A history of northwest Missouri, Volume III, Part 1

Author: Williams, Walter, 1864-1935 editor
Publication date: 1915
Publisher: Chicago, The Lewis publishing company
Number of Pages: 912

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Gc 977.8 W67h v.3 1339457

GENEALOGY COLLECTION

ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01053 5620

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A HISTORY OF NORTHWEST MISSOURI

EDITED BY WALTER WILLIAMS

Assisted By Advisory and Contributing Editors

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS

IN THREE VOLUMES

VOLUME III

THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY CHICAGO NEW YORK

1915

Servi Zook

1339457 HISTORY OF NORTHWEST MISSOURI

CHARLES D. ZOOK. As a merchant and banker Mr. Zook has been identified with Oregon most of his life. He has been successful in busi- ness to the degree that he is now rated as one of the wealthiest men in Holt County. In many ways he has shown his public spirit in com- munity affairs, and as a banker and lender of money has often assisted individuals in their struggles to gain a home. It is only expressing one phase of his general local reputation to say that Charley Zook, as he is familiarly called by his friends, has never yet foreclosed a mortgage. While Mr. Zook does business on thorough business principles, he has at the same time endeared himself to many personal friends by his aid to them when they needed assistance. His father and uncle were pio- neers in business affairs in Northwest Missouri, and few names have more important associations with large business and financial manage- ment in this section of the state than Zook.

Levi Zook, father of Charles D., came from Marion County, Ohio, to Northwest Missouri in 1842, only five years after the Platte Purchase. He possessed a fair education, but most of it was acquired as a result of his individual study. Levi Zook was the son of G. F. and Annie (Forney) Zook. In 1850 Levi Zook engaged in the general merchandise business with his brother William, who a number of years later died in St. Joseph, Missouri. At the end of five years Levi Zook retired from the firm, owing to poor health, and later went into business with Hiram Patterson for six years under the name of Zook & Patterson. From 1857 until 1861 their establishment was located at Forest City, Missouri, then moving to Mills County, Iowa, where they closed out in 1862. In 1864 he reopened business in Oregon, with Jonas Lehmar, and business was continued until 1869. In 1867 Levi Zook opened a private bank, the first financial institution in Holt County. This bank had its quarters in the front end of the store, and was conducted as Zook & Scott, bankers. Levi Zook again retired on account of poor health, and on re-entering banking business was associated with Robert Montgomery, under the name Zook & Montgomery. The firm dissolved in 1875. In 1881 Levi Zook superintended the construction of the courthouse at Oregon. He was a man of great business ability, possessed a judgment and character which made him a leader in every community, and left an honored name. During the war he was a strong Union man, assisted in raising volunteers, though his own health did not permit active service. He was affiliated with Forest City Lodge No. 214, A. F. & A. M., and was an active member of the Presbyterian Church. Levi Zook was married November 3, 1859, to Minnie Van Lunen, who was born in Prussia, and was brought in childhood to Pennsylvania. She died November 2, 1864, and her husband passed away in April, 1895.

Charles D. Zook was born at Oregon July 24, 1860, was educated in his native town, attended the University of Missouri during 1879-80, and then started a mercantile store in Atchison County for himself. Later he was a member of the banking firm of Zook & Thomas at Mound City, sold his interests there and engaged in the wholesale boot and shoe

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HISTORY OF NORTHWEST MISSOURI

business at Kansas City from 1885 to 1890, and since that time has been chiefly identified with his banking business at Oregon. This is one of the oldest banking institutions of Northwest Missouri, and under his individ- ual management has in many ways proved its service and its standing in the county. The bank is now conducted under the name of Zook & Roecker, with Mr. Zook as president. Its cashier for many years was the late Albert Roecker, one of the prominent men of Holt County. Beside his position as a banker, Mr. Zook is one of the principal stockholders in the wholesale dry goods business at Omaha conducted under the name Byrne & Hanmer Dry Goods Company.

Mr. Zook was married February 19, 1884, to Emma Curry, daughter of James and Mary M. Curry. They have one daughter, Mary, the wife of Dr. S. B. Hibbard of Kansas City. In politics Mr. Zook is a democrat, but his activities have never been in seeking office for himself, but always for the benefit of the party organization and for local betterment. He was on the democratic state committee one term, and has found many opportunities to exercise his business prominence for the good of his home locality. In 1911 Mr. Zook was appointed superintendent of the rebuilding of the Holt County Courthouse, a work that was accomplished in a thoroughly creditable manner, to the satisfaction of the County Court and the public in general. His broad interest in public affairs has found a special subject in the public schools, and for a number of years he served as member of the school board.

