USA > Missouri > A history of northwest Missouri, Volume III > Part 55
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Gilbert McDaniel spent all his career in Andrew County, attended the district schools as a boy, and completed his education in the State Normal School at Kirksville. For several years he was active as a teacher. In all his varied relations and activities he displayed a personality, a genius for making friends, and an integrity which entitled him to the thorough confidence of all who knew him. In 1905 Mr. McDaniel became cashier of the Exchange Bank at Savannah, an institution which had been organized in 1902. Within the few years that covered Mr. McDaniel's connection with the institution it rose from a place among the smaller financial establishments of Andrew County to first place among the
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county's banks, and it is said that the efficient management of Mr. McDaniel and his popular qualities and standing in the community had more to do with the prosperity of the bank than any other one factor.
Gilbert McDaniel was affiliated with the Masonic Order. There were many tributes, sincere and admiring, paid to his memory at the time of his death, and a brief characterization that sums up some of his especial qualities is contained in the following resolution from an order of which he was a member : "His genial personality and superior ability in busi- ness relations and his optimistic and comforting greetings to acquaint- ances and friends will be treasured by each and the memory of him will never perish nor the results of his good deeds diminish. He always kept his own troubles to himself, for those about him were never asked to share them, but he was ever ready to help and disperse the burdens of others and was generous to a fault to his friends and his family."
In 1879 the late Mr. McDaniel married Jennie Ham. She was born in the Province of Ontario, Canada, eighteen miles north of Kingston, August 21, 1852, a daughter of Simeon and Eliza (Scott) Ham, both natives of Ontario. When she was fourteen years of age her parents moved to Missouri in 1866, locating near Mexico, and she finished her education in the Kirksville Normal School. For ten years she was a suc- cessful teacher in the schools of Andrew County, where her father spent , his last years as a farmer. Mrs. McDaniel survived her husband. She was the mother of eight children, and two of them, Paul and Mabel, died in infancy. The surviving children are: Lawrence, Mrs. W. T. Fling, Mrs. Carl Gee, John, Mary and Allen. The son Lawrence was educated at Savannah and in the law department of the University of Missouri, and is now a successful attorney at St. Louis, having been recently honored by selection as one of the assistants to the circuit attorney of St. Louis County. He has been active in democratic politics, and his pro- fessional work gives promise of a brilliant career. The daughter Clara, now the wife of Walter T. Fling, a Savannah jeweler, was graduated from the Savannah High School and from Howard Payne College, and also took a business course in Drake University at Des Moines. Mildred G., the wife of Carl Gee, a well known farmer north of Savannah, is also a graduate of the Savannah High School. The son John graduated from the Savannah High School, took a course in agriculture at the University of Missouri, and is now a successful and scientific farmer on the old homestead, comprising 100 acres, six miles south of Savannah. The daughter Mary is a graduate of the Savannah High School, of the Scarrett Bible and Training School at Kansas City, and is now taking the medical course in the State University, preparatory to a career as a missionary, The son Allen is a boy of exceptional talent in music and is a student at the American Conservatory in Chicago.
GROVER C. SPARKS. That a young man should be elected to the important office of prosecuting attorney of Andrew County when but twenty-seven years of age argues forcibly for his possession of ability in his profession and for the confidence in which he is held by his fellow- citizens. Such is the record of Grover C. Sparks, who was the incumbent of this office from 1912 to 1914 and whose services have firmly established him as one of his county's most efficient and popular officials. Mr. Sparks is a native of this county, having been born on his father's farm in Jackson Township, five miles northwest of Savannah, November 27, 1885, and is a son of William and Sarah A. (Bohart) Sparks.
William Sparks was born near Covington, Kentucky, and about the year 1860 migrated to Platte County, Missouri, from whence he came to Andrew County six years later. He was engaged in agricultural pur-
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suits in Jackson Township throughout the remainder of his career, and died in 1890, when about thirty-eight years of age. Mrs. Sparks was born on a farm five miles northwest of Savannah, Missouri, a daughter of William Bohart, a pioneer of Missouri, who came from Indiana to Holt County in 1856, and in 1860 removed to Andrew County, where both he and Mrs. Bohart passed away. Mrs. Sparks still survives her husband and makes her home seven miles east of Savannah. She has been the mother of two children : Lulu, who is the wife of Charles Beaty, of Helena, Andrew County ; and Grover C.
