A history of northeast Missouri, Vol. 2 pt 2, Part 73

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 73

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).

In the attractive little city of which he is now mayor, William L. Hannaca was born on the 23rd of August, 1880, and he is a son of Henry A. and Desire (Jerome) Hannaca, the former of whom died at the age of fifty-four years and the latter of whom still resides in Glasgow. The father was born in Glasgow, Missouri, and his vocation during virtually his entire active career was that of shoemaker and merchant. When but sixteen years of age he manifested his youthful loyalty and patriotism in no uncertain way. The dark cloud of Civil war shrouded the national horizon, and he forthwith tendered his services in defense of the Union, by enlisting in Company C, Eleventh Missouri Cavalry, his company having been commanded by Capt. John Tillman. A valiant and faithful soldier, he continued in active service until the close of the war, when he received his honorable discharge. He was a member of the Grand Army of the Republic at the time of his death, and his sterling character won to him the unqualified esteem of all who knew him. His parents were born in Germany and were numbered among the pioneer settlers in Howard county, where they continued to reside until their death. The present mayor of Glasgow was the sixth in order of birth in a family of six children, and the only other survivor is Clarence H., who now resides in the city of Chicago. Mr. Hannaca was reared to maturity in his native town and is indebted to its public schools for his early educa- tional discipline, which has been most effectively supplemented by the lessons learned under that wisest of all head-masters, experience. He began to depend upon his own resources as a lad of sixteen years, and he has virtually created the instrumentalities through which he has advanced to the goal of definite success and won distinctive prestige as a business man of marked acumen and circumspection. By close application, self-reliance and indefatigable industry he has made sure advancement along normal lines of enterprise, and today he is a citizen of prominence and influence in his native county, where his circle of friends is coincident with that of his acquaintances. He is engaged in the manufacturing of ice cream, which he sells at wholesale; he is pro- prietor of the Glasgow theater; and he owns the most modern and popu- lar cafe in his home city, also extensive real estate interests, among them the building in which is maintained the local postoffice, the building having been leased to the government for a period of ten years. He is also engaged in the insurance business, and is the principal repre- sentative of this line of enterprise in Glasgow. As an underwriter for both fire and life insurance he has built up a large and substantial busi- ness, and he has made a success of every line of enterprise to which he has turned his attention.

The mayor of Glasgow is determined and loyal in his efforts to promote the best interests of his home city, and his administration of municipal affairs is marked by liberal policies and utmost progressive- ness. Under his regime the city has been provided with an excellent water and light system and also an adequate system of sewerage, two noteworthy public improvements that will redound to his lasting honor.

1775

HISTORY OF NORTHEAST MISSOURI

Mr. Hannaca is found aligned as a stanch supporter of the principles and policies for which the Progressive party stands sponsor, and he is prominently affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, in which he has attained to the thirty-second degree of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, being identified with the consistory at Kansas City, Missouri, where he also holds membership in the temple of the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. He is likewise affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. The mayor is a man of most genial and democratic nature, and is a popular factor in the business and social circles of his home community.

He married October 27, 1909, Miss Lynetta Lamb-Topliff, daughter of C. H. and D. M. Topliff, of Kansas City.

B. F. HOWARD. A mile and a half from Armstrong in Prairie town- ship of Howard county is one of the most attractive rural homesteads of this county, the Ridgway Farm, the residence of B. F. Howard and family. Mr. Howard and wife both represent old and respected family names in this section of Missouri, and it is close onto a century since the Howards became settlers in the wilderness that is now Howard county.

Mr. B. F. Howard was born June 9, 1855, on the old Howard plan- tation near Fayette, owned by his father, the late Thomas Howard, one of the wealthiest and best known citizens of the county. The ancestry of this branch of the Howards goes back to the third Duke of Norfolk, whose name appears in English history as that of a soldier and states- man and one of the eminent noblemen of his time. One of his sons, Benjamin, emigrated to America in 1660 and established a branch of the family name and fortunes in Virginia. Two of the later descendants, Thomas and Henry, were officers during the Revolution. Another of the same line, John E. Howard, was governor of Maryland, still another was a senator of the United States, and a Howard was also governor of Louisiana. Thomas Howard, also of the family, was an officer in the War of 1812.

