A history of northeast Missouri, Vol. 2 pt 2, Part 35

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

USA > Missouri > A history of northeast Missouri, Vol. 2 pt 2 > Part 35

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Mr. Crump has been twice married. His first wife was Miss Josie Morrow, a daughter of Allen Morrow of Cass county, Illinois. She died in 1869, three years after marriage, without living issue. In 1871 Mr. Crump married Miss Hattie Wheelhouse, in Rushville, Illinois, She is a daughter of George Wheelhouse of Illinois. They have no children.

IRA O. POLLOCK. One of the native born, substantial and influential men of Putnam county, Missouri, is Ira O. Pollock, of Powersville, presi- dent of the Bank of Powersville, merchant and large land owner in Put- nam county, whose father, the late Capt. David W. Pollock, was a Civil war veteran, a prominent pioneer of this county and one of its wealthiest men and most forceful financiers. The Pollocks are Scotch and three generations of the family on American soil have well borne out the reputation of that stalwart race for vigor, perseverance and canny shrewdness in business. In 1838 Thomas and Isabella Pollock with their two children emigrated from their native Scotland to the United States and settled in Pennsylvania. There Thomas Pollock followed brick making for ten years; then in July, 1851, he brought his family to Missouri, locating near St. John, Putnam county. Here he continued brick making, but also engaged in farming and was quite successful, accumulating an estate of some 400 acres. He passed away in 1879. Thomas and Isabella Pollock reared seven children: James, deceased ; John, now residing in Oklahoma; David W., deceased, the father of our subject; Judge William L. Pollock, of Putnam county, Missouri; Mrs. Isabella Beary, of St. John, Missouri; Mrs. Agnes J. Daniels, of Sey- mour, Iowa; and Mrs. Barbara Ellen Godfrey, of St. John, Missouri.

Capt. David W. Pollock, the father of Ira O., was born in Pennsyl- vania, October 10, 1841, and the opening of the Civil war in 1861 found him in Missouri, a young man of twenty years. In August, 1861, he enlisted in the Eighteenth Missouri Regiment of the Union army, with which he served three years and eight months and which took part in many of the most important engagements of the war in the West. He served as first lieutenant of his company until his re-enlistment during the famous march to the sea, when he became captain and held that rank until the close of the war. The Eighteenth Missouri fought at Island No. 10, at Shiloh, where it lost very heavily, Chattanooga, Mis- sionary Ridge and Lookout Mountain. It then joined the army of Sherman, where it was assigned to the 17th corps, and began the advance upon Atlanta, taking part in the engagements at Snake Creek Gap, Resaca, Kingston, Dallas, Big Shanty, Kenesaw Mountain, along the Chattahoochee river in front of Atlanta and at Jonesboro. When Gen. Hood evacuated Atlanta and started north this regiment was one of those in pursuit, drove the rear-gard of the enemy through Snake Creek Gap and skirmished with him at various other points. It then rejoined the main body of the army and was in the famous march to the sea, participating in all the engagements in which the 17th corps was

1519

HISTORY OF NORTHEAST MISSOURI

brought into action. In the early part of 1865 the regiment marched with Sherman across the Carolinas. It was the Eighteenth Missouri that forced the crossing of Whippy's swamp and the Pedee river at Cheraw; was present at the capture of Columbia and Fayetteville, South Carolina : fought with its customary valor in the battle of Bentonville, North Carolina, and was present whene Gen. Johnston surrendered to Sherman at Goldsboro. It then moved to Washington, D. C., where it took part in the grand review in May, after which it went by rail and river via Louisville, Kentucky, to St. Louis, where it was mustered out on July 18, 1865. At the close of the war Capt. Pollock engaged in the merchandising business at St. John, Putnam county, Missouri, and remained identified with this line of endeavor there continuously until June, 1909, with two exceptions-once in the '70's when he sold his business but rebought it at the end of six months; and again in 1908, when he retired from the business for a similar period. He was one of the organizers of the National Bank of Unionville and served as its president until his death; also organized the Bank of Powersville and served as its president from 1893 to 1896; and was one of the organizers of the Bank of Lucerne, Lucerne, Missouri. He was one of the most extensive land owners in Putnam county, accumulating during his life- time an estate of 2,765 acres, 2,300 acres of which were in Putnam county, 225 acres in Mercer county, Missouri, and 240 acres in Iowa. Along with these agricultural interests he was known as the largest live stock buyer and shipper in Putnam county and as one of the most extensive operators in that line in northern Missouri. He would buy over a large section and was one of the pioneer and prominent train- load shippers of the country, his shipping points in the earlier days being Belknap and Ottumwa, Iowa. It was in this business that he made the bulk of his fortune. He was also one of the organizers of the Bank of Sewal, Iowa, and vice-president of same until his death. He passed away February 26, 1910, in St. John, Missouri. He wedded Miss Anna Daniels, who was born in 1845 and still survives. Capt. Pollock was a member of Mansfield Post, G. A. R., at Powersville. To the union of these parents were born nine children, as follows: Isabel, deceased in infancy ; Ira O., the immediate subject of this review ; Orin O., deceased at the age of eleven; William H., a resident of Powersville, Missouri; Richard, deceased; David W., who passed away at St. John, Missouri, September 14, 1912; Anna Ora, now Mrs. George C. Miller, of Union- ville, Missouri; and Thomas H. and Perry Carlton, both residents of St. John, Missouri.

