USA > Missouri > A history of northwest Missouri, Volume III > Part 111
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).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105 | Part 106 | Part 107 | Part 108 | Part 109 | Part 110 | Part 111 | Part 112 | Part 113 | Part 114 | Part 115 | Part 116 | Part 117 | Part 118 | Part 119
CHARLES R. KIRKHAM. While for more than forty years Mr. Kirk- ham has followed the routine of the efficient farmer and good citizen in the vicinity of Orrick, Ray County, he was for several years of his youth a Texas cowboy on the open ranges of that great state, and in order to lay the foundation of his present prosperity he had to work hard from the time he was fourteen years old.
Charles R. Kirkham was born in Montgomery County, Missouri, July 22, 1849. His brother, William, also of Orrick, and himself were the only children of David and Ann M. (Freeland) Kirkham. His mother died in 1850 at the age of twenty-four, and his father was again married. David Kirkham, who was born in Virginia, where his father settled on coming from England, died May 8, 1873, at the age of fifty- three. During his residence in Missouri he was chiefly engaged in the mercantile and tobacco business, having moved to Ray County in 1869. and from that time until his death bought and sold and manufactured tobacco.
Charles R. Kirkham and his brother were reared chiefly by the maternal grandparents, the Freelands, who lived in Montgomery County. His education was finished at the age of fourteen, and at six- teen he and his brother as partners began working the farm of Joe Dorton. Two years later he went to Texas, in 1869. Hardly a fourth of that state was then settled up, the rest of it being occupied by the cattlemen and the Indians and buffaloes. He worked as a cowboy on the ranches until 1873, and had some interesting experiences. Return- ing to Ray Couniy in 1873, he began his career as independent farmer by purchasing forty acres north of his present place. In 1877, after his marriage, he moved to the location which has been his home for the past forty years. He now has over three hundred and fifty acres under his management, eighty of which lie in the rich and fertile bottoms. He is a farmer who knows his business thoroughly, and while improv- ing his property to the highest point of productiveness has also put up many buildings that increase the comforts and convenience of country life. Mr. Kirkham is a democrat, is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and his wife is a member of the Christian Church.
November 9, 1875, Mr. Kirkham married Elizabeth A. Blyth, who was born just a mile west of where they now live. on October 10, 1854. They have a fine family of seven children: William II., of Richmond, Missouri ; Albert, of Ray County; Alene, wife of William Wholf, of Ray County; V. B., of Nebraska : Dallas, wife of Claud Heath, of Jack- son County, Missouri; Ross and Lillian, both at home.
Mrs. Kirkham's father, William R. Blyth, was one of the prominent
.
2038
HISTORY OF NORTHWEST MISSOURI
pioneers and large landholders in Ray County. He was born in Ten- nessee January 18, 1803, and died March 27, 1886. He was in the very advance guard of pioneers in Ray County, having arrived in 1823. He did little more than look over the country then, and went back to his native state. In 1826 he came on for permanent settlement, bringing his mother with him. He entered a tract of Government land and bought more, paying only twenty-five cents an acre for some of it. A 160 acres included in the present homestead of Mr. Kirkham was entered in 1822 by John Keeney, and was later bought by Mr. Blyth for $250, a sum that would now represent the value of only three or four acres. William R. Blyth was in every way a successful man. All his education came from his own studies, during the night hours, when he applied his mind to books by the light of a fireplace. Besides a landed proprietorship at one time comprising 1,400 acres in Ray County, he was prominent as a citizen. He served as first lieutenant in Captain Clark's company during the Black Hawk war of 1832. He represented Ray County in the Mis- souri Legislature during 1840-42 and in the State Senate from 1842 to 1846. His first wife, whom he married in 1830, was Didama Fletcher, a daughter of David and Rebecca Fletcher of Maryland. She was born June 9, 1811, and died November 3, 1845. Of her five children the two living are Mrs. Becky J. Stokes of Ray County and Thomas of Kansas City. January 5, 1848, Mr. Blyth married Leannah Riffe, who was born in Casey County, Kentucky, January 24, 1826, and died July 23, 1910, a daughter of John and Polly Riffe. Five of her nine children are living : John L., of Floyd, Missouri; Mrs. Kirkham ; Mattie, wife of L. A. Van- diver, of Orrick; Laura, wife of Charles H. Branham, of Orrick; and Robert, of Ray County. The late Mr. Blyth among other activities had at one time taught school in Ray County. He was a member of the Christian Church at the time of his death.
