USA > Missouri > Linn County > Compendium of history and biography of Linn County, Missouri > Part 39
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Mr. Moore has been the inspiring and controlling force in the management of the business, and it is to his business capacity and wide sweep of vision in financial matters that the bank owes its success and its high rank in the business world of this part of the country. He has studied matters of finance with zeal and thoughtfulness, and has become an authority on everything connected with them. He gives his patrons the benefit of his extensive and accurate knowledge on the subject, and they rely with confidence on his judgment. For they know him to be prudent as well as far-seeing, and strictly upright and reliable in all he does and says.
On September 18, 1870, Mr. Moore was united in marriage with Miss Emily F. Mullins. They have three children : Greely, who lives in Linneus; Robert B., whose home is in Independence, Kansas; and Edith, who is the wife of Frederick H. Powers of Kansas City. The father is as well known and as much admired for his public spirit and enterprise in seeking to advance the development and improvement of the city and county of his home and promote the welfare of their people as he is for his high character as a man and his skill and progressive- ness as a banker. The people look upon him as one of their best and most representative citizens and esteem him in accordance with this estimate. They know he can be depended on to do his part toward the successful development of any worthy undertaking for their good, and that their interests, when committed to his care, are safe in his hands, and will have proper attention.
FRED W. POWERS
Entering the military service in defense of the Union soon after the beginning of the Civil War, and just at the dawn of his manhood, first in a provisional command and afterward in the regular service ; taking part in several important engagements during the momentous conflict and also doing great work for the cause he had espoused in the
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domain of construction; then, when "the war drum throbbed no longer, and the battle flags were furled," conducting the operations of a farm with success and profit, Fred W. Powers was well prepared by the nature and variety of his experience for the duties in public office and a business of importance that have since fallen to his lot and required his attention.
Mr. Powers was born in Linn county, Missouri, on May 6, 1841, 3 miles north of Bucklin and is the son of Dr. John F. and Isabel (Brown- lee) Powers, both of whom have been dead for many years. The father was a native of Mahoning county, Ohio, born on October 15, 1814, and the mother's life began on December 25, 1815, in Ayr, Scotland,-
"Auld Ayr, which ne'er a town surpasses, For honest lads and bonnie lasses."
She came to the American continent at an early age and located in Ohio, where she met with and married her husband. He was a physi- cian in active practice in his native state, but longed for a life in the farther West.
Accordingly, early in the year 1841 he voyaged with the family he then had down the Ohio and up the Mississippi and Missouri to Bruns- wick in Chariton county, this state, and from there journeyed overland to Linn county. He took up his residence in a rural community and from then until his death, which occurred in Jefferson City on February 20, 1865, he was engaged in a general practice of his profession in Linn county and those which adjoin it, except during the last six months of his life, when he was in the military service of the country as captain of Company I, of the Forty-second Missouri Infantry, a service in which he offered up his being on the altar of patriotism. His widow survived him a little over four years, dying in this county on April 9, 1869, after having endeared herself to all who knew her, by her sterling woman- hood and genuine worth.
She and her husband were the parents of five children, four of whom are living: Mary, the wife of Noah Caton of Bucklin; Fred W., the immediate subject of this brief review; Leah J., the wife of C. G. Bigger of Marceline; and Dr. Isaac V., of Brookfield. The paternal grandfather, Isaac Powers, was born on Long Island, New York, in 1776, and early in his manhood moved to what was then a part of Trum- bull, but is now Mahoning county, Ohio, where he died in 1863. His wife, whose maiden name was Leah Frazee, died at the same place
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in 1865. The grandfather on the mother's side was Rev. John Brown- lee, a Presbyterian clergyman in Ayr, Scotland, where he died when he was about forty-three years of age. The grandmother on the mother's side died in Linn county, Missouri, about 1842.
Fred W. Powers grew to manhood in Linn county and began his education in a subscription school conducted in the neighborhood of his home in his boyhood. In 1859 he attended Central College at Fayette, Missouri, and in 1861 McGee College at College Mound in Macon county. When he had completed his college course, and was ready to enter upon the active duties of life in his own behalf, he found his country engaged in a terrific sectional war, and felt it his duty to go to the defense of his convictions and the section of the country with which they allied him.
