USA > Missouri > Jackson County > Kansas City > A memorial and biographical record of Kansas City and Jackson County Mo. > Part 16
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A native of Washington county, Ohio, he was born March 25, 1838, and in 1840 was taken by his parents to Pike county, Illinois, the family locating on a farm that crowned one of the bluffs of the Mississippi. The family afterward removed to Barry, same county, where our subject spent his boyhood days. He was only twelve years of age when his father died, and from that time he was not only dependent upon his own resources but the other children, four brothers and a sister, all except the sister, younger than himself, largely depended upon him for support. For about four years he worked in a brickyard, receiving from six to seven dollars per month. He then secured a clerkship in a store, remaining in the employ of one house until he had at- tained his majority. His employer carried on general merchandising and also handled grain and pork; and so faithful was Mr. Kidwell to the trust reposed in him and so earnestly did he labor to promote the in- terests of the business that he was made general manager. Subsequently he engaged in teaching school. He had himself received but limited school privileges, but through
experience, observation and study in his leisure hours he became a well informed man. Desirous of more advanced knowledge he entered school, but while thus engaged was asked to take charge of a school from which the teacher had been dismissed. He did so and managed to keep up with his classes at the same time. He continued teaching for about seven years throughout the neighborhood and was very successful in this work.
Feeling that his country needed his serv- ices, he enlisted in 1862 as a member of the sixty-eighth Illinois infantry, under Colonel Taylor, and served at Alexandria and Fair- fax, Virginia. Upon his return home he re- sumed teaching. Another important event in his life occurred about this time, when, in the fall of 1863, was celebrated his marriage to Miss Eliza M. Jones, who had also been a teacher. They afterward taught together at Rockport, Illinois, and in 1867 came to Missouri, locating on a farm in Index town- ship, Cass county, east of Harrisonville. The land was still in its primitive condition, not a furrow having been turned or an im- provement made thereon, but Mr. Kidwell began developing the property, and soon had a fine farm. He made his home there- on for ten years, and in March, 1877, came to Kansas City.
On his arrival here Mr. Kidwell turned his attention to gardening. After renting land for a time he purchased fifteen acres of the old Holloway homestead, where he still resides. He still owns the greater part of this tract, but has platted a portion of it. He has always carried on gardening, and for some years did an extensive business along that line, having a large wholesale trade. There is always something attractive in this work, -in watching the growth and develop-
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ment of a tiny plant until it has reached perfection. The business has also proved very profitable, for there is ever a constant demand for first-class garden products, and Mr. Kidwell places upon the market fine varieties. Each season he has from four to five acres planted in tomatoes, and from five to ten acres in sweet potatoes. He has until recently had a stall in the Central Market, and though he has partially retired from business the income from his garden is still a good one. In 1887 he embarked in the loan business, under the firm name of the A. D. Beedle Company, with which he was connected until 1890. His real-estate interests are now valuable, and he is enjoy- ing a prosperity which is the reward of his own well directed efforts.
The family of Mr. and Mrs. Kidwell comprises two daughters, -Minna A. and Anna M. Both are natives of this state and graduates of the high school of Kansas City. After two years spent in Lawrence University they entered the Leland Stanford University, and were graduated in 1895, with the first class completing the course in that institution. The younger daughter is now a successful teacher in the Missouri State University, at Columbia, Missouri, having charge of the Spanish classes. She is also a proficient scholar in German and other modern languages.
Socially, Mr. Kidwell is connected with McPherson Post, No. 4, G. A. R., and has taken quite an active part in the work of the order. In 1894 he was elected to the city council as alderman from the Tenth ward, and was also a member of the lower house of the common council, and is chair- man of the committee on water and also on parks and boulevards. He was a stalwart advocate of the present system of parks and | on foot from the Old Dominion. At his
boulevards in Kansas City, and always stands for progression in all things. He is always found on the side of improvement, and has been the promoter of many inter- ests which have proven of material benefit to the welfare of the city. He advocated the establishment of the new gas company, the enlargement of the stockyards, the im- provement of the market system, and advo- cated the purchase of the water works. He is a champion of municipal reform, believ- ing that the affairs of the city should be con- trolled by honorable, conscientious and pro- gressive men, regardless of party affiliations. Kansas City may well be proud to number him among its residents, and in its history he well deserves representation.
