A history of northeast Missouri, Vol. 2 pt 2, Part 92

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

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1903

HISTORY OF NORTHEAST MISSOURI

Few men have made better use of their time and talents than did James Marion Proctor, Sr. He seemed endowed with a bent for suc- cessful trading and dealing in stock and his estate always had all the cattle it would support, while his feed lofts were never short of material finishing for the markets of St. Louis or Chicago. He bought out his neighbors and pushed his boundaries so far distant from each other that they encompassed a tract of fourteen hundred acres. In about 1875 he purchased a cow and calf of the Hereford stock and started a business which grew to be one of the most important auxiliaries of his farm, and which were the first White Faces to be brought into Northeast Missouri. He became a member of the American Hereford Breeders' Association, and was connected with it at the time of his death. Besides his varied interests here, Mr. Proctor joined his brothers and James S. Scott in the formation of the Monroe Cattle Company and bought a ranch of several thousand acres of cheap land in Haskell county, Texas. The company conducted an extensive ranch business for a number of years and when it was dissolved he took several thousand acres of the ranch in lieu of his share of the assets. He held this land when he died, and its continued increase in value added much wealth to his already vast estate. He left the farm about 1900 and took up his residence in Monroe City. Here he continued to direct his affairs, among which was his interest in the Monroe City Bank, of which he was a director. He was a Democrat and in 1896 went with the "Sound Money" wing of the party. He was a charter member of the Baptist church of Monroe. He was a quiet man, of some reserve in his manner, and ever slow to engage in a discussion of any sort, while seldom known to initiate one.

In 1850 Mr. Proctor married Miss Ellen K. McPike, a daughter of James McPike, and he died on June 5, 1910. His widow died January 6, 1913. Their children were Ellen M., the wife of Henry Russell Brown, of Winchester, Kentucky; Thomas J., a stock commission man of Chi- cago; Zech C., who is engaged in the same business at that place; Anna, the wife of Mrs. A. T. Baker, of Fort Worth, Texas; James M., Jr., of this review; Mrs. Alma Vaughn, of Monroe City; Martha, the wife of James M. Johnson, of Monroe City ; and David M., of the law firm of Borland, Pugh & Proctor, of Kansas City.

James McPike Proctor was born February 14, 1871, and finished his education with his graduation from LaGrange College in 1891. He spent some time in the office of a commission company as a bookkeeper and then engaged in the dry goods business in Monroe City in partner- ship with Aaron Boulware, under the firm name of Boulware & Com- pany. In 1896 he formed a partnership with his father and became the active man in the management and cultivation of the family farm and ranch, where he has since been busy. His efforts are largely upon the same order as those of his father as a trader and feeder, and some- thing like thirty-five cars of cattle go to market from the old Proctor place yearly. He goes extensively into hay and grain raising, and further is coming to be known in the market as a dealer in mules.

Mr. Proctor is not in politics, and is not a member of any. fraternal organization.

In June, 1893, Mr. Proctor was united in marriage with Miss Minnie Wallace, a daughter of Robert M. Wallace, publisher of the LaGrange Democrat, one time representative in the legislature and ex-secretary to Colonel Hatch, when the latter was a member of congress. Mr. Wal- lace married Hattie Downing and they reside now in Alhambra, Cali- fornia. Their children were: Mrs. Proctor; Leo ; R. Bruce and Donald. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Proctor are Lucile W., a senior in the high school in Monroe City ; Vivian H. and Hattie.

1904

HISTORY OF NORTHEAST MISSOURI

DANIEL K. YOWELL. One of the largest farmers, and at the same time one of the most successful business men of Monroe county, Missouri, is Mr. Daniel K. Yowell, whose fifty-six years have been spent in this state and most of whose commercial activity has been centered in Monroe City. Like so many of Missouri's leading families, that of Mr. Yowell is one of Virginia origin, so far as its history in America is concerned.

It was in 1834 that John B. Yowell, subjeet's father, came from Culpeper county, Virginia, with his young family, to this section of the country. In pioneer fashion he traveled across the then youthful states east of the Mississippi. He purchased the land now known as the Dennis Thompson farm, near Stoutsville. He and his wife are frequently recalled to memory by the memorial stone dedicated to their memory in the Thompson cemetery. The children of their family in- cluded the six who shared the journey from Virginia to Missouri and the three who were born in the latter state. They are as follows: The sons, John, William and Thay; the daughters, Clarissa, later Mrs. Hen- derson; Franees subsequently Mrs. Dennis Thompson, and Harriet, after- ward Mrs. Thomas Hardwiek ; the son Robert; and the daughters, Emma, now Mrs. John Nolen; and Mary, who is Mrs. William Nesbitt.

