USA > Missouri > A history of northeast Missouri, Vol. 2 pt 2 > Part 27
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Mr. Coller has three sisters, Mrs. Alwidea Witman, Mrs. Carrie E. Scheets and Mrs. Sallie Dearolf, all living in Reading, Pennsylvania. Although he is past seventy years of age and has led an active and adventurous life, time has been kind to Mr. Coller, and he is still in full possession of his faculties, and retains an interest in matters going on about him to a greater extent than many men of many years younger. He has always been industrious and thrifty, and now in the evening of life may enjoy the comforts that such a life brings, surrounded by his friends, and content in the knowledge of a career well spent.
COL. RICHARD H. NORTON is a citizen of Troy who has distinguished himself at the bar of the ninth congressional district, and who has in past years taken an active interest in its politics and represented it for four years in the national house of representatives. He is a native of Troy, having been born on the identical spot over which his law office is maintained, and his natal day was November 6, 1847. His father was Elias Norton, who came into Missouri from Scott county, Indiana, in 1840, and established himself in Troy, where he became an early hotel or tavern keeper, as the hostelries of the day were termed. He passed successively from that business to sheriff and collector of the county, then the merchandise business, and finally engaged in farming, pass- ing the remainder of his days in that occupation. He died in 1892 when he was in his seventy-second year of life. He was a son of Judge William Norton, who was a Virginian by birth, but who moved from that state to Scott county, Indiana, in its pioneer days. He was an early judge of the county court. He married Miss Sarah Harlan, the
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daughter of an old Kentucky family, descendants of James and Michael Harlan, the English ancestors of all the American Harlans. She bore him two sons, Elias and William Norton, and both identified them- selves with Lincoln county, Missouri. William engaged in merchandise in Troy and died here in 1873 unmarried. Elias, the father of Col. Richard H. of this review, married Mary McConnell in Lincoln county. She was born in 1818, in Bourbon county, Kentucky, and died in 1868, on June 11th, leaving three sons: William, who died in Troy in 1887, leaving a family ; Richard H. of this review, and Porter E.
The childhood and youth of Colonel Norton were passed in Troy and while he was a pupil in the town schools he turned his hands, occa- sionally, to the work of the farm, thus gaining a practical experience in outdoor work that was of great benefit to him physically if in no other way. He attended Westminster College, at Fulton, Missouri, and pre- pared himself for his profession in St. Louis University and in the law department of Washington University, where he graduated in 1870 in the second class of the Polytechnic Institute.
In taking up his legal practice in Troy Mr. Norton soon formed a partnership with John R. Knox as Knox & Norton, and following the dissolution of that partnership he was associated as a member in the firms of Norton & Martin, Norton, Martin & Dryden, Norton & Dryden, Norton & Avery, and Norton, Avery & Young. These partnerships invariably represented a strong combination of legal talent and profes- sional union and were recognized as the acme of strength and attain- ments in a legal way. The story of the battles of litigation which were fought and contested through the various courts of the county and state may be said to cover with a fair degree of completeness the history of important litigation for the past forty years in Lincoln county.
In former years the activities of Colonel Norton were as prevalent in the domain of politics as in the sphere of the law. He became a recognized leader of Democracy in his county and congressional district, and he was a strong candidate for the party nomination for congress in 1884 and 1886 and won the nomination in 1888, being elected in due course. He was returned to congress in 1890, and was a member of the committee on pensions and of that on the improvement of the Mississippi river. He was defeated for the nomination in 1892 by Champ Clark, since which time his law practice and his agricultural and stock inter- ests have entirely absorbed his attention.
Colonel Norton owns a large tract of Mississippi bottom land near Elsbury, Missouri, which is stocked with blooded horses, White Faces, Shropshires and Poland China hogs. His plantation is one of the busy and successful marts of farm activity in the county, and its standing as such reflects largely the character of its watchful and systematic owner. Colonel Norton is a stockholder of the People's Bank of Troy and is president of the Troy & Auburn Gravel Road Company. With reference to his fraternal affiliations, he is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, of which he is past noble grand.
