A history of northwest Missouri, Volume III, Part 15

Author: Williams, Walter, 1864-1935 editor
Publication date: 1915
Publisher: Chicago, The Lewis publishing company
Number of Pages: 912

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Alfred N. Cave, Sr., was married in Fairfield County, Ohio, March 1, 1833, to Miss Rebecca Anderson, who died in Clinton County, Indi- ana, in 1849. Her family has many interesting relations with American history. Her great-grandfather was William Anderson, who was born in the Scotch Highlands in 1693, and because of his connection with the uprising in behalf of the Pretender, Prince James, son of James II, had to flee from Scotland about 1715. He passed through England and emigrated to Virginia, joining other refugees from the wrath of the English sovereign. With remittances from Scotland he was able to Vol. III-7

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purchase lands in Virginia and Maryland, and the records state that in 1738 he owned in Prince George County, Maryland, several plantations on Conegovhiege Manor, one of which, "Anderson's Delights," he later sold to Dr. George Stewart. of Annapolis, Maryland. Soon after his arrival in America, William Anderson, discovered far up the Potomac River a beautiful valley, in which he built a hunting lodge, and which has since been known as the Anderson Bottom. When Hampshire County, Virginia, was established, it included this bottom, which was only five miles from Fort Cumberland. William Anderson was a born soldier, had many conflicts with the Indians and was prominent in Virginia military affairs. Soon after the beginning of the French and Indian war, he recruited a company for Braddock's army, and was part of the ill-esteemed colonials who at the disastrous Braddock's Fields in Western Pennsylvania helped in a measure to retrieve the terrible defeat administered by the French and Indians to the trained British regulars. William Anderson died at Anderson Bottom in Hampshire County in 1797, having been a devout member of the Episcopal Church. He was the father of four children, and his daughter Agnes married Capt. William Henshaw.

Capt. Thomas Anderson, a son of the above and the grandfather of Mrs. Cave, was born in Berkeley County, Virginia, in 1733, and also ad- ded to the lustre of his family name in military annals. He took part in several Indian campaigns, and was with Governor Dunmore on his ex- pedition into the Ohio Valley for the subjugation of the Indians. When the Revolution came on, he entered enthusiastically into the Colonial service, and was in command of a company at Yorktown when the sur- render of General Cornwallis ended the war and made independence a fact. He married a Miss Bruce of Virginia, and all their four children were born at Anderson Bottom. Of their sons, William, Joseph and Abner took up arms against Great Britain in the war of 1812, serving under Colonel Sanderson.

Capt. James Anderson, a son of Captain Thomas and father of Mrs. Cave, was born in Hampshire County, Virginia, February 17, 1768, and although very young served for three months toward the close of the Revolution. After the war he located in Berkeley County, and became a merchant. While there Gen. Anthony Wayne was put in command of the army for the western Indian campaign, after two generals had suffered disastrous defeats at the hands of the red men. Captain Ander- son left his business, recruited a troop of horse, and joined Wayne's army, probably at Fort Cumberland, and was made an ensign. He was a great admirer of his strenuous and impetuous commander, and supported him with daring and usefulness. Having some skill in mathematics and drafting, he superintended the construction of most of the forts erected by General Wayne in the old Northwest Territory, now the states of Ohio and Indiana. He continued with the army until the final overthrow of the western Indians, and was present at the treaty of Greenville in August, 1795. At the engagement known as Fallen Timbers his gallantry won him promotion, and he was eventually commissioned a lieutenant and finally a captain. Late in life he joined several of his children in Clinton County, Indiana, and died there October 24, 1844. Capt. James Anderson married Priscilla House, and Rebecca (Anderson) Cave was one of their ten children, five sons and five daughters.

