Page:History of Southeast Missouri 1912 Volume 1.djvu/816

 704 HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST IMISSOUEI the monetary institutions which emphasize and exert marked influence in conserving the financial stability and commercial pres- tige of the county and its judicial center and Mr. Williams has shown marked dis- crimination in the management of its affairs. Mr. Williams is a native of Saint Francois county, his birth having occurred within its pleasant boundaries on November 21, 1869. His father, George IMcGahan Williams, was born in this county, March 4, 1831. The senior Mr. Williams, owing to educational conditions of his time, received but a limited training, this, such as it was, being secured in the common schools of the locality and period. Pie passed his early days on the farm and in truth has devoted his life-long activities to the great basic industry. He established a household of his own in 1855, when he was imited in marriage to Amelia Thomasson. of St. Francois county, a daugh- ter of Gabriel and Sally Thomasson. the former of whom was a prominent agricultur- ist. To this union nine children were born, six of whom are living at the present time. The devoted wife and mother was sum- moned to the life eternal in 1885, but the father survives, a venerable gentleman, well- known in the locality. He remained upon his farm until he sold it to the Theodora Lead Company, about the year 1894, which marks the time of his retirement from active farm life, and he now makes his home in Farmington. In political questions he gives heart and hand to the men and measures of the Democratic party, which he has sup- ported since his earliest voting days, and his religious conviction is that of the Southern ]Iethodist Episcopal church. Luther Henry Williams had what is gen- erally considered the good fortune to pass his early life upon the farm, and in the com- mon country schools he received his prelim- inary education. When it came to choosing a life work he found that he had no ambition to follow in the paternal footsteps, and at the age of tAventy-one yeai's he left the farm and went to work in the mines, riinning a dia- mond drill. He was engaged in this wise for four years, at the end of which time he con- cluded to prepare himself for a business career and to this end he went to St. Louis and entered the Bryant & Strattou Commer- cial College, and having finished this he_ en- tered the mercantile business at Flat River in association with his brothers, George K. and John T. In 1898 the Messrs. Williams sold out and after a short period of leisure the subject entered upon his first banking experience, as an employe of the Miners' & Merchants' Bank at Flat River, he taking the olfiee of assistant cashier for the first year and in the two years following holding that of cashier. In 1904 he assisted in the organization of the Farmers' Bank at Farm- ington, and was made cashier of the institu- tion, which place he now holds. As men- tioned in a preceding paragraph he is a director of the Miners' Supply Company at Flat River and also interested in the Na- tional Bank of Commerce in St. Louis and The Bankers Trust Companv of St. Louis. On the 20th day of April, 1898, Mr. Wil- liams was happily married to Nelly Pearl ^Moody, of Irondale, daughter of William Moody, an engineer and mechanic. The union of Mr. and Mrs. Williams has been blessed by the birth of six children, namely: Gwendolyn, Luther Wallace (deceased) ; George Harry, Franklin, Mary Lucile and Corinne. ]Ir. Williams is an interested and popular member of the great ]Iasonic order and ex- emplifies in his own life its noble principles, while his church home and that of his worthy wife is of the Southern Methodist denomination. Politically he is a stahvart supporter of the Democratic party, having been aligned with the same since his earliest voting days. Robert H. Wiiitelaw, one of the success- ful lawyers of Cape Girardeau, is as popular as he is influential. Throughout his career his maxim has been to do the duty which lies nearest, not worrying about what the next step might be. It is because of this simplic- ity of creed that Mr. Whitelaw has made such an unmitigated success of his life up to the present time. He has by no means reached the limit of his capabilities, although he has accomplished enough to satisfy a less enter- prising man. However, it is safe to predict that innsmui'h as he has heretofore filled all offices to the satisfaction of lioth his own and opposing parties, he will continue to have re- sponsibilities thrust iipon him. He was born in Essex count.y, Virginia, January 30, 1854, and is the son of Thomas Wiiitelaw, a planter in Virginia, in which state he was born. He was possessed of a large plantation on which were many slaves, but he was a believer in the rights of the col- ored man and was a most considerate master.