USA > Missouri > A history of northwest Missouri, Volume III > Part 80
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David Gebhardt grew up in Indiana, received his education in the public schools of Henry County, and in the spring of 1870, when about nineteen years old, came to Andrew County, Missouri. Since then his best energies have been devoted to farming and stock raising. He is the owner of 160 acres in section 10 of Platte Township, located partly in the bottoms of the Platte River. This land he operates through a tenant.
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His home place, comprising forty-two acres, adjoins the little Village of Whitesville on the south and is located in section 27. The house stands on an elevation which is the highest point of land in this vicinity. Many people in this part of the state associate this farm with the name Jersey Stock Farm. Until he sold out about two years ago Mr. Geb- hart was a successful raiser of high grade Jersey cattle, and kept a herd of about twenty-five head.
Politically Mr. Gebhart acts with the republican party, is a member of the Baptist Church and has fraternal affiliations with the Masonic Order and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. On January 2, 1876, he married Emily M. Crockett, who was born in Andrew County, Missouri, October 1, 1857. Her parents are Milton and Sarah E. (West) Crockett. Some of the chief facts in this family's history will be found on other pages of this work. Mr. and Mrs. Gebhart have two children : Oliver C., who was born January 14, 1879, was educated for the pro- fession of medicine at St. Louis, and is now a well-known practicing physician in St. Joseph, being a specialist in tuberculosis cases. The son, Ezra, born February 25, 1887, is also a resident of St. Joseph, and by his marriage to Nell Howitt has one child, Helen, born February 10, 1912.
JOHN W. HOWITT. Though Mr. Howitt has recently retired from the Village of Whitesville to his farm in Platte Township he has made his chief record of success and achievement in Andrew County as a banker. For eleven years he held the position of cashier and was prac- tically in executive management of the Farmers Bank of Whitesville. While capital and resources are always considered an important ele- ment in banking, an even more important factor is the personality of the men in active charge. Under the progressive administration of Mr. Howitt the Farmers Bank of Whitesville is now one of the most substantial institutions in Andrew County. When he took charge it had a capital stock of $10,000 and a surplus of $1,200. He left it with the capital stock the same but with a surplus of $10,000 and undivided profits of like amount. Mr. Howitt retired from active banking on account of ill health, but still has a block of stock in the bank and is one of its directors.
John W. Howitt was born in Waukesha County, Wisconsin, Feb- ruary 21, 1868, but has spent practically all his life in Andrew County, where his parents were early settlers. His parents were James and Elizabeth (Weaver) Howitt. His father was born in Ayrshire, Scot- land, December 27, 1823, was brought to America by his parents at the age of twelve years in 1835, and from New York State moved out to Wisconsin about the time he reached his majority. He lived in Wis- consin until 1858 and then came to Missouri and located on the prairie five miles east of Whitesville. That was his home until his death in 1899. He was a practical farmer and owned and directed the management of about three hundred acres. He always took a keen in- terest in local affairs, was a republican voter, and though reared in the Presbyterian Church belonged for many years to the Methodist. His wife was born December 27, 1831, in Oneida County, New York, and went with her parents to Wisconsin in 1839, and was married there December 25, 1851. She died in Andrew County in 1908. Of the five children two died in infancy, and the other three are: A. J., of Platte Township; Agnes E., widow of James Colville of Platte Township; and John W.
John W. Howitt received his education in the common schools, and in 1891 was graduated from the Gem City Business College at Quincy,
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Illinois. While he was reared on a farm and has always had some in- terests in the country, his active career has been spent mainly along commercial lines. He had a general merchandise store at King City until it was burned out, and he then returned to a farm in Andrew County. For a year and a half he gained some valuable experience as a clerk in St. Joseph and then returned to Whitesville and became cashier of the bank. He is now living on a well improved small farm of sixty acres 41/2 miles north of Whitesville.
Mr. Howitt is a republican, a citizen of influence in his part of Andrew County, and has long been identified with the Baptist Church, having served as superintendent of Sunday school and teacher of a class. Fraternal matters have made a strong appeal to him and he is affiliated with the Masonic Order, the Independent Order of Odd Fel- lows, the Modern Woodmen of America, the Woodmen of the World and the Order of Yeomen.
