USA > Missouri > Linn County > Compendium of history and biography of Linn County, Missouri > Part 28
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HISTORY OF LINN COUNTY
WILLARD WOLFE
Having devoted the whole of his life from his youth to farming, and made a study of the business in all its bearings, Willard Wolfe, of Brookfield township, has become a master of his occupation and one of its best representatives in Linn county. Side issues have never diverted him from his main purpose, and his devotion has therefore been wholly given to that; and, as he has looked upon it as his work for life, he has been energetic and thoughtful in his efforts to secure the best returns for his labors and make his farm yield up its full tribute of productive- ness in obedience to his masterly and persuasive hand as a husbandman.
Mr. Wolfe is a native of Knox county, Illinois, where his life began on March 16, 1870. He is a son of Warren and Sarah E. (Buck) Wolfe, and a brother of Frank M. Wolfe, postmaster of Marceline, in a sketch of whom to be found in this volume, the family history is given. He was but four years old when the family moved to this state, and as he grew to manhood, was educated, married and has passed all his mature years in Missouri, he is practically a Missourian, and is as devoted to the institutions, the people and the enduring welfare of the state of his adoption as he ever could have been to that of his birth.
No worthy undertaking involving the good of his township or county, or the benefit of their residents ever goes without his active and effective aid. No public interest of any kind in his locality fails to en- gage his attention and his energetic service in its behalf, and no mental, moral or social agency at work among its people for their betterment lacks his cordial and serviceable support. He is a public spirited citi- zen, even though a modest one, and the residents of the county warmly esteem him as such, in as great measure as they admire him as an ex- cellent and representative farmer, whose work is a credit to the whole region in the midst of which it is carried on.
Mr. Wolfe was married on March 29, 1893, to Miss Lila J. Cnr- tis, a daughter of T. J. and M. C. (Witt) Curtis, residents of Linn county for over fifty years. Eight children have been born in the Wolfe household, and all of them are living. They are: Inez, Jasper, Elmer, Earl, Ethel, Otis, Ralph and Grace. To the present time (1912) the family circle is unbroken, as all the children are still living under the shelter of the parental rooftree.
In politics Mr. Wolfe votes with the Republican party and works for its success, but he is not an active partisan with any desire for the rewards of party service in the way of public office. He is a Republican
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from the firm belief in the principles of the party, and works for it on the conviction that its supremacy would be the best thing for the county, the state and the nation, and in their welfare he is always deeply and intelligently interested. He and the members of his family are well and favorably known in all parts of the county and enjoy the good will and respect of all its people of every class and condition, which they fully deserve from every point of view and in reference to all the rela- tions of life.
JONATHAN KNIGHT
From his boyhood this enterprising, progressive and successful farmer of Clay township, in this county, has been connected with the agricultural industry, and his zeal in it has been exhibited in four of the great commonwealths of the American Union. He was trained to it, has found it agreeable, has made it profitable, and has never sought any other occupation. And by studious attention to the needs of his calling and intelligent study of the land on which he exercises it, he has risen to high rank in it in this part of the country, and established himself in the judgment of the people around him as one of its ablest exemplars.
Mr. Knight was born in Washington county, Pennsylvania, on June 23, 1840, and is a son of William and Hannah (Fisher) Knight, also natives of that state. The father was born there in 1810, and grew to manhood there, obtaining his education in the district schools and at Wainsburg College. He was a Quaker in religious belief and belonged to families long connected with the branch of the Christian Church in which he held his membership. He farmed in Pennsylvania until 1863, then moved to Mahaska county, Iowa, where he bought a farm which he cultivated many years. He died in Oskaloosa in that county in 1897, having outlived by seven years his wife, who passed away in 1890. They were the parents of four sons and three daughters. Four of the seven are living, but Jonathan is the only one of them who resides in this county or the state of Missouri.
