A history of northeast Missouri, Vol. 2 pt 2, Part 106

Author: Williams, Walter, 1864- , ed
Publication date: 1913
Publisher: Chicago, New York, The Lewis publishing company
Number of Pages: 912

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of New London; and James E., who represents the International Har- vester Company and travels out of Springfield, Illinois.

Mr. and Mrs. Morris brought up their family in the Bethel Christian church, in the neighborhood of their farm, and he is still a deacon of that congregation. In New London he is a member of the Business Men's Bible Class, a gathering of the local business men each Sunday for the study of the scriptures and for the general spiritual advance- ment of the large membership of the class.

ED STRODE HOLT. In the farming district of the Salt River Valley in Northeast Missouri there are many prosperous and progressive men who believe that the happiest life as well as the most independent one is to be lived on the farm. Prominent among these men is Ed Strode Holt. For a number of years he has lived in this community where he was born, and is known as an excellent farmer and a man who can be depended upon in matters of local moment.

Ed Strode Holt was born on the 23d of January, 1866, near Spald- ing Springs, Ralls county, Missouri, the son of Henry Holt and Nancy Jane (Martin) Holt. His father died three months before his birth and as a consequence he was reared away from his mother, and has never known very much concerning his father's family. That he had two brothers, George and Richard, who were in the Confederate ser- vice during the Civil war, is certain, but what has been their fate no one has ever been able to learn. He also had one sister, who married a Mr. Brown. His father was born in Kentucky and came to Missouri as a young man. He married Nancy J. Martin in Hancock, Illinois, where she was born. Henry and Nancy Holt became the parents of three children : Henry S., of Cedarville, Kansas; Melvina, wife of Wil- liam Busby, of Sedan, Kansas, and Ed S. About 1871, Mrs. Holt mar- ried William Kirkpatrick and moved to Kansas, and there she reared a second family and is spending the years of her second widowhood with her children.

Ed S. Holt grew up in the family of Joberry Brashears, on a farm in the Salt river community, two miles west of New London. He attended the district schools and until he married aided his foster father in the work of the farm. Mr. Brashears was a member of one of the old pioneer families of the county, and his wife was a daughter of Merida and Elizabeth (McGuire) Brashears, who came to this county in 1841 from Roanoke county, Virginia. Joberry Brashears is now dead, but his widow is living.

Three years after his marriage Ed S. Holt moved to his present home from Center township where he had first embarked for himself. He tried life on two or three different farms but after a short time pur- chased the Brashears farm of one hundred and eighty-five acres and from an agriculturist pure and simple has developed gradually into a feeder and trader in cattle, though in a modest way, his main business being his agricultural interests. He was active in the fight for a second elevator in Center, and became a stockholder in the successful enter- prise.

As a Democrat Mr. Holt has been a factor in the work of his party in the county. He was honored with selection as a delegate to the Joplin convention and during this same year he was a candidate for the Democratic nomination for sheriff.

On the 3d of April, 1888, Mr. Holt married Mattie R. Wilson, a daughter of Madison Wilson and Jane Belton. Mrs. Holt is one of the following children : Dudley A .; Mattie R .; Alice B., the wife of Ed Smith, of New London; Bertic, wife of Al Smith, of the Spalding local-

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ity ; Sam O., of Hannibal, Missouri; Thomas E., a farmer of this locality, and Laura, wife of Robert Asher, who lives nearby. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Holt are Ruth, Joberry and Goldie. Mr. Holt is a member of the Masonic order, is a blue lodge Mason and a member of the chapter. In religious matters he is a member of the Christian church and is active in church affairs, being a deacon in the church.