Ira O. Pollock was born in Putnam county, Missouri, December 22, 1867, and was educated in the St. John school, the old Avalon college and at the Smith Mercantile School of Kirksville, Missouri. He received his most practical business training, however, under his father. On May 10, 1887, he opened a general mercantile store at Powersville, in partnership with his father, and like his father, continuance is one of his strong points. His business has now reached extensive proportions and besides the usual lines of general mercantile trade, he buys and sells grain, cattle, horses, hogs and sheep and deals in coal and other fuel. He is, too, extensively interested in banking. He has been presi- dent of the Bank of Powersville since 1896; is a stockholder in a bank at Sweetwater, Texas; and is vice-president of the Bank of Sewal, Sewal, Iowa. He owns 940 acres adjoining Powersville. Wealth came to Mr. Pollock as a patrimony, but along with that inheritance came the gift of knowing how to handle business, the secret of wealth, and in his own career he has well upheld the excellent business reputation of his father. Mr. Pollock is affiliated fraternally with the Independent

1520

HISTORY OF NORTHEAST MISSOURI

Order of Odd Fellows at Powersville. In politics he is a Progressive and was aligned with the Third Party in the campaign of 1912.

In January, 1890, he was united in marriage to Miss Effie E. Rowan, daughter of McCauley Rowan, of Putnam county, Missouri. The four children of this union are: D. W. Pollock, now a member of the firm of Ira O. Pollock & Son; and Eulala E., Louis Dudley and Philip Schifflin, all at the parental home.

HIEL L. DICKERSON. The really successful men of a community are those in whom their fellow-citizens can rely in affairs of public impor- tance; to whom they can come for assistance in seasons of financial dis- tress; men who have won this confidence by the wisdom of their own investments and by the honorable lives they have led on every field of effort and as neighbors and friends. Very often, in prosperous towns, these men are retired farmers, frequently they are bankers, and in not a few cases it will be found that they are veterans of that great struggle which makes the memory of the Civil war yet fresh after the passage of more than half a century. Such a man in every particular is Hiel L. Dickerson, of Livonia, president of the Farmers Bank. Mr. Dicker- son was born March 18, 1842, in Morgan county, Ohio, and is a son of David and Minerva (Quigley) Dickerson, also natives of that state and county. On the paternal side Mr. Dickerson is descended from Welsh emigrants, while his mother's people were from the shores of England.

David Dickerson migrated to Putnam county, Missouri, in 1862. In his home town in Ohio he had learned the trade of blacksmith, and when he followed other Morgan county people to this state he plied his trade on occasion, and invested his savings in an eighty-acre farm, which was the nucleus of a productive property of several hundred acres. His death occurred in 1886, when Putnam county lost one of its most highly regarded citizens. They had the following children : Julius Q., who now resides in Putnam county; Seth A., of Elm town- ship, Putnam county ; Laura, who married a Mr. Woodard and died in 1873; and Pearly B., George C., John L., William L. and Hiel L. The last five named sons were soldiers in the Union army during the Civil war. Hiel L. Dickerson enlisted in the United States navy as an engineer in 1862 and served throughout the Mississippi river campaign. At the battle off Mobile, he nearly lost his life by drowning, when his vessel, "The Milwaukee," was sunk by a Confederate torpedo, and after the fall of Mobile he was detailed on the wrecking crew until he received his honorable discharge, June 27, 1865. He was a brave, faith- ful and cheerful soldier, at all times diligently performing whatever tasks fell to his lot, and thus earning the regard and respect of his officers. On his return to the occupations of peace, Mr. Dickerson came to Putnam county and settled on a farm near Livonia, where, in addi- tion to carrying on agricultural pursuits, he followed the trade of machinist, which he had learned before going to war.

