A history of northwest Missouri, Volume III, Part 29

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

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Robert Bagby grew up on his father's farm, received a fair education in the local schools, and learned farming under his father's direction. The farm he now occupies in Benton Township was one bought by his father a number of years ago, and most of the improvement were placed here by the elder Bagby, though Robert has also done his part. Robert Bagby is a member of the school board, and in politics a democrat, the same party with which his father affiliated.

W. W. MURRAY. One of the successful farmers of Holt County, Mr. Murray came to this section a few years ago after a varied experience, spent partly back East, where he was born and reared, and after work in the City of St. Joseph. Mr. Murray is a practical farmer, a thorough business man, and has a position of influence and usefulness in his com- munity.

W. W. Murray was born in Holt County May 30, 1872, a son of Charles and Hannah (Taylor) Murray. Both families came originally from Pennsylvania, and the maternal grandfather settled in Holt County near Forbes in the very early days. Charles Murray was born in Penn- sylvania, spent his life as a farmer, and he and his wife died within eleven days of each other. They left six children.

W. W. Murray was nine years old when he lost his parents, and then lived with different relatives, who expected him to pay his own way by practical work, and in consequence he found himself face to face with the serious responsibilities of life at an early day and his education was much neglected. Since early youth he has been a worker, always self- reliant, and among other experiences was employed for three years with the street car company in St. Joseph.

Mr. Murray married Ida M. Andes, of the old family of that name in Holt County. . He and his wife now occupy the old Andes homestead, and have 280 acres, located in Hickory Township. Mr. Murray raises a good deal of stock, and keeps his farm improved up to the standards set by Northwest Missouri agriculturists. He and his wife have four children :

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Marie, Harold, Willard and Lila, all of whom were born in Holt County except Marie, who was born in St. Joseph. The family are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and at the present time Mr. Murray is serving on the local school board. In politics he is a democrat.

DR. E. M. MILLER. While Doctor Miller is regarded as one of the ablest physicians at Mound City, his varied business interests in that locality have obliged him in recent years to give up much of his practice, except such as he can attend to in his office, and he is now one of the leaders in progressive affairs in Holt County.

Dr. E. M. Miller was born at Troy, Ohio, October 6, 1869, a son of H. H. and Hesther (Enyart) Miller. His father was a farmer, and was also engaged in the milling business, and handled large quantities of wal- nut timber. Doctor Miller spent the first fifteen years of his life on a farm, and in that time attended country schools. After that he was reared in the City of Troy, and attended the high school there. His higher education was acquired in the West, and he has both the bachelor's and master's degrees from Baker University of Kansas. Doctor Miller is a graduate M. D. from the Ensworth Medical College at St. Joseph, having taken his degree in 1897. He was also connected with that insti- tution for seven years as one of the lecturers.

Since coming to Mound City Doctor Miller has built up a large prac- tice as a physician, but soon became closely identified with business affairs. He organized the Holt County Telephone Company, and was associated with George W. Meyer, R. E. Decker, R. W. Neill and others in the reorganization of the Mound City Electric Light Company, and has been president of the company for the past ten years. He has been iden- tified with the Mound City Commercial Club since its organization, and was one of the leaders in the Commercial Club campaign which brought about the paving of the business section of Mound City. Since coming to Mound City Doctor Miller has been surgeon for the Chicago, Bur- lington & Quincy Railroad.

Doctor Miller was married in Mound City to Anna L. McCoy, daugh- ter of Thomas W. and Laura (Keedy) McCoy. Their three children were all born in Mound City and are named Margaret, Edwin and Robert. Doctor Miller is at the present time serving as a member of the school board, and is deserving of much credit for his work in securing the erection of the present handsome school building, which is to cost about fifty thousand dollars and will be completed and ready for occupancy in the spring of 1915. Doctor Miller served as one of the trustees of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and has been quite active in democratic politics, having been a member of the board of managers of Hospital No. 2 under Governor Joseph W. Folk. Fraternally his associations are with the Masonic Lodge No. 294 at Mound City, with Scottish Rite Masonry up to and including the thirty-second degree, and with the Temple of the Mystic Shrine at St. Joseph. He is also a member of the Woodmen of the World.