In 1874 Colonel Norton married Miss Annie Ward, a daughter of Dr. James A. Ward, another of the well known pioneers of Lincoln county. One child was born to Colonel and Mrs. Norton, Mary, the wife of N. R. Long, of Troy.
LANE BRADSHAW HENDERSON. A typical Missourian and an ardent supporter of those principles which have brought the men of this state into national prominence, Lane Bradshaw Henderson, of the firm of Hilbert & Henderson, of Monticello, is recognized as one of the rising young attorneys of northeastern Missouri. Like many of his profes- Vol. III-12
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sional brethren he is a product of the farm, having been born on his father's estate in Lewis county, February 24, 1884, and is a son of Nathaniel M. and Nettie (Gibbs) Henderson.
William H. Henderson, the paternal grandfather of Lane B., was born in the state of Virginia, and was a pioneer settler of Lewis county, where he spent the last years of his life in agricultural pursuits. Among his children was Nathaniel M. Henderson, who was born in Lewis county in 1859, and the son followed in the footsteps of his father, devoting his energies to the tilling of the soil. He is now known as one of the sub- stantial farmers of Lewis county, and owns a well cultivated tract of 280 acres. Nettie (Gibbs) Henderson is a native of Pike county, Mis- souri, and the mother of three children, namely : Lane Bradshaw, of this review; Harry S., who lives on the home farm in Lewis county and assists his father in cultivating its fields; and Nettie M., who also re- sides under the parental roof.
Lane B. Henderson spent his boyhood on the old homestead, dividing his time between work thereon and attendance at the district schools, but as a youth decided on a professional career in preference to that of an agriculturist, and with that end in view entered LaGrange College, from which institution he was graduated in 1907 with the degree of Ph. B. Following this he entered the law department of Washington Uni- versity, receiving his diploma in 1909, and at once entered into the active practice of his profession in Monticello, with Mr. Hilbert as a partner, under the firm style of Hilbert & Henderson. This connection has proved a successful one, the firm enjoying a large and representa- tive following and having upon its books the names of some of the larg- est industries of this part of the state. An excellent type of the young, alert and progressive men who are adding prestige to Missouri's im- portance as a producer of skilled professional men, Mr. Henderson enjoys the esteem and friendship of a wide circle of acquaintances. He is a popular member of the local lodge of the Modern Woodmen fra- ternity, and his religious connection is with the Methodist Episcopal church South.
JOHN J. WAKEFIELD. Over forty-five years ago the father of Mr. Wakefield settled on the raw prairie seven and a half miles northwest of Mexico, and beginning the pioneer work of transforming the barren acres into cultivated fields made the homestead which has ever since been identified with the Wakefield name. That a farm should remain in one family for nearly half a century is an honor to the steady industry and citizenship of its owners, and the Wakefields have always been known for their quiet prosperity and solid integrity.
Mr. John J. Wakefield, the present possessor of the home, was born in Brooke county in the Panhandle of West Virginia, November 10, 1863, three years before the family emigrated to Missouri. He was a son of William H. and Mary Margaret (Neely) Wakefield, the former a native of Ohio and the latter of West Virginia, their marriage taking place in the latter state in 1861. In 1866 they came to Missouri, where the father, who had been a brick molder by trade as well as a farmer, spent the rest of his career in farming. For two years he rented land seven miles north of Mexico, but in 1868 bought the place above men- tioned, the land at that time being covered with prairie grass. In the spring of 1868 Grandfather Hugh D. Neely also moved from West Vir- ginia and bought four hundred and eighty acres in the same vicinity, where he resided until his death about five or six years later, and his only son, Hugh N., lived on part of the land. William H. Wakefield turned for the first time the prairie sod of many acres and fenced his
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place with rails. After thirty years, during which he had made a produc- tive farm and a comfortable home, he moved about 1898 to Mexico. He died at Eldorado Springs, July 18, 1900, aged sixty-five, having been born May 26, 1835. His first wife, the mother of John J., had died in 1872 a young woman, leaving six children. He married in 1888 Fannie McClintock, of Callaway county, and she now makes her home in Mex- ico. There are no children by the second marriage, and the six of the first union are: Macy, wife of Thomas Stowers, of Audrain county ; Hugh L., who has been employed in the St. Louis postoffice for the past sixteen years ; John J .; Charles L., a merchant at Endicott, Washington ; Joseph B., who resides with his brother John, and Miss Jennie, of St. Louis. The eldest daughter, Macy, was twelve years old when the mother died, and she thenceforth took the place of mother to the younger children, remaining at home and seeing all grown and settled before she herself married.