On May 1, 1889, Mr. Howitt married Jennie McAllaster of Gentry County, Missouri. They have one daughter of their own, Stella, who is the wife of V. L. Townsend, living 21/2 miles south of Whitesville. Mr. and Mrs. Townsend have two children, Francis Marion and Josephine Victoria, both of whom are the pride and delight of their grandparents. Mr. Howitt is also rearing an orphan boy, named Raymond Howitt, who was taken from an orphan home in St. Louis at the age of thirteen months and is now eight years of age and attending school.
RALPH STINSON. A life of quiet effectiveness, marked by a record of many duties well done and many responsibilities faithfully fulfilled, has been that of Ralph Stinson, one of the venerable citizens of Andrew County, and still living on his fine old farm on section 10 of Platte Township, in his eighty-third year. Mr. Stinson was one of the men who developed and made Andrew County what it is. As an early set- tler, a soldier, a farmer, and in the round of commonplace accomplish- ments which fill every life, he has given a faithful and intelligent per- formance of each task, and has a record which may well be admired by the generations that follow him.
Ralph Stinson was born in Sandusky . County, Huron Township, Ohio, December 11, 1832, and much of his life was spent in new coun- tries and close to the western frontier. His parents were Seth and Elizabeth (Stull) Stinson, his father a native of New York and his mother of Pennsylvania. His father died December 19, 1885, aged seventy-five years, ten months and twenty-eight days, and the mother passed away June 13, 1890, aged seventy-nine years, eleven months and fourteen days. Both died at Marion in Linn County, Iowa. They were married in Sandusky County, Ohio, moved to Williams County in the same state, and out to Iowa about 1843. Seth Stinson bought a claim in Iowa and entered a large amount of land in Linn County, and spent the rest of his career as a pioneer farmer. There were eight children in the family, briefly mentioned as follows: Ralph; Robert, who still lives at the old home place near Marion, Iowa, and saw three years of service in the Civil war as captain of an Iowa company; George, a resi- dent of Oklahoma, was also three years a soldier and in his brother's company ; Franklin, of California, spent three years with an Iowa regi- ment; Marion is now deceased; Mary Jane is the wife of Mr. Mills of Tama, Iowa; Mrs. Sarah Black, now deceased; and Laura, who died after her marriage to Wane Leuts.
Ralph Stinson lived with his parents, first in Williams County, Ohio, and later in Iowa, until 1854. In that year he came to Andrew County, Missouri, and identified himself actively with the work of improvement
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that was then converting the wilderness into a landscape of farms. He improved two farms on the prairie in Andrew County, and since 1864 has lived on his present estate in Platte Township, all of which he cleared and put under cultivation. A residence of half a century in one community is in itself a distinction, and in the case of Mr. Stinson it has been accompanied by much effective service both in his own interests and for the benefit of the community. His farm in section 10 in the north half comprises 327 acres, and is known as the Forest Home Farm. General farming has been the feature of his industrial efforts, and he has also long been identified with the milling interests. He operates a sawmill and a sorghum works. Mr. Stinson is an all round mechanic, and by trade is a millwright and. patternmaker. For a number of years he kept on his farm a fine herd of Angus cattle. His sorghum mill is the best equipped in the state with a capacity of 500 gallons daily, and good years the output is about five thousand gallons. The average output of his sawmill is about five thousand feet daily.
Mr. Stinson can recall many of the interesting experiences of pioneer times. As a boy he lived in the heavy woods of Williams County, Ohio, where it was necessary to construct buildings to protect live stock from the bears and other wild animals. The nearest neighbors at one time were nine miles away. After his experience in Ohio he had some more pioneer life on the prairies of Iowa Territory. At one time he and his brother George were looking after a sugar camp in the woods of Iowa, and one night they were awakened when a panther rummaging about, got on them as they lay asleep on the ground, with their heads under cover. The Indians killed the panther, strung its nails and put them around their necks. Panthers and wolves and other animals were numerous in those days, and particularly dangerous to live stock. During the war Mr. Stinson was a member of a regiment of Missouri State Militia. He is independent in politics, but it may be recalled that in 1864, during the presidential campaign of that year, he made a speech at Richmond, in Rea County, before his regiment, favoring the election of Mr. Lincoln, and helped to win over most of his comrades to support the republican candidate. His prosperity as a farmer has not been kept all to himself, but it is known that any undertaking for the. general good in Andrew County will have his support and liberal dona- tion. He gave money for the building of the hall at Whitesville for the Interstate Corn and Poultry Show, and has donated to the cause of many churches and other purposes.
