Page:History of Southeast Missouri 1912 Volume 1.djvu/785

 HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 681 Paragould a short time, and then moved to Piggott, Arkansas, but his stay there was of short duration also, and he pressed on to Mis- souri and located at Senath, wlien there were only a few scattered houses there; he helped to build the town, and at the expiration of three years he felt that his desires were turned in the direction of the farm. He bought the place which he occupies to-day, — a mile and half southeast of Caruth, where he farms eighty acres of land, forty acres of which belong to his wife and the other forty acres he bought. When he first moved on to the farm it was very much run down, but he has greatly improved it, having built fences and put up a new barn. He gi-ows cotton and corn, and also raises stock on his land, and is very successful. Mr. Porterfield has been twice married. On October 13, 1876, he was united in mar- riage to ^liss Sallie C. Welch, of Savannah, where the Doctor was in college. After just twenty years of married life she died in Arkansas, leaving five children. — Eldridge, who is now a contractor and architect in Pig- gott, Arkansas, and is married to Miss Lulu Wheeler; Mary, the second child, who is the wife of John Stevens, of Maiden, Missouri ; Ella, who is married to Tom Clifton of Dunklin county ; and Vivian, who lives with her sister Marsella, the wife of William Pitts, near Caruth. On the 18th of January, 1900, Mr. Porterfield married Mrs. Nancy A. Pruett, a widow with five children. One child, Archie, has been born to tlie union of Mr. and Mrs. Porterfield, and he is ju.st ten years old, a student in the public school. Mr. Porterfield is a member of the ]Meth- odist Episcopal Church, where he is an active worker. He is a Democrat, and although he has no desires for political honors for him- self, he has at different times been most active in working for some of his friends. All that Mr. Porterfield owns is the result of his own efforts. As a rule it is not a good thing for a man to make change of occupa- tion, but it is much better to change than it is to continue in work which is distasteful, and in the ease of ilr. Porterfield liis varied experiences have helped to bi-oadeu his char- acter and to make him the efficient meml^er of the community that he is at present. Frederick W. Stumpe. For a decade past the Bank of Washington. ^Missouri, has had its official head Frederick W. Stumpe, who is a native of Missouri, though his father came from Germany. This is an especially happy combination — American aggressiveness and push combined with German thrift and con- servatism, and it has served to inspire with confidence those who desired to invest their savings in the Bank of Washington. Indeed, Mr. Stumpe has been extremely successful in handling money to good advantage, — not only his own, but that of his patrons, and he can justly take a pardonable pride therein. As above stated, Mr. Stumpe was born in Missouri, upon a farm three miles south of the city of Washington, the date of his birth being November 6, 1852, a son of Henry W. and Mary (IMarquard) Stumpe. Henry W. Stumpe and his wife were both natives of Osnabruck, Germany, where they were mar- ried, but hearing of the glories of America the}' decided to try their fortunes in that country, so, in 1833 they immigrated to the United States and settled in Franklin coimty, Missouri. Here Mr. Stumpe devoted his time and talents to farming, which formed his life occupation. He died in 1868, at the age of sixty years, his wife surviving him until May, 1886, when she, too, passed to the Great Be- yond. The issue of this union was Mary, wife of W. H. Gallenkamp and mother of Judge Gallenkamp. the surveyor of the port of St. Louis ; Henry, who was one of the first volun- teers from Missouri in the Civil war, and who later passed his life as a merchant in Wash- ington ; Julia became the wife of Judge Robert Hoffman, of Washington ; Louisa mar- ried Arnold Godt. and died in Washington ; Charlotte passed awav in 1868 as the wife of John Wentyne. of St. Louis; and Frederick W., the immediate subject of this review. Frederick W. Stumpe left the farm during his early youth, as agricultural pursuits did not tempt him as a life vocation, and entered private school in Washington, where he acquired his educational training. He first tasted the fruits of his own labor employed as a painter, but instead of following this occupation he accepted a clerkship, which position he retained until 1875, when he was appointed assistant cashier of the Washington Savings Bank, the first and only bank in that city. He immediately discovered that the handling and investing of money was his forte, and decided to make the banking Imsi- ne.ss his life vocation. In July, 1877, this in- stitution failed and Mr. Stumpe was ap- pointed its assignee, and so successfully did he manage its tanerled affairs that the deposi- tors were practically paid in full.