A history of northwest Missouri, Volume III, Part 58

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

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Louis F. Blacketer was born at Unionville, Missouri, December 20, 1873, son of Thomas B. Blacketer. His father was a carpenter and con- tractor, was born in Indiana in 1854, and was the son of an Englishman, who was born in Sheffield, England, and after coming to America located in Indiana. The family in 1856 emigrated to Missouri and settled in Putnam County. There were six sons and six daughters in the grand- father's family, and three of the sons saw active service in the Union army during the Civil war. Thomas B. Blacketer was reared in Put- nam County, and married Mary E. Davis, who was born in Wayne County, Kentucky, daughter of C. J. Davis, a native of the same state. Louis F. Blacketer has one sister, Bessie Lee, wife of J. W. Walker, a railroad man. The father died in 1886 at the age of thirty-two, and his widow is still living at Unionville.

Louis F. Blacketer was reared in Putnam County, acquired an educa- tion in the public schools, and in 1892 graduated from the Chicago College of Pharmacy. With this preparation for a business career he engaged in the drug business at Tina in Carroll County, subsequently moved to Dawn in Livingston County, and from there to Braymer. He has a large and successful business, one of the best stores of the kind in Caldwell County. Mr. Blacketer married Flora T. Callaway, a daughter of Joseph Callaway, who was born in Tennessee. Mr. Blacketer has two sons: Ralph F., who was born March 17, 1895, and in 1914 graduated from high school, where he was manager of the base- ball team and captain of the football team; Roy B., was born May 29, 1897, and is in the second year of the Braymer High School. Mr. Blacketer is an active republican, is past master of Masonic Lodge No. 135, affiliates with Lodge No. 656 of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks at Chillicothe, and is a member of Braymer Lodge No. 203 of the Knights of Pythias.

JAMES E. NICHOLS. As postmaster of Breckenridge since June, 1912, James E. Nichols has performed a large amount of useful public service for his home city and has managed the affairs of his office to the best advantage and convenience of the citizens. Mr. Nichols has spent many years in Caldwell County, is a veteran of the war in the Philippines, and is a popular man among all classes. The Breckenridge postoffice employs three clerks and has four rural carriers. Mr. Nichols is a methodical and careful worker, and has conducted his office so as to afford perfect service to every patron, whether adult or child.

James E. Nichols was born April 10, 1872, in Coshocton County, Ohio, on a farm. His father, Willard Nichols, was a native of New York, of a family noted for honesty and industry. He was a miller by trade and an excellent workman. In 1849 he joined the exodus to California, went across the plains with ox teams and wagons, and spent ten years on the Pacific Coast, digging gold and in other employment. He then returned to the United States by way of the Isthmus of Panama. He was married in Ohio to Nancy A. Henderson. Willard Nichols died at the age of seventy-two. In politics he was a republican, and he and his wife, who is still living in good health at the age of seventy-three, were members of the Methodist Church. There were eight children, seven

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sons and one daughter, the sons being named as follows: Charles F., Ed, Willard, Jr., James E., Frank, L. A., and Howard, and the daughter, Iva.

When James E. Nichols was twelve years of age the family came out to Missouri and settled in Caldwell County near Hamilton on a farm. He acquired his education in district schools and at Kidder Institute, and by work on a farm developed his muscle and was prepared for a career of usefulness. He began life as a farmer, also teaching school for one year, and was one of the young men of Northwest Missouri who volunteered for service during the Spanish-American and Philippine wars, enlisting in the Twenty-third Regiment of the United States Army. He.was sent out to the Philippines, was at Manila and in other parts of the islands under the command of General Merritt and General Otis, and saw much active and dangerous service. Later he was at Tokio, Japan, and in other ports of the Orient, and finally returned by a transport steamer to San Francisco and received an honorable dis- charge. After returning to Caldwell County, Mr. Nichols engaged in farming, and was also in business at Kidder and Breckenridge until he was appointed postmaster.

In 1901 occurred his marriage to Laura E. Adams, daughter of Dr. Tyler Adams, of an English family. Mr. and Mrs. Nichols have three children : Nadine, Mary and Ethel, while their son, Roy E., died at the age of eight years. Mr. Nichols is a prominent republican in Caldwell County, and is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias and the Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows. He is one of the solid men and good citizens of Northern Caldwell County.

