USA > Missouri > A history of northwest Missouri, Volume III > Part 19
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After his military experience Mr. Davidson sought entirely new
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fields of adventure. With an ox team and wagon he joined a caravan in Nebraska bound for Montana. His mother and sister accompanied him on this eventful journey. They were part of a train consisting of about sixty wagons, and followed the Platte River route, through Wyoming, through Bridger Pass until reaching the road leading from Utah to Virginia City, and arrived in the latter place without delay or special incident. While there Mr. Davidson engaged in mining, but his pros- pecting brought him little substantial results. Dissatisfied with that section of the West, he left after a year and in the fall of 1864 arrived in Humboldt County, California. He engaged in stock raising with a location near the Eel River, and spent about nine years in that location with considerable profit.
In 1873 Mr. Davidson returned to Missouri, his mother making the trip over the railroad, which had been constructed since they made their overland journey. On returning to Missouri Mr. Davidson bought land, a partly improved tract of 160 acres, in Section 18, including the old Smithton Village in Worth County. There he began his industrious career as a Missouri farmer. His home has been in that vicinity with the exception of eight years spent on the Kansas frontier in Sheridan County. He located there in 1890, bought a claim and engaged in both farming and stock raising. The decade of the '90s was a somewhat disastrous period for the farmers of Western Kansas, and in all the eight years spent there Mr. Davidson succeeded in raising only two crops, and was finally compelled to leave owing to the persistent drought. The chief advantage of his residence there was that it enabled him to keep his children in school at Hoxie, near his home, and in the State Normal School. Returning to Worth County in 1898, Mr. Davidson moved to his present farm in Section 18, and his residence stands not far from the old townsite of Smithton, the former county seat, the site of which is included in his land. It is a matter of interest to note that Smithton was named in honor of Mrs. Davidson's father, Eli Smith, some facts concerning whose interesting career as a pioneer in this section of Missouri are found in succeeding paragraphs. At the present time Mr. Davidson owns and operates 500 acres in this part of the state, raising grain and stock.
Mr. Davidson throughout his career has endeavored to perform those duties and obligations which are the part of good citizenship. His first presidential vote was cast for Abraham Lincoln in 1864, and he has never wavered from that political allegiance and has taken little stock in either the populist or free silver movements or the still later progressive propaganda. As to religious matters, one of his parents was a Baptist and the other a Christian, and he has compromised by choice of the Presbyterian faith, in which he has long held membership. Fraternally he is a Mason.
Mr. Davidson was married at Independence, in Jackson County, Mis- souri, March 15, 1871, to Miss Esther Mary Smith, eldest daughter of Eli Smith, who came from New Lexington, Ohio, May 7, 1857.
Eli Smith was of English descent, his father, James Smith, having come to America in an early day and settled in Washington County, Ohio, where he was married. Eli Smith was one of nine children. In 1842 he married Sarah Stewart. The only child, Arthur Smith, born to this marriage, died in 1879, at Omaha, Nebraska. Sarah (Stewart) Smith died in 1846. In 1847 Eli Smith married Miss Julia Ann Skinner. The four children of this marriage were: Esther Mary, Mrs. William Davidson, who was born in 1847 and died in 1910; Sarah Leanna, who is Mrs. H. C. Miller and lives at Seneca, Missouri; Julia Amanda, who is Mrs. T. A. Chase and lives at Pasadena, California ; and James Jefferson, who died in infancy.
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In 1857 Eli Smith moved from New Lexington, Ohio, and built a home on the Middle Fork branch of Grand River, situated in Worth County, Missouri. The site of this home later became the first county seat of Worth County. It was called Smithton in honor of its founder. Smithton remained the county seat of Worth County until about the close of the Civil war, when the county offices were removed to a more central location, at the site of the present Grant City. During the strenuous days that preceded the Civil war Smithton was the principal trading point in Worth County. The closest railroad was at St. Joseph, and all supplies were freighted overland from that point. Eli Smith was promi- nent in the pioneer affairs of North Missouri, both in its political and civil life. In the early part of the Civil war he enlisted in Colonel Cranor's regiment and held the office of quartermaster. Every movement for the betterment of North Missouri found Mr. Smith in the front ranks. As a temperance man he was uncompromising in his belief. After the close of the Civil war Mr. Smith was made a member of the assembly which drafted the new constitution of Missouri.
