A history of northeast Missouri, Vol. 2 pt 2, Part 16

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

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John W. McIlroy was born January 4, 1847, and was educated in the district schools of his locality. The family was not in accord with the issues of the War of the Rebellion, and John W. took no active part in the conflict. He remained in the parental home until 1872 when he assumed the management of his own farm, which was represented by what is now a portion of his extensive domain. Like his father, Mr. McIlroy has been an extensive farmer and a successful dealer in live stock, and the result of his efforts of a third of a century have been, among other things, the accumulation of more than seven hundred acres of land in the immediate vicinity of Dover.

Mr. McIlroy was drawn into politics by his Democratic friends in 1894 and was elected presiding judge of the county, and by a re-election, served eight years as presiding judge. ' He sat upon the bench with Judges McCune and Stark, and during his last term with Judges Jor- dan and Gates. His services in that capacity were of inestimable value to the county, as must always be the result when men of character and high personal integrity sit upon the bench.

On November 7, 1872, Judge McIlroy married in Pike county Miss Allie E. Goodman, a daughter of W. C. Goodman, deceased. Judge and Mrs. McIlroy are the parents of Lena, who is now the wife of Thomas J. Dawson, of Tulsa, Oklahoma; Ora, the wife of James N. Givens, of Pike county, and William T., a farmer near Dover, who married Bessie Duncan, daughter of Dr. Duncan of that locality.

Judge McIlroy has been identified with the church since 1874, and his household has dwelt in the love of the Almighty and worshipped in the Baptist church at Dover. The family has ever been identified with the activities of the church and its various auxiliary societies in the work. The Judge is a member of the directorate of the Mercantile bank of Louisiana and has taken an active and telling interest all his life in the various industrial activities of his community. He has led a life of the most strenuous order, and now, at the age of sixty-four, is gradually withdrawing from the business, and slackening the tension of years of the most compelling industry, initiating nothing new, nor push- ing old and settled affairs in connection with his estate.

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JOHN LEWIS ROBARDS. In writing of the life and work of Colonel John Lewis RoBards of Hannibal, Missouri, liberal quotations are made from the biography of that gentleman as appearing in the History of the Bench and Bar of Missouri, published in 1898, which, in so far as it goes, is a complete and fitting commentary upon the life and ancestry of the Colonel. To adequately treat his wide and active career in a necessarily brief sketch of this order is manifestly impossible, but a sincere attempt is made to set forth the more salient features of his life, and to represent him and his accomplishments in an unbiased man- ner to the readers of this publication.

John Lewis RoBards was born in Hustonville, Lincoln county, Ken- tucky, on May 8, 1838, and is the son of Capt. Archibald Sampson Ro- Bards and Mrs. Amanda (Carpenter) RoBards, natives of Mercer and Lincoln counties, in Kentucky, respectively. The ancestry of the family is an interesting one and the American branch of the family has been prominently identified with the fortunes and history of the United States since the year 1710, when John RoBards, the great-great-grandfather of Colonel RoBards, came from Wales as a colonist to Virginia. He set- tled in Henrico county tidewater region in that state, became a planter of wealth and influence and died testate in 1755. He married Sarah Hill, and their son was William RoBards, who carried on the business of a planter in Goochland county, Virginia, and attained a high position financially and otherwise. William RoBards, Sr., was a lieutenant in the Virginia militia in 1764, and a member of the committee of safety of Goochland county in 1775. William RoBards, Sr., married his sec- ond wife, Elizabeth Lewis, the daughter of Joseph Lewis, granddaugh- ter of William Lewis and Elizabeth Woodson, daughter of Robert Wood- son, son of Dr. John Woodson, who died in 1708, and the great-grand- daughter of John Lewis, a native of Wales, who emigrated to America and settled in Henrico county, Virginia, there dying in 1687. Thus John Lewis RoBards of this review has a distinctively Welsh origin. William RoBards had five sons, as follows: John and William, Jr., by his first wife, and by his second wife: Lewis, George, Jesse and Joseph, sons, and two daughters. Sally married John Jouett, and Elizabeth Lewis, who married William Buckner. All these men were sol- diers in the Revolutionary war, and five of them were officers of the rank of captain and lieutenant. William RoBards, Sr., was the grandfather of that gifted artist, Matthew H. Jouett and of Judge Rich- ard A. Buckner, both of Kentucky, and he was the ancestor of William RoBards, Attorney General of Missouri and United States Senator John B. Thompson of Kentucky; he died testate in Goochland county, Virginia, in 1783. His son, Capt. George RoBards, the grandfather of Colonel RoBards, was born August 5, 1760, and was baptized in the Church of England on the 31st day of August, that year, in Goochland county, Virginia. When he was sixteen years old he enlisted in Febru- ary, 1779, for three years' service in Captain Hawkins' company, in the Fourteenth Virginia Regiment of Continental Regulars, in com- mand of Colonel Charles Lewis; was promoted orderly sergeant. He saw much of hardships and active service in the ensuing three years, engaged in the battles of Brandywine, Germantown, Monmouth and Stony Point, and wintered at Valley Forge. When he was nineteen years old, in 1780, he was commissioned lieutenant by Governor Thomas Jefferson, in Colonel Lucas' Fourth Virginia Regiment. In August, the following year, he was made captain, and served under General Lafayette in Virginia for some time, and until the close of the war. In 1785 Capt. George RoBards married Elizabeth Barbara Sampson, daughter of Charles Sampson and Ann Porter, his wife, and grand-

