USA > Missouri > A history of northeast Missouri, Vol. 2 pt 2 > Part 105
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. HUNTER V. CARSON. Four and one-half miles east of New Franklin, Missouri, is located the farm of Hunter V. Carson, one of Howard county's most substantial agriculturists, a life-long resident of this section, and a citizen who has rendered signal service to his community in various positions of public trust. Mr. Carson is well known to the people of Howard county, not only for the activities that have brought him personally before the public, but as a member of an old and honored family of this section. He was born on the old Carson homestead in Howard county, November 11, 1867, and is a son of the late Thomas Carson, and a grandson of William Carson. The latter was a son of Eliza ("Lizy") Carson, a relative, of Daniel Boone, and one of the earliest settlers of this county. The famous "Kit" Carson, government scout and pathfinder, was also one of the members of this family, although the fact that he ran away from home to settle on the old Santa Fe trail does not reflect on the stability of this branch of the family, whose members have ever been known as solid, steady-going people, loyal to their community and satisfied with its opportunities and advantages.
Thomas Carson grew to manhood in his native community, and here married Susan Isaacs, who was also born in Howard county, their union being blessed by the birth of two children, one who died young, and Hunter V. The father died January 26, 1911, when eighty years of age. An old pioneer of the Santa Fe and Mexico trail, he was always known as a brave, courageous citizen, and in 1850 made a trip overland to California by ox-team, a trip of six months on the plains. He soon returned to his native county, however, and here accumulated three hundred and forty acres of land. He was a member of the Masons, a consistent member of the Christian church, and a citizen who was held in high esteem by all. His widow, who still survives, was born July 10, 1846, and is now a resident of Fayette.
Hunter V. Carson was reared on the old homestead. and his educa- tion was secured in the district schools of his native vicinity. He was married in 1888 to Miss Sallie T. Pearson, who was born and reared in Howard county and secured her education at Christian College at Co- lumbia, Missouri. She is a daughter of William Pearson. a pioneer and well-known citizen of Howard county, a complete sketch of whose career
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appears on another page of this volume. Mr. Carson's business activi- ties have been devoted to farming, and at this time he owns two hundred and twelve acres of some of the most highly-cultivated valley bottom land in Franklin township, and three hundred and twenty acres near Hillside, the latter being devoted to the raising of stock. Mr. and Mrs. Carson have one daughter, Mary Lou, who graduated from William Woods College, Columbia, in the class of 1906, married Ed Maddox, a railroad man of Sedalia, Missouri, and has one son, Hinton.
Mr. Carson has been very active in Democratic politics, and is now chairman of the Democratic committee of the seventh district. He has never asked for political office, but his executive abilities are known to his associates and his best services have been given to his party. A genial and courteous man, he at all times welcomes his many friends to his home, where hospitality is dispensed in a liberal manner.
ISAAC C. MILLER. One of the old and honored families of Randolph county, members of which have been prominent in business, agricultural and political life, is that of Miller, worthy representatives of which may be found in Valentine and Isaac C. Miller, of Moberly, father and son. Valentine Miller was a native of Pennsylvania, from which state he came to Missouri in 1868, settling on a farm near Huntsville, in Ran- dolph county. During the next ten years he cultivated and improved his property, and then sold his land, retired from active life, and located in Moberly, where he still resides at the age of eighty-seven years. Mr. Miller married Mary Jane Mercer, also a native of the Keystone State, and she died December 11, 1908, having been the mother of seven chil- dren : Emma and Joseph, who died in childhood; an infant, deceased ; Dr. Irving and Eliza Jane, who are also deceased; David, a retired citi- zen of Moberly; and Isaac C.
Isaac C. Miller was born June 20, 1858, on a farm in Clarion county, Pennsylvania, and there began his education. He was ten years of age at the time he accompanied his parents to Missouri, and in the district schools of Randolph county secured the balance of his tuition. Reared to agricultural pursuits, he remained with his parents, and when they came to Moberly he accompanied them and has resided with his father here ever since.
