to pass the remainder of his days in the enjoyment of the rest he had so well earned and the competence he had so laboriously acquired. He sold his farm and resided here until his death, October 30, 1904. In 1852 he married Miss Elizabeth Thomas, a native of Nelson county, Kentucky. They had two children. The father was a zealous and energetic Democrat in politics and a devout and loyal Baptist in religious affiliation. He gave a great deal of his time and energy to church work, in which his services were recognized as most effective and valuable. The wife and mother died in July, 1903.

Dr. H. T. Willis obtained his scholastic training in the public schools of Shelbina and at the Shelbina Collegiate Institute, which latter he attended five years. His professional studies were pursued in private reading and at the University Medical College, of Kansas City, which he entered in 1895, and from which he was graduated with the degree of M. D. in 1898. During his period of study at this institution he was first assistant to Dr. C. W. Adams, an eminent physician of the western Missouri metropolis, in his private practice, and the training he received through this experience was both extensive and thoroughly practical.

After receiving his degree the doctor took up his residence in Shelbina and entered at once on the active practice of his profession. He made that city his home and was industriouslv engaged in a general practice which grew steadily in magnitude from year to year, as he had the esteem and confidence of the people and the regard of his professional colleagues. He was a close and reflective student of the literature of his profession, keeping abreast with its advancement and in touch with its latest thought and discovei'ies. He also took an active part in the societies organized for its improvement, being a valued and helpful contributor to the deliberations of the state and coimty medical associations, to both of which he belonged. He was also medical examiner for the Knights of the }i[accabees and International Life Insurance Company of St. Louis. In 1902 he was appointed county physician and he served as such until his death, February 25, 1910.

Politically the doctor was a firm and energetic Democrat. He was always interested in the welfare of his party and did effective work in helping it to success in all its contests. Fraternally he belonged to the Masonic order. Knights of the Maccabees and the ^fodern Woodmen of America. His church connection was with the Baptist sect. On December 29, 1904, he was united in marriage with Miss ^lamie J. Lamb, of Port Republic, Virginia. In the cultivated social circles of Shelbina she had ample scope for the exemplification of the mental force, delicacy of feeling and grace of manner she inherited from long lines of Virginia ancestry and abundant opportunity to employ her faculties in connection with those of her husband in promoting the general welfare of the community in which they both felt an earnest and continuing interest. They were hospitable in their home, helpful to every mental and moral agency at work among the people and zealous in the performance of every social and religious duty.

Chaeles Boggs Martin

Actively connected with the real estate and loan business in Shelbiua for twenty consecutive years, and for six years prior to his entrance into that line one of the leading fire insurance agents of the city, county and surrounding country, Charles B. Martin has had an extensive opportunity to demonstrate his capacity for business and his right to the confidence and esteem of the people who have the pleasure of his acquaintance and the advantage of doing business with him. He is now the junior member of the firm of Puckett & Martin, real estate and loan operators, and as such enjoys in a high degree the regard and good will of the community.

Mr. IMartin is a Virginian by nativity, having been born at Lexington, Rockbridge county, in the Old Dominion, on March 28, 1853. His ancestors lived for generations in the state that is known as the "Mother of States and of Statesmen," his grandfather, James "Wesley Martin having been born and reared there, and having had before him a long line of progenitors born and reared in the same neighborhood, which was Greenbrier county, in that part of the state now known as West Virginia, which was torn from its maternal breast in the violence and unreason of the Civil war.

former born and reared in Greenbrier county, West Virginia, where his life began in 1812, and tlie latter a native of Rockbridge county, in the mother state. The father farmed for a number of years in West Virginia and became a resident of Missouri in 1869, reaching the state in November of that year. He located in Marion county and there farmed and raised live stock until 1883, when he sold his interests in that county and moved to Shelby county, purchasing a farm there and continuing to operate it until his death, in September, 1886, carrying on at the same time an active and flourishing business in raising live stock, and thereby contributing to the improvement of the stock 4n the county and aiding in supplying, by the excellence of his products, the best markets in the country.

He was married to Miss Nannie 0. Green, of Rockbridge county, Virginia, who is still living at the advanced age of eighty-nine, with all her faculties yet vigorous and her sinews strong. They became the parents of twelve children, seven of whom are living - Alexander J., a resident of Rockbridge county, Virginia; William P., who lives at Moberly, Missouri ; Reuben L., a citizen of Washington, D. C. ; Charles B., whose interesting life story these paragraphs record; Samuel S. and Albert A., residents of this countj"; and Emmett, who lives in the state of California. Tn politics the father was a Democrat and in church relations a Southern Methodist. He was an active worker in both his party and his church and was esteemed by the members of each as a helpful factor in all their undertakings.

the boys of his day, was reared and learned the lessons of preparation for life's battle on a farm. He took his place in the ranks of its workers and wrought as faitlifully and efficiently as any of them. He obtained his education in the private schools of Lexington, Virginia, which is an educational center in that part of the country, being the seat of Washington and Lee University, in whose presidential chair the great general of the Confederacy, Robert E. Lee, passed the closing years of his illustrious life, and also the Virginia Military institute. But, although the city in which he gained his scholastic training was abundantly supplied with facilities for culture far beyond the curriculum of the public schools, they were availalile to him only in a limited way, and he was obliged to put up with what the great "university of the common people," the district schools, could do for him in the way of mental development. For the exigencies of his situation required that he should make his own way in the world of effort from an early age and he entered upon the undertaking without reluctance or repining.