In 1862 he entered the military service, and the next year his com- pany became a part of the Second Provisional regiment, Enrolled Missouri Militia. In the early part of 1864 he joined the Twelfth Missouri Cavalry as second lieutenant of Company L, and in that com- pany he served to the close of the war. He took part in the battle of Nashville, Tennessee, and some other engagements of moment, and after that served as a pontoonier of Wilson's cavalry, especially during the raid made by his daring commander into the country of the enemy. The regiment and the rest of the body of soldiers to which it was attached pushed their way as far south as Macon, Georgia, and when they arrived there in May, 1865, found that the war was over and the cause they were fighting for was won.
Mr. Powers returned to Linn county and followed farming until 1871. In the fall of 1870 he was elected circuit clerk for the county, a position in which he served five successive terms. In the fall of 1891 he moved to Nashville, Tennessee, where he was engaged in an abstract- ing business for two years. At the end of that period lie returned to Linn county, and during the next three years practiced law and did abstracting. In 1896 he was made cashier of the Moore & Mullins Bank of Linneus, and this position he has filled ever since with great credit to himself and advantage to the bank. He also practices law in con- nection with his duties at the bank.
On June 23, 1870, he was married to Miss Annie L. Roberts, a daughter of Morris and Jane Roberts of Linn county, Missouri. Two children have been born of the union, one of whom is living, Fred Harold Powers, who resides in Kansas City. The father is a member of the Masonic order, the Odd Fellows and the Ancient Order of United Workmen.
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ROBERT J. WHEELER (Deceased)
Such a death as that of the late R. J. Wheeler, of Brookfield, least foreseen and soonest over, was that euthanasia, that peaceful and easy departure so much desired by the ancients. The severing of his vital cord came suddenly and was almost, if not entirely painless; and it was not expected by his friends, and seemed not to have been by himself, when it occurred. It is true he was a patriarch in years, and had long been a sufferer from asthma. It is true also that he had shown signs of failing strength and energy. But there was no indication in his case that his end was at hand, and for several days before it came, and even on the night when he reached it he was active and apparently as well as he had been for many months. His final summons came, however, in the twinkling of an eye, and in a few minutes his long, useful and highly creditable career was terminated.
While this occurrence shocked and profoundly grieved the com- munity which had honored him as one of its best and most eminent citizens for almost twenty years, it was in accordance with "the eternal fitness of things." He had lost no time in his busy and productive life, and had always kept his work up to the hour. So there was no un- finished business for his survivors to be troubled with. His house was in order, his record was complete, his work was done, and he could lie down to his long sleep in perfect peace.
Mr. Wheeler was born in Prince Edward county, Virginia, on March 30, 1829; and was a son of Drury N. and Susan E. (Moss) Wheeler, both of the same nativity as himself. The father's life began in 1802 and the mother's in 1807. They were married in 1828 and moved to Missouri in 1831, locating in Chariton county, which then extended to the Iowa line, and the greater part of which was still a wilderness. They were the parents of five sons and five daughters. All are now de- ceased but their son Drury N., Jr., and their daughter, Mrs. Elizabeth Forest. The father died on November 6, 1861, at the age of fifty-nine. The mother survived him twenty-five years, and died at Bucklin in 1886, aged seventy-nine.
Their son, Robert J. Wheeler, obtained only such an education as the primitive schools of the wilderness could furnish, so far as academic instruction was concerned. But he was studious and inquiring, and his bent was in the upward direction, and he amassed for himself, through his own efforts, a considerable fund of general information, especially
ROBERT J. WHEELER
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along practical lines. He was but two years old when his parents brought him to this state, and he remained with them in Chariton county until he attained his majority. In the spring of 1850 he left them and began farming on his own account. He followed this occupa- tion for fourteen years with decided success and profit. In 1864 he sold his two farms and moved to Bucklin in this county. Here he turned his attention to buying and shipping tobacco, of which there was a large quantity raised in Linn county at the time.
