USA > Missouri > A history of northeast Missouri, Vol. 2 pt 2 > Part 36
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In his political relations Mr. Mackey is a Democrat, and he is a mem- ber of the Ramsey Creek Baptist church, as well as being clerk of that organization.
PARSON C. MACKEY is a son of John T. Mackey and a member of that distinguished family of farmers and stockmen who have made Mackey's Valley, or the Mackey community of Pike county, famous. The subject was born in sight of the farm upon which he lives today and where he has achieved his agricultural success, his natal day being December 25, 1863, just thirty years after the birth of his father.
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John T. Mackey was a brother of Francis Mackey mentioned in the sketch of J. C. Mackey to be found elsewhere in this work, and he gave all the years of his life to agricultural pursuits in Pike county. He was one of the leading farmers of the valley which bore his name and he remained actively with it until 1892 when to took up his resi- dence in Louisiana, Missouri. There he lived out his life and died in 1910. He was a charter member of the Corinth Presbyterian church and was one of its officers and advisers all his life.
Thomas J. Mackey, the father of John T. and the grandfather of Parson C. of this review, came into Pike county from Kentucky at a date sufficiently early for him to acquire first hand a body of the valley which was subsequently known as Mackey's Valley or neighborhood, and the several sons who were reared in his household settled about the old home and there increased their number and won honor and dis- tinction as citizens of the community. He married Sallie Griffith and John T. was one of their large family of children.
John C. Mackey married Elizabeth C. Brown, a daughter of Parson Brown and a granddaughter of William Brown, the head of that pio- neer family which came to Pike county, Missouri, from Bourbon county, Kentucky, about 1831. William Brown was born in Virginia and at the age of sixteen years he went to Kentucky and took part in the battle with the Indians at "Blue Licks." When he came to Missouri he was already well past the meridian of life, and there ended his days. His children were William, Parson, Joseph, James and Elizabeth, the wife of Judge Owsley, of Clarksville. The grandfather of these children was William Brown, who brought his family across the Blue Ridge mountains into Kentucky, after his services as a Revolutionary soldier were concluded, and he settled on Licking river, near Boone's Lick.
Parson Brown married Orpha Jones and among his family of four children was Elizabeth C., the mother of Parson C. Mackey. Mrs. Mackey died in 1879 and her children were Orpha, now Mrs. Strange of Louisiana, Missouri; Ella, the wife of J. L. Butts, of Pike county ; Ada, married to W. J. Wamsley, of Denver, Colorado; Parson and J. Tucker, of Clarksville, Missouri.
Parson C. Mackey grew up to years of young manhood in the valley which bears his name and was educated in McCune College, in Louis- iana. Arriving at his majority he engaged in farming within sight of his boyhood home and subsequently became the owner of the Heath J. Meriweather farm of one hundred and forty acres. He engaged in and carried on a milk business for several years, out of which industry he made the live assets which placed him substantially before the successful men of the valley, and which furnished the nourishment which restored his farm to a profitable enterprise for farming in later years.
On December 24, 1884, Mr. Mackey married Miss Louie E. Wells, a daughter of James R. Wells, one of the old settlers of Pike county, whose estate lay south of Clarksville, and who married Miss Fannie Patton, a cousin of Frank W. and Col. J. H. Patton, two leading farm- ers of the Annada locality of Pike county. Rev. James R. Patton was a well known Presbyterian minister of Pike county in earlier years. Mrs. Mackey was one of eight children of her parents and is herself the mother of children, Ethel, May, John T. and Elizabethi.
Mr. Mackey holds to the well-known political belief of his family,- that of the Democrat, and is a member and an elder of the Presby- terian church of Corinth, where his father officiated so long and under whose spiritual roof he was reared.
WILLIAM L'HOMEDIEU SILLIMAN was long the popular and efficient incumbent of the office of postmaster of Clarksville, Missouri, where he
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resided almost continuously since 1860. He was a Civil war veteran, and, although seventy-two years of age at the time of his death, he was a citizen of note in Pike county, where his deep and sincere interest in public affairs resulted in marked progress and improvement in the general welfare.
A native of Chester, Middlesex county, Connecticut, Mr. Silliman was born August 25, 1840. He was a son of Carlos C. Silliman, whose birth occurred in Chester, Connecticut, in 1811 and who was a tool man- ufacturer there, as was also his father, Samuel S. Silliman. The latter was likewise a native of Chester and he manufactured wooden ink stands, one of which now stands upon the desk of the postmaster at Clarksville and which bears the date of 1845. The Silliman family was founded in New England in the early colonial days and the father of Samuel S. was a gallant and faithful soldier in the Continental army during the Revolutionary war.
