A Biographical history of Nodaway and Atchison counties, Missouri : compendium of national biography, Part 45

Author:
Publication date: 1901
Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 726

USA > Missouri > Nodaway County > A Biographical history of Nodaway and Atchison counties, Missouri : compendium of national biography > Part 45
USA > Missouri > Atchison County > A Biographical history of Nodaway and Atchison counties, Missouri : compendium of national biography > Part 45

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Mary C., the wife of J. Hare, of Missouri. The father spent his entire life as a farmer in his native state. living peacefully and quietly and caring nothing for public no- toriety. Both he and his wife are now de- ceased.

The early education acquired by Daniel Brown was mostly of a practical kind. and he remained under the parental roof un- til twenty-three years of age, when he mar- ried Miss Ruth Watson, also a native of Kentucky and a daughter of Thornton and Martha Watson, who always made their home in that state. The father, who fol- lowed farming and also conducted a country store, died at about middle age, and the mother in 1874. In religious belief they were Baptists.

Mr. Brown engaged in farming in Ken- tucky until 1865. when he removed to l'e- oria county, Illinois, where he operated rented land for four years. In 1869 he came to Nodaway county, Missouri, and purchased eighty acres of wild land, to which he subsequently added unt'l he had four hundred and forty acres, three miles northwest of Skidmore, which he converted into a well improved and valuable farm. He engaged in general farming and stock raising with marked success until 1800. when he sold the place to his four sons for fifty dollars per acre and bought a hand- some residence in Skidmore, where he is now living a retired life, enjoying the fruits of former toil.

Mr. Brown has been called upon to mourn the loss of his estimable wife, who died April 1, 1896. She was a faithful member of the Christian church, to which he also belongs. To them were born ten chil dren, namely: Rhoda A., the wife of J. Collins: George M. and Jonas F., both

MR. AND MRS. DANIEL BROWN

NEW Y IK PUBLI ARY I

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farmers of this county; Mrs. Martha Gil- lillan: Mrs. Betty J. Singleton : Charles \' .. also a farmer of this county; Hattie M .. the wife of B. Bender: Carrie C., the wife of T. Martin: John F., a farmer of this county ; and Nettie B., who is now keeping house for her father.

"Uncle Daniel," as he is familiarly known, is a stanch supporter of the Demo- cratic party. He has always been a hard- working man, attending strictly to his own affairs, and being a man of good business , ability and sound judgment he has accumu- lated a handsome competence, which now enables him to spend his declining years in ease and retirement. He is noted for his sterling worth and strict integrity, and he enjoys the confidence and high regard of all with whom he has been brought in con- tact, either in business or social life.

ROBERT B. GEX.

Among Nodaway county's most prosper- ous and substantial agriculturists is Robert Brooking Gex, who owns and operates a valuable farm on section 32, Hughes town- ship. He was born in Gallatin county, Ken- tucky, October 26, 1850, a son of John A. and Henrietta R. ( Brooking) Gex, also na- tives of Kentucky, where they still continue to reside. His paternal grandparents were Anthony and Cyrena Gex, the former a na- tive of Switzerland, the latter of Kentucky. in which state both died. In early life An- thony Gex followed merchandising, but later engaged in farming and also operated large vineyards in the Ohio river valley in Ken- tucky. He was quite a prominent farmer and slave-owner of that locality. His chil- dren were Mary C., the wife of Dr. Hamil- ton: Sarah L., the wife of Dr. Pegs; Lillie,

the wife of J. Freeman ; Caroline, the wife of B. Craig; John A., Lewis, Silas, Luke and Lucian.

When a young man John A. Gex also en- gaged in mercantile business and in flatboat- ing to New Orleans, but after his marriage located on his present farm and has since given his attention to agricultural pursuits. He is a large land-owner and has one of the l'est farms in Kentucky. Prior to the Civil war he owned many slaves, but was a strong Union man and took no part in the struggle. In connection with general farming he is engaged in stock-raising, and has a fine herd of shorthorn cattle. He conducts his farm on scientific principles, and has made it one of the model places of the state. As a busi- ness man he has met with excellent success, and besides the property already mentioned he has considerable money in the bank and invested in stocks and government bonds.