The tobacco business was profitable to him, as his farming had been, and as everything he put his hand to seemed to be. But he ad- hered to this line of trade less than a year, and after selling his stock in it, opened a general merchandising establishment in Bucklin, which at once secured an extensive and active patronage and flourished, with augmenting business and profits, as long as he conducted it. He was not free from heavy losses, however. He took no part in the Civil War, although supposed to be in sympathy with the South during that con- flict, and his neutrality made him the prey of the predatory warriors of both sides who infested this part of the country. His store was frequently levied on by partisans of each, and on one occasion he was forced to open his whole establishment to a wandering band and see it robbed of a large quantity of merchandise and $500 in cash taken from his safe. He was also burned out twice at heavy loss and without insurance.
In the course of time he quit general merchandising and confined his operations to handling farm machinery, running a livery stable and dealing in horses, mules and cattle. In October, 1886, he moved to Brookfield and here founded the Wheeler Saving Bank, of which he remained president to the time of his death. He also invested heavily in real estate in Brookfield, and when he died was possessed of fifty or sixty tenant houses in the best part of the city, a number of vacant lots, his block of business houses, including the bank building on Main street, and his fine residence facing the East park, in addition to his interests in the bank he founded.
Mr. Wheeler was married four times, first in 1850, to Miss Louisa F. Brooks. She died in 1852, and the next year he took as his second wife her sister, Miss Martha A. Brooks. They had ten children, six of whom are living: Lou N., now the wife of Harry Markham, of Brookfield; Martha S., James E., William N., Mrs. Fannie A. Stone and Robert L., a banker in Brookfield. Their mother died in 1880, and in 1881 the father contracted his third marriage, in which he was united with Mrs.
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Elizabeth J. Nagel, who died in 1882. His fourth wife, whom he mar- ried in 1883, was Miss Eva Bryan, who is also deceased, having passed away in 1903.
In politics Mr. Wheeler was an old-time Democrat, and, although he frequently served his city and township in official capacities, among them that of judge of the county court, he had no taste for official life. If he had possessed this and sought to gratify it, he might have made a mark in the political world. His party and other parties in his time fre- quently made congressmen and governors of men who did not have a tithe of his natural or acquired ability. But he always preferred busi- ness to politics, and while he thereby lost honors and distinctions he might have won, he also escaped the excessive annoyances of political life.
Mr. Wheeler died at 2 o'clock on Tuesday morning, March 14, 1905. He had been a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, for over fifty years, and his peace with his Maker had long been made and kept. The burial of his remains took place on Thursday, March 16, and was an occasion of solemnity and mourning throughout the city. Rev. J. W. Kimbrell pronounced a tender and touching eulogy on the life and character of the deceased, and Rev. W. C. Atwood, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, spoke eloquently of him as a citizen, a churchman and a Freemason. The Masonic fraternity of the city at- tended in a body and escorted the remains to the train which bore them to Bucklin for interment. The lodge of the order at Bucklin had charge of the services at the grave. Mr. Wheeler was made a Freemason at Westville, Chariton county, Missouri, in 1857. He dimitted to Bucklin Lodge in 1863, and from that to Brookfield Lodge in 1888.
Throughout his long life, and wherever he lived, he contributed liberally to his church, his fraternity and all other worthy agencies at work among the people for their benefit, and did not limit his benefac- tions to his sect in religion, his order in fraternal life, or his personal friends in private relations. But his private charity, although always generous, was at all times bestowed judiciously and on meritorious claims. And it was unostentatious in accordance with the Scriptural injunction. His life and character would have adorned any community, and did adorn several, and he passed into history as one of the best and most useful citizens Linn county ever had, and one of the finest ex- amples of elevated American manhood ever seen by the people of this section of our common country.
