USA > Missouri > A history of northeast Missouri, Vol. 2 pt 2 > Part 43
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Church of the Disciples of Christ. The son is a Democrat and Chris- tian by inheritance and by choice, and zealous in political and religious faith and practice. He has never married.
"The Scrap Bag," a department of kindly humor and philosophy, which adorns the Mercury, is the work of his brain and heart, and is widely quoted. Mr. Bodine has written extensively for magazines and newspapers, has published two or three volumes, all too few in number, and too slender in size to satisfy the wants of his admirers. As a writer of charming English, as a conversationalist, as student of social reform and of history, as entertainer and as country newspaperman, "Tom" Bodine has no superior in Missouri journalism.
CHARLES L. STEWART. For a period of over forty years Mr. Stewart has been closely identified with those activities which constitute the business and civic life of a community and which in the aggregate have made Audrain one of the most progressive counties of Northeastern Mis- souri. Mr. Stewart may well be termed one of the builders of his present home town of Rush Hill, since he was there when it was nothing more than a country settlement and has lent his influence and energies to every subsequent phase of its improvement.
Charles L. Stewart came to Audrain county in 1870, from Indiana, his native state. He was born at Cambridge City in Wayne county, August 13, 1845, but was reared from the age of nine months, at which time his mother died, in Ohio county, Indiana, where he remained until he was sixteen years old. The war then came on and he was one of the boys who so largely composed the army of Union defenders. He enlisted in Company C of the Seventh Indiana Infantry, and going to Virginia served successively under Generals Shields, McDowell and Pope, June 9, 1862, at the battle of Port Republic, he was captured and for three months was confined in a southern prison at Lynchburg, and Belle Isle, Virginia. He was then paroled, and later joined Burnside's army and participated in the battles of Gettysburg, Chancellorsville, Cold Harbor, Spottsylvania and many minor engagements of the Army of the Potomac. Through it all he passed unwounded. On rejoining his command after his eapture he found his regiment with the second brigade of the first division of the first army corps. When Grant took the chief command in the spring of 1864 and reorganized the Army of the Potomac, the first corps was broken up, and the Seventh Indiana was placed in the fifth corps with the cele- brated Iron Brigade, composed wholly of western troops, from Wisconsin. Michigan and Indiana, and commanded by General Bragg of Wisconsin. In this command he remained until his term of service expired in Septem- ber, 1864. He was mustered out at Indianapolis after having given . three years and twenty days of his young life to the stern duties of fight- ing for the Union. He was still under twenty when he returned home a veteran.
After living at home in Ohio county for a year, he began trading along the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, going as far as New Orleans. This experience, says Mr. Stewart, was considered an essential part of a young man's training in those days. During the next three years he made up for the interruptions to his earlier schooling by attending normal schools in Jefferson county, Indiana, and at Lebanon, Ohio. In 1870 he came to Missouri, spending the first year in Callaway county, and in 1871 took charge of a school south of Farber in Audrain county, where he remained four years. The next two years were spent in teaching in Audrain and Montgomery counties, and then for six years he taught a school near the present site of Rush Hill.
When Mr. Stewart took up his permanent abode at Rush Hill in
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1884, the town was composed of only several houses. He had been com- missioned a notary in 1878 and also began writing insurance the same year, having an office open on Saturdays and during the school vacations. By 1884 his business had increased to such an extent that he gave up educational work, and has been a resident and business man of Rush Hill ever since. He has done a considerable business in real estate, though somewhat incidentally to his other work, and has bought on his own account various farms and at the present time owns more than three hun- dred acres, which he rents, and also some town property. At one time he had charge of three thousand acres in this vicinity for non-resident owners. In 1905 Mr. Stewart was one of the active organizers of the Bank of Rush Hill, being one of the first board of directors, and is now president of this solid institution.
Mr. Stewart was married in Audrain county, October 2, 1878, to Miss Emma V. Lofton. She died after a little more than one year of wedded companionship, on December 19, 1879. On October 18, 1898, Mr. Stewart married Mrs. Roberta Hale Greer, of Callaway county. They are the parents of one daughter, Mary Stewart, born August 13, 1899, and Mrs. Stewart has one daughter by her former marriage, Beulah Greer, who was born January 13, 1894. Politically Mr. Stewart is an independent Democrat. He became a charter member of the Odd Fellows Lodge No. 359 organized at Wellsville, Missouri, in 1876, and in 1882 joined Hebron Lodge No. 354, A. F. & A. M. Mexico, Missouri, and is also a member of the Royal Arch chapter in the same city. He is an elder and a trustee of the Rush Hill Christian church ; also clerk and treasurer of the Rush Hill school board for seven years last past.