After leaving school Mr. Martin worked on the parental farm with his father until 1873, assisting him both in the state of his nativity and that of his adoption. In the year last named he turned his attention to mercantile life, for wliicli he had long felt a yearning, and became a grocer, carrying on a vigorous and flourishing business in that line for six years. Still, although he found mercantile life agreeable, the love of the soil was strong within him, and in 1880 he returned to the culitvation of it, buying a farm near Oakdale, in this county, on which he lived and labored two busy years, producing good crops and raising fine herds of stock. In 1882 he moved to Shelbina and took up work for the Phoenix Fire Insurance Company in association with W. F. Fields, with whom he ojierated for six years. Then in 1889 he bought the interest of Upton Moreman in the firm of Lyell & Moreman, real estate and loan agents, and became a partner of John R. Lyell, under the name and style of Lyell & Martin. In May, 1894, Thomas L. Puckett, a sketch of whom will be found in this volume, bought Mr. Lyell 's interest in the business and the firm has done an extensive business ever since under the name of Puckett & Martin.

Mr. Martin has therefore been connected in a leading way with the real estate and loan business for twenty consecutive years, and in that long experience has thoroughly mastered all its phases, details and requirements. During much of the time he has also been extensively engaged in the feeding and sale of 150 to 200 mules every year, therefiy contributing greatly to the convenience and advantage of the farmers and other residents of the city and county.

In the political life of his section he has taken an earnest and serviceable part as a leading and influential Democrat. Although averse to public office, he filled one term of four years as a justice of the peace and has also been a member of the school board. Fraternally he is a Freemason and to the cause of religion he renders effective .service as a member of tlie Methodist Ei)iscopal Church, South, of which he is a trustee and was for five years or longer superiutendent of the Sunday school. In other departments of church work he has been constant in his service and enterprising- in his spirit, giving every worthy undertaking of his congregation his valuable counsel and invaluable assistance in practical labor. During all of the last fifteen years he has l)een one of the stockholders and directors of the Commercial Bank of Shelbina. On March 2, 1873, he was married to Miss Nannie E. Jones, of Marion county, in this state. They have had five children and all of them are living. They are : May J., a resident of Shelbina ; Jessie, the wife of Otis See, of the same city ; and Eugene H., of St. Louis, Missouri; Charles Robert and John Lyell, who are living at home. Mr. and Mrs. Martin and their children add adornment and grace to the social circles of the community and on all sides are recognized as among the best and most representative and estimable citizens of a section in which the standard is high and the requirements are exacting.

John H. Wood

This eminent banker and influential financial potency of Shelbina has been a I'esident of Missouri all of his life, and during the most of that period has been active in lines of endeavor which minister directly to the welfare of the people and help to build up the state in its in d u s t r i a 1 , mercantile and commercial ]iower, some of them also bearing immediately and favora])ly on the mental and mora] agencies at work in every community.

Shelbina National Bank and is its leading spirit of enterprise and direction. He was born in Monroe county, this state, on December 8, 1869. He is a son of Winfield S. and Susan A. (Hepler) Wood, the former a native of New York and the latter of Ohio. The father was a carpenter and farmer. He came to Monroe county in 1859 and from that time until a few years ago devoted his energies to farming, doing some work also at his trade when occasion demanded it. During the Civil war he served as a soldier in the Ninth Missouri Cavalry, Company F, of which he was one of the lieutenants. He and his command were stationed most of the time in Missouri, but they saw a great deal of active service and were engaged in numerous battles and skirmishes. Mr. W^ood was in the army from 1861 to the close of the memorable struggle in 1865, and during all of the time of his military service devoted himself wholly to the cause which he had espoused. After the close of the war he returned to his home and resumed his farming operations. A few years ago he retired from active pursuits and took up his residence in Shelbina, where he now lives. His wife died in that town. They had two sons and two daughters, all of whom are living. The father is a scion of an old English family, his branch of which has lived in this country for several generations.

J. H. Wood was reared and began his education in Monroe county. He also attended the University of Missouri, from which he was graduated in 1895 with the degree of L. B. He was pastor of the Christian church at Boonville, Cooper county, two years, and taught in

Christian College at Columbia, Missouri, during his pastorate. In 1897 he moved to Shelbina and became pastor of the Christian church, which position he still fills. Was associated with Messrs. Thomas & Gillespie in the abstract business for three years, the firm being known as "Wood, Thomas & Gillespie. In 1907 he became interested in the bank, to which his time has since been largely devoted. He is also president of the Shelbina Telephone Company, which he founded and incorporated in the autumn of 1908. In politics he is a Republican, but he has never been an active partisan or filled or desired a public office. His fraternal allegiance is given to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Masonic Order, in the hitter of which he has risen to the degree of the Royal Arch. During the whole of his residence in Shelbina he has served as pastor of the Christian church, doing a great work for the congregation and building it up from a membershiji of 100 to one of 250. He is now engaged in the erection of a new church edifice which will be completed at an early date. He is much esteemed in church circles as well as in business relations, and illustrates in every walk in life the best attributes of an elevated, progressive and highminded American citizenship.