WILLIAM CANADAY. It is difficult to realize the epochs of the nation's history covered by the span of William Canaday's long life. This vener- able resident of Harrison County, now living retired at Ridgeway, was born more than ninety-two years ago, when James Monroe was presi- dent of the United States. During his young manhood in Illinois he heard Abraham Lincoln plead cases at the bar, at that time hardly known beyond the limits of that state. William Canaday cast his first presidential vote about the time of the invention of the telegraph, and whereas in these later days of his life he is able to read news of the

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European war only a day after the event, during his youth it required some six weeks to two months to transmit news from the Old World to the New. William Canaday was one of the first settlers in Northwest Missouri, has lived in Harrison County for sixty years, and has wit- nessed practically every phase of development here. During his activ- ity his identity with Harrison County was both extensive and substan- tial. As a farmer he was in command of large interests, and was equally successful as a financier. When the evening of life brought him the feebleness of old age he laid down the implements of toil, and is now living in the spirit and among his remaining friends of a vigorous past. William Canaday was born in Ohio on April 15, 1823. The family for three generations have been pioneers, building homes and improving land along the frontier. His grandparents were Walter and Annie (Hussey) Canaday, who were of Southern stock and Quakers in religion. From Alabama they moved north into Ohio, making the journey with a two-wheeled cart, in which were their two children Mary and John, the parents walking behind this vehicle. After they settled in High- land County, Ohio, other children were born, namely: Nathan, who be- came a physician and spent his active career at Pekin, Illinois; Chris- topher, who moved out to Lowell Mills, Iowa, and in 1845 started over the Oregon trail to the Northwest and nothing more was ever heard of him. The daughter Mary above mentioned married Frederick Barnard, and they spent their lives at Bloomington, Illinois.

John Canaday, father of the venerable Ridgeway citizen, was born in Alabama in 1801, and was a baby when the family moved north to Highland County, Ohio. He grew up in Highland County, was there married to Sary Purteet and established a home, and during the later '20s made plans for removal to the frontier State of Illinois. He ex- plored that country on horseback, and for six weeks was away from home, his whereabouts being unknown. He finally decided to bring his family to Illinois, and in 1828 started West, with three yoke of cattle and a carriage. The wagon drawn by the oxen was of the old prairie schooner type, and behind came the carriage drawn by the family horse, and bringing up the procession at the rear was the family cow. They crossed Indiana during the winter of 1829, stopped for a time at George- town, Illinois, and while there a daughter was born. At Georgetown the carriage was sold to a widower who wanted the vehicle in order to satisfy a widow, who had promised him her hand provided he could purchase a carriage. The money received for the carriage was in- vested in part in a sod plow, mounted on wheels. Thus when the fam- ily again took up its line of march for the chosen location in South Central Illinois, a plow took the place of the carriage behind the wagon, and "old brindle" was tied behind the plow. The family became prac- tically the first settlers at Short Point, then in Tazewell County, but later McLean County, twelve miles south of where Bloomington now stands. With his oxen John Canaday plowed the first furrow of sod ever turned over in that county, and was also the first white man to use his ax in felling a tree in the same locality. The family were settled in the midst of the Kickapoo Indians, who were their only neighbors. John Canaday sought out Government corners, and entered 160 acres of half timber and half prairie land in the vicinity of the present village of Heyworth. He constructed a rude log house, and while farming was his basic activity, he also set up as a merchant, starting the first store in that whole country, with goods purchased at St. Louis. Pekin, forty miles away, was the nearest postoffice, and when a letter came to the family they had to pay 25 cents postage. Soon after getting his household and business affairs fairly started, John Canaday was stricken Vol. III-13

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with illness, and was given medicine, prescribed by a traveling doctor, which undoubtedly hastened his end. He died on June 3, 1835, and after that his widow capably carried on the family affairs.

John .Canaday, Sr., married Sarah Purteet, a daughter of George Purteet, who lived in Kentucky when his daughter was born. The chil- dren of John and Sarah Canaday were: William Canaday, the subject of this sketch; Phebe, who married Robert Turner, and who died in Daviess County, Missouri; and Nancy, who married Allen Turner, a brother of Robert, and died in Blythedale, Missouri. After the death of her first husband Sarah Canaday married Benjamin Slatten, who subsequently became one of the early settlers of Harrison County, Mis- souri, and died at Bethany, Missouri, in 1868, where his descendants became prominent as farmers. The Slatten children were: Martha, who died in childhood; Joseph P., who spent his life in Harrison County, and though a man without an education acquired an immense landed estate at Bethany, Missouri, and died February 27, 1914; Hester, who married Samuel Travis and who died in Oklahoma, September 25, 1914. Mrs. Slatten, the mother of William Canaday, died in her eighty-sixth year.