R. E. SEATON. A man of unquestioned ability and integrity, R. E. Seaton occupies a position of prominence among the leading manu- facturers of Clinton County, being manager of the Noremac Chemical Company, at Cameron, one of the largest manufacturing plants of the kind in Northwestern Missouri. This enterprising company has estab- lished a substantial business in the manufacture of household remedies, extracts, spices, and all kinds of stock remedies and food. During the ten years the company has been located at Cameron, the products of its plant have been successfully used in relieving the suffering and helping the sick, throughout Missouri and adjoining states, while through the timely use of its stock remedies and food thousands of blooded cattle, horses and hogs have been saved from death, and their owners from great financial losses. · One hundred different articles are made in the plant, the greater number of which are of medicinal value in the treat- ment of diseases to which human flesh is heir, or those which afflict cattle, horses, hogs, poultry and sheep. The plant, which is 45 by 85 feet, and well equipped for manufacturing purposes, is located at the corner of Third and Walnut streets. The company, which is wide-awake and progressive, employs traveling salesmen who, with team and wagons, cover all of the territory of Northwestern Missouri and Nebraska.

R. E. Seaton was born in Perrin, Clinton County, Missouri, in 1884, a son of Thomas B. Seaton, a native of the same county. He is of early pioneer ancestry, his grandfather, John R. Seaton, and his great grand- father, Solomon Seaton, having migrated from their native state, Ten- nessee, to Missouri at a very early day, becoming pioneers of Clinton County. Thomas B. Seaton, a life-long resident of Clinton County, married Alice Potter, also a native of Clinton County. For many years R. E. Seaton was traveling salesman for the company of which he is now manager, having Nebraska as his special territory, with the thriving city of Ord as his headquarters.

Mr. Seaton married, at the age of twenty-three years, in De Kalb County, Missouri, Miss Bertha Smith, a daughter of Rev. F. A. Smith, and into their pleasant home three children have been born, namely : Thomas O., Ruth P., and Helen. Mr. and Mrs. Seaton are both members

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HISTORY OF NORTHWEST MISSOURI

of the Methodist Episcopal Church and contribute liberally towards its support.

J. E. PARK. Conspicuous among the leading stockmen of Northwest Missouri is J. E. Park, of Cameron, proprietor of the Park Stock Farm, and an extensive dealer in imported and home-bred Percherons. As a man and a citizen he is held in high repute, and by his excellent character and straightforward business dealings he has won the esteem and con- fidence of the general public, and built up an extremely large and lucra- tive patronage, everything he says regarding his stock being as he represents, and his prices being ever right. He was born on a farm in Clinton County, Missouri, in 1859. His father, William Park, was a native of Clay County, but after his marriage settled in Clinton County, where he devoted his energies to the improvement of a farm. During the Civil war he served as a soldier in the Confederate army. He married Jane Hall, and of their children two are now living in Cali- fornia ; one son, William, resides at Mulhall, Oklahoma; and J. E. is the subject of this brief sketch.

Brought up on the home farm, J. E. Park obtained a good common school education, and an excellent training in the habits of truth, honesty and justice. Finding the life of a farmer congenial to his tastes, he decided to devote his time and attentions to the independent occupa- tion to which he was reared, and in which he had gained some experience. Turning his attention more especially to stock breeding and growing, Mr. Park, in 1889, bought twenty acres of land adjoining the City of Cameron, and has here established one of the finest stock barns in Clinton County. His first purchase was a native bred registered Per- cheron, four years old, and weighing 2,100 pounds. Meeting with much success in his venture, Mr. Park gradually enlarged his operations, and now has in his stables some of the finest Percheron stallions and jacks to be found in the country, and also a valuable bunch of high-class jacks and jennets, 141/2 to 16 hands high, with plenty of bone and quality. His Percheron stallion, "Merton," weighing 2.200 pounds, is one of the best to be found in the State of Missouri, and would be eligible for stock shows in any state of the Union. Another important member of Mr. Park's stables is a beautiful dapple grey stallion, "Waterloo," that is worthy of a place among the prize winners of any state. The quality of his horses, Kentucky jacks and jennets, and their low prices, sell them very readily, the buyers being sure of a safe guarantee when trading with Mr. Park. He has dealt with people from all of the Central and Western states, doing thousands of dollars worth of business, and in- variably winning friends with each deal.