Politically he was first a Whig and later a Republican, and religiously is a consistent member of the Christian church. For ster- ling worth and strict integrity he commands the confidence and respect of all with whom he comes in contact either in business or social life. He has always been one of the most prominent and influential citizens of his community and during the dark days of the Civil war was never molested by the southern sympathizers, being one of the few Kentuckians able to buy fire-arms and ammu- nition in either Cincinnati or Louisville with- out question. Some of his slaves were drafted and he paid for their substitutes. Though they remained with him and worked to repay him, he paid them their time in full after the war ended. He was a true type of the hospitable southern gentleman, and now in his old age is surrounded by a large circle of friends and acquaintances. He was born

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February 15, 1818, and now at the age of eighty-two years can look back over a long and well spent life knowing that he has ever clischarged his duty to his fellow men. His estimable wife, who was born in 1826, is a daughter of Edward and Mary ( Robinson) Brooking, natives of England and Ken- tucky. respectively. Her father was a wealthy and prominent slave-owner and farmer of Kentucky, and gave to Mrs. Ger a number of slaves. He was twice married. and by the first wife had four children : Ed- ward, Mary. Virginia and Laura. By the second union there were Henrietta, the mother of our subject : Rebecca, the wife of W. H. Spencer : and Roger, who was a sol- dier of the Mexican war and is now a resi- dent of Texas. The mother of these chil- dren was a member of the Christian church. Our subject is the second in order of birth in a family of five children, the others being Anthony, who died at the age of four years : Miriam R., the deceased wife of D. P. Craig : Lulie, who died at the age of twelve years ; and Lewis M., who died at the age of thirty- seven.

proved his farm. Finding game plentiful he got a gun and dog and enjoyed the sport of hunting, but finally became convinced that a man needed more than a dog and gun to make his happiness complete.

Accordingly, on the 15th of December, 1874. Mr. Gex was married to Miss Bettie E. Burris, who was born in this county. Jan- uary 10. 1859. and is a representative of one of its pioneer families, being a daughter of William and Mary F. ( Saunders) Burris, natives of Tennessee. Iler mother's people were from Virginia, and her maternal grand- father. James Saunders, came to this state in 1849. From the wild, unbroken prairie he developed a fine farm in this county, where he spent his remaining days. His children were Stratford, a resident of Skidmore; Sa- repta. Rahab. Susia and Mary. Mrs. Gex's father improved a farm near Graham, but af- terward sold that place and bought another near Marysville, where he died. Honest and unassuming in manner, he was widely and favorably known, and had many friends throughout the county. In his family were four children: Bettie E., the wife of our subject : William, Edward and Giles, The parents were both members of the Christian church. To Mr. and Mrs. Gex have been horn the following children: Lula H., who was born September 20. 1876, and is now the wife of Willitim V. Mountjoy, of Ken- tucky : John, a farmer of this county ; Fannie, the wife of J. M. Wilson; William, Miriam, Ellen, Lewis E .. Florian C., Robert, Mar- gory and Bettie,-all at home, while Bessie, the sixth in order of birth, died at the age of two years. Bettie, the youngest, was Lorn March 17, 1809.

R. B. Gex grew to manhood upon his father's plantation in Kentucky, and began his education under the direction of govern- esses at home. Later he attended a military school near Frankfort. He remained nader the parental roof until he attained lis ma- jority, and under the able instruction of his father gained a good practical knowledge of business affairs as well as the management of a farm. Thus well prepared to fight life's battles for himself, he came to Nodaway ennty, Missouri, in 1872, and took posses- sion of section 32. Hughes township, which land the father had entered from the govern- Viter his marriage Mr. Ges located upon his farm, and has since given his time and ment. Building a shanty, he lived alone for some time while he broke, fenced and im- attention to general farming and stock -rais-

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ing. in which he has met with remarkable success. He is to-day one of the extensive land owners of the county, and is also a stockholder and director in the Citizens' Bank of Graham. He has given much at- tention to the education of his children, and is a supporter of all enterprises which he be- lieves calculatel to prove of public benefit. Politically he is a Democrat, and socially is a member of the Masonic fraternity. Both he and his wife hold membership in the Christian church, and the family is one of prominence in the community where they reside.

EDWARD L. HART.

Edward L. Hart, the secretary and treas- urer of the Hanamo Telephone Company, of Maryville, Nodaway county, Missouri, an in- stitution that has had much to do with the development of northwest Missouri and con- tiguous territory, and of which its promoters and proprietors are justly proud. was born in Whig Valley. Holt county, Missouri, No- vember 24, 1858. a son of the late Rev. David Hart, a pioneer Methodist minister in Ne- braska. chaplain of the First Regiment of Nebraska troops during the Civil war and chaplain of the territorial legislature.