Thus William Canaday grew up in a frontier community in Illinois, being six years of age when his father and mother moved from Ohio to that state, and all his early associations were with the type of civil- ization which the present generation knows only from books. His first experience in school was a week spent some six miles from home, his mother calling for him at the end of the time. He prayed not to be sent back, and his mother consented and kept him at home. William Cana- day as a boy and youth read the Bible for three purposes, first to learn his letters, second as a text book to learn to read, and finally to learn his duty to man and to God. He was something of a student, desired an education, but was forced to get it largely by self-study. In spite of these deficiencies, he was qualified to teach school one winter, and through his varied experience became a man of wisdom if not of book learning.

On March 24, 1842, he was united in matrimony to Miss Elizabeth Leeper, of McLain County, Illinois. She was born in Flemming County, Kentucky, September 17, 1824, the daughter of Samuel and Nancy (Prine) Leeper, who moved to Muskingum County, Ohio, in the fall of . 1830, and in the fall of 1834 to the State of Illinois. Her father's fam- ily consisted of nine children, Charles, Elizabeth Leeper Canaday, the subject of this sketch, William, Thomas, Huston, Nancy Jane Buck, Margaret, Mary Gossard and Martha Gossard, all of whom are deceased except Mrs. Nancy Jane Buck and Mrs. Mary Gossard. Elizabeth Cana- day was the mother of seven children, namely : John Canaday, Eagleville, Missouri, born in McLain County, Illinois, December 17, 1842, married to Martha M. Dale, May 4, 1862, and they are the parents of ten chil- dren : Anna, Joseph A., William A., Stella Vanzant, Charles, Samuel, Elmer, Clara Heckenlively, Hattie Johnston (deceased), and Laura Drew. Christopher Canaday, Blythedale, Missouri, born in McLain County, Illinois, October 26, 1847, married to Angeline Brower, July 3, 1870, and they are the parents of four children : John T., Harvey P., Mabel Baldwin, and Myrtle Richardson. Phoebe A. Poynter (deceased), born January 6, 1853, in McLain County, Illinois, married William A. Poynter. Joseph W., born July 29, 1856, in Harrison County, Missouri, married A. V. Willis in 1880 and they are the parents of three children : Maude Reeves, Bess Scott, and Carl B. Canaday. Carrie B. Canaday Hungate, born in Harrison County, Missouri, August 29, 1869, married H. M. Hungate, and they have six children : Helen, Olga, Bryan, Lynn,

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Lolita, and Maxine, all of Columbia, Missouri. Charles, and Benjamin, who died in infancy.

William Canaday, after his marriage began farming, and in 1854 came out to Missouri and prepared the way for his later settlement by purchasing and entering fourteen forties of land in Colfax Town- ship. He brought his family from Illinois the following year, and thus began his permanent relations with Harrison County. His success as a farmer was encouraging, and he proved his foresight by investing his surplus in cheap lands, and as his children came of age he was able to give each one a farm. When he finally decided to quit business, he converted a magnificent estate into cash, a large part of which was dis- tributed among his children with enough reserved for his own use to the end. For a number of years William Canaday was engaged in the banking business at Bythedale, was a charter member of the bank, and his family also had large interests in the institution for a number of years. Since 1909 Mr. Canaday has spent his years in quiet retirement at Ridgeway.

In public affairs his stand has been conspicuous in behalf of tem- perance, and he has always been an opponent of tobacco in all its forms. As a citizen he is first a patriot, and of secondary consideration have been party ties. William Canaday cast his first vote for President for James K. Polk in 1844, and in 1860 voted for Douglas for President. Although he made the acquaintance of Abraham Lincoln as a young man and heard him try cases at the bar, and while the great war Presi- dent was entertained in the Canaday home in Illinois, he never received the ballot of William Canaday. He also knew Mr. Lincoln's wife and played with her as a child at the home of her father, Doctor Todd.