In June, 1898, he was united in mai-- riage with Miss Susan A. Jones, a sister of "W. H. Jones, who was cashier of the bank of which he is president. They have no children, but take a warm and helpful interest in the education and well being of all the children in the community, being leaders and acti\'e woj-kers in every good undertaking for the welfare of the people and the promotion of every interest in which that is involved. Among the residents of Shelbina they are accounted as worthy of the highest regard and looked up to as examples of correct and upright living, which all might imitate with advantage to themselves and great benefit to the community.

Mr. Wood is a member of the board of regents of the Kirksville State Normal School, being chairman of the board, and is also a member of the board of trustees of Missouri Bible College at Columbia, Missouri.

George Roff

This estimable citizen of Shelbina, who is passing the closing years of his life in rest and quiet after a long struggle for advancement in a worldly way, in which he almost at times dared Fate herself into the lists and felt prepared to meet it on nearly equal terms, presents to the contemplation of the biographer a subject of unusual interest. He came of a family of roving and adventurous disposition, and although he showed his heritage in this respect in one particular he did not in others, for which his ancestors were distinguished. So far as daring danger, enduring hardship and undergoing arduous toil and privation are concerned, he has upheld the family traditions in a manly and admirable way. But he has never roamed far from the place of his nativity to seek a residence, but has helped to the limit of his ability and op- ]iortunities to develop the section and interests amid which he was born and reared.

Mr. Eoff was born, reared, educated and married in Shelby county, and, as an industrious and skillful tiller of the soil, has contributed practically and essentially to its development and improvement. So that whatever he is, he is all the county's own. His life began on June 12, 1841, and for a full half century be was one of the producing forces of the county except during a short portion of the Civil war, when he was engaged in the defense of his political principles as a member of the Confederate army. His service in that memorable and sanguinary contest lasted only about six months, for at the end of that period he was taken prisoner and soon after paroled on condition that he would return to the plains of the West and engage no further in the war. He is the grandson of Jonathan Eoff, a native of New Jersey, and a son of Peter and Sarah (Anderson) RotT, the former born and reared in Mason county, Kentucky, where he made his advent into the world in 1800, and the latter a native of Virginia.

The father grew to manhood on his father's farm, assisting in its labors and attending the district school when his services were not needed at home. In 1832, while what is now the great and progressive state of Missouri was still a howling wilderness for the greatest part, he came west and located amid its unbroken wilds in this county. He took up a tract of wild land and devoted himself to its transformation into a cultivated and productive farm. He also raised stock in considerable numbers and thus helped materially to provide for the wants of the pioneers and build up the country around him. His farming and stockraising operations continued until his death in 1866. He and his wife, whose maiden name was Sarah Anderson, became the parents of six children, of whom three are living. They are Carolina, the wife of Daniel Givens, of Shelbina; (xeorge, who is the inspiration of this sketch, and Thomas, also a resident of Shelbina. In political faith and adherence the father was an ardent Democrat. In fraternal relations he was a member of the Masonic order, and in religion belonged to the Christian church.

George Roff was reared on his father's farm in this county, and early in life began to learn the lessons of endurance, privation and self-reliance incident to residence and struggle with adversity and difficulty on the frontier. His only facilities for scholastic training were those supplied by the primitive schools of the wilderness at that early day, and when he had completed the course they covered, he at once went to work on the farm, again assisting his father until he started an enterprise in cultivating the soil and raising stock on his own account. This he continued until his retirement from all active pursuits in 1903, when he moved to Shelbina, and there he has ever since resided. He sold his farm and thus relieved his mind of all care concerning its management, and the only business he has given attention to since has been looking after his financial interests in connection with several business enterprises, among them the Shelbina National Bank, of which he is one of the stockholders and directors. As has been noted above, he was in the Confederate army six months at the beginning of the Civil war, but after being taken prisoner and paroled to the plains of the West, he felt obliged to abide by the terms of his release and never entered the service of the Confederacy again.

Mr. Rolf has been married twice. His first wife was Miss Julia Connolly, of Kentucky. They had one child, who died a number of years ago, as did the mother. On February 12, 1896, he was united with his second wife, who, before her mai'- riage, was Miss Jennie Hinthorn, a native of McLean county, Illinois. He and his wife are highly respected and counted as among the best and most estimable citizens of the county. They are well and widely known and everywhere among their friends and acquaintances their lives are regarded as worthy of the good will of the people liecause of their uprightness and usefulness. Both have been active in all commendable projects for the good of the county and town, manifesting an earnest interest in their improvement and the lasting welfare of their inhabitants. Mr. Eoft" is a staunch Democrat in politics and he and his wife are members of the Christian chui-ch in religious faith and association.

Jesse T. Hardy

This eminent jurist and esteemed citizen of Shelby coimty is an ornament to her public life, and his occupancy of the bench is a guaranty that the rights and interests of her people will be sedulously watched and guarded against wrong, so far as it is in the power of an upright and enlightened court to furnish such protection, her peace, oi'der and good government will be presei'ved, and the laws of the state will be strictly and

Judge Hardy is a native of the county, l)orn on May 1, 1848. He was reared on its soil, educated in its public schools, for years engaged in tilling its fertile farm lands, and has been prominent in its professional and official circles. He is therefore closely connected with its people and has a personal as well as an official interest in their welfare. He is now serving his third term as county judge, and is more firmly intrenched in the confidence and esteem of the people than when his official life began. For his course on the bench has been eminently satisfactory to them and in the highest degree creditable to himself.