His paternal grandfather, whose name was also Jonathan Knight, was for a long time a farmer in Washington county, Pennsylvania, and was chief engineer of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, where he died well advanced in years. He was a son of Able Knight, an Englishman by birth and for some time a resident of the island of Newfoundland, where he was a cod fisherman. From there he moved to Pennsylvania and turned his attention to farming, and in this occupation he passed the remainder of his life, dying at a good old age in Pennsylvania.
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His son Jonathan, grandfather of Jonathan Knight of this sketch, was well educated and became a man of prominence and influence in Pennsylvania, representing his Pennsylvania district in the Congress of the United States in 1858 and 1859, or the term embracing those years, which was the stormy period, or breaking out of the Civil War.
In the national House of Representatives he had good standing, but he did not remain long enough to make a record of imposing character, for that takes time. It is set down to his credit, however, that he was always true to his convictions and faithful to his duty in every parti- cular.
Jonathan Knight of our day and Clay township, like his father, grew to manhood and obtained his education in his native state. He began life for himself as a Pennsylvania farmer, but feeling a strong attraction toward the West, moved to Illinois in 1862, when he was twenty-two years old, and the next year changed his residence to Iowa. In 1877 he came to Linn county, Missouri, to live, and bought the farm which is now his home. He has improved this place considerably, put- ting up good buildings and fences, and by skillful cultivation has brought it forward to a high state of productiveness, besides making it attractive in appearance and condition.
On April 23, 1862, Mr. Knight was united in marriage with Miss Evelin B. West, a daughter of Edward and Mary (Neblic) West, whose family history is given in a sketch of Henry West to be found elsewhere in this work. Mr. and Mrs. Knight have four children, all daughters and all living. They are: Mary H., who resides at Utica, Livingston county, Missouri, and is the wife of J. Cady; Jennie E., the wife of W. R. Kent, whose home is near Osgood, Sullivan county, this state; Nora, who is a resident of Linn county and the wife of S. C. Kohn; and Alice E., who married Prof. W. L. Cochrane, who has been superintendent of several city schools and lives with him at Aberdeen, South Dakota.
Mr. Knight has followed general farming and confined his attention to that except what little he has given to raising live stock on a small scale. He has always been deeply interested in the welfare and progress of his township and been one of its most useful and enterprising citizens in reference to public improvements and all other forms of development. He, and the members of his family, belong to the Cumberland Presby- terian Church (he being an elder). They all take an active and helpful interest. He is well and favorably known in all parts of the county, and all over it he is highly respected as a good man, a progressive farmer and an excellent and steadily useful citizen.
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DR. HAMILTON DeGRAW
(Deceased)
By the death of the late Dr. Hamilton DeGraw there passed into the history of Brookfield and Linn county the record of their oldest citizen and the achievements of their most remarkable business man, financier and genuine philosopher. What he accomplished for the benefit of his home city and county in the way of development and improvement are part of their imperishable legacy from the past. The example of elevated and progressive citizenship, broad public spirit and unwavering domestic virtue which he gave the people of this region has enshrined his memory in their hearts, to live ever among them in perpetual vigor and fragrance, an incitement to generous en- deavor, a watchword to the faithful, a stimulus to the flagging, an encouragement to the struggling and a bounteous benefaction to all.
Seldom, if ever, has the pen of the biographer a more engaging theme than the life story of a good citizen who has grown old in the service of the people around him, and has lived to see the fruit of his labors in their prosperity and happiness, and the established success of valued institutions, to whose creation and development he has essen- tially contributed. Such a theme is presented in the career of the late Dr. Hamilton DeGraw, of Brookfield, who passed from the scene of all earthly activity on Thursday morning, February 1, 1912, at the age of ninety-five years, one month and six days, with all his faculties clear and every mental and moral force vital and energetic until the day before his dissolution came.
Dr. DeGraw was a resident of Brookfield continuously from 1867 to the time of his death. He located in that part of the county, in fact, six years prior to the founding of the city, which took place in April, 1873, and during his long life in the locality there was scarcely a day in which he was not busy planning or executing some undertaking for the progress of the region and the enduring welfare of its resi- dents. For his mind was very alert and active, the sweep of his vision was wide, his resourcefulness was comprehensive and his ideals were lofty and humanitarian. When he came to Linn county the whole region was largely still a wilderness, but he seemed to anticipate the future affluence of empire that was to distinguish it and hear in fancy the tramp of legions yet to march in and occupy and make the most of it; and all his projects were designed and his energies employed to further all movements tending toward its present high state of development.
