A history of northwest Missouri, Volume III, Part 54

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

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Oren Heth Clark was but fourteen years of age when he lost his parents, and at that time went to make his home with his uncle, John A. Clark, at Bolckow, Andrew County. He was given a common school education, and during his vacation periods displayed his industry and ambition by working in his uncle's sawmill, and his time continued to be thus occupied until he reached his majority. In 1900 he entered upon his career as a teacher in the district schools of Andrew County, and continued as an educator for 51/2 years, making a record as an efficient and popular teacher. On January 1, 1906, Mr. Clark was appointed deputy circuit court clerk of Andrew County, under E. E. Townsend, and his services in this capacity were so appreciated during the next four years that in 1910 he became the candidate of the demo- cratic party for the office of circuit clerk, and was elected. In 1914 he was again the candidate of his party for circuit clerk and was re-elected and is the present incumbent of that office.

On January 20, 1909, Mr. Clark was married to Miss May Louise Kelly, a native of Andrew County, and the eldest child of B. F. and Rosa (Schneider) Kelly. They have no children. Mrs. Clark is a graduate of Savannah High School, and attended Stephens College one term, taking a musical course. She and her husband are members of the First Baptist Church, in which Mr. Clark is a deacon, and is also actively interested in the work of the Sunday school, of which he is superintendent. His fraternal connections are with the local lodges of the Masons and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, in both of which he has numerous friends.

MRS. JULIA GLAZIER. In a list of the prominent citizens of any community today, mention is made of women as well as men, for whether they are actively in the business world or not, the high position of woman as a factor in civilization is being recognized as it has never been before. Of the venerable and high-minded womanhood of Andrew County, Mrs. Julia Glazier is one of the best representatives. She has lived in this community upwards of half a century and besides her service in making and maintaining a home, has been a leader in those social organizations in which women have so conspicuous a part, and which do so much real good as charitable and benevolent forces. While Mrs. Glazier has a winter home with her son in California, she feels too much attached to Savannah and her various interests there to leave the community which she has called home for so many years.

Her husband, the late George W. Glazier, who was for a number of years an active merchant in Savannah, was born in Athens County, Ohio, April 10, 1828. His parents were John and Mary (Henry) Glazier, and his father spent all his active life in Ohio on a farm. After his death his widow came out to Missouri and lived with her son in Savannah for fifteen years. John and Mary Glazier had three children, the first of whom was George W., the second William, and the third Absolom, all of whom are now deceased.

George W. Glazier was a resident of Ohio until he moved to Andrew County, Missouri, in 1867. In Ohio his activities were chiefly directed to farming, but after coming to Savannah he engaged in merchandising,

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and continued active in business affairs until his death in July, 1873. His father had been a soldier in the Civil war, although at the time he was advanced in years. He entered as a captain of a company, and was brought home stricken with camp fever and died in 1861, a few months after the war began.

George W. Glazier was married in 1862 to Julia A. Joy. She was born on a farm in Morgan County, Ohio, in 1837, and lived there until her marriage. When they came to Savannah in 1867 they bought the homestead which has been her home now for nearly half a century, and it is one of the oldest homes and a real landmark in the county seat. Mrs. Glazier has been an active worker in the Methodist Episcopal Church since 1869, and has been particularly prominent in the work of the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society since its organization, having served as its first president. She is one of the noble women of Northwest Missouri who have given all the influence of their characters to the cause of temperance, has been a member of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union since its organization in Savannah in 1882, and was its president for a number of years. Until resigning she was for twenty years state treasurer of the W. C. T. U.

Mrs. Glazier is a daughter of James and Mary (Law) Joy, both of whom were born in Wheeling, West Virginia, but were brought to Ohio by their respective parents, and grew up on a farm and lived in Morgan County. Mrs. Glazier was one of a family of one son and eight daughters. She herself has two children: Frank O., who lives in Los Angeles, California, and Charles L., who died at Boston, Massachusetts, in 1911, being then forty-one years of age.

