USA > Missouri > A history of northwest Missouri, Volume III > Part 60
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Judge McLeod gained his rudimentary education under the condi- tions and influences marking the pioneer epoch in the history of Ohio, and though he was but fifteen years of age at the time of the inception of the Civil war he gave prompt evidence of his intrinsic and youthful patriotism, by tendering his services in defense of the Union. In response
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to President Lincoln's first call for 300,000 men, he enlisted, on the 27th of August, 1861, as a private in Company I, Thirty-second Ohio Volunteer Infantry-Capt. J. Dyer and Col. Thomas Ford. The regi- ment was mobilized at Camp Denison, Ohio, and thence proceeded to West Virginia, where it met with genuine hardships in its first camp, at Cheat Mountain. In crossing the Allegany Mountains the forces of General Lee were in front of the Union command in which Judge MeLeod was aligned, but the gallant soldiers of the Union pushed forward to aid in the capture of the City of Richmond, the capital of the Con- federacy. At Staunton, Virginia, the command was opposed by the forces under Gen. Stonewall Jackson, and on the 9th of June, 1862, the battle of Port Republic was fought. In the following September Judge McLeod arrived with his command at Harper's Ferry, and here they were cap- tured by the Confederate forces under Jackson, Longstreet and Hill. The captives were taken to a point near Baltimore, Maryland and upon receiving paroles were sent to the prison camp in the City of Chicago. In February, 1863, their exchange was effected and the Thirty-second Ohio Regiment came into rendezvous at Cleveland, Ohio, where it was armed and otherwise equipped for further field service. The regiment joined Grant's army at Memphis, Tennessee, and took part in the Vicks- burg campaign. Judge McLeod participated in the valiant charge on the works and fortifications surrounding the City of Vicksburg, and with others of his command assisted in carrying the ladders used in climbing the Confederate breastworks at Fort Hill. Prior to this he had taken part in the preliminary battle of Champion's Hill, Mississippi. In this battle, his regiment, which was a part of Logan's division, in Stephenson's brigade, captured a battery of six guns. The command remained at Vicksburg and performed its part in the siege until the capitulation of the city, July 4, 1863, and there the most of the members of the Thirty-second Ohio Regiment re-enlisted, as veterans, after which the command accompanied General Sherman in the ever memorable Atlanta campaign, taking part in the battle of Kenesaw Mountain and later in that of Atlanta, July 22d. and July 28th at Ezra Church, and at Jonesboro, which virtually marked the close of that campaign. The regiment then followed Hood back toward Tennessee and kept that able Confederate commander under surveillance until he had crossed the Tennessee River, after which it returned South and accompanied Sher- man's forces on the march from Atlanta to the sea. At Savannah Gen- eral Sherman embarked most of his troops on transports which pro- ceeded to Buford, South Carolina, and the Thirty-second Ohio was one of the regiments for which this provision was made. It took active part in the campaign through South Carolina, scattering the straggling Con- federate commands that were attempting to make their way to North Carolina, to join Johnston's army. The last battle in which Judge McLeod took part was that of Bentonville, and about this time word was received of the surrender of General Lee. Judge McLeod was at Raleigh at the time when General Sherman and Johnston arranged their historic meeting and conference at Goldsboro. Sherman's army marched on to Washington to take part in the Grand Review of the victorious Union forces. The whole army of the Tennessee was ordered to the western department, to aid in the subjugation of the forces under Gen. Richard Taylor in Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas, and was at Louisville at the time when the terms of his surrender were arranged. There also the troops of the corps received their pay and the Ohio command in which Judge McLeod had proved so loyal and valiant a young soldier, was among those shipped back to Columbus, Ohio, where his regiment was disbanded on the 27th of July, 1865, and where he received his honorable Vol. III-26
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discharge-three years and eleven months after the date of his enlist- ment. He had participated in battles and skirmishes to the number of more than thirty-two, but was never wounded. He celebrated his nine- teenth birthday anniversary one month and eleven days after his dis- charge from the army. It is hardly necessary to state that Judge McLeod perpetuates the more gracious memories and associations of his youthful military career by active affiliation with the Grand Army of the Republic.
