CHAPTER XXVII (Part 27)
BIOGRAPHICAL
H. J. Reiling, manager of the Farmers Elevator and Supply Company, Montrose, Missouri, was born in Deepwater township, December 26, 1866, and is the son of Henry and Gertrude (Schistler) Reiling, natives of Germany who emigrated to America with their respective parents when young and located in Henry County, Missouri where both were reared to maturity. Henry Reiling died in Oklahoma in 1913, at the age of seventy-two years. Gertrude Reiling died in 1914, at the age of seventy years. They were parents of three children: H. J., the eldest of the family; John Reiling, died in Oklahoma; William lives on the old home place of the family in Deepwater township.
Reared upon the home place of the family near Germantown, in Deepwater township, H. J. Reiling naturally took up the vocation of his forebearers and became a farmer. He rented the old Cordell farm in 1893, and in 1911 he purchased this tract of 169 acres located southwest of Montrose. He had this place nicely improved but suffered a severe loss from fire in 1914. He immediately rebuilt and continued to cultivate and improve his place until taking charge of the Farmers Elevator and Supply Company, upon its organization in 1915. Mr. Reiling is given thorough satisfaction in the performance of the duties of his position.
Mr. Reiling was manned in 1895 to Otillie Conrad, who was born at Benedict, Iowa, the daughter of Ben Conrad, who resides in Nebraska. Eight children have been born of this marriage, six of whom are living, namely: William, Charles, Henry, August, Ida, and Edward, all of whom are at home with their parents.
Mr. Reiling is a Republican in politics and is affiliated with the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons of Montrose. He is universally recognized as an excellent citizen who believes in progressive methods of business and continual civic betterment and is always ready and willing to put his shoulder to the wheel and assist in moving things onward.
The Montrose Farmers' Elevator and Supply Company was organized in June, 1915, with a capital of $6,000 all of which was subscribed by farmers in the vicinity of Montrose. The principal organizers were men of the highest standing in the community. The concern purchased an elevator which had been operated by other parties for some time previous.
The grain elevator has a capacity of 6,000 bushels. During 1917 there were shipped from this elevator over 150,000 bushels of grain. The stock of this concern is divided among 123 stockholders. When the Company was first organized, H. J. Reiling was elected president; H. J. Hueser was elected vice-president; J. E. Dugan became secretary; John Swaters, Jr., served as treasurer. The present officers are: Lewis Tilling, president; P. J. Meyer, vice-president; John Swaters, Jr., secretary and treasurer; H. J. Reiling, manager.
General Lafayette Park, a prominent farmer and stockman of Big Creek township, is a native of Tennessee. He was born in Cock County April 9, 1860, a son of John A. and Catharine M. (Garrison) Park, natives of Tennessee. The father died April 11, 1910, and the mother now resides with her son. John A. Park was a Confederate veteran. He enlisted in his native State and served in behalf of the lost cause until the fall of Vicksburg. At the close of the war he went to Indiana, where he remained until 1868. He then came to Missouri, settling near Lees Summit, in Jackson County, where he was engaged in farming until 1889.
He then came to Henry County and he and his son. General Lafayette, purchased a farm in Big Creek township, which the latter now owns. Mr. Park's farm consists of nine hundred forty acres and is one of the well improved and valuable farms of Henry County. Mr. Park carries on general farming and stock raising. He is known as an extensive stockman and raises about one hundred head of cattle annually. He has shipped as many as four cars of hogs in one year.
March 10, 1888, G. L. Park was united in marriage to Miss Anna Lou Gault of Jackson County, Missouri. She is a daughter of James and Rebecca J. (Flanery) Gault. Mrs. Park's mother died in 1908, and her father is now living retired and spends much of his time with his children. To General Lafayette Park and wife have been born the following children: James, farmer and stockman in Big Creek township, who makes a specialty of breeding Percheron horses and mammoth jacks; Anna Belle, married Roy Albin, Big Creek township; Lafayette, farmer and stockman in Big Creek township, and Mabel, married Ralph Butcher, Big Creek township.