FRANCIS H. QUINN. The thriving and attractive little city of Fay- ette, judicial center of Howard county, is signally fortunate in having as chief executive of its municipal government so progressive and pub- lic-spirited a citizen as Mr. Quinn, and that his official services have not lacked popular approval is significantly manifested in the fact that with the exception of one year he has served continuously as mayor of Fayette since 1905-an exceptionally prolonged regime and one that has been of great benefit to the city. The mayor is one of the leading business men and most highly esteemed citizens of Howard county, and his character and services are such as to eminently entitle him to dis- tinct recognition in this publication. Absolute official integrity has characterized the administration of Mayor Quinn, and all who know him can understand that any other attitude on his part would be impos- sible, for his sterling attributes of character have made him the stanch, loyal and liberal citizen he is today and has ever been. Under his direc- tion many public improvements of great value have been made in Fay- ette, and its interests have otherwise been signally advanced along civic and industrial lines. Mr. Quinn was first elected mayor of Fayette in April, 1905, and, as already stated, he has continued the incumbent of this office consecutively save for one year. In his youth he learned the carpenter's trade, and as a contractor and builder he has done much to foster material progress and upbuilding in Fayette. He has platted three additions to the city, has improved the same by the erection of many substantial houses and through his energy and enterprises each of these additions has been effectively developed. He has built excel- lent modern houses on Morrison street and Couples avenue, and through his well ordered efforts along this line many persons have been enabled to secure attractive homes. He laid out the Davis street addition to Fayette, and in this attractive part of the city he erected his own hand- some residence, which is modern in architectural design and all appoint- ments and which would be a credit to a metropolitan center. In his building operations Mayor Quinn has been insistent in purchasing all material in the local market and has employed local labor, so that there has been much incidental value to his enterprise, as touching the civic prosperity and progress of the community. Under his regime has been installed the fine water-works system of Fayette, and also the sewerage system. These two public improvements will stand in lasting evidence of his enterprise, liberality and progressiveness, and the city owes to him a debt of perpetual credit and honor. It was due to his suggestion and efforts that the unsightly old fence was removed from the court- house square, and no one improvement has added more to the general appearance of the city than this.

The alert action and quick and accurate judgment of Mayor Quinn give indication of the fine initiative and constructive powers that are his and that have been so admirably exerted in the furtherance of the best interests of his home city and county. Genial and affable, ever ready to aid those in need, broad-minded and public-spirited, and well fortified in his convictions, he has made a model executive, and his circle of friends and admirers is virtually coincident with that of his acquaint- ances. In addition to his effective work as a contractor and builder

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and as a dealer in real estate, Mr. Quinn is secretary and treasurer of the Fayette Building and Loan Company, which has exercised most benignant functions and which bases its operations on ample capital and the stanchest of administrative control. He is a stalwart Democrat in politics and is affiliated with the local lodge of Knights of Pythias.

Francis H. Quinn takes due pride in reverting to the fine old Blue- grass State as the place of his nativity, and the family of which he is a scion was founded in that commonwealth many years ago. He was born in Kentucky, on the 18th of February, 1869.

The father of Mayor Quinn was a successful contractor and builder in Kentucky and was a man whose life was ordered upon a high plane of integrity and honor, so that he held secure vantage ground in the confidence and esteem of his fellowmen.

The present mayor of Fayette is indebted to the public schools of his native' state for his early educational discipline, which was supple- mented by college study. Under the able direction of his father he learned the carpenter's trade, in which he became a skilled artisan, and his thorough technical and practical knowledge has proved of great value to him in furthering his success during his residence in Missouri.

In the year 1897 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Quinn to Miss Gertrude Galmere, who was born and reared at Warrensburg, Johnson county, Missouri, and who is a daughter of J. R. Galmere, a prominent and honored citizen of that county, whence he finally removed to Howard county, where he and his wife still maintain their home. Mr. and Mrs. Quinn have three children.

STEPHEN BEDFORD YANCEY. The representative of an old Virginia family of French origin and one that figured in the history of our country prior to the Revolutionary period, Stephen Bedford Yancey has well upheld the family name and its long established prestige in this state. He is a man who has helped to make history in Randolph and Howard counties, and as such is eminently worthy of a place in a biographical and historical work partaking of the nature of this publication. Born in the city of Springfield, in Green county, Missouri, Mr. Yancey is the son of Judge Charles S. and Mary (Bedford) Yancey, and his birth occurred on the 11th day of October in 1846.

Concerning the parentage and ancestry of Stephen B. Yancey, it may be said that he comes of an old and honorable family of Huguenot origin, the same having been established on American soil in the earliest days of the British colonies. The grandfather of the subject was a native of one of the Carolinas, and was a near relative of the late William L. Yancey, of South Carolina. He was but fourteen years old when he participated in the War of the Revolution, and he was present at the battle of Yorktown when General Lord Cornwallis surrendered to the Continental army. More of exact date concerning the family is un- available at this point, but sufficient is known to establish the family with all firmness among the first families of the nation. Judge Charles S. Yancey, the father of Stephen B., was born in Albemarle county, in Virginia, in the early part of the year 1800. The family had been long established in Virginia, and was one of considerable prominence and power in that state. The judge, be it said, was a self-made man. He studied law under Judge Todd at Columbia, was admitted to the bar and located in Springfield in 1833, where he gained considerable dis- tinction in the legal fraternity. He was a man of strong magnetic power, with a pleasing personality, and came to be one of the leading attorneys of the state of Missouri. He became circuit judge of his dis- trict in 1842-3, and was the first man south of the Missouri river to sentence a man to the gallows. The prisoner, when asked if he had

