Goodspeed biographies filename J-K.txt contributed by Mary Collins USGENWEB ARCHIVES NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. *************************************************************************** M.A. JOHNSON, general lumber manufacturer, merchant and general businessman at Keener, was born in DeKalb County, Tenn., in 1845, and is the son of C.A. and Alice (Bennett) Johnson. The father was a native Virginian and removed with his parents to Tennessee, where he was married. He lived in DeKalb County, Tenn., until 1853, when he removed to St. Francois County, Mo., and there made his future home. He died in the hospital at Nashville, Tenn., during the late war. He had served about six months in Company H, Forty-seventh Missouri Infantry. He was a carpenter and builder by trade, and had held various town offices in Farmington. He was of English descent on one side, and had a remote trace of Indian blood in his veins. Mrs. Johnson is still living and is a resident of Ste. Genevieve County. Of the thirteen children born to their marriage M.A. Johnson is the sixth. He was educated in the common schools and came with his parents to Missouri when eight years of age. At the age of twenty-one he began working for himself as a farmer, and in 1868 he was united in marriage to Artemisia McHenry, who died in November, 1877, leaving three children. In May, 1882, he married Nannie Haynie, who bore him two children, only one now living. Mr. Johnson farmed until 1871, and then removed to Wayne County, where he followed teaming until 1879, but was also engaged in farming. They then came to Butler County, locating near Shiloh, and Mr. Johnson engaged in the lumber business. In 1885 he removed his mill to Keener, where he has since carried on an extensive business, sawing and planing general lumber, shipping about 600 car loads per annum. He employs about 100 men, seventeen teams of two and four mules each, and about sixty-five horses and mules in all of his own, and keeps about ten to twenty teams hired all the time. Beside this he has a two-thirds interest in a general store of about $10,000 value, and has a saw mill on Ten Mile, nine miles from Keener, also a store at the same place. He has about 5,000 acres of land and has a fine residence at Keener. When Mr. Johnson first came to Butler County he was short of funds and was obliged to buy the mill on credit. He is now one of the wealthiest and most practical business men in the county. For the first nineteen months after starting in business he had a partner in the mill business. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, a K. of H., and is a Democrat in his political views, casting his first presidential vote for Seymour in 1868. Pages 1079-1080. H.E. JOHNSON, attorney at law, at Poplar Bluff, was born in Richland County, Ill., August 27, 1847. His father was born in the year 1798, when Indiana and Illinois, etc. were all a territory. His father’s was one of the first families to settle at Old Port (now Vincennes, Ind.). Their mode of travel was down the Ohio River in a keel boat, and then up the Wabash to the point when Vincennes now is. The mother of the subject of this sketch was born in 1811; her maiden name was Eckley. The Eckleys, so far as known, mostly lived in Carroll County, Ohio, where a great many of them still reside. When twelve years of age young Johnson was taken to Gibson County, Ind., where he attended school. He took all but his senior year in Merom College, Ind., and when sixteen years of age began in the employ of the E. & T.H.R.R., with whom he was engaged for nine years in the various capacities of newsboy, brakeman, fireman and finally train dispatcher. He then went to Ohio, and for one year was superintendent of the Ohio & Toledo Railway. For the next five years he was in the service of the Iron Mountain Railway as station agent at different places. In 1880 he was elected justice of the peace, and during his six years of duty became so well acquainted with law that in April, 1884,he was admitted to the bar, and now has a good practice. In 1885 he became interested in a jewelry store with a Mr. Brill. In 1869 Mr. Johnson was married to Miss Allie Hazleton, a native of the town by that name in Indiana. Two sons have blessed the union, one of whom, Gervasi, is studying medicine. Mr. Johnson is a member of the Christian Church. Mr. Johnson holds Democratic views on political questions, and is a prominent fraternity member, being at the present time Master of the Masonic lodge at Poplar Bluff, and a member of the K. of H., I.O.O.F. and A.O.U.W. lodges. Page 1080. BENJAMIN C. JONES, M.D., of Poplar Bluff, is the son of Rev. Eli Jones, a native of Virginia. Eli Jones’ experience is of considerable interest. In his early life he came to Kentucky with a crowd of horse racers and sporting men, but circumstances led to his religious conversion, and he devoted his life to the ministry. He prepared for it by entering the theological department of Transylvania College, of Kentucky. He was a Presbyterian, and also was engaged in teaching for a time. While engaged in his work he met and married a Miss Hubbard, a native of Sumner County, Tenn. Years after they located permanently in Obion County, where he lived to be half a century old. Four children were the result of this marriage. After his death she married again, becoming the mother of three children by the second union. She died at the age of forty years, an esteemed (Presbyterian) Christian woman. At Mayfield, Ky., August 25, 1836, Benjamin C. was born, and losing his father in his seventh and his mother in his sixteenth year, he had few advantages. He worked in Kentucky after his mother’s death, and spent his scanty earning in school. But when twenty years old he located at Bloomfield, Mo., and began the study of medicine with Dr. R.P. Parrymore, whose