USA > Missouri > A history of northwest Missouri, Volume III > Part 48
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105 | Part 106 | Part 107 | Part 108 | Part 109 | Part 110 | Part 111 | Part 112 | Part 113 | Part 114 | Part 115 | Part 116 | Part 117 | Part 118 | Part 119
Jasper Newton Rice, the elder, died before the birth of his son, Jasper N., of this review. His death occurred in August, 1871, as a result of injuries received and sickness contracted during the Civil war, through which he served as a private of the Twenty-third Regiment, Missouri
1612
HISTORY OF NORTHWEST MISSOURI
Volunteer Infantry. While his service was confined chiefly to Southern Missouri, he also took part in the battle of Pea Ridge, Arkansas, and was in the fight at Wilson Creek just before that engagement. Mr. Rice was in the army until after the surrender of General Lee. As a citizen he was a man of quiet demeanor, without any public career, and was a member of the Christian Church. In political matters he was a stalwart and uncompromising republican.
Jasper Newton Rice, Sr., married Joanna Dale, a daughter of Edward and Sarah Dale. The Dales came to Missouri from Kentucky prior to the outbreak of the Civil war and were farming people. Mrs. Rice is now a resident of St. Joseph, Missouri. She and Mr. Rice had three chil- dren : John H., of St. Joseph, assistant engineer of the public schools of that city; Ira W., who is a resident of Martinsville; and Jasper Newton, of this review. Mrs. Rice was married a second time, her husband being the late W. W. Wiatt, and to this union there were born two children: Claud F., a resident of St. Joseph; and Edward, who lives at Lakin, Kansas.
Jasper Newton Rice passed his boyhood on a farm within five miles of the Village of Martinsville, and his education was secured from the country schools and through a year's work at Stanberry Normal School. Qualifying as an educator, he adopted that line of work, and during the next twelve years taught country school in Harrison County, in the meantime spending the summer months in farming. He left the school- room to enter his present position as cashier of the Bank of Martinsville, coming into this institution in 1909 as its third cashier and succeeding John H. Ross. This bank was organized in 1903 and capitalized at $10,000, and its first officers were W. L. Magee, president; E. T. Bald- win, vice president, and T. J. Wayman, cashier. Its president at this time is W. G. Carter and its vice president W. R. Clelland. The bank's earnings have gone into the surplus fund, which is now $15,000, while the undivided profits are $2,500.
Mr. Rice's interest in farming has continued undisturbed, and his landed connections with this locality are extensive, aggregating 755 acres. The farms are well improved, one of those recently acquired by him being the best improved property in this section of the state. Mr. Rice has been connected with one of the local telephone companies since its organization, and at present is treasurer of the Harrison County Mutual Telephone Company. He is also treasurer of the Bethany and Mount Ayr Trail Association, a public highway organization founded for the purpose of donating toward the upkeep of a main thoroughfare north and south, to which movement he is himself a liberal contributor. He is president of the Martinsville school board, takes a keen, active and help- ful interest in all that promises to advance the welfare of his com- munity, and is justly accounted one of Martinsville's representative men. Mr. Rice's political affiliation is with the republican party, but his activities in political matters have been principally as a voter.
Mr. Rice was married in Harrison County, Missouri, in May, 1896, to Miss Estelle Porter, a daughter of Charles E. and Mary A. (Edgar) Porter. The Porters originated in Ohio, from whence they migrated West to Kansas, spending a few years in that state and then coming to Missouri during the '80s. Mr. Porter was a farmer by vocation and an industrious and enterprising citizen. His children were: Carey ; Laura, who is the wife of H. E. Bird, of Denver, Colorado; Ada, who is the wife of C. R. Long, of Harrison County; Jennie, who married John Nichols, of Martinsville, Missouri; Estelle, who is Mrs. Rice; Maud, who married George Jones, of Hinton, Oklahoma; Veva, who is the wife of Orley Hefner, of Lakin, Kansas; and Claud, of Nevada, Missouri. Three
1613
HISTORY OF NORTHWEST MISSOURI
children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Rice, namely : Eunice, Dwight and Delia, the latter two twins.
Mr. Rice has shown some interest in fraternal work and is connected with the local lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, in which he has numerous friends, as he has in the various walks of life which he frequents. He has always supported the denomination of the Metho- dist Episcopal Church, although not wholly in accord with all the doc- trines of any orthodox church.
