A history of northeast Missouri, Vol. 2 pt 2, Part 25

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 Jordan was the grandfather of James Campbell Jordan of this review. He went about his work as a farmer and grazer upon his sec- tion of land so long as his strength enabled him, and was long known as one of the leaders of the community. He aided in the erection of the first church built there in 1828 and built his own cabin in the lowlands, a spot still marked. Four years after his arrival and while the people were living in the improvised fort, his brother, Captain Jordan, was killed by the Indians, together with his young son, James, upon the site of the Buffalo cemetery, and their bodies were the first to be in- terred there. John Jordan lived uninterruptedly in the valley save for a few years following the massacre of his brother-when he returned with government troops to St. Louis-until 1857, when he passed away, and his body lies beside his wife and children near the Buffalo church. He married and had children as follows: Andrew, who was born Novem- ber 4, 1790, and left a family in the valley at his death ; Margaret Byers, born May 17, 1794; Grace Magee, born May 28, 1796; Elizabeth Car- son, March 13, 1798; Calenah, August 2, 1800; John C., August 20, 1802; James Adams, April 19, 1805; Sarah Templeton, March 29, 1807. Among their neighbors were the Byers and the Templetons, all of whom came out from South Carolina as pioneers.

The Buffalo Presbyterian church was built by the Cumberland Pres- byterians and the pioneer log house, some of whose logs are in use as stable logs on the farm of O. M. Fry near the Jordan home, has given place to a frame building on the Jordan hill and commanding the old camp meeting ground of the church before the Civil war. Rev. James W. Campbell served the church for fifty years and Rev. Erasmus D. Pearson gave many years of his life to the welfare of the congregation. Both ministers were able and eminent divines and their passing left a void in the personnel of the church in Pike county which has long been felt.

James Adams Jordan was a child of four years when he began his life in Pike county. His education was what the parental home could give him and he pursued the vocation of his father. He married Miss Julia A. Smith, a daughter of James Smith, who came hither from Bourbon county, Kentucky. On June 6, 1859, Mr. Jordan died, leaving

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two children,-Elizabeth, who married D. E. S. Taylor and died in 1863, and James Campbell, of this review. After the death of her hus- band Mrs. Jordan married W. W. Watts, and she died in 1864.

James Campbell Jordan lived with his step-father until February, 1865. He received unusual educational advantages, having attended McGee College at Macon. He was a member of the Missouri State Mili- tia during the war and was called out into the field in 1862 for threat- ened invasion of the county by Confederates. In February, 1865, he returned to the old home his mother abandoned when she remarried, and he has since been actively engaged there as a farmer and stockman.

On December 1, 1864, Mr. Jordan married in the valley, Miss Sarah W. Todd, a daughter of Francis C. and Mary Ann (Buford) Todd, natives of Kentucky. Mrs. Jordan is one of six children who lived to reach maturity. Three children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Jordan,- Julia Lillian, who married W. A. Dudley, of Elsberry, Missouri, and died there, leaving two children; W. F. of Colorado Springs, Colorado; and James M., who farms the home place, and who, on November 26, 1902, married Annie, a daughter of Edward Scott.

Mr. Jordan and his family have been actively identified with the historic church erected and dedicated by his distinguished ancestors, and he is named in honor of the Rev. James Campbell. Dr. Erasmus D. Pearson preached his maiden sermon there in 1854 and spent the dinner hour with the Jordan family. Half a century later he preached his fiftieth anniversary sermon in the church and feasted at the same hospitable table.

WILLIAM HOWELL ALEXANDER bears an honored name in north- eastern Missouri, for his father was the late Hon. Armstead M. Alex- ander, and his grandfather was a well known preacher in Monroe county before the Civil war. Mr. Alexander is one of the proprietors of The Mercury, one of the two weekly papers in Paris espousing Democratic policies.

The grandfather of William H. Alexander was John Alexander, whose parents were among the first settlers in Kentucky. He himself was one of the early followers of Alexander Campbell and as a Christian preacher of the primitive type passed many useful years in Missouri. He married a Miss Burrus, who like himself came from early Kentucky pioneer stock. The children of this marriage were Armstead M .; Cic- ero, who was one of the leading merchants in Paris until his death in 1912; Sarah F., who married Enoch MeLeod and died in Marion county, and Eliza, who married Thomas J. Marsh.