Frank Hart, a prominent stockman, living near Jacksonville, Illinois, and Mrs. John Breckan, of Central City, Nebraska. Martha Higley, of Whig Valley, Holt county, Mis- souri, became Mr. Hart's second wife. She is a daughter of the first settler of Whig Valley, Theodore Higley, a stanch Whig, whose name came to be applied to the valley. Mr. Higley came from North Carolina into Missouri in the early '40s. Martha Higley was born in 1816, and lives with her only child, Edward L. Hart, at Maryville.

While growing to manhood. the subject of this notice lived in nearly every important town in eastern Nebraska. He acquired a liberal education. having been a student in the state normal school and having taken a four-years course in the State University of Nebraska. After teaching country schools for one year he secured a position as a book- keeper for a firm of coal dealers in Lincoln, Nebraska, and held this position until the construction of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad through Holt county and the establishment of the town of Maitland, when he became a bookkeeper for the Howell Brothers' Lumber Company. of that place. At the end of a year he saw an opportunity to build up a real-estate business at Maitland and relinquished his position and opened an enterprise. he took up a systematic reading of law, in his spare moments, and was admit- ted to the bar before Judge Henry S. Kelley in 1884. He immediately afterward began practice and soon made for himself a good reputation as a lawyer and was for several years city attorney of Maitland.

Rev. David Hart was the pastor of all | office. While devoting his attention to that the leading Methodist churches of eastern Nebraska and was as prominently connected with the early history of Methodism in that state as any other preacher. He came west as early as 1855 and for more than twenty years was active in the work of his denomina- tion. He was born in Yorkshire, England, and died at American Fork Canyon. Utah, About 1885 he bought the Maitland Herald, and was its editor at times for a con- siderable period thereafter. He was enabled to conduct such an enterprise successfully, in 1878, at the age of fifty-eight. He was twice married, first in England, and his two surviving children by that marriage are:

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for he had mastered the mysteries of printing in the office of the Beatrice Express, when a boy, and had become proficient in the art of composition, one of the branches in the cur- riculum of the university. Ile was one of the organizers of the Nodaway Valley Fair Association and was it- assistant manager. and for eight years its secretary, and during. his residence at Maitland he was one of the leading. active spirit- in its successful opera- tion. He was one of the organizers of the I'eople's Bank, of Maitland, and is one of its Stockholders. In 1800 he became interested in telephone enterprise, and the president of the Hanamo Telephone Company induced him to invest heavily in the stock of that corporation and he was elected its secretary and treasurer.

The Hanamo Telephone Company was promoted by Henry E. Ralston, its superin- tendent and general manager, who secure:] the incorporation of the company with a capital stock of ten thousand dollars, in the summer of 1800. In the fall of that year an exchange was installed at Maryville and the concern began local business, with sixty phones, March 10, 1897. In June, 1898. the capital was increased to thirty thousand dollars, and in January, 1899, when Captain Ilyslop was elected president. Edward L. Hart, secretary and treasurer, and 11. E. Ralston, superintendent and manager, the enterprise had grown so phenomenally that more demands were made for new conec- tions than the company could supply. Three hundred phones are now in use. One hun- dred miles of toll lines are operated and with the company's connections points in Ne- braska, Kansas, Towa and Missouri are brought into connection with Maryville and each other. Although the Hanamo company has, in the Bell people, had strong and intol-

crant competitors, the business has prospered and paid dividends from the beginning. At the outset it was thought that if the Hanamo people could put in one hundred phones that mimber with its outside connections would be the extent of its achievement, but the cheap- ness and efficiency of its service brought the company immediate popularity and opened the way for the building up of a large enter- prise.

Mr. Hart was married. in Fairbury, Ne- braska, in 1883. to Miss Fannie MeDowell, whose father. Hon. J. B. MeDowell, was once a member of the legislature of Nebraska and was land commissioner in that state. Mr. and Mrs. Hart have two children: Ethel, and Ed. 1 ... Jr., familiarly known as Ted.

Mr. Hart is truly the architect of his own fortune. No financial aid from home ever encouraged his early and struggling days and he has received no prize of position or busi- ness achievement which was not the result of his own merit and personal management. .A man of keen business foresight, great en- terprise and full confidence in the wisdom of any course he decides to adopt, he goes straightforward to success with whatever he undertakes. His personal qualities have made him friends who rejoice with him because of his success in life, and his attitude toward movements promising to advance the inter- ests of the people marks him as a man of un- usnal publie spirit.