daughter, Mattie E., he married in 1860. In 1861 he enlisted in Capt. G.S. Murray’s company, of Arkansas, Confederate States army, and after three months under the quartermaster was transferred to the medical department. In July, 1863, he was taken prisoner and paroled. In 1864 he raised Company E, Seventh Missouri Cavalry, Confederate States army, and was elected first lieutenant and afterward promoted captain. He held the position until June, 1865. He then practiced in Arkansas, but since 1867 has been in Poplar Bluff. His twenty-three years of active practice have been crowned with success, and he stands high with his profession. The Doctor is county coroner, and is president of the Poplar Bluff school board. He is a member of the Masonic order. He is prominent in political circles, having served on the Democratic, Senate and Congressional Committees, and being now chairman of the County Democratic Committee. Pages 1080-1081 JUDGE ELI LACKS, probate judge and president of the county court, was born in Jackson County, Ala., July 26, 1838. The career of his father, John Lacks, is interesting. Born in Middle Tennessee, he married a Miss Elizabeth Hill, of Madison County, Ala., and lived there until their son was five years old, when they came to Butler County. By trade he was a blacksmith, and of such renown that a radius of twenty and thirty miles covered his patronage. Soon, however, he drifted into political life and became the first assessor of Butler County, and held the office for four years. He was next elected to a term of four years as sheriff and collector, and was always an earnest supporter of the Democracy. Both he and his wife were Methodists, of which denomination he was a licensed local minister. He died in 1862, having survived his wife for six years. Of the nine children born to them, Eli C. was the third, and the rural life of those early days gave him only the meager advantages of six months of school; but the sturdy energy and self- reliance developed by such a life made up for all deficiencies in education. It was in 1858, when he was twenty years of age, that he began independently, and also was married to Miss Catharine Wisecarver, a native of Greene County, Tenn. The union has resulted in seven children. The war turned the attention of Judge Lacks to military affairs, and from June, 1861, he served four years in the Confederate army. He was first lieutenant of Jennings’ company about six months and adjutant of Reare’s regiment a short time, also receiving a commission as captain in the recruiting service. After the conflict closed he engaged in teaching, sold patent medicines three years, farmed, and afterward was occupied with merchandising. He was elected assessor in 1872, and in 1884 became coroner. The Judge was chosen to his present position in 1886. His career has been accompanied with success in a financial sense as well as otherwise. For ten years he was Master of the Poplar Bluff Masonic Lodge No. 209, and now holds the office of secretary. He is also a member of the K. of H. His political convictions are thoroughly Democratic. Judge and Mrs. Lacks are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church South. Page 1081. HON. ROBERT P. LILES, a retired merchant at Poplar Bluff, was born near Nashville, Tenn., October 4, 1835. His father, Jesse Liles, was a young man when he left his native place in Georgia to live in Tennessee, to follow his occupation as a house carpenter and farmer. His public sentiments were strong, and led to a life-long adherence to union and Democracy. His military service was under Gen. Jackson in 1812. He married Miss Martha E. Gilbert in Tennessee, and in 1838 moved to Cape Girardeau County, Mo., where they died in 1866 and 1878, respectively. Both were esteemed members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Ten children were born to them, of whom Robert P. was the eighth, and but three years old when they settled in Missouri. His early life up to his twenty-second year was spent on the farm and in the log schoolhouse hard by. His desires led him to become a clerk, but this was interrupted by the war, and June 4, 1861, he joined for six months’ service in the Missouri State Guards, and after that enlisted in Company F, Eighth Missouri Cavalry, Confederates States of America. He served as first lieutenant in the Missouri State Guards, but after enlisting in the Confederate service, served as a private during the war. He was with Gen. Sterling Price on his raid through Missouri in 1864, fighting more or less day and night. He was in the actions at Little Rock, Poison Springs, Saline River, Jenkins’ Ferry, Marks’ Mill, Ditch Bayou, Helena, and other places. He surrendered in 1865 at Shreveport, La., and following that lived in Farmersville, La., two years, after which he moved to Missouri. In 1865 he married Louise McLawchlin, a native of Louisiana, but of Scotch extraction. Their only son died in infancy. In 1867 Cape Girardeau County, Mo., became their home, and after two years at farming, they moved to Bloomfield, Stoddard County, and entered mercantile life. Since 1877, when worth less than $1,000, he has been in Poplar Bluff, closely devoted to his interests as a merchant, until failing health compelled him to retire from active life, but not before he had become one of the wealthy residents of his adopted home. He was chosen in 1880, by a large majority, to represent Butler County in the Legislature. This is his only public experience as an officer, except as councilman of Poplar Bluff. He is a Democrat, and a member of the K. of H. Both Mr. and Mrs. Liles are Presbyterians. Pages 1081-1092. ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------- Use your Browsers "Back" button to return from this text page to Butler county GoodSpeed File 11:42 7/9/2001 Mary Hudson mahud@fidnet.com