Armstead M. Alexander grew up to boyhood in the rural community where he was born in the month of May, 1833, in Clark county, Ken- tucky. He obtained what education he could from the country schools in Monroe county, Missouri, whither his father removed when his son was about ten years of age. He must have made the most of his advan- tages, and he certainly possessed a keen and appreciative mind for he was enabled to enter the University of Virginia, spending two years at that venerable institution. He read law in Charlottesville and was ad- mitted to the bar in Paris, Missouri, where he practiced law all of his life. He was always an active member of the Democratic party, and his first public office was prosecuting attorney of Monroe county. He served three terms in this position and in 1875 was sent to the constitutional convention of the state from this county. In 1882 he was elected to the house of representatives at Washington and served one term as a men- ber of that body. Since at that time he was a member of the minority party, his service was of little moment to the public. He served on

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several committees, among them being the committee on territories. Upon the expiration of his two years in Washington he returned to Paris and again took up the law practice which he had laid aside for a time. As a lawyer he had more than local renown. He was a vigorous . prosecutor and as a lawyer for the defense he was equally strong. Gifted with an eloquent tongue and a clear and ready speaker, his words to a jury gave him his real opportunity to win a verdiet and his prae- tice gave him an established reputation of being one of the strongest men and a leader of the Monroe county bar.

The Hon. Mr. Alexander took a deep interest in Odd Fellowship and he was ever active in behalf of the order, not only in the grand lodge but throughout the state. He was promoted from one office to another in the lodge until he was finally made grand master of the grand lodge of the state. He was a sincere Christian, and was a member and elder in the Christian church. He was also an enthusiastic worker in Sunday school, being superintendent of the Sunday school in Paris for many years. His death occurred November 7, 1892.

Armstead M. Alexander married Sarah Frances Vaughn, a daugh- ter of Thomas Vaughn, a representative of one of the earliest families to settle in the county, and still one of the most numerous. She died in April, 1904, and of their two children, only William Howell is living, the other son, Paul, who was a prominent lawyer in Jackson county, Missouri, having died in Independence, Missouri, in 1894, leaving a fam- ily of three children.

William Howell Alexander was born September 27, 1863, in Paris, Missouri, and received his early education in the town of his birth. He later spent two years in the University of Missouri, and then started out for himself. For a time after leaving the university he was a book- keeper in the Paris Savings Bank, and then he went out to the Pacific coast, locating in Salem, Oregon. Here for two years he was engaged in the abstract business, returning to his old home in 1892. From this time until 1896 he was engaged in the mercantile business in Paris, dealing in shoes, but in 1896 he became one of the proprietors of The Mercury. He is associated in the enterprise with H. G. Stavely, and they have together built up the circulation of the paper considerably.

Mr. Alexander is a prominent member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and for ten years has served as district deputy grand mas- ter. He is a member of the Christian church, as are all the members of his family, and he holds his father's old position as superintendent of the Sunday school.

On the 22d of November, 1892, Mr. Alexander married Miss Nora Burgess, a daughter of Robert Burgess and Celeste (Hodges) Burgess. Her father was one of the large farmers and stockmen of Monroe county, coming to this section from Virginia. He reared a family of nine children and died in Paris at the age of seventy. His children were Pleasant, John, Jennie, who is a business woman of Paris, Mrs. R. M. Webb, Mrs. Alexander, Mrs. S. E. Harley, and Dr. R. M. Burgess. One son, Paul, is the only child born to Mr. and Mrs. Alexander.

