Biographical Sketches

Biographies from Cole County People



M. R. Aldridge

Doctor Mahlon R. Aldridge, Jefferson City physician and surgeon, was born at Fairmont, Illinois, February 1, 1879. His parents were Mahlon and Maggie Brought Aldridge, his father being a merchant and farmer. Dr. Aldridge’s grandfather was a soldier in the Mexican War. His father was partially disabled from a wound received in battle in the Civil War and one of his two brothers who served in the Spanish-American War eventually died of wounds received at the Battle of San Juan Hill.

After graduating from high school at Fairmont, Dr. Aldridge was for four years a bookkeeper at Butte, Montana during which time he attended night school. Then entering medical college, he graduated from the St. Louis College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1907 following which he located in Jefferson City. He took post-graduate work in Chicago and New York, and in Vienna, specializing in surgery. He was past president of the Cole County Medical Society and a member of the state medical society and the American Medical Association. Dr. Aldridge was a Knight Templar and a Shriner.

In 1911, Dr. Aldridge married Miss Caroline Morlock of Jefferson City. They had two sons, Mahlon R. and Ray. The family lived at 804 East High Street.


Prof. B.F. Allen, A.B.A.M.

 Atten, B.F., Professor
Prof. Benjamin F. Allen was born in Savannah, Georgia and received his early education in the public schools of his native city. He attended the University of Atlanta as well as the National University, graduating with high honors. He became very proficient in languages and served as a student teacher. He afterward served as Principal of Monticello High School and later as Principal of Risley High School in Brunswick, Georgia.

Prof. Allen was then offered a position as Principal of the Florida Baptist College in Jacksonville as well as a position with the Natural and Physical Sciences Department at the Sate University in Louisville, Ky., however, while he was considering both of these positions, he received a telegram asking him to accept a position as Vice President of Lincoln Institute as well as a Professor in the Latin and Greek Department, of which he accepted. He was a Professor of Modern Languages, History and Pedagogy as well as one who helped to build up the Collegiate Department of the same institute. He was a fearless speaker, born teacher and had a reading knowledge of four of the modern languages.








Theodore Angenendt

Theodore Angenendt, or Judge Angenendt as he was called in later years, was born in Dusseldorf, Germany. His father was a soldier in the French army. They came to America when Theodore was 12 years old. The family settled on a farm in Cole County near Stringtown. Later the family moved to Osage County.

Young Angenendt enlisted in the Home Guards and after the war he married Catherine Iven of Cole County in 1865. He resided at Linn and after filling the job of deputy sheriff of that county he was elected sheriff. He moved his family to Jefferson City in 1887 where he worked on the addition to the old Capitol building. In 1901 he opened a coal office and for years conducted that business, building it up to considerable proportions. He was elected county judge of Cole County in 1908 and rendered great service on the county bench. He died in 1924.


Dr. F.B. Antrobus

 Antrobus, F.B., Doctor
Dr. Frank Benjamin Antrobus, of Jefferson City, was born December 15, 1868 in Kossuth, Iowa and son of Dr. B. Antrobus of Jefferson City. At the age of twelve, Dr. F.B. Antrobus moved with his family to Beloit, Kansas where he attended public schools, graduating from Kansas State University in 1887. He then attended the Medical College of Kansas City, graduating in 1897. He immediately located at Jefferson City where he enjoyed such great success as a physician, that he called upon his father to join him in his practice.

On May 20, 1898 he was united in marriage to Frances M. Bull, daughter of John A. Bull, a prominent and wealthy furniture merchant of Beloit, Kansas. They resided at 206 Monroe Street in Jefferson City.

Dr. Antrobus was appointed a member of the Board of Managers of State Hospital No. 1 for the Insane, located in Fulton, Missouri in March, 1899 and was a member of the K of P, the Brotherhood of the Elks as well as a member of the Homeopathic School of Practioners.





Ralph Asel

Ralph Asel was the third generation of his family operating a meat market in Jefferson City. The business was originally founded around 1850 by his grandfather, John Michael Asel. John Asel emigrated from his German home in Niederstedten in 1849 and met up on the ship with Margaretta Mueller who was emigrating from Saxony. The two parted when the ship docked in New York harbor but met by accident in a church in Washington a few weeks later. Romance and matrimony followed and John, the oldest son, was born in Washington, D.C.

