A history of northwest Missouri, Volume III, Part 44

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

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.. himself what he was from sheer force of will. He had the gift above the average man without training preparatory to appearing in public, and during his period of church work had missions in different sections of the country, and rode about on horseback to preach and instruct in the word of God. He was moderator of the West Fork Baptist Associa- tion for many years. It was in 1852 that he left Decatur County, In- diana, crossed the intervening states by wagon and joined a small colony of Indiana people who had settled near the edge of Harrison County. Rev. John Woodward was one of the men who helped to clear the forest and brush and cultivate the land of Harrison County, and carried on his work as a minister in the Missionary Baptist faith in addition to his labors as a home-maker. At the opening of the war he was a Union democrat, and subsequently became republican. During the war he served as chaplain in the Third Missouri State Militia, but before his regular enlistment had been among those called out to secure the peace of the country. He took part in the battle of Springfield on January 8, 1863, and his regiment was so much reduced by losses that it was distributed among the Sixth and Seventh regiments of the militia, and after that the Third Regiment ceased to exist. Rev. John Woodward passed through his military experiences without wounds or capture. Always a man of strong temperance views, he was one of the early organizers of the Good Templars movement in this section of Missouri. He had no aspirations for office, and before his death left the republican party, and again joined the democrats, whom he had supported until after the Douglas campaign of 1860. For many years he was identified with the Masonic order, having joined the lodge at Princeton, Missouri.

Rev. John Woodward married Julia A. Kennedy, daughter of a New York man who settled in Decatur County, Indiana. Mrs. Wood- ward died February 16, 1893, and her husband December 17, 1898. Their children were : Ralph O .; Mary Elizabeth, who married T. E. Salee and died at Cainsville; Chesley B., who spent many years as a banker and died at Cainsville; Rhoda B., who married G. R. Wilson of Cainsville; Susan J., who married Lewis M. Wickersham and lives at Cainsville; Eliza Catherine, who became the wife of John W. Burton of Gallatin ; Nancy E., who married Thomas Harris and lives in Tacoma, Washington.

Ralph O. Woodward was born in Decatur County, Indiana, Decem- ber 3, 1842, and was about ten years of age when the family located at the edge of Harrison County in 1852. His formal instruction in schools came largely from the institutions of learning supported in the vicinity of Cainsville during the decade of the '50s. The longest term of school he ever attended was one of six months, and like both father and grand- father, he suffered from lack of opportunities. These difficulties only spurred him to greater efforts, and in spite of early embarrassments in the matter of education he qualified as a teacher, and for sixteen years taught in country schools and at the same time kept up his farming. In 1877 he taught one of the two departments of the Cainsville school, and his last work in that line was at the Ross Schoolhouse in Harrison County. On his marriage he established a home in Mercer County, just northeast of Cainsville, and in 1867 moved from there to Daviess County and lived near old Bancroft for ten years. After returning to Harrison County he spent a few years in Cainsville, where he bought an interest in the old Peter Cain .mill. He finally left milling, trading his interests for a farm, and resumed that industry six miles southwest of Cains- ville. His last move was to a portion of the old Woodward home- stead, where he lives today.

On May 25, 1863, when twenty-one years of age, Mr. Woodward entered the army in Company M of the Sixth Missouri State Militia,

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under Captain McAfee and Colonel King. Most of his service was in . Missouri, and in October, 1863, he was captured at Neosho, when his entire company was taken by Jo Shelby's troops, but he was paroled the same day, October 4th, and left at Neosho. He and his comrades found their way back to Springfield, camped there during the winter, and were then rearmed and reenlisted as veterans on July 20, 1864, in Company D of the Thirteenth Missouri Cavalry under Captain Mayo and Colonel Catherwood. After his second enlistment Mr. Woodward was quartermaster sergeant of his company and was mustered out as sergeant-major of the regiment at Leavenworth, Kansas, January 11, 1866. When the great war between the North and South had ended his regiment was ordered west to join an Indian expedition, but after reaching Denver it was found their services were not required. On their return they crossed the plains in the dead of winter on horseback and in wagons, and met no resistance either going or coming. They saw some of the evidences of Indian massacre and destruction of property in the ashes of a stage coach, but had no actual encounters with the red men. The company was discharged as soon as papers could be made out and Mr. Woodward was paid off at St. Louis.