When the war came on Mr. Canaday in 1861 entered military service in behalf of the Union and assisted in the protection of his state, though without regular enlistment, until 1864, when he was commissioned first lieutenant of Company E in the Forty-third Missouri Infantry, under Colonel Hardin. The regiment was sent to duty at Chillicothe, and a portion of it was subsequently captured by General Price's Confederate troops at Glasgow, Missouri. Mr. Canaday received his discharge with the rank of quartermaster as the close of the war, and had never partici- pated in a real engagement.

About the year 1856, two years after he came to Harrison County, William Canaday was elected justice of the peace and served continu- ously until 1862, when he was elected county judge. In August, 1864, he enlisted in Company E, Forty-third Missouri Volunteer Infantry, being first lieutenant in said company. He has been more or less active in Grand Army matters and attends the local meetings of his old comrades whenever convenient. He has participated in the programs, often mak- ing talks and singing songs for their entertainment. Mr. Canaday was one of the organizers of the Taylor Grove Christian Church on February 19, 1859, and has been identified with that church ever since. His means have been liberally bestowed on religious activities in Harrison County, and it is said that he has helped build more churches than any other resident, and his donations for that purpose have always been liberal.

On July 10, 1907, Elizabeth Canaday died at her home in Blythe- dale, Missouri, aged eighty-two years and now lies interred in the Blythe- dale cemetery. She was a pioneer in every sense of the word and to her carefulness and efficiency is to a large extent, due the prosperity of William Canaday of whom this sketch speaks.

On January 6, 1909, Mr. Canaday married Mrs. Jennie Reed, who is

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a daughter of John and Margaret (Brooks) Shirts, who came to Mis- souri before the war.

William Canaday is now spending his declining years at his home in Ridgeway, Missouri, where he is faithfully and devotedly cared for by his wife and is happy and contented in his old age.

W. J. CLARK. For more than forty years the Clark family enterprise and influence have been active factors in business, public affairs and the social activities of Hamilton. W. J. Clark is postmaster of that city, a well-known business man, who has capably administered the local post- office for the past six years. His brother, E. E. Clark is equally promi- nent as a banker, though educated for the law, and other members of the family have contributed their share of useful work to the community.

Mr. W. J. Clark was first apointed to the office of postmaster May 27, 1908, by President Roosevelt. At the end of the first four years, to the complete satisfaction of all patrons of the office, he was reappointed by President Taft in May, 1912, and still has two years to serve. The Hamilton postoffice has been brought into a high state of efficiency, hav- ing two assistant clerks, besides five rural carriers. The postoffice at Kingston, the county seat of Caldwell County, is served as a star route by the Hamilton postoffice. The postoffice now is housed in a building on which more than two thousand dollars were spent in fixtures, and it is one of the best equipped offices in Northwest Missouri in a town of its size.

W. J. Clark, who has lived in Hamilton since 1870, was born in the State of Connecticut, and comes of an old New England family. He was born December 2, 1865, a son of Henry Clark, who was a miller. The first American of the family was Abraham Clark, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence in 1776, but the family had been identified with this country during the Colonial era. Henry Clark moved to Northwest Missouri in 1870, and was prominently known at Hamilton as proprietor of a flour mill for a number of years. He mar- ried Aurelia Eldridge, also of Connecticut. She was born in the same house in which her son W. J. first saw the light of day. Henry Clark died at the age of seventy-two. During the war he had performed im- portant service in raising two companies of recruits for the Union army. He was a republican in politics, and lived a long and useful life. Of the family four children grew up : Charles H., who died at the age of twenty years; Frank, who died February 19, 1913, at Hamilton; Elmer E .; and W. J.

W. J. Clark was reared in Hamilton, received his education in the local schools, and for about twenty years was engaged in the newspaper business. He has long been regarded as one of the wheel horses of the republican party in Caldwell County, and has assisted a number of men to public office. Fraternally his affiliations are with Blue Lodge, No. 224, A. F. & A. M .; Royal Arch Chapter, No. 45; and also with Lodge No. 212 of the Knights of Pythias.