Thomas Howard, the father, a native of Kentucky, was brought to Howard county, Missouri, in 1819, the year of the Missouri Compromise. He married Elizabeth Shilds, who was born in Howard county and is now at the age of eighty-six one of the oldest native women of this county. The late Thomas Howard was a man of great ability and influence, owned some two thousand acres of land, kept about fifty slaves before the war, and at the time of his death, when eighty-two years old, gave his children property valued at $50,000. The children are named as follows: Mary E. Allen, Benjamin F., Sallie Briggs, James, Joseph, Thomas, Nellie Herendon and Paul. The father was one of the largest producers of hemp and tobacco in this part of the state.

Benjamin F. Howard spent his early days on the old plantation and learned his lessons in the neighboring schools and at Central College. At the age of twenty-six he married Miss Jennie Finnell, and they have had a happy companionship lasting many years. She was born in Prairie township, Howard county, Missouri, a daughter of the late Lewis Fin- nell, a man of high standing whose name belongs with the honored citi- zens of the last century. He was born in Howard county January 5, 1822, and attained the great age of ninety years. His father, John Finnell, was a soldier of the War of 1812, was born in Madison county, Kentucky, and became one of the pioneers of Howard county. Lewis Finnell and wife had four children, three of whom died young and Mrs. Howard was the only one to grow up. Her father had a large estate, which in ante-bellum days was worked by a number of slaves.

1776

HISTORY OF NORTHEAST MISSOURI

He was long prominent in the Baptist church, of which he was a gen- erous supporter, and as "Uncle Lou" he was known and esteemed all over the county, a man who possessed many of the finest qualities of mind and heart.

Mr. and Mrs. Howard own the old Finnell place of three hundred and twenty acres, besides a farm of one hundred and sixty near Roanoke, and with the Ridgway Farm their landed possessions total seven hundred and fifteen acres, some of the best and most valuable land in the county. Their home residence, of nine rooms, more than ordinarily attractive and comfortable, is set in the midst of groves and blue-grass meadows and grain fields, and their facilities for businesslike farming and for living are equaled by few of the rural residents of this vicinity. Their three children are as follows: Lewis Finnell, who was liberally educated in the Armstrong schools and the Central College, and who is a popular mem- ber of the Masonic and Elks fraternities; Mary, who was a student at Stephens College and State University, and Jane and Louila L., both at home.

JOHN JACKSON WALKUP. A resident of Howard county during most of the seventy-eight years of his lifetime, Mr. Walkup has enjoyed the material prosperity and the influence in business and civic affairs which are the best features of solid success and character. He was one of the largest farmers and stockmen of the county and has also been prominently connected with banking and other interests in the county. Mr. Walkup was born on the old Walkup county homestead not far from Fayette, seventy-eight years ago, and belongs to a family which has long been noted for its integrity and solid worth. His father was James Walkup, a native of South Carolina, who when very young accom- panied his parents to Madison county, Kentucky, where he grew up and married Miss Skelton, who was from an old Kentucky family. In 1830 he came out to Howard county, where he lived until his death in 1850 at the age of sixty-three. By occupation he was a farmer and stockman and at his death left three children from the first marriage. By his second marriage there were eight children, and the four now living are as follows: John Jackson, who is the eldest; Susan L., of Omaha, Nebraska ; Thomas, of Moberly, and James M., of Moberly.

John Jackson Walkup was reared on the old plantation; he received a fair education and was sixteen years old when his father's death threw the responsibility of the home upon his shoulders. The following ten years of his life were devoted to the work of the homestead and providing for his mother and brothers and sisters. This period of ten years which he sacrificed to others, so far as his own progress was concerned, he considers perhaps the best part of his lifetime, and has never regretted what he was then able to do for other members of the family. On leaving home he went to Davis county, Iowa, where he lived for several years among the thrifty farming and stock raising popu- lation of that state and acquired much knowledge along those lines which has been useful to him.

