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DULY M. DAWSON. Ideas backed with indefatigahie energy, _ the desire and power to accomplish big things _ these qualities make of success
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not an accident but a logical result. The man of initiative is he who combines with a capacity for hard work an indomitable will. Such a man recognizes no such things as failure and his final success is on a parity with his well directed efforts. For a number of years past Duly M. Dawson has conducted the leading furniture and carpet house at Herrin, in Williamson county, Illinois, where he is well known as a man of impregnable integrity and sterling worth.
Duly M. Dawson was born near Christopher, Illinois, on the 4th of November, 1875, and he is descended from an old Alabama family headed by Arfax Dawson, reference to whom is more extendedly made elsewhere in this work. He is a son of Allen and Mary (Vaughn) Dawson, the former of whom died in 1877, in Franklin, Illinois, and the latter was summoned to the life eternal in Herrin, Williamson county, Illinois, in 1908, at the venerable age of seventy-four years. The father devoted the major portion of his active career to farming operations and he long held prestige as one of the most prominent and influential agriculturists in Franklin county, this state. Concerning the ten children born to Mr. and Mrs. Allen Dawson the following brief data are here incorporated, _James R. is a progressive farmer in Franklin county, Illinois; Francis M. died at Mound City, Illinois; Mary A. was the wife of Robert Snyder at the time of her demise; Susanna married Jack Vincent and died in Franklin county; Christopher C. died at Herrin and left a family; Lewis Allen is a prominent merchant at Herrin; Lemuel B. resides in Johnston City, Illinois; Florence I. is the wife of Henry Hawk, of Herrin; John M. is a member of the well known firm of Dawson Brothers at Herrin; and Duly M. is he whose name initiates this article.
Under the invigorating discipline of the old homestead farm Duly M. Dawson was reared to maturity and his elementary educational training consisted of such advantages as were offered in the neighboring district schools. This early training he later supplemented by a course of study in the Southern Illinois Normal University. For a time after leaving college he turned his attention to teaching in a country school, thus putting to practical use some of the knowledge he had gained in school. For a time he was engaged in farming but believing that he could succeed in the general merchandise business and thus avoid some of the exposure and monotony of farm life he came to Herrin when this town first started. In 1898 he entered into a partnership alliance with his brother, the late Christopher C. Dawson, to open up a mercantile concern. In 1906, however, this firm was dissolved and Duly M. Dawson opened an implement business here. Two years later, in 1908, he disposed of the latter concern and then turned his attention to furniture and house fittings. His place of business is the leading establishment of its kind in Herrin at the present time and it is wonderfully well equipped as a furniture and carpet house. Mr. Dawson is a stockholder in the Herrin Building & Loan Association, being also a member of its official board, and he is likewise a stockholder in the bank at Sesser, Illinois. He is a man of unusual executive ability and his admirable success in life is particularly gratifying to contemplate inasmuch as it is entirely the outcome of his own well directed endeavors.
On the 14th of October, 1894, in Franklin county, Illinois, Mr. Dawson was united in marriage to Miss Ellen Tennie Isom, a daughter of Benjamin F. and Caroline (Reynolds) Isom. The Isom family came to Illinois from Tennessee just after the close of the Civil war. Mrs. Dawson is one of a family of twelve children, nine of whom are living, in 1911. She is a woman of most gracious personality and is deeply
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beloved by all who have come within the sphere of her gentle influence. Mr. and Mrs. Dawson are the parents of five children, whose names are here entered in respective order of birth,_Earl, Cecil, Ted, Lucile and D. M., Jr. Like his ancestors, Mr. Dawson is a Democrat but he has kept aloof from all political activity. He is connected with a number of fraternal organizations of representative character.