J. E. PLUMMER. One of the strongest combinations of legal talent in Caldwell County is the firm of Reed & Plummer at Breckenridge. J. E. Plummer, the junior member, was admitted to the bar in 1909, and became a partner of Mr. Reed in September, 1913. They enjoy a large practice, and their individual records commend them as leading young lawyers in this part of Northwest Missouri. Mr. Plummer was admitted to the bar in 1909 and began his practice in the State of Washington near Spokane, but after three years returned to Missouri and has since been a member of the Caldwell County bar.

J. E. Plummer was born in Carroll County, Missouri, September 12, 1876. His father, Enoch Plummer, was born in Mercer County, Ohio, and for three years fought in the Union army as an Ohio soldier. He married in Ohio Susan Dean. Besides the Breckenridge lawyer there is a brother, Elmer, and two daughters, Emma Plummer and Ada Higgins.

J. E. Plummer was reared and educated in Caldwell County, at- tended the public schools, and finished his studies in the University of Missouri at Columbia. For three years, from 1903 to 1906, he was con- nected with the Breckenridge Savings Bank as bookkeeper and assistant cashier.

Mr. Plummer was married in March, 1910, at Marceline, Missouri, to Stella Caldwell, who was born and reared in Kansas, attending high school at Breckenridge and Western College at Oxford, Ohio. Her father, Rev. Dennis Caldwell, was a prominent minister of the Presby- terian Church. Both Mr. and Mrs. Plummer are active in church affairs and have taken an interest in Sunday school and in the various social and benevolent work of their home town. Mr. Plummer is a close student of the law, is a frank-spoken, genial gentleman, and is already firmly established in the practice of his chosen calling.

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A. B. CLEAVELAND. The Caldwell County bar has one of its able advocates in A. B. Cleaveland of Breckenridge, and his position in this community as a rising young attorney is already well established. His work has given much promise of distinctive achievements at no far distant time, and he has all the qualifications needed for success in this most exacting profession. Mr. Cleaveland was admitted to the bar in 1909, and has since been in practice at Breckenridge.

He was born in the State of Iowa, in Osceola County, October 2, 1883. He was the only child of his parents. His father, F. M. Cleave- land, is a successful farmer and stockman, a son of Q. E. Cleaveland, who was a native of Pennsylvania, a soldier during the Civil war and was with General Sherman on his march to the sea, and after the war came west and settled in Iowa in 1870. F. M. Cleaveland married Anna Pell, who was born at Burlington, Iowa, a daughter of Reverend Pell, prominent as a minister in Iowa. Both parents are members of the Methodist Church, and the father is a republican.

A. B. Cleaveland was reared on a farm, was taught the value of in- dustry at an early age, and by hard work has reached his present position in the law. He was educated in the district schools, in high school and college, and has been one of Caldwell County's rising attorneys since 1909. Mr. Cleaveland was married at Boulder, Colorado, in August, 1911, to Miss Elizabeth Clark, a daughter of J. C. F. Clark, a prominent citizen of Denver, Colorado. Mrs. Cleaveland was educated at Lawrence, Kansas. They have one child, Lois. Mr. Cleaveland is a republican in politics, and has been active in his party in Caldwell County. He is affiliated with the Masonic order and he and his wife are both members of the Methodist Church. Since taking up the practice of law he has distinguished himself for his fidelity to his clients, and has been an eager and ambitious student, possessing forceful powers in advo- cating cases before court or jury, and at the same time is active in the local affairs of his home town.

S. D. SMITH, M. D. For nearly twenty years Doctor Smith has been performing the duties of the physician and surgeon, and is regarded as one of the ablest men in practice at Cowgill or vicinity. Doctor Smith began practice at Cowgill in 1896, and after some years of absence in other fields returned to the town in 1906, and has since built up a large general practice, his business taking him all over the country about Cowgill.

Doctor Smith is a graduate of the medical department of Washing- ton University at St. Louis. He was born in 1867 on the old home- stead of his father near Lawson in Ray County. His father, Joseph A. Smith, who is now ninety-three years of age, is one of the very few living veterans in Northwest Missouri who saw active service during the Mexican war. He was born in North Carolina, and married Kate Miller, a native of Ohio. Mr. Smith went out to war with Mexico with the troops under General Davidson, and marched a total distance of 5,000 miles before returning to Missouri. Doctor Smith is a member of a family of seven sons and five daughters, ten of whom are living.