After the close of the war Judge McLeod set to himself the task of supplementing the meager education which had been his when he subordi- nated all other interests to go forth in defense of the Nation's integrity. He finally became a student in an academy in his native county, and while thus applying himself he also taught a class in geometry in the same school. He knew and could recite by number every one of the 180 propositions in the nine books of geometry, and otherwise gave evidence of his specially receptive memory and close application to study. After his first year in the academy he was licensed to teach school, and he taught two terms in his native state before coming to Missouri, in 1869. In 1870 he established his home in the neighborhood in which he has resided during the long intervening years and in which he has a circle of friends that is circumscribed only by that of his acquaintances. The judge is a man of liberal education and fine intellectuality, his maturity of judgment and broad views representing the result of years of long and practical experience. For fully a quarter of a century Judge McLeod continued to teach in the schools of Missouri during the winter terms, and as soon as his accumulations justified the action he began to make investments in land, his first purchase having been ninety-eight acres of his present estate, this land having been unreclaimed and he having paid $1,000 for the property. In connection with his operations as a farmer and stock-grower progress and distinctive success have followed the well ordered endeavors of Judge McLeod, as he is now the owner of a well improved and valuable landed estate of 540 acres, divided into two farms.
Judge McLeod has been a stalwart in the camp of the republican party, which has ever been much in the minority in his home county and district, so that he naturally failed of election when he appeared as republican candidate for sheriff on one occasion and for that of circuit clerk on another. His eligibility and personal popularity overcame the partisan handicap, however, when he was elected county judge of Gentry County, and he carried his own township by a vote of nearly two to one over his opponent, likewise a resident of the same township. He served one term, and notwithstanding the fact that this republican court did its duty to the taxpayers, the letting of the county printing to the lowest responsible bidder caused the defeat of the two republican judges before the next caucus of the party. Judge McLeod is president of the Bank of Denver, a substantial and popular financial institution of this section of the state, and he is one of the local and progressive citizens of the state that has long represented his home. Both he and his wife are active members of the Christian Church.
On the 17th of June, 1869, was solemnized the marriage of Judge McLeod to Miss Caroline Green, who was born and reared in Gentry County and who is a daughter of William and Mary (Rambo) Green, the former a native of Licking County, Ohio, and the latter of Richland County, that state. Mr. Green came to Missouri in 1838 and became one of the pioneer farmers and influential citizens of Gentry County, where " both he and his wife passed the residue of their lives. In conclusion is given brief record concerning the children of Judge and Mrs. McLeod.
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Charles died at the age of nineteen years, Lovina at the age of twenty- one, and Onis W. at the age of thirteen months; Cora M. is the wife of William Henderson, of Gentryville; Hattie is the wife of Edward Todd, of Gentry County ; Dr. Walter McLeod was graduated in a medical college in the City of Chicago and is now engaged in the practice of his pro- fession in Illinois ; Miles E. is a progressive farmer of his native county ; Elizabeth is the wife of Dr. Ira S. Abplanalp, engaged in the practice of medicine in the State of North Dakota, Mrs. Abplanalp being a graduate of the Missouri Normal School at Maryville; Albert is a representative farmer of Gentry County ; Bessie is the wife of Christopher C. Spainhow, of Gentry County ; and Carrie is the wife of Henry Seat, of this county.
GEORGE A. RICHARDSON. Manager of the Miner & Frees Lumber Company at Gilman City, George A. Richardson is one of the enterpris- ing business men of Harrison County, and has been a resident of Mis- souri since 1890. For the first ten years he was engaged in farming between Ridgeway and Cainsville in Madison Township, and then en- gaged in the lumber business as an assistant to the Miner & Frees Com- pany at Cainsville. Three months later he moved to Gilman City, and as local manager has done much to build up and extend the trade of this company over a large section of country.
George A. Richardson was born at Monroe, Wisconsin, May 28, 1852. His father Asa Richardson, who was born in New Hampshire, came west to Wisconsin as a young man, and spent much of his life as a banker. He was connected with the firm of Ludlow, Bingham & Company at Monroe, Wisconsin, and later the bank was carried on under the firm name of the Bank of Monroe, and still later was organized as the First National Bank. In 1870 Asa Richardson moved to Lawrence, Kansas, where for a number of years he was identified with the Second National Bank, and died on his farm near that city in 1886 at the age of seventy- five. Politically he was a republican. Asa Richardson was married at Monroe, Wisconsin, to Phebe A. Watson, who died at Lawrence, Kansas, December 13, 1912. She was a daughter of George Watson, who moved to Illinois from Pennsylvania, and spent the rest of his life as a farmer in the former state. George. Watson married Miss Sarah Sutton. who also died in Illinois. Asa Richardson had four brothers: Frank, of Minnesota ; John, of New York; Josiah, of Wisconsin ; and Seth, of Iowa; and four sisters: Hepibah, Mrs. Becker, of Wisconsin; Mary, Mrs. Pat- chin, of New York; Nancy, Mrs. Norton, of Ohio; and Sarah, of Iowa. The children of Asa Richardson and wife were: Sarah A., of Lawrence, Kansas; Flora, wife of O. A. Colman, of Lawrence; George A .; Miss May E., of Lawrence; Alma, widow of Joseph Wallace, who lives near Hermosa, Colorado; Don Albert, of Lawrence; Fred O., of Lawrence; Herman O., of Lawrence; Mabel, wife of Arthur Pontius of Chase County, Kansas; Ernest A., of Lawrence; and Olla, Mrs. Guy Bigsby, who died in Douglas County, Kansas, in 1905.