JOSEPH BIELMAN. From the year 1874 until his retirement in 1912, Joseph Bielman was identified prominently with the business life of Savannah, and during this time built up a reputation as a substantial and capable man of affairs. His entrance into commercial life was as a blacksmith, but as the community grew and developed he branched out into broader lines, and during the last eighteen years of his con- nection with industrial matters he was engaged in the manufacture of vehicles. Mr. Bielman is a native of Baden, Germany, and was born February 19, 1845, a son of Philip and Helena (Buchholtz) Bielman, who passed their entire lives in the Fatherland, where the father was a blacksmith and a hard-working and energetic man. There were three sons and one daughter in the family.

Joseph Bielman was educated in the public schools of his native land, and under the preceptorship of his father learned the blacksmith trade. Desiring broader opportunities, in 1868 he left Germany with his brother Philip, and, coming to the United States, located at St. Joseph, Missouri, where for six years he followed his vocation with a fair measure of success. His advent in Savannah occurred in 1874, which is remem- bered as "the year of the grasshoppers," and established a blacksmith shop on the north side of the square, in partnership with John Bitzer. The business grew under the partners' good management, but they finally decided that one could find more profit than two, and two years later Mr. Bielman bought Mr. Bitzer's interest. Later, however, he took as a partner Gottlieb Mack, and they continued together for two years, Mr. Bielman then again assuming entire charge of the business. This he conducted as a blacksmith and general repair shop until 1894, when he began the manufacture of carriages and wagons, and in this line con- tinued successfully until his retirement in 1912. While the greater part of his attention was given to the enterprise which his hands had founded and which had grown so steadily under his able direction,

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Mr. Bielman was also interested in other ventures, serving as a director of the Commercial Bank from the time of its organization until it was merged with the Exchange Bank. He has always been accounted by his associates a man of sterling integrity and great capacity, and one to whom they looked in matters of importance. A republican in political matters, he served Savannah capably for twelve years as alderman, during which he demonstrated more than ordinary official ability in securing improvements of a civic nature, and his time was given whole- heartedly to the best interests of his home locality. In the campaign of 1912, because of the issues involved, he supported the presidential aspira- tions of Woodrow Wilson. He belongs to the Knights of Columbus and a number of German fraternal organizations, and, with his family, attends the Catholic Church, of which he has been a lifelong member. His good citizenship has never been questioned, and during his long residence at Savannah he has formed a wide circle of sincere and appre- ciative friends.

While a resident of St. Joseph, Missouri, Mr. Bielman was united in marriage with Miss Barbara Probst, a native of Bavaria, Germany, who died at Savannah, December 31, 1907, at the age of sixty years, having been born April 23, 1847. To this union there were born five children : Mary, who is a Catholic Sister in the Benedictine Convent, at Clyde, Missouri; Joseph, a resident of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Emma, who is also a Catholic Sister in the Benedictine Convent at Clyde; Rosa, who died at the age of fourteen years; and Clara, who is a Catholic Sister in the Mount St. Scholastica Convent, at Atchison, Kansas. On July 20, 1910, Mr. Bielman was married to Miss Myrtle Donovan, who was born at Chicago, Illinois, July 20, 1884, daughter of John and Jennie (Foley) Donovan, natives of Illinois. Mr. Donovan was for eighteen years a member of the Chicago Police Department, and died while still an officer of that organization in 1909.

Mr. Bielman is fond of travel, and in 1908 took an extended trip through Germany with his daughter Clara, also visiting various points of interest in other European countries.

JOHN A. MILLER. The present efficient and popular county clerk of Andrew County is a scion in the third generation of one of the sterling pioneer families of this county, with whose history the name of Miller has been intimately and worthily linked for nearly seventy years, the maternal ancestors of Mr. Miller likewise having been early settlers of the county and his parents having been children at the time of the removal of the respective families from Indiana to this state. In addition to serving as county clerk, to which office he was reelected, for his second term, in the autumn of 1914, Mr. Miller is numbered among the most progressive and enterprising business men of the thriving little city of Savannah, judicial headquarters and metropolis of his native county. He is here engaged in the buying and shipping of grain and is the owner of a well equipped grain elevator. That he is not like the prophet of scriptural aphorism and "without honor in his own country," needs no further voucher than his official preferment, but it may further be said that on his "native heath" he finds the coterie of his friends to be equal in number to his acquaintances.