Grover C. Sparks was reared on a farm until sixteen years of age, in the meantime securing his primary education in the district schools of Empire Township. Following this, he attended the academy at Hiawatha, Kansas, from which institution he was graduated with the class of 1907, and at once took up the study of law. After some prepara- tion he entered the State University of Missouri, and in 1911 graduated and was given his degree of Bachelor of Law. Being admitted to prac- tice in May of that year, he at once opened an office at St. Joseph, but subsequently removed to Savannah, and this city has since been his field of activity and the scene of his success. His ability was soon recognized, and in November, 1912, he became the candidate of the democratic party for the office of prosecuting attorney. In spite of the fact that Andrew County ordinarily goes republican by a majority of 400, Mr. Sparks secured the election by a plurality of 310 votes. His services in this capacity have entirely vindicated the faith reposed in him by the people. He is a member of various organizations of his profession, and stands high in the esteem of his fellow-practitioners. Fraternally, Mr. Sparks is connected with the local lodges of the Masons and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Aside from the duties of his profession and his office, he has taken much interest in the cause of temperance, and has been active in movements promising its advancement.
On December 20, 1913, Mr. Sparks was married to Miss Lillian Dan- forth, of Warrensburg, Missouri, daughter of J. S. Danforth. Mr. and Mrs. Sparks are consistent members of the Baptist Church.
GEORGE GRANT TEDRICK. One of the newer towns of Daviess County is Altamont, which measured by progress and not by years is one of the live and prosperous communities of Northwest Missouri. From the time the village was a collection of homes around a couple of stores and general shops to the present George G. Tedrick has been a factor in local enterprise. Mr. Tedrick is now proprietor and editor of the Altamont Times and a large dealer in and shipper of produce, and in the latter relation has been known to the farmers and citizens of this locality for twenty years.
George Grant Tedrick was born on a farm one mile southwest of Gallatin in Daviess County, October 6, 1869, a son of John H. and Rebecca (Shaffer) Tedrick. His father was born in Maryland, April 10, 1839, a son of Jacob Tedrick, a native of Germany, who in 1839 moved from Maryland to Ohio, where he followed farming. Rebecca Shaffer, who was born in Ohio, was the daughter of Colonel George Shaffer, a native of Germany, who commanded a regiment in the Ameri- can army during the war with Mexico, but whose permanent vocation was a minister of the German Lutheran Church. He attained the age of ninety-four, while his wife lived to be ninety-two. John H. Tedrick also made a military record. He was with the Union army during the Civil war for about three years, being a member of the Forty-eighth Ohio Infantry. After the war he spent a year in Daviess County, Missouri, then went back to Ohio and married, after which he returned to this
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county as his permanent home. He first bought an improved farm a mile southwest of Gallatin, where his son George was born, but later sold it and bought eighty acres still further southwest of town. There he and his good wife have lived for thirty-eight years, and the original farm has been materially increased in acreage and general improvement. He is a republican, and with his wife a member of the Christian Church. They are the parents of four children : George G .; Eva, a teacher in the Maysville High School; Jessie, wife of Wood Snyder, of Altamont ; and Winniefred, now a student in the State Normal School at War- rensburg.
George G. Tedrick was well educated, first in the country schools, then in the Gallatin High School, and completed a commercial course in Kidder Institute. His first vocation after leaving school was to teach for three years in the country districts of Daviess County, and there are a number of men and women in this part of Missouri who recall his work with them as an instructor.
In February, 1894, Mr. Tedrick joined his fortunes with the new Town of Altamont, which had begun to grow around the station of the Rock Island Railroad, but still had only two stores and a few dwellings. There he opened a meat market and began handling local produce, buy- ing from the farmers and shipping to the city markets. He has since disposed of his market, but his place is the headquarters for produce, and in the past twenty years he has shipped many hundred carloads out of Altamont. In 1912 Mr. Tedrick bought the plant of the Altamont Times, and has since given much of his attention to making that a successful and influential journal, telling the news of this locality and working as a medium for the improvement of all local interests. It has a weekly issue, and a wide reading public. At the present time Mr. Tedrick is ably assisted by his son, who is becoming proficient as a compositor and in the general management.
