USA > Missouri > A history of northeast Missouri, Vol. 2 pt 2 > Part 100
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105 | Part 106 | Part 107 | Part 108 | Part 109 | Part 110 | Part 111 | Part 112 | Part 113 | Part 114 | Part 115 | Part 116 | Part 117 | Part 118 | Part 119 | Part 120 | Part 121
On September 25, 1895, Dr. Graham was married, two days after his return from Europe, to Miss Amanda Craig, at the old home at Millers- burg. Ohio. One daughter, Marie, was born to this union. Mrs. Graham, who survives her husband and lives in the handsome family home on Ilinkson avenue, Columbia, is widely known and has many warm friends in social circles of the city.
1958
HISTORY OF NORTHEAST MISSOURI
ALONZO WHITE, M. D. There are many salient points which render most consonant a special recognition of Doctor White within the pages of this work. He attained to prestige as one of the representative phy- sicians and surgeons of Marion county, as had his father before him, and though he long since abandoned the active practice of his profession to give his attention to his extensive landed estate and other business interests of broad scope, he has kept in touch with the advances made in medical and surgical science, even as he has continued an appreciative student and reader of the best standard and periodical literature. He is one of the substantial capitalists of his native county and his course has been ordered upon a high plane of integrity and honor, so that he has not been denied the unqualified confidence and esteem of his fellow men. The doctor is a scion of a family whose name has been most prominently and worthily linked with the history of Marion county for nearly a century, and in connection with civic and material development and progress no name has been more conspicuous in this now favored and opulent section of the state. Thus it will be seen that there is special consistency in offering a review of the personal career and ancestral record of Doctor White in this history of Northeast Missouri.
Dr. John B. White, father of him whose name initiates this article, was born in Sussex county, Delaware, on the 31st of July, 1793, and was a son of John White, of stanch English lineage. The founder of the White family in America came from England in the opening decade of the eighteenth century and established his home in Delaware. Dr. John B. White was reared to maturity in his native state, whence he came to Missouri in 1818. He remained for an interval at St. Louis, and was accompanied to his new home by three negro slaves-two boys and a girl. In 1819 he came to Marion county and settled in the vicinity of Palmyra, which was then represented by but one or two pioneer houses, of primitive type. His capitalistic resources were represented in the sum of about $250, and upon his arrival in Marion county he entered claim to a tract of government land, to which he later added by the purchase of adjoining tracts. His first domicile was a rude log cabin, with roof sloping on one side only and reaching to the ground. He initiated his labors as an agriculturist by breaking two acres of prairie land, upon which he planted wheat. Most of his land was prai- rie but he reclaimed about fifty acres from the virgin forest, his little pioneer cabin having been situated near the timber line. He lived for several years in his original cabin and then removed to a location near a spring which he had discovered, as he had noted that cow tracks in the vicinity rapidly filled with water. Springs of this order were of much importance in the pioneer days, as few wells were constructed and the spring water supplied the homes of the greater number of the early settlers. As the financial resources of Doctor White increased he made judicious investments in additional land and he eventually accumulated a large and valuable estate. He was a man of most alert and vigorous mentality and through self-application gained a liberal education. He studied medicine and became an able and successful exemplar of the profession to which he long devoted his attention, the work of his exten- sive farm having been largely given over to his slaves, of whom he owned a large number. Prior to coming to Missouri he had charge of a school in Kentucky, a fact that shows that he had made good use of the edu- cational advantages afforded him, and he continued a close and appre- ciative student till the very close of his life. He had broad and accu- rate knowledge of scientific subjects and general literature and his in- tellectuality was developed to symmetrical proportions along all lines. He labored with all of self-abnegation and devotion in his chosen pro-
1959
HISTORY OF NORTHEAST MISSOURI
fession, and in this connection endured many hardships in ministering to the suffering throughout the wild and sparsely settled pioneer community.
