A history of northeast Missouri, Vol. 2 pt 2, Part 87

Author: Williams, Walter, 1864- , ed
Publication date: 1913
Publisher: Chicago, New York, The Lewis publishing company
Number of Pages: 912

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Joseph Smelser was a farmer for the greater part of his life. He was a Confederate soldier for a time and was a resident of Audrain county from early manhood until 1868, when he settled two and a half miles southeast of Stoutsville, in the vicinity of which place he passed away on the 22d day of March, 1907: He was the son of George Smelser, who was born in Germany and came to Missouri as a pioneer of Ralls county. Among his children were Joseph, John, Mary, Ade- line, and Maggie. Adeline married John N. Caldwell and lives in Bowling Green, Missouri, as does also the daughter Maggie, who mar- ried William Givens.

Joseph Smelser married Emily Tipton, daughter of William Tip- ton and the sister of Joseph Burwell Tipton, who is mentioned at greater length in this work on other pages. Mrs. Smelser died on May 22, 1908, the mother of ten children, brief mention of whom is here made as follows : Eliza married Robert Hurd and died in Monroe county ; Annie; Laura married James Utterback and lives near Stouts- ville, Missouri ; Joseph E., the subject of this review ; John H., of Jas- per county, Missouri; Elexis T., of Perry, Missouri; Jabez, a farmer near Stoutsville; Olivia, the wife of James Wray, of Centralia, Mis- souri ; Bertie married Arthur Yelton, and lives in Jasper county, Mis- souri; and James T., living in Canada.

The family of Joseph Smelser received a common school education and Joseph, Jr., of this review, fared likewise. He left the farm at the age of seventeen 'and for a time worked at various tasks, chiefly those calling for manual labor. He finally entered the station at Stoutsville and learned telegraphy with the M. K. & T. Railroad Company's agent at that point. When capable of discharging the duties of a posi- tion as operator, he received an appointment to the station at Beaman, Missouri, next to Rensselaer, Missouri, and then back to Stoutsville, where he had first mastered the key. During the years he remained with the company, he was frequently assigned to duty as a relief agent, and he continued in the service until August, 1910.

Following the close of his railroad career, Mr. Smelser farmed for a short time, then came to Stoutsville as the employee of Rogers & Thompson, the leading mercantile house in the town. He managed the store for them until the sale of the business to C. R. Noel, and he then continued with the new firm of C. R. Noel & Company as manager. His continued identity with the town for so long a period has won his interest in everything that takes place, or concerns the welfare of the town, and he is a sturdy advocate of every good measure that is set in motion in the community. He has a financial interest in one of the strong banks of Monroe county, the Old Stoutsville Bank, and is otherwise identified with the business interests of the district.

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On November 1, 1883, Mr. Smelser was married to Miss Ella M. Baker, a daughter of Thomas Baker, a representative of one of the old families of Monroe county. Mr. Baker married Mary Shropshire and their children were five in number, those besides Mrs. Smelser being: Jerry T., now deceased; James H .; Joseph H .; Susan, the wife of Elmer F. Riley.

Seven children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Smelser: Lucy, the wife of Guy Dooley, of Stoutsville; Joseph Albert married Jessie Lawson and lives in Stoutsville; Lloyd Elmer; Glenn G .; Neva E .; Elliott and Elsie B.

Mr. Smelser is merely a business man, quiet in his life and not affiliated with any fraternal societies or other organizations of a like nature. He is a student and observer of political conditions and par- ticipates in politics only as a voter.

CURTIS HILL is prominently known to the people of this section of the state as one of the successful and capable civil engineers of the dis- trict. He is a native son of the state, born near Independence, Mis- souri, on September 4, 1870, and his parents were William Moberly Hill and Ann Elizabeth (Gossett) Hill. The family is one of the oldest in America today, and the first of the name came to the United States with an, English land grant. The name of that ancestor is unknown, but one of his descendants, Jacob Hill, was born in West Virginia, and passed the closing days of his life in Newark, Ohio. Jacob Hill was the father of four children, namely: Adam, Elisha, Catherine and Rachel. Of these four children Adam was born on the Upper Potomac river, South Branch, West Virginia, on the twenty- ninth of August, 1799. He came to Newark, Ohio, with his parents when he was two years old, and when he was sixteen years of age he went to Kentucky and then to Jackson county, Missouri, in 1832, where he died near Independence on February 24, 1886. His wife was Ann Woods Moberly, who was born in or near Richmond, Kentucky, on August 26, 1809, and died near Independence, Missouri, on July 12, 1851.