John A. Miller was born on what is now known as the Bennett Farm, four miles northwest of Savannah, and the date of his nativity was August 6, 1862. He is a son of William T. and Charity (Burns) Miller, both of whom were born in Indiana and both of whom were children at the time of the removal of the respective families to Missouri, as has been previously stated. The paternal great-grandfather of Mr. Miller

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was a patriot soldier in the War of the Revolution. The Burns family was early founded in North Carolina, and was represented in the pioneer settlement of Indiana, as was also the Miller family.

William T. Miller was a lad of ten years when he came with his parents to Andrew County, where he was reared to maturity on the pioneer farm that continued to be the home of his parents until their death. With the passing years he gained prominence as one of the sub- stantial agriculturists and stock-growers of the county and he continued to reside on his well improved homestead farm until three years prior to his death, the closing period of his life having been passed in well earned retirement, in Savannah, where he died on the 30th of May, 1912, at the venerable age of seventy-six years, his widow still maintain- ing her home in this city and being a devoted member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, of which her husband likewise was a zealous adherent, his political allegiance having been given to the republican party. Of the five children, John A., of this review, is the eldest; Chester A. resides in Savannah; Benjamin R. is identified successfully with farm- ing enterprise in this county ; Roy A. is engaged in the grocery business at Savannah ; and Mary is the wife of Wirt Ball, of Savannah.

John A. Miller was reared to adult age on the homestead farm and acquired his early education in the public schools of his native county. In 1888, at the age of twenty-six years, Mr. Miller removed to Holt County, where he remained thirteen years, at the expiration of which, in 1900, he established his business at Fillmore, Andrew County, where he became actively identified with the milling business, both as an execu- tive and a practical miller. For three years he was engaged in the same line of enterprise at Whitesville, this county, and in 1910, upon his election to the office of county clerk, he established his home at Savannah, the county seat, where he has since continued the incumbent of this important office, to which he was reelected in the fall of 1914, for a second term of four years. Here also he has been engaged actively and suc- cessfully in the grain business since 1907, and, with his elevator facilities of excellent order, he controls a substantial and profitable business.

Mr. Miller is an ardent supporter of the cause of the republican party and is one of its influential workers in his native county. He is a Master Mason and affiliated also with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and both he and his wife hold membership in the Methodist Episcopal Church.

In 1885 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Miller to Miss Sadie E. Sayers, who was born in Pennsylvania, a daughter of John Sayers, and who was a child of six years at the time of the family removal to Andrew County, Missouri, where she was reared and educated. Mr. and Mrs. Miller became the parents of three children, of whom the second in order of birth was Jessie C., the only daughter. She was born February 24, 1891, and was summoned to the life eternal on the 20th of November, 1906. William S., elder of the two sons, was a student in the electrical engineering department of the University of Missouri for one and a half years and is now one of the progressive young farmers of his native county. On the 20th of December, 1911, he wedded Miss Ella Caldwell, and they have one child-Jessie Bernice. Ray, the younger son, served three years as his father's deputy in the office of county clerk and is now taking a course in the agricultural department of the University of Missouri.

HON. PETER C. BREIT. To the professional success which has attended the practice of Peter C. Breit as a lawyer at Savannah for twenty years, have come also the honors and distinctions of public office, and his record

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throughout has been one of faithful devotion to the interests of his clients and competent discharge of the duties of citizenship.

Peter C. Breit is a native of Andrew County, born on a farm April 26, 1866, and his family on both sides have been identified with this section of Northwest Missouri since pioneer times. His parents were Christian and Margaret (Jenkins) Breit. His father, a native of Switzerland, was brought to America when a child, located in Ohio in 1842, and not long after moved out to Northwest Missouri, grew up and became a farmer in Andrew County, and spent the rest of his life actively engaged in that location. He died in Andrew County in 1875 at the age of fifty-seven. The mother was born in Tennessee, and her family came from Kentucky to Missouri during the early '40s. She died in 1887 at the age of sixty-one. There were four sons and four daughters in the family, and the Savannah lawyer is next to the youngest.

