A history of northeast Missouri, Vol. 2 pt 2, Part 66

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 66

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. Wilcoxson's father had two brothers,-Jefferson and Jackson, who in the days of the gold excitement in 1849, crossed the plains to California, where they engaged in stock raising, mining and real estate. They became wealthy, leaving large properties, and as both of them were bachelors, their nephew, George H. Wilcoxson, has spent several years in California acting as administrator under the terms of the will of one of his uncles. Mr. Wilcoxson's homestead of 740 acres is a beau- tiful piece of farm land, and its improvements are exceptional, even in this county. His location is four miles southwest of Fayette, and the place shows the care of a good business man and farmer, and though now seventy-seven years of age he still retains the active management

1727

HISTORY OF NORTHEAST MISSOURI

of his affairs and is a man of great vigor and a personality which is highly esteemed throughout this county.

· JUDGE HAMP. B. WATTS. Although now living somewhat retired from active life and from the turmoil of politics, owing to advancing years and as a result of a serious accident sustained by him a short period ago, the Hon. Hamp. B. Watts, of Fayette, Missouri, is still a dominant figure in the affairs of Howard county, and his business suc- cess and the signal services rendered by him to his community will keep his memory green long after that of many an active citizen of today has faded. An agriculturist and stock-breeder by training and inclina- tion, he reached a foremost position in those vocations, and when called upon by his fellow citizens to serve in positions of public trust and responsibility displayed such talent that he rose to high honors and won the confidence of the community that will be his as long as life lasts. Judge Watts was born in the old brick residence built by his grandfather, at the time the finest home in Fayette, Howard county,. Missouri, January 14, 1848, a son of Benjamin and Evelyn (Boone) Watts.

Benjamin Watts was born in 1800, in Clark county, Kentucky, and in 1821 rode on horseback to Missouri with his first wife, who died a few years later. Subsequently he was married to Evelyn Boone, daugh- ter of H. L. Boone, who was a nephew of the famous Daniel Boone, and a member of a noted Missouri pioneer family. Benjamin Watts was engaged in farming in Howard county thirty-four years, and accumu- lated a handsome fortune. He met an accidental death, being killed by an elk at Deer Park, September 14, 1856. A man of fine physique, weighing in the neighborhood of 230 pounds, he was a familiar figure in his community, and had the entire respect and esteem of his fellow- townsmen. He and his wife, who passed away at the age of fifty-two years, had the following children: Mrs. B. T. Gannett; Mrs. C. B. Smith, Howard county, Missouri; Mrs. L. Scott, deceased ; Mrs. Rowena Woods, a widow of Fayette, Missouri; and Hamp. B. The mother was a member of the Christian church, and the children were all reared in that faith.

After attending the public schools of his native locality Hamp. B. Watts became a student in Central College, and not long thereafter he joined Bill Anderson's guerrillas and later enlisted in the Confederate army under Gen. Joe Shelby, under whom he participated in several engagements. For three years after the close of hostilities, he remained in Bonham, Texas, but in 1868 returned to Fayette, Missouri, where he was married to Mary Morton. She was born in Clark county, Ken- tucky, daughter of the Rev. John Morton, a pioneer preacher of the Christian church, who labored long and faithfully in the service of his Master. She received a good education at Harrodsburg, and was carefully reared, being fitted for whatever position in life she might be called upon to fill. The year following his marriage, Mr. Watts began to farm near the town of Fayette, on Walnut Hill Farm, giving the greater part of his attention to the raising of stock. It was largely through his efforts and those of men of his stamp, that the state became noted for its Hereford cattle, of which he made a specialty, shipping great numbers to Kansas City and the west. He improved his property in many ways, erecting a handsome rural resudence, large barns for the shelter of his stock and the storing of his grain, and suitable out- buildings, while his pastures and meadow lands were the pride of this part of the county.