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anything to say, replied : "Nothing, Judge, only that you have been fair and merciful to me." He was a man of sterling integrity, clear- headed and of acknowledged ability in the law, and always fair and honorable in his rulings. When yet a young man Governor Boggs, in 1836, appointed him colonel of the state militia, and with a regiment of soldiers removed the Indians from Southwest Missouri to their res- ervation in the Indian Territory. So skillfully was his task accomplished that the governor openly expressed his pleasure, and the Indians ever after regarded him as their best friend. Judge Yancey was one of the most prominent public speakers in Missouri, and one of the leading statesmen of the commonwealth, and as such had been recognized for many years prior to his death. He was serving his third term as judge and had often been solicited to stand for congress. Had he lived his friends say he would have been governor of the state. He died in 1856, in the very prime of his manhood, when he was about forty-six years of age. He married Mary Bedford, the daughter of one of the finest fam- ilies of Boone county, Missouri, and a woman of superior intellect and character. A notable event of this wedding is that Mary Todd, after- ward the wife of President Abraham Lincoln, acted as bridesmaid for Mary Bedford. Mrs. Yancey's father was Stephen Bedford, one of the pioneers and most prominent men of his section of the state for many years. When the judge died he left three children : Anna Rozelle;

Stephen B., of this review, and Robert, who served as a soldier in the Confederate army under General Price and died soon after peace was declared, being but sixteen years old at the time of his death. The wife and mother died one year previous to the passing of the judge, and from her death he never seemed able to recover. Judge Yancey was ever the champion of the people, and he maintained their enduring faith and love to the last. When he died the populace felt that they had lost a friend, and it was indeed so, and for years after his friends recounted his many virtues and dwelt upon his loyal and unswerving friendship.

Stephen Bedford Yancey was reared and educated in Randolph county, Roanoke Academy, in that district, and Mount Pleasant Col- lege at Huntsville, Missouri, affording him his higher education. His inclinations naturally led him to the calling of his father and he de- voted his spare moments while in school to the study of law, but his failing health and the advice of his physician drove him from his chosen profession to the farm. With no experience and but very little cash, he turned his attention to farming on a small scale. His operations have been extended from year to year, and he has made a splendid success of that industry. In connection with his son, C. E. Yancey, and his son- in-law, W. R. Evans, he now owns five of the finest farms in the vicinity of Armstrong, and these comprise a total of thirteen hundred acres of highly improved and immensely valuable land. Modern houses, expansive barns and other buildings grace his properties, and his spread- ing blue grass pastures are stocked with high bred cattle, hogs, sheep and horses. He makes a specialty of the far-famed Missouri mule, of which he is the most extensive handler in this locality, holding the dis- tinction of producing and selling the highest priced two-year-old mules ever sold in the state. Full of energy, optimistic in all things and still retaining the fire of his youth, he has lived to see the farmer in Missouri come into his own, and he is known to be one of the most advanced farmers in the country, adhering to scientific and proven methods, and not averse to experiments when conditions seem to demand them. He gives the closest attention to soil culture, returning to his fields in the way of fertilizers everything taken from them. His Burch Farm con- tains five hundred acres of fertile and highly cultivated land ; the Mell

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Farm has 170; the Crescent Hill Farm 230 acres, and the Broad Moor Stock Farm, where he wrought for twenty years of his young married life and laid the foundations of his future success, contains four hun- dred acres. All lie between Roanoke and Yates stations in Randolph county, and the group is considered to be the finest that may be found in this part of Missouri. Mr. Yancey has two of the best residences in Armstrong, furnished and maintained in a manner indicating the excel- lent taste of himself and his family.