JOHN WESLEY KENYON. Active in business and in county affairs, John W. Kenyon has been a resident of Harrison County since July, 1868. His life has been distinguished by none of those abnormal events that make a man notorious, but by steady, persevering performances of duties that lay close at hand, by rendering faithful service whether as a soldier or in his civil duties, and by an integrity and honorableness that are permanent assets of his character.
Coming of a Methodist family as his name indicates, and of good old American stock, John Wesley Kenyon was born in Warren County, New York, March 3, 1845. Nearly half a century before the triumphant conclusion of the Revolutionary war two Kenyon brothers came from England and in 1734 settled in Rhode Island. One of these brothers, the direct ancestor of John W., had seven sons and two daughters, and these children and their cousins scattered through New England and New York, and in a later generation the name was transplanted in the West. John S. Kenyon, one of the seven sons just mentioned, was a native of Rhode Island, gave his services to the colonies in their struggle for independence and soon after that war settled in Warren County, New York, where he acquired some extensive tracts of land. He died in Warren County and had for several years been getting a pension from the Government for his services as a Revolutionary soldier. He married a Miss Cameron, of Scotch family, and among their children were Clayton Y., David S., Anna, who also married a Cameron, Phineas and Ebenezer.
Phineas Kenyon, father of John W., who is thus the grandson of a Revolutionary soldier, was born in Warren County, New York, December 3, 1792, at a time that made him old enough to serve as a soldier in the War of 1812. He participated in the campaign, the chief battle of which was fought at Plattsburgh, New York. For this service a land warrant was given him, and he laid it in Minnesota, but subsequently exchanged it for property in Illinois. In 1855 he moved to Illinois, settling in Henry County, where his years were spent in farming until his death on September 29, 1863. In his home community he was affec- tionately known as "Unele Fin," and was a man of wonderful physical vigor, having few equals in chopping wood, handling logs, running the river, lifting loads, and in a rough and tumble scuffle or wrestling match. Originally a whig, he was ardent in his support of the abolition cause, and in 1860 he and his son and two sons-in-law cast their votes at Erie in Whiteside County, Illinois, for Mr. Lincoln. He was a faithful, quiet Christian, being a member of the Methodist Church.
The first wife of Phineas Kenyon was Emily J. Cameron, and their children were: Emily, who married Charles J. Clark, of Bennington, Vermont; Jane and Margaret, who both died unmarried; Rev. Randall J., a minister of Methodist Episcopal Church in Illinois, who moved to Grinnell, Iowa, belonged to the Iowa Conference, but later went to Jet- more, Kansas, where his remains are now interred; and Ruhama, who married Oren Ingram and died in Henry County, Illinois. After the death of his first wife Phineas Kenyon married Mrs. Elizabeth J. (Ross) Bullock, whose father was Samuel Ross, also a soldier of the Revolution, Vol. III-21
1614
HISTORY OF NORTHWEST MISSOURI
as one of the Green Mountain boys, thus making John W. a grandson of two Revolutionary soldiers. Samuel Ross was also a pensioner of the Revolutionary war. Mrs. Kenyon was born at Bennington, Vermont, June 10. 1808, being eighteen years younger than Mr. Kenyon. She died at Bazine, Kansas. in March, 1879. Her only child by her second mar- riage is John W. Kenyon. Her first husband was Reuben Bullock, and of the children of that union the only one to grow up was Lucy, who married Richard Reynolds, and both died at Meeker, Colorado.
John W. Kenyon went with his parents to Henry County. Illinois, at the age of ten, and lived there uninterruptedly until the beginning of his military experience. His education came from the common schools, and he was seventeen when he volunteered to defend the Union of states. He enlisted August 15, 1862, in Company K of the One Hundred and Twelfth Illinois Infantry. His captain was Joseph Wesley and his colonel Thomas J. Henderson, who afterwards was promoted to brigadier general, represented Illinois in Congress, and died only a few years ago. The regiment was part of the fourteenth corps in Kentucky and Ten- nessee, of the sixteenth corps in Tennessee and Georgia, and finally in the fifteenth corps in the campaigns back through Georgia and Tennessee after the fall of Atlanta. His first engagement came a few weeks after enlistment at Perryville, Kentucky, and he was in some skirmishes around Franklin and Nashville, fought at Lookout Mountain, and at Resaca dur- ing the Atlanta campaign received a wound in the foot and a rupture. He was in the hospital at Nashville until his recovery, and then was honorably discharged and returned home.