His political record covers almost the entire period of the existence of the republican party. While in the war he cast his first presidential vote for Abraham Lincoln, second election, and has ever since affiliated with the republican party. He has filled township office as assessor and trustee, and during one term as justice of the peace. Since thirteen years of age he has been a member of the Baptist Church, has served as church clerk and for two terms was clerk of the West Fork Baptist Association. He is a past grand of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and was a Good Templar during the existence of that organiza- tion at Cainsville. On October 17, 1884, when the Cainsville Post, No. 216, G. A. R., was organized, he became one of its members, and has always kept up his interest among his old comrades.

Mr. Woodward has been three times married. On July 7, 1864, Nancy E. Moss became his wife. Her father, Marcellus Moss, was a pioneer of Mercer County. The children of that marriage were: Leona A., wife of J. W. Welden of Gilman, Missouri; Edgar E. of Arkoe, Missouri; William H., of Denver, Colorado; and Maud, wife of Mr. Feltz. The second wife was Jeanette Girdner, who had no children. Mr. Wood- ward afterwards married Christina Pontius, daughter of Joseph and M. M. Pontius. Mrs. Woodward died November 2, 1907, leaving: Avis, who graduated from the Kirksville Normal School and is the wife of L. L. St. Clair of Caruthersville, Missouri, where both are teachers; Miss Olive B., who was educated in the Cainsville schools, the University of Missouri and the State Normal at Kirksville, from which she holds a life certificate to teach, and is now a teacher in the Cainsville schools; and Miss Ruth O., who is a member of the class of 1916 in the Cains- ville High School.

ROBERT WILEY ALLARDICE. One of the best known business men of Trenton is Robert W. Allardice. A Scotchman born and bred, reared in an industrial community noted for its coal mines and iron works, he came to the United States in youth, and after some years spent in the coal industry of the East came to Trenton to take a hand in the develop- ment and working of the coal deposits here. For a number of years he was a practical mine operator, but his chief business at present is as a coal, grain and hay merchant.

Robert Wiley Allardice was born October 12, 1862, at Kilwinning,

Wallardier.

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Scotland, a place famous for its iron works. His parents were William and Mary (Wiley) Allardice, both natives of Scotland, where his father was long identified with the coal industry. The maternal grandfather was a structural engineer, and acquired considerable wealth and prominence. The family home is Irvin, situated four miles west of Kil- winning. Mr. Allardice had an uncle, John Allardice, who was an officer in the British army and saw active service during the Indian mutiny.

Mr. Allardice grew up in his native land, attended the common schools and after graduating from the Naper high school of Kilwinning emigrated to the United States in 1881. He found employment in the coal mines at Midway, Pennsylvania, and in 1882 engaged in mining at Montgomery, West Virginia. Mr. Allardice came out to Trenton in 1883, and gave his experience to the Grundy County Coal Mining Com- pany, which made him foreman in 1889, and in 1894 he was promoted to superintendent, a position he held until the mines were worked out. In 1905, when the Trenton Mining Company was organized, Mr. Allar- dice became manager of the company, and began sinking shafts for the development of a new mine. Under his supervision the company developed a good producing property.

December 1, 1911, Mr. Allardice resigned from the company to become inspector of fuel for the Rock Island Railway, a position he held one year. In 1912, having left the railroad service, he came to Trenton and organized the Allardice & Baker Coal Company, and since 1913 has been engaged for himself in the coal, grain and hay business.

Politically he is a democrat. An active worker in the Presbyterian Church, he is an elder and for ten years was superintendent of the Sunday school. His fraternal associations are with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pythias and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and the Woodmen of the World. He has a large following of stanch friends, and enjoys a fine business. Mr. Allardice married Miss Minnie W. Myers, daughter of Michael and Mary Myers, of Trenton. They have two children. Minnie lives at home, and William A. married Miss Edna French, daughter of James A. French of Trenton.

SAMUEL RICE. The residence of Samuel Rice in Gentry County dates back to the year 1842, and since that time he has continued to make his home here, at this time living retired at Bethany. At the period of his arrival Albany was called Athens and contained a little log courthouse and a few straggling log cabins; John B. Hundley was the proprietor of a small store, but there was no doctor located here then and Bethany seems to have furnished medical attention through its doctor, although Dr. George Fallis, on Sampson Creek, also peddled pills and "practiced physic" in this region.

