In the books' own words, not ours, with obvious scanning errors fixed. The later printing (1911) is folded below the first. Families often supplied these stories to the publisher, so check key dates.
From History of Monroe and Shelby Counties -1884 (FACSIMILE) (1884), General history of Shelby County, Missouri (1911)
W. A. DIMMITT
(Merchant, Shelbyville).
Mr. Dimmitt, a large and influential dealer in general merchandise, has been in the business for about 11 years, and has as fine a trade as any man in the county. He was first in partnership with Mr. Dussair, but is now alone. He carries a $10,000 stock, his annual sales amounting to about $20,000. He also has a branch stock at Shelbina, in charge of Pope Dimmitt, his brother. This was started with a $2,000 stock in 1883. Mr. Dimmitt is a member of the firm of Dimmitt & Cooper, dealers in buggies, carriages, etc. They do an extensive business, buying by the car-load from Cincinnati and St. Louis. Mr. Dimmitt was born in Lewis county, Mo., at Monticello, November 22, 1850.. He was the eldest of six sous, was educated at the public and high schools at Shelbyville, and at 17 began teaching school, farming in his leisure moments, continuing until he went into business. Mr. D.now lives on a farm of 500 acres, beautifully situated one and a half miles south of Shelbyville. He is paying much attention to the breeding of short-horn cattle, having for sale a herd of 21 breeders, the head of the herd being the celebrated bull, Marquis of Airdrie. He has also Poland-China and Jersey red hogs, and the imported Norman horse, Moridovi, valued at $2,000.00. Mr. Dimmitt owns a large store which he erected in addition to the three adjoining buildings in 1876. Mr. D. was married June 4, 1872, to Miss Lizzie Vaughn, daughter of Wilson Vaughn, and has four sons: Philip, aged 10 years; Walter, aged seven years; Roy, aged five years; and Joseph Bowles, aged two years. Mr. Dimmitt is not a member of any society, norhas he as yet connected himself with any church.
PRINCE DIMMITT (Farmer and Stock-raiser, Post-office, Shelbyville).
Mr. Dimmitt is a son of Dr. Philip Dimmitt, of the banking firm of ‘Cooper & Dimmitt, at Shelbyville, and was born while his parents were residents of Boonville, in Cooper county, his natal day being the 30th of July, 1860. The same year of his birth his parents removed to Shelby county and located on a farm in this county. He was therefore reared in Shelby county. His education in the higher branches was acquitted in the High School of Shelbyville. Having a natural inclination for farm life, he those the pursuits of agriculture, farming ind handling stock, as the field of his activity, and since reaching his majority he has been engaged in farming and raising and dealing in stock in this county. Mr. Dimmitt, besides attending to the ordinary
- duties of his farm, handles about 140 head of cattle annually, and some mules in addition. A good judge of stock and full of energy and enterprise, he is rapidly coming to the front as a prominent stock man of the county, and has already achieved substantial success in this line of business. On the 17th of March, 1881, Mr. Dimmitt was married to Miss Cora E. Schofield, a d: daughter of Ellis Schofield, Esq., late of Palmyra, but now deceased. “Mr. and Mrs. D. have two children, Nora Lee and Edith Belle. A sketch of his father’s family has been given in the biography of Dr. Dimmitt, which appears elsewhere in this work.
HENRY B. DINES (Editor and Proprietor of the Shelby County Herald, Shelbyville).
Mr. Dines, of the Herald, one of the leading newspapers of the county in circulation and influence, as well as in business prosperity: and success, is justly entitled to no inconsiderable measure of credit for the enviable position his paper occupies among the better class of country journals in North-east Missouri. The paper was originally established by Willard & Childs in 1871, and had a precarious existence for several years, but was finally placed on a paying business basis. Up to 1876 it was Republican in politics, but after Hayes’ election Mr. W. L. Willard, the editor, espoused the cause of the National Greenback party and succeeded in attracting a large following in this county. In 1881, Mr. Willard having become the proprietor of the office, Mr. Dines bought him out and has since been editor and sole proprietor. All who know anything of the newspapers of the county, and, indeed, of the country papers of this section of the State, will readily admit that the Herald is one of the best in the list both in a business point of view and in ability, editorially. Mr. Dines has continued the Greenback policy of the paper, and the cause it represents has suffered nothing, so far as the Herald is concerned, from any fault of his. Conducted with ability and superior business management before he took charge of it, the same characteristics have distinguished its career not less since that time. In a word it is a paper, in every essential feature, in which he and his party, as well as the community at large, may justly feel no ordinary degree of pride. Mr. Dines himself, is well known to the people of the county as one of its representative and worthy citizens. He has been a resident of the county almost continuously from boyhood, and during all this time his life has been one of active and useful industry, and without a reproach. Mr. Dines is a native Missourian, born in Knox county, September 24,1844. His parents were John W. and Nancy (Murphy) Dines, worthy and respected residents of Shelby county. The Dines family is an old Maryland family, and is of English descent. Mr. Dines’ mother was of Irish parentage. His parents were married in Clar ‘ke county, Mo., in 1843, and afterwards resided for some years ‘in Knox county. In 1845, however, they located in Clarke county, where they made their home until 1857, when they came to
