By John Beydler
As the 20th Century arrived, E. R. Hightower may well have been the man working hardest to fulfill Jerico Springs’ promise of growth and greater prosperity.
Attorney, real estate agent, insurance man, loan broker and fervent Baptist, Mr. Hightower advertised Jerico’s wonders far and wide as part of his real estate business.
“Land of plenty south of Kansas City 117 miles” read the headline on a Sept. 16, 1909 quarter page ad in the Word and Way, a Baptist paper published in Kansas City and circulated throughout Missouri. It was one of Mr. Hightower’s favorite outlets in which to place ads.
The Sept. 16 ad includes three pictures of Jerico, fulsome praise for the wonders of the springs, the quality of the farm land and the inexpensive living, as well as a list of some of the farms and houses he was offering.
His ads sometimes were for specific skills, a printer or a dentist for example. Possible competition aside, he even included lawyers when advertising a list of professions needed in Jerico.
In the Word and Way ads, Mr. Hightower played on his Baptist ties, telling “brother Baptists” that Jerico needed them, that other denominations were gaining ground.
In one Word and Way story, appearing among reports from Baptist churches all around Missouri, Katie Hudson, clerk of the Baptist Church in Jerico, included the information that a Sunday school had been started and that Mr. Hightower was the superintendent. “Brother Hightower is a consecrated Christian, extends sympathy to the downcast, and is genial with everyone,” she wrote. “He greets his teachers, scholars and visitors every Sunday in a pleasant and appreciate manner,” Ms. Hudson reported.
Mr. Hightower – his name was Emmet Roscoe – was born May 15, 1857 in Atchison County, in far northwest Missouri.
He and his wife Maggie arrived in Jerico in the latter half of 1887. He was listed as a real estate and insurance man there in the 1893 edition of the Missouri State Gazetter. A 1909 profile in the Jerico Optic said Mr. Hightower was a “well known and successful attorney (who) has been established here for some 20 years and has played an important part in the up-building of our city and the development of its tributary country.”
He was active in the ongoing efforts to get a railroad routed through Jerico, among other things serving as secretary for the organization set up in 1902 by subscribers to a railroad fund to monitor the money. He was critical in getting Texas investors to visit Jerico in 1905 to discuss pending railroad plans.
Jerico came tantalizingly close, twice, to getting a railroad – grading was done south of town and the developers were advertising in the Optic for axemen to cut ties for the line between Golden City and Jerico. Indeed, Mr. Hightower was so sure the road was coming that he featured it in advertisements in Word and Way , saying it would enhance the value of the land around Jerico. None of the roads, though, were ever built.
It was in Mr. Hightower’s office in the Gates Block that a dozen or so Jerico residents met in March of 1909 to launch the Farmers State Bank of Jerico.
His practice included some juicier cases, as in 1910 when he filed a libel suit in Cedar County Circuit Court on behalf of Mrs. B. C. Kite, who wanted $5,000 damages from D. W. Gelsinger of Stockton for “slanderous talk.”
“As both parties to this suit are reasonably prosperous people, the suit will likely be one of interest and fought to the finish,” said the Springfield Daily Republican Sept. 4, 1910. (I do not know the outcome of the suit.)
Mr. Hightower moved his office to Lockwood in May, 1913. He continued in business there until his death Jan. 15, 1923, at age 65.
The 1909 profile of Mr. Hightower in the Optic had concluded by saying he “is courteous and a gentleman and his agency is an important factor in the business life of our city.”
Copyright 2019 John Beydler
Jerico Springs on parade 