USA > Missouri > A history of northeast Missouri, Vol. 2 pt 2 > Part 37
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James C. Mackey was born January 16, 1864, and he remained in the parental home until he had passed his eighteenth birthday. He acquired a liberal education and was urged by his father to join his brothers in an independent farming venture before reaching his major- ity. The father provided the farm and the opportunity to stock it and the sons furnished the labor and management, and the combination proved a most decided success. James Mackey carried on grain and stock farming as his main interest for a time and then fell to trading in stock and prosecuted this so successfully and so extensively that the occupation eventually came to require all his time, other matters re- ceiving his supervision only. Thus he built up an extensive business in stock trading, covering a period of years. He meanwhile increased the area of his farm, and in 1893 purchased a sightly place two and a half miles south of Clarksville, on which he erected a country home.
On September 17, 1885, Mr. Mackey married Miss Louisa McDan- nold, a daughter of William R. McDannold, one of the ablest business
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men of Pike county and the representative of a pioneer family. She was born in Marshall county, Iowa, in 1865.
Mr. Mackey has always been interested in politics with a view to the establishing of correct principles of government. He has ever been a strong partisan of Champ Clark, whom, at Montgomery City on one occasion he helped to nominate for congress. He is a Baptist in his re- ligious affiliations, and has been a member of the Ramsey Creek Baptist church since February, 1886, and a deacon in that church for twenty- two years. For twenty-four years he has occupied the position of Sun- day school superintendent and has been active for years in the Sunday school work of the township. He was moderator of the Salt River Association of the Baptist church four years and a member of the dis- trict board of the church for twenty-three years, while he is chairman of the board at this time.
WILLIAM CASWELL PREWITT is one of the most prosperous agricul- turists in Pike county, where he was born and reared, and he is the son of William Caswell Prewitt, Sr., a phenomenally successful farmer and stockman, who was well known throughout this section of the state by reason of his extraordinary business ability and exceptional talent as an agriculturist.
The story of the building of a fortune by William Caswell Prewitt, Sr., while in the vigor of his life, spans a period of fifty-six years spent in Missouri and of forty-six years passed adjacent to Clarksville, where the main plot of his industrial and commercial life was laid and ma- tured. The architect of his fortune and the mechanic who executed the plans were the same modest but purposeful man whose climb upward was accompanied by numerous hardships and whose pathway was marked with deeds of charity, acts of the greatest liberality and evi- dences of the interest he felt in dependent humanity. He enjoyed life while he harvested the crop his system and brains produced and he softened the pillows of weary heads, lifting the burdens from weary backs and making provision for the worthy and humble who were akin to him or who had served his household in its rising tide. When he set- tled in Lincoln county Mr. Prewitt was a young man of twenty-one years of age, with a fair education, with an active mind and with all the vigor and hopefulness of youth. He acquired a small farm near Auburn and cultivated it for a period of ten years, at the expiration of which he sold it and came to Pike county. This was in 1839. In the following year he engaged in the general merchandise business in Clarksville and he was identified with that line of enterprise for the next three years. Nature endowed him with rare business sagacity and it may be said that few men who lived in Pike county were able to turn their judgment into coin as easily as he. His landed estate reached the distinction of aristocratic dominions, was amply peopled with field hands, house servants and black boys in livery. The chimney of the old home of his favorite servants, masked in ivy, still marks the spot where slavery eventually gave place to liberty and where black men became citizens instead of chattels. His will made ample provision for his emancipated slaves and his widow renewed the bequest in her will for any who mer- ited the charity of their former master.
Mr. Prewitt loved the innocent sports of hunting and fishing and when the leader of the fox chase blew his horn for the gathering he was wont to unhitch and join in the merry chase. His excursions to Colo- rado, while attending his invalid daughter, offered him rare opportuni- ties for the sport which prolongs life and he invariably returned home a rested man. He was a God-fearing man and held membership in the
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Christian church, which organization was the beneficiary of his liberal- ity. He was a stalwart Democrat but politics played a small part in the drama of his life. He was neutral toward the strife between the states and was not affiliated with any fraternal organizations. He was one of the liberal subscribers to the first gravel roads of Pike county, Missouri.
A native of Fayette county, Kentucky, the senior Mr. Prewitt was born October 29, 1808, and he died on his farm in Missouri February 14, 1885. His father was Vaul Allen Prewitt and his mother Mildred Ellis Prewitt. The former was born October 14, 1785, and died Feb- ruary 16, 1826. The mother was born February 8, 1791, was summoned to the life eternal, and was survived by one son, William Caswell Prew- itt, Sr.