Mr. Watts was before the public for many years as an able business

1728

HISTORY OF NORTHEAST MISSOURI

citizen, but won higher honors in political life. Although he never sought public office, nor asked a man for his vote, his abilities were recognized by his fellow townsmen, and he served as county assessor four years, clerk of the circuit court for eight years and presiding judge of the county court seven years, in all of these offices distinguish- ing himself by his conscientious and faithful discharge of his duties. Howard county has known no more popular official nor one who has been held in greater respect. For years, Judge Watts had been an enthusiastic hunter, and seldom failed to return from a trip without a valued trophy of the chase. Several years ago, however, while on a hunting expedition, he was accidentally shot by a friend, and while it did not injure him fatally, his wound has been such as to incapacitate him and to make him a partial invalid. The pain of his injury is no less aggravating to a man of the Judge's active nature than the inac- tivity which it causes, but he is of an optimistic nature, and neither his suffering or his confinement has caused him to utter complaint, his .numerous friends always finding him patient and cheerful. He is con- tent in the knowledge that he has had a happy and useful life, and that he has been able in some degree to help his fellow men and to advance the interests of his native state.

Six children have been born to Judge and Mrs. Watts, namely : Carrie; Low; Evelyn; William, on the old home farm, who has one son, born October 9, 1912; H. Walton, who lives in Jefferson city; and Ben- jamin, living with his father.

JOHN ROBINSON. England has given to the world its greatest colon- izers, and wherever an Englishman is found it is reasonably sure to suppose that the community has been bettered by his efforts. In this connection it is not inappropriate to briefly sketch the career of the late John Robinson, of Moberly, Missouri, who earned wide-spread popularity and held to the day of his death the full confidence of his community. Mr. Robinson had all the essentials of a successful man of business, and for thirty-two years was identified with the industrial life of Moberly. He was born in Manchester, England, April 29, 1844, and resided in his native land until he was thirty-one years of age, at that time deciding to seek his fortune in America. He had received a good common school education in his native land, and there also learned the trade of machinist. On first emigrating to the United States he located in Pennsylvania, but after spending two years there, in 1877 came to Moberly, Missouri, in which city he continued to reside up to the time of his death, in March, 1909.

Prior to coming to America, Mr. Robinson was united in marriage with Miss Matilda Whitaker, also a native of England, and they became the parents of thirteen children, of whom ten are still living, as follows: William E., who resides in Dallas, Texas; John H., also a resident of the Lone Star State; David, who makes his home in Little Rock, Arkan- sas; Mary E., the wife of J. M. Fife, of Iola, Kansas; Matilda, who married Bert Fleming, and resides in Randolph county, Missouri ; Rose A., the wife of James Hedges, also living in Randolph county; Minnie, the wife of Russell Burton, of this county; Ralph L., a resident of Texas; Laura G., who lives at home and is bookkeeper in the Mechanics Bank of Moberly; and Gertrude H., the wife of R. S. Somerville, also a resident of Moberly. The family is connected with the Presbyterian church, and its members are well known in church and social circles.

GEORGE C. CRIGLER. Throughout Northeastern Missouri few citi- zens are more widely known than Colonel Crigler, as he is familiarly

1729

HISTORY OF NORTHEAST MISSOURI

designated. Of commanding presence, genial and whole-souled, he has won friends in all classes, and has gained wide repute as an auctioneer, in which connection his services have been much in demand throughout a wide section of country. He has followed the vocation of public auctioneer for fully thirty years, and he also served two consecutive terms as sheriff of Howard county. His record in this office stands second to no other in the history of the county, and his administration was characterized by utmost fidelity and courage, with the result that his name became one to be feared by malefactors within his jurisdiction. His very nature makes him essentially compassionate and kindly, but as sheriff he gave heed to the demands of justice and permitted no danger or menace to interfere with his discharge of duty. He is one of the broad-minded and progressive citizens of this section of the state, and his high standing as a man firmly entrenched in popular confidence and esteem renders most consonant his recognition in this publication.

Col. George C. Crigler, who maintains his home in Fayette, the' judicial center of Howard county, has been a resident of this county from his boyhood days, and in his case there can be no application of the aphorism that "a prophet is not without honor save in his own country." He was born in Madison county, Kentucky, on the 13th of April, 1847, and is a son of John Crigler, a representative of an old and honored family of the Bluegrass State. The lineage of the Crigler family is traced back to stanch German origin on one side and to the Ferris family of Irish stock. Colonel Crigler was about seven years of age at the time of the family removal from Kentucky to Howard county, Missouri, in 1854, and his father became a prosperous farmer and stockgrower in Chariton township, where he continued to reside until his death, at the age of sixty-seven years, his loved and devoted wife having been summoned to eternal rest at the age of fifty- four years. Both were devout members of the Christian church, in which he served many years as elder, and both were held in unqualified . esteem by all who knew them, the political adherency of the father having been given to the Democratic party, of whose principles and policies he was a stanch and effective exponent. Of the surviving children the subject of this review is the eldest; Alice is the wife of Milton Hackley and they reside in Mexico, Missouri; Joseph W. and William are both prosperous agriculturists and stock-growers of How- ard county.