Charles C. Silliman married Harriet L'Homedieu, whose forebears came to the colonies in a very early day. Members of the L'Homedieu family fled from France to America in order to escape the outrages following one of the French wars and they settled on Long Island, where the family became one of great prominence and influence. Mr. and Mrs. Silliman became the parents of the following children : Charles, of Chester, Connecticut, was a Union soldier during the Rebellion ; Frank is now a resident of the old home town in Connecticut; Amelia died as Mrs. William Foster on Long Island; and William L'Home- dieu is the immediate subject of this sketch.
Mr. Silliman, of this review, was educated limitedly in his home place and in 1858, at the age of eighteen years, he went to Hancock county, Illinois, where he learned the carpenter's trade, which he fol- lowed until the inception of the war between the states. About that time he came over into Missouri and established his home in Clarksville. On the outbreak of the war he enlisted as a soldier in Company A, Third Missouri Volunteer Infantry, under. Colonel Smart. He saw hard service in the southern part of the state, participating in a number of important engagements. He received his honorable discharge and was mustered out of service February 28, 1865. In 1864, while in service, he was married at Dallas City, Illinois.
After the close of the war and when peace had again been estab- lished throughout the country, Mr. Silliman returned to Connecticut, where he continued to reside for the ensuing two years. In 1867 he came west again and settled in Clarksville, here turning his attention to work as a carpenter as a partner of T. C. Kelsey. The firm of Silli- man & Kelsey continued but a short time, when Mr. Kelsey moved away. The business was carried on in this community without interruption until the panic of 1892, when the policy of the national administration scared capital into hiding and put the building industry on the shelf, so to say. For two years of that now historic period of depression the industry was in a state of suspended animation and not until the election of Mc- Kinley and the consequent restoration of confidence did business awaken and an era of industrial activity begin.
Soon after Mr. McKinley's inauguration as president postoffice changes began taking place and Mr. Silliman was appointed postmaster of Clarksville as the successor of Frank Simons. He was reappointed to office twice by President Roosevelt and later held a commission from President Taft. Mr. Silliman was a stalwart Republican in his political adherency and in a fraternal way he was a valued member of the time- honored Masonic order.
On June 22, 1864, Mr. Silliman was united in marriage to Miss
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Almina Wiley, a daughter of Oliver Wiley. Mrs. Silliman was born in New York state September 26, 1841, and is the second in order of birth in a family of six children. Mr. and Mrs. Silliman have four children as follows,-Edwin is engaged in the railroad business in Minnesota ; Harriet is the wife of T. S. McQueen, of Clarksville; Florence is the wife of Fred Stichter, a business man in Louisiana, Missouri; and Alice is Mrs. Lewis Soelliger, of St. Louis, Missouri. Mr. Silliman was an elder in the Presbyterian church, of which his family are all devout members. His death occurred December 21, 1912.
JOSEPH E. BANKHEAD, M. D. One of the representative physicians and surgeons of Clarksville, Missouri, Dr. Joseph Errett Bankhead is. well upholding the prestige of the honored name which he bears. He is descended from a fine old Virginia family and traces his ancestry back to Scotch origin. He is a son of Dr. Cary Randolph Bankhead and a grandson of John W. Bankhead, the founder of this prominent Mis- souri family.
John W. Bankhead was born at Monticello, Virginia, the home of President Jefferson, in 1810, and was a son of Charles Lewis Bankhead, who married Miss Martha Randolph, a granddaughter of Thomas Jef- ferson. Charles Lewis Bankhead passed his life as a planter near Char- lottesville, Virginia. His father was Dr. John Randolph Bankhead, of posterity not far removed from the Scotch ancestor who planted this familiar name in the Old Dominion commonwealth. The Randolphs are even more ancient in American history than the Bankheads, hav- ing been among the settlers of the Johnstown colony on the James river, which was founded by Capt. John Smith. Through them the Bankheads trace their lineage back thirteen generations to Pocohontas, the Indian girl who saved the life of Captain Smith and who subsequently mar- ried John Rolfe. A daughter of John and Pocahontas Rolfe married a Randolph.