EV. JAMES GRIGSBY DALTON, the esteemed pastor of the Little Blue and Pleasant Prairie Cumber- land Presbyterian churches, resides in Sniabar township near the former place.
He was born in Greenbrier county, Vir- ginia, June 7, 1824, and in his fifteenth year came to Missouri with his parents, William and Mary (Renick ) Dalton. His father was a native of Albemarle county, Virginia, and the mother of Rockingham county. They made the journey to Missouri by wagon, being about two months on the road, but at length arrived at Lexington. They were in limited circumstances, but the fa- ther succeeded in purchasing 200 acres of unimproved land in Jackson county, twelve miles northwest of Warrensburg. His death occurred in 1842, at the age of seventy-two years. He was noted for his power of en- durance as a walker, and made the journey
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death he left a family of five sons and three daughters, of whom three are now living. His wife died in 1857.
Mr. Dalton, of this sketch, and his twin sister were next to the youngest of the fam- ily. James G. remained at home until he had attained his majority and then engaged in school-teaching. In 1847 he had become a member of the church, and in his twenty- fifth year began to preach, delivering his first sermon on the first Sunday in May, 1848, in the little church in Johnson county. He united with the presbytery about October I, IS47, was licensed in October, 1849, and ordained on the Ist of April, 1852, near Dover, La Fayette county, by the Lexing- ton presbytery, with which he has always been connected. He spent five years on the circuit work in Johnson, Henry, St. Clair and La Fayette counties, with twenty- eight appointments. The territory at that time was but sparsely settled and there were few church organizations and no houses of worship in the circuit. He preached al- most entirely in private homes and occa- sionally in a school-house or court-house. During the summer from July to October he was engaged in camp-meeting, and at each had from twenty-five to one hundred conversions. At a meeting held in Johnson county, after an exhortation made by Uncle Jake Crow, over one hundred penitents came forward. Uncle Jake, who lived in the community, was undoubtedly one of the most powerful exhorters ever known. A inan of little education he had no training for this work, " but out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh," and he was a power in church work. He established the Little Blue church, assisted only by Mrs. Lobb, who would do the singing. He had a brother, named Ben, who was his
exact counterpart in appearance and their own children could scarcely tell them apart.
In the year 1842 there occurred the greatest religious revival that had ever been held in this locality, resulting in the estab- lishment of several flourishing churches. In the spring of 1854 Mr. Dalton came to his present home and took charge of the Little Blue Cumberland Presbyterian church, three miles north of Blue Springs. In the same year the congregation erected a frame house of worship, which was in use for forty years, with Mr. Dalton as pastor. It had a membership of fifty when he as- sumed charge, but it continued to grow, and in 1860 its membership had reached over two hundred. Again Mr. Dalton held successful revival services, receiving more than fifty converts into the church, at two meetings. He seemed specially fitted for this department of religious work, and the influence that he has exerted on the higher life of western Missouri has been immeas- urable. Since the war he has also been the pastor of Pleasant Prairie church, formerly the Union church, at Bone Hill. It now stands on Pleasant prairie in La Fayette county, nine miles east of his home. He has been the regular pastor of the Little Blue church for forty-one years, of Pleas- ant Prairie church for twenty-eight years, and for about fifteen years was pastor of the Chapel Hill church, from which service he retired two years since. He organized the Cumberland Presbyterian church at Blue Springs, of which he remained in charge for two years.
The Little Blue church has now about one hundred members, but the churches at Blue Springs, Lees Summit and Wood's Chapel are all the outgrowth of Little Blue. The last named was organized by Rev.
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William Horn about 1847, with five mem- bers, namely: Aquilla Lobb and wife and Rev. Cornelius Yeager and wife, and a ne- gro who belonged to Mr. Lobb. There are still some members connected with the church who were there when Mr. Dalton assumed the pastorate. These include Cal- vin and Andy Lowe, William N. Crenshaw, J. A. Steele and Mrs. Daniel De Witt.