Hamilton De Grace
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HISTORY OF LINN COUNTY
Dr. Hamilton DeGraw was born in Rockland county, New York, on Christmas day, 1816. During his boyhood his parents, who were in very moderate circumstances, moved to New York city, and there the doctor was reared and obtained his academic education in private schools. Soon after completing this he began the study of medicine to prepare himself for the profession he had chosen as his life's work, and which he so long and so conspicuously adorned. For two years he pursued his professional studies in the office of Dr. Robert Nelson, of New York, and then passed one year in the medical department of the state university, and one at the College of Physicians in Albany, the state capital, from which he was graduated with the degree of M. D. in 1840. Here, then, came one of the pathetic incidents of his life. He had nothing in the way of worldly possessions as equipment for his advancement among men but his medical diploma, and was forced to borrow money with which to get back to his home. But the incident did not discourage him. It only stimulated his zeal and made him more determined than ever to make a successful career, which he felt within him he had the power to work out as well as the will to use that power for the purpose.
After his return home the doctor practiced his profession a few years in New York city, then abandoned it as a regular practitioner, although he never lost his love for it and always took a great and helpful interest in its advancement and that of the science which it represents. He had heard, however, the voice of great Nature calling her child to the field of labor for which she had designed him, and pointing him to a then distant portion of the country as one in which his services were greatly needed, and in which he could make them of great advantage to it and himself as well.
In 1856 he came to Missouri and Linn county to live, traveling from New York to Chicago and Quincy, Illinois, by rail, and from Quincy to Linneus by stage. In 1867 he moved to Brookfield, and there he passed the remainder of his days. Soon after his location at Brook- field he started the banking house of H. DeGraw, with himself as president, and his brother, the late Maj. W. H. DeGraw, as cashier. In 1882 he organized the Linn County Bank, to which he transferred the business of the DeGraw bank, and of this new institution Judge W. H. Brownlee was made president and Major DeGraw was continued as cashier. About twenty years later the Brownlee Banking Company was organized and Dr. DeGraw once more took charge of the Linn County Bank as president. He remained at the head of the bank for
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about ten years and then, feeling somewhat the weight of years, he retired.
Dr. DeGraw was married in Hannibal, Missouri, in 1868, to Miss Mary P. Dick, who is still living. Two children were born of their union, their son Richard X., who, also, is living, and their daughter Myo, who died in childhood some thirty years ago. To all the inter- ests of his family the doctor was sedulously attentive at all times. He had the courtly gallantry of the olden time toward his wife, and it was not a manner assumed, but flowed from his genuine and ever continu- ing affection, and was born of the sincere gentility of his nature. His treatment of his children, while impelled and guided by a high sense of duty, was yet full of the most tender solicitude for their comfort, happiness and enduring welfare.
The venerable man whose life story is here but briefly and imper- fectly narrated lived fifty-five years in Missouri and nearly half a century among the people of Brookfield, and of all the men, women and children who knew him in his later years, there was not one who did not do him reverence. Living to near the century mark in years and being when he died so universally honored and revered, he could not but know how well the people among whom he had passed so long a period of usefulness esteemed him. He survived his own wake, so to speak, and overheard the judgment of posterity. While his course in life did not lie along the points and pinnacles of great affairs where History holds her splendid march, he discharged with fidelity and zeal and cheerfulness every public and private duty, and thereby contrib- uted most directly and essentially to the welfare of his city and his fellowmen of every class and condition. The record he made and the example he gave will for generations to come be an inspiration to the young men of the community, and will teach them, while it incites them to action, that the best basis of true personal and lasting regard is high character, upright living and faithful attention to every claim of exalted, self-reliant and useful citizenship.
