A memorial and biographical record of Kansas City and Jackson County Mo., Part 26

Author: Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago (Ill.)
Publication date: 1896
Publisher: Chicago, The Lewis publishing company
Number of Pages: 704


USA > Missouri > Jackson County > Kansas City > A memorial and biographical record of Kansas City and Jackson County Mo. > Part 26


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In 1878 was celebrated the marriage of A. A. White and Miss Sarah Ann Robertson, a native of Ralls county, Missouri. Seven children have been born of this union, namely: Lucile Ure, Alson Alexander, Jr., James Edward, Mary Tralucia, Paul Pal- more, Charles Joseph and French Robert- son. Mr. White has established a home in Independence, Missouri, where he spends all of his leisure time. He and his family


are members of the Trinity Episcopal church of that place, and are very prominent in social circles, their own home being noted for its hospitality.


Mr. White is prominent in Masonic cir- cles and has passed through all the degrees, up to and including the thirty-second. He is also a Knight Templar, being a member of Palestine Commandery, No. 17, at Inde- pendence, Missouri, and a member of Western Missouri Consistory, No. 2. He is a member and one of the Supreme Nine of Hoo Hoo, an order largely composed of lumbermen. In the order of the Knights of Honor he also holds membership, and also is one of the Heptasophs of Independence, Missouri, being Archon in the latter. In politics he is a democrat, but is by no means a partisan. He has climbed the ladder of success step by step until he has reached a position of prominence. With very meager advantages in his youth he has from the age of sixteen made his own way in the world and is an illustrious prototype of a self-made man.


3 OHN H. MARKHAM, M. D., late of Kansas City, was born in Halifax, England, November 26, 1829, a son of John H. and Susan (Gray) Mark- ham, also natives of the same country. His father was a physician, surgeon and drug- gist, and died in England when about forty- eight years of age. His wife survived him until August, 1862, and passed away at the age of fifty-nine. Both were strict Wes- leyan Methodists, and the father was a local preacher and class-leader in his church. In their family were eleven children, of whom the eldest is the subject of this sketch and the only surviving one. The paternal grand-


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father, Richard Markham, was born in Eng- land and died at the age of eighty-four. He was also a physician and a farmer and was a member of the Episcopal church. The great-grandfather likewise bore the name of Richard Markham, and devoted his energies to the practice of medicine, so that it was but natural that our subject should have a strong inclination toward this calling. The maternal grandfather of our subject, Robert Gray, was a brewer in Boston, Lincolnshire, England, and belonged to the Gloucester- shire Grays. At the age of forty-two, while engaged in collecting money, he was mur- dered. His family was a very large one, numbering sixteen children.


Dr. Markham, of this review, was reared and educated in England, was trained in the faith of the Wesleyan Methodist church, and became a local preacher of that denom- ination. He also studied medicine at that time under Dr. Gledhill, of Halifax, and pursued his studies at Guy's College, where he graduated in 1858. He practiced first in London, as assistant to Dr. Fawthorp. In 1862 he came to America with the intention of joining the army, but instead went to Colorado, where he engaged in prospecting until 1874. He then located in St. Louis, where he engaged in the practice of medi- cine for a year, and in 1875 established an office at Pleasant Hill, Cass county, Mis- souri, where he remained until 1877, after which time he resided in Kansas City.


He was married in 1857 to Miss Maggie Johnson, by whom he had two children, - John and Samuel, -both now in England. The mother was a member of the Christian church, and died in 1861. In 1874 the Doctor wedded Miss Annie McKenna, who died in 1881, and he himself departed this life February 2, 1896, his death being


caused by the effect of an accident sus- tained on the Fifth street cable one week previously.


J CARSON BROWNLEE, M. D .-- It is a fact, despite our American pretensions to the contrary, that every individual possesses a secret, if not avowed, admiration for good blood. Every American must cross the ocean for the origin of his family and it is an added satisfaction if he can claim a near approach to Scotch-Irish ancestors, for the many ex- cellent qualities that have developed by the intermingling of the blood of these two races is well known.