Colonel Crigler was reared under the sturdy discipline of the home farm, and this training admirably developed his splendid physical powers, the while he was not denied the advantages of the common schools of the locality and period. He continued to be actively identi- fied with agricultural pursuits until his marriage and finally turned this attention to the vocation of auctioneer, in which he has held dis- tinctive procedence for more than a quarter of a century. He is a man of fine physique, six feet in height and weighing 230 pounds. His powerful bass voice, of excellent timbre, can be heard for half a mile, and it may readily be understood that he is an impressive figure when he appears as auctioneer. He is known as one of the best judges of live-stock and farm implements and machinery in this section of the state, and fairness and serupulous honesty have marked his course in all the relations of life, so that he well merits the confidence reposed in him by all who know him and have appreciation of his sterling char. acter. His services as an auctioneer are in requisition in all parts of central and Northeastern Missouri, and few men in this part of the

1730

HISTORY OF NORTHEAST MISSOURI

state have a wider circle of stanch and loyal friends than this jovial and big-hearted citizen of Howard county.

In politics Colonel Crigler accords a stanch allegiance to the Demo- cratic party and he has been an active worker in its local camp. In 1892 he was elected sheriff of Howard county, and his able and fearless administration gained to him the unqualified approval of all classes of citizens save those who saw fit to infringe the dictates of law and order. The best voucher for the acceptability of his regime in the shrievalty was that given in his reelection in 1894, by a gratifying majority, and he thus served as sheriff for four consecutive years. He was then elected collector for four years.

At the age of twenty years Colonel Crigler was united in marriage to Miss Sarah T. Cropp, who was born near Glasgow, Missouri, and who proved a devoted wife and mother. She was summoned to eternal rest on the 15th of March, 1892, secure in the affectionate regard of all who had come within the compass of her gentle influence, and her husband has remained true to her memory, as he has not contracted a second marriage. Mrs. Crigler was survived by five children,- Rilla, Roy, Willie, Willard, Richard, and Joe. Cooper Colvin, Rilla's hus- band, is a resident of Howard county, where he is engaged in farming; Roy is a successful farmer in Howard county; Willie is engaged in St. Louis, this state; Willard T. resides in Fayette and is carrier on a rural mail route; and Joseph W. is engaged in business in the city of St. Louis. Mrs. Crigler was a devoted member of the Christian church and her life was marked by kindly words and kindly deeds. She was forty-two years of age at the time of her death.

JESSE B. JONES is a farmer, lawyer and real estate dealer, in all of which lines of endeavor he has won generous success and prosperity. He is a representative of a pioneer Missouri family, and was born in St. Louis county on June 11, 1856, the son of William Jones, who passed his life as a farmer and trader in Walton Valley. That worthy citizen was born in Clinton county, Ohio, in 1822, and came to Mis- souri in 1844, the year which stands forth in the minds of Missouri pioneers as the one in which the first great Mississippi flood took place. He was followed to this state by his brother, Charles, and both reared families in the historic valley of Walton.

William Jones was a successful farmer and stockman. When he came to St. Louis at first it had hardly assumed the proportions of a city, but gave promise of a splendid future. He married the daughter of a pioneer after whom the valley was named,-Miss Mary Walton, whose father came out of the state of Georgia and reached the unsettled and unclaimed valley of St. Louis county, to which priority of settle- ment eventually gave his name, and henceforth it was known as the valley of Walton. Mr. Walton was born in Georgia in the closing days of the eighteenth century and he was a grandson of George Walton, one of the makers and signers of the Declaration of Independence. Mary Walton was first married to a Mr. Bailey, by whom she became the mother of Dr. S. M. Bailey, of Elsberry, Missouri; James H. of the same place and John C., all soldiers of the Confederacy under Price and Shelby. As a result of her union with William Jones, she became the mother of William F., who died in Kansas City, Kansas, in 1911, leaving a family of three sons: Elizabeth married Clede Baird of Louisiana, Missouri; Julia passed away unmarried ; and Jesse Barney, of this review. Mrs. Jones died in 1882, and her husband followed her ten years later.

