A history of northeast Missouri, Vol. 2 pt 2, Part 90

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

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The first public office which Senator McAllister held was that of city attorney of Paris, to which he was appointed by the mayor in 1897, and which he filled until 1901. The people were so satisfied with the choice of the mayor that at the expiration of his term as city attorney he was elected prosecuting attorney of the county, to succeed T. T. Rhodes. At the end of his term he was succeeded by James P. Boyd. He began his political career as a Democrat in 1896, when he cast his vote for Mr. Bryan, and he has been a consistent and loyal and fighting Democrat from that day to this. He is known all over that state as one of the powerful men in the party and his influence is greater than even he suspects. He was present at the national convention in Kansas City, Missouri, when Mr. Bryan received his second nomination and he was also a spectator at the convention in St. Louis, when Alton B. Parker was nominated in 1904.

It is as a legislator, however, that Senator McAllister's most import- ant work has been done. In January, 1905, he was elected to the senate of the Forty-third General Assembly as a member from the Thirteenth senatorial district, which comprised the counties of Ralls, Monroe, Ran- dolph and Marion. He succeeded Senator H. Clay Heather, of Pal- myra, and during the first session was made a member of the committees on Criminal Jurisprudence, Labor, Mines and Mining, and he was given the chairmanship of the committee on Wills and Probate Law. How well he accomplished the work assigned to him may be seen by the importance of the committees to which he was appointed during the second session, or the Forty-fourth General Assembly. These were the committees on Judiciary, Education, Privileges and Elections, University and Normal Schools and he was made chairman of the committee on Private Cor- porations, in which position he was destined to accomplish much good work. In 1905 he introduced a resolution that caused considerable

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interest all over the country, this being the resolution for the investiga- tion of the campaign expenses of Thomas K. Niederinghaus, as a candi- date for the United States senate, and Senator McAllister was himself a member of the investigating committee. It was also in the session of 1905 that he introduced two of the most important measures that came before the body during the year. The first of these was the bill which granted the city of St. Louis the right to build her free bridge across the Mississippi river, and the second was the resolution provid- ing for the submission of the constitutional amendment adopting the initiative and referendum, which was subsequently adopted at the polls.

In 1908, Senator McAllister was a candidate to succeed himself in the senate and was re-elected. During this session of 1909, he was a member of the Judiciary and Revision committees, of the Insurance committee, of the committee on Constitutional Amendments and Appro- priations, and was chairman of the committees on Clerical Force and Private Corporations. In 1909 he was chairman of the Democratic caucus of the senate and was chosen president pro tem. of the body in the Forty-sixth General Assembly. He thus made the appointments of the various committees and was himself made, by resolution, a member of the committees on Judiciary, Ways and Means, Appropriations, Private Corporations and Elections. His term expires on the 1st of January, 1913. In 1912 he made the campaign for the Democratic nomination for attorney-general of Missouri and was defeated by only fourteen hundred and twenty-five votes out of a total ballot of more than two hundred and twenty-seven thousand, which is only a further proof of the statement made above, that if he cares for this office four years hence he can have it, for his popularity increases every day, as he becomes more widely known.

Senator McAllister was married on the 1st of January, 1911, to Miss Amber Catherine Smith, a daughter of Perry W. Smith and Jennie (Wallace) Smith, residents of Illinois. Her mother is from one of the old families of this country, being a Daughter of the American Revo- lution. .

GROVER CLEVELAND YEAGER is a prominent young agriculturist of Pike and Ralls counties and also one of the scientific feeders of his local- ity. Not only is he conspicuous for his own success, but also as a mem- . ber of a family important in building up the communities of this region. His grandfather, the head of a small family of immigrants from Ken- tucky, first settled in Ralls county, Missouri, He is known to have lived in the environs of Madison, in this state, where he devoted his attention to farm and stock until his death at the age of seventy-five years, about the date 1869. Among his several children were Joseph and Frederick Yeager and their two sisters, Mrs. Fannie Ellis and Mrs. Thomas Alford, of Vandalia, Missouri.