The eldest of that pioneer family, John B. Yowell, was he who became the father of Daniel K. Yowell. Born in Virginia in 1815, John Yowell obtained sufficient education to make him a successful farmer and inherited a disposition of mind and character which made him a citizen of superior quality. During his whole life he maintained his household as a farmer and never in all that time did he incur obliga- tions which he could not meet. His heart was always tuned in sympathy with humanity and his kindness will be related while there is a man alive who knew him. He was a universal peacemaker, seeing to it that hostile neighbors settled their differenees and that social disorder in the community was minimized. While the Civil war was raging, he saw to it that no soldier's widow-nor his wife, if he were in the army- suffered for the lack of food in his neighborhood. At every Thanks- giving time he loaded up the wagon, hitched up the oxen and sent his son Dan on an errand of mercy and charity toward the "war widows" in his reach. His attitude toward his fellow-men marked John B. Yowell as a Christian citizen. He was, moreover, a member of the Iron- side or Hard-shell Baptist church, having a deep interest in the work of the faithful preachers of that earnest sect, whose meetings during the primitive period were held at the dwellings of the church brethren. Whatever the trials of any situation, the good nature of John B. Yowell shone out and cheered and comforted his friends. His jokes were always ready and no occasion seemed so serious to him that he eould omit on opportunity to appeal to the humor of one's nature. When on his death-bed and surrounded by the numerous friends who had called to be with him for the last time, he declared that if he had known he was so popular he would have run for congress. When he died, in 1881, the community in which he lived suffered the loss as a deeply personal one. His example impressed itself upon the hearts of his children and now lives in the hearts of his grandchildren. His life's mate was Mary A. Turner Yowell, who was a daughter of Charles Turner and Susan Lear Turner, the father a primitive Baptist preacher and one of the first settlers of Hannibal. The children of John B. Yowell and Mary Turner Yowell were as follows: Ella, who is Mrs. John W. Ragsdale, of Monroe county ; Daniel K., to whom this article is dedicated ; Della, who became Mrs. Neal Ragsdale and whose demise occurred at Shelbina, Missouri; Edward, of Ely, Missouri ; Jennie, who is Mrs. Marsh McGraw, of Gordon, Nebraska; and J. Orrin, who married Gertrude Searcy and who died in 1901, leaving three children.

1905

HISTORY OF NORTHEAST MISSOURI

Daniel K. Yowell, second child and eldest son of the above-named family, was born on January 24, 1856, and was given education in the country school. His school bench was the proverbial "slab" of the pioneer day and his desk the rough lumber of the saw mill, rudely fashioned. Three months of the year was then considered a good session of school and the country boy who secured so much as that considered himself fortunate indeed.

When Dan K. Yowell became a man he continued in the calling which as a boy he had practiced with his father. Never has his life been without the substantial interests of the husbandman. His agri- cultural land holdings have steadily increased, and although Mr. Yowell is now a resident of Monroe City, his property in lands is larger than ever. Of his two farms aggregating 1,240 acres, one is a body of 800 acres within a mile of Monroe City, and constitutes one of the most productive tracts in this section. It is that same property which some years ago was known as the John A. Wood Hereford Feeding and Breed- ing farm and was noted far and wide as the leading Hereford stock farm of Missouri.

In 1900 Mr. Yowell engaged in the real-estate business in Monroe City, buying and selling on his own account and also doing a commis- sion and brokerage business in real estate. He has recently become identified with valuable mineral deposits on the Ponduray river, above Spokane, Washington, in a field which promises a sensation in mineral discoveries with the extension of transportation to the ore belt. He is a stockholder of the Monroe City Bank and holds the distinction of being able to see all four sides of a proposition before he pronounces upon its merit. No deal he has ever made for himself has failed to produce a profit.

A decidedly creditable family of children and grandchildren have, with the passing of the years, been added to the felicities of Mr. Yowell's life. In April of 1879, he married Miss Susan Styles, a daughter of Captain Styles, a Virginian. They became parents of a son, but the young mother died in 1882. The boy, named Emmet Yowell, grew to manhood, became a merchant of Monroe City, married Miss Minnie Willis and became the father of the following children: J. D .; Eugenia ; Stella May, who is Mrs. Edward O'Donnel of Spokane, Washington ; and J. Marvin, of Littleton, Colorado. The second wife of Daniel K. Yowell was before her marriage Miss Pauline Leean Young, a daughter of Hiram and Sophie Young, and a sister of H. Price Young, of Marion county. The children who have been born to Daniel K. Yowell and Pauline Young Yowell are three in number: Dr. D. A. Yowell is a resident of Virginia, Illinois; his wife, nee Rena Stribling, is a grand- daughter of Robert Hall, who owned the town site of that city, and whose connection with prominent families of Virginia's early period is evidenced by the fact that he has in his possession the set of dental instruments used by General Washington and the furniture made espec- ially for the reception of General La Fayette on his visit to the United States in 1824. The second child of Mr. and Mrs. Yowell is their daughter, whom they named Mabel, and who is now Mrs. Lambert Hagan, of Monroe City ; Ray E. Yowell is the youngest and has recently made his debut into the business arena of Monroe City, after passing through the public and high schools of this place.

