July 10, 1902.
TYPES OF OUR BUSINESS MEN.
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Dr. J. J. Clark.
Born at Marion in 1874, Dr. Clark's preparatory studies were made in the Lexington, Ky., college. Entering the University of Louisville in 1891 he graduated in 1895 and commenced the practice of medicine, his chosen profession, in his home city, Marion, the same year being just 21 years of age. Fully equipped for every emergency, well read, a skillful surgeon, his success was most brilliant. In a complicated surgical operation, where days and nights were as one, his eyes were somewhat affected, and he was compelled to abstain from professional duties.
Becoming interested last year in our mineral field, the doctor became as much of an enthusiast in mining as he had been in surgery. He occupies the position of Secretary of the Marion Zinc Company, one of our largest mining companies, and devotes his entire time to the company's service.
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David B. Kevil.
The Marion Milling company, of which Mr. Kevil is an important factor, is one of the principal industries of the city. He is a native born Marionite, his education having been obtained in this city and Princeton, Kentucky. Thirty years of age, ten years of which has been spent in the milling business in his own home city, it is not to be wondered at that his friends are numbered only by the city's population. Mr. Kevil is always in the van of every social function and indeed but little transpires, either in public or social life in which he is not identified.
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J. Bell Kevil.
Our former county surveyor, Mr. J. Bell Kevil, has found his professional duties largely increased, owning to the great number of mining leases that require "running out." Mr. Kevil is so familiar with the topography of the country, as well as the direction and extent of our mineral veins, that he is about the busiest man in the city. His law practice alone is sufficiently great to demand most of his attention. Add to all these duties that of police judge and mining engineer and one can easily see that he has not much time for amusement. Mr. Kevil is prominent in the fraternal societies of Marion, and is also largely interested in the barites property that is located near Mexico, and is described in another part of this issue.
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Perry D. Maxwell.
Of Caldwell county birth, a great reader, not only of our current literature but of the great classics of bygone ages. Mr. Maxwell was evidently intended by nature for a profession that would be of benefit to the world at large. Of ample fortune, with strong tendencies toward literary, artistic and religious life, a field [is] open before him for distinction that [illegible] young man's lot. Twenty-three years of age, he graduated from the Marion high school in 1896, afterwards entering the Kentucky State college at Lexington, and thence to the Stetson University at Deland, Florida. He acted for some time as assistant cashier of the Marion Bank, and is now assistant secretary of the Kentucky Fluor Spar company.
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J. H. Morse.
The handsome stores and office buildings of Marion are largely the result of Mr. Morse's architectural and building skill. with an abiding confidence in the future of our handsome city, he very early undertook the remodeling and beautifying of many of our old style and poorly constructed buildings, the streets of Marion are lined with reconstructed and handsome business houses, due to his foresight in preparing for the future.
Mr. Morse's experience in mercantile life has also been one of entire success. He has handled during the past nine years as many as sixteen stocks of goods purchased from as many merchants retiring from business, and has disposed of the entire lines, promptly and satisfactorily.
Mr. Morse is agent for the Home Fire and Tornado Insurance Company, of New York, and his work has been most satisfactory in every way. He has offices at Pickens, Cavender & Pickens dry goods store.
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John N. Clark.
Of magnificent physique, forty-two years of age, Mr. Clark is just now in the height of his business career. Educated in Kentucky, his native state Illinois, Mr. Clark combines the qualities of both. In early life a farmer, he drove the plow as earnestly as in later life he attended to grinding wheat in a large mill where he was financially interested.
During the past two years Mr. Clark has been one of our most energetic miners. He is now connected with the Marion Mineral company, as director and mining advisor.
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J. H. Clifton & Sons.
General Dry Gods, Clothing, Shoes and Hats. Messrs. Clifton & Sons are the successors of Pickens, Cassidy & Co and have been during the past six years one of the two largest business houses in Western Kentucky. The Marion representatives are all young men, fully alive to the rapidly growing importance of the city and determined to remain in the van of the dry goods trade. With very large and most carefully selected [s]tocks of goods, their trade during the past year has been phenomenally large.