On April 19, 1866, Mr. Dickerson was united in marriage to Miss Carolina Baugh, of Elm township, Putnam county. He continued to follow agricultural operations until he was the owner of 370 acres of land, when he sold out, in 1906, and moved to Livonia. Here he has lived a somewhat retired life, although he still acts in the capacity of president of the Farmers Bank of Livonia. This was organized by Mr. Dickerson in 1906, and capitalized at $10,000, with a surplus of $10,000, and has a high reputation among the people of this part of the county. Both Mr. Dickerson and his cashier, J. J. Fowler, are men of known ability and integrity, and as a result the bank's deposits have yearly shown a healthy and gratifying growth. In politics Mr. Dickerson is a

1521

HISTORY OF NORTHEAST MISSOURI

staunch and unchangeable Republican, and has served in the capacity of township collector and is now a city councilman of Livonia. His religious belief is that of the Universalist church.

Mr. and Mrs. Dickerson have had ten children, of whom four died in infancy, the others being: Anna, the wife of L. C. Milton, a well- known manufacturer of Green City, Missouri; Mrs. Ada McNear, who died in 1894; Laura, the wife of William Lanteizer; Edna, the wife of Alvin Burney ; Fannie, who married Otto Carney; and Rose. who mar- ried Thomas Kerr and resides at Green City, Missouri.

FREDERICK BOLAND. The family of which this well known and popu- lar citizen is a representative has been prominently identified with the civic and industrial development and upbuilding of Putnam county, and here is well upholding the prestige of the name in the points of loyal citizenship and effective operations along the lines of agricultural enter- prise and stock-growing, of which he is a leading exponent in York town- ship, where he resides upon the old homestead upon which he was born on the 24th of February, 1873. His unqualified popularity in his native county shows that he has fully measured up to the demands of the mete- wand of approbation on the part of those familiar with his life history, and his standing in the community is such as to entitle him to specific consideration in this publication. He is a son of John and Margaret (Johnson) Boland, the former of whom was born in the fair old Emerald Isle and the latter in Moniteau county, Missouri. In a sketch dedicated to William M. Boland, elder brother of Frederick, on other pages of this work, appear adequate data concerning the family history, and thus it is not necessary to review the same in the present article.

In the old Fairview school, near his present home, Frederick Boland gained his early educational training, which was effectively supple- mented by a course in the Sedalia Business College, at Sedalia, this state. Upon attaining to his legal majority his father presented him with two hundred acres of land. a part of the extensive old home- stead, and he has shown his initiative capacity and good business judg- ment by adding to his possessions until he now has a valuable landed estate of four hundred and fifty acres,-one of the model farmsteads of York township and one that bears every evidence of thrift and pros- perity. In addition to successful operations in the line of diversified agriculture Mr. Boland is a discriminating breeder and buyer of live stock and makes appreciable shipments of the same to the leading mar- kets each year. He keeps an average herd of one hundred head of cattle and makes a specialty of the breeding of Poland-China swine.

In a generic way Mr. Boland gives allegiance to the cause of the Democratic party but in local affairs, where no issues of state or national importance are involved, he gives his support to men and measures meeting the approval of his judgment, without reference to strict parti- san lines. He is affiliated with the lodge of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons in the village of Lucerne.

In 1899 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Boland to Miss Emma Jones, daughter of William Jones, a representative citizen of Putnam county, and the one child of this union is a fine little son. James Frederick.

JOHN O. ROBERTS who is the president of the Clifford Bank of Clarksville. is an extensive farmer of Pike county and has been a leading citizen of it sine 1835. He has been connected in important capacities with many of the leading ventures of the county. and has

1522

HISTORY OF NORTHEAST MISSOURI

done his full share in the development of the resources and industries of the district which has represented his home in so many years.