DANIEL A. McCOLL.

.I very prominent and well-known citizen of Lincoln township. Atchison county. Mis- souri, is Daniel A. McColl, who was born in Johnstown. Fulton county. New York, No- vember 13. 1845. a son of Hugh and Annie ( Mcleish) McColl, both of whom belonged

BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY.

to distinguished families in Scotland. Our subject had one sister and one brother : Mrs. Margaret Glass, of Gladbrook, Iowa; and James H., who was a soldier in the Civil war and died in 1864.

Our subject had the great misfortune to lose his father when he was but three years of age, but he possessed a mother of whom he cannot speak in terms of too much praise. Through trials innumerable she reared her three children to habits of honesty, industry and strict integrity. She has survived hier husband for fifty-two years and is now, in her ninety-first year. residing with her daughter at Gladbrook.

Our subject was reared on the old farm, where he remained until his twenty-first year and then went to Grundy county, Iowa, en- gaging in farming there until 1872, when he settled near Tarkio and entered upon the improvement of a farm of two hundred and eighty acres, remaining on that place for eighteen years. He was the choice of the Republican party for county clerk, the duties of which office he filled to the satisfaction of all concerned for four years. In 1894 Mr. McColl rented his farming lands and engaged in the lumber business, which he is successfully conducting at the present time. He is also the president of the Farmers' Bank at Westboro, Missouri.

On December 12, 1871, Mr. McColl was married, in Marshalltown, Jowa. to Miss Jane Pye, who was born in St. Lawrence county, New York. They have an adopted son, Clarke, who is now a student at the Tar- kio College. Our subject is a Republican in politics and a member of the I. O. O. F, since 1862, having taken all of the degrees of the order.

Mrs. McColl is an estimable woman, a member of the Methodist church of West-

boro and a lady known far and wide for her charities. Mr. McColl is of a genial, social disposition, which makes him very popular with friends and neighbors, while the prin- ciples instilled into him by his excellent mother have been applied to his business life and have gained him the approbation and confidence of the public.

HUGHI DODD.

Hugh Dodd, of Hopkins, Nodaway coun- ty. one of the most prominent citizens of the county, was born in Defiance county, Ohio, May 14. 1833, a son of Peter M. Dodd, one of the early printers of that part of the state of Ohio, and for some time editor of the Defiance Democrat. The latter was born in the state of Delaware in the year 1809, taught school in early life, learned the print- er's trade and located in Athens county, Ohio. He married Eliza Donley, who bore him eleven children, their names, etc., being as follows: Jacob, who died in 1852: Cin- derella, who married Matthias Sayler, and is now deceased: Mrs. Lavina Hawk, of Bryan, Ohio; Mrs. Jane Smith, deceased ; Hugh, the subject of this sketch; Mrs. Eliza A. McGuire, deceased; Mrs. Harriet Meeks, of Defiance, Ohio; Catharine, deceased ; Amos, who spent three years in the Fiftieth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, and now resides at Los Angeles, California; George, de- ceased: and Isabel, of Toledo, Ohio. The mother of these children died in 1854, and the father in 1876.

Hugh Dodd was without very great ad- vantages in his youth for obtaining an educa- tion, and after leaving school went into the country and worked for three years as a farm hand, his wages ranging from eight to ten dollars per month. Leaving Ohio in Decem-

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ler. 1855. he drifted westward, landing in Grundy county, Hlinois, where he remained three years as a renter, and consequently his domicile was not so permanent as it otherwise would have been, but changed as circum- stances seemed to render advantageous. In 1858 he removed to Knox county, Illinois, and during the twelve months he spent there he became enamored of the prospects for finding a fortune in the gold fields of Colo- rado, as the story of their richness circulated through the east and middle western states. Accordingly. in company with a little band of similar spirits, he started across the plains to Colorado, driving a team, over the old Russell & Majors route, to Pike's Peak, in the vicinity of which he was engaged in prospecting and mining the greater part of a year. Not having made the amount of money he expected to make, he recrossed the plains, this time by the Platte river route, and crossed the Missouri river at Nebraska City. Returning to Illinois he re-engaged in farming in the vicinity of Monmouth. Pros- pering reasonably well. he became the owner of a farm, which he later disposed of to ad- vantage in 1883, and decided then to remove 10) Missouri, because in this state he could buy land for much less money than in Illi- nois, securing about three acres in Nodaway county for the price of one acre in Illinois. Therefore he purchased a farm in this coun- ty, and later another in Sumner county, Kansas. In this western country Mr. Dodd has made a success of his life, while in Illi- bis and in the Pike's Peak region such suc- cess was far more difficult to attain. Mr. Dodd was married, in December, 1855, and ir Ohio, to Miss Mary 1. Stockman. They have no children.