Shelby county. Mr. Dines, the father, is still living, one of the old and highly respected citizens of the county. He was for many years a local preacher in the M. E. Church, and has always taken an earnest and active interest in church work and the cause of religion. Farming has been his regular occupation, and in this he has had good. success, having now, as old age begins to cast its shadows from the Eastern horizon of life, a comfortable competency for his remaining years. Henry Bascom Dines, the subject of this sketch, was the first in his parents’ family of 10 children, and, like the others of the family, his early youth was, spent on his father’s farm, assisting at such work as he could do and attending the neighborhood: schools. Later along he attended the Shelby High School, where he completed a curriculum of the higher branches. In 1862 he enlisted in Co. B, under Capt. L. F. Carothers, of May. Johunson’s battalion of the Second Enrolled Missouri Militia, and was in the service for about 12 months. After returning home from the army he engaged in teaching school until 1866, when he embarked in the retail dry goods business, which he followed for over 10 years.. In the year 1879 he was admitted to the Shelbyville bar as a lawyer, since which time he has been quite successful in that profession. He has been a member of the lodge of Odd Fellows at this place since 1871, and has represented the district in the Grand Lodge. On the 15th of June, 1867, he was married to Miss Mattie L. Duncan, a daughter of John S. and Matilda (Lyne) Duncan, of this city. Mrs. Dines’ father has been postmaster at this place for the last 18 years. Mr. and Mrs. D. have a family of six children, namely: Clara Etta, Nellie, John Benjamin, Flora May, Homer Duncan and Walter Willard. Mr. and Mrs. Dines are both members of the M. E. Church, and active workers in the church. Mr. Dines has been superintendent of the Berean M. E. Sunday-school for the last 13 years. He has also always taken a public spirited interest in the affairs of the community and county. Though having little or no taste for official life or political advancement, he has nevertheless been prevailed on from time to time to accept one or two local offices. He has served as justice of the peace for about eight years, and was the first Mayor of Shelbyville after the reorganization under the city of the fourthclass law. During the present year he was a delegate to the National Greenback Convention at Indianapolis which nominated Gov. B. F. Butler for the presidency, and he is now supporting the redoubtable Benjamin for the first office in the nation, both by his personal advocacy and influence, and through the columns of his paper. The Herald also supports the Prohibition cause, and is recognized as one of the able organs of the Greenback party and the cause of Prohibition in this section of the State.
As printed in History of Monroe and Shelby Counties-1884 (FACSIMILE) (1884). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.
WALTER A. DIMMITT.
[This passage is too damaged in the scanned book to reproduce. See the original book.]
Walter A. Dimmitt was born in Monticello, Lewis county, Missouri, on November 22, 1850, and is a son of Dr. Philip Dimmitt, a sketch of whom appears elsewhere in this volume.
He gained his early educational discipline in the country schools of Shelby county, having been a lad of ten years at the time of the family removal from Booneville to this county. After completing this limited curriculum he continued his studies in the high school in Shelbyville, and that he duly profited by his scholastic advantages is shown in the fact that for four years he was a successful teacher in the district schools of this county, devoting his attention to such pedagogic labors during the winter terms and being identified with agricultural pursuits during the intervening periods. In 1874 he engaged in the general merchandise business in Shelbyville, and for more than a score of years he was actively identified with this line of enterprise, in connection with which he built up a business of wide scope and importance and one through which he gained large financial returns. He retired from this business in 1902, and upon his career in connection with the practical activities of life there rests no shadow of wrong or injustice. Thus it may well be understood that he holds as his own the unqualified confidence and esteem of the people of the community in which practically his entire life has been passed. From 1897 imtil 1905 Mr. Dimmitt was editor and publisher of the Shelby County Guard, a weekly paper, and he made the same an effective exponent of local interests and also of the cause of the Democratic party, of which he has ever been a staunch adherent. Mr. Dimmitt is one of the extensive landholders of the county, where he is the owner of 1,060 acres, and in the thriving little city of Shelbyville he is the owner of an entire block of buildings used for business purposes. For twelve years he was a stockholder and director in the Citizens' Bank of Shelbwille, and he served fourteen years as a member of the board of education of this city. He is one of the substantial capitalists and progressive and public-spirited citizens of Shelby county, and his aid and influence are ever to be relied upon in the support of measures and enterprises tending to advance the material and civic welfare of the community. He was one of the charter members of the Shelby County Railroad Company, in which he is still the owner of a considerable amount of stock. His various business interests are still centered in Slielbyville, though he now resides in Shelbina, as has already been noted, having purchased an attractive, modern residence in the latter village. Both he and his wife hold membership in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
June 4, 1872, lire record of the marriage of Mr. Dimmitt to Miss Ann Elizabeth Vaughn, who was born and reared in Shelby county, and who is a daughter of the late Wilson Vaughn, a prominent Inisiness man and influential citizen of Shelbyville. To Mr. and:\lrs. Dimmitt have been born five children, all of whom are living and concerning whom the following brief data are entered: Philip V. is now a resident of the city of St. Ijouis, where he is engaged in the postoffice; Walter T. is engaged in the jewelry business at Shelbyville, this state; Roy is identified with business interests in the city of Birmingham, Alabama; Joseph holds a position in a business house in St. Louis; and Bertha remains at the parental home.
As printed in General history of Shelby County, Missouri (1911). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.
Named in this biography: Philip Dimmitt (b. 1824)
Their biographies name W. A. Dimmitt: Marvin Dimmitt (b. 1863)
The printed record stops around 1884. We trace your line from there down to you, with every source cited.