In 1854 at Marion, Iowa, Mr. Stinson married Ruann Tomlinson. She was born in Scioto County, Ohio, September 13, 1835, and died in Andrew County, October 25, 1912. They were the parents of a large family of children: Warren lives in St. Joseph; Worth died in child- hood; Minerva is the wife of John Whetsel of King City, Missouri ; Anna, now deceased, married John Whetsel; Bell is the wife of Evert Goforth of Flagg Springs, Andrew County; Franklin died January 18, 1871, in childhood ; Minnie is the wife of John Potts of Guilford, Mis- souri; Katie is the wife of John Redkey, now deceased ; and Scott lives in Platte Township, on his farm adjoining the home place.
NORTON BURKEHOLDER. The cashier of the Bank of Spickardsville at Spickard, Mr. Burkeholder is a prominent business man and land owner in Grundy County, and represents one of the old and prominent families of this section of Northwest Missouri, his father being the Hon. Abraham H. Burkeholder of Trenton.
Norton Burkeholder was born at Trenton, Missouri, March 2, 1870. His father, Abraham H. Burkeholder, was born June 27, 1835, in York
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County, Pennsylvania, and is now in his eightieth year. The maiden name of the mother was Rebecca A. Waltner, who was born July 3, 1840, in Putnam County, Ohio. Abraham H. Burkeholder was a soldier of the Union army during the Civil war, being quartermaster lieutenant of the One Hundred and Eighty-eighth Ohio Infantry, and was in the army three years. During a considerable part of his service he was sta- tioned at Nashville, Tennessee, and after the war was for a time in the Tod Barracks at Columbus, Ohio. He was a lawyer by profession, and in 1865 moved from Putnam County, Ohio, to Trenton, and engaged in the practice of law at which he continued many years until his retire- ment. Abraham H. Burkeholder was elected on the republican ticket as prosecuting attorney and also as judge of the Probate Court in Grundy County, served two terms as state senator, and in 1892 was a candidate for Congress from the Second Missouri District. He was also president of the Trenton Board of Trade, and took an active and influential part in getting the Rock Island to locate its shops and division point in Tren- ton, and later was one of the leaders in the movement which also secured the location of the shops of the O. K. Railway at the same place.
Norton Burkeholder acquired his early education in the Trenton schools, graduating from the high school in 1888, and in 1891 com- pleted a commercial course at the Gem City Business College at Quincy, Illinois. His first work was with the Rock Island Railway as chief timekeeper of the Southwestern Division, extending between Kansas City and St. Joseph and Davenport, Iowa. He was in the railway serv- ice until August, 1903, at which time he was elected and took charge of the Bank of Spickardsville, as cashier. This bank has a capital stock and surplus of $30,000, and its other officers are Michael Wolz, presi- dent, and Henry Waltner, vice president.
Mr. Burkeholder is a stockholder in six different banks in this section of Missouri, and is also well known in Grundy County as a farmer and stockraiser, being the owner of 620 acres of fine fertile land. Politically he is a progressive republican, is president of the Spickard school board, secretary of the Chautauqua Association, and is a deacon in the Baptist Church. His fraternal associations are with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias, and he is a past grand of Grand River Lodge No. 52 of the Odd Fellows at Trenton.
On June 11, 1903, Mr. Burkeholder married Miss Sarah J. Wolz, daughter of John F. and Sarah (Evans) Wolz. Her father was one of the largest land owners in this section of Missouri, and the family is still prominently represented here. Mr. and Mrs. Burkeholder are the parents of three children: Elizabeth Nadeen, Martha Bliss and John Hudson.
EDGAR M. HARBER. During an active practice at Trenton for nearly forty years Mr. Harber has won a position through his ability and re- peated successes which ranks him among the leading lawyers of Missouri. Much of his practice has been in corporation work, and he is regarded as pre-eminent in this sphere. While devoted to the jealous mistress of the law, he is hardly less prominent as a democratic leader. It has been his lot to reside in a republican county of a democratic state, and while official honors have been consequently restricted he has for a number of years been recognized as one of the strongest and most eligible men in the party for the larger honors. His friends have again and again urged him as a candidate for governor, and his name is spoken with favor in every district of Missouri and through the press has become well known in many quarters where he is personally unacquainted.