Born near Charlottesville, Virginia, June 9, 1830, he is a sor of Jeremiah Roberts, who brought-1835-his small family and his slaves overland from Virginia to Missouri, and settled near Buffalo Knob on what is now Edgewood. After a few years he moved over on Little Ramsey creek in order that he might be near the family of his father- in-law, Major John Fagg, who had followed him into what was then known as the West, and he remained there as a farmer until 1848, when he came to Clarksville, which place became his final home.

Jeremiah Roberts was born in Albemarle county, Virginia, July 15, 1803. His father was Richard Roberts, also born in that locality, of humble parents, and his history in keeping with that incidental to the average farmer community. The family was originally of English and Irish extraction, but a strain of Portugese was introduced into the blood just ahead of Richard, producing a line of darker and more swarthy men, and stamping the family with other minor peculiarities. Richard Roberts married Elizabeth Gillum, a sister of John Gillum, whose sons, Nathan, Tandy and others, settled in Pike county and multiplied it into one of the most numerous families of the county. The family of Richard and Elizabeth (Gillum) Roberts comprised John, James, Frederick, Jeremiah and four daughters, who passed their lives in Virginia. October 24, 1828, Jeremiah Roberts married Miss Mildred Fagg, a daughter of Major John Fagg, mentioned previously, whose home was a part of the Jefferson estate, and who was a personal friend of the Sage of Monticello. They became the parents of John O. of this review; James, who died at Kirkwood, Missouri, at fifty-seven or fifty- eight years, leaving no issue; Richard Morris, who died at Joplin, Mis- souri, in 1893, aged fifty-six ; he was a mining man, and left three chil- dren: Ellen, the widow of Lewis R. Downing, resides in Kansas City, and has a son, James Boyd Downing in that city; Caroline V. married William E. Jones, moved to Seattle, Washington, and left a son, John Paul Jones, now a resident of Nome, Alaska. In 1848 Jeremiah Rob- erts moved into Clarksville and engaged in the merchandise business until his death, which occurred eight years later, March 20, 1856. He was a man of churchly tendencies, a strong Methodist, and lived a life of rigid austerity all his days.

John O. Roberts acquired his education chiefly in the school of experience, which has given valuable training to so many of our biggest men, and he was "graduated from the mill of hard knocks." His father wished his sons to begin life under more favorable circumstances than he himself had done, and John O. began his career in 1847 as a clerk for H. D. Kent & Brother in Clarksville. His father succeeded that firm in the business in the following year, and from this store John O. entered the river service as a packet clerk in 1851 for the St. Louis & Keokuk Packet Company. He remained with this business until the death of his father, when he returned to the store and was there- after identified with the merchandise business until 1862, when he engaged in milling as manager of the Imperial Milling Company. This historic old mill was built in 1856 by Clifford, Roberts & Company, and in 1859 was destroyed by fire. Two years later it was rebuilt, and in the year following Mr. Roberts assumed charge of its operations. It was incorpo- rated in 1880 and became the Imperial Milling Company. He conducted it until 1854, after which he discontinued his connection with it for a matter of twelve years, and then resumed its management for a period of ten years. The mill was then sold to the Gillum interests, and Mr. Roberts became vice-president of the company, but retaining only a

1523

HISTORY OF NORTHEAST MISSOURI

nominal interest in the plant. While Mr. Roberts was actively engaged in milling operations, his connection with the merchandise business con- tinued until about 1870, when he retired and turned his attention to more important matters.

In 1870 the inauguration of the scheme to build a railroad took place in the office of Mr. Roberts. The company was chartered as the Clarks- ville & Western Railway Company, and he was elected its president. The road was originally intended for a link in the Chicago & Alton west, but when the bridge was built at Louisiana and the Chicago & Alton went west from there, the Clarksville promoters built their line to St. Louis and it was sold to the Burlington interests, after which Mr. Roberts retired from the company.

In 1871 he was one of three, including B. P. Clifford, Mr. Roberts, and Henry S. Carroll, who were the prime movers in the establishment of the first bank in Clarksville, the Clifford Banking Company, and he has continued a leading factor in its affairs since its organization, being president of the institution now. His son, John O., Jr., is vice-president and Calvin L. Carroll, his son-in-law, is the cashier. Mr. Roberts is the owner of a considerable quantity of valuable farm land, which he began acquiring in the early seventies, and he is now known to be one of the largest farmers and land owners in the county.