Frederick Yeager, his son and the immediate progenitor of Cleveland Yeager, was a youth of fifteen when the Yeager family established itself in Ralls county. He came to the years of his majority with a rural school education and equipped with the practical training of a farmer. Then the political difficulties in which Missouri was plunged at the time of the war of the Rebellion presented a situation not con- genial to Frederick Yeager, who had no liking for fratricidal conflict and no taste for the rigors of military discipline. He fared forth to California and there engaged in mining in the Sacramento valley, with results that repaid him for his hazard in taking up frontier life. Grati- fied with his success, he returned to Missouri just before the close of the war. For a few years he engaged in buying stock, but subsequently

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settled down to a career as a farmer, in which vocation he has accumu- lated one of the best estates in his county. Frederick Yeager was an enthusiast in handling stock, a vocation for which he was peculiarly fitted. His success in this work was such that he shared the confidence of men of means who were themselves notably successful in this line. He was a man of conspicuous financial status, being a director of the Ralls County Bank of New London and a stockholder of the Frankford Exchange Bank. Mr. Yeager was a Democrat by conviction, but was not given to political activity. He died in 1905.

The second generation of the family of Frederick Yeager and his wife, née Frances Burns, consists of two sons and one daughter. Harry Yeager is engaged in mining operations about Fairbanks, Alaska. Miss Addah Yeager resides in London, Missouri, with her mother. Grover Cleveland Yeager, the special subject of this account receives detailed attention in the residue of this sketch.

The natal day of "Cleve" Yeager, as he is familiarly called by all his friends, was October 16, 1884. His birthplace was the house in which he is now residing, on the old homestead. In the school of this district and in New London, to which place his parents afterward moved, he acquired his education. His life as a farmer began before he had fully reached manhood's estate, his activities in that occupation begin- ning on the ground where his father's history had been made and his success achieved. He is now managing the family property, whose broad acres are numbered at about nine hundred. The Yeager place is one of the model farmsteads of the state of Missouri, having a water- works system which supplies the residence, the barn and the feed lots; sewer system for the house; a spacious bank barn, which was erected in 1911; and a concrete shop and garage where the farm implements are kept in repair. These modern equipments, which have been added by Cleveland Yeager himself, mark him as one of the progressive farmers of the time.

Mr. Yeager's farm is important both as pasture and as grain land. He is already known as an exceptionally successful feeder. Of partic- ular interest are his experiments with the Polled Angus "black cattle," with which he has experimented until he has demonstrated their real merit for profitable feeding. He pins his faith to calves, feeding them through the winter and putting them on the market in May. When in 1912 he shipped twenty-six head of these to St. Louis, they were found not only to weigh eight hundred pounds, but to be worthy a fancy price as finished cattle, the best furnished that year.

The Yeager estate is no less widely known as a grain farm. Its de- mand for granary room and shipping facilities led to the building at Jones' station, by Mr. Yeager in conjunction with Mr. Jones, of the present elevator conveniences. The work of Mr. Yeager's farm is done on a wage basis and its varied phases of industry give this little princi- pality an aspect of interesting activity every month in the year.

Four years ago Mr. Yeager brought a wife to share his beautiful home, in the person of Miss Lura Pryor, daughter of Dr. Channing L. Pryor, who is mentioned with detailed particulars elsewhere in this work. Since Mr. and Mrs. Yeager's marriage in 1908, one son, Frederick has been born to them.

WILLIAM PAYNE. There are few families in the central portion of the Missouri valley whose residence antedates that of the Paynes, who have been honored and useful citizens of this vicinity through several generations. The date of the Payne settlement in Howard county was 1818, three years before Missouri fully entered the Union of states.

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William Payne, representing the third generation of the family in Missouri, is one of the leading farmers and stock men of Moniteau township, and has been actively identified with this industry for about thirty years. He was born on the old plantation of his father, Richard Johnson Payne. The first of this family name in America was William Payne who came from England to the colonies in 1670, locating in the old Dominion of Virginia. In the direct line of descent from this ancestor to the Moniteau township farmer and stockman are members of the family who added lustre to the name by service as soldiers in the war of the Revolution and the War of 1812 and by a high quality of citizenship and character in all their activities. Closely related to an earlier generation of the Kentucky Paynes was the noted statesman and soldier, Richard Johnson, whose distinction it was to be the slayer of the great Indian, chief Tecumseh. John Payne, the grandfather, a Kentuckian by birth, was the founder of the family name and fortunes in the territory of Missouri in 1818.