Mr. Yancey is a man of the keenest intelligence and of broad and progressive views. Not only as a farmer and a stockman has he been successful, but the banking business has known his activities and opera- tions for many years, and he has proven himself to be a financier of no mean abilities. Mr. Yancey was the promoter of the Farmers' Bank of Armstrong and was its president and cashier for twenty years. The death of his son in 1906, who had for years been assistant cashier of the bank, was a blow that almost felled the father to the earth. His right arm was gone, and so stunned and discouraged was he that for a time he retired from all business. But to stop and idly brood over his loss was foreign to the strong and healthy nature of the man. Inactivity palled upon him, and returning to business again, he invested his surplus capital entirely in farming lands. During the years of his official con- nection with the bank, he showed himself to be a man of splendid busi- ess capacities, with executive abilities far in excess of those of the average man, and he made a name for himself in financial circles equal to that which he had established in the agricultural industry. Two years ago he assisted his neighbors in organizing the Yates Savings Bank, capitalized at $15,000. The bank furnishes all necessary banking facili- ties for the territory in which his holdings are located and is a well conducted and thriving institution of its kind.

In 1867 Mr. Yancey married Miss Sarah Viley, the daughter of Judge John Viley, a southern gentleman of the old school, and one of the most popular and prominent of men in Randolph county. His fortune of twenty thousand acres of land and innumerable slaves was swept away by the war. She is a woman of fine character and mental attain- ments, and for almost forty years she has participated in his triumphs and defeats. As a matron in her snowy kerchief, she still reveals to him the form and face of his sweetheart of long ago, and to her unfailing devotion he cheerfully acknowledges his indebtedness for all of success that has come to him through the years of their comradeship. She be- came the mother of four children, named as follows: Charles E., a prominent farmer and stockman of Clay county, Missouri; William B., who was educated at William Jewell College, in Liberty, Missouri; he was for some years assistant cashier of the Farmers' Bank of Armstrong, as mentioned above, and was a young man of the most worthy char- acter, and loved by all for his kindly and genial disposition and his many striking qualities of heart and mind. He died in 1906 at the age of twenty-five years, while yet the glory of youth shone upon his brow, and life was sweet and beckoning. His bereaved family are rich, indeed, in the memory of his kindly deeds and the tender and loving service that was closed all too soon by his untimely passing. The other chil- dren are Elizabeth, the wife of William R. Evans, of Howard county, and Rozelle, who died at the age of five years.

Politically, Mr. Yancey has always affiliated with the Democratic party but has never sought political preferment, though often, in younger life, in demand. In church relations he is a Baptist. Loyal to the church he joined in youth, his hand and heart have always responded to the calls of his denomination. A friend to education, he not only gave his

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children all of the advantages to be obtained in our best schools, but many young men, who heeded his advice, "put your money into brains," felt the touch of timely aid and today are occupying places of profit and trust in his state-at least one has gained a national reputation. Faith in himself and faith in humanity, no obstacle has deterred and no success has unduly elated. His fine, courageous spirit has led him into an unobtrusive, retiring and busy life.

MRS. ELIZABETH ZIMER. A well known and highly esteemed resident of Howard county, Mrs. Elizabeth Zimer, of Fayette, well deserves the confidence and respect so generally accorded her by her neighbors and many friends. She was born at Rockport, Missouri, and was there educated. Her father, Elias Johnson, was a brother of Rev. Tarleton Johnson, for many years a noted preacher in Missouri. Her mother died at the early age of twenty-nine years.

Elizabeth Johnson was educated in her native town, primarily, but completed her studies in the public schools of Howard county. She married John Zimer, a man of integrity and worth, and for many years a prominent citizen of Fayette.

Mr. Zimer was born, November 23, 1834, in Germany, coming from a good family, his parents having been among the working people of the neighborhood, and faithful members of the Catholic church. Immigrat- ing to the United States when a young man, he soon became identified with the interests of his adopted country, which to him became as dear as the Fatherland. In 1862 he enlisted at the Jefferson Barracks, in Saint Louis, in a Missouri regiment, and as a gallant soldier made a good record, taking an active part in several battles of importance. At the close of the war Mr. Zimer was honorably discharged from the ser- vice, and soon after took up his residence in Howard county, where he met with good success as a business man. He was an excellent manager, possessing much executive and financial ability, and acquired consider- able property, becoming owner of a valuable farm, and of several houses in Fayette, where he was for some time prosperously engaged in busi- ness, having been in partnership with Mr. McCullum for a time. Mr. Zimer died at his home in Fayette, in 1904, at the age of three score and ten years, his death being a loss not only to his family and friends, but to the community in which he lived.

