Page:History of Southeast Missouri 1912 Volume 1.djvu/696

 616 HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI tie E. married Leonard Loeffeler of Hayti, Missouri, and died wlien a young woman. Mr. Dunmire has been connected with the Masons for forty-four years, having joined the order in Kentucky in 1867. He is still a worker in the lodge. He is affiliated with Kennett Lodge, No. 68, A. F. & A. M., Helm Chapter, No. 117, of Kennett, and Camp- bell Council, No. 30, of Campbell, Missouri. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal clnircli in Kennett. Jlr. Dunmire is what is known as a Black Republican in St. Louis, but he has hosts of friends with the Demo- cratic party^ notwithstanding the active work he has always done for the Republicans. During the years that Mr. Dunmire has been in Kennett he has seen many changes in the county, most of them for the better. He is one of the most loj'al citizens of Kennett, standing ready at all times to do his best for its betterment. He began his life in the service of Uncle Sam in the army and hopes , to end it in the same service in the postal department. BuEvraLL Fox. One of the native Ohioans transplanted to the great state of Missouri is Burwell Fox, a prominent educator now serving as county superintendent of schools, and a gifted writer and editor. He is a man not only of ability, but also of high ideals of citizenship, and although a Democrat in politics, at the election for his present office he received a large majority in a strongly Republican county, — assuredly an eloquent tribute. He was educated for the law and practiced his profession in Lebanon, Ohio, in which city he also served as mayor and police judge. Professor Pox was bom near Lebanon, Warren county, Ohio, December 8, 1849, and his father, John C. Fox, was born in the vicinity of Lebanon. The grandparents were of Scotch-English stock. John C. Fox lived in the Buckeye state in the days when the wilderness had but recently yielded to the strength and daring of the first brave pi- oneers and he himself grew to manhood on a farm in his native county and there acquired those habits of industry and thrift which dis- tinguished his later life. He answered to the two-fold calling of carpenter and fanner, and subsequently he removed to Indiana, his farm being practically the forest. In 1857 he died from the effects of a horsekick. He married Anne Wayne Brownle.v, a native of the Old Dominion. Three children were born to them. The eldest died in infancy; Sarah F. is now Mrs. John T. Barr; and Burwell is the subject of his brief biograph- ical record. The mother died one month af- ter the death of her husband, and tiie two children were left alone in the world at a very early age. In religious conviction the elder Mr. Fox was a Baptist and he was a stanch AVhig. Burwell Fox was Init seven years of age when he became fatherless and motherless. The home in Indiana was of course broken up and he went to live with an aunt and uncle. Burwell and Catherine Bassett, who resided in his native Lebanon. He received an edu- cation in the public schools of Lebanon and through the kindness of Mr. and Mrs. Bassett found it possible to prepare for the legal profession, to which he was inclined. His studies in this line were pursued at Lebanon, Ohio, and in 1870 he was admitted to the bar at that place and shortly afterward he com- menced to practice, and took his place among the representative members of his profession. In 1872 he gave Lebanon an excellent admin- istration as mayor and he held the office of police judge until 1876, in which year he departed for ^Missouri. Professor Fox located at once in Washing- ton county and since coming here his field of most active usefulness has been the ped- agogical. From 1893 to 1897 he was United States commissioner at Ironton, ]Iissouri, and he subsequently resumed teaching. In 1909 he was elected to his present important office as county superintendent of schools and in 1911 was reelected to the same office. The triumph of his personality over politics has been previously told. He is a splendid, enlightened officer and well maintains the dignity and responsibility of the superinten- dency. He has the work exceedingly well systemized and can instantly look lip the record of any teacher or school. His career as an instructor has also included three years as principal of the Potosi schools. Professor Pox was first married November 13, 1878, Miss Kitty I. Harguss, a member of a Kentucky family, becoming his wife. She died in 1889, at Arcadia, Missouri, and the one child born to the union is also deceased. On June 29, 1892, he was united to .Aliss Maria A. Russell, of Ironton, daughter of Theodore P. and Emily (Guild) Russell, and they share their delightful, cultured home