Among the numerous other industrial enterprises with which Mr. Roberts has found active place for his abundant energy and public spiritedness, must be inentioned the gravel road system of Pike county, which, with other citizens of prominence, Mr. Roberts took the initia- tive in organizing. In 1857 the Clarksville, Paynesville & Prairieville Road Company was formed with Newton McDonald as president and John O. Roberts as secretary. The company was subsequently dis- placed by the Clarksville Road Company by a special act of the legisla- ture of the state, and the construction of the road began at Clarksville. The estimated cost of the road was placed at $32,000, and that amount of money was provided for by the county court, the town of Clarksville and its citizens, and the citizens of the communities through which the road was to pass. The first five miles of road out of Clarksville was built at a cost of $5,000 per mile, and when the appropriation for the road was exhausted the road was not yet completed. The board of directors met the deficiency by borrowing $10,000 to finish the work, and Mr. Roberts was one of the several men who guaranteed the pay- ment of the note.

This demonstration of practical public spirit enabled the company to connect the towns above named by gravel roads of the highest order, and the toll was placed at the limit of the law while funds were being raised to repay the loan in interest. With the debt disposed of, the board reduced the toll to a point sufficient to maintain the road, and they managed the affairs of the concern until the county, under a provision of law, took over the road and continued its management, with but little change of policy.

Of the several citizens who thus added lustre to their names in the work of pioneer gravel road building in Pike county, only H. V. P. Block, of Eolia and John O. Roberts of this review survive today, and the latter was secretary of the company which built the road until the highway went into the hands of the county, a term of service covering a period of forty years-of a surety a worthy record, and one indicating the splendid interest he has ever evinced in the welfare of the county, and in its fullest development.

Mr. Roberts has not been particularly interested in politics. He was an admirer of Senator Benton before he became a voter and in those

1524

HISTORY OF NORTHEAST MISSOURI

days might have been classed with the Democrats, but when Democracy unfeelingly and coldly turned from the senator and deprived Missouri of her greatest political leader, Mr. Roberts sought a new political home, and, since the Civil war period, he has been a Republican. Dur- ing the Rebellion he was a member of the Missouri State Militia.

On November 30, 1853, Mr. Roberts married Miss Mary M. Swain, a daughter of Warren Swain, one of the early settlers of Clarksville, who came from Reading, Massachusetts. Mrs. Roberts was born in Clarks- ville on February 16, 1828, and died on August 19, 1900. She had children as follows: Mrs. Calvin Carroll, of Clarksville; Jerry W., who died in 1881, and John O., Jr., who married Miss Augusta, the daughter of F. M. Mackey, and is the father of John O. III and Mary Alice.

IRVIN J. MACKEY is the son of Francis M. Mackey, who was treas- urer of Pike county when he died and who finished his long life as a farmer and stock man in Mackey valley, south of Clarksville, as indi- cated in the sketch of James C. Mackey, appearing elsewhere in this work. Irvin J. Mackey was born September 29, 1869, upon the emi- nence which lifts . the old Mackey residence above the surrounding country and makes it a conspicuous landmark of one of the noted agricultural valleys of the county. Within the confines of this old community he came up through the years of his minority and in its precincts, hallowed by long years of family associations, he has lived as a man.

The farm of Irvin Mackey embraces, in addition to the old home, another tract of land settled by the well-remembered pioneer, William Elgin, whose posterity still dot the landscape of Pike county, and whose blood courses through the veins of numerous families thereof. Upon the old Mackey farm embraced in this domain, occurred one of the early murders of Pike county. This was the brutal murder of Reason Mackey, and uncle of Francis Marian Mackey, by a negro slave. Al- though the murderer was merely personal property, he was held responsible for his act and died upon the scaffold in expatiation, this being the first legal hanging in Pike county.

Like his father and older brothers, all of whom enjoyed large and worthy success in business life, Irvin J. Mackey engaged in the diver- sified farming and thus earned a prominent place in the roster of suc- cessful feeders and growers of stock in the valley. His domain com- prises four hundred and eighty acres of hill and vale and its response to the plowman's efforts is as cheerful and as lavish, with the agri- cultural aids common to the day, as it was in days gone by when his fathers gave themselves in toil to its cultivation.

October 13, 1892, Mr. Mackey married Lizzie J. McDannold, a daugh- ter of William R. McDannold, mentioned elsewhere in this biographical work. The children of this union are Frances Lucinda and Margaret Elizabeth.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

A history of northeast Missouri, Vol. 2 pt 2, Part 35

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