EVERT ENDSLEY. One of the fine farms of Ray County, near Orrick, has been under cultivation by one family more than half a century, and its present owner and proprietor, Evert Endsley, has done much to improve his ancestral acres and increase in value and productiveness a farm with which he has been familiar from his earliest recollection.
On this farm he was born November 22, 1869. His is one of the oldest families of Ray County, with a continuous residence of ninety- five years. His grandparents were John and Hannah (Wells) Endsley, who came to Ray County in 1819, the same year that Congress passed the law enabling Missouri to come into the Union of states. Ethbert Endsley, father of Evert, was born in Ray County, June 18, 1834, and died October 30, 1908. He was reared on a farm and had a career of quiet uneventfulness until 1852, when he joined in the exodus to Cali- fornia. The party with which he traveled to the gold coast went across the plains, and six months elapsed between the starting and the arrival. After five years as a miner he set out again for the states, coming by way of the Isthmus of Panama, and up the river to St. Louis and thence to Ray County. In 1864 he against went West to Salt Lake City, and from there to Montana, where he was in the early mining activities of that state, but followed business as a freighter. After a year he returned home, and thereafter the responsibilities of a Missouri farm afforded him a satisfactory outlet for his energies. He did well as a general farmer and stock raiser, acquired about four hundred and eighty acres of land, and made the breeding of Short-horn cattle a feature of his industry. He had begun farming on eighty acres situated in the midst of the timber, with only a log house to live in. He was a member of the Masonic fraternity, and politically an active democrat.
2039
HISTORY OF NORTHWEST MISSOURI
On December 27, 1857, the father married Eliza M. Vance, who was born in North Carolina April 1, 1836, and died June 8, 1873. She was the mother of nine children, and the three still living are: Alice, wife of J. M. Heilfer of Belleville, Kansas; Evert; and Fannie, wife of Jack Dudgeon, of Sibley, Missouri. September 15, 1875, Ethbert Endsley married Mary L. Owens. Five children were born of that union, and the two living are Arthur, of Ray County, and Callie, wife of Henry Coons, of Ray County.
Evert Endsley spent his boyhood on the farm, and all his education came from the local schools. The practical training of his youth served him well when he took up the independent life of a farmer, and since acquiring the homestead he has done much to improve its acres and has erected some substantial buildings. The place contains 145 acres, and is devoted to general farming.
On December 9, 1891, Mr. Endsley married Jennie Estelle Black. She is of Scotch lineage, and was born at Sharon, Mercer County, Penn- sylvania, June 9, 1873, a daughter of Frank and Jeanette (Russell) Black. Her father, who was born in Scotland June 25, 1850, was brought by his parents to America in 1854. After a year and a half spent in Maryland the family returned to Scotland, but in a short time came again to this country, locating in Knox County, Illinois. Frank Black afterwards went East from Illinois and was married in Pennsylvania, where his wife was born October 8, 1852. Later the Black family moved to Jefferson County, Kansas. Mrs. Endsley's parents are still living, and are residing in Ray County, north of Evert Endsley's farm, on a part of the Jackie Frazier farm. Mr. and Mrs. Endsley have two children : Beatrice, who was born July 10, 1896, and is at home ; and Birdie Frank- lin, born February 5, 1903.
EDGAR D. BROWN. When the roll is called of the men who have done most to add to the value, the productiveness and beauty of the Northwest Missouri country, a place of peculiar honor must be awarded to Edgar D. Brown. He had the genius and persistence for doing things that others thought impossible or impracticable. For generations thousands of acres in the Missouri bottoms have been left uncultivated, worthless to mankind, a miasmatic swamp, breeding malaria and mosquitoes. Hundreds have wished that the fertility of that land might be made available, and protected against the superabundance of moisture. But Edgar D. Brown combined vision with practical means, lost little time in dreaming, and by his individual work and leadership has reclaimed many thousand acres in Ray and Carroll counties, and has actually created a wealth that will continue to yield revenue for all the genera- tions to come.
The fact that he was born near Danville, Illinois, may have some significance, since in that district reclamation of submerged river lands was begun a number of years ago with remarkable results. He was born April 25, 1868, a son of William H. and Lydia (Lusk) Brown, was reared on a farm, attended common schools and then entered Knox College at Galesburg, but on account of ill health did not graduate. As the six sons became of age their father divided among them his property, so that each had a fair capital to begin with.