THOMAS FELIX SUTTON. As a farmer and stock raiser Mr. Sutton is one of the most prominent in Boone county, and is a successful repre- sentative of a family which has been identified with similar interests in this county for a period of eighty years. In the fine country southwest of Columbia the Suttons from the time of pioneer conditions have been noted as skilful managers of the resources of the soil, and have main- tained high standards in the local society and citizenship.
The grandparents, William and Nancy (Elgin) Sutton, were from Kentucky, and settled in Boone county about 1832 or '33. William Sut- ton was a man of much enterprise, and his mill on a little creek about seven miles southwest of Columbia was a valuable asset to the settlers in that vicinity. He was owner of the fine estate. which he afterwards sold to the Zerings, and which is now the property of Helmerdash. In his farming operations he employed a number of slaves, but. had sold them all before the war came on.
William Thomas Sutton, son of William and Nancy, was born in Bourbon county, Kentucky, in 1824, and was nine years old when he came to Boone county. His death occurred in 1877. He was a slave owner before the war, and was a Democrat in politics. He was one of the large stock raisers of his time. and he farmed about three hundred and twenty acres. His homestead, four and a half miles southwest of Columbia, is now the home and under the management of his daughter, Miss Virginia Lee Sutton. William T. Sutton was an active member of the Baptist church. He was twice married. His first wife, whose maiden name was Mary Pettus, a daughter of Stephen D. Pettus, had three children, namely : George, Nancy Burrilla and Mary Matilda. His sec- ond wife, who is still living on the old homestead, was Cornelia A. Hickam. She was born in 1836, a daughter of Ezekiel and Nancy (Simms) Hickam. Her three children are William Curtis, Thomas Felix and Virginia Lec.
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Thomas Felix Sutton was born on the old homestead, May 17, 1868, and has been engaged in farming and trading ever since he left school. His present home place, which he has occupied since September 5, 1901, was formerly the P. J. Berry farm, located three miles from Columbia on the Providence road, and consisting of two hundred acres. In his other farming and stock raising he is in partnership with S. Jack Con- ley, and together they own and operate twelve hundred acres of land in Missouri river bottom. Good management and industry has placed him in the front rank of Boone county agriculturists. In politics he follows the fortunes of the Democratic party, and his religious faith is the Baptist. .
Mr. Sutton in 1896 married Miss Pearl B. Sturgeon, who was born July 29, 1878, a daughter of Edward and Elizabeth (Henry) Sturgeon. The three children that have come into their home are named William Parker, Evelyn Elizabeth and Edward Thomas, the latter being twins.
CAPT. ALEXANDER DENNY was born in Prairie township, Howard county, Missouri, on the 17th day of June, 1826, and died on the 20th day of May, 1912, aged eighty-six years. He lived a long and useful life in his community as a citizen of exceptional merit, and he gave valiant service to his country in the two wars in which the nation was involved during the years of his activity. He was a good citizen, a valiant soldier and a faithful friend, and his memory will long be cherished in the community where he was so well known and appreciated.
Alexander Denny, Sr., was the son of James and Elizabeth (Best) Denny, pioneers of Garrard and Madison counties, in Kentucky, who came from there in 1818 and settled in Howard county, Missouri, then called the "Boonslick country." James Denny, a soldier of the War of 1812, was the father of a goodly family of twelve children, all of whom are now deceased, with the exception of John A. Denny, Sr., of Howard county. Born and reared on a farm, Captain Alexander Denny spent most of his life in farming and stock raising, but he was at one time a school teacher, has been prominently identified with the mer- chandising business and during the last twenty years of his life was president of the Bank of Marshall, at Marshall, Missouri. He was a successful man, and in every undertaking in life he demonstrated the possession of those qualities that make for prosperity and success in the best acceptance of the term.