To Adam and Ann Woods (Moberly) Hill were born five children : Mary Catherine, Benjamin, William Moberly, Jane and Curtis. William Moberly Hill was born near Independence, Missouri, on July 6, 1836, and finished his days in Independence on the 27th day of November, 1912. He received his education chiefly at William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri, and the state university at Columbia, Missouri. He was a soldier in the Confederate army, and a life long Democrat. He gave his principal activities to the farming industry after the close of the war, and in late years lived retired. In his younger days he married Ann Elizabeth Gossett, who was born in Bath county, Kentucky, on November 10, 1850, and who died in the vicinity of Independence, Missouri, on the fourth day of November, 1880. She was a daughter of Jacob Gossett and his wife Joan Francis (Ratliff) Gossett, both being natives of the state of Kentucky. Jacob Gossett was a Baptist preacher and son of Matthias Gossett and his wife Rebecca (Judy) Gossett. Joan Francis Ratliff was the daughter of Caleb Ratliff and his wife Nancy (Stone) Ratliff. The children of Jacob Gossett and Joan Francis (Ratliff) Gossett were Sanford Caleb, Matthias, Ann Elizabeth, Martin, Mollie, Alfred N., Emma, Edward and Claude S. To the marriage of William Moberly and Ann Elizabeth Gossett Hill were born seven children, named as follows: Curtis, Jo Lisle, Jacob Gossett, Fannie Brooks, Adam, William Hickman and Sanford.

The early educational training of Curtis Hill was received in the

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district schools of the Rock Creek community in Jackson county, Mis- souri. He later attended Woodland College at Independence, Mis- souri, and still later was a student in the University of Missouri at Columbia, from which he was graduated with the class of 1896, and he was also a graduate of the class of 1897 in Cornell University at Ithaca, New York. In these two latter universities, Mr. Hill pursued courses in civil engineering, and since he emerged from college has been more active in the application of his profession. He has served variously as land surveyor, railroad surveyor and construction engineer. He has built bridges, conducted the installation of sewers and for six years has been engaged in highway engineering. At one time Mr. Hill was engineer of sewers at St. Louis, Missouri, and at another time was incumbent of the office of state highway engineer of the state of Missouri.

Mr. Hill is a Democrat, though not an office holder or seeker, and active only in accordance with the demands of good citizenship. For three years he served in the Third Infantry of the Missouri National Guards, and during his university career he was one year lieutenant and one year captain of the Cadet Battalion in the University of Mis- souri. He is a member of a number of college fraternities, among which are the Beta Theta Pi and the Theta Nu Epsilon. In later years he has become a member of the Masonic fraternity in which he is affiliated with the A. F. & A. M. and is also a member of the Benev- olent and Protective Order of Elks, and of the American Society of Civil Engineers.

On the twenty-first day of August, 1899, Mr. Hill was married at Missoula, Montana, to Miss Flora Edith Lewis, a daughter of Thomas Lindsey Lewis and his wife Martha (Surface) Lewis, both of Galla- tin, Missouri. She was born at Rushville, Missouri, on October 6, 1874, and educated at Colfax College in Colfax, Washington, and at Stephens College, Columbia, Missouri, and graduated from the latter institution with the class of 1896. Thomas Lindsey Lewis, her father, was born in Platte county, Missouri, in 1840 and is a direct descendant of Henry Lewis, an American Revolutionary soldier, and he died in Missoula, Montana, on February 28, 1911. He was educated at Wil- liam Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri, and ordained to the Baptist ministry. In 1886 he went to the great Northwest as a home missionary and after that lived at different times in Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana. He served through the Civil war as a Confederate soldier under General Sterling Price. Mr. and Mrs. Hill are the parents of three children, Elizabeth, born June 12, 1900, Catherine, born January 18, 1903, and William Moberly, born November 21, 1905, all in St. Louis, Missouri.

BENJAMIN F. ELSEA. Prominent among the foremost agriculturists of Randolph county, Missouri, is Benjamin F. Elsea, whose fine farm of two hundred and twenty acres, with its improvements and appoint- ments, forms one of the most attractive rural homes of this locality. Mr. Elsea is also a scion of one of Missouri's oldest families. one that was established in this state as early as 1820 and whose name has now remained locally significant of worth and attainment for nearly a century.

