A history of northwest Missouri, Volume III, Part 47

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

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After his marriage Dr. George Graham moved from Lindley to Gentryville, where he engaged in the grist and woolen mill business. This was a large and important enterprise, with a patronage drawn from a large territory. In 1879 the mills were destroyed by fire, causing a loss of many thousand dollars to the owners. After this misfortune Doctor Graham bought the City Mills and the Grand River Mills in Trenton, and resumed business. During the cyclone of July, 1883, the mills were blown into the river and destroyed. Doctor Graham prac- ticed to some extent while looking after his business, and in 1887 moved to McFall with the intention of taking up the regular work of his pro- fession in that community, but died three weeks after his arrival, being then hardly in the prime of life, aged forty-seven. He was a member of the Christian Church and a democrat, and others of the family have usually followed the same lines in religion and politics. Mrs. George Graham died in March, 1913, at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Emma J. Carson, of St. Louis. Her five children are: David T., in the manu- facturing business at St. Louis; Mrs. Emma J. Carson, of St. Louis; Mrs. Sarah M. Asher, of Trenton ; Leota Lee, deceased ; and Dr. James B.

Dr. James B. Graham spent part of his boyhood in Trenton, where he attended the public schools, later was in the McFall High School and also a student of Avalon College. In 1893 he began to prepare for his profession in the Barnes Medical College, now the National University of Arts and Sciences, at St. Louis, where he completed the regular course and was graduated M. D. in 1897. The subsequent seventeen years have been devoted to a general practice at Jameson, where his success and standing in the profession give him first rank. In 1912 he returned to his alma mater for post-graduate work, and at its conclusion received an ad eundem degree.

August 21, 1895, Doctor Graham married Miss Maud C. Miller, of Jamesport. daughter of Mack Miller, a well known farmer in that locality. To their marriage have been born four children: James B., Jr., who died at the age of one year, Martha Lois, Jack Sutcliff and Mary Elizabeth.

Doctor Graham is a democrat, fraternally is a member of the Masonic Lodge, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pythias and the Woodmen of the World, while his professional associations are with the Tri-State Medical Society, comprising Missouri, Iowa and Illi-

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nois, the Grand River Valley Medical Society and the Missouri Valley Medical Society.

E. W. SMITH. The business of general farming, under the favorable conditions offered in Hickory Township, Holt County, has an enthusiastic and altogether successful follower in the person of E. W. Smith, the owner of a fine farm of 240 acres. He has not only won material success in the time of his residence here, but has contributed to the progress and welfare of his community by years of efficient public service, as justice of the peace and in other capacities, and is also widely known in religious work.

" 'Squire" E. W. Smith was born in Vernon County, Missouri, Janu- ary 23, 1864, and is a son of Elijah W. and Annon K. Dunnigan Smith, the former a native of Indiana and the latter of Missouri. The children, all born in Vernon County, were as follows: Gaddson, Vincent C., E. W., Seamore, Dr. A. S. J. and James E. E. W. Smith, the third child, was reared in the vicinity of his birth and there received his education in the district schools, which he attended during the winter months. He remained under the parental roof, assisting his father with the duties of the homestead, until his marriage, at which time he went to live on the farm of his father-in-law, but subsequently bought a farm in Andrew County, Missouri, and there lived for about six years. When he first located upon that tract, it was still in its wild state, but Mr. Smith improved and cultivated the ground, and erected a number of substantial buildings. When he disposed of his interest in this property, Mr. Smith came to Holt County, and in Hickory Township bought the 120-acre farm which formerly belonged to the original settler, D. P. Smallwood, to which he later added by purchase another tract of 120 acres. He now has all his land under a good state of cultivation, engaging in general farming and stockraising and securing excellent results from his labors. As a farmer he is classed among the progressive tillers of the soil in his part of the county, and has always shown a willingness to try new inventions and methods, while he always uses the most highly improved machinery in his work. His buildings are commodious, attractive and in a good state of repair, and the whole appearance of the farm is one which stamps its owner as a man of good judgment and careful manage- ment.