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STERLING L. BRADLEY
This esteemed citizen and veteran business man of Linneus has seen life and mingled with men under a variety of circumstances and in widely separated localities. His experience has been instructive in many ways, and aided in qualifying him for success in mercantile life and all the duties of citizenship. He is one of the pioneer druggists of Linneus, having been connected with the trade in that city for over half a century, with an interval of only two years, during which he was in California. He has conducted a drug store of his own for a con- tinuous period of forty years, and throughout that long lapse of time has enjoyed in a marked degree the confidence and good will of the people.
Mr. Bradley is a native of Missouri, having been born in Howard county on August 20, 1843. His parents, William R. and Sarah A. (Colvin) Bradley, were born and reared in Kentucky, and early in their married life left their native heath, which was no longer on the frontier, for a region that still contained most of the features of adventurous pioneer struggling against the wilds of nature and daily peril from the savage denizens of the wilderness, man and beast. They were farmers, and on their arrival in this state located in Howard county. There they partially redeemed a tract of land from the waste, then, in 1853, moved to Linn county, where they began a repetition of their good work in Howard in helping to improve and build up the country. But the father did not live long to advance his interests in this county. He died in 1856, after passing some time in the grocery trade and later keeping a hotel. His wife also died in Linn county.
Alexander Bradley, the grandfather of Sterling, also moved from Kentucky, where he was born, grew to manhood and reared a family, and found a new home in Missouri. He died in Ray county, this state, after some years of laborious farming, which he conducted with varying success, the condition of the country at the time making all agricultural pursuits difficult, dangerous and scant and uncertain in results.
Sterling L. Bradley grew from the age of ten years to man's estate in Linneus, beginning his education in subscription schools in Howard county and completing it in similar primitive schools in Linn county. When his limited facilities for scholastic training were exhausted, he began the battle of life for himself by carrying the United States mails between Linneus and Brunswick, Milan -and Trenton. His routes were long, and were rendered difficult to cover by the rough state of the country, roads and bridges being few, and what there were badly con-
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structed. The way was often beset with danger, too; and there was comparatively little shelter from the rigors of the weather. But in spite of all trials and difficulties he persevered in his work, and made an excellent record in doing it.
In 1859 he entered the drug store of L. W. Clark as a clerk, and during the next two years carefully studied the business under the instruction of that gentleman. He passed the next three years clerking for other merchants, and by the end of that period, the adventurous spirit he had inherited from his ancestors asserted its dominion in a way that could not be resisted. He yielded to its demands, and, in 1864, went to California overland, driving a four-mule team across the plains. The company he was with was not molested by the Indians, and reached its destination in safety.
Mr. Bradley remained in California about two years, then returned to his home by water. On his arrival in Linneus he again found em- ployment as a clerk until 1872, when he started in the drug business on his own account, and since then he has been continuously engaged in it. He has witnessed the subsequent growth and development of this part of the state, and has borne his full share of the labor and sacrifice required to promote its progress. In all undertakings for the advance- ment of his locality he has been one of the energetic and intelligent workers, and his contributions to the gratifying results have been highly appreciated.
On February 13, 1866, he was married to Miss Sarah E. Easley, a daughter of Thornton T. and Almeda (Alexander) Easley, of Linneus. Two children have been born of the union, one of whom is living, Henry T. Bradley, of Chillicothe, in this state. The father is a loyal and de- voted Freemason of the Royal Arch degree, and has belonged to the fraternity since 1867. He has filled all the offices in the gift of his lodge, and is now the oldest member of that organization, which is Jackson Lodge, No. 82. Throughout Linn county and many of those that adjoin it he is well and favorably known as a business man and an excellent citizen, and everywhere he is held in the highest esteem by all classes of the people.
THOMAS B. BOWYER, ESQUIRE
Each human life has in it some element of special interest different and distinct from that of every other human life, and worthy of special consideration. Two facts stand out conspicuously in the history of Thomas B. Bowyer, Esquire, of Linneus, which give it an unusual
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claim on the attention of all observers. He is one of the oldest citizens of the city and was the first white boy born in Linn county. His life began on December 25, 1833, on the bank of Locust creek, one mile and a half southwest of Linneus, where his parents, William S. and Martha (Tyre) Bowyer, then lived.
