A history of northwest Missouri, Volume III, Part 36

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

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On September 2, 1886, he married Miss Martha Elizabeth Scott. She was born in the same section of Ohio where some of his early days were spent, near Cadiz in Harrison County. Her mother after becoming a widow moved to New Athens in the same county in order to educate her children, and while Mrs. Sawyers was attending college at Franklin College she met her future husband. She was graduated there in 1885,

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two years after Mr. Sawyers took his degree, and they were members of the same literary society. Mrs. Sawyers is a daughter of Alexander Foster and Eleanor (Barnes) Scott, natives of Ohio and Pennsylvania, respectively. Her father was the son of a Presbyterian minister, was an active church worker and also an extensive land owner with large estate in Ohio, Iowa, Missouri and Nebraska. He died in Ohio when Mrs. Sawyers was a babe. Her mother was born September 1, 1826, and died September 10, 1894, as a result of a railroad accident. Mrs. Sawyers is of Scotch-Irish Presbyterian ancestry on both sides of her parentage. On her father's side she belongs to the sixth generation born in this country, many of whom have attained distinction in both church and state. Her own grandfather, Rev. Abraham Scott, and his brother, Rev. James Scott, were among the first and most successful pioneer preachers of Eastern Ohio. The same is true of her mother's people. Her mother's grandfather, Isaac McKissie, was a soldier of the Revolutionary war under Washington. Rev. Samuel Davis, D. D., an uncle of her mother, succeeded Dr. Jonathan Edwards as president of Princeton University.

Reverend Sawyers and wife are the parents of six children, mentioned briefly as follows: Lucile, born December 30, 1887, is a graduate of the Central High School at St. Joseph, of the Normal Training Class in that school, was for three years a student in Park College, Parkville, Missouri, and for several years has been teaching in St. Joseph. Paul Henry, born September 5, 1889, spent two years in Park College, now holds a responsible position with the Standard Oil Company at St. Joseph, and on September 18, 1912, married Miss Litta Roelfson of Maryville. Eleanor Marie, born September 20, 1893, is a graduate of the Savannah High School, and on November 18, 1914, became the wife of Karl Emil Zimmerman of Amazonia, Missouri, and they now reside on a farm near Maryville. William Orr, born April 7, 1898, is a junior in high school. Agnes, born October 4, 1901, and Scott Kirker, born August 6, 1903, and are both students in the grade schools.

REV. ABNER NORMAN. A loved and revered clergyman of the United Brethren Church in Northwest Missouri, Mr. Norman has been a resident of this state for nearly forty years and he labored with much of zeal and consecrated devotion in the ministry until impaired health compelled his retirement, in 1911. He has in the meanwhile been actively concerned with the great basic industry of agriculture in this section of the state and now resides upon and gives supervision to his excellent farm prop- erty, in Worth County, his home being on Route No. 3, of the rural free mail delivery from the Village of Gentry, in Gentry County. Honored alike for his sterling character and worthy accomplishment, Mr. Norman has the further distinction of having served as a loyal soldier of the Union in the Civil war. His life has been one of earnest and worthy achieve- ment and it is gratifying to present in this history a brief review of his career.

Mr. Norman was born in Vermilion County, Indiana, on the 3d of February, 1830, and in 1834 his parents removed to Henry County, Illinois, where he was reared on a pioneer farm in the midst of a virtual wilderness and where his early educational advantages were those afforded in the primitive country schools of the period. His father was one of the early settlers of Henry County, where neighbors were few and widely separated and where Indians and wild game were much in evi- dence. In a reminiscent way Mr. Norman recalls the fact that when his father essayed the construction of his rude log house on the embryonic farm in Henry County he was assisted by kindly and considerate neigh-

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bors, if so they may be designated, who came from Henderson Grove, a place twenty-five miles distant, and aided him in building his humble abode.