A democrat in politics, Mr. Smith has taken some active part in public affairs, and has been called to fill several offices of local importance. He has for ten years been justice of the peace, being three times elected and once appointed and is now on his last four-year term. He was a member of the school board at Newpoint shortly after his arrival in Holt County, and was district clerk at Shiloh for a number of years. His public services have been characterized by faithful performance of duty and capable handling of the affairs of office. Fraternally he is con- nected with the Masonic Order, belonging to the Blue Lodge at Mound City. Mr. Smith has been very active in religious affairs, being elder in the Christian Church at Newpoint, township president of the Sunday School Organization, and secretary and treasurer of the Christian Church Sunday School Organization for Holt County.

In the spring of 1886 Mr. Smith was united in marriage with Miss Frances A. Praisewater, daughter of Samuel and Susan A. (Neas) Praise- water, early settlers of Andrew and Holt counties, who came here in the early '50s and are now deceased and buried in Holt County. They were farming people, and the parents of six sons and four daughters. Ten children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Smith, namely: Harry, who died at the age of eighteen years; Nellie; Susan, who married J. Ralph

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Myer ; Samuel, who married Rosie McIntyre, and has one child, Louise; Myrtle L., who married Chauncey W. Huiatt; William H., who married Cleo Proud; Mabel S .; Vera Fay; Opal Temple and Emil A.

HUSTON WYETH. The careers and activities of many citizens enter into the solid structure of a city like St. Joseph. But the solid prosperity which distinguishes this commercial and industrial center can be traced to the enterprise of a group of men who have chosen this center as the scene of their business careers, and who through their leadership, their executive abilities, and their splendid capacity for business organization, have created and maintained a greater proportion of what is prominent and flourishing in local commerce. As a name that is both familiar in its associations with the wholesale and manufacturing activities of the Upper Missouri Valley, probably none is better known, and none is more distinctive of success and broad accomplishments, than that of Wyeth. Two generations of business builders have been identified with the growth and development of the great Wyeth Hardware and Manu- facturing Company, and Mr. Huston Wyeth, president of the corporation, is the son of its founder, the late Mr. William Maxwell Wyeth.

In 1909, just fifty years after the business was established at St. Joseph, the outward evidences of its growth were substantially illus- trated in the completion of the magnificent seven-story building which now serves as the business offices, the packing rooms and the general headquarters of the entire concern, in addition to the factories located in the same vicinity. This building occupies a half block of ground, 240x 140 feet, on the east side of Second Street, between Jule and Faraon streets, and on adjoining ground are located the harness and saddle factories and the collar factory, connected with the main building by tunnels. In November, 1908, the foundation of the new building was laid, and the entire structure completed ready for occupancy on July 24, 1909. Six and a half acres of floor space are provided by the seven stories and the basement, and including the floor space in the factories there are 1015 acres, now devoted to the great business under the name of Wyeth. So far as possible the building has been made fireproof, and has been equipped not only with all the mechanical facilities for the expeditious handling of goods, but also with many comforts and con- veniences for the employees and the official staff.

While this modern commercial building is in itself an illustration of the magnitude of the business transacted by the Wyeth Hardware and Manufacturing Company, perhaps a more graphic evidence is found in the fact that the pay roll' of the company comprises more than five hundred persons. Two hundred and twenty-five men are in the harness, collar and saddlery departments, and 152 are in the hardware depart- ment, ninety-three of these being in the general office. The trade of the Wyeth Company is with retail dealers from the Mississippi River to the Pacific coast, and a corps of seventy-six traveling men represent the company in all the states from the Canadian boundary line to Mexico, and from the Mississippi to the Pacific.

When the late William Maxwell Wyeth came to St. Joseph in 1859, he began selling hardware in a little three-story building, twenty feet in front, on the south side of Market Square. St. Joseph was then a thriving river town of about seven thousand people, and had recently come into prominence as an advantageous point for business through the completion of the Hannibal and St. Joseph railways, the first road to reach the Missouri River on its north and south course. To the west were the plains of Nebraska and Kansas territories, and over all the vast intervening country between the Pacific and the Missouri River the