At the age of thirty he married Miss Isabella Hardy of Iowa. Their four children are as follows: Cora Richardson, Lela Snoddy, Mary E., the wife of A. K. Markland, of Armstrong, Katy B. Miller, wife of A. L. Miller of Armstrong, and James E., who is a prosperous farmer and resides on the old homestead two and one-half miles west of Armstrong. The mother of these children died in 1907 and on the 7th of November, 1912, Mr. Walkup married Mary E. Walkup, the widow of Israel Walkup, his brother. She is the mother of five children by her previous marriage, three of whom reside at Muskogee, Oklahoma, one in Arkansas and one

1777

HISTORY OF NORTHEAST MISSOURI

in Idaho : John, Joe Ellen Wright, Ida, Frank H. and Luella Weathford.

In 1876 Mr. Walkup located on his present farmstead, two and one- half miles west of Armstrong. His career has been an unusually pros- perous one and he has owned at different times fifteen hundred acres of land. His accumulations enabled him to give each of his children a farm and he still retains an estate of three hundred and fifty acres, which is considered one of the best in Howard county. It was the old plantation of Captain Sinks. The homestead has a comfortable ten room house, three large barns and ample facilities for the conduct of a modern stock and grain farm. Mr. Walkup and his wife are members of the Methodist church, and there is no better representative of good citizenship among the early residents of Howard county than John J. Walkup. In 1912 Mr. Walkup retired from active farming and located in Armstrong, where he now resides.

LEON F. FIFE. Redstone Hall in Chariton township is one of the landmarks of Howard county, a farm of four hundred and fifty-six acres in extent, and with few equals in Northeast Missouri as a center of agri- cultural productiveness. It is one of the old estates, and its associa- tions might well be the theme of many interesting descriptions.

The present proprietors, Leon F. Fife and Mrs. Cecile M. (Denny) Fife, have maintained the home as a place of old-time hospitality and home comforts. Mr. Fife is a native of Kentucky, in which state he was born on the 4th of October, 1869. His father, Dr. Alexander Fife, who died when his only child, Leon, was three years old, was a soldier of the Confederacy and a member of Gen. John Morgan's noted rough riders of the South. After the war he studied medicine and became a successful and highly respected physician. His wife was Anna Turner, also of an old Kentucky family.

Leon F. Fife spent his early years in Kentucky and completed his education in the Central University, Richmond, Kentucky, since which time he has devoted his efforts to farming and stock raising. On Feb- ruary 14, 1891, he was united in marriage with Miss Cecile M. Denny, who was born and reared on the old Denny homestead in Howard county. She is a daughter of Clifton E. and Mary Belle (Enyart) Denny. Her father, who was born January 24, 1841, a son of James Denny, a pioneer, and who died at the age of sixty-one, was one of the ablest farmers and citizens of Howard county during the last half of the last century. Mrs. Fife has two brothers and a sister: Humphrey, a lawyer of Glasgow; Alexander, a farmer of Howard county; and Eliza- beth Brown, of Marshall, Missouri.

Mr. and Mrs. Fife are the parents of seven children, named as follows: Anna Belle, a beautiful young girl whose life was ended by death at the age of fourteen, in November, 1905; Mary Cecile, Ruth Gordon, Bettia Denny, Gladys, Leon F., Jr., and Alexander Clifton. Mr. Fife is a charter member of his Knights of Pythias lodge.

Everything about Redstone Hall farm indicates thrift and comfort and prosperity. The brick residence and the brick houses for the ten- ants, the commodious barns, the shaded lawn and orchards, the blue- grass meadows and grain fields, are all an ideal accompaniment of the best standards of businesslike industry as applied to country life.

WILLIAM J. HUGHES. One of the oldest families of Howard county is represented by William J. Hughes, proprietor of the beautiful Elm- wood Farm in Chariton township, part of which has been in the pos- session of the Hughes family since the pioneer era. It is nearly a century since the founder of the family located in this part of Missouri

1778

HISTORY OF NORTHEAST MISSOURI

territory, and the family is one of the few which have been continuously identified with Howard county from territorial times.