In 1863 Mrs. William Davidson, then fifteen years of age, moved with her father to Lexington, Missouri, where Eli Smith engaged in the mercantile business. There Mrs. Davidson received a high school educa- tion, subsequently supplemented by a course in a private institution of learning. Esther Mary Smith, whose death, as noted, occurred in 1910, possessed in a high degree the sterling qualities of her father. No mother ever showed a more unselfish devotion to her family and felt more keenly the responsibilities of home. Unselfish to a fault, ever ready to assist in the relief of human suffering, she lived a life of beauty and love that only her family and friends conld appreciate. She was a member of the Presbyterian faith, in early life took an active interest in church affairs, but with the increasing cares and responsibilities of her home exemplified there her beautiful Christian spirit and lived always a life of high ideals and beauty of character.
While Mr. Davidson may regard with considerable satisfaction his. experiences and accomplishments in the world of material effort, he is justified in taking special pride in his children, all of whom are now useful members of society and employed as workers and home makers in different parts of the country. The children are: Arthur D., Chase E., Phebe E., Clarence, Grace L., Frank L., Elmer S., Muriel and Kathryn.
Arthur D. Davidson, the oldest, was born in Worth County, Missouri, July 30, 1873, and died August 18, 1905, at the age of thirty-two. His boyhood days were spent in Missouri and Kansas, and in the latter state he attended high school and at the age of twenty took a commercial course in a Denver business college, graduating, and then returning to Hoxie, Kansas, and was employed for two or three years as bookkeeper in a bank, finally went to Oklahoma and was manager of a company store at that place, and the last year of his life was spent as cashier of a bank in Oklahoma. Phebe E. Davidson, who is the wife of Russell Green, of Midfields, Texas, was born in Worth County, spent her early life there, attended school at Hoxie, Kansas, and at Omaha, and after graduating from the normal school at Emporia. Kansas, engaged in teaching until her marriage. Chase E. Davidson, who is now a merchant at Worth and married Lucy Wilson, spent his boyhod days in Missouri and Kansas, attended a Kansas high school, later acquired a commercial training, and after returning to Worth was employed for a time as manager of a lumber company and finally engaged in the hardware trade. The son William C. Davidson is now a civil engineer with R. J. Windrow, of Waco, Texas, engaged in the building of public highways. He was
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graduated from the University of Missouri in 1905 in the civil engineer- ing course, took post-graduate studies in the same department, and was an instructor in the engineering department and was finally offered an assistant professorship. For two years he was connected with the office of the state highway engineer at Columbia (as deputy highway engineer) and from there went to Fort Worth, engaged in highway construction, and finally to Waco. The daughter Grace L. Davidson was born in Missouri, graduated from the Hoxie High School in Kansas, attended the Emporia Normal School, and for several years was a successful teacher. September 10, 1914, she married Mr. M. P. Hudson, of Grant City, Missouri. Frank L. Davidson, also a native of Missouri, received his education in Kansas and Missouri, graduating from the commercial college at St. Joseph, and is now identified with farming and stock raising. Elmer S. graduated from the St. Joseph Veterinary College and is now engaged in his profession and also in farming. Muriel David- son, who is now the wife of Fred Burnham, of Jourdanton, Texas, was born in Kansas, graduated from the Grant City ITigh School, attended the normal at Warrensburg, Missouri, and after her return home taught school until her marriage. The youngest child, Kathryn, was born in Kansas, is a graduate of the Grand City High School, attended Chris- tian College at Columbia, and is now at home. The sons Frank L. and William C. are both members of the Masonic order, while Elmer and Chase are affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. The daughters, Phebe E., Grace L., Muriel and Kathryn, are members of the Eastern Star.
D. HARFIELD DAVIS. One of the builders of Gallatin from the time it was a village sixty years ago, D. Harfield Davis is best known as a successful druggist, and has sold goods to a widening circle of patronage in this locality for nearly six decades. A merchant who stays in one community and succeeds through such a period of time necessarily pos- sesses the best qualities of the business man-integrity, a settled policy of square dealing, and the ability to win and keep the confidence of his custom. The "good will" of such an establishment as the D. H. Davis Drug Company is worth more than capital and stock of many concerns. Along with the responsibilities of private business affairs, Mr. Davis has borne many of the burdens of citizenship and in the early days held such important offices as county treasurer and postmaster at Gallatin.