The Judge is a son of Samuel B. and Mary J. (Sparrow) Hardy, natives of Virginia and members of families that have dignified and adorned all walks of life in the history of that state. The father, impelled by a spirit of daring and self-reliance, and wishing to found a name for himself and his descendants on his own achievements, sought his ojjportunity in what was in his yoimg manhood an unbroken wilderness. He came to Missouri in 18.34 and took up a tract of wild land in what is now Shelby county and about eight miles northeast of the present city of Shelbina. He also opened a country store, and during the next few years was actively engaged in reducing his farm to subjection and productiveness and supplying the wants of the people around him from his mercantile establishment. When the railroad was partially completed he moved to Shelbina and built the Adams hotel, which he occupied and conducted for four or five years. He then returned to liis farm to pass the remainder of his days on the expanse he had redeemed from the wilds and die at hist in the home whicli was hallowed as the product and the scene of his useful toil.

He was always deeply and intelligently interested in public atfairs and freely gave time, attention and material help to direct their course aright according to his views. He served two terms as county judge in the early history of the county, and when the Civil war burst upon our unhappy country, fearful of the dismemberment of the Union, he enlisted in the Federal army in its defense. His comm;ind was a part of the army of General Glover, and was stationed at Palmyra. While it saw comparatively little active service, it was at all times ready for duty and willing to dare death on the field of carnage. In the engagements in which it took part it made its military sjiirit and capacity manifest and admirably exemplified the highest type of American manhood. The elder Judge Hardy was married in Virginia to Miss Mary J. Sparrow, who was, like himself, a native of Virginia, as has been stated. They had eight children, of whom the jjresent Judge is the only one living. The father was a Republican in politics, a Freemason in fraternal life and a Southern Methodist in religion.

Judge Jesse T. Hardy obtained his education in the jmblic schools of Shelbina, and on leaving them turned his attention to farming and raising live stock, and also to contracting in works of construction. After a successful career of over a quarter of a century as a, farmer and contractor he sold his farm, gave U]j his other business and moved to

Shelbina, making himself free to discharge his important and responsible duties as county judge, having been elected to the position in 1904. At the end of liis first term he was re-elected, and at the close of the second received renewed and increased assurances of the confidence and esteem of the people by a very complimentary and enthusiastic election to a third term.

An analysis of his administration of the office of judge is not intended or necessary here. His official record so far has passed into the history of the county and been twice passed upon by the electorate with high approval, and this gives it higher standing and a firmer foundation in county and state chronicles than anything would that might be embodied in these paragraphs. It is enough for them to state that his services have been thoroughly satisfactory to the people of the county and have given him a high rank among the jurists of the state.

In political allegiance and activity Judge Hardy has always been a Democrat, and in frateimal affiliation he has long been an Odd Fellow. While free from offensive partisanship and undue liolitical activity since he has been on the bench, he has nevertheless shown a keen interest in the welfare and success of his party on all occasions, as every good citizen should, and to the fraternal society in which he holds membership he has also given a commendable share of time and attention. He was married on February 22, 1868, to Miss Mary Elizabeth Maddox, of this county. They have had ten children, six of whom are living: Samuel Tolbert, of Shelby county; Dora Belle, wife of AVilliam Howell; John E. ;

Jessie, wife of Perry Parsons, and Chester and Lee, all residents of Shelby county and prominent and useful in promoting its development and improvement.

Avilliam T. Swearingen

Born in Monroe county on July 24, 1849, at a time when this portion of the state was almost virgin in its wilderness and unsettled condition, and growing to manhood here, taking part in all the stirring activities incident to peopling and developmg a new country, AVilliam T. Swearingen, of Shelbina, has had fine opportunities for being useful to his locality and writing his name in enduring phrase among the monuments and products of its progress. That he has employed his opportunities to good advantage is proven by the numerous and imposing structures for residence and business i^uii^oses which he has erected in the county and city of his long home and by the universal esteem in which he is held by all classes of the people.

Mr. Swearingen is a son of Thomas and Polly (Ashcraft) Swearingen, the father a native of Kentucky, born in 1815, and the mother born and reared in Missouri. Thomas Swearingen came to Missouri early in the thirties and located in Monroe county. There, for a number of years, he was actively engaged in farming and raising live stock, giving Ills whole attention to his operations and making them as profitable as the circumstances would allow. In the course of time he became enamored of Shelby county, and, selling out his interests in Monroe, he moved to this county on a farm which he purchased.

and on which one of the old landmarks of the section was located in the fonn of a flour and saw mill on Salt river. He worked, the farm and operated the mill greatly to the convenience and advantage of the iDeople within a large extent of the surrounding country and his own pi'ofit for many years, when he sold all his real estate and farming appliances, and retired from active life to a home in Walkersviile, in which he died in 1893.

In politics the father was a Democrat, firm in his devotion and zealous in his services to his party, and in religious connection was affiliated with the !Methodist Episcopal church. South, to which he also gave the benefit of his wisdom in council and his fidelity and industry in work. lie was married twice, the first time to Miss Polly Ashcraft. Of the nine children born to them five are living and all but one are residents of Shelby county. They are: James, Sallie, the wife of John "Wood; William T. and ^lalcomb, of this county, and Ephraim, who is a citizen of j\Ionroe county. The second marriage of the head of the house occurred in 1868, and by it he was united with Miss Ellen "Wood, of Shelby county. They became the parents of two children, Milton, who lives in St. Joseph, this state, and Ora, the wife of William Dungan, of Shelby county.