The children born to Rev. A. N. Cave and wife were : James E., who was in an Indiana regiment during the Civil war, and died at Crawfords- ville, Indiana; Hiram L., who also was with an Indiana regiment, and died near Darlington, Indiana; Priscilla J., who married Joseph Bounser

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and died at Cerro Gordo, Illinois; Alfred N., Jr .; and Elizabeth, who died at Chillicothe, Missouri, as Mrs. George Estep. Rev. Mr. Cave, Sr., after the death of his first wife married Elizabeth M. Loveless, daughter of Benjamin Loveless. She died without children at Bethany in April, 1887.

With such an inheritance, it would have been surprising if Alfred N. Cave, Jr., had not made his career one of useful service to his fellow men. Owing to the pioneer environment in which he was reared, he had limited educational advantages, and has depended largely on his own studies and reading and practical experience. His first serious work was when he became a Union soldier. He entered the army in 1861 in Company F of Merrill's Horse, the Second Missouri Cavalry, Captain Hanna being in command of the company. During the first and second years the command was in different parts of Missouri, and in the fall of 1862 went into Arkansas, participating in the engagements at Brownsville and Arkadelphia. Returning to St. Louis, the regiment was sent to Nashville, but arrived too late to take part in Sherman's campaign to the sea. The command did guard duty in Tennessee, and at the close of the war received the surrender of part of Gen. Joe Wheeler's cavalry. Mr. Cave escaped without wounds. He was sergeant of his company, and when mustered out at Chattanooga had in his pos- session Governor Fletcher's commission as second lieutenant.

In August, 1865, on his return home Mr. Cave began farming in Harrison County, and continued this business in Harrison County until 1878, when he moved out to Kansas and spent two years in Republic County. On returning to Missouri he located in the vicinity of Bethany, and has had his home permanently in this community for over thirty years. Like his father, he has identified himself with church work, and has been known in this part of Missouri as a local preacher and in circuit work for many years. Politically he is a republican, and while politics has never been a hobby with him, he was honored in 1900 with election to the office of county treasurer, and gave four years of capable admin- istration of its affairs. He succeeded James Selby in the office. Since the war he has enjoyed many pleasing associations with old comrades, and about 1882 became a member of the Grand Army, has served as commander of T. D. Neal Post, No. 124, and attended one national Grand Army encampment, that at Chicago.

On January 1, 1866, Mr. Cave married Miss Martha E. Meek, who was born in Wabash County, Indiana, and came to Missouri in 1856. Her father, George W. Meek, married Mary E. Shockey, and they lived for many years on a farm in Sherman township, and both are buried in the Fairview Cemetery in same township. Mr. Meek was also a minister of the United Brethren Church. Their children were: Mrs. Cave, born October 31, 1846; Griffith, who died in Harrison County ; Sarah A., who died unmarried; Malinda E., who married John L. Cole, of Bethany; Henry, who lives in Oklahoma; Abram, who died at Enid, Oklahoma, leaving a family; Reverend Paschal, of Blue Ridge, Missouri ; Ruey M., wife of William Parnell, of Mountain View, Oklahoma; and Emma J., wife of David Joseph, of Elk City, Oklahoma.

The children of Mr. and Mrs. Cave are: Ollie M., who married William H. Swain, of Bethany, and is the mother of Marie; Rebecca Anna, who married David Bartlett of Harrison County, and is the mother of Alva and Kathryn; Miss Mary, a teacher; Eldora Lillie, wife of James Tippet, of Bethany, and the mother of Paul and Louis; and Etta May, who married Edwin Woodlin, of Kent, Washington, and has one child, Retta.