Edgar M. Harber was born on a farm three miles from Richmond,
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Madison County, Kentucky, a region which sent more sturdy pioneers to early Missouri than came from any other part of the United States. His father, Thomas B. Harber, was born in the same county in 1829, and was a son of Thomas Harber. The latter was a planter and slave- holder and spent all his life in Kentucky. About 1856 Thomas B. Harber, who had been reared and educated in Kentucky, migrated to Northwest Missouri, and was one of the first men to engage in mercantile business at the little village of Osborn in DeKalb County. He sold general merchandise to his friends and neighbors in that country until the breaking out of the war, when he moved out to the Territory of Nebraska, locating in Nebraska City. The Seymour Hotel of which he was proprietor was in that day one of the largest and best-known houses of public entertainment in Nebraska. Returning to Missouri at the close of the war, he bought a farm on the north line of Clinton County, 21/2 miles south of Osborn, and was engaged in its cultivation until 1872, when he moved to Trenton. He was first known to the people of that town as a landlord, but being a man well versed in politics and public affairs was appointed by Governor Phelps presiding judge of the County Court and later held the position of postmaster at Trenton until his death. Judge Harber married Mildred A. Phelps, who was also a native of Madison County, Kentucky, a daughter of George T. Phelps. She departed this life in Chicago, July 27, 1914. For years she spent her summers with her daughters, Mrs. Rella H. Wright and Bessie Hough in Chicago, and her winters were usually passed with her daugh- ter, Mrs. Witten, in Okmulgee, Oklahoma, also spending a goodly por- tion of her time with her son, Edgar, in Trenton. Her nine children were named as follows: George T., now deceased; James B., of Butte, Montana; Edgar M .; Tevis S., of Leavenworth, Kansas; Nannie L., wife of Judge W. W. Witten, Okmulgee, Oklahoma; Kate, who married Frank H. Glover, and both are now deceased; Bessie, the wife of Millie Hough, of Kansas City and Chicago; Rella Wright, a widow living in Chicago; and Charles C., of Leavenworth.
Edgar M. Harber partly with the aid of his father and partly through his own efforts acquired a substantial education. He attended school in Nebraska City, also the Trenton high school, and then took up the study of law with H. J. Herrick. With his admission to the bar in 1875 he opened an office at Trenton, and in a very short time was mak- ing a living and winning recognition for an alert ability and thorough- ness of knowledge and preparation of cases which made his success a certainty .. Much of his practice has come as the attorney for the Rock Island Railroad Company, and until he resigned in 1911 he also rep- resented the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Road.
Mr. Harber in 1881 married Miss Lizzie D. Austin, a native of Trenton and daughter of Col. James Austin. She died September 23, 1907. Mr. Harber has been prominent in the Knights of Pythias Order, having been grand chancellor of the state lodge and is now in his third term as supreme representative. His interest in public affairs began be- fore he was qualified by age for the exercise of the franchise. His in- fluence has always been directed to the support of democratic principles and candidates, and as a campaigner, a forceful and convincing speaker he has few equals in his part of the state, and has filled engagements in nearly every district of the state. Mr. Harber holds a high place of es- teem in his home community, and his popularity led to his choice as city solicitor of Trenton and also as prosecuting attorney of Grundy County. For nearly twenty-five years he has been chairman of the Central Dis- trict Democratic Committee, has been a delegate to numerous county and district conventions, and was honored as a delegate to every state con-
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vention from 1878 until the primary law took effect. In the national convention of 1888 he supported Cleveland, and went to Baltimore in 1912. In 1880 he was the youngest member of the electoral college, and was an elector in 1892 when he cast his ballot for Cleveland for the latter's second term. While possessing the strength requisite for gub- ernatorial candidate, Mr. Harber has never found it possible to enter actively upon a campaign for the nomination. In 1907 he would prob- ably have received the nomination had not sickness in his family caused him to refuse to have his name considered. In his private life Mr. Harber, like many successful professional men, finds diversion from his vocation in outdoor life. His interest in agriculture has been keen and practical since his youth, and he is the owner of extensive farming property, which he operates chiefly through renters, but to his favorite country estate of nearly three hundred acres, near Trenton, he gives his personal attention, and farms both for pleasure and profit. His herd of Jerseys is one of the best in Grundy County. On the 16th of December, 1914, Mr. Harber was appointed collector of internal revenue for the Sixth District of Missouri and shortly thereafter unani- mously confirmed by the Senate and is now in charge of this important office at Kansas City, Missouri.