George A. Richardson was eighteen years of age when his father moved to Kansas, and previously he had attended the public schools of Monroe and also spent one year at the Wisconsin State University. He began life as a farmer, was occupied in that business for about twelve years near Lawrence, and then came to Harrison County, where he is now one of the substantial business men.
George A. Richardson was married at New Hampton, Missouri, October 29, 1883, to Miss Frances M. Miner, a sister of William A. Miner, a sketch of whom is found on other pages of this work. Mr. and Mrs. Richardson have the following children: Asa Verne, a merchant at Broadwater, Nebraska, who married Beatrice Proper; Etta M., wife of
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Eugene Ham, of Chaney, Oklahoma ; Fannie M., wife of Haver Bruner of Broadwater, Nebraska, and they have two children, Marjorie and Miner ; Flora A., lives at home in Gilman City; and Edwyl E., assisting his father in the lumber business. Mr. Richardson has identified himself with the republican party, though never in office, and has been content to do his civic duty as a business man and through his personal influence. He is past master of Gilman Lodge, A. F. & A. M., and has represented the lodge in the Grand Lodge at Kansas City and St. Joseph. He is also a past noble grand in the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
CHARLES F. WELLER. The material circumstances that indicate thrift, wise provision for the future, and long continued and wisely directed industry, are the possession of Charles F. Weller, one of the most sub- stantial residents of Clay Township and Holt County. The Weller family has been identified with this section of Missouri for forty-five years or more, and the name has always been associated with integrity and substantial position in the community.
Charles F. Weller was born in Clark County, Indiana, September 21, 1856, a son of Jacob and Catherine Margaret Weller. Both parents were natives of Germany, and his father followed school teaching in the father- land for about eighteen years before emigrating to America. Out of a family of seven children, four are now living. When Jacob Weller arrived in America, his first destination was Louisville, Kentucky, and from there he went to Clark County, Indiana, and bought some land and took up farming. In 1870, one year after the arrival of Charles F. Weller in Holt County, the father came on to the same section, and located on land about a mile from where Charles F. now lives. He improved that property and made a valuable farm of 160 acres. Jacob Weller was a Missionary Baptist and for a number of years was a preacher in that faith. He died in Holt County on his seventieth birth- day, August 22, 1888. He was a democrat in politics after becoming an American citizen, a man of exemplary habits, and both because of what he was and of what he had accomplished from narrow circumstances in youth was thoroughly esteemed.
Charles F. Weller grew up in Indiana, was educated in the common schools, and in 1869 arrived in Holt County. Another member of the family who should be mentioned is his brother Ernest, who is president of the Farmers Bank at Maitland. Mr. Weller located on his present farm about 1882, and is responsible for all the improvements that now constitute it one of the best estates in Clay Township.
Mr. Weller married Maggie A. Carroll, a daughter of James and Elnora Carroll, who were early settlers in Carroll County, Illinois, a county that was named for the family. Mrs. Weller was one of eleven children, and when she died in December, 1904, she left the following living children : Charles F., James Robert, Paul Andre, Mark Anthony, Charles Carroll, and Nellie Rosina, the wife of William Fedder. On August 16, 1907, Mr. Weller married Mary D. Munk. She was born in Germany, a daughter of Fred and Dora Johanna Munk, both of whom are now deceased. Mr. Weller is a member of the Christian Church, while his wife belongs to the United Brethren. He is a republican in politics and has interested himself in all progressive movements for the advancement of Clay Township and Holt County.
JOHN. R. THOMPSON. One of the well improved estates of Holt County is occupied by John R. Thompson, where he is successfully en- gaged in diversified agriculture and the raising of high grade stock. Mr. Thompson has lived in Holt County practically all his life, and commands
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the confidence and esteem of all who have known him from earliest youth.