Born in Shelby county, Missouri, October 30, 1852, he is a son of Benjamin F. Elsea, a Virginian by birth who came to Missouri in 1820 and located near Hannibal, Misouri, where he resided a short time, then moved to Shelby county, where he followed farming and stock-raising until his removal to Randolph county in 1865. Here he resided until 1890, when he moved to Kirksville, where he remained

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until his death in September, 1895. The senior Mr. Elsea was twice married. His first wife was Mary J. Grafford, who was a native of Kentucky and who bore him seven children, the eldest two of whom died in infancy. The others in order of birth were James W., of Jacksonville, Mo .; Benjamin F., the subject of this review; F. G. Elsea, Moberly, Missouri; John C., now a resident of California; and Laura B., deceased. His second marriage was to Telitha Taylor and eight children were the issue of that union, seven of whom are living at this date (1912), namely: Lydia, the wife of Leonard P. Hatler, of Har- vey, Montana; David J., a resident of Blandinville, Illinois; Leona Florence, the wife of Warren L. Holbrook, of Paonia, Colorado; Lucy, who is now Mrs. Frank Henderson, of Stronghurst, Illinois; Homer, a resident of Carthage, Illinois; Catherine, wife of Jesse Barker, of La Harpe, Illinois; and Lottie, who married Irven Stephenson.

Benjamin F. Elsea remained at the parental home until he had attained his majority and then took up farming and stock-raising independently. In 1879 he bought 47 acres and this tract formed a nucleus to which he has added by subsequent purchases until his hold- ings now comprise 220 acres, on which he has placed fine improvements and where he carries on general farming and stockraising. In politics he has always given staunch allegiance to the Democratic party, and his religious views are indicated by his membership in the Christian denomination.

Mr. Elsea has been thrice married, his first wife having been a Miss Dora Hogue. His second marriage united him to Miss Laura Hol- brook, who bore him six children : Wilbur L., deceased; Cora, the wife of Thomas Skinner, of Randolph county, Missouri; Hugh, a resident of Moberly, Missouri; Ollie, who is at the parental home; Albert F., now a student in the Missouri State Normal at Kirksville; and Orla B., also at home. Mr. Elsea took as his third companion Elizabeth Pat- terson, whom he wedded September 3, 1902. The father of Mrs. Elsea was John Russell Patterson, a native of Kentucky and a civil engi- neer by profession who came to Missouri in 1850 and located near Springfield. He had also served as a missionary to the Indians and died June 10, 1894. Mary E. Hendricks, the mother of Mrs. Elsea, was a Virginian by birth and passed to the life beyond on April 22. 1884. These parents were married November 19, 1865, and to their union were born seven children: James, Jesse and Fanny, deceased : Elizabeth, the wife of our subject; Alfred N., John R. and Louis, all deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Elsea have one daughter, Rachel Catherine. born October 20, 1908.

ZACH CREWS. Nearly sixty years of residence in Howard county have given Mr. Zach Crews rank as one of the oldest living citizens of his vicinity. In Moniteau township he has long enjoyed prestige as an able farmer and a man of influence in community affairs.

Born in Madison county, Kentucky, March 16, 1841, Mr. Crews represents an old and prominent family. His great-grandfather, David Crews, was born in England, whence he came to America in time to participate in the Revolution on the American side. During that pioneer era of the nation's history he moved to the Kentucky region, where he had to build a blockhouse to protect his family from the Indians. His son David, Jr., married Sallie Trible, whose father was a noted Baptist preacher who brought the gospel to the frontier set- tlements of Kentucky. Milton Crews, the father of Mr. Zach Crews, was a native of Madison county, and married Rhoda Fox, who was born in the same locality. They came to Missouri in 1842, but the

ostractor

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father died some years later, and the widowed mother with her chil- dren then returned to Kentucky, where she remained until 1854, when the family again became domiciled in Howard county, which has been the home of Zach Crews from that year to the present time. The chil- dren in the family were named as follows: Samuel, deceased; Isham ; Richard; Mary J., deceased; Sallie A .; Zach; Milton and W. P. The mother attained the age of eighty, having fulfilled a long and use- ful life and reared her children to useful and honorable manhood and womanhood.