It was on the pioneer homestead in Howard county that Richard Johnson Payne, the father, was born in May, 1825. After attaining to manhood he married Lenora Benson, a woman of many fine qualities of mind and heart, and a daughter of Zachariah Benson. Richard John Payne and wife had five children, namely: Maria, wife of William Tal- bot, of Tulsa, Oklahoma; Laura, wife of Joe Tolson, of Howard county ; William; Dr. T. J. Payne, of Fayette; and Robert W., of Fayette. The father died at the age of sixty-seven, while his wife passed away at the early age of thirty-six. They were both members of the Baptist church.

William Payne grew to manhood in Howard county, getting his education in the local public schools and finishing in Central College at Fayette. In 1883 he married Miss Nanie May Walker, who had also enjoyed the advantages of college education. Her father John Walker, was for some years a state railroad commissioner and auditor, and was a son of one of the early settlers in this part of Missouri. Mrs. Payne's mother was Eliza (Robinson) Walker.

Mr. and Mrs. Payne have two sons: John W. and Dr. R. J. Payne. John W., who was born May 25, 1886, completed his education in Cen- tral College, and on October 28, 1908, married Miss Doris E. Chinn, daughter of W. E. Chinn, of Monitean township. They have two chil- dren, Marianna Payne and John W., Jr. Dr. R. J. Payne is a graduate in medicine from the Washington University at St. Louis, where he now makes his home and had his practice. On June 4, 1902, the house- hold suffered its greatest possible bereavement in the death of the wife and mother, at the age of forty. She had been a wife of many virtues and her sons owe much of their character and success to her careful guidance and counsel.

The Payne homestead, which consists of three hundred and sixty acres, has all the attractions of a beautiful rural home in addition to being a profitable place of business. The comfortable residence, the tree-shaded lawn, the flowers, the fine landscapic surroundings all lend charm. Mr. Payne and his son raise some fine stock, and prosecute their enterprise with the same vigor and business-like management that a manufacturer would conduct a successful plant. Mr. Payne is a deacon in the Christian church, and in business relations and citizenship has always stood as a man of solid character and thorough probity.

C. G. GILBERT. Perhaps no part of Randolph county has more com- fortable farm homes or a more prosperous class of agriculturists than those to be found in Union township, the center of an extensive and fertile farming country where intelligent cultivation of the soil brings

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large and profitable returns for labor expended. Lying in this section is the farm of C. G. Gilbert, a tract of two hundred and twenty-five acres, which since 1908, in which year Mr. Gilbert took over its manage- ment, has greatly increased in value. Its owner belongs to the progres- sive class of agriculturists, to whose efforts must be given the credit for the great advance that has swept over Randolph county and other sec- tions of the country, and his intelligent efforts have materially aided in persuading other farmers of his locality to adopt scientific methods in tilling their fields. Mr. Gilbert is a native of the Prairie State, and was born February 23, 1877, in Henry county, Illinois, a son of O. A. and F. G. (Grant) Gilbert. O. A. Gilbert was born in the state of New York, and was but a boy when brought to Illinois by his parents in 1841. He was engaged in agricultural pursuits there throughout his life, and died January 17, 1899. His wife was born in Illinois, spent her life within the borders of that state, and passed away there March 17, 1904, well advanced in years.

C. G. Gilbert was one of a family of five children, all of whom are still living, and like his brothers and sisters was given the advantages of an excellent education. After completing the course in the public schools of Henry county, he was sent to college to complete his schooling, following which he returned to the home farm. There he was given the benefit of his father's experience and training as an agriculturist, and continued to remain with his parents until he became of age, at which time he rented a portion of the old homestead and started to follow farming on his own account. At the time of his father's death, Mr. Gilbert purchased the old home place, on which he carried on opera- tions until 1908, and in that year came to Randolph county and pur- chased the farm which he now owns, a tract of 225 acres, on which he has made the finest improvements. General farming has occupied the greater part of his attention, but he has also specialized in raising thoroughbred Poland-China hogs, with which he has had great success. He is a firm supporter of Republican principles and issues, and has been honored with election to several minor township offices.