Vaul Allen Prewitt and his brother Robert were soldiers under General Harrison in the War of 1812. The former was adjutant in Colonel Dudley's regiment and was taken prisoner at Fort Meigs, on the Maumee river. He was stripped of his clothing. save for shirt and trousers, and cast into the "Bull Pen" with the common soldiery and mistreated until the matter reached the attenion of old Tecumseh, who ordered his resoration to the dignity becoming a prisoner of war. Rob- ert Prewitt was' captured by the enemy in the battle of Raisin river. Robert Prewitt, Sr., father of Vaul and Robert, was a Revolutionary soldier in the Continental army from Virginia, as was also Capt. Will- iam Ellis, maternal great-grandfather of the subject of this review. In 1795 these old patriots both moved their families to Fayette county, Kentucky, and there passed the residue of their lives. Robert Prewitt, Sr., married. Patsy Chandler, May 22, 1782, and to them were born seven sons, Robert Jr., Vaul Allen, William, Henry, Nelson, James, and Levi.
William Caswell Prewitt, Sr., was married, March 3, 1845, to Miss Martha C. Prewitt, a daughter of Robert Prewitt, his uncle. Mrs. Prewitt was born October 17, 1828, and was less than seventeen years of age at the time of her marriage. She passed away March 16, 1888 and her two children to reach maturity were Martha Caswell, born June 15, 1858, and died in September, 1881; she married R. T. Gentry but they had no children ; and William Caswell, Jr., of this notice.
December 15, 1861, marks the date of nativity of William Caswell Prewitt, Jr. He grew up on the farm on which he now resides and was liberally educated in Paynesville Academy. His early business training was obtained under the tutelage of his father and upon the latter's death he inherited a good estate. The high plane at which the junior Mr. Prew- itt has maintained the character of his farm, to which he has added several hundred acres, is ample proof of his business and managerial ability. He and two of his sons are now extensively engaged in the breeding of Shorthorn cattle and their herd has brought considerable notoriety to the farm in the way of prize-winnings in the Missouri State Fair and in local county fairs with results which successfully advertise their business. Feeding and finishing cattle, hogs and sheep for the markets and the packers form an important feature of the business life of the Prewitt enterprise, also.
The character of his citizenship and the weight of his personal re- sponsibility have combined to recommend Mr. Prewitt for usefulness in bodies or gatherings in the interest of the general welfare of his coun- try and recognition has frequently come to him from the governor of the state and from other sources of authority, with commissions as a dele- gate to various gatherings, but his defect in hearing has made it imposs- ible for him to act in any such capacity. He has as little interest in politics as had his father. He is a devout member of the Christian church
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and gives liberally to the support of a number of worthy charitable or- ganizations. He has been president of the Citizens Bank of Clarksville for eighteen years and has watched its growth from a small beginning to its present position as a strong and formidable financial institution. His landed estate comprises 1,487 acres of most arable land that is un- usually picturesque in a rural way.
September 29, 1885, was celebrated the marriage of Mr. Prewitt to Miss Mattie B. Anderson, a daughter of Thomas C. and Sallie (Prew- itt) Anderson, the latter of whom was a daughter of Moss Prewitt, a pioneer of Boone county, Missouri. Mr. Anderson was born in Calla- way county, Missouri, and he and his wife became the parents of the following children,-Sarah E. married Dr. Woodson Moss and is now deceased; Emma P. died as Mrs. Charles Guilford, of Boston, Massa- chusetts; Maggie married Robert Prewitt and resides in Denver, Colo- rado; James Parker Anderson is a resident of Columbia, Missouri; Mattie B. is the wife of the subject of this sketch; and Walter M. main- tains his home in Boone county, Missouri. Mr. and Mrs. William C. Prewitt are the parents of four children, concerning whom the follow- ing brief data are here incorporated,-William Caswell (III), born August 24, 1886, is a partner in the Prewitt affairs at the old home ; Moss F., born October 16, 1888, married Miss Hazel Ayers McDonald and is associated with his brother and father in business; Robert Chandler, born April 18, 1891, is identified with business affairs at home; and Martha E., born December 13, 1900, resides at home. One grandchild, Moss F., Jr., perpetuates the name of Prewitt.
WILLIAM REUBEN MCDANNOLD was born in the Calumet district of Pike county, Missouri, in January, 1836, a few months after the family had been established in this state by Judge Newton McDannold, who located on Little Ramsey creek in October, 1835, but who removed to the well known McDannold homestead near Clarksville in the following year. He was a Kentuckian by birth, coming from the region about Mt. Sterling, where his birth occurred on December 20, 1807.