Politically Mr. Dodd was reared a Dem- ecrat, but upon coming of age his maturer

judgment induced him to unite with the Re- publican party, his first presidential vote be- ing cast for John C. Fremont in 1856. At that time he was residing in Grundy county, Illinois, and when Joshua R. Giddings came to Morris, the county seat, to make a speech in advocacy of the claims of the Republican party, then recently organized, he was denied a hall. and was thus compelled to speak from a lumber pile, and in the open air. In Felix township. Grundy county, at the election held in November. 1856, Mr. Dodd's was one of three votes cast for the Republican ticket. Mr. Dodd's adhesion to the Democratic party was diverted by its attitude on the slavery question, that party being strongly in favor of that provision of the national constitution which provides that in the enumeration of the people for the purposes of representation in congress, "three-fifths of all other per- sons." were to be added to the number of white persons. Mr. Dodd hekl that negroes were either people, men, or they were not : and if they were classed as persons to be counted at all. they should all be counted, and if they were not persons, they should none of them be counted. Mr. Dodd there- fore was induced to change his politics by reason of the existence, in the constitution of the United States, of a manifestly unjust provision.

Mr. Dodd has traveled extensively in the United States, having made four trips to California, the first in 1879, when he was on a tour of investigation, and visited San Francisco, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Sac- ramento and other noted points in that state. During the "Midwinter Fair" he went out again, and this time spent much time in the principal cities of California, in Portland. Oregon, in Spokane, Washington, and in Salt Lake City, Utah. In two other trips

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he covered much of the same territory and visited several new points, so that he is now familiar with the resources and possibilities of the states of the Pacific coast.

In the councils of his party Mr. Dodd has been prominent for many years, having been a delegate to county and other conventions, -among them the state conventions held at Sedalia and St. Louis .- and he has served in the city council of Hopkins. In all rela- tions of life Mr. Dodd has striven to perform his duty as becomes an upright, high-minded and honorable man, and is consequently hield in the highest esteem by all that know him.

EPHRAIM JOHNSTON.

The pioneer las peculiar interest for the reader of history, and the patriot who takes up arms in defense of his home has an im- perishable memory. The prominent citizen whose name is above has ably and faithfully performed the work of the pioneer and the soldier, and is descended from pioneers and patriots whose history runs through several generations and whose good works have aided in the planting and perpetuation of American liberty and American develop- ment and prosperity in different parts of our country.

Ephraim Johnston, of Green township, Nodaway county (postoffice, Burlington Junction ), is of Scotch-Irish ancestry. The first of his family and its founder in America came over from Great Britain in 1752, and some of his forefathers fought gallantly for American freedom in the Revolutionary war. His grandfather, John Johnston, was a resi- dent of Virginia, and in that state his fa- ther, George Johnston, was born. From the Old Dominion George Johnston emigrated in 1800 to Ohio, and became one of the first

settlers in Ross county, where he found a wilderness home. He had married Miss Nancy Johnson, a daughter of Thomas John- son and a native of Pennsylvania, and they made their journey from Virginia on horse- back, bringing along pack-horses to trans- port their few portable goods and chattels. It will be noticed that in the paternal line Mr. Johnston is descended from the Johns- tons, and in the maternal line from the John- sons, and it may be added that these par- ticular families of Johnstons and Johnsons were never related as far as is known. They settled down in the midst of a wild, wooded country to live in a log cabin, redeem the land from the forest, make the first rude essay at farming and defend their lives and their belongings against wild beasts and savages no less wild and at times even more lawless. But they had known what they had to encounter and against what they must contend. for Mr. Johnston had come on some time before and "spied out the land."

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A Biographical history of Nodaway and Atchison counties, Missouri : compendium of national biography, Part 45

Author: Publication date: 1901 Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 726

Author:
Publication date: 1901
Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 726