On May 25, 1898, Mr. Gilbert was married to Miss Alice Middleton, and they had one daughter, Thelma A. Mrs. Gilbert died in Feb- ruary, 1906, and on May 31, 1907, Mr. Gilbert was married (second) to Miss Fern Waggoner, a native of Nebraska. Their pleasant home is situated on Moberly rural free delivery route, No. 6. Four children have been born to them : Doris Lee, born October 17, 1908 ; Helen F., born May 12, 1910; Charlie E. and Fern E. born August 1, 1912. All of them are very smart children and are the pride of their fond parents. Mr. Gilbert and family are well thought of in the surrounding com- munity, and count their friends by the score.

EDGAR WHITE was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on October 1, 1865, and is the son of Benjamin and Louise White, descendants of pioneer families of the state. Benjamin White was for a number of years a prominent wholesale grocer of St. Louis.

The early education of Edgar White was accorded to him through the public schools of St. Louis. When he was about seventeen years old the White family removed from that city to Moberly, Missouri, and there he began his connection with the newspaper business, which has held him all his life thus far. His first work was in carrying papers for the Daily Chronicle and there he learned to set type in odd moments about the shop. He afterward became connected with the plant of the Moberly Daily Monitor which was then owned and run by George B. Kelley and Robert Freeman. He carried two town routes for the

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Monitor, set type, fed presses and made himself generally useful about the premises, and afterward became foreman of the job printing de- partment. He removed to Macon in the eighties and worked for J. A. Hudson as a printer, then decided to learn shorthand. He finished his studies in that branch and in the early nineties became official court reporter for the Second Judicial District. For a matter of ten years he held that position under Judges Andrew Ellison and N. W. Shelton. Since 1900 Mr. White has been news editor of the Macon Re- publican, in addition to which he does considerable in the way of short story writing. He has been a contributor to the Criterion of New York City, Holland's Magazine of Dallas, Texas, the Blue Book and Advance of Chicago, the magazine section of the Los Angeles Times and Boston Globe, Illustrated Sunday Magazine of Buffalo, Sports Afield of Chicago, The Green Bag of Boston, the Christian Endeavor World of Boston, the Commercial Travelers' Magazine of Springfield, Massachusetts, the Sterling Magazine of St. Louis, besides the magazine section of several daily papers. Many of Mr. White's fiction articles have the coal mining industry as a basis, and to obtain specific knowl- edge of the subject he has made several trips through the large coal mines. Mr. White also compiled and wrote the history of Macon county, which is an interesting and authentic work, most attractive in subject matter and in its appearance. Mr. White is unmarried.

DAVID M. PROCTOR. Having spent many years in an active farming life in northeastern Missouri, David M. Proctor is now resting on his laurels, and is enjoying the quietude of a retired life at his home in Monroe City. His life has been a busy one, full to the brim with the various interests that a successful farmer must know how to handle, and when he retired from the agricultural world, he left behind an enviable reputation as a farmer and a reliable business man.

David M. Proctor was born near Philadelphia, Marion county, Mis- souri, on the 26th of April, 1842. He is. the fourth child to grow to maturity of Columbus Proctor, who settled in that locality in 1833. A further acount of the life of Columbus Proctor is given elsewhere in this work. David M. Proctor was sent to the district school, but his ambition did not permit him to be satisfied with this amount of educa- tion and he attended a private school for a time and also was a student at Bethel Baptist College of Palmyra. Upon the completion of his education he became a teacher himself and during the course of the Civil war taught a term of school in Marion county. In 1864 he went to Kentucky and there in Bath county taught until the summer of 1865.

Not being of a warlike turn of mind he decided that he would play the wiser part not to participate in the war and so remained neutral during the struggle between the North and South. When he went to Kentucky, the trend of the war had moved further east and south and it was evident that the Confederacy was doomed. During the summer of 1865 he returned home to take up the management of the farm which the death of his father had caused to devolve upon him. He speedily settled into his place in the community and until 1896 was an active and energetic agriculturist.

Mr. Proctor was an advocate of the "strenuous life" and whether he was out in the fields helping with the actual labor of the farm, or planning the management of the place, he was alive to everything that went on around him and earned a reputation for being a man who was always on the alert. He farmed in a systematic way, and his methods brought him recognition among his fellows as one of the best stock raisers and feeders, as well as agriculturists in the county. The farm

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which comprises some four hundred acres lies not far from Philadelphia.