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daughter of Stephen Sampson, Sr., and Mary Woodson, his wife. On the maternal side she was the daughter of Capt. Thomas Porter, son of William Porter, and Elizabeth (Dutoy) Porter, the daughter of Pierre Dutoy and his wife, Jeanne (DeBonnette) Dutoy, French Huguenots, who settled in about 1700 at Manikintown, Virginia.

Captain Archibald Sampson RoBards, the son of Captain George and Elizabeth (Sampson) RoBards, was born on Christmas day, 1797, in Mercer county, Kentucky. In 1825 he was commissioned captain in the Fifth Kentucky Regiment by Governor Desha. He moved to Han- nibal, Missouri, in May, 1843, bringing his family, his slaves and the bulk of his worldly goods. He attained a place of considerable promi- nence in the public life of that city. He was mayor of the city in 1846 and 1854, and in other ways served his city capably and honorably. In 1849 Captain RoBards at his own expense fitted out a company of fifteen men, furnishing ample vehicles, stock, provisions, etc., to make the trip to California, and there he freed in 1850 his faithful slave, Green by name, who it is believed was the first slave ever emancipated in that state. En route, at Pimo village, where their camp was surrounded by hundreds of infuriated Indians, the invincible courage and wise strategy of Captain RoBards saved his little company from massacre. He was a man of intense energy, sagacity, enterprise and sympathetic charity, possessing the broadest, purest and most elevated Christian character and was a splendid type of Kentucky manhood. He was awarded in 1853 at the World's Fair in New York, the premium for the best flour, against the competition of the world, and manufactured in Hannibal, Missouri. He died on June 1, 1862, and his devoted wife, a woman of many endear- ing traits of mind and heart, joined her departed husband in the better land in July, 1865. Concerning her who was the mother of Captain RoBards' children, be it said that she was Miss Amanda Carpenter, born in Lincoln county, Kentucky, in 1807. She was the daughter of George Carpenter, born in 1785, and who died in 1866, the son of John Car- penter and his wife Elizabeth (Spear) Carpenter, the former a Rev- olutionary soldier of Virginia, who founded Carpenter's Station about 1780 in Lincoln county. Her mother was Jane (Logan) Carpenter, the daughter of General Hugh and Sarah (Woods) Logan. (See Historic Families of Kentucky-The Logans, pages 117-203-4-5.) General Hugh Logan was a soldier in the Revolutionary war and with General George Rogers Clark in the conquest of the Northwest territory. He was state senator from the Lincoln district, Kentucky, for several terms. He was born in 1745 and died in 1816, and was a son of David and Jane Logan, of Augusta county, Virginia. David Logan was a soldier in the French and Indian wars and had four sons: Genl. Benjamin Logan, Genl. Hugh Logan, Col. John Logan and Col. Nathaniel Logan, all distin- guished officers in the Revolutionary war. It thus appears that both the paternal and maternal ancestry of the subject were prominent in mili- tary circles from their earliest identification with America.