Dr. John B. White gained the friendship of the Indians, who were still numerous in this section of the state, and in later years he took special pleasure in recalling an incident of the early days. While he was in his cabin one tempestuous winter night two Indians appeared at his door and asked for shelter. He gave them a cordial greeting and they spread their large blankets before the fireplace, seated themselves and then asked permission to cook the wild turkey which they had brought in. Permission being given, they rubbed the fowl in the snow, then covered it with the hot ashes and cooked it to a turn. After par- taking of their primitive feast they slept till the following morning, when they took their departure, with manifest appreciation of the kindly treatment accorded them. Doctor White was a young man of twenty- six years when he established his home in Marion county, and not until he had attained the age of forty-six did he take unto himself a wife. This was in the year 1839, when he wedded Miss Martha Ann Towler, who was born in Virginia, on the 21st of September, 1817, and who came with her parents to Marion county, Missouri, when a girl, the family settling in the vicinity of Palmyra, where she formed the acquaintance of her future husband. Doctor White attained to the patriarchal age of ninety-five years and passed to the life eternal on the 14th of Janu- ary, 1889, one of the best known and most highly honored pioneers of Northeastern Missouri. His cherished and devoted wife passed away on the 22d of November, 1899, at the age of eighty-two years, both hav- ing been zealous members of the Episcopal church and he having been a loyal and effective supporter of the principles and policies of the Democratic party. During the early years of his professional work in this section of the state, Doctor White made the journey on foot to St. Louis to procure his medicines, which were shipped by boat up the Mississippi river to Hannibal. Dr. and Mrs White became the parents of four children, and of the number Dr. Alonzo White, of this review, is the only survivor, he having been the second in order of birth. Joseph E. died at the age of about eighteen years and Junious at the age of about thirteen years; Frances Ann, who was the first wife of Joseph Mackey, a prominent citizen of Palmyra died when about forty-six years of age.
Dr. Alonzo White, who has well upheld the prestige of the family name, was born on the old homestead farm, which is his present place of abode and the date of his nativity was May 24, 1842. He had the benignant surroundings of a home of signal culture and refinement and after availing himself of the advantages of the common schools he con- tinued his studies in St. Paul's College, at Palmyra, an institution main- tained under the auspices of the Protestant Episcopal church. He began the study of medicine under the able preceptorship of his honored father and eventually entered the celebrated Jefferson Medical College, in Philadelphia, long one of the best institutions of the kind in the Union. He there continued his technical studies for two and one-half years and was graduated as a member of the class of 1865, with the degree of doctor of medicine. Thereafter he was associated with his father in active general practice in Marion county for a period of about eight years, since which time he has given the major part of his time and atten- tion to the management of his extensive landed estate and other interests. The homestead farm, which comprises 506 acres, is situated about two miles distant from Palmyra and is one of the model places of this section of the state. It is devoted principally to diversified agriculture and considerable attention is given to the raising of high-grade live stock.
1960
HISTORY OF NORTHEAST MISSOURI
The doctor's elder son, a scientific and practical young agriculturist, is gradually relieving him of much of the active supervision of the farm. The doctor was one of the organizers of the National Bank of Palmyra and for some time a director and is still a large stockholder in the same, besides which he was a member of the directorate of the Marion County Savings Bank, in the same city, his son now occupying the position.
Dr. White is a man of marked business ability and his intellectual attainments are of high order, since, like his father, he has been a deep student and is well fortified in his opinions, especially concerning mat- ters of public import. He has made the best of improvements on his farm, including the erection of a spacious and attractive modern resi- dence, the same being recognized as the best in Marion county, the while it is known also as a center of most gracious hospitality. In politics he accords a stanch allegiance to the Democratic party, and both he and his wife hold membership in the Episcopal church.
On the 17th of November, 1886, was solemnized the marriage of Doctor White to Miss Martha L. Bates, who was born at Palmyra, Marion county, on the 24th of July, 1865, and whose parents, James M. and Huldah M. (Nickols) Bates, came from Kentucky to this county in an early day. Dr. and Mrs. White have five children: Frances A., who is a member of the class of 1913 in the University of Missouri; Alonzo, Jr., who was graduated in the department of agriculture in the same uni- versity 1912 and who is now associated with his father in the manage- ment of the home farm; Mary B., who remains at the parental home; Lucile, who is now a member of the class of 1913 in the Christian Col- lege at Columbia ; and John B., who is attending the public schools.