For a time Mr. Brown lived in Kansas, and then came to Missouri and began operations in the Missouri bottoms around Hardin in Ray County and Norborne in Carroll. He showed his faith in the future by purchasing some five thousand acres of swamp land. After sur- mounting some huge obstacles he succeeded in draining it, and then sold it off in small tracts. Some of the best farms in that section are
2040
HISTORY OF NORTHWEST MISSOURI
on the tract that he developed. After finishing his plans there he came to Orrick and secured a tract of 1,100 acres, in swamp and lake. He formed a drainage district, and almost the entire area is now in culti- vation, raising remarkable crops of wheat and corn. He began his enterprise at Orrick in 1906, and it was in the face of bitter opposition that he carried out his project. The same thing was true in other states when the reclamation movement began, and it was necessary partly to convince and partly to ignore the many who said the thing was im- possible. He was a man of few words and these he uttered after due deliberation and careful analysis. Therefore he made but few mistakes. He was slow in reaching conclusions, but once he had decided upon a course of action he put his shoulder to the wheel and used every art and energy to achieve success. He was a man of great foresight and planned far into the future, and reaped a golden harvest as the fruits of his perspicacity. He sought to build up, never to destroy. His life was helpful to those around him. He was a man of remarkable memory and was known as "the walking abstract," since he knew every piece of land from the beginning and had no need to consult the records. It is said that no other one man has done so much to benefit Ray and Carroll counties.
The tragic aspect of his career is that after all his successful work he passed away in prime of life on March 20, 1915, after an illness of ten months. Few men deserve a higher tribute of respect and esteem from their fellow citizens. He was a member of the Masonic order.
Mr. Brown was married in Kansas City, Missouri, to Lillie A. Bast- man. She was born in Kansas City, a daughter of K. T. and Hannah (Lidman) Bastman, both of whom were born in Sweden but lived in Kansas City thirty-five years. Mr. and Mrs. Brown are the parents of two children, William H. and Lolita.
HON. JAMES H. HULL. Platte County is the home district of James H. Hull, who will be remembered over the state at large for his services as a legislator. Mr. Hull represented his home county in the forty-fifth, forty-sixth and forty-seventh general assemblies, and during his last term was elected speaker of the house. In the forty-seventh assembly he was also chairman of the judiciary committee and a member of the committee on rules and the committee on clerical force. He was an able parliamentarian, and was one of the strong and influential men in the house.
By profession Mr. Hull is a lawyer, and has long been active in the Platte City bar. He was born at Weston, Platte County, October 20, 1861, was educated in the public schools of his native town and at LaGrange College at LaGrange, Missouri, and was graduated from the law department of Washington University, at St. Louis. Mr. Hull was prosecuting attorney of Platte County for two terms, from 1903 to 1907. Mr. Hull was married May 22, 1899, to Miss Frankie E. Wells of Platte City. She was the daughter of Hon. William C. Wells, a pioneer of Platte County. She died May 20, 1901. On September 3, 1907, Mr. Hull married Miss Jessie Wilson of St. Joseph, Missouri.
Mr. Hull has been a Mason since early manhood, a Knight Templar, a member of Mystic Shrine of Moila Temple of St. Joseph, Missouri ; also member of Knights of Pythias and Modern Woodmen. Mr. Hull and wife are active members of the Christian Church.
HON. DAVID A. CHESNUT. The present representative of Platte County in the Missouri Legislature, David A. Chesnut, has many qualifi- cations for usefulness in public life-an assured business position, ample
2041
HISTORY OF NORTHWEST MISSOURI
means, broad experience and ability, and a capacity for effective action, as well as the faculty of deliberation. The Chesnut family has been prominent in Plate County for more than half a century, and the honors of public office have been held by two generations.
David A. Chesnut is of fine old Kentucky stock, and was born at London, Laurel County, in that state, July 23, 1857, a son of William and Lucinda (Garrard) Chesnut, and grandson of Abraham and Eliza- beth (Blakely) Chesnut. The Garrards will be recognized as a historic Kentucky name. Lucinda Garrard was a granddaughter of Governor Garrard, while her maternal grandfather, Harry Tolman, served as secretary of state under Governor Garrard. Lucinda was a daughter of Daniel Garrard, who was a soldier in the War of 1812. William Chesnut was born at London, Kentucky, June 5, 1826, and died in Platte City, Missouri, March 5, 1895. He was married November 2, 1847, to Lucinda Garrard, who was born at a place called Union Salt Works, Clay County, Kentucky, December 28, 1827, and died at St. Joseph, Missouri, September 5, 1894. Their five children were: Garrard, of Kansas City ; Kate, wife of Frank G. Clemings, of Platte City; Bettie, wife of Thomas G. Cockrill, of Platte County; Delia, widow of C. O. French, of Kansas City; and David A.