D. Harfield Davis was born in Clark County, Virginia, one mile from the famous Lord Fairfax estate and near the city of Winchester. April 26, 1836. His parents were Baalis and Eliza (Timberlake) Davis, both natives of Virginia, where the mother died. The Davis family is of English and Welsh extraction. Baalis Davis was a merchant in Vir- ginia and in 1855, accompanied by his son, D. Harfield, came out to Missouri. There are comparatively few men still living who have an accurate recollection of conditions in this state sixty years ago. All of Northwest Missouri was then isolated from railway communication and the only methods of transportation were by river and by the crude over- land wagon or horseback travel. In leaving Virginia the father and . son traveled along the old Baltimore & Ohio Railway, the pioneer line, as far as Wheeling, West Virginia, and there embarked on a river boat, descending the Ohio River to Louisville, thence to St. Louis, and came up the Missouri by boat as far as the old river port of Waverly. At that point The New Lucy, on which they had traveled from St. Louis, lost her rudder and the rest of the trip to Gallatin was made with horse and wagon. On reaching Gallatin Baalis Davis and his son, D. Harfield, engaged in the drug trade, and with that line the son has been almost
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continuously identified every subsequent year. Such a record in mer. chandising is rare in Missouri.
In 1855, when they arrived, Gallatin had less than three hundred population, had one brick house and three stores. The entire county had only one other center of population boasting a name, and the inhabitants were very thinly scattered over this section. Most of the land was still owned by the Government. There were as yet no railroads, and Daviess County had no railroad, properly speaking, until 1878. About the time of the Civil war the old Hannibal & St. Joseph Railway was constructed across the northern part of the state, but that was some twenty miles or more south of Gallatin. In the early days all goods brought to Galla- tin were hauled in wagons drawn by oxen from Camden, on the Missouri River, a distance of seventy-five miles.
In politics Mr. Davis has been a democrat, with continuous affiliation through nearly fifteen presidential campaign periods. While his party allegiance has been the same in fundamental principles, Mr. Davis was always a strong Union man and a supporter of the Federal Government during the time before, and during and after the Civil war, when differ- ences of opinion were very marked in this locality. During the war Mr. Davis served as treasurer of Daviess County. At one time more than forty-six thousand dollars were in his keeping. A report came to him that bushwhackers were liable to make a raid on the town at any time, and in anticipation of such a raid he took the money from the treasurer's vault and concealed it in the county jail, where it remained until all danger had passed. It is interesting to recall the times of Mr. Davis' service as postmaster of Gallatin. His first commission in that office was given by President Buchanan, who, it will be remembered, was elected President in 1856. During Lincoln's term Mr. Davis was con- tinued in office, and also held office for a part of Grant's administration. Mr. Davis was a member of the first Gallatin Common Council and for many years served as a member of that body and also of the school board. Another means of important service to the community was his purchase in 1869 of the local newspaper known as the Torchlight, the name of which he changed to the Gallatin Democrat. That journal is now one of the oldest publications in Northwest Missouri, has been con- tinuously under the name of the Democrat for forty-five years, and is perhaps as widely read and as influential as any weekly paper in North- west Missouri. Mr. Davis conducted the paper for three or four years, and then sold it and returned to the drug trade, with which he has been identified to the present time. His company is now the D. H. Davis Drug Company, but its management he has turned over practically to others.
There is no merchant in Daviess County who has so long continuously been identified with business as Mr. Davis. His business record covers fifty-nine years, and his acquaintance is probably more extensive than that of any other man living in the county. He knows not only the greater part of the people, both young and old, who are now active, but his recollections teem with memories of men and women long since called to their reward and who were conspicuous actors in the early days. Practically every important change in the transformation of this country .. from a wilderness has been witnessed by Mr. Davis, and he may properly be referred to as one of the human landmarks of the county. Mr. Davis is a bank director and owns considerable real estate in Gallatin.