Zach Crews spent his early life partly in Kentucky and partly in Missouri. He obtained a fair amount of schooling, but best of all early learned how to work and to live honorably with all men. During his early career he had some mercantile experience, but most of his life has been spent as a farmer, and in that line has been his best success.

When he was twenty-two he married Miss Matilda Means, daughter of James Means, one of the well known citizens of Howard county in the last generation. The three children born to their marriage are as follows: Anna, the wife of W. S. White, of Howard county; Will- iam, born in 1868 and died in 1904, in the midst of a promising career ; and Zach, Jr., who resides on the old homestead and is an expert farmer and stockman.

Mr. Crews has a fine estate of three hundred and thirty-two acres, representing the careful management and patient accumulations of his many years' residence in Moniteau township. The blue-grass pastures, the grain fields and the herds of fine stock all indicate first- class business methods, and as a profitable homestead this place has few superiors in the county. Mr. Crews is a Democrat in politics, and is a member of the Christian church, having served as treasurer of his home church for fourteen years.

DR. THOMAS PROCTOR, president of the Monroe City Bank, is well known throughout this section, not only as an able business man, but as a public spirited citizen. As a native of the state of Missouri, he has always had a keen interest in her prosperity and in the prosperity of the section wherein he makes his home, and his efforts towards giving Monroe City a substantial and safe financial institution have met with gratifying success.

Dr. Proctor is descended from a family of English origin, its foun- dation in this country having come from three brothers, Leonard, Thomas and Francis, who settled in the colony of Massachusetts in 1643. Later some of their descendants drifted down to Virginia, and from this branch came Captain Leonard Proctor, of Revolutionary fame, who passed his life in the Old Dominion. Another member of the family located in Kentucky, and from this branch the Proctors of Missouri are descended. The grandfather of Dr. Thomas Proctor, George W. Proctor, who died in Jessamine county, Kentucky, about 1820, leaving four sons: Columbus; Washington. a banker and farmer, who had large interests near Winchester and Mt. Sterling, Kentucky, and died there leaving a large estate; Montgomery lived part of his life in Marion county, Missouri, as a farmer and part in Knox county, in the same state; Uriah moved from Kentucky to southwest Missouri where he lived until he was well along in life, going thence to Oklahoma, where he died, at his home near Humansville.

Columbus Proctor was born in Kentucky, near Nicholasville, in February, 1810, and came to Marion county, Missouri, in 1833. He established himself in what was practically the wilderness and as time went on accumulated a large estate, his slave quarters forming a small

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sized village and his land comprising fifteen hundred acres. He was accounted one of the most prosperous and influential men in the county, but like many other prosperous men before the Civil war, the procla- mation of President Lincoln's that freed the slaves, almost ruined him financially. His sympathies were naturally all with the South but he did not live to see the result of the war, for his death occurred in 1865. He was a Whig in his political views until that party was absorbed by the Republican, and then he became a Democrat. In his religious views he was a Baptist.

Mr. Proctor was married to Eleanor Wood, a daughter of Hazard Wood. The latter was born in Tennessee, spent a number of years in Kentucky and finally removed to Missouri. Eleanor was one of ten children and she survived her husband several years, dying in 1876. Their children were James, who spent his life in Monroe City, a suc- cessful farmer and financier and at his death accounted one of the wealthy men of the county; Thomas; David M., of Monroe City, and Martha, who died in Monroe City, as the wife of James S. Scott.

Dr. Thomas Proctor was born near Philadelphia, Marion county, Missouri, on the 26th of May, 1839. His childhood and youth were passed in the county of his birth, and after receiving his elementary education he attended St. Paul's College at Palmyra, Missouri, for a time. Upon completing his course there he taught a country school for one term, and then began his preparation for a medical career. He studied under the direction of Dr. Tipton, of Philadelphia, Mis- souri, but before his studies were completed the Civil war broke out and he soon enlisted in the Missouri State Guard, his regiment being under the command of Colonel Green. General Price being in command of the army of which it was a part. The regiment marched through several counties of Northeast Missouri, gathering recruits and creat- ing a strong Confederate sentiment wherever it was possible. Where there were any Union troops they harassed and annoyed them though their force was not strong enough to risk a real battle. Finally the command moved against Lexington, which it captured and then moved southward toward the Arkansas line. Before a Confederate stronghold was reached and in a country rather closely watched by the Federals, a number of the men were reported on the sick list and unable to travel. There was nothing to do but leave them behind, for no pro- vision had been made for the care of the sick, and among those left was Thomas Proctor. He remained at a private house near Greenfield, Dade county, until he was sufficiently recovered to travel. By this time the force to which he had belonged was many miles away, and a Federal force was between. There was also a strong detachment of the Union army north of him, and to make his way back home seemed practically impossible. He therefore determined to pass through the lines as a civilian and to observe neutrality during the remainder of the war. He accomplished this successfully and arrived home in the spring of 1862 his career as a soldier thus becoming a closed book in his life.