William T. Swearingen grew to manhood on the parental homestead in this county and obtained his education in its jmlilic schools. After leaving school he continued to work on his father's farm until 1869, doing also considerable work as a builder and contractor, having acquired a mastery of the carpentei' trade, for which he liad a natural aptitude. He put up many of the best dwellings and other buildings in the neighborhood, and they still stand out a m o n g the improvements in the county as evidences of his skill and abilit)' as a builder. Since taking up his residence in Shelbina, which ho did in 1904, he has devoted himself exclusively to contracting and building on a large scale and with great success in results, both in the products of his art and the profits reaped from them. He has worked at his trade practically for forty-one years, and has won a reputation for mastery of it that is second to none in this portion of the state and that places him in the first rank among mechanics whereever he is known.

In all parts of Shelbina, and in many other localities, stand structures built by him which are admirably adapted to the purposes for which they were erected, and which potentially proclaim his merit as a builder. For he has been a student of his craft and has enlarged and trained his natural ability in it by keeping himself posted in its latest phases and higher developments, acquiring some skill as an architect along with fine mechanical execution, and placing all his attainments liberally at the service of his patrons and his employes, thus enriching the property of the one class and the acquisitions of the other.

On July 21, 1870, he united in marriage with Miss Isabelle Wood, of Shelbina. Of the five children who have blessed and brightened their home four are living and all dwelling in Shelbina. They are George, Claudia, wife of Harry Keith, and Mabelle and Freda, both of whom are still members of the parental household. It is much to have lived sixty years among the same people and to have grown steadily in their respect and esteem, but this is Avhat Mr. Swearingen has accomplished. For his life has been clean and useful, constant in its fidelity to duty in all private and public relations, and ennobling in the high example of worthy citizenship it has given those associated with and living around him. It is of men like him that the best American manhood is made, and it is from such lives as his that our most stable and valued standards are taken.

George C. Grant

Although for nearly twelve years a member of the bar, and during a portion of that period an active practitioner of the profession, George C. Grant, of Shelbina, has found mercantile life of the most strenuous and exacting character more to his taste than professional pursuits, and during- the last seven years has devoted himself principally to that as an extensive dealer in real estate and was the junior member of the firm of Cleek & Grant, but is now doing business under the style name of George C. Grant, Real Estate Dealer, Shelbina, Missouri. He has been very successful in his undertakings and is accounted one of the best and wisest business men in Shelby county.

Mr. Grant was born on November 4, 1875, in the adjacent county of Monroe and village of Granville, where his parents, William and Mary A. (Moulton) (Jrant, then lived. The father was born and grew to the age of fourteen in Eng- land. His life began in 1831, and was like that of most English boys of his station until 1845. He attended school and engaged in the pastimes of the day, as his companions did, but in the year last named he had an experience -which was denied to most of them and was probably desired by all. He was brought by his parents to the American continent, his young life being enriched by the experiences of an ocean voyage across the stormy Atlantic and the novel incidents, adventures and surroundings of existence in a new world. The family located in Canada andWilliam remained there until 1871, marrying Miss Mary A. Moulton, of that country, in 1861, who now resides at Clarence, Missouri, and taking his part in the productive industries of the land as an active and energetic farmer. In 1871 he came to the United States and took up his residence at Grranville, in Monroe county, of this state. There he again gave his attention to farming and raising live stock on a large scale, and in addition carried on a flourishing Inisiness as a merchant in shoes and boots. Some years later he sold his interests in Monroe county and moved over into Shelby county, making his home in Shelbina. Here he again engaged in mercantile life, in the shoe trade, for some years. He then sold his business and turned his attention to insurance, which occupied him uutil his death in February, 1894. Eight children were born in his household and all of them save one are living and adding to the wealth and greatness of the country in various localities and occupations. Tliey are: Charles E., who lives in Butte, Montana; Elizabeth E., the wife of Upton Moreman, of Lake Howell, Florida; William H., of La Belle, Missouri; Albert L., of Baker City. Oregon; Alicia, the wife of Hon. H. J. Simmons, of Clarence, this county; George C, the subject of this memoir; and the only one of this large family now remaining at Shelbina, Missouri; and Edward B. who died in St. Louis, Missouri, July 30, 1910, after an o]ieration for appendicitis, having gone there from his home in Clarence, Missouri, where he was engaged in the newspaper business and under the name of Simmons & Grant, published the "Clarence Courier." Agnes B., also resident of Clarence. The father was a Democrat in the politics of this country, a Freemason in its fraternal life and a member of the Southern Methodist church in religion. He was very zealous in the work of his church, teaching the Bible class in its Sunday school for a number of years.

