A history of northwest Missouri, Volume III, Part 30

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

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Walter C. Myers was born January 26, 1876, at Uhrichsville, Tus- carawas County, Ohio, and is a son of J. C. and Martha A. (Campbell) Myers, the latter of whom was born at Allegheny City, Pennsylvania, and died at Troy, Kansas, in 1910. The father of Doctor Myers was born at Uhrichsville, Ohio, and is now a leading practitioner of dentistry at Troy, Kansas. He began the study of his profession with Doctor McKinley, who was a resident of Uhrichsville and an uncle of the late President William McKinley, and afterward completed his course at Columbus, Ohio. His brother, Dr. James Myers, is a retired physician of Hutchinson, Kansas, and his uncle, Dr. John Myers, was an eminent early physician and surgeon near New Philadelphia, Ohio. He married into a medical family, four of his wife's brothers being physicians, two of whom, Doctor William and Dr. O. B. Campbell, resided in St. Joseph, Missouri, but the latter is now deceased. Of the three children born to his parents, Walter C. is the only son. He has two sisters: Mary Elberta, who is the wife of R. B. Castle, of Kansas City; and Adaline E., who is the wife of Oscar Dubasch, of Troy, Kansas.

Walter C. Myers was two years old when his parents, in 1878, moved to Highland, Kansas, two years later settling permanently at Troy, where he passed his boyhood and educational training, completing the high school course. From childhood he believed that his mission was to become a physician, this impression being so strong that his boyish com- rades dubbed him "doctor" in their play. He was happy in having a tender, devoted and ambitious mother, and it was at her knee he learned his first lessons in anatomy and physiology and through her encouragement decided to become a medical student under his uncle, Dr. O. B. Campbell, at St. Joseph, Missouri, and in 1898 was graduated from the Central Medical College of that city, and for ten years was engaged in a general practice at Rea, Andrew County, Missouri, during that time continuing his studies and scientific investigations and taking post grad- uate courses as opportunity offered. In 1906 he spent the summer in special laboratory work, in Chicago, and after he came to Savannah, took a regular post graduate course in the New York Post Graduate College in 1906, also took a clinical course under Doctors Mayo, at Rochester, Minnesota, subsequently taking a special course on tuberculosis, at Chi- cago, under Doctor McMichael. In fact, whenever friends miss him or patients clamor for him during certain portions of the summer, when many of both think of recreation in some chosen restful place, they may easily guess that he is hard at work in some famous distant clinic or, in their interest, spending days and nights in study with his test tubes and microscopes. The effect of this constant investigation and close study

Walter C. Myers m. A.

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at first hand has given him qualifications that have proven far reaching in his ministrations to the sick of Savannah and probably Andrew County has never had a more competent health officer. He has served one term also as county coroner, elected on the republican ticket, but has never been very active in the political field.

Doctor Myers was united in marriage in September, 1913, to Miss Georgia Newman, who was born at Savannah, Missouri, and is a daughter of William Newman. Doctor and Mrs. Myers have one son, Victor Camp- bell Myers. Doctor Myers is a valued member of the Buchanan County, the Missouri State and the American Medical associations. A man of cultivated tastes he enjoys congenial companionship in many circles and has the pleasing personality that wins friends. Fraternally he is identi- fied with the Masons, the Odd Fellows at Savannah, and the Elks at St. Joseph.

JUDGE JAMES RILEY CHESHIER. When James Riley Cheshier was elected presiding judge of the Caldwell County Court, he overturned a precedent that had stood for nearly half a century, ever since the Civil war. He was the first democrat to be honored with that important office in all that time, and his election is a splendid tribute to his individual character as well as to his leadership in the party. Judge Cheshier has been a resident of Caldwell County, prominent as a farmer, stock man and banker for many years, and came to this section of Northwest Mis- souri on October 17, 1857.