Dr. Proctor now turned again to the study of medicine entering the University of Iowa, which was at that time located in Keokuk, and from this institution he received his degree of M. D. in March, 1864. He established himself in Monroe City in the following April and for the next fifteen years was a well known figure in medical circles in this section of the country. He practiced not only in Monroe City but also at Wither's Mill in Marion county.

It was in 1881 that Dr. Proctor gave up his medical practice and entered the business world. He purchased an interest in the Monroe City Bank, which had been founded by J. B. Randol and entered the institu-

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tion as a cashier. In 1897 he succeeded Mr. Randol as president of the bank and has ever since filled this executive office. The cashiership was filled by various men but in time his son was old enough and proved to have the ability to hold the position and so he was elected cashier, and today the officers are, Thomas Proctor, president; A. Jaeger, vice-presi- dent, and M. B. Proctor, cashier.

Dr. Proctor is a Democrat, but stands for the conservative policies of the party, not being a believer in the radical policies advocated by Mr. Bryan. He believes in a sane administrative policy, void of experi- ments which are revolutionary in tendency. He has never cared to take an active part in politics, his sole office being as a member of the school board of Monroe City. He is an active member of the Baptist church, and has represented the church at various meetings of the different church associations. He was also a member of the building committee that saw to the erection of the new house of worship, that was built in Monroe City, in 1899.

Dr. Proctor married in April, 1865, in Marion county, Miss Luta Bailey, a daughter of Dr. E. Bailey, who was a settler from Mason county, Kentucky. Her mother was Elizabeth Pepper, and Mrs. Proc- tor was the eldest of four daughters; Anna, who became Mrs. M. C. Brown and died in Monroe City; Lillie, who passed away as the wife of Dr. W. B. A. McNutt, of the same city; Ida M., who is the wife of John C. Gage, of the law firm of Gage, Ladd & Small, of Kansas City, Missouri.

The doctor and his wife are the parents of four sons: M. Bailey, who is cashier of the Monroe City Bank, graduated from the law depart- ment of the University of Missouri, and practiced law in El Paso, Texas, for a time. He married Miss Owen, of Columbus, Mississippi. Frank D. is a retired farmer, of Monroe City, who married on November 16, 1892, Miss Antoinette Morris, a daughter of James and Emma (Peak) Morris. Dr. Thomas C., a resident of Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, married to Miss Georgia Noel, of Paris, Missouri; and J. V., a member of the lumber firm of Conway & Proctor of Monroe City, married to Miss Lillian Ely, of Monroe City, Missouri.

Dr. Proctor was one of the chief organizers of the Monroe Cattle Company of Texas, a corporation capitalized for three quarters of a million dollars, and was made secretary of the company. It operated in Texas for many years, but has since been closed out. He organized the first electric light power plant and telephone system of Monroe City, and was the first president and one of the organizers of what is now the Missouri State Life Insurance Company, now the largest institution of the kind in the state. The name of Dr. Proctor is well known even to strangers in Monroe City, for he is the owner of a most attractive and artistic home that is one of the spots always pointed to with pride by the citizens of Monroe City. He designed this house which is a composite of bungalow and cottage, its exterior giving the effect of the typical Cali- fornia bungalow. Its great columns of ragged boulders from the glacier waste of Wisconsin, its sharp gabled roof, its heavy, massive timber work, all give an impression of stability and strength that is absent from so many modern dwelling houses. The interior is in as good taste as the outside. All the woodwork is oak, in mission finish, and closets and cupboards are built in, there is much panel work and the raised dining room floor, and the graceful stairway with its broad landing. makes the interior charming. All the clothes and linen closets are of cedar with heavy brass hinges and mountings, and the great chimney piece is of the Wisconsin boulders also. Every ingenious device that has been thought of that can add to the convenience and comfort of a home has

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A history of northeast Missouri, Vol. 2 pt 2, Part 87

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