The father of Judge McDannold was Reuben McDannold, born Feb- ruary 14, 1768, who came to Missouri in 1835 as a member of the com- pany which Boone county, Kentucky, gave to Pike county that year. He died near Paynesville, Missouri, August 1, 1848. He married Phoebe Ellis, August 12, 1790, a member of a large family of children spe- cifically mentioned in the sketch of John Treadway, elsewhere in this work. She was born August 7, 1774, and died May 28, 1858. Reuben and Phoebe (Ellis) McDannold became the parents of the following children,-Susan, born July 23, 1791, married Lewis Ford and died near Wellsville, Missouri; William, born September 23, 1793, spent his active life in Pike county and died June 12, 1840; John E., born No- vember 7, 1795, died November 6, 1833; Marie, born March 30, 1898, married a Mr. Ford and in later life became the wife of Bolly Bain; she died July 20, 1844, in Pike county ; Thomas, born March 8, 1800, died September, 1855, leaving a family; Reuben, born February 20, 1802, died in August, 1826, unmarried; Agnes, born November 24, 1804, became the wife of James Jeans and passed away August 20, 1851; Phoebe, born September 3, 1805, married John Jewett and died on February 15, 1870; Newton, the father of the subject; Madison, born April 8, 1810, and died November 11th of the same year; Alexander, born October 10, 1811, spent his life in Pike county and died on April 21, 1877; Amanda, born February 10, 1814, died as the wife of Benjamin Jeans in August, 1856; Sarah, born March 23, 1816, married Washing- ton Treadway and died January 12, 1865; Nancy, born February 23, 1820, and died February 23, 1835.
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Judge McDannold first married Louisa Thomas Gaines, whose father came to Missouri from Kentucky. Mrs. McDannold was born October 15, 1811, and died June 22, 1847, having lived a consistent Christian life. They were married in 1831, and their issue were as follows: Lucy, who died in infancy; Sarah A. E., the widow of Joseph Nelson, of Canton, Missouri; William Reuben, the subject of this review ; Thomas J., born March 6, 1839, passed his life as a neighbor of his brother Will; he demonstrated a fine ability as a farmer and stockman, lived an exemplary Christian life; he married Susan J., a daughter of William Smith, and died on April 4, 1889, leaving a daughter, Alice, the wife of W. M. Walters, and a son, Herman G .; Phoebe J., born Feb- ruary 24, 1841, became Mrs. Reuben Anderson and died on November 14, 1872, leaving children; Celia M., born November 11, 1843, married James P. Knox and died May 7, 1898; Alexander L., born June 8, 1846, is a resident of Pittsfield, Illinois. In later years Judge McDannold married Mrs. Martha McCune, a daughter of John Edwards of a Vir- ginia family, and the widow of Joseph McCune. To this union were born Mary S., born April 1, 1849, who died September 3, 1887; Emma, born November 9, 1843, married John Givins and died January 9, 1911; Albert Hurley, born in March, 1857, is ex-treasurer of Pike county and a leading citizen of Louisiana, Missouri. Judge McDannold passed away May 17, 1881.
William Reuben McDannold attended the district schools in the farming community in which he was reared, and finished his schooling in the Paynesville school, where he was a pupil of Jeff Forgey and Mar- cellus Goren, two prominent instructors in the days before the war. He inherited his father's business acumen and he early entered upon a stock trading career, finding in that his rightful field of enterprise, and becoming a well known "drover" to the St. Louis market before the war. He continued in this for some time, being associated for a time with James Major, and the profits from this source went into real estate and such other investments as his judgment approved. He came to the old family homestead in 1887 from an adjoining farm, as it were, and his declining years are passing in the atmosphere still redolent of memories of his childhood environment.
Mr. McDannold has followed the family tradition in politics and has supported the Democratic party, but has never manifested any ambition for public office. He originated the movement to charter the Citizens' Bank of Clarksville, and is a director of that institution. He also aided in promoting the Farmers' Elevator Company, and his move- ments as a business man have been high above the mediocre, and on a plane where none but men of recognized ability are found. He is a member of the Ramsey Creek Baptist church since 1858.
