Page:History of Southeast Missouri 1912 Volume 1.djvu/640

 HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI Ste. Genevieve county, where his parents made their home in his early childhood, lie- sides the indifferent educational advantages then ofl'ered in the rural schools of that neigh- borhood, he did much systematic home study ; and at the age of ten years he had gained considerable notoriety among the neighbors on account of his attainments in arithmetic, geography and other common-school branches of study. In his eighteenth year he entered the State Normal School at Cape Girardeau, Missouri, and completed the sophomore year in ten months. After teaching in the jtuldic schools of home county a few terms he be- came a student in the National Normal Uni- versity at Lebanon, Ohio, then under the presidency of Alfred Holbrook, and com- pleted the course in the College of Science. Returning to Missouri, he resumed the work of teaching in the public schools, holding the superintendency of schools for several years successively at Crystal City and at Farm- ington. On December 6, 1886, he was married to .Aliss Sarah E. McFarland, of Coffmau, Mis- souri. Their oldest ciiild, Heber, is a grad- uate of the Cape Girardeau State Normal School and is married and engaged in the real estate business at Flat River. ^Missouri. Heber is twenty-two yeai-s younger than his father. Six younger children, Zora. aged twenty; Gustavus, aged eighteen; Myrtle, aged fifteen ; Paul, aged twelve ; Florence, aged ten, and Carl, aged seven, complete the family circle of Judge Nations and his esti- mable wife in their delightful home in Farm- ington. The entire family except Carl, are members of the Christian church, in Avhich the Judge has been an elder for nearly twenty years. In 1894 the subject of this sketch was ex- amined by the State Superintendent of Public Schools, assisted by the faculty of the War- rensliurg State Normal School, and was given a first grade state teacher's certificate, valid for life. He also passed successfully the ex- amination given by the City Superintendent of Schools of St. Louis to those applying for prineipalships in that city, besides complet- ing a year of regular post-graduate work at Hiram College for which he was awarded an appropriate degree. While teaching at Farmington he studied law and was admitted to the bar in the spring of 1902. In the same year the Republican party nominated him for the office of pro- liate .iudge, and he was elected by nearly a hundred majority, though the county went Democratic by nearl.y three hundred major- ity. No other Republican nominee had then carried the county- in thirty years. At the close of his term he was renominated and re- elected in the face of a substantial Demo- cratic majority. In his habits and tastes. Judge Nations is a commoner. He stands uncompromisingly for clean politics and the rights of the peo- ple. He is opposed to the control of our polities and institutions by predatory wealth. While favoring the principles of the Repub- lican party, he believes it to be the duty of voters to favor the election of the men who are honest and capable and who will render the best service to the public. As a lawyer he is rapidly gaining an enviable reputation and is building up a clean and lucrative practice. Those who know him be- lieve intensely in his personal and profes- sional honesty. An elociuent and forceful public speaker, he has become one of the most influential men in southeast ^Missouri. Will JMayfield College at Marble Hill, ^Missouri, is one of the favorably-known, care- fully conducted and enlightened institutions of learning of the state. It is the outcome of what was formerly kno'mi as the May- field-Smith Academv and was founded in 1878 by W. H. Mayfield and Dr. Smith, at Sedgewickville, Missouri. In 1880 the school was moved to ]Iarble Hill and chai-tered. Professor T. W. Tate was the first principal in charge of the school at Sedgewickville and twenty-two pupils were enrolled in 1878 and 1879. Elder A. M. Johnson was the first prin- cipal at Marble Hill in 1880 and 1881. The school was successively under the ad- ministration of Di-s. Graham, Graves, Dob- bins. ]Iingo and F. J. Ileudershot, until 1903. when it was re-chartered as the Will ^Mayfield College. It has now at its head that excellent educator. Professor A. F. Hend- ricks, of whom further mention is made in the Hendricks biography on other pages of this work. The school has been fostered and supported by the ^lis.sionary Baptist of South-Eastern ilissouri Associations. In 1877 plans were projected by ilessrs. Shurtleft", ]Iercer, Jew- ell and ^layfield for the founding of the school. On February 10, 1878, a fund of one thousand one hundred dollars was pro-