Mr. Rice came to the Northwest Missouri country from Trimble County, Kentucky. He walked the entire distance, a boy of less than sixteen years, and came to his uncle, Martin Fallis, near New Castle, after a journey that could have not been made much more rapidly on horseback, for on many days he covered forty miles. The Mississippi River he forded at Hannibal, and all that he brought along were the clothes upon his back. Here he was a farm aid to his uncle until the Mexican war came on, when he enlisted at Albany in Captain Denver's company of the Twelfth Missouri Infantry. He began his military career at St. Louis, where his regiment rendezvoused, following which it passed down the river to New Orleans and there shipped to Vera Cruz. General Scott had already occupied the city, and in a few days the army advanced toward the City of Mexico. Mr. Rice participated

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in the battles of Cerro Gordo, Chapultepec and Contreras and saw the city capitulate. Mr. Rice remembers that General Scott had one cannon with him "that would shoot as far as the road was cut out," and when he ordered his cannoneer to knock two holes in the walls surrounding the city, he did so. There was a temple standing high above the other buildings of the city, in which an immense bell was located, and which seemed to hold Mexican officers watching the proceedings of the Ameri- cans. General Scott ordered his big gun trained on this temple, but before it could be discharged "as many white flags as a cat has hairs" were raised, and the City of Mexico belonged to the American troops. Mr. Rice's regiment returned by water, as it had gone out, he received his honorable discharge at New Orleans, and he came back to St. Louis and by boat to the landing on the Missouri River. After a year passed in Gentry County, he made a trip across the plains to the Pacific coast.

It was in 1850 that Mr. Rice started as a teamster with six yoke of oxen and a train of twenty loads of canvased hams for the miners of the West. The caravan was six months on the road, went up the Platte River, through Utah north of Salt Lake and down the Humboldt River and arrived at Sacramento, where Mr. Rice left the wagons and struck out for himself. He worked for a time at Hangtown in the mines and with his earnings bought mules for packing his goods and started north. He finally landed in Shasta Valley and there resumed mining, digging out gold enough to buy a farm or two and set himself up in business when he returned home. He had been absent four years when he and his partner, Samuel Bell, who died in Harrison County, Mis- souri, a few years back, returned to this state, the journey being made by boat to the Isthmus of Panama and then on to New York and by rail back to St. Louis. He carried his gold in belts around his body and in New York it was exchanged for coin and brought home thus.

On his return from the coast Mr. Rice bought land in Harrison County and engaged in farming, but soon disposed of this property and bought another tract six miles east of Albany, where he spent the rest of his active life and reared his family. In the substantial improvement of his farm, he hauled his lumber from St. Joseph, and his business, aside from growing grain, was the raising of cattle and hogs.

Mr. Rice lived in peaceable possession of his farm save during the period of the Civil war. It was known that his sympathies were with the South and he was annoyed by the Federal authorities more or less on this account. Finally, to escape some persecution, he moved his family to Iowa, where the draft was served upon him from Missouri and he appeared before a corps of doctors for examination. He declared to them that they could force him into the army, but that they could not force him to shoot a man and the doctors then, after a consultation, offered to let him off for $100. He "had the money in his breeches" and handed it to them with the declaration "that he wouldn't have to answer for that in the day of judgment," regarding the whole procedure in the light of a graft.

The fact that Mr. Rice had failed to secure an education hampered him much as a citizen. He never went to school a day in his life and passed through his career without the ability to either read or write. He trusted to the honesty of others largely and when he married took a wife who had an education. He married, in November, 1854, Victoria · Duncan, a daughter of Frank Duncan, one of the first settlers of Gentry County, and also a Kentuckian. Mrs. Rice lived until 1882 and was the mother of these children: Laura, who died here; Frank, of Oregon; John, of Kansas; Rojene, wife of M. S. Anslyn, of Albany; Patience, who married William Hill, of Gentry County; Nancy, who married P. I.

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Gibony, of Roswell, New Mexico; Julia, who married George Dunlap, of Harrison County, Missouri; Maggie, the wife of Alvin Whitten, of Gentry County ; and Lucy, who married J. W. Hunter, of Kansas City. Mr. Rice was married a second time to Mrs. Boyd, and had one son, Dan, a resident of Pratt County, Kansas.