He was still a boy in years when the war closed. and after a short time spent on the home farm he set out to join his brother in Iowa, who was in ministerial work in Jasper County, and at Newton found employment with a marble and monument man. It never occurred to him at the time that he was entering the field of his permanent life work. but such proved to be the case, and for nearly half a century he has been more or less active in the marble and granite business. He was attracted to Bethany in 1868 by a desire to become a salesman and see the country. He was a salesman of marble at St. Joseph and Chillicothe and other places in Northwest Missouri, but his headquarters have been for the greater part of the time at Bethany. He represented the Bethany yard established in 1880 by Mr. Sykes, but soon afterward acquired control of the business, and for many years was the sole proprietor. He now has an associate in the business, Mr. S. D. Stanley.
While the above explains the chief fact in his business career, Mr. Kenyon has been more or less an active figure in county affairs, and many people know him best through his official duties. The first fall .he spent in Harrison County he was employed in the sheriff and collector's office, and was deputy sheriff and collector and deputy county clerk until his election in 1874 as county clerk. He has subsequently served in the offices of the circuit clerk, the county clerk, probate judge and sheriff. as deputy, and altogether spent about twenty-five years in the court- house, looking after his business interests at the same time. Politically he has always been found supporting the republican party. and was elected county clerk and to various township offices on that ticket. As deputy or chief assessor he has assessed Bethany Township thirteen times, and has at different times been deputy county treasurer. Perhaps no one citizen has a more exact knowledge of the details of the various public offices of Harrison County than Mr. Kenyon. In earlier years he was in the habit of attending congressional and state conventions, and was in the convention which nominated B. Gratz Brown for governor
1615
HISTORY OF NORTHWEST MISSOURI
of Missouri, and also supported the candidacy of Reverend Mr. Bur- roughs, who was sent from this district to Congress as a greenbacker.
As a Grand Army man Mr. Kenyon is a charter member of Neal Post No. 124, which was organized in 1882, and is one of the forty-five who now compose its active membership. He has always held some position in the post, and is its present adjutant. The National encamp- ments he has attended have been five, those at Columbus, St. Louis, Mil- waukee, Chicago and Salt Lake City. His Masonic affiliations are with the lodge, chapter and commandery and the Order of the Eastern Star, and in the first three he is respectively past master, past high priest and past eminent commander, and at the present time is recorder in all three branches. He is also identified with the subordinate and encamp- ment degrees of Odd Fellowship, is a past grand, and has sat in the grand lodges of Missouri both in Masonry and the Odd Fellows. He was at one time a member of the old "87th" lodge of the Knights of Pythias. As a layman he has done honor to his Methodist name, has been an official member, has taught the Bible class of Sunday School thirty-four years, and in all that time has been absent only twenty-three Sundays, due to sickness or unavoidable absence from home.
Mr. Kenyon has been twice married, both times in Harrison County. His first wife was Mary E. Howell and they were married November 17, 1870. Her father, Marshall K. Howell, was a native of Kentucky, a pioneer Northwest Missourian, lived in Daviess County through the Mormon war, and very early established a home in Harrison County. Mrs. Kenyon was one of the four children of her father's marriage to Mary Young, and there were three children by his first marriage. Mrs. Kenyon died December 12, 1875. Her two children are: Maud, wife of Charles H. Cole, of Pueblo, Colorado, who has five children, Ernest, Edna, Edward, Robert and Virgil; and Guy M., who lives in Glenwood Springs, Colorado.
On October 11, 1876, Mr. Kenyon married Miss Hetta J. Burns. Her father, Thomas Burns, who now lives at McFall, Missouri, was born in Cattaraugus County, New York, has spent his life as a farmer, and by his marriage to Jane Doane, also of Cattaraugus County, New York, has the following children: Mrs. Kenyon; Emma, wife of Price Taylor, of Pattonsburg, Missouri; Rose, wife of David Burton, of MeFall, Missouri; Ella, wife of William Meyers, of McFall; Ida, wife of Charles A. Stewart, of McFall; and Thomas, of Craig, Missouri. Mr. and Mrs. Kenyon are the parents of four children: Omer J., who lives in St. Joseph, married Margaret Jenkins, of Denver, Colorado, and they have a daughter, Annetta; Lucy R., wife of A. C. Flint, the present sheriff of Harrison County; Irma and Charles W., both attending high school at Bethany.
