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MERTON CLEANTHUS HOUSE. Although Merton Cleanthus House is a young man, at the age when most boys are just getting started in life, he is holding a responsible position, that of foreman of the O. K. Weld plant in the north side Frisco shops, Springfield. This position was secured not through any streak of luck or by the aid of influential friends but through his own merit, because he was prepared and had the right ideas of what an employe should do, namely: that he should strive to do high-grade, honest, conscientious work promptly. Such a course, where there is good judgment and average ability to begin with, always leads to gratifying results.
Mr. House hails from a section of the Union that has not sent many citizens to Greene county, having been born on a farm in Steele county, Minnesota, December 24, 1887. He is a son of Lorenzo Jackson House, a native of the state of New York where his earlier years were spent, finally removing to St. Paul, Minnesota, later to a farm near Meriden, that state. Finally selling his farm there he came to Conway, Missouri, where he continued farming five years, then engaged in the butcher business for awhile. As a result of an accident while thus engaged which incapacitated him for further physical work, he removed to Springfield in 1901 and worked for the Van Noy News Company until 1911 in which year his health failed completely and he was bedfast until his death in December, 1913, at the age of fifty-eight years. Politically he was a Republican. He belonged to the Woodmen of the World and the Methodist Episcopal church.
The mother of our subject was known in her maidenhood as Lizzie Ross. She is now sixty-four years of age, and is living with her daughter Sadie at Caney, Kansas.
To Lorenzo J. House and wife four children were born, namely: Merton C. of this sketch; Sadie married S. A. Badgley, a painter by trade, of Caney, Kansas; Annie B., married O. M. Martin, died in November, 1913; Raymond is a barber in Springfield.
Merton C. House was reared on the farm where he worked when a boy, and he received his education in the public schools of Conway, Missouri, but left school when only fourteen years of age to begin life for himself. He came to Springfield and went to work in the Eagle Pencil Factory, where he remained two years, then learned the tailor's trade, working at the same with a number of Springfield tailors for a period of eight years, and became quite expert in this line, especially as presser and bushelman, but owing to failing health was finally compelled to give up the work. His next employment was in the tin department of the Frisco's north side shops, under G. A. Holder; where he spent one year, then, on November 4, 1913, he was placed in charge of the O. K. Weld plant there, which position he has since held to the satisfaction of his employers, being regarded as one of the most efficient foremen this department has ever had.
Mr. House was married on Easter Sunday, 1911, to Mamie A. Molen, a daughter of John Molen, a farmer in Arkansas. Mrs. House grew up on the farm and received a common school education. The union of our subject and wife has been without issue.
Mr. House is a member of the Knights and Ladies of Security, and he belongs to the Methodist Episcopal church, South.
[1842-1843]
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