The children of Capt. Archibald Sampson and Amanda (Carpenter) RoBards were six in number, five having been born in Kentucky, while Archibald S., Jr., was born in Missouri, after the migration of the fam- ily to this state. They are named as follows: George C .; Jane E., the widow of Rev. Joseph K. Rogers, of Columbia, Missouri, who was for many years president of Christian College; Sarah H., formerly the widow of Capt. B. W. S. Bowen, and now the widow of Rev. H. H. Haley ; John L .; Henry Clay; and Archibald S., Jr. Of this family it may be said here that George C. and Henry Clay RoBards enlisted in the Confederate army and fought throughout the war in the cause of the southland and received well merited promotion for their services,

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which was of a character commensurate with the fine spirit and ances- try of the family. Of Capt. George C. RoBards a fellow officer wrote: "A braver and better soldier never wore the gray." He died in 1877. Archy S., Jr., a noble spirit and well beloved of all, met an untimely death by accident at Columbia in 1879. Capt. H. Clay RoBards was a fearless soldier, a gifted, magnetic gentleman, without guile, very lov- able, and he died in 1885. They all rest in the family lot on the crest of beautiful Mount Olivet Cemetery that overlooks Hannibal, the Mis- sissippi river and the states of Missouri and Illinois for a score of ıniles.

From his youth John Lewis RoBards was a persistent student. He accompanied his father to California in 1849, when he was but eleven years of age, and he is perhaps the youngest forty-niner in Missouri today. He chose a miltary career and was preparing with characteristic enthusiasm for West Point, under the favor of Congressman Gilchrist Porter, when an injury to his right eye definitely prohibited his further pursuit of a military life. The disappointment was a keen one, but in time he became reconciled to his fate and entered the University of Missouri where he studied diligently for several years in that institution. He then read law with Judge Porter of Hannibal, mentioned above, and in March, 1861, was graduated in the law department of the Louis- ville University in Kentucky, and has been a successful lawyer for fifty years.

Almost immediately did the young lawyer establish himself in his profession, and simultaneously with his launching out in the practice of his profession came his marriage on April 4, 1861, to Miss Sallie Crump Helm, the daughter of John B. Helm, natives of Kentucky, and the son of Judge John Helm of that state and the grandson of Capt. Thomas Helm, of the Revolutionary Virginia Continental Line, who moved to Kentucky from that state in 1780. The mother of Mrs. RoBards was Mary A. Crump, a native of Glasgow, Kentucky and a daughter of Havilah and Sallie (Perkins) Crump, his wife being a daughter of Capt. Benjamin Hugh and Mary (Curd) Perkins, of Scottish ancestry. Mrs. RoBards was reared in Bowling Green, Ken- tucky, and was educated in Christian College, in Columbia, Missouri. She inherited many talents and has ever been the inspiration and helper of her husband in the study of literature and in his general research work. They have been the closest of companions and their golden wedding anniversary, celebrated on April 4, 1911, was an occasion attended by the most delightful memories, and participated in by friends and representatives of the family far and wide.

The following excerpt from the National Year Book 1911, of the proceedings of the 22nd Annual Congress of the National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, held at Louisville, Kentucky, May 1-3, 1911, is of interest here :

Page 155-morning session, May 3d.

"President General Marble: I want to make an announcement on my own responsibility. It has come to my knowledge, and possibly to the knowledge of most of the delegates present, that we are honored today in this Congress by the presence of Col. RoBards, of Hannibal, Mo. who, with Mrs. RoBards, is celebrating the 50th Anniversary of his marriage by making this his Golden Wedding journey. (Ap- plause.) If there are any young married men here who would like advice from a veteran, judging from what Col. RoBards told me this morning, I think he will be glad to give them a lecture at any time be- fore he leaves here. (Laughter.)

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"(The Congress extended its unanimous congratulations to Compa- triot and Mrs. RoBards.)

"Col. RoBards, of Missouri; On hearing the courteous and com- plimentary remarks of President General Marble respecting our Golden Wedding of a Son and Daughter of the American Revolution, my heart goes out to him, and I feel he is not a Marble-hearted man. (Applause.) "

Colonel and Mrs. RoBards have three children : Mary Logan, who married E. A. Richardson, a leading wholesale clothier of Louisville, Kentucky, and has one surviving child, E. A. Richardson, Jr .; Archy C. RoBards, a man of exceptional education and business qualifica- tions ; he is a prominent Mason, Past Eminent Commander Excalibar Commandery No. 5, Knights Templar and a member of the Sons of the American Revolution ; is ex-mayor of the city of Hannibal and is in the real estate and fire insurance business; and Mabel Helm RoBards, wife of James R. Bozarth of the Hannibal Produce Company.