William J. Hughes was born on the 5th of January, 1826, on his father's plantation near Fayette, so that he is himself one of the oldest living natives of this county. His father, Joseph S. Hughes, born and reared in Kentucky, belonged to a pioneer family of that state. Joseph S. Hughes married Cassandra Price, whose father, Col. William Price, was a prominent military man of his time. Joseph S. Hughes first came to Howard county in the year 1816, five years before Missouri was formally admitted to the Union. He spent some time in looking over the country for a location and then returned to Kentucky. In the next year, loading his possessions on wagons, and with a number of slaves, he came overland for the entire distance to his new home in the wilderness region near Fayette. He remained here an honored citizen and large planter and land owner until his death at the age of eighty- four. He was for many years a deacon in the Mt. Moriah Baptist church. His wife passed away at the age of eighty, and their children were named as follows: Malvina, Martha, Courtney, Caroline, Mary Frances, Lou- isiana C., William Joseph, Overton L. and Maria Louise.

William J. Hughes spent his early years in the environment of the typical plantation of ante-bellum days and received his education in the neighborhood. On the 29th of November, 1849, he married Miss Lucy C. Collins. Theirs has been a married companionship of remarkable length and felicity, continuing unbroken for sixty-three years, and in duration has probably few equals in Northeast Missouri. Mrs. Hughes was born April 2, 1832, a daughter of James and Mildred (Johnson) Collins, both natives of Virginia. She is a member of the Johnson family which figures on other pages of this work and which was prominent in both Virginia and Kentucky, as soldiers in the Revolution and War of 1812, the noted Richard Johnson having been the slayer of the great Chief Tecumseh. James Collins, father of Mrs. Hughes, crossed the plains with ox teams during the California gold excitement. There were four children in the Collins family, namely : Johnson, Benjamin, Mrs. Hughes, and Dr. Collins, who was a successful doctor.

The children of Mr. and Mrs. Hughes are named as follows: Joseph S., Ben Johnson ; Fanny May, the wife of Rev. Painter; William A., living on a farm adjoining his father; Robert Lee, of St. Louis; Harry B., on the old homestead; Louise and Ernest L. The children were all well educated in both pubic school and higher institutions. Mrs. Painter having been a student in the Stephens College at Columbia. The three sons all own adjoining farms comprising an aggregate of six hundred acres and are independently successful. Mr. Hughes has always been a Democrat in politics, having cast his vote at some fifteen presidential elections, and he and his wife are members of the Baptist church. Their old home is a place of quaint charm and comforts, a large frame house set in the midst of a park of elm trees and sur- rounded with all the improvements and adornments that mark the best of Howard county's model farmsteads.

H. E. KELTNER. Possessing not only an excellent knowledge of both the common and higher branches of learning, but great tact, good judg- ment, and much ability, H. E. Keltner, superintendent of the Armstrong public school, has gained high rank among his fellow educators of Howard county. A native of Missouri, he was born June 28, 1885, in Jasper county near Carthage, coming on both sides of the family of German ancestry.

1779

HISTORY OF NORTHEAST MISSOURI

His father, W. F. Keltner, was born and educated in Jasper county, where his father, who served as a soldier in the Union army during the Civil war, was a pioneer settler. He married Amanda Steger, who was born in Missouri, and to them three children were born, namely: J. A. Keltner, of Kansas City, Missouri; Mrs. L. A. Decker, of Kansas City, Missouri, and H. E. Keltner, with whom this sketch is chiefly concerned. Both parents are living, and are now residing in Kansas City.

Laying a substantial foundation for his future education in the dis- trict schools, H. E. Keltner subsequently attended Beasley's College, this state, and the University of Missouri. Thus fitted for a profes- sional career, Mr. Keltner has since been successfully employed as an educator, and is now numbered among the more successful and popular teachers of Howard county. The Armstrong public school, of which he has control, is located in a large and well-arranged building, situated in the midst of a beautiful square containing an entire block of the city's property, and furnishing ample grounds for its many pupils. Nine teachers are employed in the school, and are giving eminent satisfaction to all concerned, the high school course being one of the best of any in the county. Mr. Keltner had previously taught school in Eldon, Mis- souri, coming from there to Armstrong with very high records for scholarship, and as an instructor of ability. He is a man of pleasing personality, frank and courteous, and well deserving of the high respect so generally recorded him throughout the community.

Mr. Keltner married November 1, 1904, in Casper county, Missouri, Miss Bertha Hart, and into their pleasant home three children have been born, namely: Pearl, Martha and Joseph.