On July 4, 1888, Mr. Miller was united in marriage with Miss Lillian Klare, daughter of August and Caroline (Drier) Klare, natives of Ger- many, who came to America in 1852 and located at Alton, Illinois. Mr. Klare, who was a shoemaker by trade, died June 20, 1899, while his widow survives him and makes her home at Tampa, Florida. They had a family of seven children, namely: George, William and August, who are all deceased; Emma, wife of Richard Compton, of Connellsville, Missouri; Carrie, who is deceased; Anna, wife of Thomas Beasley, of Tampa, Florida; one child who died in infancy; and Lillian, who mar- ried Mr. Miller. Mr. and Mrs. Miller have had two children : Ray, born July 22, 1889, residing at home with his parents ; and Nina, born August 15, 1892, who died January 8, 1898.
Mr. Miller is a Republican in his political views, and for ten years served Moberly in the capacity of councilman. He takes a public-spirited interest in all matters pertaining to the welfare of Moberly, and has so conducted his business affairs as to win the confidence and esteem of his associates and the public at large. Fraternally he is connected with the Odd Fellows, while Mrs. Miller belongs to the Mystic Workers of the World, and the Rebekahis, and both are well known in the Presby- terian church. They have numerous friends in Moberly, where both families have always borne the highest reputation.
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OSWALD SWEENEY BARTON, one of the most prominent among the legal fraternity of Howard county, is a native of the state of Ken- tucky, although he bears the name of one of the oldest and most noted of Missouri families. The history of this family in Missouri, beginning with the great-grandfather of the subject, is a most interesting one, and has many points that would render it a most suitable one for biographical treatment. It is impossible, however, in a sketch as brief as this must necessarily be, to more than touch upon the more salient points, in the effort to concisely set forth something of the early history of this house.
The great-grandfather of Oswald Sweeney Barton, the Fayette law- yer whose name heads this review, was a pioneer of St. Louis, Capt. Joseph Barton by name, and one of the more prominent figures in the early history of that city. He married Elizabeth Rector, whose brother, Thomas Reetor, killed Joshua Barton in a duel, the same having been precipitated as the result of an article communicated to the old Missouri Republican, by Joshua Barton, who was then (June, 1823) attorney general of the state, and which made charges against Thomas Rector's brother, who was at that time surveyor general of the terri- torial district. The meeting, which resulted in the death of Joshua Barton, took place at the top of the big mound, which gave to St. Louis the cognomen of the "Mound City." The son of Captain Benton and Elizabeth (Rector) Barton was Wharton R. Barton, the grandfather of the subject, who became a resident of Lime county, Missouri, and one of its most influential citizens. He there held successively the office of sheriff, collector, recorder and circuit clerk. His son, Rector Barton, was married in Howard county, Missouri, on May 16, 1860, to Sallie C. Savage, and in the year following he moved to Mason county, Ken- tucky, and at the little village of Germantown in that county, Oswald Sweeney Barton was born, on June 29, 1862. In 1865 the family returned to Missouri, and in 1868 took up their residence on a farm near Glasgow, in Howard county, and it was on this Missouri farm that Oswald Barton was reared to young manhood.
He was graduated from the Pritchett Institute at Glasgow and soon thereafter entered the St. Louis Law School, which he attended for one year, finishing his technical studies in the offices of Hon. Thomas Shackelford. After two years passed under the wise and efficient tute- lage of this gentleman, Mr. Barton was admitted to the bar before Judge H. Burkhardt at Fayette, in Howard county, that event taking place on June 5, 1885. He began practice at Glasgow, and remained at that place until 1889, when he was elected prosecuting attorney for Howard county, thereupon removing to Fayette, the county seat, to assume the duties of his office. In 1890, Mr. Barton was re-elected to the office; but resigned and moved to Denver, where he continued in practice until 1893. In that year he returned to Missouri, and again took up his residence in Glasgow; but on July 1, 1897, removed to Fay- ette, where he has since resided.