Mr. Norman is a son of Charles and Parthenia (Arrowsmith) Norman, the former of whom was born in Virginia, at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains, in January, 1801, and the latter of whom was a daughter of Wesley Arrowsmith, of Bourbon County, Kentucky. Wesley Arrow- smith was born in North Carolina, and was a farmer by vocation, though never a slaveholder. He finally removed from Kentucky to Illinois, and he passed the closing years of his life in Mercer County of the latter state. Charles Norman accompanied his father, Moses Norman, from Virginia to Bourbon County, Kentucky, where his marriage was solem- nized. As Lincoln said of his own ancestral record, it was composed of the "short and simple annals of the poor," and this was essentially true in the case of Charles Norman, who received most limited educational advantages and who passed his mature life as a hard-working farmer. He was a man of sterling character and excellent judgment and did his part in connection with the development and progress of the State of Illinois, prior to removing to which he had been a pioneer in Vermilion County, Indiana, lying along the Illinois line. He reclaimed a farm in Henry County, Illinois, near the Mercer County line, and there he con- tinued to reside until his death, which occurred in 1892, after he had attained to the patriarchal age of ninety-one years, his wife, Parthenia, who had been a devoted helpmeet, having died in 1871. Of their children the eldest was Wesley, who was a farmer and carpenter by vocation and who was a resident of Nodaway County, Missouri, at the time of his death, several children surviving him; Sarah became the wife of Alden Pearce and her death occurred in the State of Ohio; Moses removed from Illinois to Iowa and finally established his residence in Worth County, Missouri, where his death occurred and where he left a number of children ; Abner, of this review, was the next in order of birth ; Elizabeth, who became the wife of Horace McMullen, died at Farragut, Iowa, as did also her sister Mary, who was the wife of William McMullen; Perlina, next older than Mary, became the wife of Solomon Sayre and her death occurred in Hardin County, Iowa; Melissa, the wife of Charles Richmond, died in Mercer County, Illinois; Charles served as a soldier in the Civil war, as a member of the One Hundred and Second Illinois Volunteer Infantry, and he passed the closing years of his life as a farmer in Mercer County, Illinois, where he died a bachelor ; Parthenia is the wife of John McElheiny, of Rock Island, Illinois; Andrew Jackson died in infancy ; and Aaron, a bachelor, died in Mercer County, Illinois.

As previously intimated, the early associations of Rev. Abner Norman were those of the pioneer farm of his father in Henry County, Illinois, and he has maintained during the long intervening years a deep appre- ciation of and allegiance to the great basic industry of agriculture, the foundation on which has ever rested much of our national prosperity. Mr. Norman was about thirty-one years of age at the inception of the Civil war and he soon made all other associations and interests secondary to the call of patriotism. In Henry County, Illinois, in 1862, he enlisted as a private in Company H, One Hundred and Twelfth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, Col. Thomas Henderson having been in command of the regi- ment and Capt. George W. Shrof, the commander of Company H. The regiment was assigned to the Twenty-third Corps of the Department of the Ohio, and was ordered to camp at Covington, Kentucky. Thence it proceeded to Lexington, that state, where it was stationed during the winter of 1862-3, in the spring of which latter year it crossed the moun- tains to Knoxville, Tennessee, where it was besieged by the forces under

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General Longstreet, and where Mr. Norman was wounded, by being shot in the mouth, the injury involving the loss of his front teeth. After being confined for a time in the hospital at Knoxville he was sent back to Illi- nois, as a nurse with a number of wounded men, and after an incidental visit of sixteen days at his home he rejoined his regiment at Lexington, Kentucky. In the spring of 1864 the command again crossed the moun- tains and at this time it joined Sherman's army at Buzzard's Roost, from which point it participated in the further operations of the Atlanta campaign until the fall of Atlanta. When Hood made his flank move- ment the Twenty-third Corps, of which Mr. Norman's regiment was a part, was cut off from the main body of the army, encountered Hood's forces at a point about seventy miles distant from Atlanta and thence fought him all the way to Nashville. Mr. Norman took part in the battles of Franklin and Nashville, and when Hood had been driven back across the Tennessee River the Twenty-third Corps was again separated from the main army and proceeded to Alexandria, Virginia, whence it went on transports to Fort Fisher, North Carolina, to assist in bringing into full Union control the Cape Fear River. In this connection it participated in the taking of Fort Anderson and Wilmington. From the latter point the command started across to Goldsboro, and it finally met Sherman's army, with which it was consolidated and marched to Raleigh and Greensboro, the latter place being the stage on which General Johnston surrendered his army and at which the troops under General Sherman were dis- charged. Some of the gallant soldiers returned by rail to their native states and others by water, as the surrender of Generals Lee and Johnston marked the close of the great fratricidal conflict. Mr. Norman made his way to the City of Chicago, where he received his pay and he then rejoined his family, on the 8th of July, 1865, after nearly three years of valiant and loyal service in behalf of the cause of the Union.