When he was twenty years old, being naturally of a spirited and enterprising disposition, Captain Denny became a soldier in the Mexican war, enlisting under Col. Alexander W. Doniphan, and fighting through the enemy's country. He served until he was discharged at New Orleans in 1847. He was one of the last survivors of that wonderful expedition. After his discharge he returned to Howard county and taught school for three years, and at the time of the gold excitement in California he was one of those to endure the hardship of a trip across the plains and over the mountains remaining in California until 1856. He spent most of the time in digging for gold and in teaming over the mountains, his success in gold mining being of an indifferent order. He returned home by way of Panama and New Orleans and began farming in Randolph county, also conducting a general store in Roanoke. Captain Denny afterwards became a private in the Missouri troops and went to the Kan- sas war, under Capt. Richard Robinson, taking part in the famous battle of Osswatamie. During the Civil war he espoused the cause of the Union, organized Company F of the Forty-sixth Regiment of Mis- souri Enrolled Militia, and was elected captain, serving until the close of the war.
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Captain Denny was married on the 22nd of January, 1857, to Miss Mary A. Snoddy, also of Howard county. She still survives him, and to the loyalty and influence of this noble woman much of the success of her distinguished husband has been due. Nine children were born to them, all of whom are now living with the exception of George C. Denny, who died young. The others are : Joseph S. Denny, formerly of Kansas City, but now of Muskogee, Oklahoma; James M. Denny, Jr., of Marshall, now Missouri state bank examiner; D. Boone Denny, a farmer and merchant of Howard county; Elizabeth, who married George H. Alt- house, a banker of Marshall; Foster, who married A. J. Estes, a well known farmer and stockman of Boone county ; Kate, the wife of Joseph T. Payne, a civil engineer of Muskogee; Zannie, who married A. W. Pitts, a farmer of Randolph county ; and Ulie, the wife of N. T. Gentry, of Columbia, formerly assistant attorney general of the state. At the time of his death, Captain Denny was the grandfather of nineteen chil- dren and the greatgrandfather of two, all interesting and promising young people.
Captain Denny and his wife were active members of the Cumber- land Presbyterian church since 1863, and for forty years the Captain was an elder in the church, and superintendent of the Roanoke Sunday- school for thirteen years. When a portion of the Cumberland church united with the Presbyterian, Captain Denny followed that part, and was an officer in that church and clerk of the session. In religion, as well as in other things, he was a man of strong convictions, but broad in his views, and courteous and charitable toward those who differed with him.
Captain Denny was twice nominated by the Republican party for state senator, and once nominated for the office of presiding judge of the Howard county court. He was a progressive man, and believed in bet- tering the conditions of the boys and girls of today. Never having had the benefits of a higher education, he made it his life's work to give his children excellent educationis, and his neighbors' children as well. He was president of the Roanoke school board, and much credit is due him for the fine school and good buildings now enjoyed by the people of the town. He was president of the Roanoke Cemetery Association, and did much toward improving and beautifying its grounds. He was a successful farmer, merchant and banker, but it may well be said of him that the greatest success of his eighty-six years of life was the high character and reputation he possessed, and the splendid example he set for others. He was exemplary in his habits, a good counsellor, lib- eral and kind toward all, and ever ready to give a friend or relative the benefit of his valuable advice and experience.
In 1879 Captain Denny purchased the William Hall farm in Howard county, one-fourth of a mile south of Roanoke, and there he lived until death claimed him. It was at this home that he and Mrs. Denny dis- pensed that old time hospitality for which they were famed, on so many occasions and to so many people.
JUDGE NICHOLAS DAMERON THURMOND. The roster of distinguished members of the bench and bar in northeastern Missouri contains many eminent names, but probably none have reached higher distinction than Judge Nicholas Dameron Thurmond, of Fulton, where he has lived during his legal career exceptional for its connection with the general history of this part of the state. Soldier, legist, legislator and jurist, he has at all times maintained a position in the foremost ranks of his com- munity's most prominent citizens, and he stands without a peer in the general confidence and esteem of the public at large. Judge Thurmond
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was born October 30, 1843, near Prairieville (now Eolia), Pike county, Missouri, and is a son of Philip and Elizabeth (Dameron) Thurmond.