In April, 1895, Mr. Tedrick married Miss Addie Martin, a daughter of Thomas A. Martin, one of the Daviess County pioneers. They have two children : Orson, now with the Altamont Times; and Orlo, in school. Mrs. Tedrick and the older son are members of the Christian Church. Mr. Tedrick is an Odd Fellow and a republican, and has served as a school director and a member of the town board. He is a quiet, modest, unassuming citizen, a good business man, and has many loyal friends in this part of Missouri.
PROF. W. F. NULL. Missouri Wesleyan College, at Cameron, Clinton County, has been exceptionally fortunate in securing for its teaching force men of unquestioned talent and capability, prominent among its present corps of instructors being Prof. W. F. Null, who for the past seventeen years has rendered this institution most efficient service. A Missourian by birth, he was born, October 3, 1871, in Maryville, Nodaway County, and was there brought up and educated.
His father, George W. Null, was born in Pennsylvania, but came when young to Missouri to live, locating at Maryville. He subsequently purchased land, and for many years was extensively and successfully engaged in agricultural pursuits, including general farming and stock- raising. In 1861, at the outbreak of the Civil war, he enlisted in the Union army, and having reenlisted at the expiration of his term served until 1866. He took part in many engagements, at Fort Donelson being severely wounded. He married, at Maryville, Lydia More, a native of Iowa, and to them nine children were born, four sons and five daughters. One of the sons, Rev. Charles W. Null, is pastor of the Methodist Episcopal Church at San Jose, California, and another son is Vol. III-24
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connected with the Government service. The parents were both active members of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
After leaving the public schools of his native town, W. F. Null com- pleted the literary course at the Maryville College, and later entered the University of Chicago, from which he was graduated with honors, receiving also the degree of A. B. Professor Null spent the next two years as a teacher in the public schools, and then, in 1897, accepted his present position with the Missouri Wesleyan College, his long service as a member of its faculty bearing evidence of his genuine worth as an educator.
On October 14, 1901, Professor Null was united in marriage with Miss Chloe Herrick, a daughter of C. I. and Frances (Lyon) Herrick, and a relative of General Lyon, commander of a Michigan regiment, who was killed in the engagement at Willow Creek, Missouri, in 1861. Fra- ternally the professor is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Religiously he is a valued member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in which he has held most of the official positions, and has like- wise served as superintendent of its Sunday school. Professor and Mrs. Null are very genial, pleasant people, and at their hospitable home, No. 423 South Church Street, take much pleasure in entertaining their many friends.
W. H. WEIGHTMAN. Active manager at Mound City for the Farmers Mutual Insurance Company of Holt County, W. H. Weightman has been for several years successfully engaged in the real estate and insurance business at Mound City, and is one of the substantial business men of the county. Mr. Weightman has been identified with public affairs, has had a varied but generally successful career, has been a farmer and stock raiser, and was also one of the county's teachers.
W. H. Weightman was born near Mound City in Holt County, Mis- souri, September 7, 1871, a son of William and Henrietta (Noland) Weightman. Mr. Weightman grew up in the country about Mound City, attended the public schools there, and finished his education in Avalon College at Avalon in Livingston County. With the conclusion of his formal education Mr. Weightman returned to the farm, and combined farming and teaching for a number of years. With the exception of a few years spent in the West, Mr. Weightman has had his home in Holt County all his life. After retiring from the farm Mr. Weightman engaged in the real estate business at Mound City, and has made a specialty of placing loans on country real estate, and represents several insurance companies, and has executive control of the Farmers Mutual of Holt County.
Mr. Weightman married Eliza Anna Aude, daughter of William C. Aude. Her father was one of the early settlers of Holt County, and prominent as one of the organizers of the Mound City Bank. Her mother was a native of Holt County. Mr. and Mrs. Weightman have three chil- dren : Lorna, Esther and William R., all of whom were born in Holt County.