In 1858 Mr. Davis married Miss America Osborne, of Gallatin, a native of Covington, Indiana. She came to Daviess County, Missouri, with her father, Jesse Osborne, who was one of the pioneers. The five
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children of Mr. and Mrs. Davis were : Robert and William, now deceased ; Madora, Frank and Virgie.
JOHN C. LEOPARD. When the institutions of law and order were all fresh and new in Daviess County, the name Leopard became identified with the local bar at Gallatin, and for practically sixty years the name has been associated with the best ability and achievements of the profes- sion. Father and son, the men of this name have practiced law, and during his time the older Leopard was considered from many quarters to be the ablest legal figure in this part of the state. The present John C. Leopard has spent all his life in Gallatin, and for many years has represented the best in his profession, both so far as private success and accomplishment in the broader fields of citizenship are concerned.
John C. Leopard was born in Gallatin July 20, 1862, a son of John A. and Caroline (Cravens) Leopard. His father was born in Morgan County, Virginia, December 25, 1828, a son of Jacob Leopard, who spent all his life as a Virginia farmer. John A. Leopard died at Gallatin July 30, 1905. Caroline Cravens was born in Rockingham County, Virginia, November 24, 1824, and died at Gallatin. February 13, 1913. Both branches, both the Leopards and Cravens, were people of foremost ability and of distinguished influence in Northwest Missouri.
The late John A. Leopard was graduated in law from Princeton University in 1850 and was one of the few college-bred men in the ranks of the early bar in Missouri. For two years following his gradua- tion he was associated professionally with a member of the Schley family, related to Admiral Schley, at Frederickstown, Maryland. In 1852 John A. Leopard set out for the West, having chosen Missouri as the state in which he would gain the honors and perform the services connected with his profession. By river boat chiefly he made his way to Lexington, Missouri, and thence crossed the country to Gallatin, which was then a small village chiefly conspicuous as a county seat. He established a law practice in the same year and followed his profession very actively until after the war. He finally retired to a tract of land two and a half miles northeast of Gallatin, built a log house in the woods, improved the land and continued to live there until his death.
Fortunately it is not necessary to dismiss the character and career of this pioneer lawyer without a more adequate recognition of his attain- ments. At the time of his death in 1905 many tributes were paid to his memory by old friends and associates, and one that perhaps best esti- mates his position as a lawyer and his general character was that con- tained in a letter written by Judge H. C. McDougal of Kansas City, but formerly probate judge and one of the distinguished lawyers of Gallatin, and the essential paragraphs of this communication to the son of the late Mr. Leopard are herewith quoted :
"The beautiful and touching tribute to his memory by his old friend and mine, D. Harfield. Davis, printed in the Gallatin papers, inadvert- ently omitted the mention of your father's splendid scholarship, iron logic and rare powers as an eloquent, forceful, persuasive speaker before courts, juries and people.
"When I came West and located in Gallatin nearly forty years ago, John A. Leopard was the ripest scholar, the widest, deepest, and best read member of the North Missouri bar. His diction, whether in private talk or speech, was always couched in strongest and clearest English, while his iron logic in its irresistible force and power was like unto that of John C. Calhoun. Then there was a musically rhythmic ring and swing to his lofty eloquence and pathos, his classical and poetical reference, that charmed every thoughtful listener. Vol. III-9
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"I have since heard many able lawyers, in many courts, but have always believed that the most pleasing, eloquent and instructive law argument to which I ever listened was one made by your father in a land case before Judge Robert L. Dodge, then presiding in the old Common Pleas Court at Gallatin, back in '69. To me the marvel of it all was that his subject was that dryest of all dry legal questions, 'covenants running with the land,' and I do not yet understand how his wisdom, learning and logic enabled him to make so much out of it, but I can never forget the effect of that argument on court and bar.
"The last public address I heard your father deliver was on the 4th of July, '71, in front of the old court house at Gallatin. The bitter- ness of the Civil war still rankled in the hearts of the people, but by his charming personality, musical eloquence and fervent, patriotic appeal for peace and good will, he won the hearts of all and made each hearer feel that he was a better citizen. Soon after this he retired from the activities of life, quit the town, went to the farm and there amid the quiet of the home and family, the books, the magazines, the woods, flowers and birds he loved so well, like the sage and philosopher that he was, he calmly and fearlessly awaited the closing scene.