Mr. Park married, November 6, 1884, Miss Frances Harlan, a daughter of Price Harlan. Politically Mr. Park is identified with the democratic party ; fraternally he belongs to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and Mrs. Park to the Daughters of Rebekah; religiously both Mr. and Mrs. Park are members of the Christian Church.

JOHN C. VAN TRUMP. One and one-half miles south of the attractive little town of Millville, Ray County, in Grape Grove Township, is situ- ated the well improved homestead farm of Mr. Van Trump, who is one of the representative agriculturists and stock growers of the county, who is imbued with progressiveness and marked civic liberality and whose circle of friends is coincident with that of his acquaintances.

Mr. Van Trump finds a due mede of satisfaction in reverting to the historic Old Dominion commonwealth as the place of his nativity and he is a scion of one of the old families of Virginia, the lineage on the paternal side being remotely traced back to staunch Holland-Dutch stock. Mr. Van Trump was born in Rockingham County, Virginia, on

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the 7th of March, 1852, and is a son of Reuben and Diana (Carnes) Van Trump, both likewise natives of Rockingham County, where the former was born November 24, 1826, and the latter on the 27th of May, 1828. Of the six children three died in infancy and of those who attained to years of maturity John C., of this review, is the eldest; Americus V. and Medisia Belle are likewise residents of Ray County, Missouri, and the latter is the widow of Marshall Hyder. In 1854, when the subject of this sketch was about two years of age, his parents removed from Vir- ginia to Wayne County, Indiana, and shortly afterward they established their residence in Rochester Township, Fulton County, that state, where the father continued to be actively identified with agricultural pursuits until 1875. He then came to Ray County, Missouri, and established his home on a farm near Russellville, but in 1884 he sold his property and removed to the northwestern part of the county, near Lawson, where he continued as a substantial and honored representative of the agricul- tural industry until his death, on the 1st of October, 1888, his loved and devoted wife having been summoned to the life eternal on the 23d of November, 1883. He was a lifelong democrat in his political adherency and he was actively affiliated with the Odd Fellows' fraternity, the precepts of which he exemplified in his worthy and successful life.

John C. Van Trump was reared and educated in the State of Indiana, where he duly availed himself of the advantages of the public schools of Fulton County and where he gained practical experience in connec- tion with the activities of the home farm. He remained at the parental home until the time of his marriage, in 1888, he having been about twenty years of age at the time of the family removal from Indiana to Ray County, Missouri. After his marriage Mr. Van Trump engaged in farming near Lawson, and in 1891 he purchased his present fine farm, which comprises 150 acres and upon which he has made many excellent improvements, the entire appearance of the place giving distinctive evidence of thrift and prosperity. He is giving special attention to the raising of horses and jacks, as well as Duroc Jersey swine, and he is recognized as one of the broad-minded and progressive agriculturists and stock-raisers of the county. He redeemed his farm from a run-down condition, as it had been greatly neglected prior to the time when he purchased the property, and he now has the satisfaction of knowing that he has one of the valuable farms of the county and that much of its improvement and embellishment has been due to his own well ordered industry and up-to-date policies.

In politics Mr. Van Trump is a staunch adherent of the democratic party and in the autumn of 1906 he was given definite assurance of public esteem in his home county, in that he was elected presiding judge of the County Court, a position of which he continued the incumbent for four years, having assumed his official prerogatives in January, 1907. Within his term of office was completed the first permanent bridge work in Ray County, the construction being of concrete, and another important and gratifying work completed in his regime was the building of the substantial and attractive county home for poor at Richmond. Mr. Van Trump is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and is an elder of the Christian Church at Millville, his wife and children likewise being zealous members of this church.