Mr. Weightman's public carer has included some important service. From 1901 to 1905 he was assessor in Mound City, and is now a member and treasurer of the school board. Politically he is identified with the progressive movement in national politics. Mr. Weightman has taken thirty-two degrees in Scottish Rite Masonry and is also affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Modern Woodmen of America. His church, where he and his family worship, is the Methodist Episcopal.
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CHARLES M. CHILDERS. The community about Maitland knows Charles M. Childers, not only as a man who from small beginnings has subdued to cultivation many acres of fine farm land in that vicinity, but also a progressive citizen and factor in public improvements. He has spent more than thirty years in this locality, and while gaining a comfortable share of material prosperity has won the confidence of his friends and neighbors.
Charles M. Childers was born in Gallia County, Ohio, October 18, 1861, a son of John H. and Sarah A. (White) Childers. The mother died in Gentry County in September, 1907. There were in the family seven sons and one daughter, named as follows: Clara, who married George Crawford; Charles M .; John W .; William A .; James J .; Joseph F .; Louis E .; and Luke F., who is an instructor in the Agricultural School of the University of Missouri.
The family moved from Ohio to Missouri in 1865, when Charles M. was about four years of age. They first settled in Gentry County on a farm, and lived as renters for two years until the father bought the eighty acres which comprised the homestead in which the children grew to maturity. It was unimproved land, and the first habitation of the Childers family in Gentry County was a log house, erected by the father. The land was unfenced, and there was practically nothing in the way of improvements. It was prairie land, and after he had broken and culti- vated it for several years the father replaced the original buildings with more modern and comfortable structures, and by additions had in time a large and valuable farm.
Charles M. Childers grew up in Gentry County, attended the country schools for his education, and at the age of seventeen left home and struck out for himself. He came to Holt County, and found his first employment with John Foster, for whom he split rails and chopped wood for his board. In the following spring he went to work for N. F. . Murray, and was with that employer for about three years. Later he worked for Bob Patterson and Freeman Libbie.
About 1882 Mr. Childers married Jessie J. Murray, a daughter of his former employer, N. F. Murray. He came with his bride in March, 1882, to his present farm, which at that time comprised eighty acres. It was all prairie land without a stick of timber on it, and as his first home he put up a rude two-room frame house, constructed of plain boards without any paint, and at one side he had a small shed covered with straw for his stock. He faced a situation that would discourage many of the young men of the present generation, but he went ahead with the spirit of the true pioneer, broke up his land, fenced it, and in a short time his neighbors began to speak of him as a prosperous young farmer. During his early years there his first wife died, and their only child Effie lived less than a year. About six years later Mr. Childers married Elizabeth Hamm, a daughter of Andrew J. Hamm. By this marriage there are four children : Hazel A., Esther C., Bryan O. and Robert C., all of whom were born on the present farm.
Mr. Childers is now the owner of a fine estate, all improved, of 220 acres, and the land and its group of substantial buildings are the chief measure of his labors and prosperity during the past thirty years. He is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity at Maitland. Active in politics, he is the present chairman of the democratic committee, and has been especially prominent in the matter of educational affairs, having served on the district school board for sixteen years. His home district is made up of four former districts, and the fight for consolidation of these small districts into one central school was led by Mr. Childers about sixteen years ago.
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WILLIAM H. HOCKRIDGE. Six decades have passed since the Hock- ridge family found a home in the new country of Harrison County. They took up land from the Government, contributed their share to material progress and betterment in this locality, and have always been identified with the good citizenship of the community. William H. Hock- ridge is a native of the county, a member of the second generation of the family, and is well known both in Bethany and in Adams Township, where he has his farm on rural route No. 7.
William H. Hockridge was born in Adams Township, March 8, 1864, and spent his youth on land that had been entered by his father from the Government, in township 62, range 27. He is of English descent, his grandfather having been an English sea captain.