Mr. Park is a member of the Masonic Lodge and is a director in the Farmers Bank of Chilhowee, Missouri. He is a progressive and enterprising citizen and always stands ready to co-operate with and support any enterprise for the betterment or up-building of his township and county.
Henry B. Hecker - Hecker Brothers - The late Henry B. Hecker, father of George J. and Joseph B. Hecker, well-known druggists of Montrose, was one of the best-known and useful citizens of the second generation of a Henry County pioneer family. He was born in Germany in 1839 and his father emigrated from Germany and settled in the Germantown neighborhood as early as 1854. Henry B. Hecker was reared to young manhood upon his father's farm and at the outbreak of the Civil War he enlisted with the Union forces. He served for three years and three months as a member of the Sixth Missouri Cavalry Regiment and fought battles in Missouri, Arkansas, Texas and Louisiana, and was in the thick of the campaign which resulted in General Price's Confederate Army being driven out of Missouri. After the war he settled down to farming and for some years served as postmaster of Germantown. During President Arthur's administration, he was appointed postmaster of Montrose and served for three years. He then established a drug business in Montrose which he conducted successfully for some years.
Henry H. Hecker was married to Margaret C. Teeman, who was born in Germantown in 1850, and departed this life on February 25, 1918, at Boulder, Colorado, at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Lizzie Lennertz. The following children were born to Henry B. and Margaret Hecker: George J.; Lizzie, wife of H. A. Lennertz, Boulder, Colorado; Henry S., North Platte, Nebraska; Joseph B.; John P., Sterling, Colorado; Edward A., Kansas City, Missouri; Mrs. Florence Brushwiller, Virginia, Minnesota. Mr. Hecker died in 1892.
Mr. Hecker was a member of the Catholic Church. He was a Republican in politics and prominent in the affairs of his party in Henry County. Being a well-educated man, he was a pronounced leader in his home community and county. He was well versed in legal lore and legal practices and his services in drawing up legal documents for the people of the countryside were constantly in demand. Mr. Hecker served for some years as justice of the peace in Deepwater township. He also ably filled the important post of county assessor of Henry County and was a very useful citizen in many ways. His life was so well spent that his place in the history of his home county is forever assured.
George J. Hecker was born in Germantown in 1869 and received his early education in the Montrose public schools. He graduated from the Kansas City School of Pharmacy in 1891 and then took charge of his father's drug business until 1903. In that year he went to St. Louis and served as a drug clerk until his return to Montrose in 1915. In June of 1915, the firm of Hecker Brothers, druggists, was established in Montrose.
Hecker Brothers succeeded the firm of Hecker and Hinkle which was established in 1912 by Joseph B. Hecker and John P. Hinkle. Mr. Hinkle was succeeded by George J. Hecker as the senior member of the firm. Hecker Brothers have a flourishing business, conducted in one of the most modern and handsomely furnished drug stores in western Missouri. The stock carried is the latest and best of drugs and druggist's sundries and the firm is in a prosperous condition.
In politics, George J. Hecker is a Republican. He is a member of the Church of the Immaculate Conception, Catholic, at Montrose, and is fraternally affiliated with the Knights of Columbus.
Mr. George J. Hecker was united in marriage with Miss Julia Hess in 1900. Mrs. Julia Hecker is a daughter of Clement Hess. Mr. and Mrs. Hecker have three children: Clementine, Pauline, and Georgia.
Joseph B. Hecker, junior member of the firm of Hecker Brothers, was born at Germantown, in 1881 and received his primary education in the public schools of Montrose. He graduated from the Kansas City School of Pharmacy in 1908. He practically worked his way through the school of pharmacy and worked as a drug clerk in Kansas City for nine and a half years. He returned to Montrose in 1912 and engaged in business with Mr. Hinkle in 1912 as previously stated.
