Page:History of Southeast Missouri 1912 Volume 1.djvu/669

 HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 595 ent fine edifice of the CongregatioBal church in Bonne Terre is his gift to the people of his home city. Prom the previously men- tioned memorial are taken the following ap- preciative words: "Perhaps the character- istics which endeared him so generally to the people of this community were his never- fail- ing courtesy and that kind consideration which never varied, whether the occasion was a presidential reception or that of helping some poor foreigner from the gutter, or com- pelling some poor workman to accept a loan which his keen perception told him was needed." The death of Mr. Parsons caused an en- tire community to mourn, and all classes and conditions of men and women in Bonne Terre showed their deep sense of personal loss and bereavement. They mourned not the success- ful man, not the man of wealth and influ- ence, but felt that they were bereft of a true friend, the man of deep human sympathy and tolerance, the man whose was the faith that makes faithful in all things. His fu- neral was conducted by Rt. Rev. Daniel Tut- tle. the venerable bishop of the Missouri dio- cese of the Protestant Episcopal church, and this honored prelate was assisted by the pas- tor of the Congregational church in Bonne Terre, Rev. H. L. Hartwell. Interment was made with Ma-sonic honors, as Mr. Parsons was long identified with this time-honored fraternity. It may be noted that the sons of Mr. Par- sons have succeeded to and assumed active supervision of his varied industrial and other capitalistic interests, in the control of which they are showing themselves worthy of the honored name which they bear. They are also men of sterling character and high civic ideals. There can be no wish to lift the gracious veil that gave seclusion to a home whose every relation was ideal, but it is consistent to enter a brief record concerning the domestic relations of Mr. Parsons, — relations that were marked by the greatest of solicitude and beauty. While sei"ving as a soldier in the Civil war Mr. Parsons was granted a fur- lough, and within this period, on the 5th of February. 1862, was solemnized his marriage to Miss Jane E. Doolittle. the accomplished daughter of M. J. and Elizabeth (Camp) Doolittle, and a sister of General Charles C. Doolittle, who gained distinction in the Civil war. in which he entered service as a member of the same company as did the sub- ject of this memoir. Mrs. Parsons survives her honored husband and still resides in the beautiful home at Riverside, near Bonne Terre. She was reared and educated in New York city and Brooldyn and brought into the wilds of Missouri, when she came here wdth her husband, the fine elements of cul- ture that had been gained in her associations in the east. For three years previous to her marriage Mrs. Parsons was the leading so- prano in the choir of Rev. Theodore L. Cuy- ler's church at Brooklyn. Mr. and Mrs. Par- sons became the parents of eight children, of W'hom five are living: Roscoe R. S. and Gerard S., who have succeeded their father in the various positions of the latter 's large interests; Jessie H., who is the wife of Ben Blewett, superintendent of the public schools of St. Louis, Missouri ; Mabel T., who is the wife of Dr. George Knapp, of Vin- cennes, Indiana; and Miss Bertha S., who re- mains with her widowed mother. Roscoe R. S. Parsons is now general manager of the St. Joseph Lead Company ; vice-president of the Doe Run Lead Company; vice-president of the Mississippi River & Bonne Terre Rail- road Company; and president of the Farm- ers' & Miners' Trust Company of Bonne Terre. Gerard S. Parsons is assistant gen- eral manager of the St. Joseph Lead Com- pany and treasurer of the railroad company above mentioned. Professor Willlm Leslie Johns. It is not to be gainsaid that there is no office car- rying with it so much responsibility as that of the instractor who moulds and fashions the plastic mind of youth; who instills into the formative brain those principles which, when matured, will be the chief heritage of the active man who in due time will sway the multitudes, lead armies, govern nations or frame the laws by which civilized nations are governed. To say that all learned men are capable of filling this high and important of- fice is by no means the truth. One is in- clined frequently to believe that the true edu- cator is born and not made; he must have a vast knowledge of human nature; he must know not only what is in books, but what is in man also ; he must understand his pupil and deal with his kind according to his in- dividuality. "William Leslie Johns, superintendent of the Flat River schools, was born July 3, 1872. at Grubville, Jefferson county, Missouri. The