Doctor Smith grew up on a farm, was trained in the duties of country life, attended the public schools, and began the study of medicine under Dr. W. C. James at Lawson. He began the practice of medicine at Cowgill in 1896, and then for five years was in his profession at Colorado Springs, Colorado. Returning to Cowgill in 1906 he has since given all his time and attention to his large practice.

Doctor Smith was married April 29, 1895, to Anna Waites, daughter of Henry Waites. They have one daughter, Margaret. Doctor Smith

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is affiliated with the Masonic order, his wife is active in the Methodist Church, and they reside in one of the modern homes of Cowgill.

HON. JOSHUA W. ALEXANDER. In the forty years since he entered the practice of law at Gallatin, few Missourians have enjoyed more of the honors of distinctive public service than Joshua W. Alexander, now member of Congress from the Third Congressional District. His record as a congressman is familiar to all the people of the Third District and more or less to those of the state, while a great many times during the epoch-making years in the development of American public policies since he took his seat at Washington his direct action and collaboration have been marked with favor by the general political correspondents.

While his own youth was one of comparatively humble circumstances, Judge Alexander comes of fine family stock. The Alexanders were Scotch-Irish, having located along about Revolutionary times in the rugged district of Southwestern Pennsylvania, in the thrifty, inde- pendent and Presbyterian neighborhood of Washington County. His paternal grandparents were both natives of Washington County, were married there in 1796, and then moved north of Pittsburg to Mercer County, where Grandfather Alexander improved a pioneer farm. In that county the name still remains, associated with all that is old and substantial.

Thomas W. Alexander, father of the congressman, was born in Mercer County, was reared on a farm, and learned the trade of carpenter and builder, which he afterwards followed in Cincinnati. While in that city he married Jane Robinson, who was born in England and brought when a child by her parents to Cincinnati. Joshua W. was the only child of his father and mother, and was born in Cincinnati, January 22, 1852. In 1856 his father went out to the new Territory of Minnesota, hoping to recover his health, and was joined by his wife and child in 1857. The father died in Minnesota October 12, 1859.

Judge Alexander's mother then lived a brief time at Canton, Lewis County, Missouri, returned to Cincinnati and remained there until 1863, coming back to Canton in that year. As a boy he had three years of schooling in his native city, and after completing the course of the public schools at Canton, Missouri, entered Christian University of that city in 1868 and was graduated A. B. in June, 1872. In June of the following year he came to Gallatin to visit William N., James A. and George W. Richardson, classmates in Christian University, the sons of Judge Samuel A. Richardson. That was one of the incidents which so often become turning points in the human destiny. Young Alexander was then twenty-one, with a definite ambition for the law, but with his future course otherwise unplatted. He intended to continue his journey to California, and teach for a time, and later study law in that state. Judge Richardson induced him to remain in Gallatin and study in the Richardson law office. Later the families became united by the marriage of Mr. Alexander with a daughter of Judge Richardson.

In 1875 Mr. Alexander was admitted to the bar at Gallatin, which city has been his home since 1873. In 1876 he was elected public ad- ministrator of Daviess County, and reelected in 1880. In 1882 he became a member of the Gallatin Board of Education, and served first as president and later as secretary for a period of twenty-one years. Also in 1882 he was elected to the General Assembly of Missouri from Daviess County, and by two successive reelections served in the thirty-second, thirty-third and thirty-fourth assemblies, being chairman of the com- mittee on appropriations in the sixty-third and speaker of the house in the sixty-fourth. For two terms he was mayor of Gallatin. In 1894,