WILLIAM LEE ELY, who is the state agent . of the Insurance Com- pany of North America, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is a native product of Ralls county, Missouri, and was reared in and about Monroe county. His birth took place on the 9th of May, 1864, and he was

1906

HISTORY OF NORTHEAST MISSOURI

educated in the public schools and the Monroe county Institute, one of the favored schools of his youthful years, historic and high class. Mr. Ely is the sole heir of James K. Ely, a retired business man of Monroe City, and a representative of one of the first families to settle in Ralls county. The father was born in Ralls county on the 23d of November, 1844, and educated in the schools of his community. He gained some experience in military tactics as a youth, and, reared as he was under the strictest of slave-holding ideas, it was to be expected that he should take sides with the South when secession troubles arose. He joined a company which made up a part of General Price's army and took part in the Battle of Lexington, and other engagements of equal importance. He served out his term of enlistment, then re- turned to his home on the farm and continued in that life until 1882, when he came to Monroe City and engaged in the lumber business. Subsequently, he moved to Vandalia and became absorbed in the same business. Retiring from his connection with that industry, he returned to his former home in Monroe City, since which time he has been prac- tically a retired citizen. He is a man of quiet instincts, content to assume a modest share in the city government, and has never been a factor in local politics. He votes the Democratic ticket, and has for years been an elder in the Christian church. He was the son of Ben- jamin Ely, born in Mason, Kentucky, on January 25, 1801, coming to Missouri with his father, Isaac Ely, in 1821. Isaac Ely, also, was a native Kentuckian, born there on August 27, 1775. He settled on Salt river in Missouri when Ralls county was yet unknown as such, but was still a mere stretch of frontier country, and there he entered land from the government and became the proprietor of a large body of land. In 1855 he was elected county judge and two years later death called him from the activities of this life. Isaac Ely was one of the first Democrats, and he cast his first presidential vote at the election of the second pres- ident of the United States. He was a primitive Baptist and owned some twenty-five slaves in his life time. He married Mary Judy on October 14, 1798, and she died on the 13th day of September, 1823, when she was forty-five years of age, having been born on March 20, 1778. These worthy pioneers were the parents of ten children, con- cerning whom but brief data may be here entered: Sarah, the eldest, was born on the 11th of November, 1799, and married Stephen Scobee; Benjamin, born September 28, 1801, and married Martha B. Layne; John, born September 5, 1802, married Sarah Fike; Elizabeth, born February 16, 1804, married Aaron Boyce; William, born November 11, 1805, married Rebecca Utterback; Jane, born November 8, 1807, died as Mrs. George Strode; Cynthia A., born September 14, 1809, was the wife of Joe Rackaby ; Aaron F., born June 29, 1811, took Emily J. Utterback for his wife; David A., born August 30, 1815, married Re- becca J. Goodwin, and Mary A., born February 4, 1818, became the wife of J. S. Strode.

Benjamin Ely was the father of children as follows: Mary J., who was born January 11, 1826, and married Blueford Bethel; Isaac was born June 20, 1827, and married Julia Elliott; John J. was born Octo- ber 5, 1828, married Ann L. Hume; Benjamin, born September 30, 1830, married Susan M. Liter; Susan E. was born Setpember 29, 1835 and married Thomas M. Alexander; Stephen D., born January 25, 1838, married Mary E. Leister; David A. was born April 5, 1840, and he married Louisa A. Moss; James K. married the daughter of Jacob and Annie (Hostetter) Roland on August 7, 1863, and Eugene L., the youngest of the family, born March 6, 1850, married Emma Adams.

As mentioned previously, the subject was the sole child of James K.

1907

HISTORY OF NORTHEAST MISSOURI

Ely and his wife. William Lee Ely began business life as manager of the lumber interests of the Hannibal Saw Mill Company, at Monroe City, and when he severed his connection with that concern went to the LaCrosse Lumber Company as its manager at Nebo, Illinois. He was transferred, after a time, to Mexico, Missouri, and there eventually terminated his identification with the lumber industry.