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WILLIAM AVERY MINER. Conspicuously identified with the lumber and banking interests of Harrison County, William Avery Miner has grown into this situation and a condition of independence during a period of thirty years and as a result of his earnest efforts and the sheer weight and force of his characteristics. He has ever belonged to that class of men who accomplish something worth while each day of their lives and this always tells forcibly in the sum total of a finished career. Mr. Miner has been a Missourian since his advent to the state in 1881. He followed his brother, Edgar S. Miner, here, to engage in the lumber business, and did so as a subaltern where salaries were not large or robust. While he had no capital, it was really the opportunity he was most in need of and he began right where the finger board of circumstances pointed out the highway of opportunity. Notwithstand- ing there was no tangible evidence indicating large results at the end of a long career where he started, yet the student of conditions saw clearly the outcome for one in control of a given territory to be pro- vided with the building material necessary to improve and develop it in accord with the modern method of homemaking. Seeing this situa- tion as the Miner brothers did, and being favored by the presence of a "friend at court" with the capital, in the person of B. M. Frees, of Chicago, Illinois, the application of their abundant industry was easily and readily encouraged to enter a combination for business which has ramifications over much of Northwest Missouri.

Mr. Miner is a contribution to Missouri from the State of Wiscon- sin, having been born at Brodhead, Green County, May 8, 1861. He was reared at Monroe and educated in the high school there, and grew up in the home of a scholarly and intellectual father, and this fact had its influence in shaping the intellectual training of the son. When the guiding spirit of the home converted its professional atmosphere into a business one, the young man again profited in lessons of trade which capitalized his life, as it were, for an independent career.

The Miners belong to one of the old New England families. Rev. Samuel Elbert Miner, father of William Avery Miner of this review, went into Wisconsin during its pioneer days, well equipped with educa- tional and other qualities which rendered his labors effective among the early builders of that commonwealth. Being a minister, he set about preparing the way for an effective campaign in the spreading of the Gospel, with establishing congregations and building churches, having caused the erection of the First Congregational Church, at Madison, the capital of the state. He was chaplain of the first constitutional con- vention of the state and his pastoral work was carried on for a period of many years. During his long and effective labors, he had at various times charge of the Congregational churches at Madison, Elkhorn, W.yo- cena, Brodhead and Monroe, but in his later years he gave up his minis- terial work and engaged in the retail lumber business. Reverend Miner was known not only in the affairs of the church and in business in his state, but in politics as well. His Yankee birth and rearing set his heart unalterably opposed to human bondage and when the question of the abolishment of slavery came to be agitated his radicalism placed him with the Abolitionists of his state. During the period of the Civil war he was appointed a member of the Sanitary Commission, and his duties took him into the South where Wisconsin troops were fighting the bat- tles of the Union, and when the Emancipation Proclamation was issued and the war entered upon a campaign to free the slaves he consented for his two sons, not yet of military age, to take their places in the ranks, and one of them lost his young life on the bloody field of Gettys- burg.

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Rev. Mr. Miner was born at West Halifax, Vermont, in December, 1815, and had a long line of New England ancestors who were factors in the colonial life of Stonington and Groton, Connecticut. His father was Samuel Holman Miner and his mother was Anna Avery, both born while the colonies were struggling for independence. The latter was a daughter of Capt. Thomas Avery, a first lieutenant in the First Con- necticut Regiment of Revolutionary troops. Samuel Holman and Anna (Avery) Miner were the parents of nine children, several of whom lived beyond the years of "three score and ten," and one of them passed the century mark of time. Rev. Samuel Elbert Miner married Maria C. Kelley, who died in July, 1861, and their children were as follows: Charles E., who died in the uniform of his country at Gettysburg, as a member of Colonel Custer's famous Seventh Michigan Cavalry, and is . buried in the National Cemetery there; Edgar S., of Bethany, Missouri ; Mrs. Richardson, of Gilman City, Missouri; Mrs. B. F. Baker, a resi- dent of Clear Lake, Iowa; Mrs. F. W. Stump, of Redfield, South Dakota; and William Avery, of this review.

William Avery Miner began his life in Missouri as a clerk in the Bethany yard of the Miner-Frees Lumber Company. This was the first unit of this concern's system of yards and was established there just ahead of the advent of the railroad to the county seat. When the road passed on to New Hampton, Mr. Miner followed and opened a yard for the company there, remaining until 1885 when the company purchased the yard at Ridgeway and he established himself at the latter point. Although the community had passed its fifth birthday it was still a "wooden town" and had some 260 people and the pioneer of them, S. D. Rardin, is still a factor in the social life of the place.