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only routes of transportation were the Santa Fe, the Overland and the Salt Lake trails. Thus St. Joseph became naturally the distributing point for all the West, and there the Pony Express and the Overland stage met the freight and passenger coach. Though the late Mr. Wyeth began business with a limited capital and on a moderate scale, and was soon overtaken by the unsettled conditions of the Civil war, lie exercised such energy as to cause a steady progress in his undertaking, and there has never been a time when the business was not on a substantial basis. Soon after the war, in 1866, fire destroyed all the block in which the business was conducted, but there was little interruption, since other quarters were temporarily obtained, and a new building, with three times the floor space of the first, was completed in 1867 at 105-107 South Third Street. During the first dozen years the business was confined to general lines of hardware, but in 1872 the manufacture of harness and saddles was begun on a large scale, and the goods turned out under the Wyeth brand have for forty years held an unrivaled place in the trade. That extension caused the building of additional facilities, and every few years some improvement of quarters has been made. The firm up to 1881 was conducted under the name of W. M. Wyeth & Company, and in that year was incorporated as the Wyeth Hardware and Manufacturing Company. At that time the business occupied three store rooms on Third Street, one on Fourth Street, a factory for collars on North Second Street, and a building, just completed, for a harness and saddle factory, on Second Street next to the collar factory. In course of the next twenty-five years at least half a dozen important building additions and remodelings were undertaken to provide needed quarters for the en- larging scope of the trade and manufacture. When the company in 1892 erected its five-story building, 130x140 feet, on North Second Street, that was one of the most conspicuous additions to the wholesale district, and was hailed as a great step in advance for St. Joseph com- merce, though in comparison with the new building above described, that was a comparatively insignificant structure.

The Wyeth family which has been so conspicuous in St. Joseph business and civic life has a long and interesting American history. The founder of the name, and the direct lineal ancestor of the St. Joseph Wyeths was Nicholas Wyeth, who was born in England in 1595, came to America about 1630, settled at Newton, Massachusetts, and spent his last days in Cambridge, where he died January 19, 1680. He was twice married, and the second wife and the mother of the children was Rebecca Andrew, who survived him and married Thomas Fox. (2) John Wyeth, next in line, was born July 15, 1655, and on January 29, 1682, married Deborah Ward. He added to the military distinctions of the family by service in King Philip's war in Major Goodkin's company, and was also at one time constable in Cambridge. His busi- ness was that of stone and brick mason, and he died December 13, 1706. His wife was the daughter of John Ward. (3) Ebenezer Wyeth, who was born in 1698, was a custom shoemaker, and died April 3, 1754. He married in 1726, Susanna Hancock, who was born in 1707 and died January 29, 1789. (4) Ebenezer Wyeth, Jr., was born April 8, 1727, followed farming as a vocation, and held the office of selectman in Cam- bridge from 1781 to 1790. He and his son Joshua were members of Samuel Thatcher's company in Col. Thomas Gardner's regiment at the battles of Concord and Lexington at the outbreak of the Revolution. Ebenezer, Jr., married November 5, 1751, Mary Winship, who was born April 19, 1730, and died September 9, 1798, a daughter of Joseph and Anna Winship. Ebenezer, Jr., died August 4, 1799. (5) John Wyeth was born at Cambridge, Massachusetts, March 31, 1770, and in 1792, at

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the age of twenty-two, moved to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. He became a prominent business man and citizen of the state capital, and with John Allen published the paper called the Oracle of Dauphin until 1827. From 1793 to 1798 he was also postmaster at Harrisburg. In connection with his other business he opened a book store and conducted a general publishing house. One of the publications was a music book compiled by himself and of which about one hundred and twenty thousand copies were sold. He served as president of the board of trustees of the Harris- burg Academy, and had a long and useful career. His death occurred at Philadelphia January 23, 1858. He was twice married. On June 6, 1793, he married Louise Weiss, a daughter of Lewis and Mary Weiss of Philadelphia. She died June 1, 1822, and on May 7, 1826, he married Lydia Allen. (6) Francis Wyeth, who was born at Harrisburg, Penn- sylvania, April 5, 1806, was educated in the Harrisburg Academy, grad- uated from Jefferson College in 1827, and later succeeded his father as editor of the Oracle of Dauphin, and also was in business as a book seller and publisher and followed the example of his father in his relation to public affairs. He served as president of the board of trustees of Harrisburg Academy, and during the Civil war did much patriotic work as a member of the United States Sanitary Commission. On May 29, 1829, he married Susan Maxwell, a daughter of William and Ann Maxwell, natives of Pennsylvania. She died December 24, 1841.

