Page:History of Southeast Missouri 1912 Volume 1.djvu/435

 HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 375 ness and an ice plant and was for many years one of the foremost men of the to^^l. In ad- dition to his business interests he held various positions of trust having been mayor and for more than twenty years was president of the school board. Mr. Peck was a man of high public spiriit and did much to advance the interests of his community. No man deserved more at the hands of the town and none stood higher in the aifection of the people. He died very suddenly in 1910. At present the to^'n has about fifty busi- ness establishments of one kind and another and is constantly adding to the number. There are several large general stores and many other business institutions of different kinds. Several large cotton gins take care of the cotton crop in the vicinity and there is a cotton oil mill. The town has also some large wood working establishments that manufac- ture lumber, staves and heading. A new elec- tric liglit plant and water works system has recently been installed giving first class serv- ice. There are two l)anks. The Dunklin County Bank, the oldest in the county, was es- tablished in 1890. It now has a capital stock of .$20,000. The Bank of INIalden was char- tered in 1903. Its capital stock is also $20,- OOU. The town is situated on the main line of the St. Louis Southwestern Railway and a branch of this line runs from here to Cairo, Illinois. There is also a branch of the St. Louis & Gulf which reaches Maiden from Clarkton. One of the large wood-working establishments has a tram road running for a number of miles itito the East Swamp which is being converted into a standard gauge railroad. Maiden has the usual church organizations all of them having biiild- ings, and the Presbyterian church has re- cently completed the erection of a handsome brick structure. The public school sy.stem is well organized, the town has just completed a new building at a cost of $25,000. The farming country aliout the town is unusually rich and large quantities of cotton, melons and corn are shipped from this place every year. The population of Maiden at the pres- ent time is 2,116. Campbell The town of Campbell, Dunklin county, was established in 1881, the first residents in the tow^l were L. McCutcheon, J. H. Bridges, H. A. Gardner, L. Walker, Dr. Hale, Dr. William R. Hughes, and the first merchants in the town were Lasswell Brothers, A. D. Bridges & Son, L. JlcCutcheon & Company, Levi AValker and William Bridges. The town grew slowly for a number of years but on the erec- tion of a large wood working establishment the population increased very rapidly for a number of years. At the present time there are nineteen general stores besides restau- rants, drug stores and other smaller business interests and there are ten factories, most of these are wood-working establishments of one kind or another, all of them taken together give employment to a large number of men and add considerable to the prosperity of the town. The town was incorporated May 18, 1894, and the first ma.yor was Charles Cheny. The Bank of Campbell was organized in 1897. It now has a capital stock of $30,000 ; the First National Bank of Campbell was organized in 1903 and also has a capital of $30,000. The town has a good system of electric lights and is completing a system of water works; the city water is to be taken from an artesian well, one of the few flowing wells in Southeast Mis- .souri. Among the important buildings are the city hall and public school buildings. One of the things of which the city is especially proud is its system of public schools, employ-