Rev. Mr. Dalton was married on the 30th of November, 1865, to Miss Lucy Jane Crump, daughter of Samuel Crump, of Sniabar, who had been one of his pupils in the public schools and whom he had baptized into the church at the age of fifteen years. Their family numbers three children: Sam- uel Grigsby, who was born June 12, 1867, and aids in the cultivation of the home farm; Mary Elizabeth, who is engaged in teaching; and Paulina Agnes, at home.
In 1871 Mr. Dalton_ moved upon the farm which he has since made his home. He makes his ministerial work his chief duty in life but in his leisure hours engages in the cultivation of his farm and the im- provement of his land. In politics he is in- dependent, supporting the man whom he thinks best qualified for the office. His ca- reer has been such as to commend him to the regard of all, of both his own and other denominations, and the most genuine re- spect is universally extended him.
ETH D. BOWKER, M. D., a skilled physician and an eminent scholar of Kansas City, is numbered among the native sons of the Em- pire state, being born in Pitcher, Cortland county, New York, February 10, 1830. While it is true that some men inherit great- ness and "others have greatness thrust 8
upon them," the larger number of citizens win their prominence entirely through their own efforts, and are architects of their own fortune. Such a one is Dr. Bowker, and he has built for himself an enviable position,- built nobly and broadly. Neither has he yet reached the zenith of his career, for a man of his progressive spirit is continually advancing, and judged by the past the future still has many honors in store for him.
The Bowker family came from Canada to the United States. The grandfather, Frank Bowker, a Canadian by birth, emi- grated to New York in colonial days, and, when unable longer to withstand the Brit- ish oppression the colonists attempted to secure independence, he joined the ranks of the Revolutionary heroes. His son, Com- fort Bowker, the father of our subject, was born in Granville, New York, in 1805, and was by occupation a farmer and speculator. He died in 1882, at the age of seventy-seven years. The mother of our subject bore the maiden name of Eunice Brooks, and was a daughter of Samuel Brooks, a native of New England, who was also a soldier of the Revolution. Mrs. Bowker died in 1843, at the age of forty-two years. Of the family there are now five surviving members, namely: Simeon, who is living retired in Odebolt, Iowa; Mrs. Sarah Huntington, of McGrawville, New York; Philander, a con- tractor and builder at Watertown, New York; Harmon, who is living retired in In- dianapolis, Indiana; and the Doctor.
Our subject was reared in Chenango county, New York, to which place his par- ents removed during his early boyhood. When very young he began to earn his own living, and in this way he earned the money with which to educate himself. After com- pleting a common-school course he entered
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Dennison University, of Granville, Ohio, in 1852, and was graduated in that institution in 1857 with the degree of Master of Arts. He then entered the work of the ministry as a preacher of the Baptist church, and to that service devoted his energies from 1857 until 1867. In the latter year he came to Kansas City and entered the Kansas City Medical College, at which he was graduated in March, 1871. Immediately afterward he began practice here, but in a short time removed to Colorado, where he prosecuted his profession for ten years. Since 18So he has been a permanent resident of Kansas City and an able representative of the med- ical fraternity.
Dr. Bowker organized the Kansas City Hospital College of Medicine. He drew around it a professorship of great ability and the college attained a high standing. Its charter was afterward changed and it is now known as the Kansas City Homeopathic Medical College. The character of the original college was non-ethical, and con- ferred degrees of the allopathic, the homeo- pathic and eclectic systems of medicine ; and, although the state board of health at first refused to recognize the graduates of the the school, a decree of the supreme court of Missouri compelled them to issue certificates of graduation and license to practice. Dr. Bowker has won a most enviable success in his chosen calling and makes a specialty of surgery and gynecology. He is a man of broad culture and liberal education, not only in the line of his profession but in the field of literature and science, and is a finished Latin, Greek and Hebrew scholar. As a specimen of his pungent style of public ad- dress we may quote from his discourse to the graduating class of Kansas City Hospital Medical College in March, 1883:
" If you do your work well you will be rewarded with the grateful affection of your patients, and a cheerful and liberal remu- neration for your services. Perhaps it will prove true that you will have greater facili- ties and more frequent calls than other men to demonstrate your willingness to labor without pay; yet this is not the object for which you have chosen the medical profes- sion. Honesty requires you to state fully at the outset that you pretend to undertake nothing but a business enterprise by which, in common with other professions, you hope to provide for yourselves and those depend- ent upon you. Any flourish of words, such as we often hear on occasions like this, that would lead the people to believe that you have been endowed by Heaven with the grace of giving to them your unrequited life toil is the cheapest sort of quackery and de- ception. The people of this age are not to be hoodwinked into the belief that in choos- ing this as a calling you have thereby con- stituted yourself into a benevolent society. With all your skill in hiding your true mo- tives, they will mark you as a heartless pre- tender. If the time ever comes when you do not enjoy the confidence and a reason- able share of the patronage of the people, you better conclude that they have discoy- ered in you one of two hindrances to success: either a lack of knowledge needed in your profession, or a prostitution of your powers to base purposes. The very common remark that a well-educated and honest and active physician will often suffer starvation for lack of business, while the " ignorant pretender " may enjoy the confidence and patronage of the people, no longer bears even the sem- blance of truth. The people will employ the man who cures them without regard to name or outward appearance.