Mr. W. J. Clark was married May 5, 1891, at Hamilton, to Miss Anna Rogers, of an old and well-known family of Caldwell County, daughter of David C. Rogers. They have one son, Francis E., who grad- uated from the Hamilton High School in 1911, attended the Missouri School of Mines at Rolla for one year and is now a student in the State Agricultural College at Manhattan, Kansas.

Elmer E. Clark, who is cashier of the Hamilton Savings Bank, has for more than twenty-five years been identified either with his profession as a lawyer or in banking. The Hamilton Savings Bank was organized in 1877, and the present officers are : S. L. Wonsettler, president ; John

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N. Morton, vice president; J. R. Cheshier, second vice president; and E. E. Clark, cashier. The capital of the institution is $60,000, and its surplus and undivided profits of nearly $50,000 indicates the conserva- tive management which has always been characteristic of this institution.

Mr. Clark was born October 29, 1862, in Connecticut, a son of the late Henry Clark, for many years engaged in the milling business at Hamilton. Mr. Clark has lived in Hamilton since he was eight years of age, and after finishing the public schools grad- uated from the Ann Arbor High School in 1884, took two years literary course in the University of Michigan, then entered the law department of the University of Michigan and was graduated with the class of 1888. Locating at Arkansas City, Kansas, he opened a law office with H. D. Cummings, and remained there about a year. Though prepared for the law, he found banking a field of work more to his in- clination, and returning to Hamilton, Missouri, he accepted a position with the Hamilton Savings Bank, and of which institution he is now cashier.

Mr. Clark was married in 1892, to Nellie Austin, daughter of Oliver Austin, an old and well-known citizen of Caldwell County. Mr. Clark is a republican, is affiliated with Knights of Pythias Lodge, No. 212, and has always exerted himself for the benefit of the community when any enterprise was undertaken in that direction.

FRANK CLARK. No historical sketch of Hamilton, Missouri, covering recent years would be complete without mention of Frank Clark-a man who left his impress upon all Hamilton's business, political and social life for more than forty years. He came to Hamilton with his father, Henry Clark, in 1870. He was then a young man of eighteen but very . soon thereafter became actively associated with his father in the milling business. He mastered the minutest details of this business and in 1874 bought out his father's interest in the mill. Four years later, September 28, 1878, his mill burned to the ground and without a dollar of insur- ance. Then it was that his true mettle appeared for within six months he had a new three-story and basement brick mill fully equipped and in running order. Four years later it was completely changed over to the roller process, which was then just coming in vogue. This mill and the accompanying elevator he continued to operate with signal success for many years.

In 1893 he turned his attention to the electric light business and, se- curing a twenty-year franchise from the City of Hamilton, erected what was at that time a thoroughly modern and up-to-date electric light plant. This business he kept fully abreast of the times and continued to conduct it up to the time of his death.

He was one of the original organizing stockholders of the Hamilton Savings Bank, which institution was organized in 1877, and of which he had been vice president for a number of years prior to his death.

Politically, Mr. Clark was an ardent republican and always took an active part in matters political although he never held nor was even a candidate for political office. Fraternally, he was a member of Blue Lodge, No. 224, A. F. & A. M .; Royal Arch Chapter, No. 45; and Kadosh Commandery No. 21. He was also a member of Hamilton Lodge No. 212 Knights of Pythias.

Warmhearted, kindly dispositioned, generous to a fault, his friends were limited only by his acquaintance and in his passing Hamilton lost a splendid citizen who had spent practically his whole life with her and striven ever for her advancement.

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Frank Clark was born in Vernon, Tolland County, Connecticut, Oc- tober 22, 1852; was married in Willington, Connecticut, October 22, 1874, to Miss Netta L. Eldredge; and died at Hamilton, Missouri, February 19, 1913.

WALTER C. MYERS, M. D. No other profession is of such ancient dignity as is that of medicine and it invites to its service men of learning and ability, often returning but few rewards in material things for the preparation and self sacrifice it demands, and not always bestowing the honors fairly won. Nevertheless the call to this profession is insistent and it seems, sometimes, as if the call might be an inherited one, for in many families other and more promising careers are presented only to be turned aside by several generations for that of the healing art. Of such ancestry is Dr. Walter C. Myers, an eminent physician and surgeon of Savannah, whose medical knowledge and achievements reflect credit upon his ancestors.

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A history of northwest Missouri, Volume III, Part 29

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