In 1903, Joseph B. Hecker and Maude Hinkle were united in marriage and this union has been blessed with three sons: Bernard E., Joseph B., Jr., and William H. Mrs. Maude Hecker is a daughter of Isaac and Henriett J. (Adkins) Hinkle, both deceased, the latter of whom died at her home in Montrose, April 11, 1918. Mr. Hecker is a Republican in politics, and a member of the Catholic Church. He is affiliated with the Knights of Columbus.
James McNeal Miller, M. D - Thirty-two years in the successful practice of his profession in Henry County, has marked the career of Dr. James McNeal Miller of Montrose as a medical practitioner of high rank and one of the leading physicians of Henry County, being among the oldest of the medical practitioners of the county in point of years of service in the healing art. Twenty-five years of his practice has been spent among the people of Montrose and vicinity where he is universally esteemed and highly regarded.
Dr. Miller is a native son of Henry County and is a member of one of the oldest pioneer families of the county. He was born on a farm in Fairview township, near Deepwater, November 6, 1863, and is the son of James McNeal (born April, 1822; died December 24, 1906) and Artemesia (Elledge) Miller (born 1822; died 1872). James McNeal Miller, the elder, was born in Kentucky, a son of James Miller who was descended from an old pioneer American family of Scotch ancestry. Artemesia (Elledge) Miller was also born in Kentucky and was the daughter of Isaac Elledge. Both the Miller and the Elledge families removed from Kentucky to Edgar County, Illinois in the thirties and there the parents of Doctor Miller were reared to maturity and were married.
James McNeal Miller was a veteran of the Mexican War and both he and his father were prominent in the affairs of Henry County. His father served as county clerk of Edgar County, Illinois, and he, himself, served as clerk of the Circuit Court in that county when Abraham Lincoln practiced law in that county. He came to Henry County, Missouri, in 1856 and settled upon a tract of land in Fairview township which he improved into a good farm. During the Civil War he served as a member of the Missouri State Militia in Capt. William Weaver's company. In 1868, he sold his place in Fairview township and settled upon a farm northeast of Montrose in Bear Creek township, where Mrs. Miller died. Later, the elder Miller moved to La Due and then came to Montrose, where he lived retired until his death.
Ten children were born to James McNeal and Artemesia Miller: Bruce, deceased; Clara, deceased wife of Robert H. Dugan, Montrose, Missouri; Frank, Peon Prairie, Washington; Ellen, Montrose, Missouri; Isaac, deceased; Marie L., a teacher in the Clinton Public schools; Susan, wife of George F. Vansant, Bear Creek township; Dr. James M. Miller; Dr. Sherman Miller, former physician at Mayesburg, Bates County, Missouri, killed in an automobile accident in 1916; John S., Pasadena, California.
James McNeal Miller, the elder, was prominent in the political and civic affairs of Henry County for many years. He served as collector of taxes for Henry and St. Clair Counties shortly after the Civil War and filled the office of sheriff of the county during the reconstruction days. He was a Free Mason.
After his graduation from the Kansas City Medical College in 1886 Doctor Miller began the practice of his profession at Mayesburg, Missouri, where he remained for seven years. In 1893, he came to Montrose and has successfully practiced medicine in this city and vicinity for over twenty-five years. In every advance made in the science of medicine he has consistently endeavored to keep abreast of the times and has studied continuously since his first graduation. He graduated from the Missouri Medical College at St. Louis in the spring of 1895 and pursued a post graduate course at the Marion Sims-Beaumont College at St. Louis in 1903 and 1904.
Doctor Miller was married in 1895 to Miss Minnie B. Mayes of Bates County, Missouri, a daughter of J. M. Mayes, of the prominent family of that name in Bates County.
The Republican party has always had the consistent support of Doctor Miller and he has served as mayor of Montrose for seven years. He is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons. Professionally he is connected with the Henry County Medical Society, the Missouri State Medical Association and the American Medical Association.