Judge William Chesnut was a man who in character and activities measured up to the best conceptions of the fine old Kentucky gentleman. Well educated, he followed merchandising in Kentucky until 1859, when he brought his family to Platte County, coming by wagon and river boats, and settling on land six miles east of Platte City. He had excep- tional judgment and success in managing land and stock, and accumu- lated large tracts of farm property and other tangible wealth. At the beginning of the war he raised part of a company for Weston's Con- federate Regiment, but after a short service returned home. In Novem- ber, 1878, he was elected judge of the County Court, was re-elected in 1880 and 1882, and resigned the office March 1, 1884. During 1880-81 he was president of the Platte County Agricultural Association. In June, 1884, Judge Chesnut left the farm and moved into Platte City. He served several terms as alderman, and spent much time and his own means in improving the streets, and it is said that no one did more as an individual to that purpose than Judge Chesnut.
David A. Chesnut was reared in a fortunate environment, and has well utilized his advantages. He attended the district schools while on the farm, and later completed a commercial course in the Christian Brothers College at St. Joseph. Returning home, he became a farmer by profession. Having inherited part of his father's place, he bought the rest, and now owns more than six hundred and twenty acres, a splendid farmstead to the management of which he gives his supervision. During his active career as a farmer he made a specialty of mules and shorthorn cattle .. Since 1897 his home has been in Platte City, where he owns a fine residence. Mr. Chesnut has varied business interests, and since 1896 has been vice president in the Wells Banking Company of Platte City.
He has given valuable public service in the same office earlier held by his father. In 1906 he was elected presiding judge of the County Court, and by reelection in 1910 completed eight years of office, and then became the nominee for the Legislature, with election in November, 1914. He has always been a democrat, while his secret orders are the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.
On November 19, 1878, he married Ella Morton, who was born in Clay County, Missouri, in 1857, and died October 20, 1884, leaving one
2042
HISTORY OF NORTHWEST MISSOURI
son. This son, W. Pryor, born July 19, 1880, now lives at Fargo, North Dakota. The present Mrs. Chesnut, whom he married September 2, 1886, was Miss Maggie Dye. She was born near Weston, in Platte County, a daughter of James and Lucy J. (Guthrie) Dye. Her father, who is living at a venerable age in Weston, was born in Mason County, Kentucky, February 13, 1834, and came with his parents to Platte County in 1844. He was married October 9, 1856, to Miss Guthrie, who was born January 1, 1840, and died September 2, 1882, leaving four children. Mr. and Mrs. Chesnut have two daughters: Edna, born in 1887, is the wife of J. B. Dillingham, of Platte City; Elizabeth, born October 2, 1889, is the wife of H. R. Farnsworth of Neligh, Nebraska.
SPENCE REDMAN, M. D. Since 1850, with the exception of an interval of a few years, Platte County has always had the services of a Redman in the medical profession. One of the pioneer doctors was the late Elias C. Redman, who was a familiar figure, making his rounds in the sparsely settled district in the years before and after the war, and few of his contemporaries performed so valuable a service. Dr. Spence Redman, his son, has continued the profession and has spent more than thirty years in active practice in Platte County. In point of years, only one other physician in the county now ranks as his senior in con- tinuous service.
Dr. Spence Redman was born two miles west of Platte City, on Janu- ary 25, 1862. His father, Dr. Elias C., was born at Bardstown, Ken- tucky, May 2, 1822, and died in 1892. On November 28, 1849, he married Margaret E. Spence, who was born in Boone County, Missouri, March 16, 1821, and died in 1901. Their five children were: Annie, widow of J. M. Cockrell, of Texas; Ben R., who died March 12, 1861; Minnie, wife of Dr. J. A. Baldwin, of Fayetteville, Arkansas; Spence ; and Maggie, wife of Joseph W. Clark, of Liberty.