Colonel RoBards has been prominently identified with many of the leading enterprises of Hannibal and this section of the state. His local activities are of a most worthy nature, and have not alone been con- fined to Hannibal, but have won him prominence and popularity throughout the state. He is Past Eminent Commander of Excalibar Commandery No. 5, Knights Templar of Hannibal, Missouri. He is widely known and eagerly sought as a lecturer on divers topics, and his lecture "The Master Spirit of Eighteen Centuries,-Constantine the Great," has won for him a widespread popularity in lecture fields all over Missouri. This lecture, which he has largely abridged in recent years, is a work of profoundest interest to the Colonel, and he has given to it the best efforts of heart and brain. Concerning it much has been said in its praise wherever the lecture has been heard. Rev. Edgar C. MeVoy, pastor of the Park Methodist church of Hannibal, has aptly said : "This lecture is the product of years of study and research, and is a masterful representation of the life and character of one of the great- est men in History. Col. RoBards has discovered historical facts in re- gard to Constantine that have been overlooked by most men who have written and spoken concerning him; and this fact makes the lecture a most valuable contribution to literature. No man stands higher in this community than does Col. RoBards. He is at once a student, a thinker, an orator-a man of charming personality-ability and commanding ap- . pearance. Intensely interested in his subject himself, he rivets the at- tention of his audience at the beginning and holds it to the end."

The Daily Morning Journal of Hannibal said of it: "The historical lecture last night at the Park Methodist church on Constantine the Great, by Col. John L. RoBards, was well attended and during the en- tire time of its delivery the hearts of the hearers were made to glow, as the speaker in elegant language and superb diction recounted the trials, sacrifices and triumphs of one who, dead for long years, still walks abroad in spirit, as a deliverer of Christians from cruel tortures while living and violent death at the hands of barbarians. One who, while other renowned warriors won fame over roads and fields of human skulls, past ruined churches and along paths illuminated by burning Bibles, pursued a course over broken idols, fighting with and for the glory of God, with spiritual eyes undimmed by doubt. That as the Lord gave the design for the building of the Temple of Solomon, so he gave the design for Christians to overthrow pagan rule, all of which on the part of Constantine proved him to be a prophet. In this lecture Colonel RoBards stands as a living, breathing encyclopedia of the his- tory of Constantine, the inspired hero of the fourth century, and with

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this knowledge his imposing rostrum presence and flow of language must be heard to be appreciated and enjoyed. The lecture is a masterful condensation of a grand life's history."

Those and many other warm appreciations of the Colonel's lectures attest to his success as an orator and lecturer.

Much of the credit for the passing of the bill appropriating $10,000 for a monument to be erected to the memory of "Mark Twain" in Riverview Park, Hannibal, is due to the efforts of Colonel RoBards, the boyhood friend and schoolmate of the great humorist, and it was he who drafted the first monument bill in this connection, and was the original instigator of the movement which resulted in the appropria- tion. Colonel RoBards was not only a boyhood chum, but a friend for over three score years of Mr. Clemens, and in his autobiography which appeared in the North American Review of October, 1907, Mr. Clemens wrote tenderly and appreciatively of his long friendship with the Colonel. They maintained a correspondence through the life of Mr. Clemens, and were bound by many kindred ties.'

Colonel RoBards has labored successfully for forty-two years in the establishment and furthering of the Mount Olivet Cemetery, an incorporated benevolence drafted by him, the receipts from which are used for the perpetual care of the grounds. No profit or dividend has ever been, nor can any ever be paid to anyone. This cemetery is now the pride of Hannibal, and is directly the result of the unselfishness and determination of the Colonel, who is now and has ever been a di- rector and its acting secretary and treasurer.