LUTHER COLLIER has been a member of the Grundy County bar more than forty years. Success and official distinctions have come to him in the course of his long and honorable career. He fought for the Union in the Civil war, and the duties of patriotism and good citizenship have always been conspicuous features of his character. His is a pioneer stock in that part of Northwest Missouri. His father built the first courthouse at Trenton, and in many other ways the family have earned a proper place in the history and regard of this quarter of the great commonwealth.
Though he was born in Howard County, Missouri, June 19, 1842, Luther Collier has lived in Grundy County practically all his life, and his memories cover practically the entire course of local history and development. His father, William Collier, was born on a farm in Madi- son County, Kentucky, in 1790. James Collier, the grandfather, was an early settler in the Bluegrass State, owned and operated a plantation in Madison County, where his life came to a close. His widow, who was a Miss Easton, survived him, married a Mr. Mills, and came to Missouri to end her days. The four children of her first marriage were William, Lewis, Stephen and Millie.
In his native state William Collier grew up and married. In 1827, accompanied by his wife and six children, he came to Missouri. This was then the newest of all the states in the Union, and it was a long journey from Kentucky to Howard County: Wagons and teams conveyed the family and all their goods from one stage to another, and at night they often camped by the wayside. The Mississippi River was crossed at St. Louis, and from there they followed up the valley of the Missouri to Howard County, which received a great bulk of its early population from Madison County, Kentucky. William Collier was a building contractor and brickmaker, a business in which he found much employment in the new country. His contracts took him far beyond the borders of Howard County. Grundy County was organized in 1841, and soon afterward the local officials awarded William Collier the contract for constructing the courthouse. In 1842 he came to Trenton and set up a plant for the manufacture of the brick. In the following year his family followed. The courthouse was finished in 1844, and stood, a venerable reminder of early days, until it was replaced a few years ago by the present mod-
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ern building. After that Mr. Collier continued his business headquar- ters at Trenton, and altogether was in active business as contractor and builder for nearly half a century. His death occurred at Trenton October 10, 1870. When a young man he had seen service in the War of 1812, and the Government gave his widow a pension during her last years.
Her maiden name was Susan Higbee. She was born in Jessamine County, Kentucky. Joseph Higbee, her father, was a soldier of the Revolution, and from Kentucky moved to Missouri and found an early home in Randolph County. A church was built on his land, and when the railroad was constructed Higbee Church became also a location for a station, and the village has since been Higbee. Mrs. William Collier, who died at the advanced age of ninety-one, was the mother of thirteen children : Sally Ann, Rebecca, Joseph F., James M., Elizabeth, Susan, William, Kitty Ann, Charles L., Martha J., David' A., Robert A. and Luther. David died when about five years old, but all the others mar- ried and had families of their own, who have carried the name and family relationship into many parts of the country.
A child of about twelve months when the family located at Trenton, Luther Collier grew up in the early surroundings of the county seat, and attended the early schools. He was a pupil of a well remembered educator, Prof. Joseph Ficklin, and later of Prof. W. D. Stewart, and as a young man for a time assisted the latter in school instruction. The outbreak of the war called him away to more serious duties. In 1861 he enlisted in Colonel King's regiment of State Troops, and was dis- charged at the end of six months. In August, 1862, he enlisted for the regular service in Company B of the Twenty-third Missouri Infantry. For a time he was in the Twentieth Army Corps under General Rousseau and later in the First Brigade, Third Division of the Fourteenth Army Corps. His regiment joined Sherman's army at the Chattahoochee River, and was in much of the fighting which led up to the fall of Atlanta, went on with the victorious army to Savannah and the sea, and thence made the great movement through the Carolinas which brought the right wing of the Federal forces into the rear of Virginia. When Lee surrendered and Johnston's army capitulated, he was with the hosts that went on to Washington and marched in the grand pageant down Pennsylvania Avenue. Mr. Collier was at that time acting ad- jutant and in his tattered uniform rode a strawberry roan in the parade. He was given his honorable discharge in June, and reached Trenton after an absence of nearly three years on June 20th.
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