On the 23d of December, 1888, Mr. Van Trump wedded Miss Mary Cummins, who was born on a farm near Knoxville, Ray County, Missouri, on the 12th of July, 1862, and who is a daughter of Artemas Ward Cummins and Lucy (Watson) Cummins, the father having been born in Ohio on the 15th of November, 1841, and the mother having been born in Tennessee, July 25, 1834. Mrs. Van Trump is the second eldest of the six surviving children, there having been eight children in the

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family. Eliza A. is the wife of Laban Daus, of Yale, Oklahoma ; Thomas A. is a resident of Coffeyville, Kansas; Sarah E. is the wife of James Cavender, of Holt, Clay County, Missouri; Laura remains at the parental home; and Florence is the wife of Lee Clark, of Lathrop, Clinton County, this state. Mr. Cummins was a child of two years at the time of his parents removal from Ohio to Missouri, in 1843, and the family home was established on a farm near Knoxville, Ray County, where he was reared to manhood and where he wedded Miss Lucy Watson. In 1861, when but eighteen years of age, he enlisted for service as a soldier in the Union army, and he continued in active service until the close of the great Civil war. He took part in numerous engagements and in one of the same he received a severe wound in the thigh. In 1880 he removed to Lathrop, Clinton County, where he has since lived retired and where he and his devoted wife are enjoying the fruits of former years of earnest endeavor. Mr. and Mrs. Van Trump have shown signal appre- ciation of the value of education, in that they have given to each of their four children the best possible advantages, the three elder children all being graduates of Western College at Odessa, Lafayette County, Missouri, and the younger of the two daughters having completed a course in the school for the blind that is maintained in the City of St. Louis. Ruby E., who was born November 27, 1889, is now a successful and popular teacher in the public schools of her native state; Sidney K. likewise is proving an able representative of the pedagogic profession ; Charles W., who was born November 22, 1894, remains at the parental home, as does also Laura C. B., who was born March 14, 1897.

CHARLES E. RUSH. The connection of Charles E. Rush with library work began with his college days in 1902, and he has since that time been continuously identified with library work, either in a public or private capacity. He has gone into the work with an enthusiasm that has made him one of the most successful and sought after librarians in the state, and he has been at the head of the St. Joseph Public Library since 1910.

Mr. Rush was born at Fairmount, Indiana, on March 23, 1885, and is a son of Reverend Nixon and Louisa (Winslow) Rush. Both parents were Quakers, of North Carolina ancestry. The paternal grandsire of Mr. Rush was a slave holder in North Carolina, but he became early convinced of the error of owning human property, so that in 1830 he freed his slaves and moved north to Indiana, where the family has since been established. The father of Mr. Rush is a Quaker minister, who added farming to his ministerial activities and became one of the most useful men in his community.

Charles E. Rush was educated in the common schools of the Town of Fairmount and at the Fairmount Friends Academy. He had his A. B. degree from Earlham College in 1905, after which he entered the Library Summer School at Madison, Wisconsin, of which he is a graduate, and received the degree of B. L. S. from the New York State Library School at Albany in 1908. He planned a career as librarian when he was a boy, and so arranged his studies from his college days. He was a student-assistant in the library at Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana, from 1903 to 1905, and served a year as an assistant at the Wisconsin University Library at Madison in 1905 and 1906. He was an assistant in the Free Public Library in Newark, New Jersey, in 1907, and in 1907 and 1908 was engaged as a special cataloguer in the Pruyn Private Library in Albany, New York. In 1908 he became librarian of the Public Library at Jackson, Michigan, and two years later he came to St. Joseph to assume the duties of librarian of the public library here, where he has continued his work successfully and with all satisfaction to the public and to the board of library directors.

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Mr. Rush is a member of the American Library Association and of the Missouri Library Association, serving as vice president of the latter organization in 1912 and as president in 1913. As one who is deeply interested in civic and social work, Mr. Rush is concerned in making the library a thing of practical value in the community, not alone for the young readers and students, but for the laboring man, the busy merchant and business man of every order. He has prepared a number of pamphlets and magazine articles bearing upon the splendid possibili- ties that are to be found from a more intimate knowledge of the "people's university," among them might be mentioned "Library Publicity," "The Man in the Yards," and "Two Books a Year for My Child." His "Reading List for the Boy Scouts of America" was the first library pamphlet published on the subject and it has been well received wherever it has been shown.

Mr. Rush is an active member of the St. Joseph Commerce Club and in 1912 was chairman of the luncheon and entertainment com- mittee. In 1913 he was a member of the art and publicity committees of the club, and has been active in the work of the organization in varied ways.

In 1910 Mr. Rush was married to Miss R. Lionne Adsit, a daughter of Rev. Spenser M. Adsit, of Albany, New York, who is a Presbyterian minister. Mrs. Rush is a graduate of Vassar College, at Poughkeepsie, New York, class of 1906, receiving the degree of A. B., and is also a graduate of the New York State Library School at Albany, class of 1908, with the degree of B. L. S. She spent two years as chief of the information department in the Public Library at Washington, D. C., prior to her marriage.