History states that Benjamin Thurmond settled on a certain creek in the vicinity of Albemarle county, Virginia, in 1790, and it is prob- able that his son, also named Benjamin, was the father of Philip Thur- mond. Philip was born September 29, 1801, in Albemarle county, and came to Pike county, Missouri, in 1831, residing in that county until 1857, when he removed to Callaway county, settling on a farm one-half mile north of Concord. There he remained until a few years prior to his death, which occurred in Mexico, Audrain county, September 9, 1888. He was active in the work of the Missionary Baptist church, be- ing a member of the old Ramsey Creek church in Pike county, the Grand Prairie church in Callaway county at Auxvasse, and was an ardent Democrat in his political views. He operated a large tract of land, about 500 acres, and owned on an average of twenty-five slaves. On No- vember 9, 1826, he was married to Elizabeth Dameron, who was born in April, 1811, in Nelson county, Virginia, and she died March 4, 1875. They had a family of twelve children. The two eldest sons, Hiram and James Pinckney, went to California in 1850, and there the first-named died, while James P. returned to Pike county, and subsequently removed to Callaway county, being engaged in merchandising and farming at Concord. In 1880 he removed to near Pueblo, Colorado, where until his retirement he was engaged in ranching, and he is now eighty-two or eighty-three years of age. William Thurmond, the next son, went to Pike's Peak with his brother Ulysses ("Dick"), and Oscar, the latter two of whom, however, returned to Missouri in the fall of 1859. Oscar was married in Callaway county to Melvina Weems and went to Lin- coln county, but in 1863 located near Concord, where he died the fol- lowing year, leaving one daughter and a widow. William remained in the vicinity of Pike's Peak until 1865, and at that time sold his min- ing interests and located in Kansas City, Missouri, there residing until 1876, when he went back to Colorado in an effort to recuperate his fallen fortunes. His death occurred at San Diego. In recent years he was the patentee of an ore concentrator, which would have made him enormously wealthy had it been a success, and on this he spent thousands of dollars. Ulysses ("Dick") Thurmond served in a Colorado regiment during the Civil war, and during Price's raid, in 1864, near Fort Scott, in a battle with Gen. Blunt, he was a member of the Union forces, while his brother, Judge Thurmond, fought in the Confederate ranks, al- though this fact was not discovered until 1866, when he returned to Missouri. He was engaged in lead mining at Galena, Kansas, until his health broke, and his death occurred in 1888, at Canyon City, Colorado. Martin Jane Thurmond married Thomas Jameson and removed to near Clinton, Henry county, Missouri, but later returned to Callaway county, and during the war again went to Clinton. Finally they went to Clarksville, Pike county, where Mr. Jameson was engaged in tobacco shipping, and there her death occurred in 1875. Susanna Thurmond married Dr. John Scott, of Paynesville, Pike county, who later removed to Millersburg, Callaway county, and since her husband's death, in 1860, she has resided most of the time with her father. Lucy M. Thur- mond married Robert S. Shields, a Concord merchant, who soon re- moved to a farm near that point. In 1869-70 he served as sheriff of the county, in 1875 was treasurer of State Hospital No. 1, at Fulton. He died at St. Louis, and his widow now makes her home at Mexico, Missouri. Mary Thurmond married Dr. W. W. Macfarlane, brother of Judge G. B. Macfarlane of Mexico. Dr. Macfarlane was assistant physi- cian in the State Hospital for some years and was later superintendent
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of an asylum for the insane in California. Mrs. Macfarlane died at Mex- ico, Missouri, February 18, 1884, following which her sister, Nannie, the youngest of the family, who had never married, accompanied Dr. Macfarlane to California to care for his children, and died in that state, in August, 1890, after an operation.
Nicholas Dameron Thurmond received his education in public and private schools of Pike county, and in 1862 became a student in West- minster College, Fulton, later being a student in Centre College, Dan- ville, Kentucky, where he finished his junior year in 1864. In July, 1862, he joined the command of Col. Joe Porter as he went through Callaway county recruiting troops and participated in that officer's raid through Northeast Missouri. At Newark seventy-five Federal sol- diers were captured, and following this came the battle of Kirksville. A few days later Mr. Thurmond returned home when the command was disbanded, and in September entered Westminster to prevent being captured by the Union troops. In October of that year he received word that Porter intended to cross the Missouri river at Portland, but did not have time to join the command, and accordingly went to Ken- tucky to join Morgan, who was expected to raid through that state. Later he returned to Callaway county, and in the fall of 1864 enlisted with and was orderly sergeant of a company under Captain Day, and with Colonel Perkins' regiment crossed the river at Rocheport a few days after the massacre at Centralia by Bill Anderson. A connection was made with General Price near Booneville, and with him the company fought in his subsequent battles, including that of the 25th of October, in which Mr. Thurmond fought against his brother, and where Gen. Cabell Mar- maduke and other Confederate officers and men were captured.