Mr. Rice was born in Trimble County, Kentucky, August 5, 1825, a son of Daniel Rice, a farmer who was, perhaps, a native of that county. His people were from Virginia. Daniel Rice married Susan Fallis, and they had ten children who grew to maturity. The parents came to Missouri about 1848 and their children subsequently moved to various parts of Missouri and the West. Daniel and Susan Rice are buried at Jones Chapel, in Harrison County. Samuel Rice has been a member of the church since 1861, and has at all times endeavored to live up to its teachings.

GEORGE KEIFFER. The Keiffer family has lived in Holt County since before the war. Hard working farmers, public-spirited citizens, and people who have taken hold of every enterprise with a vigor charac- teristic of the name, they have long been identified usefully and worthily with this section of Northwest Missouri.

George Keiffer was born in Mercer County, Missouri, October 25, 1845. His parents were Martin and Jane (Mullen) Keiffer, who were married in the State of Missouri, the mother born in Cooper County, Missouri, and the father in Rockingham County, Virginia. There were ten children in the family, seven of whom reached maturity. Martin Keiffer was a farmer and brought his family to Holt County in 1857, settling on a farm about two miles southeast of Oregon. The father bought eighty acres there, and its chief improvement was a two-room log house. A large part of the land was covered with a heavy growth of

timber, and the Keiffer family cleared a large field, and left some of the timber when they sold the farm in 1865. The next purchase was a farm near the one owned now by George Keiffer in Hickory Township. It was all wild land, and George Keiffer put the first plow into the soil and was the first to turn over a furrow in land that had lain virgin to the sun and wind for centuries. That land, comprising 160 acres, was where the Lincoln Schoolhouse now stands. It had no buildings, and all the improvements were erected by the father and son. Previous to that time the father had bought 120 acres now owned by the widow Jackson, but kept it only one year. The father also owned forty acres of timber land. That was his home until the last year of his life, and he died in Mound City. Having come to Northwest Missouri a poor man, though possessed of a good education, by means of his hard labor and thorough-going habits he acquired more than a competence. He and his wife were devout Baptists, and his moral principles are indicated by the fact that he never entered a saloon in all his years.

George Keiffer lived at home until his marriage in 1865, and after that farmed on his father's place for a year, and then bought a farm from Andrew Meyers. Since then, for more than forty years, his home has been in one locality. He originally owned 160 acres, but has since reduced that to eighty. In 1865 Mr. Keiffer married Elizabeth Beeler, daughter of Israel and Mary (Darhl) Beeler. Her people were early settlers in Holt County and were natives of Indiana. Mrs. Keiffer had eleven brothers and sisters. Mr. and Mrs. Keiffer are the parents of ten children, one of whom died in infancy, and the others are mentioned as follows: Anna Belle, who first married Charles Beckner and second Robert Clopton and became the mother of seven children; Rose, who died at the age of fourteen; Elmer, who first married Bryna Connor,

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and had three children, and for his second wife married Nell Johnson; Marus, who married Stella Shafer, and has four children; Lew, who married Dollie Clark, and has three living children and two deceased; Laura May, who married Wilson Kaufman; Guy, who lives at home; Inez, who married L. B. Hollenbeck, and has one son ; Alma, who married Arch Patterson, and has two children. All the children were born in Holt County, and all in Hickory Township except two.

The Keiffer farm is one of the model places in Hickory Township, and every improvement, the buildings, the plowed fields, the fences, are all the direct result of Mr. Keiffer's management and labors. The land was only a pasture when he bought it, and he has gone ahead steadily in its improvement and at the same time has prospered as one of the pro- gressive farmers of this section. Mrs. Keiffer is a member of the Christian Church, and he was brought up in that faith. He has served as school director and road supervisor, and in politics is a republican, while his father was a democrat.

CHRISTOPHER CANADAY was born in McLean County, Illinois, on October 26, 1847. He is a son of William and Elizabeth Canaday, whose biography appears in this volume.

He came to Missouri with his parents in the year 1855; he attended district school about four months of each year and worked on his father's farm the balance of the time until he reached the age of twenty-two; he also attended a graded school at Leon, Iowa, for nine months, thus finishing his school work ; however, his education did not stop, but really only began, as he had a keen and active mind and was capable of grasp- ing opportunity and turning it into gold.