In 1894 Mr. Ely engaged in the fire insurance business in Monroe City, and on May 1, 1897, he was appointed special agent of the in- surance company with which he is now identified. He served under state agent D. R. Davenport until his resignation from the company on January 4, 1904, whereupon Mr. Ely received the vacant position by appointment, and his son became associated with him as the special agent of the company in the field.

On October 20, 1885, William Lee Ely married Miss Annette F. Stevens, a daughter of William B. Stevens, a well-known farmer and ex-county clerk of Ralls county. Mr. Stevens married Miss Berella Payne, a daughter of a pioneer family of the county, while he himself was a Maryland man and a friend of Mark Twain in Hannibal, Mis- souri. They were the parents of four children, those besides Mrs. Ely being Clara J., of Fort Worth, Texas; D. H .; and Bennie, the wife of Dr. W. H. Nugent, also of Forth Worth, Texas.

The children of William L. and Annette Ely are as follows: Arthur H., born August 15, 1886, and Lillian A. The son was graduated from the Monroe City schools, after which he took a course in Westminster college, and he is now the special agent of the Insurance Company of North America, of which his father is state agent. The daughter, who was born on February 20, 1888, married James V. Proctor, of Monroe City, on November 2, 1909.

Mr. Ely, as well as his son Arthur, are Masons of the Knight Templar degree, and the family is affiliated with the Christian church, sharing in all departments of its work. Mr. Ely has been clerk of the church of Monroe City for the past quarter century, and has done good work in that connection.

BENJAMIN G. Moss is a son of one of the first families to settle in Northeastern Missouri, and he is a farmer, like his father and grand- father before him, making his home in Monroe City. His great-grand- father, William Moss, was the ancestor who founded the family in Missouri, and he brought his househeld consisting of five sons and a daughter out from Bourbon county, Kentucky, in 1816, and made his first stop near Clarksville, Pike county, Missouri. Two years later that gentleman moved up into what is now Marion county, there enter- ing land near the present station of Ely on the Hannibal & St. Jo Rail- road, there passing his remaining years as a farmer. The old man was born in the closing years of the eighteenth century. He was a typical woodsman, keeping a pack of fox hounds in training and hunted deer and other game animals. He trapped for fur, as did many of the pioneers of the time when wild game abounded in the country, and was successful in all his undertakings. He brought his slave labor with him from Kentucky and he owned slaves when the emancipation proclamation of 1863 set them free. He reared a goodly family, as follows: John, who married Mary Lair; Matthew married Jane Mackey; Luke married Hannah Mackey; William married Eliza Mackey ; Carroll married Mary Mackey; and America, the youngest daughter, married Reason Mackey. These were all the children of Thomas Mackey, the founder of the numerous family of Clarksville and vicinity, whose son Reason, and the husband of America Moss, was

1908

HISTORY OF NORTHEAST MISSOURI

killed by a slave in the early days in Pike county,-a tragedy which is still fresh in the memories of some of the old residents.

Luke Moss was the grandfather of Benjamin G. Moss of this review. He was born in 1797, and spent his life in Marion county, passing away in 1849. He was an unpretentious farmer, a good citizen who ever withheld himself from public life and was a member of the Pres- byterian church. Matthew and William Moss passed their lives in Marion and were men of much the same style as was Luke. Carroll moved to Macon county, where he brought up his family, and many of his posterity yet may be found there.

Luke Moss's children were John A., who died in Monroe City, the husband of Hester Griffith; Mary A., who became the wife of John Stevens, a Methodist circuit-rider, who passed his life in this section of the state; Harrison W., the father of the subject, who was born in 1823 and died in 1849; Louisa J., who married Benjamin R. Thrasher, of Macon county, and spent her life there.

Harrison W. Moss passed away in the bloom of his young manhood. He possessed the normal qualifications of the pioneer country youth for the affairs of life, and he married Rebecca Ann, daughter of John Spalding, and a niece of Archbishop Spalding, who was America's Catholic delegate to Rome to the church conclave to declare the in- fallibility of the pope. John T., of Clarence, Missouri, and Benjamin G. of Monroe City, were the issue of their union. Mrs. Moss married a soldier of the Mexican war for her second husband, John A. Peyton by name, who is also deceased. Mrs. Peyton resides with her children in Clarence, Missouri. Her children by her second marriage were James A., of Mountain Grove, Missouri; Henry C., died in Oklahoma City; Kittie, the widow of John Halliburton, of Clarence, Missouri ; Susan married John D. Switzer and lives in Houston, Texas; Maggie and Mary, twin sisters, are the wives of Allen Wood and Walter Fifer, respectively, and reside in Macon and Monroe counties.