George C. Grant became a resident of Shelbina when he was but a child and has passed all his subsequent years in the city. He obtained his education in its public schools, graduating with credit from the high school, then pursued a course of special business training at the Shelbina Commercial College. As a preparation for what he looked forward to as his life work he studied law under the direction of E. A. Cleek, Esq., then state 's attorney, and was admitted to the bar in 1898. During the next few years he practiced his profession at Clarence, and then for several years in Shelbina. In 1902 he formed a partnership with Mr. Cleek, under the name of Cleek & Grant, for the imrpose of engaging in the real estate business, but this partnership was dissolved in the year 1910, and since then he has been engaged individually in that line of mercantile eft'ort. He is now a leading real estate dealer in this part of the state and does a very extensive business. He owns considerable real estate in farm lands and city property, and handles enormous extents of it in supplying an active demand in a busy and engrossing market. He also owns two very fine highly improved farms of 440 acres in Monroe county, Missouri, where Marion and Shelbj' coimties corner with the north line of Monroe county, a short distance south and east of Hunnewell, which are said by many to be two of the best farms in the three counties. Mr. Grant is lilso connected with some of the leading financial and industrial institutions of the city and county, among them the Old Bank of Shelbina, in which he is one of the stockholders. He has been very successful in all his projects, showing fine business capacity with great industry in conducting his affairs, and at the same time the utmost fairness and consideration toward others in all his dealings. He is an excellent judge of real estate, both as to its character and its value, and kee])s in touch with all that is likely to be available for his purposes ; so that he is prepared at all times to secure for any purchaser just what the buyer needs.

On May 7, 1901, Mr. Grant was united in marriage with Miss L. Virginia Swearingen, of Shelby county. They have two children, their son, Malcolm E., and their daughter, Alicia M., both of whom still help to warm and brighten the family hearthstone, being yet children of tender ages. The father believes firmly in tlie principles of the Democratic party and lends it his active and effective aid in all its campaigns, although he is not desirous of any of the honors or emoluments of official station for himself. Fraternally he is a Knight of Pythias and a Modern Woodman of America, and in religious affairs is affiliated with the -Southern Methodist church. Although he is yet a young man he has won high rank in business circles and has a firm hold on the regard and good will of the people as an upright, progressive and altogether useful and estimable citizen.

Silas Threlkeld

Born on May 19, 1833, in Henry county, Kentucky, reared and educated in Boone count}% Indiana, where he worked for years at his trade as a carpenter, and during the last fifty years a resident of Alissouri, Silas Threlkeld has been a part of the human history of three great states in the American Union and a valued contributor to the productive industries of two of them. He is now not far from four score years of age, and the retrospect of his long and useful life must bring before his mental vision many scenes of the highest dramatic interest, many incidents of heroic struggle and endurance, many startling clumges in American life, conditions and aspirations, all of which he has witnessed and been a part of. And through the whole war]! and woof of the extended period his friends can see his own record running like a veritable thread of gold, bright in the luster of its excellence, valuable in the strength it adds to the fabric and suggestive in its unyielding texture

Mr. Tlirelkekl is descended from old ' Virginia families, whose history in the Old Dominion runs back to colonial times and adorns every walk of life among its people. His grandfather, Daniel Threlkeld, was a native of tliat state, and, with the adventurous spirit that characterized liis family and the society in which he was reared, left the home of his fathers in his early manhood to win a name and an estate for himself amid the wilds of Kentucky at the time when Daniel Boone was fixing forever the fame of that then remote and unsettled region in the pages of romantic history. There the parents of him who is now one of the patriarchs of Shelbina, Arway and Jemima (Wilson) Threlkeld, were born and reared, the father's life beginning in 1810, and the mother's in Owen county about in 1806. Following the example of their parents, they also became emigrants, moving first to Boone county, Indiana, and in 1866 to Monroe county, Missouri. Here the father of Silas bought a farm on Water creek, which he improved and cultivated until advancing years and failing strength obliged him to retire from all active pursuits. He then sold his farm and from that time until his death in Shelbina, in 1898, made his home with his children. He and his wife were the parents of five children, and of these but four are living: The subject of this writing, who is passing the evening of his long and stirring day of life in Shelbina ; William and Thomas, venerable residents of Monroe county; and Mary Nancy, the wife of F. D. Crow, of Moberly in Randolph county. The father was a life-long Democrat in politics and for many years a devout and zealous member of the Baptist church. He died at the age of about 83 years, and his remains were followed to the grave with every demonstration of popular esteem and affection.

Silas Threlkeld obtained his scholastic training in the district schools of Boone coimty, Indiana. xVfter leaving school he learned the carpenter ti-ade and worked at it in Indiana until 1859, when he brought his strength and aspirations as a man and his skill as a mechanic to Shelbina. His mechanical acquirements were badly needed in the village at the time and for some years he found employment at his trade that was both plentifiil and profitable. But he had a natural inclination to farm life, and yielding to this, lie bought his first farm near Paris, ]\Iouroe county; then sold it and bought another, also in Monroe county but not far from Shelbina, renting in addition 400 acres of land which he farmed for four years. At the end of that period he found himself able to purchase a much desired farm in tliis county and he made the purchase.

During the next twelve years he occupied and cultivated this farm with energy and success, adding gi-eatly to its value by l)ringiug it to a high state of ])roductiveness and by extensively' improving it in buildings and equipment. The milling industry was then in great need of recruits and offered many opportunities to men of enterprise and sagacity. He therefore sold liis farm and moved to Shelbina, entering into a partnership with his brother-in-law, F. D. Crow, with whom he was associated in extensive milling opei'ations for a period of twenty years. Farm life, however, still beckoned him with persuasive hand, and he traded his interest in the mill for another farm on which he took up his residence, and to which he gave his attention for a number of years and then sold it. In 1899 he gave up business of all kinds and again located in Shelbina, to pass the remainder of his days in peace after so many contests, in comfortable rest and leisure after such arduous and long continued effort.