Nelson A. Hockridge, his father, was born in Oneida County, New York, January 1, 1830, and is now living retired at a venerable age in Bethany. In the early '50s he joined a caravan at Detroit whose destina- tion was Missouri, and in the course of the journey became acquainted with the Hart family, also of the party. They came through Iowa, and while in that state he married Maretta G. Hart, daughter of James Hart and a native of Jefferson County, New York. On reaching Harrison County he entered land, improved it, and made it his home until moving to Bethany. His life was one of quiet industry and success in business, as a farmer and stockman. He always fed his grain to his own stock, and in the early days drove his cattle across country to distant markets, and with the building of the Rock Island Railroad sent them to Chicago. His prosperity enabled him to buy other lands, and his home farm com- prised 240 acres. His first house was of frame, in which his children were born, but in the course of years many better buildings have taken the place of those in use during his active career.
Nelson A. Hockridge had gained nearly all his education by attend- ing a night school. He has been a great reader, and is informed on topics that do not usually come within the range of most men. His industry was noteworthy, and his knowledge and practice of the stock business thorough, and it is said that no one in this section marketed better cattle than his and made a better success of the industry. He was a frugal liver, and kept his accounts as strictly as a merchant. He retired from the farm to Bethany in 1888. Politically his course has been as a voter in the republican ranks. During the war he was in the militia, being out three months, first in Captain Howe's company and then in Captain Frisbey's company. He was one of the charter members of the Fairview Church. His wife died in May, 1900, and their children were : Lizzie, wife of George W. Barlow, of Bethany; Emma, who died in Harrison County as the wife of Frank Nally ; and William H.
William H. Hockridge was reared on the farm where he was born, received his education in a country school, and has spent all the years of manhood in farming, though other interests have come into his life. He is now a stockholder in the Bethany Printing Company and of the Citizens Bank of Gilman City. After his marriage he located on a farm in Sherman Township, but subsequently removed to his present place in Adams Township, where he is one of the cattle feeders.
December 23, 1884, Mr. Hockridge married Mary Elwell, of a promi- nent Harrison County family. Her father was the late Capt. George W. Elwell, a pioneer, a captain in the Union army during the war, and at the time of his death serving as state senator. He was a captain in Merrill's Horse, and saw much hard service east of the Mississippi. He came to Missouri from Macomb, Illinois. After the war he became a Methodist minister, and died in Bethany in 1869. Captain Elwell mar- ried Eliza Jane Manville, whose father was David B. Manville, who came
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to Harrison County in 1859, and concerning his family more will be found in the Richter sketch on other pages. Mrs. Captain Elwell now lives in Adams Township as Mrs. William H. Richter.
The children of Mr. and Mrs. Hockridge are: George Leslie, a farmer of Adams Township, married Sarah E. Ford, daughter of William Ford, and they have one son, Charles Elwell; David Nelson, a farmer in the same township, married Mary Rose Hall, daughter of William H. Hall; Glenn L., the youngest, is attending the country schools. Mr. Hockridge as a republican cast his first vote for Benjamin Harrison, and has voted for every presidential candidate of that party since. For several years he served as school director, and is a trustee of the Methodist Church.
BENJAMIN F. KIDWELL. The activities of Benjamin F. Kidwell, who has long been a resident of Martinsville, have included successful opera- tions in merchandise, carpentry and agriculture, as well as a stirring participation in the civic life of this thriving community. He belongs to one of the well known families of Harrison County, his father, the late Thomas D. P. Kidwell, being one of the pioneers of Northwest Mis- souri and a potent factor in the early and later affairs of Harrison County.
Thomas D. P. Kidwell was a son of Benjamin W. and Rebecca (Taylor) Kidwell, the former born June 13, 1801, and the latter October 1, 1804, and he died in Harrison County. The father of Benjamin W. Kidwell was Thomas Kidwell, and his father was Jonathan Kidwell, a veteran of the Revolutionary war. The latter was of Welsh origin and the family originated in this country in either Maryland or Virginia. The advent of Thomas D. P. Kidwell in Missouri dates from 1854, when he settled in Gentry County, but in 1858 he came over into Harrison County and established himself near Martinsville and here the chief events in his life as a citizen took place and the leading achievements of that life as a man were consummated.
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