In 1911 Mrs. Rush was president of the Federation of Women's Clubs of St. Joseph, Missouri, and since that time has been a member of the executive committee of the Federation. She is active in the church work of the First Presbyterian Church of St. Joseph, of which she is a member, and is president of the Kings Daughters Society, an auxiliary organization of the church. She is one of the prominent women of the city and takes a leading place in the representative social club and civic activities of the city.

BENJAMIN H. CARTER. Noteworthy among the little group of Cameron people that are rendering the Government active and able service is Benjamin H. Carter, rural mail carrier on Route 3. He was born, October 8, 1857, on the parental homestead in Platte County, Mis- souri, of Scotch-Irish descent. Benjamin H. Carter, Sr., his father, was born and reared in Kentucky. He came to Missouri in 1844, spent one year in Clay County, and in 1857, in pioneer days, located in Platte County. Choosing the occupation of a farmer, he was engaged in agricul- tural pursuits until his death, at the age of seventy-three years. A man of integrity, upright and fair in all his dealings, he won the confidence of the community in which he resided for so many years, and though during the Civil war his sympathies were with the Union men his own life was such that he was never molested, and he was enabled on one or two occasions to save the lives of others. He was a republican in politics. He married Melinda A. Vermillion, and of their eight children two daughters are living in Platte County, one son resides in El Paso, Texas, and another son, L. O. Carter, is a prominent lawyer of Kansas City, where he has served a judge of bankruptcy.

Benjamin H. Carter, the special subject of this sketch, grew to man- hood on his father's farm in Platte County, acquiring his early educa- tion in the public schools. He became familiar with farm work while young, and still owns a good farm. In 1902 he was appointed rural

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mail carrier on Route 6 from Cameron, and continued on that route for six years. He was then transferred to Route 3, which covers 253/8 miles to the southwest from Cameron, and in the discharge of his duties he travels annually a distance of approximately eight thousand miles. He has carried the mail on foot, on horseback, in cart or carriage, but now owns and uses an automobile whenever the roads, which are usually good, permit. He has a pleasant home at 221 West Cornhill Street, in a desirable part of the town, and there he and his family enjoy the comforts of life.

Mr. Carter married, in 1880, Miss Permelia S. Frazer, a daughter of George Frazer, of Platte County, and into their household two children have been born, Ruth J. and James B. Ruth J. Carter was educated in the Wesleyan College at Cameron and became a successful and popular teacher. She was appointed rural mail carrier and served on Rural Route 4 for nine months and is now her father's deputy or substitute. James B. Clark is a clerk in the Cameron Postoffice, also a graduate of Missouri Wesleyan College Business Department and of Lincoln-Jefferson University of Law, Hammond, Ind. He married Miss Grace English, and they have one son, Raymond English Carter.

Religiously Mr. Carter is an active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in which he has served as class leader and steward and as superintendent of the Sunday school. Fraternally he belongs to the Order of Masons.

JOHN COSTIN. With all of honor and consistency may be entered in this publication a tribute to the venerable pioneer citizen whose name introduces this paragraph and who has maintained his home in Worth County for a period of virtually sixty years. He has passed the eightieth milestone on the journey of life, has ordered his course on a high plane of integrity and honor, has achieved worthy success through his own efforts, and has at all times stood exponent of the most loyal and worthy citizenship. He has served in various offices of public trust within the long years of his residence in Worth County, and also has the distinc- tion of being one of the gallant citizens of Missouri who went forth in defense of the Union in the Civil war. A man of deep piety, of strong and noble nature and of utmost tolerance and kindliness, Mr. Costin has made his life count for good in all its relations and is well worthy of the unqualified confidence and affection that are accorded him by all who know him, so that he may recall in gracious retrospect the incidents of an earnest and useful life now that its shadows begin to steal gently from the golden west.

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A history of northwest Missouri, Volume III, Part 1

Author: Williams, Walter, 1864-1935 editor Publication date: 1915 Publisher: Chicago, The Lewis publishing company Number of Pages: 912

Author: Williams, Walter, 1864-1935 editor
Publication date: 1915
Publisher: Chicago, The Lewis publishing company
Number of Pages: 912