On July 3, 1870, he was united in matrimony to Miss Angelina Brower. She was the daughter of James B. and Elizabeth (Bailiff) Brower and was born in Jennings County, Ohio, on July 16, 1852.

Her father, James B. Brower, who traces his lineage back to Holland, was born in Clermont County, Ohio, September 15, 1824.

In the year 1828, Mr. Brower moved with his father's family to Jennings County, Indiana, on September 3, 1846; he was united in marriage to Miss Elizabeth Bailiff, who was born in Ohio November 14, 1828. To this union ten children were born, viz .: Benjamin R., Leonora, Angelina, Sylvania, James L., Charles H., Millard F., Ellis M., Mary and Jasper.

In the year 1854, James B. Brower moved with his family to Harrison County, Missouri, and settled on a farm, where he helped to blaze the way for his posterity in a new country. In 1856 he engaged in the mercantile business in Eagleville, Missouri, under the firm name of Brower & Gilkey and also helped to lay out what are now known as the Brower and Gilkey surveys to the Town of Eagleville. In 1859 he quit business and moved to a farm four miles northwest of Eagleville.

In 1863 he enlisted in Company A, Thirty-fifth Regiment, Missouri Volunteer Infantry, and was first lieutenant of said company during his entire service, commanding the company. He was mustered out on July 10, 1865, never having had a furlough and never being wounded or taken captive and he had the distinction of never having applied for a pension, something very rare, indeed, among the soldiers of our Civil war.

Mr. Brower, who is so well known to all of our older citizens, was a remarkable man for the times in which he lived, and stood for temperance and right living. As a little side light into his character as well as that of the early history of Eagleville, the following instance is related: Mr. Brower did teaming with cattle between Eagleville and

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St. Joseph, and the merchants would give him sealed orders to have filled by the wholesale merchants at St. Joseph, and he would then bring the goods ordered back with him. On one occasion when loading, a barrel of whisky was rolled out ready to load. Mr. Brower objected to taking it, saying that his cattle would not haul whisky. They in- sisted that he should, saying that the order said they were out and needed it. Mr. Brower said, "They may want it, but they do not need it." That settled the matter and the whisky was left in St. Joseph. Mr. Brower was elected and served four years as county judge, from 1872 to 1876. He was then elected to represent the county in. the State Legislature and was reelected in 1878, serving two terms.

To Christopher and Angelina Canaday were born four children and their names appear in regular order, together with the names of de- scendants born to the time of this history.

John T. Canaday, born April 21, 1871, married to Miss Eva Klopen- stein July 23, 1894, their descendants being Ray V., Lavare J., and Nelva A.

Harvey P. Canaday, born August 15, 1872, married to Miss Nellie Carlton September 15, 1895, their descendants being Pauline, Marguerite, John, George, Togo and Marvin.

Mabel Canaday, born February 5, 1878, married to Charles Baldwin June 19, 1900. Their descendants are Winifred, Susie and Gladstone.

Myrtle Canaday, born July 25, 1879, married to Pascal J. Richardson October 24, 1897. Their descendants are Nellie T., Phil (deceased), Ruby A., Hugh and Helen.

Returning to the history of Christopher Canaday, he has always been interested in farming and stock raising, even though he did business along other lines. For seven years after his marriage he followed this business exclusively. In 1878 he engaged in the mercantile business in Eagleville, Missouri, with R. H. Wren, with whom he remained in part- nership for a year, then going back to the farm for a time. In 1896 he again went into business, this time in Blythedale, Missouri, under the firm name of Canaday & Son. He was also one of the charter members of the Blythedale Savings Bank, which, to a large extent he financed. In 1910 he helped to organize the Citizens Bank of Blythedale and was its president for two years. He is a careful business man and has amassed a considerable fortune.

Mr. Canaday is a democrat in politics and in religious belief his faith is allied with that of the Christian Church, of which both he and his wife are members; he is a total abstainer from intoxicants and has never had a chew of tobacco or a pipe in his mouth. He has witnessed the evolution of the ox cart into the automobile and flying machine and drives a car of the latest make; he has seen the hut or cabin of the early settler give way to modern homes and the land which produced timber, brush, wild grass and weeds bearing the golden sheaf of grain.

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A history of northwest Missouri, Volume III, Part 44

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