FLOYD C. SHOEMAKER was born in Kissimee City, Florida, on May 7, 1886. Although a native of Florida, he was reared in northeast Mis- souri, in the county of Linn. He received his early education in the Bucklin public schools and the Brookfield high school, and even then among his acquaintances Mr. Shoemaker was known as a lover of his- tory, and many prophesied that the studious boy would find his life's work in that field. At the age of sixteen he entered the Kirksville State Normal School and three years later he was graduated from that

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institution. While in attendance there, Mr. Shoemaker was elected pres- ident of the senior class of 1906 and was one of the interstate debaters against Iowa. During the winter of 1906-07 he was principal of the public schools of Amity, Colorado, and in September, 1907, he entered the University of Missouri and continued specializing in history and political science, in which subjects he had to his credit forty-four hours' work, or more than one third of the total one hundred and twenty hours in all subjects required for graduation. This was at that time, and in- deed is today, considered a record in the history department. In Janu- ary, 1908, he was graduated from the university, and the degree of A. B. was conferred upon him that spring. Following his graduation, he took charge of the history and Latin departments in the Gallatin, Missouri, high school, and was elected principal for the next year, but resigned to accept an assistantship in the department of political science and public law in the University of Missouri. For two years, 1909-11, he was assistant in that department and during that time became more and more interested in Missouri history and Missouri legal and polit- ical institutions. In 1911 he received the degree of A. M. from the University of Missouri, his thesis being "The First Constitution of Missouri-1820." This thesis was the result of more than two years of research work, the purpose being to trace the origin, whether in jour- nals, other state constitutions, or treatises, of every phrase and clause of this first constitution of Missouri. A brief summary of it was pub- lished in the Missouri Historical Review for January, 1912. The original is now in the library of the University of Missouri, and is unique in that it is the only accessible written account of the history and source of every provision of a state constitution. There was no guide after which to pattern this account, and its originality combined with its value as a reference work has excited many favorable comments in this and other states. The state librarians and historians of New York, Virginia, In- diana, Kentucky; Illinois, Kansas, Wisconsin, Iowa and other states have spoken in the highest terms of it. Prof. R. G. Thwaites, secretary and superintendent of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin and the greatest historian of the west, said: "I have read this paper with great interest and congratulate Mr. Shoemaker on having done an interesting piece of work in brief but effective manner."

Prof. John D. Lawson, former dean of the School of Law of the University of Missouri, said: "I have read this paper with a great deal of interest and congratulate Mr. Shoemaker upon the good work he has accomplished in this most interesting historical essay."

In July, 1910, Mr. Shoemaker was chosen assistant librarian of the State Historical Society of Missouri and entered upon the duties of that office in August. He resigned his assistantship in the University of Missouri the following year and is now connected with the State His- torical Society in Columbia. He spends whatever time he can spare from his work in writing on Missouri's history. The article in this his- tory on "In Time of Civil War" was compiled by him. It is the first work of this kind devoted entirely to that subject and this, together with the many new facts brought to light from the original sources, will make it valuable and interesting to the people of northeast Missouri, its old soldiers and their families.

Mr. Shoemaker is a member of the Masonic fraternity, the Independ- ent Order of Odd Fellows, and of the honor fraternity of the Phi Beta Kappa. His ambition is to write and talk Missouri history so that the people of the state will realize the great worth of their State Historical Society located in Columbia, and so that they will do as the people of Wisconsin did ten years ago in erecting an Historical Library Building

CHARLES E. GIVENS.

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that will be a fitting housing place for the invaluable treasures of his- tory that Missouri has produced, and that will be an honor and a glory to the imperial majesty of Missouri and Missourians. Mr. Shoemaker says he wishes Missouri to honor herself and her people by preserving her history for the past, present and the future. And while Missouri is doing this, he hopes that the facts and legends surrounding Missouri history will become so well known to every inhabitant of the state that each will speak familiarly and with pride of the story of this great com- monwealth.

JOSEPH L. GARVIN, A. M., B. D. The state of Ohio has contributed materially to the ranks of northeastern Missouri's professional men, the Buckeye State having been the birthplace of many who have risen to eminent place in this section as educators, physicians or legists, and in the forerank of the class first mentioned is the Rev. Joseph L. Garvin, president of William Woods College, at Fulton. Doctor Garvin was born in Ohio, the son of Rev. James H. Garvin, a minister of the Chris- tian church, and the latter was a grandson of one who had been bap. tized by Alexander Campbell. After attending Hiram College and U. S. Grant University at Chattanooga, Tennessee, Joseph L. Garvin entered Columbia University, New York, where he received the degree of A. M. In 1907 he completed a theological course at Union Theo- logical Seminary, during which time he had charges at New York City and Brooklyn, N. Y., and Youngstown, Ohio. Afterwards he was pas- tor of the First Christian church, Seattle, Wash., for four years. He was then elected president of William Woods College, Fulton, and took charge of that noted institution in 1912.