John J. Wakefield, with the exception of three years' official life, dur- ing which he lived in Mexico, has devoted all his active career to farm- ing. In 1901 he came into possession of the old homestead, and to its hundred and sixty acres has since added two hundred and forty more, so that he has one of the best farms in this locality. One of the features of his place is a well which for years has furnished a never-failing sup- ply of water for all purposes. He is an extensive cattle feeder, growing about two hundred acres of corn each year, and leases other land, so that he operates altogether some five hundred and sixty acres. In 1908 the county court appointed him highway engineer, and during the next three years he lived in Mexico. He has had a wide range of experience in bridge building and the making of roads, and has been a very valu- able factor in forwarding the good roads movement of his section of Missouri.
On the 15th of December, 1897, Mr. Wakefield married Miss Laura McCue, who represents an old family of northeast Missouri. Her par- ents were Henry and Martha (Hockaday) McCue, of Callaway county. Her mother was a daughter of George E. O. and Laura C. (Hart) Hock- aday, the former having come from Clarke county, Kentucky, to near Fulton, Missouri, about 1831, and the latter, a native of Albemarle county, Virginia, having come to Missouri about 1824 when eight years of age. George E. O. Hockaday was a merchant in Fulton several years, later engaged in farming in the north part of Callaway county, in 1869 moved to Cass county, where he died in 1885. Henry McCue was born in Augusta county, Virginia, November 6, 1843, came to Missouri in 1857, and was married in 1868. He spent fifteen years in farming in Callaway county and twenty-nine in Audrain county, where his death occurred July 28, 1910. Laura McCue, the wife of Mr. Wakefield, was born in Callaway county, August 13, 1870. Mr. Wakefield and wife have one daughter, Frances S., aged twelve. Mr. Wakefield is a Demo- crat in politics. His parents were Methodists, and Mrs. Wakefield is a member of the Presbyterian church.
J. L. DUNN. A specially active and successful representative of the livestock industry in Callaway county is he whose name initiates this review, and he gives particular attention to the feeding of mules for the market,-a line of enterprise in which his success has been on a parity with his energy and progressive business methods. He is the owner of one of the fine farms of the county and the same is situated eighteen miles northwest of Fulton, the county seat. He purchases mules ranging in age from three to seven years and after putting them in good condition places them upon the market in the city of St. Louis.
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In this way he handles about 150 to 200 mules each year, and he also feeds cattle each spring for the fall market. He utilized the best meth- ods of feeding and by his progressive policies he has been signally pros- pered in his operations. His farm comprises two hundred acres and virtually the entire area is available for cultivation, and on this place he has maintained his residence since 1908, the farm being in close proximity to the little hamlet of Hereford and about five miles distant from Hatton. He has given his attention to the livestock business for the past decade and a half, and in the same was formerly associated with his brothers Charles and J. M. They began operations on rented land, and each of them is now the owner of valuable property, the same representing the concrete results of close application and well ordered business policies.
J. L. Dunn was born on a farm four miles southeast of Troy, the judicial center of Lincoln county, Missouri, on the 31st of May, 1876, and is a son of Mason Dunn, who was born in West Virginia, whence he came to Missouri more than half a century ago. He was engaged in farming and stockgrowing in Lincoln county until about 1880, when he removed with his family to Callaway county, where he continued his efforts along the same lines of industrial enterprise until the close of his life. He died on a farm, near Hatton, in the year 1897, a man of sterling character and one who commanded the unequivocal confidence and esteem of his fellow men. His wife, whose maiden name was Julia , Knox, is now dead, and of their children four sons and one daughter are living.