He was born January 3, 1847, in Jefferson County, Tennessee. His father, William E. Cheshier, was a native of Ohio, of Scotch and Eng- lish ancestry. He married Susan Spencer who was born in Jefferson County, Tennessee, of an old Tennessee family of Irish and Scotch an- cestry. Judge Cheshier was ten years of age when the family came over- land from Tennessee to Northwest Missouri. They made that journey with wagon and teams, and were seven weeks before finally coming to a halt in Caldwell County. This section of Missouri at that time was al- most a wilderness, and wild game was more plentiful than domestic ani- mals are at the present time. There were six children in the family. Judge Cheshier's brother, J. M. Cheshier, lives at Glendale, Washington. A sister, Mary Jackson, lives in Caldwell County. The father died at the age of sixty-three. The Cheshier family during the early days in Cald- well County was noted for its hospitality, and there was welcome for everyone who opened the door of that generous home. The father was a man of extraordinary physical energy, and had probably no equal in this part of the country as a rail splitter. He stood 6 feet 2 inches, weighed 185 pounds, and the same strength and endurance which made him conspicuous in the handling of the ax were displayed in his other activities. He spent his last years in the home of his son, Judge Cheshier. The mother died at the age of thirty-seven.

Judge Cheshier was reared on a farm, and trained his muscles and his mind at the same time, alternating between the work of the home- stead and attendance at the country schools. Like his father, he became adept in the handling of an ax, and has split many hundreds of rails. At the age of twenty-eight he established a home of his own by his mar- riage to Harriet A. Hill, who was born in Montgomery County, Mis- souri, a daughter of Rev. Arthur Hill, a missionary Baptist minister who did work all over Central Missouri. After his marriage Judge Cheshier lived northwest of Cowgill on forty acres of land, having bought that on time, and after paying out on it, sold and bought other land until he had developed a fine farm of 240 acres. That farm is still in his pos- session. and is one of the best kept places and one of the most com-

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fortable country estates in Caldwell County. In 1911 he turned its management over to his son-in-law, and has since been busied with his banking and official affairs. He has served as a stockholder and director in the Cowgill Bank, and also in the Hamilton Savings Bank, of which he is vice president. As a judge he has made an admirable record, is a man of steadfast convictions as to correct principles of individual and social conduct and entered upon his office with the complete confidence of the county, and nothing in his record has dispelled the trust which was thus manifested in his ability. Judge Cheshier was formerly affiliated with the Masonic Lodge at Polo, and later became a member of the Cow- gill Lodge.

Judge Cheshier and wife have two daughters: Pearl L. is the wife of Clarence Brown, and they live on Judge Cheshier's fine farm near Cow- gill. The daughter Camora is at home, and has been a successful teacher. Both the daughters were educated at Stevens College in Columbia, the older graduating in 1910 and the younger in 1911.

NEILL D. JOHNSON, M. D. Representing the first class ability and skill of his profession and enjoying a large general practice at Hamil- ton and vicinity, Doctor Johnson is a physician and surgeon who since graduating from the Chicago Homeopathic College of Medicine in 1903 has taken front rank in his profession. He located at Hamilton in 1912, and has since built up a large practice. He began his work with an excellent equipment, and the test of real practice found him qualified for this important service among the social professions.

Dr. Neill D. Johnson was born at Leroy, McLean County, Illinois. His father, Rev. Archibald Johnson, was a prominent minister of the Presbyterian Church. He was born in Dickson County, Tennessee, of an old Tennessee family, and married Sallie Davis, daughter of Rev. James E. Davis. The Davis family located in Southern Illinois at Mount Vernon during the Black Hawk war. Rev. Archibald Johnson subse- quently moved out to Ottawa, Kansas, and died in that state in 1872 at the age of sixty-four years. He spent many years in the work of his Master, and his name is gratefully remembered in a number of localities in different states. He was a republican in politics, and one of his sons, William T., served during the Civil war with the Chicago Light Artil- lery, and died in service. The mother of the family died at the age of eighty-seven years. There were five sons and three daughters in the family.

Doctor Johnson was thirteen years of age when his parents moved out to Kansas, and finished his education in Missouri and in Indiana. He was ordained as a minister of the Presbyterian Church, and spent about twenty-five years in its service, being located for several years at Topeka, Kansas. He later turned his attention to the study of medicine, was graduated in 1903, and has thus been a contributor to the world's work through two great professions.

Doctor Johnson was married in 1880 to Jane R. Chase, a daughter of Rev. Moody Chase, a cousin of Hon. Salmon Chase, who was a member of Lincoln's cabinet during the Civil war. Doctor Johnson has one son, Archie.