Mr. McDannold was married on October 2, 1861, to Miss Frances Bibb, a daughter of Benjamin B. Bibb and Elizabeth (Mitchell) Bibb. Mrs. McDannold was born June 25, 1845, and passed away February 16, 1896. The children of their union are: Edgar, a farmer and grain man of Clarksville; Mrs. James C. Mackey, of this community; Mrs. R. N. Gilbert, of Hannibal, Missouri; Mrs. Irvin J. Mackey, of the Mackey Valley; Herbert Clay, a wholesale meat, real estate and loan dealer in Calgary, Canada, married to Miss Marie Solinger; William Roy, Jr., married Miss Edith Pryor, and is the active man of business at the family home.
THOMAS JEFFERSON ESTES is a successful and wealthy farmer in the valley of Calumet creek, and is a native son of Pike county. He was born near his present home within the precincts of Dover and Corinth
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April 16, 1850, and is a son of Abel Griffith Estes and a grandson of Robert M. Estes who came to Missouri from Bourbon county, Ken- tucky, about 1815, and established his home in Pike county. The spot of ground dedicated to a home by this pioneer settler is the farm now owned by B. F. Estes.
Few among the pioneers of Pike county there were who did not know Robert M. Estes. His immense size and weight made him a conspic- uous figure anywhere, being as heavy as three men of average size and weighing something like four hundred and sixty pounds. There was nothing especially striking about his citizenship or his business accomplishments that would bring him into the category of those who are much talked about, and he was not active in politics nor did he be- long to any church. His prejudices strongly favored the issues of Democracy and he seldom missed an opportunity to vote. He reached the age of three score and ten. He married Betsey Griffith and their children were Abel Griffith; Sallie, who married Axem Farmer and passed her life in Platte county, Missouri; Fielden, who amassed one of the largest fortunes ever accumulated in Pike county as a farmer, and who was a bachelor with certain eccentricities that marked him as one of the conspicuous characters of recent times; his death de- prived the courts of Pike county of much litigation, and its lawyers of much of their expectations in the fees; Barton, the fourth child, left a family when he died in Platte county, Missouri; Polly married Edward W. Elgin and died in Pike county; Hester became the wife of George Pitzer and spent her life in Pike county; Samuel reared a fam- ily here and Elizabeth married Benjamin D. Estes and remained in Pike county; George died in this county and Amilda passed away in this county as Mrs. William Brown.
Abel P. Estes was born in Bourbon county, Kentucky, in 1812 and began his life in Pike county in childhood. He became an extensive farmer and stockman and was one of the prominent men of his commu- nity in that respect. He was inclined to pose as an observer of public events rather than as a participator in them, and was a Democrat in his political faith. He died December 24, 1893. He married John Stad- ley's daughter,' Elizabeth, that family being of Virginia origin, and she died in 1865. They were the parents of Thomas Jefferson of this review ; Robert M., of Eolia, Missouri; Mary Alabama, the wife of James Lewis, of Sledd, Missouri; Ollie Virginia, who married John Wigginton and lives in Clarksville, Missouri; and Armilda, who mar- ried M. A. Wilcoxen of Clarksville.
The influence of the home farm was the most potent force in the life of Thomas Jefferson Estes until he reached his majority, previous to which he had acquired merely the elementary principles of an education. Coming to manhood he soon took up his residence in Lincoln county where he passed seven years in farming and then passed a like period in Barton county, Missouri, returning thence to his boyhood home and taking up the battle with agriculture for the remaining years of his active career. . As a mixed farmer Mr. Estes has demonstrated his aptness and his success in the achievement of results. His farm adja- cent to Corinth church along the Dover-Clarksville gravel road plainly indicates the substantial character of its owner in the improvements and general tone of its environment.
On May 27, 1875, Mr. Estes was married in Lincoln county to Miss Lee Thompson, a daughter of Jesse and Mahala (Gibson) Thompson, farmers from Kentucky. Of the children of the Thompson household but five of the ten grew to years of maturity, and only two of the num- ber now survive. Those to reach maturity were John Riley, James,
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Marion, Melzina, the wife of John D. Dameron, and Lee, the wife of Mr. Estes. She was born August 8, 1857, and is the mother of Ernest, who married Mary Pate and is engaged in farming in Pike county ; Will- iam, who is also engaged in farming, married Lucy Page and they have a little girl, Georganne; Tinie V., who married B. F. Wells, of the Clarksville community and has sons, Jefferson Berkley and John V .; Ovid and Armilda, the youngest of the family, still remain in the pa- rental home.
Mr. Estes is not a member of any church or fraternal society, and while a Democrat in his political affiliations, has never evinced any in- clination to activity in a political way, being well content to devote his full time and attention to the maintenance of his private interests, of which his farming activities are but a portion.
