Page:History of Southeast Missouri 1912 Volume 1.djvu/761

 HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 663 his present estate. It was all in the woods when he bought, and while he continued farming as a renter up to 1905 he improved his other place, and when he moved to it in li)05 he was owner of eighty acres, which he at once began to clear up. He built his pres- ent comfortable cottage home of five rooms and also a good barn, sixty by sixty feet, has fenced his fields, and has all his original place in cultivation. In 1910 he purchased eighty acres more, half of which is in cultivation. He leases sixty acres of his place to a ten- ant. Corn is his principal crop, and he is known through the country-side as an indus- trious and prospering farmer and citizen, who has earned all he has. To supplement his income at different periods he has baled hay and hauled logs. Mr. Owen affiliates with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Modern Wood- men of America and the Mutual Protective League of Hornersville. In politics he is a Democrat, and is a member of the IMethodist church. South. He and his wife are the parents of the following family : Suda, born December 30, 1890, now the wife of Thomas Hitt; Viola, born in 1891, died at the age of fifteen ; Charles, born in 1893 ; Mary, born in 1897; Mattie, born in 1899; and Thomas, born in 1901. ilr. Owen's parents were Rev. John Syl- vester and South Carolina Owen, the former a minister of the Methodist Episcopal church, South, during all of his active life. He was born in Tennessee and died at Caruthersville, Missouri, in 1899, aged fifty-five years. He was a Mason and active in lodge affairs. His wife had died at the age of forty-two years, in 1887, in xVrkansas. David W. Owen was the second of ten children, of whom six are living: Daniel, of Mississippi county, Arkan- sas; Liueinda (Lomax), of Dunklin county, Missouri; Willie, also of Dunklin county; Catherine (Busby), of Noble, Clay county, Arkansas; Walter, of Dunklin county, Missouri; and Caretha (Pitts), also of Dunk- lin county, Missouri. Mrs. David W. Owen was born in Greene county, Arkansas, in 1872, a daughter of John and Sarah Rowe, both now deceased, but early residents and farm- ers of Greene county, Arkansas. John T. McKay, practicing attorney at Kennett, is a man who has distinguished himself in the field of law, even as his father was noted as an educator. The father's achievements lie all in the past, but to the son, in addition to the deeds which may al- ready have been accredited to him, belongs the precious present, the time when he can prepare for the future, the time when he can continue to work out that success which does not come unasked, but must be wrought out by ambition, plus preparation and work. A brief svirvey of the early history of John T. McKay and his immediate ancestors will give us a fuller realization of his present status. Forty-two yars ago, January 11, 1869, John T. McKay was ushered into the world, the scene of his arrival being New Madrid county, Missouri. The grandparents of the subject of this sketch, Walter McKay and Mary (Holcomb) McKay, were natives of Georgia, where they spent the early years of their lives, were educated and married. In 1833, a few years after their marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Walter McKay left their home and came to Missouri, where they set- tled on a farm in New Madrid county. There they reared their children to ma- turity, educating them in the subscription schools of their vicinity. Mr. McKay gained the confidence of the people in the com- munity, as is evinced by his election to the office of sheriff of the county, a position which he filled in an eminently satisfactory manner. His son, John McKay, was born in the Georgian home of his parents, but had only hazy recollections of his southern birthplace, as he was only three years old when he came to Missouri with his parents. The early years of his life were spent in New Madrid county, where he attended the subscription schools, being self educated. He virtually spent his life as a teacher, for which he was admirably qualified both by nature and training. John McKay was possessed of the faculty of I'ealizing the difficulties of the student and could explain all his perplexities in the most clear, concise manner. In addi- tion to this, he was a disciplinarian of the highest type, as he was not only able to main- tain order, but at the same time secure the good will and respect of his pupils. For a period of thirty years Mr. McKay taught in New Madrid, Stoddard and Dunklin counties, losing none of his force and interest during those several years of faithful work. He taught up to the age of sixty-seven, only two years before his death, his last professional work being in the preparatory schools of Dunklin county. He died in 1898, ending a life of self-sacrifice, as does every teacher