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Governor, now Senator William J. Stone appointed him a member of the Board of Managers of the State Asylum for the Insane at St. Joseph, and in that capacity he served a number of years. In the meantime he had been practicing law with increasing success, and eventually was elected to the bench, serving as judge of the Seventh Judicial Circuit from January, 1901, to February, 1907. He retired from the bench a short time before being sworn in as a member of the Sixtieth Congress, to which he was elected by the Third Congressional District in November, 1906. Judge Alexander served in the House of Representatives in the sixtieth, sixty-first, sixty-second and sixty-third congresses, and in November, 1914, was elected to the Sixty-fourth Congress. He has been chairman of the committee on the merchant marine and fisheries, one of the most important committees of the house, since the democrats gained control of the House of Representatives in the Sixty-first Congress and has taken a specially influential part in national legislation, and is now one of the leading democrats of the house. As chairman of the com- mittee on the merchant marine and fisheries, Judge Alexander con- ducted the investigation of steamship combinations, provided for by House Resolution 587, adopted by the Sixty-second Congress. His work in this connection, his report to the house and the bill introduced by him to carry out the recommendations of the committee, are his greatest achievements during his comparatively brief service in Congress. Fol- lowing the sinking of the steamship Titanic in April, 1912, Judge Alex- ander introduced the joint resolution, which became a law in June, 1912, authorizing the President of the United States to call or participate in an international conference on the subject of greater safety of life at sea. Great Britain called the conference. President Wilson appointed Judge Alexander chairman of the United States Commission to this conference, which met in London from November 12, 1913, to January 20, 1914. Fourteen other nations and Canada, Australia and New Zealand participated in the conference. The convention agreed to in the conference has been ratified by the United States Senate, and Judge Alexander was personally congratulated by President Wilson for his distinguished service in the conference which framed it. In June, 1907, Christian University at Canton, his alma mater, conferred on Judge Alexander the degree of Master of Arts.

Judge Alexander was married in February, 1876, to Miss Roe Ann Richardson, daughter of Judge Samuel A. Richardson, a sketch of whom follows. Mr. and Mrs. Alexander have had a large family, nine sons and three daughters, four of whom died in infancy. Those living are : Samuel T., educated in the Gallatin schools and the University of Mis- souri, was for ten years Missouri grain inspector at St. Louis under the State Railroad and Warehouse Commission, married Miss Campbell of Columbia, and is now associated with her father, J. R. Campbell, in the book and stationery business at Columbia. Julia, who was educated in the public schools and Grand River College, is the wife of Dr. N. R. Jenner, of Washington, D. C. Frances, who was educated in the public schools, Grand River College, and studied 31% years in the St. Louis School of Fine Arts, is now the wife of A. G. Ficklin of Gallatin. George F., who finished his education in the academic and law departments of the University of Missouri, receiving the degree of LL. B. from the latter, is now practicing law at Portland, Oregon. Rowena, at home, was educated in the public schools and the William Wood College at Fulton, Missouri. Preston Carter, who graduated from both the academic and law departments of the University of Missouri, is now associated with his brother, George, in the practice of law at Portland, Oregon. Walter Richardson, was educated in the public schools, studied two years at the

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University of Missouri and one year in George Washington University in the academic departments of those schools, is now a student in the law school of the latter, and was secretary of the United States Commis- sion to the International Conference on Safety of Life at Sea, of which his father was chairman. The youngest son, Laurence Woodward, is now attending school at Washington, D. C.

JUDGE SAMUEL A. RICHARDSON. A former judge of the judicial cir- cuit, including Daviess County, Judge Richardson was a resident of Gallatin from 1859 until his death, December 11, 1882. He was one of the distinguished men of his generation in Northwest Missouri, where he spent nearly all his life. Though his life was comparatively short, he possessed extraordinary energy and great physical and mental en- durance, and as a lawyer for years ranked with the best talent of the Missouri bar, enjoying a large practice in all the courts. As a citizen he was unswerving in his devotion to what he believed was right, was public-spirited and liberal, but unostentatious, and was devotedly at- tached to his family and friends.

Samuel A. Richardson was born in Anderson County, Kentucky, July 6, 1826, and was fifty-six years old when he died. His father, Col. John C. Richardson, was a native of Virginia, and of a prominent family of that state and Kentucky. The paternal grandfather was Judge Nathaniel Richardson, who moved out from Kentucky and became a pioneer in Lewis County, Missouri. The maternal grandfather, Samuel Arbuckle, was also from Kentucky, and one of the pioneers in Ray County, Missouri. Both grandfathers lived to advanced age, and left large families. Col. John C. Richardson grew up in Anderson County, Kentucky, and in the spring of 1831 moved his family to the Missouri River bottoms above Camden, in Ray County, and later went south of the river to Lexington.