During that same afternoon a second battle was fought, and while on retreat, engaged in protecting train, Mr. Thurmond received a bullet wound in his right foot while making a charge with cavalry, in which he narrowly escaped capture. At Cane Hill, Arkansas, his captain sent him to a farmhouse to receive attention for his wounds, four companions being with him. Shortly thereafter Price's army moved south through Indian territory. The Federal troops came between them and Price, and in order to escape Mr. Thurmond and his comrades were forced to ride south through Arkansas. His companions finally advised him to go to a Federal post, some twenty miles distant, and surrender, and after traveling over the mountains on a byway through the woods, he got within four miles of the post, when his woman guide took him to . the house of a Confederate soldier who was preparing to go south. They waited in a cave until a force of some eighteen or twenty had gathered, and this little party worked its way along over the mountains in western Arkansas, managinng to reach a point within twenty or thirty miles of the Red river. There Mr. Thurmond remained with a Presbyterian preacher, Byington, a missionary to the Choctaws, until he was able to resume traveling and one week later was taken in a wagon to the home of another Indian missionary, Copeland, at Wheelock in the Choctaw Nation. There he taught a school of Indians, half-breeds and whites, and on completing his term received $1,000 in Confederate money, then worth about five cents on the dollar. In April, 1865, his wounded foot was sufficiently healed to enable him to rejoin the army, and he went to Paris, Texas, where he heard of a Colonel Vaughn, an old neighbor in Pike county, of whose children he had been a schoolmate, with whom he remained a few days, when he joined General Shelby, with whom he re- mained until the latter started for Mexico, and Mr. Thurmond then surrendered with Capt. Dan McIntire, at Shreveport, Louisiana.
On completing his military career, Mr. Thurmond returned home Vol. III-19
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and took charge of a private school at Concord, which his father-in- law, Rev. W. W. Robertson, had started in 1860, this being known as Concord Academy. On December 13, 1865, he was married to Sally Robertson, daughter of Dr. W. W. Robertson and a teacher with her father and with Mr. Thurmond both before and after marriage. In 1866 he taught in the academic department of Westminster College, from which he received the degree of A. B. in 1867. During the latter part of 1866, he went to Paynesville, and in company with T. J. Forgey, built the Forgey Seminary, which was opened in 1867, where he taught for four years, this being a preparatory school which also had academic courses. He also taught the public school in connection with Forgey Seminary. In 1871 Mr. Thurmond returned to Fulton and opened a private school, which he continued to conduct until June, 1872, at which time he started the study of law. In 1873 and 1874 he operated his father's farm and taught school at Concord, and in February, 1875, was elected principal of the English school of Westminster College.
Judge Thurmond was admitted to the bar in 1876, and was engaged in active practice ever since except while on the bench.
In 1880 he was elected presidential elector, voting for Hancock, and in 1884 he was sent to the state legislature, being defeated for re-elec- tion in 1886, but re-elected in 1888. Mr. Thurmond's work as a member of that body stamped him as one of the ablest legislators of his day, his work in connection with the drafting and passing of the laws reg- ulating the hospitals for insane, school for deaf and dumb, institutions for the blind and reform institutions, bringing universal attention and widespread approbation. During his incumbency the asylum hospital at Nevada was established, in 1885, on a full section of land. From 1891 to 1895 Mr. Thurmond was prosecuting attorney, and in 1896, having always been a strong friend of Cleveland, he took sides with the sound money party with Palmer and Buckner as leaders, and was delegate to the state convention. 'He was nominated as candidate for attorney general of Missouri and made a canvas through the state. He has since voted the Republican ticket, but exercises his prerogative of voting in- dependently. In 1909 the legislature divided the ninth judicial district of Callaway, Boone, Howard and Randolph counties into two districts, the new thirty-fourth being composed of Callaway and Boone counties, and the governor was given the power to appoint a judge to serve until the elections of 1910. Judge Thurmond was chosen for this honor in April, 1909, and served with distinguished ability until January 1, 1911, when he was succeeded by D. H. Harris, the district giving the Democratic party a majority of 5,000 votes, which was too great a handicap for a Republican candidate to overcome. He was also a can- didate at one time for supreme court justice, but was not nominated. An active and influential politician, he has stumped the state on sev- eral occasions, and is known as a strong and convincing speaker. He has been an active member of the Presbyterian church since Febuary, 1863, and has been nearly continuously engaged as superintendent or teacher in the Sunday-school.
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