GEN. STERLING PRICE was born in Prince Edward county, Virginia, September 14, 1809, and died on the 29th of September, 1867, at his home in St. Louis, where he had located following the close of the Civil war. He was educated in his native state and at the age of nineteen was graduated from Hampden-Sidney College. In 1831 he moved with his family from Virginia into Chariton county, Missouri, and there, on the 14th day of May, 1833, he married Miss Martha Head of Howard county, and located at Keytesville. He was there variously engaged for years, for some time being identified with the hotel business, and later engaging in the mercantile and agricultural lines. His farm at Bowling Green prairie occupied his attention up to the time of the opening of the Civil war. His was a career of large public usefulness, and he served his state in many ways during his lifetime.
In 1836 General Price was elected to the state legislature, being re- elected in 1840, at which latter session he was elected speaker, and in 1842 was further honored in his re-election to both positions. In 1844 he was the representative of his section in the United States congress, and in all the years of his legislative labors he did good work for his district.
With the declaration of war with Mexico, General Price resigned his seat in congress to accept a commission from President Polk as colonel of the Second Regiment of Missouri Mounted Cavalry, which was mus- tered into service in August. 1846. He marched with his regiment to Santa Fe, where he took command of the territory of New Mexico, after the departure of General Kearney for California and Colonel Doniphan for Chihuahua. He suppressed the rebellion of the Indians and Mexi- cans in January, 1847, and with four hundred and eighty Missourians he won a most signal victory at the village of Canada, over two thousand . Mexicans under Generals Tofaya and Montoya being put to flight. On July 20, 1847. he was commissioned a brigadier-general for gallant and meritorious service and assigned to command in New Mexico, where he remained until after the treaty of Guadaloupe Hidalgo.
At the close of the Mexican war General Price returned to his farm in Bowling Green prairie. there devoting himself to farm life and the exemplification of that generous hospitality which was so characteristic a trait in the early pioneers of this county, who came from Virginia and Kentucky. He was held in high esteem by his neighbors, not only for his civic and military services, but they admired him for his rugged honesty and magnetic personality that caused all who knew him to honor and respect him.
In 1852 General Price was nominated by the Democratic party and elected governor of the state by a large majority, which high office he filled capably and most faithfully for four years. Finding that the
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salary attached to the governorship was inadequate to support that official as he should be, he urged the legislature to pass a law increasing the salary of the governor for the benefit of his successors. The legislature passed the law for the increase to begin at once, but the constitution of the state at that time forbade any state officer to accept an increase of salary, where the law was passed during his term of office. The succes- sors of General Price profited by the legislation that he recommended and had passed for their benefit while he served the people for four years at a great pecuniary loss. The members of the legislature in 1911, in recog- nition of that fact, passed a bill introduced by Hon. John D. Taylor, representative of Chariton county, appropriating $5,000 to be used to help erect a bronze statue to the memory of General Price, the same to be located in Keytesville, his old home.
Prior to the beginning of the Civil war, General Price was known as a strong Union man and was in favor of the preservation of the Union. He was elected a delegate to the convention called by the state legislature as a Union advocate, and he was later elected president of the convention that met at Jefferson City in the latter part of February, 1861, also pre- siding at the adjourned term that assembled in St. Louis on March 4, 1861, "to consider the relations of the state to the Government of the United States" and he did all in his power to prevent secession by his state and maintain its policy of neutrality. Together with General Harney, he entered into an agreement wherein each avowed it his purpose "to restore peace and good order in Missouri." To General Price was intrusted the duty of preserving order in the state and to see that Union men were not molested by those who differed with them in regard to secession, and General Harney agreed to make no military movements in the state that would create jealousies or excitement. Both of these men strove earnestly to carry out the compact entered into, but after the cap- ture of "Camp Jackson" by General Lyons and the wanton shooting down of twenty-eight citizens of St. Louis by his soldiers and when the interview at St. Louis, June 11, 1861, between General Sterling Price, Governor Jackson and Thomas L. Snead, who appeared for the state, and General Lyon, Francis P. Blair and Major Conant for the Federal gov- ernment, called for the purpose of "effecting a specific solution of the troubles of Missouri" ended so unfortunately when General Lyon in a very tragic manner denounced Governor Jackson and his allies, all hope of averting a conflict was ended. Governor Jackson at once issued a call for fifty thousand volunteers and tendered to General Price the command of the state guard with the rank of major-general, which he accepted, and he continued in command of the Missouri State Guard until the course of events made it necessary for him to finally join the Confederate army, when he and five thousand of his men joined the Confederacy in May, 1862, a little more than a month after the battle of Pea Ridge, Arkansas.
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