When Elias C. Redman was seven years old his parents moved to Ralls County, Missouri, where he grew to manhood. He was well edu- cated in the fundamentals, and in June, 1849, was graduated from the St. Louis Medical College with his degree doctor of medicine. After his marriage in the fall of the same year he sought a field for his work in the comparatively new and unsettled section of Western Missouri, locating at Platte City. His office was in town until 1860, when he removed to a farm west of town, and continued making his professional rounds until 1875. He then retired from active practice, and devoted himself steadily to his farm until 1885, when he moved into Platte City and lived there until his death. A democrat, he was much interested in politics, in behalf of good government and his friends, but never for an office himself. He was active in the Christian Church.
Dr. Spence Redman spent his early life on his father's farm near Platte City, and after attending the public schools and the Gaylord Institute of Platte City took up the study of medicine under his father's direction. His regular courses were taken in that old and high-class institution, the Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia, where he was graduated M. D. April 2, 1883. He had barely turned his majority, and with the prestige of a thorough training and a good family name returned to Platte City to make this the scene of a pro- fessional career which has had no important interruption down to the present time. For a number of years he practiced over a wide radius of country, and rode and drove over country roads in all kinds of weather, long before the telephones, good roads, and automobiles came to lighten the burdens of the doctor. His services are now given to many people whose parents were among his early patients. Doctor Redman is a man
2043
HISTORY OF NORTHWEST MISSOURI
of broad and accurate knowledge, and has an excellent professional and general library and a good office equipment. His professional asso- ciations are with the County and State Medical societies and the Ameri- can Medical Association.
Doctor Redman's first wife was Camilla S. Burnes, who died leaving two children, Margaret E. and Spence, Jr., both at home. On April 15, 1908, Doctor Redman married Myrtle Higgins, a member of one of the oldest and leading families of this section of Missouri. She was born near Parkville, in Platte County, November 14, 1880. Her grandfather, A. J. Higgins, was born in Howard County, Missouri, in 1816, five years before the admission of Missouri to the Union, and at the age of twenty-one, in 1837, became a pioneer in the Platte Purchase, recently opened for settlement. In Platte County he preempted three farms. On his father's advice, and on the understanding that he would be recompensed, he turned over two of the farms to his brothers, but owing to his father's sudden death he was left without recourse for much of his pioneer enterprise. In 1850 he began the clearing of his third farm, and lived there until his death in 1894. A. J. Higgins married Susan Gregg, who was born in Clay County, Missouri, September 28, 1823, and died August 8, 1899. The date of her birth indicates the pioneer advent of the Gregg family to Northwest Missouri. Her father was David Gregg, who in 1837 moved from Clay County to Platte County and settled on a place adjoining the Higgins farm. She was married to Mr. Higgins January 5, 1842, and became the mother of five children, three of whom are still living.
David B. Higgins, the father of Mrs. Redman, was born in Platte County, December 4, 1850, was reared on a farm, attended country school and the St. Joseph High School, and at the age of nineteen began teaching, a vocation for which he was well qualified and which he followed in various localities for ten years. After that he conducted the home farm, and in 1891 took the lead in organizing the Platte County Farmers Mutual Fire Insurance Company, in which he was elected sec- retary. With the exception of one year he has held that post ever since. In 1902 he moved from the farm to Platte City, and now gives all his time to the affairs of the company. It now has insurance in force in Platte County aggregating $2,540,000. Mr. Higgins is a member of the Masonic fraternity, and in politics a democrat. On February 7, 1878, he married Sarah M. Noland, who was born in Platte County in January, 1860, and died in 1902. Their two children are A. J., of Platte City, and Mrs. Doctor Redman.
CAMPBELL WELLS. The cashier of the Wells Banking Company of Platte City has had a purposeful career. While thirty years have been spent in active banking, Mr. Wells has had many relations outside of his private business.
Born at New Market, Platte County, Missouri, May 23, 1864, Camp- bell Wells is a son of William C. and Eliza Jane (Strother) Wells, and a grandson of William and Elizabeth (Thorp) Wells. His grand- father, who was a physician, came from Kentucky to Platte County in 1843. Back in Kentucky he had formerly been well to do, but met with business reverses, and unwilling to remain in his home county a poor man he came west to Platte County during its early development and started life anew. During the cholera epidemic in this section of Missouri he was incessant in his efforts to attend the stricken people and contracted the disease himself. While convalescent, owing to the in- sistent calls of his patients, he took up his round of duties too soon.
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.