John W. Bankhead was educated in the University of Virginia. He married Elizabeth Poindexter Christian, a daughter of an aristocratic family of Albemarle county, Virginia, and in 1841 he brought his fam- ily and slaves to Missouri. He purchased several thousand acres of land in the Edgewood community of Pike county and there took up the battle with nature for the establishment and development of a home. He lived to witness all the changes of the old regime to the new and gave his moral support to the preservation of the institution which sup- ported aristocracy and formed a barrier to the free and unhampered social intercourse between people of his own color which prevails today.
He was a man of splendid managerial ability as the head of a large agricultural enterprise but he abandoned hope for himself as a factor in the competitive race after the war. He threw his whole soul into the sympathy he lent to the south in its effort to maintain the Confederacy and could never feel reconstructed. He displayed disappointment and much bitterness toward the forces which killed slavery and took away, without compensation, much of his personal property. Even the lapse of nearly a third of a century-from the close of the war until his death- failed to assuage his grief over what he felt was the ingratitude of the nation. His freed men still remained on and about his plantation with the resumption of peaceful conditions but his heart was lost to his old interests and he accomplished but very little after the war, enjoying life mainly in the company of his devoted wife and among his children. He buried his wife in 1895 and was himself laid away in 1897. His wife's passing took away one of the last of the daughters of the old regime. She lived always as she was reared, with servants for every need
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and to be only a companion for her husband and a mother to her chil- dren. One of the old servants that accompanied the Bankhead family from Virginia to Missouri, "Aunt Kitty" Rucker, still survives and re- sides in Clarksville.
John W. Bankhead was reared in an Episcopal home. He was capable of widely divergent emotions and the intensity of his feelings ever betrayed him. If he loved, he lavished his attentions, and if he hated he withdrew himself from the objectionable person and lived the part he felt. He lies beside his wife in the Episcopal cemetery at Prai- rieville. The children born to Mr. and Mrs. John W. Bankhead were : Capt. Archie C., who commanded a company in General Price's army during the Civil war and who was a conspicuous figure around old Prairieville and Edgewood for many years; Dr. Cary R., father of the subject of this review; Thomas, who died unmarried; and Martha, who died in Clarksville as Mrs. Howard K. Morris.
Cary R. Bankhead passed his youth under such environment as indi- cated above. He was born near Charlottesville, Virginia, March 4, 1835, and died March 12, 1907. He was graduated in the University of Missouri and subsequently studied medicine in the old St. Louis Medical College, in which he was graduated prior to the outbreak of the Rebel- lion. He initiated the active practice of his profession in Spencersburg. where he resided one year, at the end of which he located in Paynesville. He maintained his home in the latter place for half a cen- tury, during which time he was engaged in medical work .. Just a few miles distant from his home Doctor Pollard, his old schoolmate, passed his life and died about the same time as did Doctor Bankhead. Al- though well known as an ardent Democrat, Doctor Bankhead never unburdened himself offensively in times of peace and was almost equally reticent during the war. He was nearly as strong a Southern sympa- thizer as was his father but he kept a close mouth and retained a warm spot for himself in the heart of a Union provost marshal, who more than once kept a Federal bullet from ending his life before a firing squad out in some lonely place. He watched with interest the political devel- opment and official growth of Champ Clark from his entry into public life until he marshaled the Democratic forces as minority leader in the national house of representatives and predicted that the now speaker would some day sit in the presidential chair.
Dr. Cary R. Bankhead married Miss Amanda Ellen Errett, a daugh- ter of Rev. Joseph J. Errett, a Christian minister, who was born in New York, where he married Miss Rachel Davis, and who died near Paynesville in 1880. The children born to the Errett family were: Mrs. Bankhead, Mrs. R. E. Guy, of Kansas City ; Mrs. J. K. Reid, of Palmyra, Missouri ; Mrs. R. H. Waggoner, who died in Kansas City in 1895; Dr. Joseph H., of California; and Rev. Davis Errett, of Salem, Oregon. To Doctor and Mrs. Cary R. Bankhead the following children were born,-Miss Marthia, of Paynesville; Dr. Joseph E., of this notice ; Mary, wife of Mark M. Gillum, of Clarksville; Dr. Charles L., of Paynes- ville; Nellie, widow of Dr. Smith, of Clarksville; Henry Russell, a farmer near Edgewood; Dr. Cary R., Jr., a dentist in Clarksville; Miss Kate, of Paynesville; and Miss Bessie Guy, a teacher in the public schools of Clarksville.