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" We send you forth with no shackles upon your consciences or your intellects. We bind you in no chains or iron-clad oaths with which to hinder your grasp of every possible phase of truth. We bid you in the name of God and all that is honest to be on the alert for all facts that will increase your powers over disease and render you a bless- ing to mankind; and we entreat you to ' quit you like men ' in breaking away from every alliance to 'incorporated monopolies ' which come to you in ' sheep's clothing.'
" Your enemies will traduce you and cry ' Great is Diana of the Ephesians,' and charge you with imposing upon the credulity of the 'dear people.' Not because you, for- sooth, know less than they do, but because it makes all the difference in the world 'whose ox is gored.' They will tax their fiendish skill to brand you with opprobrium. They will call you quacks, irregulars. They will try to divert the attention of the people to the finely wrought distinction between sim- ilia similibus curantur and contraria con- trariis curantur. They will do a third- rate practice, and, to atone for their lack of a foothold among the people, will obtain a cheap notoriety by falsely declaring that they have the prestige of a university in full blast, and in all its appointments, when not a dozen lectures have been delivered outside of the meagerly equipped medical depart- ment.
During the war Dr. Bowker served as chaplain of the one hundred and twenty- fourth Ohio volunteer infantry, under Colonel O. H. Payne, the son of Hon. H. B. Payne, afterward senator from Cleveland one year. From 1880 to 1888 Dr. Bowker was United States pension surgeon in Kansas City, dur- ing which period he examined 10,000 sol- diers. For thirty years the Doctor has been
a Master Mason, and he is a member of the order of Knights and Ladies of Honor, also of the order of the Eastern Star and of the Grand Army of the Republic.
In 1849 the Doctor was united in mar- riage with Miss Judelia Wood, of Norwich, New York. To them were born ten chil- dren, but only four are now living, namely: Mrs. Emma Wood, of Kansas City; Mrs. Agnes M. Clark, of Denver, Colorado; Mrs. Eunice I. Gray, of Kansas City; and Mrs. Nellie M. Clark, of Sunshine, Colorado.
APTAIN FREDERICK AUGUS- TUS FREEMAN is a retired ship- master now living in Kansas City. There are few men in all America whose lives have been filled with more in- teresting and ofttimes thrilling adventures than that of the Captain, who has traveled all over the globe and undergone experiences which if written out in detail would fre- quently prove more exciting than the over- drawn tales of fiction. Through the waters of the Atlantic and Pacific he has sailed, visiting the islands of the west and the interesting nationalities of the orient, gaining through travel a knowledge of the people and places that could never be secured through reading.