Judge Samuel A. Richardson was reared on the Ray County home- stead at a time when that part of the state was just being developed. He helped his father in opening up and improving three farms, and as a young man was proficient in prairie-breaking, as an ox driver, and also had his experience in breaking hemp and splitting rails. Schools were of meager equipment during his boyhood, and as his services were needed at home he had little instruction up to his fifteenth year. Later he attended the high school in Richmond, getting a good foundation in the elements of English, Latin, Greek and mathematics. In the early part of 1845 he entered the University of Missouri at Columbia, and completed a course of study in two years. Afterward he was en- gaged in trading for a time, and then took up the study of law under Judge Philip L. Edwards. His studies were continued under Hon. Edward A. Lewis, at that time presiding judge of the St. Louis Court of Appeals and afterwards a member of the Missouri Supreme Court. He was admitted to the bar in September, 1852, before Judge George W. Dunn, for many years judge of the circuit including Daviess County, and afterwards of the Fifth Judicial Circuit.

For the twenty years following his admission, Judge Richardson practiced law over a large circuit, including Ray, Clinton, Carroll, Livingston, Caldwell, Daviess, DeKalb, Gentry, Harrison, Grundy and Worth counties-most of Northwest Missouri-after 1859 having his residence in Gallatin. On the formation of the Twenty-eighth Judicial Circuit in 1872 after a short but spirited canvass, he was elected judge of the circuit as a non-partisan, defeating the republican candidate, Isaac P. Caldwell. In 1874 he was elected for the regular term of six years, and at its expiration, January 1, 1881, declined reelection. He

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then resumed private practice at Gallatin until his death, less than two years later.

Judge Richardson was county school commissioner of Ray County several years, and was county attorney of Daviess County almost con- tinuously from the time he came to Gallatin until his election to the bench. He was also extensively interested in real estate, farming and stock raising. He was a member of the Christian Church.

In 1850 Judge Richardson married Miss Julia A. Woodward, a daughter of Maj. George W. and Nancy (Whitney) Woodward, of Rich- mond. Her father was born in Ireland and her mother in Lexington, Kentucky. Major Woodward for many years was circuit clerk of Ray County, serving at a time when Ray County extended north to the Iowa line. Judge Richardson had eight children, three of whom died in infancy. The others were: James A., deceased; George W., deceased ; Samuel P., deceased; Roe Ann, wife of Congressman J. W. Alexander; and William N., who now resides in Gallatin, Missouri.

DANIEL BRAYMER. One of the best towns of its size in Northwest Missouri is the little city of Braymer in Caldwell County, which was named in honor of the prominent farmer, stockman and capitalist, Daniel Braymer, who is one of the largest land owners in Northwest Missouri, and whose stock farms were the most conspicuous features of the locality before the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad laid out the townsite in 1887. Braymer is now a place of about twelve hundred population, with good schools, churches, banks, stores, and is the home of a high class citizenship. Mr. Braymer first began investing in Caldwell County lands in 1869, and has ever since been a prominent factor in the up- building of this community. He owns more than two thousand acres, including some of the best land in the county, and there are few men in Northwest Missouri whose success along the general lines of farming, stock raising and the ownership and control of lands has been greater than Daniel Braymer's.

Daniel Braymer was born in Washington County, New York, on a farm, March 17, 1844. His father was Daniel Braymer, and his grand- father, Jacob Braymer, was of German ancestry and gave active service to the American colonies during the Revolutionary war. Daniel Bray- mer, Sr., married a Miss Woodward, who was born and reared in Wash- ington County, a daughter of a Revolutionary soldier. The children of Daniel Braymer, Sr., and wife were: Jacob, who died in 1902 in New York State; Jennett, who died at the age of twenty-three; Alfred, who lives in Washington County, New York; Daniel and Rosalinda. The father was first a whig in politics and later a republican, and a member of the Baptist Church. He died in Washington County, New York, at the age of eighty-four, and his wife passed away aged eighty-five.

Daniel Braymer, Jr., grew up on a farm in New York State, and while his education came from the public schools, his best training for life was in the habits of industry and thrift which he acquired when still a boy. At the age of twenty-three he left his home state, and since then has traveled and acquired interests in many parts of this country and also of Mexico. He spent some time in Georgia, then in Tennessee and Kentucky, and for several years was located in Leavenworth County, Kansas. Afterwards he lived one summer in Buchanan County, near St. Joseph, and from there came to Caldwell County, where he bought a section of land, all of it raw and unimproved. It has been genius and enterprise as a farmer and stockman which have transformed these barren acres into a splendid country estate, with corn fields and pastures, and thousands of dollars invested in permanent improvements. Mr.

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A history of northwest Missouri, Volume III, Part 58

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