JOSEPH HOWARD, who is widely and favorably known in Howard county as an industrious farmer and citizen, is pleasantly located on a tract of one hundred and eighty acres of land, known as Sunny Slope Stock Farm, where he is pursuing the peaceful vocation of agriculturist, and also has numerous friends in Fayette, his property being but one mile from that city. He belongs to an old and honored family of this section, and was born on the old Howard plantation, northeast of Fay- ette, September 26, 1863, a son of Thomas and Elizabeth Howard. Thomas Howard was engaged in farming all of his life, became an exten- sive land owner, and at one time was known as one of the heaviest tax- payers in Howard county. He and his wife had a large family of sons and daughters.

The fourth son of his parents, Joseph Howard grew up on the old family homestead, and his education was secured in the public schools and at Central College, Fayette, after graduating from which he returned home to resume his training as an agriculturist. Inheriting from his father the ability to judge cattle, he was soon competent to handle a property of his own, and the elder man gave him a small tract of land on which to commence his operations. In 1892 he was married in How- ard county to Miss Anna E. Grimes, who was born in Howard county and here reared and educated, daughter of Francis M. Grimes, a prominent citizen of the county, a sketch of whom will be found on another page of this work. Mr. Howard now lives in Fayette, where he has one of the finest residences in the city, but still superintends the operations on Sunny Slope Farm. This tract, which is one mile east from the depot at Fayette, consists of one hundred and eighty acres of well-cultivated, fertile land, with wide pasture lands, productive grain fields, handsome house and barn and substantial outbuildings, where a general air of prosperity gives evidence of skillful management and persevering labor. Here are to be found some of the finest white-faced Hereford cattle in

1780

HISTORY OF NORTHEAST MISSOURI

the state, Mr. Howard having spent much time and money in seeuring only the finest specimens of his herd, while his horses, sheep and hogs are also of a superior breed and bring high priees in the markets. Mr. Howard eomes of a long line of agriculturists and is thoroughly conver- sant with every department and detail of farming. In his political views lie is a Demoerat, but has never eared for public office, his agricultural labors satisfying his ambitions. However, he takes a keen interest in matters that affect his community or its people, and none are quicker to support movements that recommend themselves as beneficial to his native place. Since coming to Fayette, in 1906, he has identified himself with the business interests of the city, and has demonstrated his eonfi- denee in the future of this locality by investing in real estate, but the major portion of his attention is given to the superintending of his farm. He is a consistent member of the Christian church, where he is a member of the board of stewards, and has always been a staneh sup- porter of religion and education. He is frank and genial personally, and has hosts of friends throughout this part of the county, and is everywhere recognized as one of his section's representative men.

A. D. BURNS. West of Fayette a mile and a half is the farm of A. D. Burns, who has been a resident of Northeast Missouri for forty- two years, and is one of the sterling citizens of Howard county. For twenty years he represented in all parts of the state the Stark Nursery Company of Louisiana, the best and largest nursery in Missouri, and one of the largest in the country.

Andrew Dawson Burns was born in Roanoke county, North Carolina, September 3, 1843, a son of Urias and Lucy (Underwood) Burns, both natives of North Carolina. Owen Burns, the grandfather, was also a native of North Carolina, where the family had been established by his parents, who were from Scotland. In 1847 the family moved to Roane county, Tennessee, where the parents spent the rest of their lives, the mother dying at the age of forty and the father at the age of seventy- seven. Their seven children, four sons and three daughters, were: William, a Union soldier in an Indiana regiment, in which state he died ; Conley, who died in Tennessee; John, a Confederate soldier, was killed in the battle of Nashville; Andrew Dawson; Sallie, deceased ; and Susan, who lives in Tennessee.

Mr. A. D. Burns grew up in Tennessee and had hardly attained to manhood when the war broke out. He chose the side of the south, and became a soldier in the Twenty-sixth Tennessee Infantry, under Col. John M. Lillard and Captain MeClung. The generals under whom his regiment saw its service were Zollicoffer, Buckner, Hardee, Albert S. Johnson, and was with General Pillow at the time of the surrender at Fort Donelson. Mr. Burns was in Fort Donelson at its capture, and spent some months in the federal prison at Indianapolis. After his ex- change he took part in the siege of Vieksburg and many other engage- ments of the great war.

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 73

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