Captain Freeman is a native of Massa- chusetts. He was born in Brewster, Barn- stable county, on Cape Cod, October 31, 1831, and descends from some of the most illustrious families of New England. He traces his ancestry in direct line back to Edmond Freeman, who was born in Devon- shire, England, in 1590, and came - to America in 1635, on the sailing vessel Abi- gail. His son, Major John Freeman, mar- ried Marcy Prince, a daughter of Governor Prince and a granddaughter of Elder Brew-
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ster, who was one of the original pilgrims and probably the founder of Brewster, Mas- sachusetts. Their son, Dea Thomas, mar- ried Rebecca Sparrow, and they became the parents of Colonel Edmond Freeman, who wedded Phobe Watson. Their son, Cap- tain Watson Freeman, wedded Sarah Gray, and to them was born Elkanah Freeman, who married Abigail Mayo. The next in the line of direct descent was Captain Elkanah Freeman, the grandfather of our subject, who married Polly Myrick. He was a seaman on the sloop Wolf, command- ed by Nathaniel Freeman during the Revo- lutionary war, and was captured by the British. In the war of 1812 he commanded a privateer and was again captured, being incarcerated in Dartmoor prison.
On the maternal side the ancestry is also traced back to Edmond Freeman, the founder of the family in America, but the lines diverge in the third generation, which on the paternal side is represented by John Free- man, who wedded Sarah Myrick .- Their son, Nathaniel, wedded Mary Wadsum, and to them was born a son, Prince Freeman, who married Abigail Dillingham. Their daughter, Abigail, became the wife of The- ophilus Pinkham, by whom she had a daugh- ter, Mary, who became the wife of General Elijah Cobb. General and Mrs. Cobb were the maternal grandparents of Captain Free- man of this review. Elijah Cobb has the the right to two titles, -that of " Honora- ble" from the fact of his being in the Massachusetts senate, and " General " be- cause of his commission in the Massachusetts militia.
For many generations the male mem- bers of the family on both sides have been seafaring men. General Elijah Cobb went to sea when only twelve years of age, and
for many years was captain of a vessel. He kept a journal, which is full of remin- iscences of adventures, and one entry in this interesting little volume recounts an ex- perience which he had in France. It occurred in the summer of 1794, when he was twenty-six years of age. While sailing on the high seas his vessel was captured by a French frigate and sent to Brest, France. America at that time had no consul nearer than Paris, and General Cobb therefore had no one to advise or aid him. It was at the time of the upheaval in that country, when France was under thereign of terror and when Robespierre was at the height of his power. General Cobb had to depend upon his own judgment. After several months of delay he secured possession of his vessel, which he sent home in charge of the mate, while he remained to get pay for his goods and secure damages. He obtained a permit to go to Paris in one of the government mail coaches. The difficulty of travel at that time is a matter of history; but finally he secured a passport from an official, and the journey, which was attended with much danger, was at length accomplished. After applying to the American consul and several different officials, who advised him to wait patiently, he resolved to apply to Robespierre, and sent a card on which was written-
An American citizen, captured by a French frigate on the high seas, requests a personal interview in order to lay his grievances before Citizen Robespierre.
Respectfully, E. COBB.
An hour later a reply came, which read as follows:
I will grant Citizen Cobb an interview to-morrow, at 10 A. M. ROBESPIERRE.
He met the leader of the revolution the next day in the Tuilleries and told his story. The name of Robespierre was an open
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sesame at the official headquarters, and a few days later his business was satisfactorily settled. On the 28th of July, General Cobb witnessed the execution of the wily and diplomatic but inhumane leader of the of the French revolution, together with other instigators of that reign of terror. General Cobb afterward made other voyages to France and to different parts of the world. He commanded a vessel during the war of 1812, and being captured was confined on the prison ship Jersey. He was a man of prominence in public life, and represented his district in the state senate.
Captain Frederick Freeman, father of our subject, was also born in the Bay state, and married Ann, daughter of General Cobb. He was master of merchant vessels engaged in the West India trade, and fol- lowed the ocean for many years, was en- gaged in merchandising at Trinidad, a city on the southern coast of Cuba. Much of the boyhood of Captain Frederick Augustus Freeman was passed there, having been taken to that place during his infancy. His education was acquired there and in Warren, Massachusetts. He learned the Spanish language and continued his residence in Cuba until his father's death. In 1840, when a boy, he inade his first voyage, acting as cabin boy upon a vessel that sailed to the Spanish main and the West Indies, that trip consuming nine months. He then shipped before the mast, and was promoted from rank to rank, until he became chief officer of a ship, subsequently entering his father's counting-room, where he obtained a practical commercial education.
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