JOHN A. BURTCH, M. D. Among those qualities which have con- tributed to the professional success and standing of Dr. John A. Burtch, of Coffey, Daviess County, are good birth and breeding, an excellent training in advanced institutions, and a devotion to his calling that has frequently caused him to sacrifice his own interests in its behalf. He came to this community as a young man of twenty-five years, with an earnest and clearly defined purpose, and from the time of his arrival has been an active factor in the things that have developed the com- munity.
Dr. John A. Burtch was born at Mapleton, Bourbon County, Kansas, August 17, 1871, and is a son of George W. and Theresa M. (Greer) Burtch, the former a native of Ohio and the latter of Missouri. During the Civil war, George W. Burtch served in the Union army as a member of the Missouri Volunteer Cavalry, and was wounded by bushwhackers
1616
HISTORY OF NORTHWEST MISSOURI
near Jefferson City. After several months passed in the hospital he received his honorable discharge because of disability. He was married to Theresa M. Greer at Lindley, Missouri, and subsequently moved to Bourbon County, Kansas, where Mr. Burtch was engaged in agricultural pursuits for eleven years, at the end of which time they returned to Lindley. They went thence to Grundy County, Missouri, where they resided from 1889 to 1906, later went to Kansas City, Kansas, where the father died January 13, 1913, while the mother still makes her home there.
John A. Burtch attended a public school in Bourbon County, Kansas, for one term and after accompanying his parents to Linn County, Mis- souri, was a student in the country log schoolhouse, there completing his primary education. He next attended the high school at Laredo for two terms, this being supplemented by one year in the normal school at Chillicothe. In 1892 Mr. Burtch entered the College of Physicians and Surgeons, at Keokuk, Iowa, after teaching school for one year, and March 5, 1895, was graduated from that institution with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. He immediately entered upon the practice of his profession at Lucerne, Missouri, where he remained for ten months, and in February, 1896, came to Coffey, Missouri, where he opened an office. Doctor Burtch has been in continuous practice here to the present time, and in point of service is the oldest physician at Coffey. From the time of his arrival his practice has steadily grown, and he is now recognized as one of the representative members of his calling in this part of the county. His inherent skill is constantly being supplemented by study and research, and he keeps fully abreast of the advancements which science is making in the medical profession. He holds membership in the Daviess County Medical Society and the Missouri State Pharmaceutical Association. In 1909 Doctor Burtch bought from the widow of J. W. Pennebacker the drug stock formerly owned by her husband, and since that time has carried on the business in connection with his practice. He has been a registered pharmacist since August 31, 1900.
On July 11, 1895, Doctor Burtch was united in marriage with Miss Melissa E. Kilburn, of Gallatin, Missouri, a daughter of David Kilburn, of Laredo, Missouri. They have had no children, but have reared an adopted niece, Opal Warren.
Fraternally, Doctor Burtch is connected with the Royal Arch Masons, the Woodmen of the World and the Modern Woodmen of America. Politically a "stand-pat" republican, he is one of the leaders of his party in Daviess County, and has been called upon to fill various offices in the community. He was a member of the school board for six years, was township trustee of Salem Township for two terms, and health officer during the siege of small-pox at Coffey, when he showed his bravery and skill in many ways and personally attended fifty-four cases. During the past twelve years he has been a member of the United States Board of Pension Examiners for Daviess County. In every respect, Doctor Burtch is a stirring, valuable and valued citizen, and his contributions to his community's welfare have gained and retained for him the respect and esteem of the people among whom he has made his home for eighteen years.
RALPH COTTIER. Three generations of the Cottier family have con- tributed to the material advancement of Holt County, and more par- ticularly to the agricultural interests of this community. Those bearing the name have always been accounted men of industry, initiative and energy, doing whatever they have found to do in an intelligent and thoroughly capable manner, and in this connection it may be said that Ralph Cottier, one of the enterprising young agriculturists of Benton
1617
HISTORY OF NORTHWEST MISSOURI
Township, is no exception to the rule. He has followed in the foot- steps of his father and grandfather, devoting his energies to the cultiva- tion of the soil, and at the present time is the owner of a handsome and well-cultivated property of 110 acres.