HON. LOUIS F. COTTEY, the well known attorney of Edina, Missouri, was born on a farm in the county where he now resides, March 31, 1846. His father. Ira D. Cottey, was born in Lewis county, Kentucky, March 4, 1810. He was married January 24, 1839, in Harrison county, Kentucky, to Sarah E. Eads, who was born in the state of Virginia, December 12, 1817. She was a daughter of Rev. Martin L. Eads, a Methodist minister.
In the spring of 1841 this young couple migrated from old Ken- tucky to new Missouri, and settled on Bee Ridge, a section made famous by bee hunters and which was then a part of Scotland county. (Knox county was organized in 1845.) The country was very sparsely settled at that time and many were the privations incident to the early settle- ments. Their first home was a one-room log cabin, about eighteen feet square, with a loft which was reached by a ladder. It is said there was not a nail used in the construction of this cabin. In subsequent years they acquired a large tract of land and a comfortable home and con- tinued in the pursuit of agriculture, in the same neighborhood, until the spring of 1882, in which year they moved to Knox City, where the husband and father, Ira D. Cottey, died April 1, 1883. For many years his widow, Mrs. Sarah E. Cottey, has lived in Nevada, Missouri. Al- though now in her ninety-sixth year, her general health is good and she shows no signs of mental failing faculties, her mind remaining bright and cheerful under the advances of age. To this union eleven children were born. (See biography of William M. Cottey.)
Louis F. Cottey spent his boyhood on his father's farm in Knox county. His preliminary education was received in the country schools of the district. Shortly after the close of the Civil war he attended an academy at Palmyra for one year; afterwards he entered Central Col- lege at Fayette, Missouri, from which institution he graduated in 1869. After leaving college he taught school, read law and was admitted to
1961
HISTORY OF NORTHEAST MISSOURI
the bar in June, 1871. He had continued in his school work, however, and in 1872 he was elected county superintendent of schools of Knox county, in which capacity he served two years. In 1874 he opened a law office in Edina, which he still maintains. It is said that he has one of the best equipped offices in Northeast Missouri.
In politics Mr. Cottey is a Democrat and has been prominent in the counsels of his party locally, as well as in state and national affairs. In January, 1875, he was chosen, in connection with Hon. Levi J. Wag- ner, to represent the twelfth senatorial district, composed of the coun- ties of Lewis, Clark, Scotland and Knox, in the constitutional convention called to meet in May, 1875. He was elected to that important post of honor before he was twenty-nine years old and was the youngest mem- ber of that body. In recognition of his services in that convention, he was appointed a member of the committee to prepare an address to the voters of the state on the work of the convention, which address did more, no doubt, than anything else to familiarize the public with the character and merits of the proposed constitution, and to insure its ratification by the people.
In 1876 he was chosen to represent his county in the legislature. The session which followed was of more than ordinary importance, be- cause it was necessary to put into effect, by legislative enactments, many of the important provisions of the new constitution which had just recently been adopted.
In 1878 he was elected to the state senate and served in that body during the thirtieth and thirty-first general assemblies. At that time more than fifty counties in this state were oppressed with bonded debts. Most of such bonds had been issued under the so-called Drake consti- tution of 1865, and while its test oath and disfranchisement provisions were in force. In many counties payment of the bonds was resisted on the grounds that they had been illegally or fraudulently issued.
With the view of bringing some measure of relief to the people from this situation, one of the first bills introduced in the senate by Mr. Cottey was an act to sub-divide the county revenue, in the various counties in the state, into five distinct funds which were to be held sacred for the specific purposes designated. Under this act there was no general rev- enue fund of a county subject to be seized by the bondholders; it was also provided that county courts could not make levies to pay county or township bonds, without first securing an order from the circuit court, or judge thereof, directed to the county court, commanding such levy to be made. The reason for this provision was that the circuit court was better qualified to determine the legality and necessity for such levy than the county court. This act attracted general public attention throughout the state and has been frequently referred to by the appel- late courts as the "Cottey Bill." Under its provisions many counties were enabled to compromise and settle their bonds on very favorable terms. That part of the act providing for the division of county funds is still retained in our statutes (sec. 11423, R. S. 1909), in the exact language in which it was originally introduced in the senate.