Doctor Johnson at Hamilton has one of the best equipped medical offices in Northwest Missouri, with half a dozen rooms employed for specific purposes, and with a thorough equipment of medical and sur- gical appliances. He is a specialist in the treatment of the eye, and it is for his skill as an oculist that many patients resort to him from remote parts of the country.

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D. M. CLAGETT, M. D. Though Doctor Clagett has been through the toils and hardships of an arduous medical practice at Winston for more than forty years, he is still hale and hearty and looks after a large practice and is held in high esteem by everyone in that section of Mis- souri. When Doctor Clagett located at Winston it was a settlement not far removed from pioneer conditions, and in the early days he had to travel over all sorts of roads, and was the kindly family physician who brought professional service and cheer and comfort to many an isolated home. For many years he carried on his practice without the aid of the telephone and other modern facilities which have lightened the bur- dens of the doctor, and he is now one of the oldest members of his pro- fession in Daviess County.

Dr. D. M. Clagett was born at Natchez, Mississippi, March 24, 1846, a son of Hezekiah and Elizabeth (Shipp) Clagett. His father was born in Fredericton, Maryland, and his mother at Lexington, Kentucky, and the grandparents on both sides were Virginians. Doctor Clagett acquired his early education at St. Louis, Missouri, where he attended the public schools, and is a graduate of the St. Louis Medical College. In 1872 he moved to Winston, and has been in practice there ever since. When he located in Winston the Rock Island Railroad had been constructed through the village only about a year, and many of the homes in the town were built of logs. The surrounding country was largely a wilderness of bald prairie, and the whole country was just emerging from the condi- tions which had prevailed for untold centuries.

Doctor Clagett is a democrat in politics, and was one of the early coroners of Daviess County, having held that office until 1876. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and is a Blue Lodge Mason.

On January 1, 1873, Doctor Clagett married Miss Mary A. Wood, a daughter of James and Martha (Osborn) Wood, who lived in Colfax Township in Daviess County. Of the four children born to the doctor and his wife, James, Virgil and Mattie died in childhood. The son is Dr. Oscar F. Clagett, now engaged in the successful practice of medicine at Carbondale, Colorado. Doctor Oscar married Miss Effie E. Stevens, and both were born at Winston, Missouri. She is a daughter of John S. and Bettie (Burch) Stevens.

WILLIAM LAFAYETTE HOUPT. Following are the more important scenes and phases in the life of one of Harrison County's finest old-time citizens, a pioneer of Fox Creek Township and the oldest living settler in that section of Harrison County and the only settler living on the land he entered and patented from the Government. Though nearly eighty, Mr. Houpt looks ten years younger, and both mind and body are active and he still keeps himself in the harness, though prosperity and comfort were assured to him many years ago.

William Lafayette Houpt was born in Sullivan County, Indiana, within four miles of the Wabash River, about half way between Terre Haute and old Vincennes, on September 11, 1835. That was a pictur- esque landscape of heavy woods and prairies during his youth, and he was well trained in woodcraft and pioneer economy, though of formal schooling he had almost none. At the age of seven his father took him a mile and a half through the woods, blazing a trail for his following, and entered him in the first subscription school taught in that locality. An old hunter's cabin at the head of a small branch was the temple of learning, and even this he was not permitted to attend the full term taught by Professor Moore. His father was injured, and all hands were needed at home, including the young pupil who became practically head of the household in the absence of his father. Though his school days

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were a small portion of his youth, Mr. Houpt retains an accurate and interesting impression of the old school. The benches were of white walnut or poplar logs, with holes bored on the underside for the wooden pins or legs with the tops smoothed off, but no backs. He was seated on a bench so high that his feet could not touch the floor. One day he went to sleep and dropped his book, and though he jumped down and quickly recovered the property his fault was observed and the teacher punished him by splitting a quill and hanging one on each ear. These remained until removed by the teacher, and Mr. Houpt testifies that such punish- ment will not fail to keep a child awake. The only book he ever took to school, save for four days, was an old speller, and at the age of eight was able to spell every word between its covers. He never owned an arithmetic in his life.