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The cut below is a somewhat ancient publication, but as the photographers steadfastly refuse to make an improvement thereon, it is deemed advisable to cling to the old. Mr. Walker has been editor of the PRESS from its christening, June 28, 1879.
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R. C. Walker.
The Crittenden PRESS has done yeoman service in bringing to the attention of the outside world the wonderful country of which Marion is the gateway. As a personal friend of Mr. Walker, the writer desires to say that in many years of semi-newspaper work he has never run across a publication that its editor and proprietor has so willingly and gladly surrendered its columns to the upbuilding of everything that makes for the good of the people and the country. That the people appreciate such work is evidenced by the very large subscription list of the PRESS.
There is scarcely a family in the three counties where the PRESS is not eagerly looked for. Since the mining outlook has brightened, the subscriptions from other states and territories have been on a scale that might well be envied by a pretentious city daily. Mr. Walker is a Kentuckian, and that means much; the pride of the state is somewhat of a surprise to those of us who are from without; the unswerving devotion, the almost passionate love that the Kentuckian has for his native state is akin to the love of the bride to be, perhaps more the adoration of the religious devotee to his church and shrine.
Whatever the cause, or what may be the motive we applaud the sentiment and salute the Kentuckian.
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Levi Cook.
A graduate of the Marion High school supplemented by a three years course at the Lebanon, Ohio, Normal, his strong liking for anything pertaining to machinery finally let him into the production of the timekeepers. Entering as an apprentice in the works at Morganfield, Mr. Cook, in due course of time, became as he is at present, one of the most practical and expert jewelers and watchmakers in the State. For five years he has presided over his fine jewelry establishment on Main street.
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MARION MINERAL CO.
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A Marion Corporation With Most Promising Mines.
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The Marion Mineral company is incorporated under the laws of Kentucky; the incorporators are well known residents of the county, including some of the best business men in Marion. Mr. L. H. James, ex-county attorney and one of the best known members of the Marion bar, is president; Mr. S. Gugenheim, of the big dry goods firm of Yandell & Gugenheim is vice-president; R. C. Walker, editor of the PRESS, is secretary and treasurer. The directors are T. H. Cochran, J. N. Boston, R. B. Clement, E. M. McFee and J. N. Clark. This company has been operating since May 1; it is now taking some fine cube lead from one of its properties, it controls the Bibb shaft on the Tabb vein. This opening is eighty feet deep and is a fine illustration of the banded fissure vein; the vein is twenty-six feet wide, and has galena, zinc and barites; a four foot band of the vein shows 10 per cent. of zinc. The company also has some fluor spar properties in process of development, as well as some promising prospects in the carbonate country. With good business men at the helm, experienced men managing the work and the good properties it controls, this company has a bright future.
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James S. Henry.
The sale of an interest in an exceedingly promising lead prospect over the Ohio river in Illinois for six thousand dollars has brought Mr. Henry into prominence as a successful mining man. Born at Madisonville, Ky., he received his education at the Marion High School in this city. From the school to the technical work of a worker in marble and to a business life in the fire insurance line, was the preparation he received for his work in the mining field. Twenty-six years of age, the last four being passed in a prospector's life, he has made many friends and many dollars. He has all the make-up physically and mentally for his chosen work, and will no doubt achieve success.
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The Press Office.
To the men behind the guns in the PRESS office there's nothing too good for. This really elegant work that they have successfully accomplished equals anything ever attempted where the facilities were no greater than in an interior town. The type setting, the makeup and the press work are all first class, and to Mr. Joseph Bourland, the foreman, Col. Russell and Robt. E. Wilborn, compositors and general utility men, much credit and thanks are given.
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Mining Fluorspar.
