William Elsey Connelley

“ John H. Tole. While it is certainly true that a live and growing community such as Liberty offers many and widely diversified opportunities for advancement along every line of personal endeavor, yet it is just as true that only a certain percentage achieve distinction, and a large number fail of even attaining a competency. It takes something more than mere opportunity to elevate a man from the common level of every-day accomplishments. ”

“ Unless he has within him that divine spark of genius for his life work, he will continue to belong to the great majority of mediocre humanity, instead of climbing up the ladder of endeavor until he is able to command a view of affairs that will give him that grasp on the rounds of events that nothing can loosen. In reviewing the career and achievements of John H. Tole, of the Liberty Lumber Company and vice president and director of the Liberty State Bank, the above facts are given prominence for he has proven their truth. ”

“ There, in 1810, was born Winslow Parker Tole, the grandfather of John H. Tole. He was reared in Kentucky, and there educated, but as a young man moved to Missouri, where he became a pioneer farmer and a buyer and seller of livestock, occupations in which he continued to be engaged throughout the remainder of his life, his death occurring in Pike County on his farm in 1880. The grandfather was a man of substance, who occupied a prominent place in his community and had the respect of his community as a citizen and a man. ”