BENJAMIN F. THOMAS (Deceased)
The sudden and tragic death of this well known and highly estecmed citizen and progressive and successful farmer of Linn county on June 30, 1909, at the early age of forty-six years, threw the whole township of nis residence into gloom and gave a shock to many persons in all parts of Linn county. On the date given, he was killed by a stroke
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of lightning, a disaster that ended a life serviceable at the time and full of promise of far greater usefulness. For he was in full vigor, physi- cally and mentally, and his plans for greater advancement and more considerable undertakings were just reaching their maturity.
Mr. Thomas was born in Linn county on April 18, 1863, and passed the whole of his life in this county. He was a son of John L. and Marjery Jane Thomas, natives of Illinois. They came to this county in 1855, and here the father took up a tract of wild land and made an excellent and valuable farm of it, remaining here until his death, which occurred in 1901. His widow is still living and now resides in Colorado. They were the parents of six sons, four of whom are living. The father succeeded in his operations in this county, and at his death was well- to-do and held in high regard in all parts of the county. He was a prominent and very devout and zealous member of the Baptist church.
His son Benjamin was reared and educated in this county, and when he began the battle of life for himself entered it in the occupation of a farmer, to which he had been well trained on the parental homestead. He never had or sought any other employment, but continued farming until his death, making steady progress from a small beginning and ris- ing all the time in the confidence, approval and esteem of the public.
Mr. Thomas was married on February 17, 1885, to Miss Mattie Bow- yer, a daughter of L. F. Bowyer and a descendant of one of the first families to locate in Linn county. The progenitors of the branch of the family that has lived in this county from the dawn of its history, Will- iam and Jesse Bowyer, with the family of the former, located on Locust creek in January, 1832, having come to this locality from Howard county. Soon afterward the men returned to Howard county and brought up the family of Jesse Bowyer. The first white child born in Linn county was Thomas Benton Bowyer, a son of this William Bowyer and his wife, whose maiden name was Martha Tyre, and the first female child born in Locust Creek township was a daughter of William Bow- yer's brother Jesse. Mrs. Thomas is a direct descendant of the William Bowyer here alluded to.
Mr. and Mrs. Thomas were the parents of four children, all of whom are living: James F., Bertie F., Claude B. and Nellie M. Their mother is living also and still occupies the farm improved by her husband. She has managed it with skill and good judgment since his death, kept up the improvements with energy and carried on all its operations with the same vigor and success that he displayed. She and her children are among the most enterprising, public-spirited and progressive residents
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of the township, and the people throughout its extent and in many other parts of the county hold them all in the highest esteem for their excel- lent characters, upright lives, cordial interest in the welfare of their home region, and genuine usefulness and worth in every way and in connection with every interest of the people living around them.
JOHN M. JONES
This successful merchant and former prominent and esteemed school teacher, who is one of the leading citizens of New Boston, Baker township, is a native of Linn county and has passed the greater part of his life to the present time (1912) within its borders. He was born at Bottsville, now Meadville, Linn county, Missouri, or near that town, on April 8, 1855. He has passed nine years of his life in Macon county and seven in Grundy county, but all the rest have been spent in Linn.
He is a son of Hardin and Susan J. (Yates) Jones, natives of Missouri and Kentucky, and they came to this county in 1852. The father was a farmer in both Howard and Linn counties. He was born on July 27, 1824, in Boone county, Missouri, and died on his Macon county farm in 1892. He was a Democrat in political faith and be- longed to the Christian Church in religious fellowship. His parents, Christopher and Martha (Yates) Jones, came to Boone county in 1819, from the old Kentucky home of the family in the long, overland and oftentimes dangerous journey to the land which held out great promises of prosperity.
His father, Christopher Jones, commonly called "Kit Jones," came to the state first in 1818 and selected a home for his family in Boone county. He then went back to Kentucky for the other members of his household and soon had them located on the tract of wild land he had secured for his future use, improvement and enjoyment. He lived on the farm he cleared and improved until his death, which occurred in 1867. He also belonged to the Democratic party and served it loyally from the dawn of his manhood. In religious connection he was a Baptist.