His boyhood and youth were spent on a farm, with a country school education, and for the most part he had to work out his own destiny, ambition and self-reliance having been the actuating principles in his successful career. He attended a business college at Savannah, took up the study of law on his own account, and later spent one year in the law department of the University of Missouri, graduating in 1894 LL. B. Admitted to the bar in the same year, he began practice at Savannah, and in the past twenty years has been connected with much of the important litigation tried in the local courts. Mr. Breit's offices are in the First National Bank Building.

As a republican, he has long been active in local affairs. In 1890, four years before his admission to the bar, he was elected county assessor, and held that office two years. In 1894 Mr. Breit was elected a member of the Legislature and was returned to the office in 1896. On November 3, 1914, he was elected probate judge of Andrew County.

Mr. Breit is affiliated with the Masonic Order and the Knights of Pythias. In April, 1906, he married Miss Mary E. Doersam, who was born in Andrew County, a daughter of Adam Doersam.

CAPT. WILLIAM HENRY BULLA. The late Capt. William Henry Bulla was one of Andrew County's distinguished citizens from the time of his arrival here in 1867, until his death, which occurred October 9, 1902. As a soldier of the Union, he earned promotion by his fearless exploits upon the field of battle during the Civil war; in the pursuits of agriculture he subsequently showed himself a man of industry and energy, and as a private citizen and public legislator he gave to his community his best energies. A work of this nature would be decidedly incomplete did it not contain the records of such representative men.

Capt. William Henry Bulla was born at Richmond, Indiana, October 29, 1836, and was a son of David H. and Sarah (Cox) Bulla. His grand- father was William Bulla, a native of North Carolina, who came of French-German lineage. David H. Bulla was born at Richmond, Indiana, January 14, 1812, and in early life followed farming, but sub- sequently became a wholesale dealer in tobacco, having an establishment at the corner of Seventh and Main streets, Louisville, Kentucky. He amassed a considerable fortune at one time in speculations in tobacco, but met with severe financial losses in 1857, which caused his failure, and he was unable to stand the shock of seeing his fortune swept away, dying August 25th of the same year. Sarah Cox was born at Richmond, Indiana, October 16, 1814, a daughter of William and Elizabeth (Julian) Cox, who were of French descent. She died June 15, 1839, the mother of three children: Mrs. Maria McClain, who died October 15, 1858;

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William Henry, of this review; and David, born July 28, 1838, died February 1, 1839.

William Henry Bulla was given a public school education and grew up amid rural surroundings, continuing to farm in the vicinity of Richmond, Indiana, until reaching the age of fifteen years. At that time, with an uncle, he immigrated to Iowa, where he was engaged in farming, and in the spring of 1857 went to Kansas and entered 160 acres of land on the Neosho River, in the vicinity of Emporia. While- there he assisted in surveying the City of Emporia, carrying the chain. After a short experience as a farmer in that vicinity, he entered the employ of the Santa Fe Mail, but in the spring of 1859 resigned his position to join a great immigrant train the destination of which was the famed gold fields of Cripple Creek and Pike's Peak, Colorado, and there continued with more or less success in mining and prospecting. The outbreak of the Civil war drew Captain Bulla to Omaha, Nebraska, and thence to St. Joseph, Missouri, where he joined a cavalry organiza- tion known as the "Stewart Horse." Shortly thereafter this regiment disbanded, and Captain Bulla enlisted in Company F, Second Regiment, Iowa Volunteer Cavalry, November 9, 1861, as a private. His subse- quent service was one of constant activity. He participated in the great battle of Shiloh, was wounded at Corinth, May 9, 1862, fought at Iuka, Second Corinth, Siege of Vicksburg, Raymond, Champion Hill, Jackson, Stone River and Tupelo, and at the sanguine engagement at Franklin, declared by many authorities to have been the bloodiest of all the great conflict, was again wounded and was captured by the enemy, November 30, 1864. Captain Bulla experienced the horrors of Andersonville Prison, for he was confined in that stockade until April 14, 1865, when he was released, sent to St. Louis, via Vicksburg, and there mustered out of the service, May 15, 1865. In the meantime he had won repeated promotion, and was serving as second lieutenant at the time of his cap- ture by the Confederates, and while held prisoner by them his captain's commission was granted him, but this did not reach him until he had reached home, although he had been receiving a captain's pay for some time. His entire record was one of the greatest bravery and faithful performance of duty, and in after years those who had fought side by side with him through the war related many tales of his prowess in action.