Dr. J. Carson Brownlee, whose name heads this sketch, traces the establishment of his family tree in America to Archibald Brownlee, who emigrated from Scotland in 1755 and settled in Washington county, Pennsylvania. That county was the birth- place of the three following generations, -William, Ebenezer and the Doctor. The mother of the last named is Elizabeth (David- son) Brownlee, who is of Irish descent, and was likewise born and reared in Washington county. Our subject belongs to a family of five sons and a daughter, as follows: Robert; George, now of Douglass, Ne- braska; J. Carson; Samuel and Jennie, who reside in Washington county, Pennsylvania; and one son John, who died in 1893, that county. The worthy parents of this family are both now deceased. The father, who was extensively engaged in stock dealing in the county which was the ancestral home of the family, died December 14, 1892, aged sixty-eight years and three months. As far back as can be traced the Brownlee family have been Scotch-Presbyterians in religious


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belief, and the Doctor's father was for many years an elder in that church. He was also prominent in public affairs. On the moth- er's side our subject was connected with a family of prominence. His grandfather, James Davidson, was related to Colonel Rob- ert Davidson, of Revolutionary fame. He had three sons, all of whom were physicians. Robert was one of the leading physicians of western Pennsylvania.


Dr. J. Carson Brownlee was born Feb- ruary 9, 1854, and attended the public schools near his home in Washington coun- ty, Pennsylvania, after which he took a college preparatory course at West Alexan- dria and entercd Amherst College. Desir- ous of pursuing a more extended course of study he becaine a student in Cornell University, and deciding there to adopt the medical profession he took a special course and entered the Bellevue Hospital Medical College, of New York, at which he was graduated in 1880. Throughout the five succeeding years he engaged in the practice of his profession at West Alex- andria, Pennsylvania, and in 1885 came to Kansas City, where he is still located. His practice includes every line of medical work and in all departments he has been success- ful.


Dr. Brownlee is a member of the Wash- ington Medical Society and belongs to the Phi Delta Theta Society of Cornell Univer- sity. His office and residence are located at No. 401 West Fifth street, where he took up his abode at the time of his arrival in this city.


On the 29th of April, 1887, was cele- brated the marriage of Dr. Brownlee and Miss Ida George, daughter of William and Louisa (Meyer) George. Their home is a favorite retreat for a large circle of friends.


HURCHILL J. WHITE .- In times of financial depression there is noth- ing that does more to restore pub- lic confidence and cause the revival of business activity than a sound financial banking institution in which the public can place the utmost reliance and which con- ducts its business affairs in a safe, honorable and above-board way that commands uni- versal respect. For thirty-one years the subject of this notice has been prominently connected with banking circles in this com- munity. He is a man of known reliability and superior business ability, and his con- nection with the financial interests of Jack- son county have done much to give to commercial interests a stability that has caused the growth and rapid development of the city.


Mr. White is a native of Kentucky. He was born June 17, 1825, and when he was but eight years old his father died. His mother afterward brought her family to Liberty, Missouri, where he was reared to manhood and continued his residence until coming to Kansas City in 1865. While in Liberty he was united in marriage, in 1847, with Miss America Adkins, of that place, and they have one child, now deceased.


Mr. White began his business career as a salesman in the store of David Roberts, of Liberty, and was employed two years in that capacity, when Mr. Roberts, in recog- nition of his valuable service, admitted him to a partnership in the business. On the retirement of Mr. Roberts, in 1854, Mr. White became the head of the mercantile firm of White & Adkins, and continued in that line of trade until 1863, when he dis- posed of his business and accepted the posi- tion of cashier for the Farmers' Bank, of Liberty, in which position he served until


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1865, when he resigned it to accept a simi- lar one in the Kansas City Savings Associa- tion, which in 1875 became the Bank of Commerce, on increase of capital stock, and in 1888 became the National Bank of Com- merce, of Kansas City. In this responsible capacity he was employed for thirty years. It was due not less to his enviable reputa- tion, his careful management and his inti- mate knowledge of banking and of the peculiar needs of the business community of Kansas City, than to other causes, that the bank achieved its brilliant success which has rendered it safe at all times and in all crises, and placed it among the strongest banks in the country. In January, 1895, he was elected president of the Citizens' National Bank, and is now at the head of that well known and popular institution.