Prior to his enlistment Mr. Norman had been in active service as a preacher of the United Brethren Church, his conversion having occurred when he was twenty-seven years of age, under the zealous exhortation of Rev. Joshua Dunham. Immediately after thus expressing his Christian faith, Mr. Norman began to give close attention to Bible study and his initial work in the ministry was that of a local preacher with a license from the quarterly conference, his first sermon having been delivered in the Hermitage schoolhouse in Henry County, Illinois. He was active in work of this order at the time when he went forth to battle for the integrity of the nation, and his final ordination as a clergyman of the United Brethren Church occurred at Shields' Chapel, in Fulton County, Illinois, under the direction of Bishop Edwards. His first regular charge was at Tylerville Mission, and while the incumbent of this pastorate he gave his attention also to the work of his farm.

In 1876 Mr. Norman came from Illinois to Nodaway County, Missouri, where he purchased land near Gaynor, but in 1879 he removed to Worth County and established his home in the Village of Sheridan. He has been the owner of his present farm since 1883, the same being known as the old Joe Hall farm and comprising 120 acres of excellent land. Prior to com- ing to Missouri he had been for four years a resident of Fulton County, Illinois. The first ministerial work done by Mr. Norman in Missouri was that of traveling for two years through the district virtually represented by the activities of the United Brethren Church organization at Hopkins, Nodaway County, and for the two succeeding years the headquarters of his zealous and effective labors were at Grant City and its circuit. He later was in the Albany circuit, and his last regular work in the pulpit was on the Grant City circuit, with which he was identified at four different periods. He was serving as presiding elder of his district when Vol. III-16

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he received a stroke of paralysis, the incidental infirmity compelling his virtual retirement from the active work of the ministry soon after- ward, in 1911.

Mr. Norman has never had any desire to enter the turbulence of prac- tical politics and has held himself measurably independent of strict partisan lines, though his convictions in a general way have been indicated by his support of the republican party in national elections. On one occasion he was thus questioned by a church brother : "Brother Norman, I have heard you preach many a time and you have stayed at my house many times, but you have never told me your political views. Now to- night when you preach I want you to tell us what your politics are." When he had finished his sermon that evening Mr. Norman said to his congregation that he had nearly forgotten one thing. A brother had asked him to state his politics before he dismissed the congregation and he would respond to this request by saying that his politics were: "Christ first, Christ second, and Christ all the time."

While he has passed by far the three score years and ten marked in the span of life allotted by the psalmist of the Old Scriptures, Mr. Norman in appearance and mental and physical vigor gives denial to the years that have passed over his head-this showing that his has been a career of right living and right thinking. Though his naturally vigorous constitution was impaired to some extent by the hardships of his army life and certain physical disorders marked his course as a result, the ailments finally disappeared and in the gracious twilight of his long and useful life he is enjoying excellent health. Mr. Norman has shown much business acumen and circumspection and has made judicious invest- ments in consonance with the means at his command. In 1893 he removed to Oklahoma, where he took up a homestead claim of land in Garfield County, eleven miles south of Enid. He perfected his title to this home- stead and purchased another quarter section adjoining, so that he became the owner of a valuable tract of 320 acres, the property being now in the hands of his younger children.

In Rock Island County, Illinois, on the 18th of January, 1855, Mr. Norman wedded Miss Mary J. Crist, daughter of William Crist, who was a gallant soldier in the war of 1812 and also in the Black Hawk Indian war and who carried in his body seven bullets as perpetual mementos of his military service. Mrs. Norman was summoned to the life eternal on the 4th of May, 1899, and concerning the children of this union the following brief data are entered : Arminda is the wife of Abram Cox, of Chanute, Kansas; John M. died at Sheridan, Missouri, and is survived by one child; Ella is the wife of John Mantonya, of Fairview, Illinois; and George maintains his home at Eldorado Springs, Missouri. On the 8th of March, 1900, was solemnized the marriage of Rev. Abner Norman to Miss Mary E. Glick, daughter of Frederick Glick, whose father, Theobald Glick, immigrated to America from Germany. Frederick Glick wedded Miss Bettie Cole, and Mrs. Norman was one of their seven children. Mr. and Mrs. Norman have three children-Nellie, Abner Clarence, and Cecil Catherine.

JAMES FRANKLIN SCOTT. The president of the Scott Mercantile Com- pany at Blythedale is a Northwest Missouri citizen whose career has illus- trated the best elements of substantial accomplishment. The man who has a willing industry and some readiness and versatility in adapting himself to the changing circumstances of life is always sure of success. The world always has something for such a man to do, and he will be certain to use each successive position as a stepping stone to better things.

James F. Scott was born in Floyd County, Indiana, April 18, 1852.