Captain Bulla returned to his native place after the close of his military service, but in 1866 went to Omaha, Nebraska, where he fitted out a wagon train with general merchandise and made a trip to Virginia City. With a number of others he then constructed a fleet of seventeen flatboats at the foot of Yellowstone Falls, this being freighted with passengers and taken to Sioux City, Iowa. Captain Bulla located on his farm on Empire Prairie, Andrew County, Missouri, in the spring of 1867, and there began a career in agriculture which only terminated with his death. His original purchase was 180 acres of land, on which he carried on operations of a general farming nature, and to this he sub- sequently added eighty acres, his widow still being the owner of the entire tract. Since her husband's death, however, she has resided in her hand- some home at Savannah. As an agriculturist, Captain Bulla did much to popularize the use of progressive and modern methods. While he realized the value and practicability of time-proved methods, he was ever ready to experiment with innovations and inventions, and when his judgment told him they were serviceable, he did much to advance their interests. His business associates knew him as a man to be relied upon implicitly, and no blemish mars his record in commercial circles. A life- long republican, he held various minor offices within the gift of the

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people, and was sent twice to the Legislature of the state from Andrew County, being also a member of the special session called at the time of the burning of the State University. His labors as an official in behalf of his community and his constituents were at all times conscientious and commendable. Fraternally, Captain Bulla was connected with the Masons, and until his death he held membership and took a lively interest in the Grand Army of the Republic and the Andersonville Veterans -Association.

Captain Bulla was married January 11, 1870, to Miss Irene Thomp- son, who came to Andrew County, Missouri, from Blair County, Penn- sylvania, in 1859, her father, Michael Thompson, having come here three years previously to prepare a home for his family. She had been given a country school education, and as a young woman taught school at Narrows, Nodaway County, Missouri. She was still a young girl when the Civil war broke out, but rendered her country invaluable service in carrying messages of importance for the Government, but finally her activities were discovered, and her life was so threatened that her parents forbade her continuing this work. She has been very prominent and active in the work of the Women's Relief Corps, at King City, and for three years has served as senior vice president thereof. Various other social activities have attracted her attention, she being treasurer of the Women's Missionary Society and past matron of the Eastern Star, at Whitesville, and for years she has been a generous and helpful factor in the work of the Methodist Episcopal Church South. Two children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Bulla : Julian, born December 11, 1870, resid- ing on a farm in Gentry County, Missouri, married Sarah Hensen, of King City, and has four children-Louise, Maude, Glenn and Clyde; and William H., born May 6, 1872, residing on the home farm in Andrew County, married Clara C. Peters, and has two children-Alice Virginia and William Henry.

GILBERT MCDANIEL. A career of business efficiency and success that marked him out as one of the ablest men of Andrew County was termi- nated with the death of Gilbert McDaniel at his home in Savannah, December 6, 1912. A man of sterling character, he was honorable in business, stanch in his friendship, sincere in his religious profession and true to every trust, and with his passing an entire community was bereaved.

Gilbert McDaniel was born on a farm near Whitesville in Andrew County, February 26, 1857, and was in his fifty-sixth year when death called him. His parents were John and Mary (McClanahan) McDaniel, natives of Tennessee. His father moved from Tennessee to Cooper County, Missouri, and married there, and later moved to Andrew County, one of the early farmer settlers of this section. Gilbert McDaniel lost his mother when he was about three years of age, and was reared by a stepmother who was in every sense a true mother to him. In 1865 the McDaniel family moved to a farm south of Savannah.

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A history of northwest Missouri, Volume III, Part 54

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