In the second session of the senate he was chairman of the commit- tee on ways and means, which at that time included appropriations and was regarded as the most important committee in the body. He was a faithful and zealous worker in the three general assemblies of which he was a member and made a noteworthy and highly commendable record. He was not a candidate for re-election, preferring rather to devote his time to the practice of his profession.
Mr. Cottey was selected as an alternate, but served as a delegate in the Democratic national convention of 1896, which nominated William Vol. III-43
ยท
1962
HISTORY OF NORTHEAST MISSOURI
J. Bryan for president, and took an active part in the exciting cam- paign which followed. He believed then, and has ever since believed, that Mr. Bryan was right in his quantitative theory of money, that is to say, that thirty-five dollars per capita, or practically that amount, was necessary to bring permanent prosperity to the business of this coun- try, and that the free coinage of silver was simply a means to that end. History has proven, he says, that general prosperity did not come to the country until the circulating medium approximated thirty-five dol- lars per capita. He prides himself on being a progressive Democrat, and also upon the fact that he was an original Woodrow Wilson man for the Democratic nomination for president in 1912.
As a lawyer Mr. Cottey has been a close student and is well read in his profession. He has a strong, logical mind and is a pointed and forcible speaker. He has the reputation of being exceedingly careful and painstaking in drawing pleadings, as well as in the preparation of his records, briefs and arguments, both in the nisi prius and appellate courts. He is widely recognized as a most excellent lawyer and a cit- izen of high standing. In his law library are six bound volumes, law book size, of his printed briefs, comprising in all seventy-five cases he has had in the appellate courts of this state. Most of these cases he argued orally in the courts of last resort. The appellate court records attest that, of the cases briefed in the first three of said volumes, he gained a majority, and of the cases briefed in the last three of said volumes, he gained all, except two. In appellate practice Mr. Cottey thinks a good abstract of the record and a clear, concise statement of the case are the things most essential to success. His idea is that an appellate court is more anxious to be advised as to the facts than the law.
Although a professional man primarily, Mr. Cottey is something of a farmer. In 1909 he bought a tract of one hundred acres of land, twenty acres of which is within the corporate limits of Edina, on which he recently erected a house, barn, silo and other out buildings at a cost of five thousand dollars. His foundation stock of cattle consisted of three imported Jersey cows. He now has nine head of registered Jer- seys. His motto is to breed and raise the best in live stock as well as crops. At the Missouri state corn show, held at Columbia, January, 1912, he won two second prizes on his Reid's yellow dent corn, one in the North- east section on ten ears, and the other in the Open to The State Class on twenty ears. In the same show of January, 1913, he won the first premium for the best acre of yellow corn grown in the state in the year 1912. He has made a success of alfalfa on his farm, which he regards as the most profitable crop the farmer can raise.
On the fifth day of August, 1886, Mr. Cottey was married to Flor- ence McGonigle at Edina. Mr. and Mrs. Cottey are members of the Methodist Episcopal church, South.
JAY M. GARHART. In the earlier history of this country there are many accounts of the trials and brave sacrifices of those who are num- bered among the pioneers of certain districts. The tide of civilization then was ever moving westward and as soon as a section was fairly well developed there would be some venturesome souls ready and eager to press still further toward the frontier, making new boundary lines for the outposts of civilization. Without these intrepid men and women the United States would not lie from ocean to ocean, but still be clus- tered along the Atlantic seaboard. If pioneers from the more eastern states had not braved the unknown dangers of a wild and unsettled country and conquered Northeastern Missouri, this great section of a
1963
HISTORY OF NORTHEAST MISSOURI
great commonwealth would still be a waste of prairie land and dense timber, and where is now heard the cheerful bustle of urban existence and the hum of busy farming machinery, the prairie chicken and wild turkey would wing their low flight. One of the families which has been identified with the development of this section of Missouri, and espe- cially of Chariton county, is that bearing the name of Garhart, a repre- sentative of which is found in the person of Jay M. Garhart, owner of a large and valuable farming property located eight and three-quarters miles northeast of Salisbury, and two miles west and three-quarters of a mile north of Prairie Hill. Mr. Garhart was born near Bucyrus, in Crawford county, Ohio, January 25, 1866, a son of William M. and Sarah (Shoop) Garhart, natives of the Buckeye State.