Dr. Joseph E. Bankhead, whose name forms the caption for this review, was born in Missouri on the 21st of September, 1864. He re- ceived his rudimentary educational training in the Paynesville Insti- tute, where he studied under Professor Gass. After reaching years of mature judgment he decided upon the medical profession as his life work. For two years he studied medicine in the University of Missouri and he
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completed his medical course in the Missouri Medical College, now a part of the Washington Medical College, now a part of the Washington University of St. Louis, in March, 1887. He began the practice of his profession in Clarksville immediately after graduation and gradually built up an extensive and lucrative patronage. He now holds precedence as one of the most skilled physicians and surgeons in Pike county. In connection with his work he is a valued and appreciative member of the Pike County Medieal Society, of which he was the second president, and he is likewise affiliated with the Missouri State Medieal Society and the American Medical Association. In polities he is a Democrat and fraternally he is an Odd Fellow.
Doctor Bankhead has been twice married. November 12, 1890, he wed Miss Laura Hughs, a daughter of the pioneer Capt. Benjamin Hughs. She died April 4, 1900, withont issue. November 4, 1901, Doctor Bankhead was united in marriage to Miss Bessie Cake, a daugh- ter of Rev. E. B. Cake, of Decatur, Illinois, who married Jennie S. Errett. Reverend Cake was originally from Mt. Vernon, Ohio, and his wife was a cousin of Doctor Bankhead's mother. Doctor and Mrs. Bankhead have one daughter, Ellen Cary, born February 15, 1905.
JOHN HOWAT is manager of "Falicon," the rural estate of E. C. Damron which is located adjacent to the community of Clarksville and which is widely known as a model stock, grain and grass farm. This great estate is devoted to experimental work in connection with the dis- covery of the best methods for intensive farming and for the stimula- tion of interest in agriculture and the promotion of auxiliaries to that end. Comprising eight hundred acres, this farm is a veritable landscape garden, picturesque with hills and valleys, gravel roads and forest shade. It was originally improved by Mr. Damron as a country home, where he could devote his attention to sueh objects as outlined above and where he could retire with his family from his sojourns abroad or from a strenuous campaign in business in St. Louis.
John Howat began his life in Missouri in 1902, when he undertook the management of "Falieon." He eame originally from Houghton county, Michigan, where he had spent a few years as a stock farmer among the snowdrifts. His "Sidnaw Stoek Farm" there was estab- lished when he came out of Iowa, where many years had been spent in agricultural pursuits.
A native of Ayr, Scotland, John Howat was born November 16, 1859. The Howats were indigenous to the locality of Ayr for generations too remote to determine and the men were inelined either toward agricul- ture or the professions. John Howat is a son of James Howat, whose ancestors espoused the cause of Charles Stuart in the latter's confliet with the Cromwell party. James Howat was a fixture upon the estate of Lord Bailey and there reared a large family. He married Jane Mitehell, whose father. John Mitehell, was descended from a family, the lineage of which can be traced back to the times of the James, Eliza- beth and Shakespeare. Mr. and Mrs. James Howat are deceased and concerning their children the following brief data are here incorporated : Andrew is a lawyer of note in Salt Lake City, Utah : James remains on the old farm in Scotland; Robert was an attorney in De Witt. Iowa, for a number of years prior to his demise, in 1885; Mary passed away in Iowa, unmarried; Maggie became the wife of Captain Shearer and died in Mobile, Alabama: John is the immediate subject of this review; Jean is the wife of Peter Randall; a contractor in New York City; Jas- per resides in De Witt, Iowa; Elizabeth is the wife of Jenkin Jones, of Ayr, Scotland : Alexander is a carpenter in Clarksville, Missouri: and Thomas is president of Trevecca College at Talgarth, Wales. Vol. III-16
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John Howat was reared to maturity and educated in his native land, where he received a good training in agriculture upon an estate of the nobility. He came to America shortly after reaching his legal majority and located in Iowa, where he found work as a farm hand. His enthusiasm for his work in this new country brought him in con- tact with the leading thought of his state in agricultural circles and in 1895 he was elected president of the Farmers' Institute of Clinton county, serving in that capacity for a period of five years. His ability and worth were given further recognition by his appointment as a di- rector of the state board of agriculture, a position he retained for two years. He lent his active aid to the stimulation of agriculture and the work of the agricultural college of the state and his thoughts in this con- nection frequently found their way to the agricultural press of the state. Among the men of renown in this field of husbandry with whom he came into personal relation was "Tama Jim" Wilson, now secretary of agriculture in the cabinet of President Taft. It was Mr. Howat who chanced to have the honor of informing his old countryman of his appointment to the cabinet of President Mckinley.