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His childhood was spent in the country and his education such as the country school gave him. His father had a farm and country blacksmith shop, and in the latter this son learned a trade, and for about three years ran the shop. Just before twenty years old he married, and supported his life household chiefly by his trade. In 1876 he came west, landing in Davis City, Iowa, worked as a journeyman for a time, and then did a draying business between Davis City and Leon. Without capital, he bought the line on time, and at the end of two years was induced by its former owner to turn his attention to merchandising. This substantial benefactor in his business career was J. E. Teale, a merchant and man of wealth in Davis City. He had acquired a very favorable impression of young Scott, and one day told the latter it was to his interest to take up the line for which he was best fitted by nature, since he would un- doubtedly succeed. His offer was accepted by Mr. Scott, who worked four years on a salary and in that time gained a thorough knowledge of merchandising. Then a working interest in the store was given him, and he managed the firm of J. F. Scott & Company two years.

In the meantime his acquaintance in the county had brought him a popularity that caused the democrats to nominate him for the office of auditor of Decatur County. Entering the race in the face of a normal republican majority of 600, he justified the faith of his friends and sup- porters and was elected in 1883 and made an excellent record in the courthouse for the next two years.

Leaving Davis City after about ten years, he for four years was in the real estate business at Independence, Missouri, and next enjoyed the keen competition of business in a big city, and for about four years was identified with the Metropolitan Hotel Company of Kansas City, Missouri, as its manager. During the last thirty-five years, with few interruptions, he has been in active business affairs. On leaving Kansas City and identifying himself with the Blythedale country, his first work was as a farmer. For three years he conducted a farm three miles south of town, and then in 1897 became a hardware merchant. The scope of his enter- prise as a merchant has been greatly expanded since he started here seventeen years ago. The beginning was with a stock valued at $1,500 on the site of the corner building of his present headquarters. Mr. C. B. Neville subsequently became associated with him, but after a few years his interests were acquired by Mr. Scott and sons, and they also bought out W. H. Scott, a brother, who had previously been one of Blythedale's leading dry goods merchants. There were several separate enterprises under joint management at first, but gradually the proprietors have worked a consolidation, and now have a single store building of two rooms with a frontage of seventy-five feet, besides another large room which is occupied by the furniture store. Under its present title of Scott Mercantile Company it is in every sense of the word a department store and carries the largest stock of any department store in Harrison County, and the only one of its kind in Blythedale. Everything in gen- eral merchandise is handled, including dry goods, clothing, shoes, fur- niture, hardware, automobiles, groceries, etc.

Besides the upbuilding of this enterprise, Mr. Scott has in other ways identified himself with the substantial improvement of the town, notably in the erection of the best home, a twelve-room modern residence, con- structed in 1909. For a number of years a member of the school board, it was largely his aggressive fight for better school facilities that gave the town its present school edifice. Twice he led the progressive citizens in elections and twice was defeated, but the third time his cause won, and now the four-room brick building is one of the attractive features of the town. During his residence in Harrison County, he has been com-

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paratively inactive in politics except so far as local interests could be served. He is a past noble grand of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and his family have long been identified with the Christian Church.

Mr. Scott's grandfather was John A. Scott, a native of Virginia and a minister of the Christian Church. In young manhood he located in Kentucky, and married Annie Reasor, whose people lived about Shelby- ville. From Kentucky he became a pioneer in Indiana, and died near New Albany. His children were: Reasor, who spent his life in Indiana ; James G., who lived and died in Indiana; Robert, whose career was lived in the same state; Rev. Harbert, mentioned below; Vardeman, who lived in Indiana; John, of the same state; David, a cooper, whose work was all done in the same state; Moses R., also a cooper, and a resident of one county all his life; Emily, who married Samuel Mccutcheon and died in Pawnee, Missouri; Elizabeth, who married Thomas Akers and died in Indiana.

Rev. Harbert Scott, father of the Blythedale merchant, was one of seven brothers, all of whom were preachers except one, who was a deacon in the family denomination. As already indicated, Harbert Scott was also a farmer and blacksmith, and was born near New Albany, Indiana, January 25, 1829. His life was one of great industry and with a sense of responsibility to his fellow men which he fulfilled by devoted service to the ministry while providing for the material wants of his family by hard labor. He lived on one farm half a century, until his death in 1911. He was a democrat in politics. He married Nancy Mckinley, who died in 1911, just thirty days after her husband. Her father, James Mc- Kinley, who married a Miss Packwood, came from Virginia, and was a farmer and tanner at Borden, Indiana. Reverend and Mrs. Scott had the following children: James F .; Jincy, wife of T. J. Bell, of Pawnee, Missouri; Miss Eliza, of Jeffersonville, Indiana; William W., of St. Joseph, Missouri; Carter, of Davis City, Iowa ; Winfield H., of Eufaula, Oklahoma; John R., now treasurer of Clark County, Indiana; Samuel L., superintendent of schools in Clark County; Emma and Lizzie, twins, the former Mrs. Henry Temple of Jeffersonville, Indiana, and the latter Mrs. Charles Emery, of New Albany; Zenas E., principal of schools at Asbury Park, New Jersey; Eva, wife of Harry E. Pickens, of New Albany; and Glenn E., superintendent of schools in Floyd County, Indiana.