In his political relations, Mr. Proctor, cast his ballot in favor of Democracy. He was always ready to serve his party when called upon, but this service was only as a member of the central committee of Marion county. He was reared in the Baptist church and has always been a firm supporter of this church. He is a member of the Bethel Association and for many years served as superintendent of the Sun- day school of this association. His brother, James M. Proctor was treas- urer of this association during almost the whole of his life time and upon his death David M. Proctor succeeded to the office.

Mr. Proctor was married in December, 1865, to Miss Emma J. Redd, a daughter of John T. Redd, who was for many years judge of the cir- cuit court of this district. Mrs. Proctor died in November, 1896, leaving the following children: Alice B. is the wife of Frank M. McPike, a farmer of Marion county. C. S. lives in Hazen, Arkansas, and was mar- ried to a Miss Pegg. Reverend John T., who was educated at William Jewel College and in the University of Chicago. He is now a missionary at the Baptist church in China, having first gone there in 1896. He spent several years as president of the Shanghai Baptist College and is married to Nellie Burt, of Kansas City, Missouri. Edward M. is a lumberman of Carlyle, Arkansas, and is married to Miss Fannie For- cythe. David M., Jr., married Miss Loraine Owen and lives in Hazen, Arkansas. Elizabeth E. died in Stuttgart, Arkansas, the wife of B. J. Underwood. Mable Proctor is a teacher in the schools of Dixon, Illinois and George W. married Miss Elizabeth Batty and resides in Des Arc, Arkansas, where he is engaged in the lumber business. After the death of his first wife Mr. Proctor married again in February, 1898. His second wife was Elizabeth Phillips, and their marriage took place in Monroe county. His wife is the daughter of J. H. C. Phillips, for- merly a resident of Kentucky and at the time of her marriage with Mr. Proctor she was the widow of Griff Williams. Mr. and Mrs. Proc- tor were young people of the same neighborhood before the Civil war.

ROY MCFARLAND. One of the proprietors of the Monroe Milling Company is Mr. Roy McFarland, a record of whose career is of special interest, both on his own account and because of the commercial promi- nence of his late father, Easton McFarland. In Roy McFarland are blended the lines of two old families of this section of.the United States -the McFarlands and the Cassadays. His paternal grandfather, Will- iam McFarland, came to Marion county, Missouri, in the second decade of the nineteenth century. Here he married Julia Easton and settled near Palmyra, where he reared a goodly family. William McFarland died while comparatively young; but his widow lived for many years afterward, her demise occurring in Hannibal. Their sons and daughters were the following: Julia, who never married; Fannie, who became Mrs. Walter Shannon, who was subsequently a second time married and who as Mrs. Keaton, spent her last days near Lebanon, Missouri ; and Marion, John, Christopher, Mary Jane, Elizabeth, William, Elliott, Easton, all are deceased.

Easton McFarland grew to manhood in his native home, near Pal- myra, Missouri. He passed the period of the Civil war without taking part in its conflict and always avoided politics as an element in his program of life. He was a Democrat in his economic convictions and was connected with the Methodist Episcopal branch of the church, South. It was through his marriage that the McFarland and Cassady families were united. Very well known in Kentucky was the patriarchal ancestor of the latter family; he was the son of an Irishman, whose

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name retained its earlier form-"Cassaday;" his home was eighteen miles from Louisville and he lived to the remarkable age of one hun- dred and eight. His grandson, James Cassady, was one of the pioneers of Marion county, Missouri. His wife had been a Miss Hinton and she bore him several children, some of whom have been prominent in Monroe county. Delia Cassady-Wadsworth, Christopher C. Cassaday and Kit- tie Cassady-Tooley are all well known here and are elsewhere noted in these pages. Susan Cassady-McFarland was born in 1848 in Marion county, Missouri, and her union with Easton McFarland took place in 1871. The children who were born to them were named Marion, Roy, Byron and James. Mr. Marion McFarland resides at Rensselaer, Mis- souri ; Byron McFarland is a farmer of Monroe City ; James McFarland is one of the partners at the mill. The second of the three sons was Roy McFarland, to whom this review is dedicated. He was born on. May 15, 1874, in Ralles county, Missouri.

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A history of northeast Missouri, Vol. 2 pt 2, Part 90

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