(7) The late William Maxwell Wyeth, the St. Joseph business pioneer and founder of the great company above described, was born in Harris- burg, Pennsylvania, February 17, 1832. While he was active in business at St. Joseph for more than forty years and a vigorous worker from youth up, he attained almost the psalmist's span of life, and at his death in 1901 left a splendid record of material accomplishments and individual character. He received an academic education in his youth, and early in his manhood moved to Chillicothe, Ohio, where for a time he was em- ployed as clerk in a dry goods store and for a short time worked in a hardware establishment. Thus he was early destined to leave the paths traversed by his father and grandfather, and, all his career was devoted to merchandising on a large scale. He soon bought an interest in the hardware business at Chillicothe, and became junior member of the firm of Lewis & Wyeth. In 1858 he left Ohio and visited several western cities in order to investigate the possibilities and prospects for a location. As a result of this tour in 1859 he sold his interest in the hardware business at Chillicothe and moved to St. Joseph. The situation of that city with respect to the trade of the great western territory and its transportation by the new railroad and by the old river route has been set forth in a preceding paragraph, and Mr. Wyeth was a man capable by experience and natural ability of making the most of the opportunities which he found. Thereafter for years he was the guiding spirit in the successful growth of the W. M. Wyeth & Company and later of the Wyeth Hardware and Manufacturing Company, and when he died one of St. Joseph's most eminent merchants was taken from the community.

William Maxwell Wyeth on September 28, 1858, married Eliza Renick. She was born near Bainbridge, Ohio, August 25, 1837. Her father, Thomas Renick, was born January 11, 1804, and died in 1844, and married Elizabeth Morris. Thomas Renick's father, Felix Renick, was born November 5, 1770, and died in January, 1848. He was a farmer and stock raiser in Ohio, and one of the first men to import blooded stock from England. His father in turn was William Renick, who was reared in Hardy County, Virginia, now West Virginia, and moved to the new State of Ohio about 1806, where he spent the rest of his days. William Renick married Ann Heath.

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(8) Huston Wyeth, who was born in St. Joseph, Missouri, July 8, 1863, the only son of William Maxwell Wyeth, was in the eighth genera- tion from the founder of the Wyeth name in America, and there are few families in Northwest Missouri whose genealogy can be traced in such an unbroken line through so many generations in American history. He received his early education in the public schools of St. Joseph, and was also a student in St. Paul's Academy at Racine, Wisconsin. Aside from the time devoted to schooling, he has spent practically all of his active career in the business founded by his father, grew up in the offices, the warehouses, and the factories, and has long had a responsible place in the management of the enterprise. On completing his education he spent several years in the retail hardware trade, and then in 1880, in recognition of his interest and ability, was elected a director and vice president of the Wyeth Hardware and Manufacturing Company. On April 13, 1901, following the death of his father, he was elected president of the company. While the Wyeth name has deservedly stood foremost in the history of the development of this great business, there has also been capable associates, and Mr. Wyeth has always been quick to recog- nize and appreciate what these associates have done toward the success of the business. After the death of William M. Wyeth, the oldest official in the business was Charles F. Steinacker, who joined the company in 1861, and has been continuously associated with its progress, and for a number of years has been treasurer. George M. Johnson, vice president of the company, entered its employ in 1883, thirty years ago, and there are several others who have been continuously in the service of the firm for thirty years or more. Mr. Huston Wyeth is also president of the St. Joseph Artesian Ice and Cold Storage Company, and has stock and is officially connected with a number of other corporations. While he has been a business man closely absorbed in his work, he recognizes the value of a vacation, and has traveled extensively in both the United States and Europe.

On April 4, 1883, Huston Wyeth married Leila Ballinger. She was born in St. Joseph, a daughter of Isaac and Elizabeth (Kuechle) Bal- linger. The four children of their marriage are named as follows: William Maxwell, Maud, Alison, and John. The daughter, Maud, mar- ried Kenyon V. Painter. Alison is the wife of Forrest C. Campbell, and has a daughter named Elizabeth. John married Margaret Mitchell. The oldest son, William M., who was born in St. Joseph May 12, 1884, and following the example of his father, grew up in the business, was elected second vice president February 2, 1909.