With the responsibilities thrust upon him by his father's injury, he remained at home, grubbed land and farmed, and had only a few of the intermissions of toil that relieved the monotony of Indiana pioneer days. At the age of eighteen he was given a horse by his father, and went with his Grandfather Correll to another frontier bounded by the great Missouri. In 1854 they left Indiana in a wagon and camped by the roadside every night during the ten days they traveled until reaching Harrison County, Missouri. His mother's brother having written how the old "bucks" would approach a cabin and stamp their feet, Mr. Houpt was keenly excited over the prospect and came out to Missouri to hunt deer. The journey had only one incident of specially good or bad fortune, and that was the loss of the horse given him by his father. Up to January, 1855, he did nothing but hunt through the splendid game preserves then existing everywhere in Northwest Missouri. After this he took a job of making 5,000 rails. This was a work for which he had no experience. In Indiana all the work he had done in the timber was clearing away the tree tops where railmakers had felled the trees, but in Missouri finances were such as to introduce him through practical necessity to this new and untried field of labor. His aggregate experi- ence as railmaker covered about fifteen years, and he believes that he made in this time about thirty-five thousand rails. He cut and split all the rails for the fencing of the eighty acres he entered from the Government. This labor and corn cutting and mowing hay with a scythe were about the only kind of work in the new country that offered profit to man with only his hands as capital. In those early times in Northwest Missouri Mr. Houpt mowed hay and put it in the shock at 50 cents an acre. He had a fork with tines made of ash wood, and in that way earned the money by which he bought a spinning wheel for his home. With the increasing growing of grain, he found still another means of earning money, by swinging the cradle. When only twelve years of age, back in Indiana, he had taken his first lessons with the cradle, and was an expert in the handling of that implement. The first one he used had been brought by his father from North Carolina, and his own old cradle, used forty years ago, now hangs in the shop at his home.

Where Mr. Houpt now resides he entered an 80-acre tract in section 6 of range 63, town 26, and had to borrow every cent of the preemption fee. He had occupied this land before entering it, and erected his cabin on Trail Creek. It was made of small white oak logs, 14 by 16 feet, and he carried the logs himself and put in his own puncheons. That was his home for twenty-five years before he felt able to build a better residence. His first team was one that he watched grow from bull calves, and they proved their value by breaking his land, which accom- plished he sold the oxen to finish payments on the land. When the store of grains and crops ran low, he supplemented his food supply with meat

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from the forest, and the first four winters in Missouri he hunted deer almost constantly for their hams and hides, for which there was a ready sale. The hams brought from fifty to seventy-five cents per pair and dry hides 12 cents per pound.

After overcoming the first obstacles and proving his ability to live by service in this new country, Mr. Houpt entered two other forties, and subsequently bought 160, and altogether these comprise his farm estate today. All his buildings were put up on Trail Creek, and the cen- ter of his farm industry is a beautiful dell, the banks of the creek being studded with splendid walnuts and oaks. All these trees have grown up since 1863, in which year a fire devastated all the timber in this region and destroyed the building improvements on the Houpt Farm, making its owner poor.

During the war Mr. Houpt was in the Missouri State Militia, en- tering the state forces under the arrangement for "armed neutrality." He was with the Fifty-seventh Mounted Infantry, in Company E, un- der Captain Prather and Col. James Neville. His service was all over the state, but much of the time in Southern Missouri engaged in a sort of guerrilla warfare with Quantrell's men. In politics Mr. Houpt cast his first vote for Stephen A. Douglas for President in 1860, but his opposition to slavery and his admiration for Abraham Lincoln caused him to vote for the latter in 1864, and he has regularly supported the republican presidential nominees ever since. In a modest way he as- sisted in making Harrison County the banner Republican County it is, but has never felt able to assume the responsibilities of office himself, and has declined various honors of this kind. He was never a strong Roosevelt man, and his own principles of action were unchanged in the party split of 1912. To quote his own language, "He has never per- mitted any Bull Moose to kick up its heels in his pasture." In the days of convention work following the war he had a regular function, and was always in the county meetings when his influence was needed.

Almost since he came to Missouri Mr. Houpt has enjoyed the relations of his own household and fireside. He was married August 26, 1856, to Miss Jiney Morgan, whose parents were Kentuckians. To this marriage the following children were born: John, who was robbed and killed in Colorado, being unmarried; Miss Susan, of Joplin, Missouri; Arch A., a farmer in Cherokee County, Kansas; Mary, wife of Philip Usrey, of Redondo Beach, California; Rhoda, who married David Elder, of Oklahoma ; Charles S., whose home is at Castle Rock, Washington ; Mrs. Vira Elsmer, of Joplin : and Clara, wife of Charles Rankin, of Joplin. In January, 1889, Mr. Houpt married for his second wife Mrs. Rosa Keech, and of their union is one daughter, Miss Altha, living at home. Mrs. Houpt, who was a daughter of John and Maggie (Morris) Kinzie, was born near Berne, Switzerland, October 16, 1846, and by her first marriage her children were: Alice, wife of Edgar Ross, of Mammoth Springs, Arkansas; Mary, wife of Emil Linstrum, of Tarkio, Missouri; and Katie, wife of John Gates, of Harrison County.