Thomas Cottier, the grandfather of Ralph Cottier, and founder of the family in Holt County, Missouri, was born on the Isle of Man, and had not long passed his majority when he took up his residence in North- west Missouri, settling first about two and one-half miles north of Oregon. There he put up a log cabin and several other buildings and cultivated his land with slave labor, but four or five years after his arrival removed to Forest City, Holt County, by way of the river, this being before the time that the course of the stream was changed. He was the father of seven children, all born in Holt County, and all except one still reside here. Mr. Cottier was known as one of the earliest pioneers of this locality, where he erected the first frame house, and is still remembered by some of the older generation as a sturdy, self-reliant and reliable citizen.
James Cottier, son of the pioneer, and father of Ralph, was born in Holt County, Missouri, here grew to manhood, and adopted farming as his life's vocation, in which he still continues to be engaged. He has made a success of his operations and is now comfortably situated on a nice property located about eight miles north of Mound City. Mr. Cottier is a republican but has taken only a good citizen's interest in matters of a public nature. He married Flora Alice King, who was born in Indiana, and who as a child accompanied her parents to Missouri, the family driving through in a wagon in true pioneer style. She still survives and has been the mother of six children, as follows: Ralph, Fred, Frank, Ira, Edith and Earl.
Ralph Cottier was born in Holt County, Missouri, August 31, 1884, and grew up on the homestead, on which he worked during the summer months, while attending the district schools in the winter terms. This educational training was subsequently supplemented by a course in a business college, at St. Joseph, and when he had completed his education he settled down to farming on his present property in Benton Township. He is possessed of modern ideas, is a firm believer in the use of modern machinery and utensils, and has done much improving on his land, the farm's appearance testifying to the presence of good management. Still a young man, he has already won a substantial position in his community and is justly accounted a member of the element upon which the county must depend for its future progress and advancement. Like his father, Mr. Cottier is a republican. He belongs, fraternally to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the A. F. & A. M., and with his family attends the Christian Church.
Mr. Cottier married Miss Gotha Long, the daughter of Dr. W. A. Long, of Holt County, and to this union there has been born one daugliter: Elizabeth.
WILLIAM KURTZ. A member of a family that has many sterling representatives in Holt County, Mr. Kurtz is numbered among the enterprising and substantial farmers and popular citizens of Noday Township, where he has a well improved farm of 102 acres, the same lying on the opposite side of the road from the old homestead place on which he was born, on the 11th of June, 1863, a son of Isaac and Mary (Suman) Kurtz, the former of whom is deceased and the latter of whom is now venerable in years and one of the noble pioneer women of Holt County. Of the thirteen children all are living except two and all are well established in life and in independent circumstances, with character
1618
HISTORY OF NORTHWEST MISSOURI
and achievement that have honored the family name, which has been long and worthily identified with the history of this county. The parents were born in Germany and came to Holt County in the pioneer era of its history. The father had virtually no financial resources at the time when he came to Holt County, but he was imbued with self-reliance and ambition, and through his industry and good management he became one of the prosperous farmers of the county, his old homestead com- prising 160 acres and the same having been by him reclaimed from its wild state. When he obtained the property its only definite improve- ment was a small frame house of only two rooms, in which the home was established. He eventually was able to erect the substantial buildings that now mark the farm as being well improved and on this old home- stead he continued to reside until his death. He reared his children to lives of usefulness and honor and gave to them the best educational advantages it was possible for him to provide. He had the industry and energy typical of the race from which he sprung, and his career was marked by earnest and fruitful endeavor as well as by impregnable integrity in thought, word and deed, so that he ever commanded the con- fidence and good will of all who knew him and his name merits enduring place on the roll of the sterling pioneers who aided in the development and upbuilding of Holt County. His political support was given to the republican party and he became a church member prior to his emigra- tion from his native land, his widow being a devout member of the Pres- byterian Church at the present time.
William Kurtz has been actively concerned with agricultural enter- prise in Holt County from the time of his early youth and is indebted to the schools of the county for the educational training which he received. He purchased his present farm in 1890, the buildings on the place having at the time been old and dilapidated, so that he was not long content to permit them to remain, as his spirit of thrift demanded better accommodations and provisions. Thus it comes that the excellent buildings that are now on the farm have been erected by him, the while he has made many other improvements and has brought the land into a high condition of productiveness, besides giving considerable attention to the raising of approved grades of live stock.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.