Huston Wyeth has a number of fraternal and social relations: Char- ity Lodge, No. 331, A. F. & A. M .; Mitchell Chapter,.No. 89, R. A. M .; Hugh de Payne Commandery, No. 51, K. T .; St. Joseph Lodge Perfection, No. 6, Scottish Rite; Moila Temple of the Mystic Shrine; St. Joseph Lodge, No. 22, Knights of Pythias ; St. Joseph Lodge, No. 40, B. P. O. E .; and is a member of the St. Joseph Country Club, the New York Yacht Club, and the Atlantic Yacht Club.

WESLEY HODGIN. Holt County has been the home of Wesley Hodgin all his life, and his father was one of the pioneers of this community, hav- ing located here sixty years ago. Since then the Hodgin family name has stood for the best qualities not only in the life of an individual and community but in that of the nation-industry, improvement, home mak- ing, and a steady influence in behalf of education, religion and morality.

Wesley Hodgin was born in Holt County, April 16, 1860, a sou of John and Mary Ann (Hill) Hodgin. There were five children in the family, named William, Walter, Wesley, Scott and Sherman, all of whom

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were born on the old homestead in Holt County. John Hodgin, the father, came from Washington County, Indiana, to Northwest Missouri in 1855, bringing with him his wife, whom he had married in Indiana. His first year was spent as a renter, but he then bought and entered land, which became the nucleus of his large homestead, and on which he lived until about ten years ago. His original farm comprised 160 acres, and a part of it was entered direct from the Government. The deed to this property was signed by James Buchanan, who was then Presi- dent of the United States. The deed is now prized as a family relic. All the land was prairie, and was in the condition which had prevailed for centuries, no plow ever having turned over a foot of the soil. The first home was one of the typical log cabins which were so numerous in Northwest Missouri at that time, and in the early days neighbors were few and far between. In this community the father spent his active career, and passed away an honored old settler on November 5, 1912. The mother is also deceased.

Wesley Hodgin married Lillie Allen, daughter of Edgar and Eliza (Risk) Allen, who lived in Holt County, where Mrs. Hodgin's mother was born. Mrs. Hodgin was one of eleven children, of whom four are now deceased. Without children of their own, Mr. and Mrs. Hodgin have taken into their home three children to rear, and two of them are now deceased. They now have a foster daughter aged ten, and she came to live with them about two years ago. Mr. Hodgin has occupied his present farm since 1903, and it comprises 300 acres all told. This is the first farm that ever sold in Holt County for $100 an acre. Politically Mr. Hodgin votes with the republican party.

JASPER NEWTON RICE. The general course of action displayed in the life of Jasper Newton Rice, by whose stable citizenship the Town of Martinsville has profited greatly, has been an expression of practical and diversified activity, and in its range has invaded the realms of finance, education, agriculture, politics and society, all of which have gained by the breadth and conscientiousness which are distinctive features of his work and character.

Mr. Rice belongs to one of the old and highly esteemed families of this part of Missouri, having been born in Jefferson Township, Harrison County, March 13, 1872, a son of Jasper Newton Rice. The father was born near Ridgeway, Missouri, in 1837, had a limited education, and was a son of Henry Rice, who came to Missouri as one of Harrison County's pioneers, at a time when this whole North Missouri country was a wilderness frequented by game. He came from near Frankfort, Kentucky, and his leaving home was as a runaway lad, he going to New Orleans by boat, and, following his disposition as a hunter, drifting up into this part of Missouri. He was a crack shot with his rifle and his marksmanship gained him great reputation through the community. He married in this section and settled down in the Ridgeway locality, finally moving to near the old Town of Brooklyn, Missouri, and in the '80s moved to Kansas, where he died about 1890, aged eighty-two years. He was a modest farmer, inclined largely to the pioneer sports of the country, participated little in politics and was a confessed member of no church. He married Catherine Taylor and their children were: Jasper Newton ; Richard, a resident of Allendale, Missouri ; Phoebe, who married Douglas Noseman ; and Kate, who died unmarried.

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A history of northwest Missouri, Volume III, Part 47

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