J. L. Dunn was a child at the time of the family removal to Calla- way county, and here he duly availed himself of the advantages of the public schools, the while he learned the lessons of practical industry in connection with the work of the home farm. This training was such as to qualify him most fully for future operations of an indepen- dent order, and he is known as one of the enterprising and reliable busi- ness men of the county that has been his home during the major part of his life and within which he is well known and highly esteemed. Mr. Dunn gives his allegiance to the Democratic party, is affiliated with the Modern Woodmen of America, and both he and his wife are members of the Baptist church.
In December, 1908, Mr. Dunn was united in marriage to Miss Hen- rietta L. Houf, daughter of Henry S. Houf, concerning whom individual mention is made elsewhere in this work, and the one child of this union is a winsome little daughter, Louise.
S. P. SUTTON. It is a generally accepted truism that the man who is forced to fight his own battles in the world, to educate himself and to force an entrance through the gate of success, prizes more highly . that which he wins than one to whom all good things come by birth or inheritance. Certain it is that some of the best farms found in Audrain county belong to men who have been the architects of their own fortunes, who have been compelled to overcome the handicaps of humble begin- nings and meager educations, and who, when they have finally reached a position of independence, are not satisfied with what they have accom- plished, but show a pardonable degree of pride in their work by endeavoring to be in the front ranks of the men of their vocation. In this connection a review is given of S. P. Sutton, whose fine farm of 400 acres has been accumulated entirely through the medium of his own efforts. Mr. Sutton was born in Pike county, Missouri, Jannary 1, 1855, and is a son of N. B. Sutton and Polly (Brice) Sutton, the for-
Thomas, le Richards, M.D.
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mer a native of Virginia and the latter of Kentucky, both of whom belonged to families that settled in Pike county at an early date.
S. P. Sutton secured but meager educational advantages in his youth, the greater part of his tuition being received in the school of. hard work. However, he was given a good training along agricultural lines, and was reared to respect the value of honesty and industry, and when he left the parental roof, at the age of twenty-two years, he was fairly well equipped to fight the battles of life on his own account. Coming to Audrain county, Mr. Sutton secured employment on the properties of various farmers and being sober and thrifty managed in time to save enough to make a part payment on 120 acres of land, a part of his present fine farm. This was entirely unimproved and was not exceptionally valuable, but even then the youth did not have enough money to pay cash for his purchase, and was compelled to go largely into debt. After a few years, so steadfastly and industrially had he worked, he was able to pay off this debt, and soon began to add to his holdings. As soon as a new piece of property was put under cultivation, another piece was purchased, and in this way, adding from time to time, he managed to build up a farm of 400 acres, all of which is under culti- vation and all in one body. This he devotes principally to corn, oats and hay, although he also breeds a little stock, and has proved himself skilled in all branches of agricultural work. He has himself erected all the buildings found on the property, which include a modern residence, commodious barns, and substantial, well-built outbuildings. He is mod- ern in his ideas and methods and has earned a right to be classed with the substantial men of his locality. In political matters Mr. Sutton is a Democrat, but his private affairs have demanded his attention to the exclusion of political activities. Fraternally, he is connected with the Modern Woodmen of America, and he and his wife are consistent members of the Baptist church, belonging to the Farber congregation.
Mr. Sutton was married near Farber, in Audrain county, to Miss Fannie Clark, whose parents still reside in Audrain county, and they have had five children, namely : Bessie, Grover and Erma, all of whom are married; and two children who are deceased.
THOMAS C. RICHARDS, M. D. A place of established prestige as one of the representative physicians and surgeons of Northeastern Mis- souri is that held by Dr. Richards, who is engaged in the practice of his profession at Fayette, the attractive capital town of Howard county, and further interest attaches to a consideration of his career by reason of his being a scion of honored pioneer families of Howard county, within whose borders both his paternal and maternal grandparents established their residence in an early day, the names of both families having been closely and worthily identified with the development and upbuilding of this favored section of the state.