The Asels came west to St. Louis whence on account of an epidemic of cholera there, came on to Jefferson City. On arriving here, John Asel had a capital of twenty dollars. With this he bought a cow which he butchered and sold the meat from door to door. That was the beginning of the business. For a time he continued to sell meat from door to door, then rented a stall in the old city market house. In 1852, he bought an acre of ground just south of town and with the help of neighbors built a log house at what is now the corner of Ashley and Madison Streets.

The younger six children of John Asel’s family were born in this little house: Otto, Mrs. Henrietta Byers, Mrs. Clara Doerrer, Patsy, Mrs. Sophia Bosse, and Chris. John, Jr. was born in Washington, D.C., and Henry in Jefferson City. When Margaretta Mueller Asel…and her emigrant husband…with their two American born sons moved into this picturesque log house, she was terrified by the proximity of a band of Indians camping on a nearby hill. These same Indians became well-paying customers for her home-baked bread. As many as thirty loaves a day were drawn from her huge oven in the side yard, to be replaced by as many pies. Great piles of logs salvaged from Missouri River driftwood, supplied fuel for this oven and for the little log smokehouse now resting on a corner of the flower-filled yard. Improvements were added and butchering, curing and cooking of meat was done on the place. Margaretta, with the assistance of her oldest son, is said to have made a thousand dollars selling fried sausages to soldiers during the Civil War. In 1938, Ralph Asel’s market at 711 Madison was in the immediate vicinity of the original homestead.

Ralph was the son of Christ Asel, the youngest son of John Asel. Christ Asel spent his mature life in the meat business in this southside neighborhood, dying September 13, 1937, at the age of sixty-nine. His wife was Barbara Ott, a native of Cole County and daughter of Matthias Ott.

Ralph Asel was born in Jefferson City October 11, 1898 and became involved in the business as soon as he graduated from high school. He was married in December, 1925, to Miss Milburn Blackwell, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. J.R. Blackwell of Chamois. He was a thirty-second degree Mason.


Fred L. Atkinson

Fred L. Atkinson, conductor on the Missouri Pacific, moved to Jefferson City in October 1902, when he entered the Missouri Pacific train service. He purchased a home at 218 McCarty around 1925. He was in railway service for three years, working out of Sioux City, Iowa before coming to Jefferson City.

Mr Atkinson was the son of George Alonzo Atkinson who was born in Winnebago County, Illinois, June 23, 1848 and died there at the age of forty-eight. He was married to Martha E. Herrington in 1872, who was born in 1849 and died December 24, 1885. She was the daughter of Jesse and Mary Brown Herrington, her mother, whose old home was Mount Pleasant, Ohio, being the daughter of Simon and Martha Williams Brown. The Herrington family is of English descent.

Mr. Atkinson’s paternal grandfather was John Atkinson, born at Carlysle, England, December 14, 1814, one of a family of twelve children brought by their parents from England to Winnebago County, Illinois. John Atkinson married Nancy L. Conklin, born at Uniontown, Pennsylvania, December 18, 1822, died in March 1906. Two sons of their ten children were killed in the Civil War.

Mr. Atkinson was married November 22, 1910, to Miss Leona K. Hoose, daughter of August and Margaret Baer Hoose of Jefferson City. August Hoose, who was a lieutenant in the Franco-Prussian War, came to America and to Jefferson City when still a young man and lived here until his death in 1909 at the age of sixty-two. Margaret Baer Hoose died December 29, 1924.

Mr. and Mrs. Atkinson have three children. Fred L., Jr., who was born October 2, 1911, lived in Waco, Texas and was associated with the Texas Oberman Co. Clifford M., born November 28, 1913, was advertising manager for the KWOC radio station at Poplar Bluff, Mo. Ruth C., born January 2, 1921, graduated from the Jefferson City High School in 1938. She was chosen Marcullus Queen of the Class of 1938. Miss Ruth was particularly talented in music. This family was affiliated with the Trinity Lutheran Church.




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