Wherever Mr. Barton is known in Missouri, either by the people or by his brothers in the legal fraternity, he is regarded as one of the ablest pleaders before the bar. He has been engaged as counsel in many criminal cases of note in Howard county, and since he began his prac- tice has been identified in his professional capacity with many murder cases of note. As early as 1888 he was chosen as one of those to stump the state for the Democracy in the campaign of that year, and in the campaign of 1892 he made a number of speeches in Colorado and Wyoming. He was then a member of the "White Wing," or Cleveland faction of the party, and was the nominee of the Democracy for the Vol. III-45
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office of state senator. In the heated campaign of 1896 he was very prominent, making more than thirty speeches in various parts of the state. All his life Mr. Barton has been active in politics, and was especially active in the last presidential campaign. He addressed large audiences in Illinois, Kentucky, Texas and Nebraska as a supporter of Champ Clark, and after the nomination of Woodrow Wilson, made twenty-two speeches for that candidate. Mr. Barton has served as cir- cuit judge on occasion, being appointed special judge by the bar when the regular judge of the district was incapacitated by illness, and on those occasions gave further evidences of his versatility and capability.
Mr. Barton was married on January 8, 1890, to. Miss Lenora Talbot, who died on August 2, 1892. She was the daughter of William Talbot and the granddaughter of Dr. Talbot, well known in Northeastern Mis- souri. On December 12, 1894, Mr. Barton married Miss Maude Hays, the daughter of the late Marion F. Hays, of Howard county.
ROBERT S. McCAMPBELL. To the man of industry and enterprise a life of retirement, after many years spent in hard and faithful toil, seems repellant, and this is especially so with the agriculturist, who is generally loath to turn over to other hands the property on which he has spent his active years, and which reflects the labor he has expended upon it. There comes a time in every man's life, however, when he feels convinced that he has done his full share in developing his com- munity, and he then relinquishes his hold upon active operations, con- tent to settle down to spend his declining years in the enjoyment of the comforts his long life of useful labor has brought him. In this class in Northeastern Missouri stands Robert S. McCampbell, now living a life of retirement in Union township, Randolph county. Mr. McCamp- bell is a native of Shelby county, Kentucky, and was born October 15, 1834, a son of John and Mary Ann (Tinsley) McCampbell. His father, who was a native of Indiana, removed to Kentucky in young manhood, and there spent the remaining years of his life, while his mother, who was a native of the Bluegrass State, subsequently came to Missouri, where she lived for a long period, and attained the remarkable age of ninety-six years. Four children, all sons, were born to John and Mary Ann McCampbell, and of these Robert S. and one brother survive.
Robert S. McCampbell received a common school education, follow- ing which he worked on the home farm until he reached the age of twenty-two years. At that time. he began farming on his own account, and was so engaged in Kentucky for two years, but in 1858 came to Missouri and settled in Sheridan county. There farming and stock raising occupied his attention until the spring of 1880, which year saw his advent in Randolph county, where he has since resided. For a num- ber of years he was engaged in cultivating a farm in Union township, but he now lives a quiet life, having acquired a handsome competency. He has had a long and useful life, and one to which he can look back without shame or regret. His record as an agriculturist was good. and his career as a citizen striving to maintain the high standard of his community is no less meritorious. The example set by his actions may well be used as a pattern for the generation now growing up. In politi- cal matters Mr. McCampbell is a Democrat, and for a number of years served as school director, both in Sheridan and Randolph counties.
Mr. McCampbell was married (first) in 1856, to Miss Mary Huss, and to this union there were born five children: William L., who lives in Sheridan county ; Mattie, the wife of William Milton, of Booneville, Missouri, and three children who are deceased. Mrs. McCampbell died March 6, 1905, and Mr. McCampbell was married (second) in 1909, to
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Mrs. Sarah Hutsell McCampbell, widow of James A. McCampbell, who died May 26, 1896. By her first husband Mrs. McCampbell had four sons : Wallace B., engaged in farming in Randolph county ; Bloomfield, who makes his home in Texas; John, residing in Randolph county ; and one child who is deceased. Mrs. McCampbell is a consistent member of the Christian church, and she and her husband have numerous friends in Union township and the city of Moberly, near which their home is situated.