Shortly after their marriage, William M. and Sarah Garhart came to Missouri, making settlement in 1872 on a farm of eighty acres, half of which was improved, in Chariton county, where Jay M. Garhart has his home. There during the days when this land, which is in the Mis- souri bottoms of the Chariton river, was but little encumbered with fence, William M. Garhart engaged extensively in the stock business, but as the years passed he gave more and more of his attention to farm- - ing, in the meantime adding to his land until he owned 240 acres, all of which was put under cultivation. He continued to engage in agri- cultural pursuits until his retirement in 1896, since which time he has resided at Salisbury. Formerly a Methodist, he is now a member of the Holiness church, while his political belief is that of the Prohibition party, although he was for a number of years a supporter of Demo- cratic principles. He and his wife have had a family of six children, as follows: Jay M .; Ida May, who married Joseph Jackson, a commis- sion merchant of St. Louis, Missouri; Mary Esther, who married Sam- nel Allen, and resides in Texas; Leland, who died when twenty-two years of age; Martin Rolandus; and Mattie Adelia, who married Ed. Statanbacker and resides in Salisbury. Martin Rolandus Garhart was born October 18, 1878, and in young manhood spent a short time in the states of Texas and Washington, but eventually returned to Chari- ton and is now engaged in operating a part of the old homestead place. In November, 1900, he was married to Miss Allie Cantlin, and they have had two children, namely: Lawrence Russell and Wilma May.
Jay M. Garhart was educated in the common schools of Chariton county, and was reared to agricultural pursuits. As a lad he spent two years as a clerk in a general store at Prairie Hill, following which he carried on operations for one and one-half years on a property near Brookfield, which he rented. He then returned to the home farm, of which he has had charge ever since in company with his brother, and also owns a large farm of his own. In addition to general farming. the brothers have given a good deal of attention to cattle breeding, and are well known breeders of high grade Hereford animals. Their operations have been uniformly successful and their product finds a ready market in the large cities, while their strict integrity in all matters of a business nature have gained them the confidence and regard of their business associates and the public in general.
On January 22, 1890, Jay M. Garhart was married to Miss Alice Fray, who was born in Saline county, Missouri, daughter of Oscar Fray, and to this union there have been born two children: Flossie Fern, who is engaged as a stenographer at Louisiana, Missouri; and Floy Pearl, a high school student at Salisbury. Mr. Garhart has interested himself in various enterprises of a financial and commercial nature. For three years he has been a director of the Farmers and Merchants Bank at Prairie Hill, Missouri, and has served as vice-president of this
1964
HISTORY OF NORTHEAST MISSOURI
institution for one year. He was one of the three organizers of the com- pany to develop and operate the two coal mines at Prairie Hill, which has an eighty-six foot shaft, with a vein of four feet six inches, averag- ing 300 bushels of coal daily and partly supplying the city of Salis- bury. A shrewd business man, any enterprise with which his name is connected is regarded as stable and solid, and his judgment is implicitly relied upon in matters of an important nature. In his political views he is a Democrat, but public life has never appealed to him, his farm and his business interests satisfying his ambitions. He attends the Holiness church at Prairie Hill, while Mrs. Garhart is a Presbyterian, and both have many friends in their respective congregations.
BERRY HUDSON. Howard county. is noted for its fine farmsteads, many of which have been under cultivation for upwards of a century. In Prairie township is located one of the most attractive and valuable, Woodland Park, the home of Berry Hudson. Its chief industry is cat- tle raising. Mr. Hudson has spent money, patience and labor in laying the foundation of a splendid herd of Herefords which is now considered one of the best in the state. The farm contains two hundred acres, and is valued at $40,000, and gives evidence of a high state of improvement. Like the late David Rankin, who was the king of Missouri farmers, he was a self-made man. He began without any capital to speak of and has accumulated a fine estate entirely through his own initiative and industry.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.