Upon coming to Ridgeway Mr. Miner embraced the opportunity to share in the profits of the Miner-Frees concern and invested what capital he had accumulated on salary and thus secured a foothold which made the results of his labor more effective to himself. It is due to the per- sistent efforts of the Miner brothers that the Miner-Frees Company has forged ahead and is supplying the building demand in their line over a large area of this part of the State of Missouri. Their ten yards are located in Harrison, Gentry, Grundy and Daviess counties and each of the brothers has brought up his family in Harrison County and builded substantially and participated forcefully in the towns in which they reside. Besides his commodious house at Ridgeway, William A. Miner has been the builder of two brick structures among the substan- tial business houses here and his contributions otherwise in the life of the town have been liberal and frequent, including the platting of Miner's Addition, the Fairview Addition and the Sunnyside Addition to the town.

In the field of banking, Mr. Miner has been almost a pioneer in Har- rison County. In June following his advent to Ridgeway, Miner Broth- ers & B. M. Frees started a private bank at Ridgeway known as the Ridgeway Exchange Bank. It was capitalized at $5,000 and William A. Miner was the cashier, with Ellis F. Hopkins, who subsequently be- came cashier, as bookkeeper. The institution started with a fire and burglar proof safe located in the lumber office, where it remained until 1902 and in that year the brick building which houses its successor was erected. In December, 1902, the Ridgeway Exchange Bank had a paid up capital of $15,000, and a surplus of $3,000, at which time it was converted into the First National Bank of Ridgeway, with a paid up capital of $30,000, and a list of more than thirty stockholders. In June, 1914, the bank increased its capital to $60,000 from earned sur- plus. When the bank was nationalized, Mr. C. C. Fordyce was chosen

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its president, and when he retired from that position in March, 1914, William A. Miner became his successor and still retains that office. Mr. Hopkins was succeeded as cashier by H. Ray Tull, and Mr. M. F. Neff has been vice president since its organization, while Mr. J. L. Chambers is assistant cashier and Mr. G. R. Bridges is bookkeeper. Mr. Miner is a stockholder of the Bank of Coffey, Missouri, and of the Bank of Mount Moriah, this state. Fraternally he has taken the York Rite degrees in Masonry, and is a member of Moila Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., St. Joseph.

Mr. Miner was married in Harrison County, Missouri, in March, 1883, to Miss Martha A. Spencer, who was one of the county teachers of that day. She was born in Harrison County and her father was John Spencer, one of the early settlers of Bethany and one of the officers of a pioneer log church of the town. Mr. Spencer came to Missouri from Muskingum County, Ohio, as a child and grew up around Pattonsburg where his parents had settled. He married Rachel Alley, whose father came to Harrison County in 1844 from Indiana, when this was still a part of Daviess County and when she was a child of nine years. The Spencer children were as follows: Mrs. Sarah E. Young, of Kansas City, Kansas; Mrs. Martha A. Miner; Mrs. Susan A. Tull, of Ridgeway, Missouri ; and G. William, a resident of the town of Bethany.

The children of Mr. and Mrs. Miner have been as follows: Charles F., who resides at Ridgeway; Elbert S., who is associated with the Miner-Frees Company, a graduate of the law department of the Uni- versity of Missouri, class of 1907, married Miss Clella Bunch and has a son, William A., Jr .; and Erwin Avery, who was educated at Missouri Valley College and in the State University, and is an aid in the business of his father.

HON. BENJAMIN MOORE Ross. Through a long, eventful and active career, Hon. Benjamin Moore Ross, presiding judge of the district court of Gentry County, has been engaged in a variety of pursuits, all con- nected with the growing mercantile, agricultural and financial interests of this part of Northwest Missouri, where his signal services in public life have made him one of the conspicuous figures of his community. Born December 18, 1859, near Stanberry, Gentry County, Missouri, he is a son of John Adam and Margaret (Bradford) Ross, the former of whom was born in Nova Scotia, June 27, 1830.