To conclude this sketch some reference should be made to Mr. Houpt's family in its earlier generations. His grandfather was a native of Ger- many, and on coming to America settled in Pennsylvania, where he mar- ried a Scotch girl named Albright. They moved to South Carolina, and later to Indiana, where both died. Their children were: John W., father of the Harrison County citizen; Jacob, who died in Sullivan County, Indiana ; Henry, who also died in that county ; Thomas, who died in early life leaving a family ; Sarah, who married John Correll and spent her life in Indiana; Adaline, who married Maurice Miles and died in Indiana ; and Angeline, who died unmarried.

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John W. Houpt, the father, was born in North Carolina before the Carolinas were separated into states. He grew up in Roane County, and in pioneer times came to Indiana, and lived there until most of his · family moved on west to Kansas, and he then followed and died in Graham County in 1902. He was married in North Carolina to Margaret Correll, a daughter of Samuel Correll. The latter's father was from Scotland and a farmer, while Samuel was a wagon-maker in Indiana. Mrs. John W. Houpt died in Sullivan County, Indiana. Her children were: William W .; Mary, who married William Adkisson and died in Gove County, Kansas; Eliza, who married P. G. Adkisson, of Oklahoma ; James F., who died in young manhood in Indiana; Thomas S., who lives in Graham County, Kansas; Harvey, of Nebraska ; and Alvin, who lives near his brother Harvey.

HARRY M. DAVIS. Four generations of the Davis family have added to the development of those communities wherein they had their resi- dence, in so far as authentic record is available, and a fifth generation is being reared to take its place in public and private life. That repre- sentative of the family with which this review is most deeply concerned is Harry M. Davis, a son of James A. Davis and grandson of Nathaniel Davis. He was born in Richmond, Missouri, on a spot now occupied by the Richmond Hotel, on July 25, 1857, and there was reared to the age of twenty. His father, James A. Davis, was born in Ray County, Missouri, on November 27, 1837, himself a son of Nathaniel Davis, born July 31, 1807, in Washington County, Tennessee, where the family was long established.

When Nathaniel Davis was five years old he removed with his par- ents to Knox County, Tennessee, and there he spent his youth and was reared to manhood. When he was twenty-two years old he entered the University of East Tennessee and was graduated with honors from that college in 1832. He then came to Ray County, Missouri. At that time Ray County, and, indeed, the whole State of Missouri, was then regarded as the far West, and by many the wild West. He was prepared for hardship and his intention was to carve out his destiny in a new land. How well he succeeded, the affection of his old friends and the respect and esteem in which he was held by the people of the entire county will bear eloquent testimony. His character was without taint and his very name was a synonym for integrity, honor, hospitality and charity. He was an eminently successful physician, skillful, prompt and always to be depended upon. He was here through the exciting period of the Mormon war, as the excitement of the time was designated, and was compelled to seek safety, for a time leaving his home.

In the fall of 1837 Nathaniel Davis married Miss Maria A. Allen, a native of Pennsylvania, and she died in the year 1878, aged seventy-six years. Of her six children, all are living, James A. being the father of the subject of this review.

James A. Davis attended the common schools of his native com- munity and finished his training in Richland College. In 1862 he engaged in the mercantile business, in company with James F. Hudgus and Thomas H. Bayliss, continuing until 1864, when he withdrew from the firm and went to Salt Lake City, Utah. He remained there for a year, then returned to Richmond and resumed business for five years. At the end of that time he began to devote himself to farming activities, and he was thus occupied for three years, when he was appointed to the post of deputy county collector under Thomas Fowler. He also served through the administration of A. M. Fowler, successor to Thomas Fowler, so that his service in the office covered a period of five years.

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A history of northwest Missouri, Volume III, Part 30

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