Through life Mr. Threlkeld has followed the fortunes of the Democratic party through victory and defeat, always contributing effective aid in its campaigns and cordially supporting its candidates. He is a charter member of the Odd Fellows -lodge in Shanaldah, Indiana, and has given it the benefit of his helpful membership ever since its organization. He is a stockholder and one of the directors of the Old Bank of Shelbina and takes an active interest in its business. Twice has be bowed beneath the flowery yoke of Eros, the first time being joined in marriage with Miss Mildred Acuff, of Monroe county, in 1863. Four children were born of this marriage, all of whom are living and residents of Shelby county. They are : Nettie, wife of W. S. Bryan; Henry; Jennie, the wife of William Lawrence; all living in Shelbina ; and Cornelia, the wife of James Miller, who has her home in another part of the county. The father's second marriage took place in 1884, when he was united with Miss Cornelia Acuff, of Monroe county. They have two children, their sons Roy, who lives at home, and Harold, who married Lotus

While Mr. Threlkeld is now but a restful sojourner on the shady wayside of the world 's strenuous activities, and only looks upon the passing pageant of its busy and productive life, he still feels a keen and abiding interest in all the phases of men's work and especially in the welfare of the community around him. He is no longer one of its militant forces, but by no means ignores or grows indifferent to its interests. Eevered as a patriarch and looked up to as a sage, his counsel is still earnesth^ sought and his admonitions are heeded, so that his influence is felt in the county among whose people he is everywhere most highly esteemed as one of their worthiest citizens and most upright and sterling men.

James 0. Stribling

The life story of this prominent citizen of Clarence, in this county, is one of adventure and thrilling incident in parts and of great energy, determination and good business management in all. He has been a soldier and faced death on many a bloody battlefield. He was a ]>risoner of war for several months, languishing in Federal military prisons. He has also been a farmer of prominence and successful operations, and a timber contractor for one of the leading railroad lines in this part of the country. He has met every requirement of his busy and varied life in a manly and masterly way and every week of his time and every faculty of his being minister to his substantial and continued advancement.

]\Ir. Stribling was born in Monroe county, Missouri, on October 8, 18-iO, and is a son of Taliaferro and Jane C. (Boggs) Stribling, the fonuer a native of Kentucky and the latter of Pennsylvania. Their marriage took place in Missouri and by it they became the parents of three children, all of whom are living. They are : Loui^ine, the wife of A. Damrell, of Shelbyville; James 0:. the subject of this memoir; and Loretta, the wife of AV. G. Sanders, also a resident of Shelbyxdlle.

The father came to Missouri in an early day and for a number of years worked at the salt works on Salt river in Ralls county. He then turned his attention to farming and raising live stock and adhered to these pursuits continuously until his death in 1844. He was a man of enterprise and progressiveness, wai-mly interested in the progi'ess and development of the region in which he lived, and gave earnest and very helpful attention to the welfare of the people all around him. By his course in this respect he rose to prominence and influence and won the high esteem of the whole jiopulation.

James O. Stribling, like most of the boys and youth of this locality of his time, obtained his education in the public schools, attending them in Florida, Missouri. At the beginning of the Civil war he enlisted in the Confederate army under Col. Theodore Brace, and entered actively into the designs of the government, which he had volunteered to help and defend. He carried the first dispatch, after going into a regular cam]), from General Harris, then holding his command in Ralls county, to Colonel

Green, whose camp was in Scotland county. He took part in the battles of Monroe City, Lexington and Sugar Creek, Missouri, Pea Ridge, Arkansas, and manj- skirmishes. The service was hazardous and he was daring. This resulted in his capture after seven months in the field, and during the next two or three months he was confined in Federal military prisons at Clinton, Sedalia and St. Louis, Missouri. After he was mustered out of the service he was again taken prisoner while on his way home and again kept in confinement for some time.

After his release he returned to his former home in Monroe county, this state, but only remained a short time. In 1865 he went to work for the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad Company and took up his residence at Lakenau, in this coimty. He quit the railroad service in 1869 and turned his attention to farming and raising live stock near Lakehan, conducting his operations with great enterprise and vigor and under very flourishing conditions. While thus engaged he drove the first self-binding harvester ever used in Shelby county, and for a period of twenty years was one of the leading farmers and stock men in this part of the state.

Tn 1889 ]\rr. Stribling sold his farming interests and moved to Clarence, where he has made his home ever since. Immediately after locating in Clarence he bought an interest in what was then known as the Clarence Roller Mill, and with this industrial institution he was connected for ten years. At the end of that period he sold his interest in it. During the last fifteen years he has been actively engaged in furnishing timber for the Chicago, Burlington & Quinc}' railroad, and during this period has made a number of short stays at Texarkana, Texas, in the vicinity of which he has about 8,000 acres of good timber land. The greater part of the timber now supplied for the use of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy line is procured along its right of way. Mr. Striblijig also holds a considerable block of stock in the Shelby County State Bank, of Clarence. In December, 1910, he was elected president of The Clarence Savings Bank, which position he is now filling.