Doctor Garvin was married June 4, 1903, to Miss Marie Ellen Bal- lou, of New York, a Hiram College student, and they have had three chil- dren : Alice, Ruth and Doris. Doctor Garvin was on the staff of the New York Journal for something over a year, and has identified himself with earnest and hard-working bodies which have been prominent in bringing about various reforms and the advancement of education and morality. For one year he was secretary of the Pocono Pine Assembly, and while a resident of Seattle, acted as president of the Seattle Min- isters' Federation. He was also chief executive of the Anti-Tuberculo- sis League, a member of the first Theatre Censure Commission in Seattle, and a member of the Seattle Press Club. President Garvin is a progres- sive spirit, as is evidenced by his steady advancement in his chosen field of endeavor. He is pre-eminently an educator of the most ad- vanced type, and William Woods College is fortunate in securing his services.

JOSEPH W. GIVENS. One of the oldest and most prominent families of Howard county is represented by Joseph W. Givens, of Richmond township. He himself was born here fifty years ago, was reared and educated in his native environment and attended Central College, and since attaining manhood has been closely identified with the farming and stock-raising interests of the locality. As a stockman he is easily one of the most successful in the county.

His father was the late Charles E. Givens, who died at the advanced age of eighty-five. While he was the largest land owner and paid more taxes than any other citizen of Howard county, his achievements and accumulations were by no means confined to material wealth. He was a strong man, in mind, body and character, and his influence in the community was independent of his possession of many acres and other forms of wealth. His father, Ben F. Givens, a native of Kentucky, where he was reared, came to Missouri during the territorial era and joined

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the little community of pioneers who were making the first clearings, crops and rude homes in the wilderness of Howard county.

The late Charles E. Givens was born in the pioneer home in How- ard county in 1823, and all his youth was spent amid the surroundings of a country just emerging from wilderness under the sturdy impetus of the backwoods settlers. For his education he attended the log-cabin seminary of the time, and at the beginning of his independent career married Miss Mary Ann King. Her death on December 18, 1907, at the age of seventy-five marked the passing of one of the noble women of the past century. Their seven children, who, in the second genera- tion, have filled honored and useful places in their respective com- munities, were named as follows: Mary D. Rush, of Fayette; Dr. H. K., of Fayette; B. F., of Springfield, Missouri; Joseph W., of Fayette; Fanny Belle Fristoe, of St. Louis; Elizabeth K., of California; and Azile Smith, of Fayette.

The father of this family, Charles E. Givens, for many years raised tobacco on a scale adopted by few other residents in the county, and did a large business in the commodity, buying and shipping thousands of hogsheads. He was a slave owner, having about one hundred when the war came on, and not only lost these, but his barns were burned and his cattle, horses and mules were run away. It was a disaster sufficient to have permanently bankrupted the ordinary man, but Mr. Givens went back to his deserted acres, slowly accumulated stock, and in a few years after the war was running five hundred head of cattle and other livestock upon his broad pastures. He was the owner at one time of thirty-five hundred acres, and at his death he left a splendid estate to be divided among his children.

HON. RICHARD H. FOWLER. With an earnest desire for the advance- ment of his city in all respects, looking to its welfare and prosperity, the Hon. Richard H. Fowler, mayor of Fulton, Missouri, has won a firm place in the confidence of his community, in whose behalf he has con- stantly labored ever since establishing his business and residence here. Mayor Fowler is a member of that class of self-made men of whom this country has ever been proud, his success being entirely the result of his own industry and ability. He was born in Buckingham county, Virginia, March 17, 1836, and is a son of Sherwood and Mary S. (Maddox) Fow- ler, the former born in Tennessee and the latter in Virginia. At the time of his father's death, Richard H. Fowler was only five months old, but his two oldest brothers were large enough to assist in farm work, and in 1838 the mother brought her little brood to Callaway county, settling on Coats Prairie, sixteen miles east of Fulton. There she continued to live until all of her children were married, when she went to live with Richard H., at Mexico, and there her death occurred April 1, 1884, when she was eighty years of age. Her children were: William S., a farmer in Callaway county, who died when in middle life; Henry W., a mechanic of St. Louis, who died August 20, 1911; Mary E., who married James H. Seale, a farmer of Callaway county, and died when forty years of age ; John J., a blacksmith at Concord, Callaway county, who died in 1888, in middle life; and Richard H., who is the only survivor.