Jesse B. Jones was reared on the farm in Walton valley. He

1731

HISTORY OF NORTHEAST MISSOURI

attended the Benton street school in St. Louis and the law department of Washington University on Seventeenth street. In 1874 the family moved to Lincoln county and lived near Troy for two years, then removing to Frankford, which was their subsequent home. Jesse B. completed his preparation for the law in Pike county and was admitted to the bar in Bowling Green before Judge Hughes in 1891. He opened his office in Frankford and formed a partnership with Jefferson D. Hostetterson soon afterward. During several years of his association as a member of this law firm, Mr. Jones was one of the legal repre- sentatives of the St. Louis and Hannibal Railroad Company. The activity and prominence of this firm before the courts of this and adjoining counties has been of a strenuous nature, and its record a clean, effective and capable one. Among their noted cases was the one to set aside the will of John Kurz, in which they represented the plain- tiff. They won the suit in the circuit court and the estate of some forty thousand dollars was distributed in accordance with their judg- ment. The firm was associated with Norton and Avery, of Troy, in a personal injury case of Woos vs. the Wabash Railroad Company, wherein they won a verdict for $15,000. Mr. Jones was associated with Elliott Major in the personal injury case of Richardson vs. the Short Line Railroad Company for $5,000 for personal injury, securing a judgment, and in the case of Huckstep against the same company a judgment for $3,000 for personal injury was obtained.

In his public life in the field of politics Mr. Jones began convention work as early as 1876. There has scarce been a convention of the Democratic party in a third of a century which he has not attended, and his activity in behalf of his fellow citizen, Champ Clark of national fame, in all his campaigns for congressional honors and for the nomina- tion for the presidency, is well known. He was one of the delegates to the Joplin convention, which started the speaker upon his popular journey toward the nomination, and joined hands with others in the furnishing of sinews of organization and field work toward a successful termination of the campaign. He was a spectator in the St. Louis convention which nominated William McKinley for president and wit- nessed the action of the national Democratic convention there when Mr. Parker was named as standard bearer.

Mr. Jones has been interested in agriculture as a farmer about Frankford for more than a quarter of a century. He owns a large acreage of farm land and has other property interests of considerable magnitude, indicating in some measure the substantial results of his life endeavors. He is a stockholder of the Frankford Exchange Bank and has been city attorney for twenty years. His is one of the fine homes of Frankford, built and improved under his own direction. He and his wife are members of the Christian church.

On December 22, 1878, Mr. Jones was married at Frankford to Miss Fannie E. Mefford, a daughter of Gabriel P. and Nancy (Fisher) Mefford, both from pioneer Kentucky families of Pike county. Mrs. Jones is a granddaughter of Caleb Jarvis Davis Mefford, who came to Missouri from Bourbon county, Kentucky, in 1829, and of Mary Hulett Pritchett, a daughter of Gabriel Pritchett, founder of that famous Pike county family. Caleb J. D. Mefford's father was a German and married one Miss Tevis, and both passed away in Kentucky. Several of their children passed their lives in Kentucky, but those who became Missouri citizens were Betsey, who lived at Palmyra and died as Mrs. Ellis Scofield; Andrew; Nathan and one other who lived round about Frankford and Caleb J. D. was the youngest child. Mr. and Mrs. Jones have no issue.

1732

HISTORY OF NORTHEAST MISSOURI

JOHN C. GILLAM is a well known contractor and builder of Center, Missouri, and is a native son of Ralls county, born there on the 9th of September, 1868. He was reared a farmer's son, and in addition to his country school training, was a graduate of the Gem City Busi- ness College. His father, John Gillam, passed much of his early life as a carpenter and a builder, and thus it is not unusual or surprising that the son should himself drop into the same trade. He learned the carpenter trade and followed it as a journeyman workman for a mat- ter of four years, then became a contractor in about 1897, since when he has grown more extensively into the business with the passing years. He has done much of the foremost work in his line in and about Center, the Elzea-Hulse building and the People's Bank building being con- tracts which he handled. He has also done a considerable building in Vandalia, and his execution of his every contract has given added endorsement to his mechanical and business ability. In addition to his contracting business Mr. Gillam has been identified to some degree with the lumber business in Center for the past ten years, and is now interested in the Gillam-Smith Lumber and Mercantile Company as a partner.