In early life, Mr. White gave his polit- ical support to the whig party, but for many years has been an advocate of Democratic principles; never active as a politician, but with an earnest interest in all affairs of pub- lic moment, national, state or municipal. During the late war he was a pronounced union man, and such a degree of confidence was reposed in him that he served the United. States government in various important capacities, almost constantly during the period from 1861 until 1865, inclusive, with that integrity and attention to duty which has characterized his course through life. In 1861 he was elected second lieutenant of company A, of the first regiment, Clay county militia, and was soon promoted to be adjutant of the regiment with the rank of captain. He also served as provost mar- shal and as enrolling officer for Captain Comingo's district.


Ever since coming to Kansas City Mr. White has had unlimited faith in its future,


has invested his means freely in its real estate and has in every way fostered and encouraged its advancement. His intimate relations with its leading capitalists and his long connection, financially and otherwise, with its most prominent interests, have closely identified him with its success, and he is re- garded as one of the best and most useful citizens.


0 APTAIN MAURICE M. LANG- HORNE, deputy sheriff of Jackson county, Missouri, is of eastern birth. His early life was filled with extensive travel and frontier experiences throughout various portions of the west, fol- lowed by a war record, and that in turn by thirty years as a respected citizen of Inde- pendence, and consequently the life history of this gentleman is one worthy of consider- ation on the pages of this work.


Maurice M. Langhorne was born in Buckinghamn county, Virginia, July 22, 1834, and there spent the first eight years of his life. Then he was brought by his parents with the rest of the family to Lexington, Missouri, where he attended school four years and worked in a printing-office two years. Early in 1849 he came from Lex- ington to Independence. Here he went to school a few months, and May 15 started overland for California, he and his party being five months in accomplishing the journey. Landing on Feather river, they mined there two weeks, then proceeded to what was known as "Hangtown," now Placerville, where they continued mining until the following spring. Next he mined at Georgetown. In the meantime his father joined him in California, and together they went to Carson Valley, Nevada, taking with


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them a load of flour for the starving emi- grants. While in Nevada they traded for a band of cattle and horses, which they drove across the mountains into California, and which they sold in the spring of 1851. After disposing of their stock, they returned to Missouri by way of the Isthmus of Panama. These early travels had interrupted young Langhorne's studies to a great extent, and on his return home he again started to school, and remained in school at Inde- pendence until the next spring.


In the spring of 1852 his father moved with the family to San Jose, California. That same year Maurice M. returned to Missouri, coming by way of Nicaragua, purchased a number of cattle and drove them across the plains to California. This band of cattle he kept on the ranch near San Jose from 1853 till some time the fol- lowing year. Again anxious to try his luck in the mines, he went in 1854 to Columbia, California, where he mined one year. The next year he was employed as compositor in a printing-office, at the end of the year purchased the plant and had charge of it un- til 1858, when he returned to San Jose and shortly afterward went to the Fraser river mines in British Columbia, where he mined during the summer and fall, after which he returned to San Jose, and in December of that same year left the Golden State for his old home in Independence, Missouri, this time making the return trip by way of Tehuantepec.


Early in 1859 Mr. Langhorne opened a book and stationery business in Independence, which he conducted successfully until after the civil war broke out. Then, like thou- sands of men all over the country, true to the principles in which he had been reared, he closed his store and joined the Confederate


army, entering the ranks as a private. He served as a private until 1863, when he was promoted to the rank of captain, his pro- motion being in recognition of his true bravery on the field. His company-com- pany E, second Missouri cavalry-was de- tailed for escort duty to General Shelby. At the same time, however, it participated in several engagements, among them being Springfield, Prairie Grove, Helena, New- tonia and Westport. On three different occasions Captain Langhorne was wounded. His first wound was by a minie ball in the right leg, this being at Springfield. Later he was again wounded at Springfield, but not seriously like the first time, and his other wound was at Westport.


At the close of the war Captain Lang- horn went to the city of Mexico, where he worked in a printing-office till November, 1865, when he returned to Independence and engaged in the drug business, this occu- pying his time and attention until January, 1872. That year he sold his drug store and established the Independence Herald, which he conducted for several years, or until he was made deputy county marshal and jailer, in which capacity he officiated for six years. In 1886 he was appointed deputy sheriff, the office he has since filled most acceptably.