John R. Thompson was born in Benton Township of Holt County, as was also his sister Helen, now the wife of Richard Gillis. The other children of his parents were born in Buchanan County, namely : Corda, wife of Frank Decker ; and James D., who married Fannie Smith. Those children are likewise residents of Holt County. William Landon Thomp- son, their father, was also born in Buchanan County, a son of Frank Thompson, one of the prominent pioneer settlers in Buchanan County. Virginia Dysart, the mother of John R. Thompson, was a daughter of James Dysart, who settled about seven miles southeast of the present site of St. Joseph, but long before St. Joseph came into existence as a town. Most of the inhabitants of the region were at that time Indians, and wild game was so plentiful that the pioneer could keep his family supplied with meat. Virginia Dysart had six full sisters and six half- sisters and two half-brothers. After the marriage of William L. Thomp- son and Virginia Dysart they lived about six years in Buchanan County, and then moved to Holt County, settling in Benton Township. He bought land that cost him about ten dollars an acre, part of it being improved, and unimproved land being worth at that time only about two and a half dollars per acre. During the first years of their residence in Holt County corn, though produced with almost as much labor as at the present time, sold at from eight to ten cents a bushel, when delivered in cars at Bigelow. Bigelow was then the main grain shipping station and market for all the surrounding country, since Mound City had not yet come into existence except as a small cross roads hamlet known as Jackson Point. The first home of the Thompson family in Holt County was a small frame house, and it is still standing as a landmark of the early days and the center of many associations for the Thompsons. The original part of the old homestead is now owned by Dick Decker. William L. Thompson began life a poor young man, was industrious, and combined business ability and diligence with morality and strict religious practices, as a member of the Christian Church. He deserves the greatest credit for what he has accomplished, and at the present time. owns 200 acres of well improved land. During the war he served about a year in the state militia, but did not get into any important battles, though one of his brothers, Robert, was for four years a soldier in the Southern army, and also lived in Holt County for a number of years.
John R. Thompson attended school in Holt County, along with his brothers and sisters, and finished his education in the Mound City High School. Mr. Thompson married Ila Roseberry, daughter of Thomas Rose- berry, who came to Holt County from Illinois. Mr. Thompson and wife have one child, Frances, born December 29, 1909, in Holt County. Mr. Thompson has lived on his present estate since his marriage, and his farm comprises 120 acres, besides 200 acres located in the bottoms in Benton Township. Mr. Thompson is affiliated with the Masonic Lodge at Mound City, and at the present time is performing useful service to his community as president of the local school board.
F. O. MITCHELL. In Mound City the Mitchell Mercantile Company is one of the largest and most prosperous commercial institutions, and every year handles many thousand dollars worth of general merchandise. The customers of the store live in a country with a wide radius about Mound City, and the management of the store has been such as to estab- lish confidence in every patron. The business is one of the oldest in Mound City, having been first organized by Groves & Ferguson. Later Mr. Joseph Groves bought the Ferguson interests, conducted the store
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under his individual name for some time, and for three years he had as one of his employes Mr. F. O. Mitchell, who has been a well known citizen of Mound City for the past thirty years, and in 1900 bought out the store. His partner in the transaction was Paul R. Davis from Kirks- ville, Missouri. The business was conducted under the name Davis & Mitchell, until the two brothers, F. Q. and Robert G., and the son of F. Q. Mitchell, James W. Mitchell, bought the entire establishment. Since then they have conducted it as the Mitchell Mercantile Company.
F. Q. Mitchell came to Mound City on January 1, 1884, from Hills- boro in Highland County, Ohio, where he was born. The house in which he was born was the only residence his father occupied from the time of his marriage until his death, it having been built at the time of his marriage. His father died at the age of sixty-nine, and the mother then came to Mound City and lived with her sons for twenty-two years. She died June 16, 1913, and was laid to rest by the side of her husband in Ohio. The family consisted of ten children, as follows: John H. of Ottumwa, Iowa; William S. of Mount Pleasant, Iowa, who died in 1912; T. G. Mitchell, of Paris, Missouri; J. A., F. Q. and Robert G., all of Mound City ; Charles, who died at the age of three years; Arabella, who was married in Ohio to R. C. Glenn of Mound City, his home having originally been in Ohio until he was seven years of age; Jennie, who died at the age of fourteen; and Sarah Elizabeth, wife of Prof. J. U. Croson of Mound City.