"His heart and his manners were as simple and unaffected as those of a little child, yet he was a most unconscious and unambitious intellec- tual giant whose like has seldom come to gladden the soul and brighten the pathway of his friends."
In September, 1854, the late John A. Leopard married Caroline Cravens. She was a daughter of Dr. John and Ruhama (Douden) Cravens, both natives of Virginia, where they were married. From Virginia they emigrated with their eight children in 1836 to the Far West. In a covered wagon they arrived in Saline County, Missouri, in the vicinity of Marshall, and Doctor Cravens lived there for two years, farming and practicing medicine. In 1838 he brought his family to Daviess County and entered land formerly occupied by the Mormons, 21/2 miles northwest of Gallatin, in the beautiful Grand River Valley. A part of that land is still owned by his descendants. It was then a wilderness, a scene of great natural beauty, with wild game in the woods in superabundance, and with Indians still common and familiar visitors. Doctor Cravens lived at a little locality where he established a village known as Cravensville. He was the prominent figure there, and in the early days Cravensville was a rival with Gallatin for the honors of the county seat. The question was settled in favor of Gallatin, and Cravensville has long been only a memory. In 1850 Doctor Cravens himself moved to Gallatin, and built there the first brick dwelling, and the only one in the little village for several years. That house stood on the corner where the Farmers Exchange Bank is now located. Doctor Cravens practiced medicine until the close of the Civil war and then moved to a farm north of town, where his son, E. H. Cravens, now lives, and resided there until his death in March, 1882. His wife died in November of the same year. Doctor Cravens was a whig in politics and active as long as that party existed. During the '40s he served as a member of the Daviess County Court.
John C. Leopard was fifth in a family of seven children. Oscar is now deceased, also Frank B., while Charles W. and Holmes D. are both bachelors living on the old home farm, and two died in infancy. John C Leopard received his early education in the country and in the Galla- tin schools and for three years was a student in the Normal College at Kirksville. Under the distinguished direction of his father he took up the study of law, and in 1883 continued his studies with J. F. Hicklin. In October, 1885, he was admitted to practice after examination before
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a committee appointed by the judge of the local courts, and in 1886 entered a law office at Pattonsburg. Mr. Leopard practiced with growing success at Pattonsburg for ten years, and in 1896 his election to the office of prosecuting attorney of Daviess County caused him to remove to Gallatin, where he has since lived and practiced. He was reelected prosecuting attorney in 1898 and again in 1902 and served three terms. From 1908 to 1912 he gave a capable administration of the office of mayor of Gallatin, through two terms. In politics he has always been aligned with the democratic party. Mr. Leopard is affiliated with the Independ- ent Order of Odd Fellows and is a member of the Gallatin Commercial Club.
On December 10, 1891, Mr. Leopard married Miss Mary E. May, of Pattonsburg, a daughter of Gabe May. Mr. and Mrs. Leopard have two children : Buel is now a teacher in the Jamesport High School, and Dean, who completed the classical course at the University of Missouri, is now in his second year in the law department of the State University, and has stood at the head of his class each year and is one of the edi- torial staff of the Missouri University Law Bulletin.
WESLEY L. ROBERTSON. In Daviess County not to know "Wes" Robertson, the able and popular editor of the Gallatin Democrat, is virtually to argue one's self unknown. Mr. Robertson has been identified with the newspaper business from his boyhood days, when he gained admission to the fraternity through dignified and indulgently arbitrary incumbency of the exalted post of "printer's devil," in which capacity he doubtless manifested the usual independence and unconscious malevo- lence ever associated with the office. He is familiar with all practical and executive details of the business and as a publisher and editor has been concerned with the issuing of newspapers in various Missouri towns and cities, and few representatives of the "art preservative" have a wider acquaintanceship in this state. Mr. Robertson has been engaged in the newspaper business for more than forty years and is consistently to be designated at the present time as one of its most progressive and effective exponents in Northwest Missouri, the while his attitude is significantly that of a loyal and public-spirited citizen who is every ready to exploit local interests and to lend his influence in the support of measures and enterprises tending to advance the general welfare of the community.
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