John James Ross, the grandfather of Judge Ross, was a deep sea fisherman of Nova Scotia until his removal in 1839 to Ohio, where he worked for wages for one year and then made his way west with his family by boat to St. Louis, thence to St. Joseph, and on inland to Gentry County, Missouri, at that time a territory partly covered with timber. By reason of his Canadian training, Mr. Ross sought' timber lands for his locality, as a protection from the winter cold, and thus he was able to raise a crop the first year. He continued to develop and cultivate his farm until the outbreak of the Civil war, when he secured a lieutenant's commission in the Union army, serving under Captain Stockton until receiving his honorable discharge at the close of hostili- ties, and at that time returning to his rural home, where he resided until 1872. In that year he erected a residence on the property of his son, Samuel C. Ross, and there passed the remaining years of his life.

John Adam Ross was a lad of ten years when he came to Missouri, and his education was secured in an early public school in Albany, Missouri. He was married in 1853 to Margaret Bradford, who died in 1861, at the age of thirty-four years, and they became the parents of these children : Mrs. Savannah J. Floyd, of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma ;

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John B., of Baldwin, Kansas; Judge Benjamin Moore, of this review; and Mrs. Mary F. Witten, of Washington, D. C. Mr. Ross took for his second wife Martha Howell, who resided near Albany, Missouri, and they became the parents of children as follows: James H., of St. Joseph, Missouri; George A., of Washington, D. C .; William Francis, of St. Joseph; Mrs. Ella Coffey, of Stanberry; Mrs. Myrtle Williams, of Marshall, Missouri; Mrs. Martha R. Garman, of Denver, Colorado; Mrs. Ollie R. Bray, of Denver, Colorado; Mrs. Esther Harlin, of Moberly, Missouri; and Thomas A., of Stanberry.

Benjamin Moore Ross attended the country schools until 1879, in which year he entered Grand River College, which institution he attended five years, taking a complete academic course. This was supplemented by a course in the Stanberry Normal School, and thus excellently equipped, in 1884 he entered upon his career when he purchased the stock and good will of Thomas Peery, of Albany, forming a partnership. This partnership was continued until 1886, when Mr. Ross entered the Farmers and Mechanics Bank, as bookkeeper, and continued to be thus engaged until 1888, when he turned his attention to agricultural pur- suits, and moved to his father's farm, there remaining for eleven years. In 1899 Mr. Ross purchased an interest in the live stock commission business of Johnson & Sage, and was actively engaged with this St. Joseph firm until May, 1901, when he returned to Stanberry and began to operate the farm close to this town, land which he had acquired jointly with his father. Here he has carried on extensive general farm- ing operations and has also been a leading breeder of and dealer in live stock, shipping several carloads each year to the markets. Mr. Ross is interested in financial matters as president of the Farmers and Mechanics Bank of Stanberry, one of the substantial institutions of Northwest Missouri, and is known as a banker of good judgment, fore- sight and acumen. He bears an excellent reputation in commercial cir- cles, and is held in the highest confidence by his business associates. Long a prominent and active democrat, Judge Ross became his party's candi- date for the district judgeship in 1908, to which office he was elected, and in 1910 took his present place on the bench as presiding judge. As a jurist he has been conscientious and impartial, greatly adding to the reputation secured by him in business circles. He has always been found at the forefront in movements which have been proposed to benefit the community in any way, and has given freely of his time, influence and means in their support. Fraternally, Judge Ross is con- nected with the Masonic Order, being a valued member of Stanberry Blue Lodge No. 34.