Benjamin G. Moss was born in Macon county, Missouri, on the 21st day of June, 1847, but grew to years of maturity on a farm in Pike county. He acquired a liberal education at Renssalaer Academy under the tutelage of Professor William C. Foreman, a well known teacher of fifty years ago in Ralls county. After his schooling was completed the subject taught for two terms in Randolph county, thereafter en- gaging in the merchandise business in Palmyra, Missouri. He spent City, and when he retired from mercantile life he engaged in farming in Marion county. There he owns today a large farm four and a half miles northeast of Monroe,- the place being the one known as the old Enoch Griffith farm. In recent years he has maintained his residence in this city, where he has erected one of the best residences of the - place.

Mr. Moss was married on October 16, 1872, to Miss Amadora Suter, a daughter of a pioneer Marion county settler, of the name of Verdner Suter. He was a Kentuckian and a farmer, and he married Matilda Basket, seven children being born of their union, as follows: John; Thomas; Henry ; Lizzie, the wife of Captain Henry Gillespie; Angeline, the wife of Rufus B. Safferens; Martha married George Carsons; and Amadora, the wife of Mr. Moss. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Moss are two in number: Bertha M. is the wife of Carl Jaeger, a merchant of Fayette, Missouri, and they have two .children, Moss Jaeger and Ledrue Jaeger. Walter H., married Mertie Wood, the daughter of B. O. Wood, the oldest druggist of Monroe City, and they have two children, also,-Helen W. and Lucile.

Mr. Moss has been actively identified with the Democratie politics

1909

HISTORY OF NORTHEAST MISSOURI

of this section of the state for some years, and at one time made an effort to reach the state legislature. He has frequently been included in delegations from the county to divers conventions, political, religious and otherwise, and has been a man of considerable prominence in his community. He is a member of the Baptist church, as are also other members of his family.

JUDGE WILLIAM T. RAGLAND. One of the prominent members of the legal profession in Northeastern Missouri, who has given many years to the practice of his profession in this section of the state is Judge William T. Ragland, circuit judge of the 10th judicial circuit. Born in Sharpsburg, Marion county, Missouri, on the 5th of October, 1866, he is the son of John T. Ragland, who was a teacher in the public schools of Marion county, for many years. The founder of the Rag- land family in Missouri, was the great-grandfather of Judge Ragland, Major James Ragland. This early pioneer brought his family in a great caravan of wagons, for in addition to his own family he had many slaves. He came across the country from near Versailles, Kentucky, and he settled near old Clinton, on the road from Hannibal to Hunts- ville. Here he kept a tavern, which naturally rendered him a con- spicuous figure in the community. In politics he was an old-line Whig of the Henry Clay type.

Among these children was Tolliver Ragland, who was born in Kentucky. He married into the Williams family who came from Ken- tucky as pioneers and settled in the Clinton community, his wife being Eva P. Williams, a daughter of Albert Williams. Tolliver Ragland's wife survived him many years, dying in 1905, in Monroe City, Mis- souri. After her husband's death Mrs. Ragland married a second time, becoming Mrs. William Hayden. Her children by her first marriage were Frank T. B., of Monroe City, Missouri; and John T. By her sec- ond marriage she became the mother of Eudora, the wife of George A. Hawkins, of Kansas City, Missouri; and Albetta M., who married James W. Johnson, the editor of the Fulton (Missouri) Sun. Both Tolliver Ragland and his father the Major, are buried in the old Rag- land cemetery, near Old Clinton, Monroe county.

John T. Ragland was born in Monroe county, Missouri, in 1843, and was educated in the old Renssalaer Academy, from which he was graduated. He then took up teaching as a profession and after years as a teacher in various schools throughout the county, became principal of the schools of Monroe City when it was a young town. Upon giving up teaching he engaged in farming which he followed until his death in March, 1875. During the Civil war, he was identified with the Con- federate cause for a short time. His service was not, however, of a spectacular nature, for it was given as a humble soldier of the line. He was a charter member of the Christian church in Monroe City, and was always a leading member of this congregation. In the fraternal world he was a member of the Odd Fellows and was very devoted to the interests of this order. John T. Ragland married Mary E. Jackson, a daughter of William P. Jackson, of Palmyra, Missouri. Her mother was Mary E. Sharp, a native of Virginia, while her father was born in Delaware. Mrs. Ragland died in 1889, leaving three children : William T .; J. Tandy, who became a pharmacist and died in 1892, without having married ; and Pearl, who is now Mrs. W. G. Williamson, of Monroe City.

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A history of northeast Missouri, Vol. 2 pt 2, Part 92

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