CHARLES HENRY GRAVES, M. D., of Center, Missouri, is practicing medicine in Ralls county, where he was born and grew up. He was born in Ralls county on the 19th of March, 1863, and the years of his minority were passed in the town of his birth. He completed his liter- ary education in Renssalaer Academy and became a teacher in his native county, following the work for some six years and becoming a member of the county: examining board during that time. He selected medicine for his life work finding the teaching profession not suited to his liking as a permanent means of a livelihood, and prepared himself for the profession in the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Keokuk, Iowa, being graduated from that school in 1899. He soon thereafter established himself at Madisonville, Ralls county, removing to Center in 1892. He returned to his Alma Mater for post graduate work, rein- forcing his already wide knowledge of his profession in that way. He is a member of the local and state medical societies and was president of the county society for a number of years. Soon after engaging in practice, he entered the drug business, in conjunction with his medical practice, and has continued to carry on that association through all his professional life. Politically, he comes of a Democratic family, and exercises his rights as a member of that party.
Dr. Graves is a son of Milton S. Graves, who died on his farm near Center, Missouri, in 1905, at the age of seventy-seven. He was born near Covington, Kentucky, and came to Missouri in 1835 with his father, Henry B. Graves, who settled in the township and community where his grandson, Dr. Graves of this review, grew up. This family founder was born in Kentucky about 1793. He was a member of the slave holding class and identified himself with the Southern cause during the Civil war.
Henry B. Graves married in early life and died in 1877. His chil- dren were William, who left a family of ten children in Ralls county, where he had passed his life; Henry Bart, who passed away in Monroe county and left a similar family as to size; a daughter who married John Berkley and died in Ralls county ; Milton S .; and Sarah J. who married George Krigbaum and is a resident of Ralls county.
Milton S. Graves was born in 1828. He acquired such education as he possessed in the schools of the country in Ralls county, and on reaching years of manhood married Charles Turner's daughter, Martha. Mr. Turner was a primitive Baptist minister and his family of eighteen children all lived to have children of their own before death invaded the sacred precincts of the family. He married Mary Lear and came out of the same Kentucky locality which gave to Missouri this branch of the Graves family. Rev. Turner died in 1875 and his wife survived him until 1892.
The attitude of Milton S. Graves in regard to the questions involved in the causes of the rebellion was such as to cause him to join the Con- federacy. He was drafted by the United States but evaded enlistment and escaped to the guerrilla force of "Bill' Anderson and was with it when Colonel Johnson's command was attacked and destroyed at Cen-
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tralia, Missouri, but six men out of the several hundred escaping. When the Union was finally restored Mr. Graves again resumed his place as a citizen of Ralls county and became one of the successful farmers of his neighborhood. He was a Democrat in politics, and a member of the Missionary Baptist church. His children were Charles Henry, the subject of this review; Emma, the wife of Frank Rice; Frank Bell of Ralls county ; Nettie married Joseph Zimmerman and resides in Bil- lings, Montana; Eva is Mrs. Thomas Keithley, of Hannibal, Missouri; James E. is a resident of Miles City, Montana, and Lorena is the wife of Cleve Turner, also of that city.
On December 11, 1889, Doctor Graves married in Ralls county, Miss J. Virginia Smith, a daughter of Jerome B. Smith and Susan Howard Smith. Mr. Smith's family numbered twelve children, and he was the son of Kentucky people. The Smith household comprised the follow- ing sons and daughters: Nanie B., the widow of William Smith; John, who died in Hillsboro, Texas; Edward B., of Ralls county ; Jesse, who died here and left two sons; a daughter who married Robert Howard and died in Ralls county ; Dora, the wife of James Clayton, of St. Louis; Laura, the wife of James White, of Perry, Missouri; Sylvester, of Van- dalia, Missouri; Lizzie, the wife of Clyde Ogle, of Colorado Springs, and Amelia, who married Roy Rice, of Center, Missouri.
Doctor and Mrs. Graves have no children. The doctor is an Odd Fellow and a member of the Missionary Baptist church. He has been mayor of Center and a member of the local board of aldermen.
LEONIDAS ROSSER MORRIS. One of the largest stockmen and shippers of Ralls county, a former county collector, Mr. Morris has been identified with northeast Missouri for more than half a century, and the length of his residence and the success of his activities make him one of the truly representative men whom this history should take note of.
He was born near Chancellorsville in historic Spotsylvania county, Virginia, on the 28th of July, 1843. The original American of the name was a Scotchman, and so far as can be ascertained the early generations of the family in America all resided in Spotsylvania county.