Judge Ross was married at Albany, Missouri, January 27, 1886, to Miss Callie B. Hunter, daughter of John J. and Margaret (Moke) Hun- ter, of Paris, Illinois. who came to Gentry County, Missouri, in 1850, and became the owners of a large tract of valuable farming land. Mr. Hunter was well known as a public-spirited and patriotic citizen, and during the Civil war served gallantly as captain of a company of Mis- souri volunteers in the Union army. The following children comprised the Hunter family : George W., Mrs. Emma Culp, Albert L., Mrs. Annie D. Jones, Mrs. Nettie Wood, Mrs. Lura Storey, Mrs. Ida Gardner and Mrs. Callie D. Ross. To Judge and Mrs. Ross there have been born the following children : John P., a resident of Laramie, Wyoming, who married Grace Martin; Clarence D., who is engaged in a general mer- chandise business at Cushing, Oklahoma; Margaret B., who married Melvin S. McEldowney, of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; and Marion, who resides with her parents.

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DANIEL W. MARTIN, M. D. Few men are better known and have been more actively identified with affairs at Bethany and in Harrison County during the last forty years than Dr. Daniel W. Martin. Doctor Martin came to Northwest Missouri in 1871, and his home has been in Harrison County since February, 1874. While he is well known as a physician, and particularly as a specialist in the treatment of cancer, he was in early manhood a Union soldier with almost a unique record, later a minister of the gospel, a vocation which he has also followed in Mis- souri, and an active business man, especially as a dealer in real estate.

Daniel W. Martin was born in Putnam County, Ohio, May 16, 1840, and has some interesting family history behind him. His grandfather, Dan Martin, was a native of Vermont, became a pioneer in Ohio, and died in Putnam County before Doctor Martin was born. He was a boy back in the Green Mountain State when the war for independence be- gan, and saw some active service in that struggle as an American sol- dier. He married Elizabeth Tougee, and among their ten sons and three daughters the following are given brief mention: Obediah, who spent his life in Ohio; Uriah, whose life was passed in the same state; Thomas, who lived in east central Ohio; Robert, whose home was near Columbus; William, of Hancock County, Ohio; Dan, who became an early settler in Missouri and died in Sullivan County; Calvin, who died in Allen County, Ohio; Maurice, who lived in Ohio; Lucretia Conklin ; Mrs. Sprague ; Mrs. Vaughn; and Jared A.

Jared A. Martin, father of Doctor Martin, was never graduated from a school of medicine, but for many years was called Doctor Martin, was of a family of doctors and preachers, and perhaps the associations and tradi- tions of the family had something to do with his discovering, late in life, a special method of treating cancer, a discovery that is now utilized by his son at Bethany. The father spent some ten years at Saybrook, Illinois, as a specialist in treating cancer. He was born in 1820 on the same farm in Ohio on which his son Daniel W. first saw the light. His early career was without special incident, was spent as a farmer, and after the war he moved to Saybrook, Illinois, and farmed until taking up the special work in the field opened for him by his discovery. Poli- tically he was first a whig and then a republican, and voted the first republican ticket placed in the field in 1856. He was a strong friend of Horace Greeley before and during the war. He was a layman in the Christian Church. His death occurred at Saybrook, near the close of 1894. He married Electa Scoville, whose father was a native of Ver- mont and died in Shelbyville, Illinois. She died in February, 1851, and her children were: Daniel W .; Mrs. Lucy Chamberlain of Cincinnati; Martha, who died unmarried; Mary, who became the wife of Newton Nungesster and died at Cridersville, Ohio; Gilbert, who died in Southern Missouri; Clark R., of Saybrook, Illinois; Mrs. Nancy Bains, who lives near Bloomington, Illinois; Jared, of Chicago; and Amanda, who mar- ried and died in Iowa.

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A history of northwest Missouri, Volume III, Part 15

Author: Williams, Walter, 1864-1935 editor Publication date: 1915 Publisher: Chicago, The Lewis publishing company Number of Pages: 912

Author: Williams, Walter, 1864-1935 editor
Publication date: 1915
Publisher: Chicago, The Lewis publishing company
Number of Pages: 912