Mr. James F. Scott has a fine family of his own. He was married April 14, 1872, to Miss Olivia Taylor, daughter of Jonathan Taylor, whose wife was a Miss Horner. Mr. Taylor was a boat carpenter on the Ohio River. His children were: Goodrich, of Bloomington, Indiana ; Laura E., wife of Albert Scott, of Greenville, Indiana; Olivia, wife of James F. Scott, born September 30, 1852; Susie, who married Joseph Scott, of Kansas City; and Henry, of Blackwell, Oklahoma.

Mr. and Mrs. Scott's children are: Cortez A., who married Norah Morgans, is general salesman for Kansas for the Wheeler & Motler Mer- cantile Company, of St. Joseph, Missouri, and a stockholder in the above concern and also a stockholder in the Scott Mercantile Company of Blythedale, Missouri, his home being in Topeka, Kansas; Archie E., who is a member of the Scott Mercantile Company and president of the Farmers and Merchants Bank of Blythedale, married Bessie Canady ; Winnie E. is the wife of Elza Jones of Blythedale, a prosperous farmer ; Miss Dee Etta, of Kansas City; Ralph F., of the Scott Mercantile Com- pany, married Winnie Craig; and Susie E. is the wife of Glenn H. Dale, a practicing lawyer at DeQueen, Arkansas. Mr. and Mrs. Scott have seven grandsons and four granddaughters.

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EZRA H. FRISBY. The entire career of Ezra H. Frisby, one of the substantial business men and public-spirited citizens of Bethany, and one who has taken an active part in the upbuilding of this locality, has been spent in the community in which he now lives, he having been born near Bethany, in Harrison County, October 17, 1862, a son of Capt. Jonathan C. and Sarah J. (Briggs) Frisby.

The grandfather of Ezra H. Frisby was born in Pennsylvania, where the family was located in the Pennsylvania Dutch settlement, and during the pioneer days, prior to the War of 1812, moved to Muskingum County, Ohio. In his latter years he was a Baptist minister, and his death oc- curred near Bloomington, Illinois, the grandmother passing away in 1871, in Harrison County, Missouri. They were the parents of two children : Jonathan C. and Russell. By a former marriage the grand- father was the father of a son, James M., who died at Centerville, Iowa, and a daughter, Sarah, who married a Mr. Smith and died near Oska- loosa, Iowa.

Capt. Jonathan C. Frisby was born in Muskingum County, Ohio, April 19, 1817, and was given but little schooling, attending the district schools two terms of four months each, and walking six miles for that meager training. From Zanesville, Ohio, he went to Bloomington, Illi- nois, and in 1858 came to Harrison County, Missouri, where he engaged in farming and established a place for himself among the modestly sub- stantial agriculturists of his locality. During the Civil war he was a captain in the Missouri militia, being identified with the Home Guards, and furnished a son for the Union army, James O. Frisby, who served three and one-half years and was honorably discharged after a valiant service, without wounds or capture. Captain Frisby was once county judge of Harrison County, from 1868 to 1870, and was a member of the republican party from the time of its organization. Fraternally he was a Master Mason. He was widely known throughout Harrison County, and was particularly noted for his strong physique. In addition to general farming, he was engaged in buying and shipping stock at an early day, driving it to Chillicothe, Missouri, and Burlington, Iowa, for shipment. Captain Frisby married Sarah J. Briggs, a daughter of John Bowles and Catherine (Eveland) Briggs, natives of Muskingum County, Ohio, and she died August 4, 1894, Captain Frisby surviving her until June 20, 1903. They were the parents of the following children : James O., who died at Bethany, Missouri, December 25, 1894, leaving a widow and two sons; Adnah H., of Supply, Oklahoma; Catherine, who became the wife of Dr. Jackson Walker, of Bethany; Perry, who died in New Mexico; and Frank, who died at Bismarck, North Dakota, both leaving families ; Jennie, who married Asa M. Wood, of Overland Park, Kansas ; and Ezra H.

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A history of northwest Missouri, Volume III, Part 36

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