Richard H. Fowler remained on the home farm and attended the country schools until his fifteenth year, at which time he began to learn the trade of blacksmith, in the shop of his brother at Concord. He was given no advantages on account of the relationship, it being three years before he began to receive wages, but continued with his brother for seven years, part of the last four years being a partner in the business. From 1858 to 1870 he was engaged in business on his own account in Con-

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cord, during four years of which time he was engaged in the grocery trade, and in 1874 removed to Mexico, where he carried on the same line until 1886. In that year he removed to Kansas City, where he embarked in a carriage making and repairing business, but in 1891 removed to Fulton, where he has continued to carry on general black- smithing and carriage repairing, and at this time employs three men and has an excellent trade.

Mr. Fowler is a Democrat in his political views, and while a resident of Mexico, served as mayor for five years. Up to the time of his ineum- bency of that office, the city of Mexico had not a stone laid in its streets, but his advocation of macadam for paving finally resulted in the issue coming up before the council, and his vote was the deciding one in favor of the new paving material. Mexico has as fine streets at this time as any city of its size in northeastern Missouri. In Fulton he has served as mayor for eight or nine years, and has been steadfast in his active support of the cause of good paving, a great deal of which has been done during the past few years. Numerous other improvements have been made during his incumbency, including the building of the new city hall and the purchasing by the city of the electric light plant and water works. He is giving the city a sane, clean and busi- nesslike administration, applying to municipal problems the same mod- ern methods that have made him successful in his private enterprises.

In 1858 Mr. Fowler was united in marriage with Miss Mary E. Bailey, who was born in Boone county, and they have had four chil- dren : Richard H., Jr., traveling passenger agent for the Illinois Central Railroad, whose home is in Louisville, Kentucky; Lucy J., widow of Larkin, who resides with her father; Margaret A., wife of E. F. Rodman, printer, of Kansas City, Missouri; and Laura B., who resides with her parents. Mr. and Mrs. Fowler are members of the Methodist Episcopal church. He has been prominent in fraternal circles, belong- ing to the blue lodge, chapter and commandery, acting as represen- tative to the grand lodge on several occasions, and being district dep- uty grand for Callaway county several years ago. Although he has had a long and eventful life, Mayor Fowler is still hale and hearty, and pertinently alive to all the real, important topics of the' day, whether affecting his community or its people. He has a wide acquaint- ance throughout the county, and numbers his friends by the score.

LUTHER MARION DEFOE. From earliest youth an enthusiastic stu- dent and from choice a worker in educational fields, Prof. Luther Marion Defoe has been continuously identified with the University of Missouri since 1891; a scholar of high attainments and many accomplishments, and is a member of many of the leading scientific bodies of America and Europe. He has proved himself competent along many lines of modern study and investigation. His intellectual attainments have also given him a wide outlook concerning the affairs of everyday life, and in him Columbia has found not only the scholar, but the public-spirited citi- zen who is willing to assume civic responsibilities for the general wel- fare ..

Luther Marion Defoe was born September 6, 1860, in Moniteau county, Missouri, a son of Thomas M. and Mary F. (Dunlap) Defoe farming people, and grandson of John Defoe, a pioneer schoolmaster and farmer, who removed from St. Louis county to Moniteau county about the year 1840. His maternal grandfather, William Dunlap,. who had served as sheriff of Knox county, Tennessee, came to Missouri from Knoxville about the year 1838, and subsequently served as a member of the Missouri state senate. Luther M. Defoe received excellent educa-

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A history of northeast Missouri, Vol. 2 pt 2, Part 25

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