He was born in Kentucky in 1796, and was therefore seventy-one years of age when he died. The mother, that is, the grandmother of J. M. Jones, was born in 1800 and died in 1884, at the age of eighty-four. They were married in 1819. Their son Hardin Jones, when he left home, took up his residence in Howard county, where he remained until 1852, when he moved his family to Linn county, as has been stated. Of the
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five sons born to his parents, one of his brothers is the only one now living. He owns and cultivates the old family homestead in Boone county. There were also four daughters in the family, and all of them also are deceased.
J. M. Jones is one of seven children born in his father's household, five of whom are living; the other four being his brothers Robert W., Milton S., Christopher H. and Mrs. Corena F. Howard. He was reared on his father's farm in this county, and after completing his education taught school for a number of years. He was engaged in teaching school from 1874 to 1882, and then turned his attention to merchandising. In 1885 he sold his business and again taught school until 1887. In that year he once more entered mercantile life, and in this he has been actively engaged ever since.
While teaching in the winters of 1874 and 1875, Mr. Jones pursued special courses of training at the Kirksville State Normal School during his vacations. He is connected with the Christian Church in religious affiliation, with the Masonic order fraternally and with the Democratic party in politics. In each of these organizations he takes an earnest interest and in all their proceedings he is an active participant. He is devoted in his loyalty to them all and at all times ready and willing to render them any service in his power.
On December 28, 1876, Mr. Jones was united in marriage with Miss Fannie Davis, a native of Linn county born on March 2, 1858. Her parents moved to Macon county in her girlhood, and for a number of years she had her home in that county, and it was there Mr. Jones be- came acquainted with her and they were married. They have three children: Susan, who is now the wife of Dr. W. W. Ellis, of Marceline; Harvey V., one of the two sons, who resides in Bucklin; and Elmer O., the other son, who is a law student in state university in the city of Columbia, Missouri. The wife and mother is still living.
Mr. Jones takes an unusually warm interest in the progress and further development of the township and county in which he lives, and supports with ardor and intelligence all worthy undertakings for their improvement and the substantial and enduring welfare of their resi- dents. He is a gentleman of influence, and is useful to the county not only by what he does himself, but also through the forces awakened and put to work by the force of his example. The people of Baker town- ship look upon him as one of their best and most representative citizens, and this estimate is the one placed upon him generally throughout the county.
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THOMAS D. EVANS
Born of a military family and a direct descendant of a soldier in the Revolution and a soldier in the War of 1812; himself a member of the state militia during the Civil War and taking part in several of its lighter engagements; filling several important civil offices with credit to himself and advantage to the people, and for a period of forty-three years engaged in cultivating his Parson Creek township farm, which is still his home, Thomas D. Evans has a fine family record and has him- self been a man of great usefulness to Linn county and is held in the highest esteem for the services he has rendered and the high character, fidelity to duty and elevated citizenship he has always shown.
Mr. Evans was born in Madison county, Kentucky, on September 6, 1844, and is a son of William and Paulina (Cornelison) Evans, also natives of Kentucky. The father was a farmer and during the Civil War adhered to the side of the Union, although he had a brother in the Confederate army under General Sterling Price. Another of his broth- ers was killed in the Mexican War. He and his wife both died in Linn county. They were the parents of four children, two of whom are living.
The grandfather, John G. Evans, served under General William Henry Harrison in the War of 1812, and took part in many of the battles of that second conflict with the mother country, especially those against the hostile Indians. The great-grandfather, Edward Evans, was a Vir- ginia planter of prominence in the early history of the state and its later colonial history. When the war of the Revolution began he went promptly to the front in defense of freedom and independence of Great Britain, under the command of Washington, and continued in the strug- gle until victory crowned the American arms through the genius of the great captain at their head and the loyalty, heroic courage and patriotic ardor of the troops which he commanded. The family is of Welsh de- scent, five brothers coming from Wales to the United States in colonial times. Two of them settled in Virginia and the other three in Tennesee and Kentucky.
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