Mr. Gillam is the son of John Gillam, a farmer of Dry Fork, who was born in Pennsylvania, on the 24th of June, 1834. He was a son of David Gillam and Lucy (Howser) Gillam, whose children were John Adam; Mary, who married Peter Koontz; John, our subject's father; Thomas; Hannah, the wife of S. Morse; George; David and Lucy Ann.

The first of the name of Gillam came to America something like one hundred and fifty years ago. He was an Englishman, and worked his passage to the New World. Here he married a girl of Dutch ancestry, who, it would seem, was not more financially independent than himself, and after their marriage, which took place as soon as they had discharged the obligations incurred in for transportation to America, they settled in Bedford county, Pennsylvania. The country thereabout was new and their nearest trading post was Hagerstown, Maryland, some sixty miles distant. Among their children were Adam, Jacob, Thomas, Polly, David and John. Little seems to be known of these children, save that Jacob was a soldier of the War of 1812 and that David passed his life in Pennsylvania, employed in farming.

John Gillam, the father of the subject, reached manhood with a mere smattering of an education. By the practical use of figures throughout his early career as a builder, he learned something of the rules of simple addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, but he acquired nothing in the art of construction of language and little in the way of orthography. He was ambitious, be it said for him, and he applied himself diligently to learning the carpenter trade, and when he had completed it he came to the west, where he believed opportunities to be greater, He took train at Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, and began his career in the new and unsettled west in the state of Iowa. In the east he had been employed at the stipend of five dollars a month, and he was well justified in his belief that he could find a more remunerative wage in the newer country. For some reason, he was not pleased with the situation that confronted him in Iowa and he soon went to St. Louis. His stay there was but brief and marred by illness, and upon his recovery he took boat for Kansas City. It required eleven days to make the trip and he then staged it out to Lawrence, which had just been settled by the Massachusetts colony. He found himself a job at carpenter work just west of that place, and carried his outfit to the place, but his employment was not of a lasting nature,

1733

HISTORY OF NORTHEAST MISSOURI

and soon'he moved on to Baldwin, Kansas, then called Palmyra, sub- sequently moving on to Leavenworth, from which point he crossed the river into Missouri and took work chopping cord-wood. That work completed, he found employment in the harvest field, after which work was a scarcity with him. By this time he had been absent from his Pennsylvania home some five years, and the Civil war was about to be precipitated. He went into eastern Missouri and stopped at Hannibal in about 1861, soon joining a company of Missouri State Militia. He was made first or orderly sergeant of his company, and subsequently became battalion quarter-master sergeant. After scouting and skirmish- ing with the rebels and bushwhackers and driving them about over Ralls, Pike, Callaway, Boone and other neighboring counties for some two years, the company was disbanded near Hannibal and Mr. Gillam went to work for the Hannibal & St. Joe Railroad Company, now the Burlington, as a carpenter, and he assisted in the building of the first station of the road at St. Joe. After a time he left the service of the company and found employment at his trade and at making bedsteads in Lawrence, Kansas. He next went east to Fort Scott, where he was employed by the government about the fort. He was there when Gen- eral Price threatened that place and when all able bodied men were called into action for the defense of the town and the commissary and other government stores. Leaving Fort Scott, Mr. Gillam returned to Hannibal and reentered the service of the railroad company.

With the close of the war, Mr. Gillam returned to Pennsylvania and while visiting there several months he followed his trade, return- ing to Missouri in 1866 and soon locating at Perry, or what later came to be called Perry, for indeed, at the time he located there, it was not a town, the place not being established or founded until full two years later. He is numbered among the pioneer carpenters of the place, and he worked on many of the first stores and residences to be erected there. He performed a great amount of work for Thomas F. Gill, the foremost citizen of the town, the first residence of Mr. Gill in Perry being among Mr. Gillam's work. It was during this era that he mar- ried, a Mr. Gill officiating at the ceremony as justice of the peace. Mr. Gillam built houses, barns and structures of every variety all through the country from then until 1910, when he laid aside his tools and settled down to devote his remaining years to work on his Dry Fork Farm.

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 66

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