The father was born in Tennessee and the mother in North Caro- lina. They came to Missouri early in the 20's and located in Howard county; Henry Bowyer, the grandfather of Henry B., being one of the foremost pioneers of that portion of the state. He afterwards moved to Linn county, and here he passed the remainder of his days and ended his life, passing away after a long and creditable record of usefulness, during which he served under General Andrew Jackson in the war against the Seminole Indians in Florida. He was the father of two sons and six daughters, all of whom were forceful in the early life of this county and died among its people.
When William S. Bowyer came to what is now Linn county in the winter of 1831 it was a part of Chariton county. He located his family in a camp on Locust creek where his wife and three small children, and a slave girl, remained six weeks while he returned with his brother Jesse to Howard county for the family of the latter. In the meantime a heavy snow, which was on the ground, melted and swelled the streams to such an extent that it was impossible for anybody to cross them. Mrs. Bowyer, with the aid of her brother, Louis Tyre, then a youth sixteen years of age but a man in spirit and resourceful- ยท ness, guarded the camp and provided for the children through all the hardships and dangers which oppressed the little gathering of lonely wanderers, including frequent visits from the Indian village not far distant, the savages being troublesome in their calls but not hostile in their demeanor. The only annoyance they gave Mrs. Bowyer was their presence and their strong desire to take Ann, the young slave girl, away with them. She was black as ebony and very sprightly in manner and action, and made a great impression on the Indians, who had never seen another person of her race.
As soon as Mr. Bowyer and his brother Jesse returned to the camp with the family of the latter, they entered government land and built themselves log cabins to live in. William Bowyer added to his entry of land until he owned 600 acres, and devoted all his energies to clear- ing, breaking up and farming what he had until the declaration of war against Mexico. Immediately after this he enlisted for the defense of his country under Captain Barbee, and in recompense of his fourteen months service in the army and his valor on several battlefields of the
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war, was given a warrant for land by the government. On this he selected an acreage adjoining that already occupied by his family, and so enlarged his estate.
His marriage with the mother of Thomas B. Bowyer occurred in Howard county, this state, in about 1828, and brought him five children, three sons and two daughters. Two of the children died in infancy, and the oldest daughter has since passed away. The two who are liv- ing are residents of Linn county and Colorado. Their father was a man of adventurous spirit and always on the lookout for some opportunity to do something for the benefit of his family. So, when the melodious voice of California filled the world with its golden music in 1849, he was captivated by the strain. In 1850 he became one of a party of four from Linneus who crossed the plains to the new Eldorado with mule teams and sought their fortunes on the Pacific slope. Mr. Bowyer passed nearly two years in California, but on his way home died of smallpox at Brunswick, less than forty miles from where his family was waiting for his arrival; the end of his life coming in February, 1852. His widow survived him fourteen years, passing away in 1866. His name is still revered in Linn county, where he is considered one of the greatest hunters this region has even known, one of its most typical pioneers, and one of its fairest and most equitable adminis- trators of the law as county judge, a position which he filled with great credit to himself and benefit to the people for a period of eight years during the formative stage of the county's history.
Thomas B. Bowyer, his son, grew to manhood in Linn county and obtained his education in the primitive schools of his boyhood and youth. He began farming on his own account at an early age, starting the development and improvement of a tract of land in the wilderness, as his father had done, and remaining on it until 1902, when he moved to Linneus, where he now has his home. During the Civil War he served four months in a militia company in 1864, engaged mainly in guard duty; but seeing some active field duty in fighting the bush- whackers of the time, who made conditions in his part of the state very unpleasant, and life and property decidedly unsafe.
In October, 1855, he was married to Miss Mary A. Alexander, a daughter of Edmund and Eliza (Phillips) Alexander, esteemed pioneers of Linn county. Of the nine children born of the union, six are living: William, who is a resident of Brookfield; John, who resides in Linneus; Benjamin F., a prosperous Linn county farmer; Emma E., whose home is in Linneus; Minnie, the wife of J. Phillips, of Portland, Oregon; and Nellie K., who is the wife of D. Buckley, of Linn county. Their mother
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