He was united in marriage with Miss Susan Dorothy Hamilton, of Monroe county, Missouri, on April 28, 1868. She is a daughter of Clement A. and Cecilia T. (Brown) Hamilton, of Clarence. Seven children have been born of the union, five of whom are living: Jane Oneta, the wife of Joseph McDonald, of Brookfield, Missouri ; Lela, the wife of T. C. Stutz, also a resident of Brookfield; Ava and Clyde C, who are living at home with their parents; and Loretta, the wife of I. C. Yates, who lives in Monroe City.

In his political alliance Mr. Stribling is a pronounced and active Democrat, zealous and effective in the service of his party, although seeking none of its honors or emolmnents for himself. Fraternally he is a Knight of Pythias, and in religious faith and allegiance is connected with the Catholic church. He is loyal and devoted to his party, his lodge and his church, and has been faithful and serviceable in his performance of all the duties of citizenship, standing

Thomas Roff

Having reached the age of sixty-five and retired from all active pursuits of a strenuous character, the present life of Thomas Roff, one of the esteemed citizens of Shelbina, might seem to be one of rest, recreation and retrospection merely, but it is not so. He is still actively and intelligently interested in the improvement and general welfare of the community in which he makes his home and does his part as ever to promote its good; he still reveres the county and state in which his labors have been expended, to whose advancement he has materially contributed, and is at the front with others in efforts for their yet greater development and progress; he has lost nothing of his regard for the people among whom his years of productive industry were passed, and he is constant in his wish and his endeavors to enlarge their happiness and substantial well being. So that even if he does no longer hold the plow, or reap the harvest, or supply the live stock market, he is, nevertheless, still one of the workers for Shelby county's benefit and is regarded as one of its most worthy and useful citizens.

Mr. Roff was liorn in the county on April 2, 1844, and is a son of the late Peter Roif, an account of whose life will be fomid in a sketch of his other son, George Roff, in this work. Following the course, of most boys in the early days of a new countrv, Thomas Roff obtained his education in the district schools in the neighborhood of his home, and while attending them assisted in the labors of all hands on his father's farm. The times were exacting in his boyhood and youth, the necessaries of life being so difficult to get and requiring so much effort, that all the luxuries were unthought of. The pioneers of this section had the wUd expanse around them to awaken from its sleep of ages and the rough face of the country to smooth before they could find comeliness in its aspect or liberality in its bosom. And tlie exacting conditions bore heavily on the boys as well as on the men. on the daughters of the household as well as on the mothers. Thomas Roff was obliged by circumstances to take his place among the toilers and do his full share toward supplying the needs of the home and family, and was therefore unable to seek other means of mental culture than those immediately at hand. He accepted his destiny with cheerfulness and performed its duties with all the ability and strength he could command. So entirely did he fall in with the genius of the time and locality that when he left school, instead of turning his back upon the rough life of the frontier, he remained on his father's farm and wrought with the rest until he reached the age of twenty-eight. Then, in 1S72, his father deeded kim a portion of the land he owned, and on this the son went heartily to work for himself. During the succeeding twenty-seven years he farmed and raised live stock industriously and profitably, continuing his oj^rations until 1SS9. when he gave up active industry and sought a retired life in Shelbina. where he has ever since had his home. He is a stockholder in the Shelbina National Bank and connected with other institutions of utility and value in the city and county, and to these he still gives the required share of his attention.

His political faith has ever been fixed in the Democratic party and his activity in public affairs has been devoted to its welfare. His church affiliation is with the Christian sect, and in its behalf he has long been a faithful and a zealous worker. On AprU 15. 18S1, he was married to Miss Ella Hardcastle. of this county. They have had three children, of whom their daughter Lillian is the only one now living.

Tilmox A. B-Uley

Tilmon A. Bailey is a brother of John T. Bailey, of Shelbina. in a sketch of whom, on another page of this work, will 1)e found an aceoimt of the life of their father. Tilmon O. Bailey, and the mother of the family. The subject of these paragraphs was bom in Monroe county. Missouri, on August 22, 1S62. He was reared on his father's farm, attending the district school in the neighborhood when he could be spared from the labor of cultivating the homestead, and made good use of his limited opportunities in the way of scholastic acquirements. At the age of twenty he entered the Shelbina Collegiate Institute, which he attended imtil 1SS4. when he began a three years' course of study at Central College, which is located at Fayette, in this state.

excellent service during a period of twelve years. He was elected county school commissioner of that county in 1896 and held the office two years, vacating it in 1898 and taking up his residence at Shelbina. He brought with him into Shelby county a number of select shorthorn cattle with several jacks and jennets of a superior strain and stallions of high grade. With these he started an active industry in breeding stock, and also gave his services as a bookkeeper to the Commercial Bank of Shelbina and afterward, for a short time, to the Old Bank of the city. In 1906 he was elected cashier of tlie Fai'mers' and Merchants' Bank, as it was then called, but which, owing to a reorganization and change of management, is now known as the Shelbina National Bank. But he did not remain in this position long. Stock-breeding was more to his taste than banking, and in 1907 he retired from a business that was not entirely agreeable to him in order that he might give his whole time and attention to one that was. Since then he has been continuously and extensively engaged in raising stock, breeding considerable numbers of his own and handling many more by purchase and exchange.