F. Q. Mitchell married Miriam U. Davis, a daughter of Senator Llewellyn Davis, of Lexington, Missouri. Mr. and Mrs. Mitchell are the parents of three children, all of whom were born in Mound City. The son, Earle McDowell, in September, 1906, at the age of sixteen entered the University of Missouri at Columbia being the youngest student in a body of 2,800, and at the age of seventeen, on May 22, 1907, was acci- dentally drowned in Columbia. The living children are James W., Jr., and Merrie Boyd.
Mr. Mitchell has been deacon and elder in the Christian Church and Sunday school superintendent, although he was reared in the Methodist Church and subsequently joined the Christian Church and served as a amember of its official board. He is active in the Mound City Commercial Club, which he served as treasurer, and is president of the library board and is a member of the lecture board, having assisted in its organization. During Cleveland's administration Mr. Mitchell served as postmaster at Mound City four years, and this indicates his political affiliation. Fra- ternally he has membership in the Yeomen, the Knights and Ladies of Security, the Woodmen of the World and the Modern Woodmen of America. Mr. Mitchell's father was a contractor and builder and also a farmer in Ohio. The son feels a lasting debt of gratitude to his parents, who were good Christian people, and his father was a man who not only kept busy himself but believed that the sons should be trained to industry and should be given something practical to do as soon as old enough.
JOHN W. LEAZENBY. In a number of localities in Northwest Mis- souri farming is the big business, conducted on a scale and with facilities similar to those which are found in the management of large industrial and commercial concerns. The careers of a number of such big farmers are noted on different pages in this work, and attention is here called to John W. Leazenby, whose farm is situated on the Cainsville Mount Moriah Road, four miles south of Cainsville in Harrison County. His farm is the old Leazenby homestead where he was born, and to which he succeeded by purchase some years ago. His landed possessions com-
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prise 925 acres, and more than eight hundred of these acres have been employed in the production of crops. It is a large estate, well managed, and in the course of his active career Mr. Leazenby has sent many car- loads of hogs and cattle to market. He evinces a fondness for the Nor- man horse and the Durham cattle.
John W. Leazenby was born on the farm that is now his home, April 15, 1875. His father was Wesley Leazenby, a pioneer in this section of Missouri, having come to the state some years before the Civil war and settled land that had never known the plow, and his individual efforts were responsible for the clearing up and cultivation of a large tract.
The remote ancestor of the Leazenby family in the United States was an Irish pioneer in the mountains of Virginia prior to the Revolu- tionary war. His name was Thomas Leazenby. He was born in the City of Dublin, and left Ireland to escape the political and economic burdens which harassed that country. He settled in the vicinity of Harper's Ferry in Virginia, at once became patriotically devoted to the cause of the colonists, and when the struggle with Great Britain broke out he joined a company and served as a soldier. A son of Thomas Leazenby was Joshua Leazenby, who was born in Harper's Ferry in Virginia, and when a child moved out with his parents to Pickaway County, Ohio. There he was a farmer and Methodist minister. He married Lucinda Toothacker, and both spent their lives in Pickaway County. Among their children were William and Wesley Leazenby, both of whom came into Harrison County, Missouri, and were followed by their brothers James and Isaac, Isaac also settling in Harrison County while James went on to Kansas. These brothers began work of improvement and development which their posterity has since carried on. Wesley Leazenby had left Pickaway County and for a time identified himself with the State of Iowa. In 1856 William Leazenby brought his family to the West, joined Wesley in Iowa, and from there the two families drove into Missouri together. Wesley Leazenby married Celia Lima, daughter of Harrison Lima a native of Pickaway County and a farmer. Mrs. Leazenby still lives, while her husband died in 1904 at the age of seventy-three. On coming to Harrison County Wesley Leazenby entered land in the vicinity of Ridgeway, but soon after the war moved to Madison Township and remained there the rest of his life. He became an extensive farmer, owning 570 acres of land, and about five hundred of that was under cultivation before he retired from active affairs. He con- ducted his farm on a generous scale, raised corn, hogs and cattle, and occasionally shipped his own stock to market. Wesley Leazenby built the pioneer house on his farm, and was living in the second and more com- modious dwelling at the time of his death. Though a man of little education, having been reared in a time when opportunties were meager, he had a broad experience and a practical industry which carried him further than most men. His forefathers were whig partisans, and he voted with the republican cause. He had no inclinations for office, and was a member of no church nor society. During the war he served as a Federal soldier in the Third Missouri State Militia as a private, but was always very modest about his military career and said little about it. The children of Wesley Leazenby and wife were: Mary, who married Andrew Bush and died in Harrison County; Jincy, wife of W. M. Wamoth of Kansas City ; Grant, of South Bend, Indiana; and John W.
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