It will be noticed by reference to the report of the Illinois Central railroad that our shipments of fluorspar reached the maximum tonnage in 1901. An increase of some ten million pounds over the year 1900 was made. The shipments so far this year will increase rather than diminish this tonnage. It will be well for the smaller producers of fluor spar to hold their product for a fair market value. They should remember that the history of fluor spar veins as in most other veins of mineral is a succession of lean places as well as fat ones. A disposal of all in sight at barely the cost of production leaves nothing for future development of the property and nothing for the men while driving through a possible pinch in the vein.
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The advice to prospectors by Mr. W. C. Uren will be found very valuable. Mr. Uren came to this country when a mere lad and was employed in the New Jersey zinc mines. He left a position in the Cornwall mines where he was employed as a water boy receiving a stated salary of three cents per day. His advance to twenty dollars per month by the New Jersey people shortly after landing in New York. Mr. Uren's experience in mining covers more than fifty years.
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Richard J. Morris.
Mr. Morris was a student and graduate at and from St. Mary's college, in Marion county, Kentucky. He is 23 years of age, of the quick, active, clean-cut type of young men who never fail to reach the goal desired. Graduating in his professional choice from the Cincinnati College of Dental Surgery in '99 he at once adopted Marion as his field of work. Dr. Morris is a close observer and a wonderful worker. He is still a student in the best sense of the word, a great reader, and keeps himself thoroughly in touch with all that is latest and best in his chosen profession. A Kentuckian by birth, his home is in Uniontown. His suite of Dental Parlors over the Marion Bank in Marion, are luxuriously furnished and are filled with all the more modern dental appliances.
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William S. Lowery.
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Salem.
Just beyond the thirty year line of life Mr. Lowery is really the pioneer of mining in the Salem country. Of an enterprising, progressive and ambitious nature, he has probably been the means of inducing more capital to invest in his chosen territory than any ten men in Livingston county.
Being one of the earliest as well as the largest individual investor in mineral lands in the beautiful Salem valley, he has had rare opportunities to acquire the very choicest and most productive ore lands in the county.
It will be noticed by reference to the report of the Illinois Central railroad that our shipments of fluorspar reached the maximum tonnage in 1901. An increase of some ten million pounds over the year 1900 was made. The shipments so far this year will increase rather than diminish this tonnage. It will be well for the smaller producers of fluor spar to hold their product for a fair market value. They should remember that the history of fluor spar veins as in most other veins of mineral is a succession of lean places as well as fat ones. A disposal of all in sight at barely the cost of production leaves nothing for future development of the property and nothing for the men while driving through a possible pinch in the vein.
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THE COLUMBIA MINE.
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This Great Property will Now Assert Itself.
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The passing of the Columbia mining property into such strong hands as T. D. Jones of Chicago, Nelson H. Show of Mineral Point, Wisconsin, both being connected with the Mineral Point Zinc company, and Mr. R. W. Bingham, counsellor [counselor] at law, of Louisville, Ky., marks an epoch in the county's mining history.
The Columbia mine has had rather a checkered career. For many years it was a great producer of lead ores, the large amount of fluor spar and zinc associated with its galena being treated as worthless. The discovery of lead carbonates in Leadville had such a bearish effect of pig lead that the property was abandoned.
Articles of incorporation were filed last week with our Secretary of State the capitalization being $100,000. The parties named holding the entire stock.
Of course, now that this magnificent property has fallen in its proper groove, the fluorspar, the zinc and the lead will all be utilized and made productive.
The Columbia mine today, with its 160 foot finely timbered shaft, is perhaps the best example of a purely zinc sulphide-galena vein that exists in this country.
The ore is of a massive character, much of it being ready for the smelter when it is mined. We congratulate the county in having such men in its industrial field.
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At Hampton is one of the best and most homelike hotels in Western Kentucky.
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Source: Crittenden Press. (Marion, Ky.) 1879-1907, July 10, 1902, Image 6 - Chronicling America - The Library of Congress.
[My comments are in brackets.]