The grandfather of the Ralls county stockman was Mortimer Morris, who spent his life in the Old Dominion, but from his children the state of Missouri received an important contribution of citizenship. Among the children of Mortimer were Charles T. and James Y., both of whom came to Missouri ahead of those who are often called pioneers, and set- tled in Lincoln county, where they died; Mortimer, another son, spent his career close to the scenes of his birthplace; Jane became the wife of Simeon P. Robertson and died on Salt river in Pike county, leaving . a large family; Margaret, who died in Ralls county, was the wife of Abraham McPike.
John T. Morris, the third in the family of Mortimer Morris, previously mentioned, was born upon the soil made famous in subsequent years by some of the fiercest conflicts in the greatest civil war of history. Within the familiar scenes of his youth were fought the battles of the Wilder- ness and Spotsylvania, and the contending armies moved forward and back over that region again and again. The plantation where he was born was operated by slave labor, and the family for generations had been accustomed to the peculiar institution. He was married during the thirties, and in 1856 drew anchor from the soil of his native locality and did not cast it again until he had arrived among the frontier com- munity of Pike county, Missouri. He settled near Bowling Green, and there he passed away some thirty-five or forty years later.
The wife of John T. Morris bore the maiden name of Annie Scott,
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and their children were as follows: Virginia, widow of James A. Barbee, of Bowling Green; Charles, now a resident of Bowling Green and a former soldier for the Confederacy; John W., now of Grain Valley, Missouri, who was formerly a member of the State Guards in the Con- federate service and took part in the little engagement at Ashley ; Leonidas R .; Edward, of Vandalia, Missouri; and Mrs. Martha Wil- liams, of Wichita Falls, Texas.
Leonidas R. Morris was just entering his 'teens when the family came to Missouri, and neither in Virginia nor in this state did he obtain any thorough and consecutive schooling. But with good natural endowments his education has sufficed. He had no ambition for military achievement and was satisfied when the war was settled without his aid. He preferred farming to fighting, and the vocation thus begun in war has continued through a half century of peace, and the mixed industry of general farming and handling stock goes on hand in hand today.
Mr. Morris has had a career of self-achievement, and what he has is the product of his own industry and good management. When he located in Ralls county in 1864 he began as a tenant farmer. With the favor of good seasons and other circumstances he made progress and sonn scanned some acres of his own, four miles west of New London, that land still being included in his present estate. As a grower of stock he has always enjoyed a peculiar success, and as time passed he made this no small industry. He fed considerable numbers and later began shipping, a branch of business with which he became identified before the railroads made their appearance in this portion of Missouri. His first stock went to market by boat, and he was afterwards one of the first local producers to load his stock into cars on the Short Line Rail- road. For a number of years he has been one of the large dealers of Ralls county, and some three carloads of stock go out from this locality under his bill of lading every week in the year. A prominent feature of his business is dealing in mules, and he prepares them for market as he does his cattle or his swine.
A generous business success has not prevented Mr. Morris from giving some disinterested public service to his county. He acquired his Demo- cratic partisanship through the issues of the war, as did his father, but the earlier generations of the family were Whigs. In 1894 his name came before the electorate of the county as candidate for the office of county collector to succeed William Netherlin, and he was elected. In 1896 he was re-elected for a four-year term in accordance with the change in the law, and at the expiration of six years' systematic man- agement of his official duties turned the collectorship over to Marshall Hulse. He was in the congressional convention at St. Charles which nominated Champ Clark for congress, and has ever since been among the stanch supporters of that statesman in his congressional and presi- dential aspirations.
As one of the original stockholders of the Ralls County Fair Asso- ciation, Mr. Morris has been a liberal worker for the encouragement of agriculture at home, and has lent his support to all other movements which mean a better and broader achievement in business and civic affairs.
Since 1903 Mr. Morris and family have resided at New London. He was married in November, 1867, to Miss Elizabeth Smith, a daugh- ter of Alfred and Lavinia (Fortune) Smith. The children of this union are : Harry, of New London ; Allie, wife of James Cup, of Center, Mis- souri; Denie, who married Harry Caldwell and resides in the state of Washington; Lola, the wife of Robert Caldwell, of Hannibal; George E., a farmer near New London, who married Donnie Barkley ; Ed M.,
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