October 13, 1859, Captain Langhorne married Miss Annie M. Wallace, a native of Independence and a daughter of the late Reuben Wallace, of this county. They have four children, Mary, -John Shelby, Samuel W. and Annie M. Mary is the wife of Mr. William Leitch, of Kansas City, and has four children, -Mary, William B., Virginia F. and Anna W.


The Captain is a member of the Meth- odist church, south.


قيم


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S® AMUEL H. ANDERSON, M. D., a popular physician of the homeo- pathic school of medicine, descends from families long prominent in the profession, as his father and mother's father were physicians of notable ability. He was born in Highland county, Ohio, July 8, 1850, and is a son of Dr. Samuel B. and Nancy L. (Davis) Anderson, natives of Ohio. His paternal grandfather, whose baptismal name was John, emigrated from York, Pennsylvania, to Ohio in the early settlement of that state, where he died. He participated in the war of 1812.


The father of our subject graduated at the Cincinnati Medical College in 1853, and subsequently located in Highland county, Ohio, where he successfully practiced till 1868; then he removed to Lawrence, Kan- sas, where he still resides, engaged in his profession. He is widely known in profes- sional and social circles. For a number of years he was president of the Kansas Homeo- pathic Medical Society.


Dr. Samuel H. Anderson is the eldest of the seven children in his father's family. He was reared in his native county, in the public schools of which he obtained the rudiments of an English education. He subsequently entered the Greenfield Semi- nary, in which he continued his literary course and was graduated. Accompanying his parents to Lawrence, Kansas, he entered the State University, which he attended one year. His inclination to medicine devel- oped in his youth, and his study of the same began when he was ten years old. After completing his literary education he sys- tematically began the study of materia medica under the preceptorship of his father, by whom he was carefully instructed and fitted for medical college, and was graduated


in the Homeopathic Medical College of Missouri, at St. Louis, in 1876.


Returning to Lawrence, he established himself in practice, remaining there until 1881, when he came to Kansas City, where for fourteen years he has continuously oc- cupied the same office. For two years he was professor of surgery in the Kansas City Homeopathic College, and of the same in- stitution he is now professor of obstetrics. He is a member of the Missouri State Homeopathic Medical Society, Missouri Val- ley Society, Kansas City Homeopathic Club, and the Western Academy of Homeopathy, and was identified with the State Medical Board of Kansas for several years.


His library of medical works is large, and in his cabinet is to be found all modern appliances and instruments necessary in the most delicate cases. His practice, always large and lucrative, is assuming still greater proportions, which best attests his success and prominence.


He was married in 1880 to Miss Julia Hostetter, of Kansas.


ELVILLE HULSE. - Of this gentleman, who occupies the in- portant position of city marshal of Independence, Missouri, it may truly be said that he is " the right man in the right place." A brief sketch of his life follows:


Melville Hulse was born in Jackson county, Missouri, August 15, 1846. His father was the late Samuel D. Hulse, a na- tive of Virginia; and his mother, nee Vir- ginia Dickenson, is a Kentuckian. After their marriage they settled in Jackson county, Missouri, where he was engaged in farming up to the time of his death, and


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where he died July 9, 1883. His widow is still living. Their family is composed of four children, namely: Almedia, wife of A. G. Perry, and Melville, Greenville and Arrista.


On his father's farm Melville spent the first fifteen years of his life, and then, equipped with a good common-school edu- cation, he left home to make his own way in the world. Going to Nebraska City, Nebraska, he entered the employ of August and Peter Byram in the freighting business, with whom he remained five years, freight- ing to Salt Lake, Colorado and Mexico. He began as a common teamster and by his faithfulness won promotion to the position of wagon-master, which place he occupied at the time he severed his connection with the firm. Soon after this, November 21, 1867, he was married, in Atchison, Kansas, to Miss Alice Warner, a native of Pennsyl- vania and a niece of the Hon. William H. Warner, of Kansas City. He then returned to Jackson county with his wife and settled on a farm in Sniabar township, where he maintained his residence and gave his at- tention to agricultural pursuits until 1880.