The RoBards family are members of the Park Methodist church, South, and Colonel RoBards is president of the board of trustees of the Church and a constant teacher since 1869 of the Bible class in the Sunday school. For five years he was president of the Hannibal Bible Society, comprising ten Protestant churches, and an auxiliary of the American Bible Society. He was attorney for and a director of the Home for the Friendless. (Vide, Home for the Friendless versus Berry, 79 Mo., App. Rep. p. 566.) He was vice-president for over twenty years of the free public library. Is vice-president of the Missouri So- ciety of the Sons of the American Revolution. He has delivered ad- dresses by request at several of the annual meetings of the society in St. Louis, and was a delegate to the national congress of the order, held in Washington in 1894, also in Boston in 1895 and in Louisville, Ken- tucky, in 1911. For several years Colonel RoBards was vice-president of the Missouri Bar Association. At the banquet of the association at Sweet Springs in 1887, Colonel RoBards responded to the toast "The Judge." His efforts elicited hearty encomiums from many who were present, among them Judge James Lindley. The Hannibal Journal sought the address for publication and editorially added: "The Sedalia Bazoo says it is the best speech for the occasion; and from a careful perusal of it the Journal is inclined to the same opinion from the fact that it is a masterpiece of diction, logic and good sense. The principles advocated ought to be those of every person elevated to the bench in a court of justice. The Journal is proud of the address and its recep- tion." Col. D. C. Allen, of Liberty, Missouri, wrote of the address : "The paper in its editorial notice did not say too much. It was care- fully considered, exactly expressed, brilliantly worded, and full of the soundest practical thought." Judge James S. Pirtle, of Louisville, Ken- tucky, wrote: "The lofty sentiments so handsomely expressed shows that time has but served to strengthen and refine the character I have known you to possess since we were law students together in 1861. The ideal judgeship you draw so beautifully has still some realizations and

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gives hope of the profession, but it is not to be denied that the position of the judge and lawyer in the community is not so high as when we were ambitious boys. That we have personally donc nothing to degrade the profession and all that we could to maintain its excellence is a source of gratification."

The lifelong friend of Colonel RoBards, Judge Bacon, said of him in the History of the Bench and Bar of Missouri: "Colonel RoBards, as known to his friends, is a man of courtly, though commanding pres- ence. With a genial disposition he united a delicate sense of personal honor. His bearing is of that military type which is wont to challenge the attention of strangers. It is not in his nature to seek public posi- tion, and yet no citizen is more signally qualified for the higher honors of official station. Though hampered by the already mentioned misfor- tune to his vision, he has never desisted from arduous application to professional toil. There is a strong pathos in his zealous and life-long devotion to the ethics of law. He has been a close and constant student of legal science. No one can surpass in tenacity or in fidelity his prepa- ration of a brief, nor can any reverse impair his fortitude. His suc- cesses at the bar have proved illustrious as well as successful. He enjoys a capacity for infinite detail. No item escapes his vigilance. After so many years of busy employment he is never unready for account con- cerning past transactions. Mount Olivet Cemetery, the principal adorn- ment and the permanent pride of Hannibal, is his special work, as it will be his enduring monument, and during a quarter of a century of noble effort in moments of intermission from professional cares he has wrought his benevolence to a standard of admirable excellence. The finest trait in his character is his singularly lofty and unfaltering devo- tion to his wife, his children and his domestic fireside. Conformably, he is found richly endowed with purity of thought as well as of action. Re- membered as a boy with ruddy countenance and flaxen ringlets upon his shoulders, known as a man who has readily and triumphantly breasted the buffets of life, he will transmit to yet later days the untarnished inheritance of a good name and a distinguished record."

WILLIAM F. BUCKNER has spent many years of a long and active life in Paris, Missouri, and although he has watched the passage of more than eighty years, he has only recently retired from the active man- agement of the Paris National Bank, and is still' the nominal head of that institution. For more than forty years he has been engaged in banking in Paris and as the city has grown so the financial affairs of the town have become more important, and in order to be a successful banker a man has had to be not only a keen financier, but also a wise business man. The prosperity of the Paris National Bank is sufficient evidence that as the years passed Mr. Buckner grew in experience and wisdom with the city, and his regime has brought enduring prosperity to the institution.

William F. Buckner was born in Caroline county, Virginia, on the 27th day of January, 1828. He was brought to Missouri five years later when his father, Charles Buckner determined to emigrate thither. Charles Buckner was born during the last years of the eighteenth cen- tury in the state of Virginia, where he grew up and married. It was in 1833 that he and his brother George M. loaded their household effects on wagons and with their families started off for the unknown West. Crossing the mountains into Kentucky they wandered slowly through the state, and then deciding that it would be best to leave the slow moving train in Kentucky while they went ahead to seek a location, the brothers left their families in Kentucky and went on alone. They came

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A history of northeast Missouri, Vol. 2 pt 2, Part 16

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