Four children were born of the union of Mr. and Mrs. Zimer, namely : Millie, wife of Joseph Butler, of Fayette; Maggie, wife of William Isaacs, of Howard county; Lizzie, wife of Charles Ridgeway; and Anna, wife of Robert Turner, living near Franklin, Missouri. Mrs. Zimer has a comfortable income, in addition to other property having four good houses on Watts avenue, and the fine house in which she lives. She is a most estimable woman, and a consistent member of the Baptist church.

JOHN W. BINGHAM. The Sullivan county bar includes among its leading members, John W. Bingham, of Milan, at which place he has resided and where he has been identified with the practice of law since 1895.

Mr. Bingham is a native of Missouri. It was at Chillicothe in this state that he was born, December 14, 1867, son of William R. Bingham, a native of Linn county, whose father, William, was a native of Tennessee. William R. Bingham was a successful farmer and stock man in this county for many years, whence he came from Linn county, Missouri, when a young man. He married in Sullivan county to Mary E. Kenley, whose parents were Kentuckians, representatives of old Kentucky fami- lies. His wife died at the age of sixty-two years, leaving four children,

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two sons and two daughters: John W., Philicia A. Osborn, Maggie E. Lawrence and James D.

John W. Bingham received his early education in the public schools of Sullivan county, and pursued the higher studies at the Kirksville State Normal and the State University. He graduated from the law department of the University of Michigan, receiving his degree of Bachelor of Laws on June 25, 1895. He established himself at Milan on August 1, 1895, and since that date has been successfully engaged in the practice of law.

August 1, 1897, Mr. Bingham and Miss Martha Simmering, of Spring- field, Illinois, were united in marriage, and to them have been given two children, Dorothy M. and Noel M. The only great grief that has come to them was in the loss by death of Noel at the age of nine years. He was a child of unusually bright intellect and winning ways and had made many friends.

Fraternally, Mr. Bingham is identified with and belongs to the fol- lowing Masonic bodies at Milan, Missouri : Seaman Lodge No. 126, A. F. & A. M .; Solomon Council No. 26; Milan Chapter No. 103, R. A. M .; St. Bernard Commandery No. 52.

Mr. Bingham has never held office except as mayor of Milan in 1910. He is a man of pleasing personality, is well posted on every phase of law, and enjoys the acquaintance and friendship of a large percentage of the people of Sullivan county.

JOHN AND C. B. TALBOT. One of the old and honored families of Northeastern Missouri, members of which have been prominent in pro- fessional life, in business and in the military, is that bearing the name of Talbot, worthy representatives of which are found in the persons of John Talbot, formerly a well known resident of Howard county, and now a leading business man of St. Louis, and C. B. Talbot, representa- tive of the New York Life Insurance Company, at Fayette.

John Talbot was born at Fayette, Howard county, Missouri, in 1852, a son of Dr. John Talbot, a pioneer from Maryland. The doctor was one of the early physicians of Howard county, and married Elice Daly, a woman of education and social talents, daughter of Lawrence Jones Daly. Lawrence Jones Daly was an Irish gentleman, who was given a college education in the city of Dublin, following which he emigrated to the United States and settled in Baltimore, Maryland. Later he came to Missouri, where he began teaching the school at old Franklin and educating his own children, and was widely known and highly esteemed as one of the country's pioneer teachers. His children, four daughters, all married well and lived to grace positions of importance. He married a Kentucky lady, Miss Elizabeth Willis, and their daughters were: Eliza- beth, the wife of Samuel C. Major; Elice, the wife of Doctor Talbot ; Lucy, who married William C. Boone; and Louisa, who married John C. Sebree and became the mother of Admiral Sebree. Dr. John Talbot and his wife had six children, as follows: George, a prominent attorney of Denver, Colorado; William, a rancher and stockman of Tulsa, Okla- homa ; Bishop E., born near Fayette, and educated at Fayette College, Dartmouth College and in Europe; John, whose offices are in the Dolph building, St. Louis; Rev. Robert, formerly of Trinity church, Kansas City, and now pastor of the Episcopal church, Washington, D. C .; and Alice Ward, who is deceased.

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A history of northeast Missouri, Vol. 2 pt 2, Part 106

Author: Williams, Walter, 1864- , ed Publication date: 1913 Publisher: Chicago, New York, The Lewis publishing company Number of Pages: 912

Author: Williams, Walter, 1864- , ed
Publication date: 1913
Publisher: Chicago, New York, The Lewis publishing company
Number of Pages: 912