In 1880 Mr. Hulse rented his farm and moved to Oak Grove, where he formed a partnership with John R. McCown for the purpose of buying and shipping grain, and did a prosperous business until November, 1884, when the firm was dissolved. At that time Mr. Hulse accepted a deputyship under W. J. Phillips, marshal of Jackson county, and served as such two years, his duties taking him to Kansas City. In April, 1887, he was chosen marshal of Independence, and has held this office continuously ever . since. His ability as a shrewd detective and his fearlessness in the discharge of his duty especially adapt him for the position


he fills, and such has been his whole course in life that it has won for him the confidence and respect of all. Even the criminal classes who try to evade his clutches cannot fail to admire him for his integrity and his straightforward, manly course. Mr. Hulse has always taken an active interest in all local and political affairs. He is a re- publican.


J OSIAH S. DAVENPORT is one of the most honored representatives of Jackson county's pioneers, having long been connected with the history and development of this locality. His well- spent life well entitles him to representation in this volume, and his example is one well worthy of emulation. For many years he was identified with the agricultural interests of Jackson county, and his careful manage- ment, sound judgment and enterprise have brought to him a handsome property.


Mr. Davenport is a son of Stephen and Susanna (Simmons) Davenport, the former a native of Clark county, Kentucky, and the latter of Estill county. Their marriage was celebrated in Clark county, and in 1832 they emigrated to Cooper county, Missouri, where they spent a year. On the 6th of October, 1833, they arrived in Jackson county, lo- cating on section 26, Westport township. It is almost impossible at this day,'when we look upon the cities and towns of Jackson county, its fine farms and palatial homes, that sixty years ago it was a wild and unim- proved tract of land, the home of far more Indians than white settlers, and the haunt of many kinds of wild animals and game. Of those who were numbered among the neighbors of the Davenport family of that day, none are left; some have gone to other


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localities, but the greater number have made the journey to that undiscovered country from whose bourne no traveler returns.


Stephen Davenport made a permanent settlement in Westport township. He had made the journey from Kentucky to Mis- souri in a wagon drawn by a yoke of oxen, and before he had unloaded his household effects a messenger came to him with the news that the Mormons had risen up against the Gentiles. He at once took his old flint- lock gun and went to section 21, Westport township, where the Mormons were located, and helped to subdue them. Several of the number were killed, and the others were driven away. Mr. Davenport immediately erected a log cabin, and the primitive structure was covered with a clapboard roof, had a pun- cheon floor and many crude articles of furni- ture. Our subject now has in his posses- sion a bureau which was used in the early home of the family, and which was made in Westport by Henry Sager over fifty years ago, from a cherry tree which grew on the old Davenport farm. He also has an old Indian basket made by Ker-Shin-Ga's fam- ily-Kaw Indians-over a half century ago, for which his mother gave half of a hog jowl. It is still in a good state of preserva- tion. Among his other relics is also an old English china pitcher, which was brought from England more than a century ago by the Spillman family, -ancestors on his fa- ther's side.


Stephen Davenport continued the im- provement and cultivation of his land until he was the owner of a very valuable and productive farm. Later he sold out and moved to Washington township, where he died in May, 1883, at the age of eighty-two years. His wife died in 1852, at the age of forty-eight, and he afterward married Mrs.


Margaret Nolen, ncc Starks, whose death occurred in 1881. By his first marriage he had seven children, five of whom reached years of maturity. These were Josiah S .; Amanda, wife of Elijah F. Slaughter, of Washington township, by whom she has seven children, six of whom are now living; James M., who married Martha L. Camp- bell and had three children, and after her death wedded Miss Mary Wide, and by this marriage there was one son; George, who married Susan West and has six children, and lives in Johnson county, Missouri; Elizabeth, wife of H. C. Kritser, of Brook- ing township, by whom she had three chil- dren. The brothers of our subject both served throughout the civil war as a member of Shelby's army, and the elder was slightly wounded. The parents were both active Christian people, the father holding a mem- bership in the Baptist church, the mother in the Christian church. In politics he was an old-line whig and afterward a demo- crat. A man of earnest convictions, he was unswerving in his fidelity to a cause or prin- ciple which he believed to be right, and his honor in business is shown by the little in- stance of the fact that he believed that it took four pecks of new potatoes to make a bushel, and always dealt them out accord- ingly. The upright life of both Mr. and Mrs. Davenport command the respect and confi- dence of all and they had many warm friends.




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