Dr. Richards was born on the old homestead farm in Moniteau town- ship, Howard county, on the 5th of February, 1865, and is a son of Thomas H. and Sarah A. (Thompson) Richards, the former of whom was born in Madison county, Kentucky, in the year 1824, and the lat- ter of whom was born in Howard county, Missouri, in 1831. Thomas H. Richards was a son of Reason Richards, who was born in Kentucky and who was a member of a sterling pioneer family of the fine old Bluegrass state. Thomas H. was a child at the time of the family removal from Kentucky to Howard county, Missouri, where he was reared and educated and where he continued to reside until his death, in 1911, at the venerable age of eighty-seven years. He was long numbered among the leading farmers and stock-growers of this county,
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where he became the owner of a valuable landed estate and where he was an influential figure in public affairs and in the furtherance of civic and material progress. He served throughout the Civil war as a gallant soldier of the Confederacy and received his parole at Shreve- port, Louisiana, at the close of the long and weary conflict between the north and the south. In politics he finally espoused the cause of the Democratic party, and he gave effective service in promotion of the principles of the party. He was a zealous member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, as is also his widow, and he served forty years as Sunday school superintendent. He was a man of fine mentality, inflexible integrity and most gracious personality, so that he ever maintained inviolable place in the confidence and esteem of his fellow men. His wife, who is now (1913) eighty-two years of age, is well preserved in mental and physical powers and is one of the loved pio- neer women of the county that has been her home from the time of her nativity. She resides in Fayette, and her knowledge of the history of Howard county is most intimate and thorough. She is a daughter of Elmore Thompson, who was one of the early settlers of the county and who contributed in generous measure to its development and pro- gress. Thomas H. and Sarah A. (Thompson) Richards became. the parents of two sons and seven daughters: W. Elmore, the eldest of the number, is a prosperous farmer of Howard county; Anna is the wife of J. M. Armstrong, of Fayette; Amanda is the wife of W. H. Biswell, a representative farmer of Howard county; Amelia is the wife of M. H. Bradley, who likewise is a successful agriculturist and stockgrower of this county ; Miss Sallie remains with her widowed mother; and Dr. Thomas C., of this review, was the seventh in order of birth. Three daughters died at age of twenty-two years.
The conditions and influences that compassed the childhood and youth of Dr. Richards were those of the old homestead farm on which he was born, and there he early learned the value and dignity of honest toil and endeavor. He is indebted to the public schools for his early educational training, which was supplemented by higher academic study in Central College, at Fayette. As a young man he devoted his atten- tion for several years to teaching school during the winter terms and to farm work during the summer seasons. In preparation for the work of his chosen profession he entered the St. Louis Medical College, in which he made an excellent record as an ambitious and appreciative student and in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1890, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. For two years after his graduation Dr. Richards maintained his residence and professional head- quarters on the farm of his father, and he built up an excellent prac- tice. At the expiration of the period noted he removed to Brown's Station, Boone county, where he continued to reside and devote his at- tention to successful professional work for the ensuing fourteen years, his practice having been widely disseminated and of representative order, as is also true since he removed with his family to Fayette, the judicial center of his native county, in order to give his children the advantages of Central College. He thus established his residence in Fayette in 1906, and it is a matter of much gratification to him that he is again engaged in practice in the county with whose history the family name has been long identified and in which his circle of friends is co- incident with that of his acquaintances. The Doctor is a valued and appreciative member of the Howard County Medical Society and is also identified with the Missouri State Medical Society and the American Medical Association. He is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and both he and his wife are
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zealous members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. He is a Democrat in politics.
On the 17th of March, 1892, was solemnized the marriage of Dr. Richards to Miss Augusta Carson, who was born and reared in Howard county and who is a daughter of Frank Carson, a prominent and hon- ored citizen of this section of the state and a kinsman of the historic Kit Carson, the frontiersman and government scout who accompanied General Fremont, the "Pathfinder" on his exploring expedition across the plains and over the Rocky mountains. Mrs. Richards is a woman of distinctive culture and is a prominent figure in the social activities of Fayette, where she presides as a gracious chatelaine of a home known for its generous hospitality. Dr. and Mrs. Richards have four children : Carson R. is a member of the class of 1914 in Central Col- lege; Emma J. and Louise Lee are students in Howard Payne College ; and Lorene is a member of the class of 1915 in the same college.
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