Mr. Howat's experimental work in his capacity as director of affairs at "Falicon" is independent and free from any outside influence and whatever of value is unfolded to him through this channel is freely com- municated to the station at Columbia or to the department of agriculture or animal industry at Washington. He is breeding the American Per- cheron with native sire and dam with results equal to those reached with imported blood and his herd of white Shorthorns is marking a new era in the cattle industry, in the development of an animal with many points of superiority. Stock from "Falicon" is entered for premiums at local fairs and that noted farm is represented by Mr. Howat at state and other meetings of farmers where mutual exchange of experiences occurs. The autumn corn show in Clarksville was established by the influence from "Falicon" and six hundred dollars in prizes is scattered among the champion corn growers of this community.
In April, 1884, Mr. Howat was united in marriage to Miss Louisa Bowcott, the ceremony having been performed in Clinton county, Iowa. Mrs. Howat is a daughter of Richard and Rebecca (Morgan) Bowcott and she was born at Glamorgan, Wales. Mr. and Mrs. Howat are the parents of six children, as follows,-Lela Jean is a popular and success- ful teacher in Roswell, New Mexico; she was graduated in the Univer- sity of Missouri; Agnes is the wife of J. Roberts Carroll, of Clarksville; Robert is a student in the agricultural department of the University of Missouri; and Sylla, James and William are all at the parental home.
In religious matters the Howat family are devout members of the Methodist church, to whose charities they are most liberal contributors. In politics Mr. Howat maintains an independent attitude, preferring to give his support to men and measures meeting with the approval of his judgment rather than to vote along strictly partisan lines. He is a man of sterling integrity and intense activity. He is possessed of that innate kindliness of spirit which makes one popular amongst all classes of people and it may be said concerning him that his charity knows only the bounds of his opportunities.
JAMES C. MACKEY is a successful farmer near Clarksville and is a member of one of the oldest families in Pike county. His father was the late Francis M. Mackey, who spent his life as a resident of Pike county and passed away while holding the office of treasurer of it. He was born September 13, 1835, and was a son of Thomas J. Mackey, born in Mis- souri and now sleeping in the Presbyterian cemetery in Corinth. He
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was a true pioneer of the county, and among other worthy men of his time, shared conspicuously in the subjugation of nature in the wilds of the now profusely settled comunity.
Thomas J. Mackey was a son of one of the three brother founders of this numerous family who came out from Kentucky about the beginning of the nineteenth century and settled in Pike county. From this point the younger generations scattered over the best agricultural section of Pike county and many of their posterity continue to abide here. Thomas Mackey was a man of more that ordinary prominence in his community, and although possessing but a meagre education, his native talent for leadership and direction of affairs won him a strong position in whatever place he found himself. He was a man of strong and enduring convic- tions, sterling manhood, and his union with Sallie Griffith produced a posterity which has added character and wealth to Pike county. They were the parents of five children: John T. and Harrison G. died, leaving families in Pike county ; Francis M., the father of the subject; William W., who left two children, and Samuel Franklin, who left four daughters as his posterity.
Francis M. Mackey was born in Calumet township, acquired a prac- tical education, suited to his needs as a farmer and stockman, and grew old in that industry. He moved into Clarksville with his family in 1890 and in 1902 was elected county treasurer for a term of four years. His death came during the last year of his official life. During his vigorous and useful life he was one of the famous wheat growers of his county and carried on his operations in a successful and cumulative manner. He came to be known as extensively for his substantial char- acter as for his good business judgment, and was highly regarded by his fellow townspeople all his life. He was an elder in the Presbyterian church and always voted the Democratic ticket. His church work was a matter of much concern and importance to him and the congregation found in him such efficiency as a delegate to synods and presbyteries that he was frequently chosen to represent them in that capacity. He married Lucinda McLeod, a daughter of James S. McLeod, and a grand- daughter of William McLeod, who came to Pike county from Kentucky as a pioneer. Mrs. Mackey died on May 6, 1875, the mother of Lemuel F., a farmer of Pike county, James C. of this review, Henry Thomas and Irvin J., farmers in the community in which they were born. Francis M. Mackey married a second time, Jane McIlroy becoming his wife, but she died without issue, and he later married Betty Glover who still survives, the mother of Glover Mackey, a farmer of Pike county.
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