USA > Missouri > Linn County > Compendium of history and biography of Linn County, Missouri > Part 40
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is still living and is held in high esteem by all classes of the people throughout the county, as her husband is, also, and always has been.
He is a Democrat in politics and has at all times been loyal and effective in the service of his party. He has been a justice of the peace during the last twenty years, and has filled a number of other township offices with great credit to himself and substantial benefit to the people. He and his wife, with the other members of his family, belong to the Baptist Church. No man in Linn county is more widely known or more generally esteemed by its people, and none is more deserving of the high regard and good will of its inhabitants. He is a man of fine character, commendable public spirit and elevated and representative citizenship, a genuine type of Linn county's best manhood, sterling in attributes and highly useful in productiveness, a valued force in con- nection with the progress of the county and an ornament to its social life.
HON. EDWARD G. FETTY
(Deceased)
Receiving his summons to his final account suddenly on Saturday morning, December 11, 1909, after a serious illness of only a few hours duration, the death of the late Judge Edward Fetty, of Linneus shocked the whole community of which he had long been one of the most eminent and esteemed citizens, and shrouded it in universal gloom. His health had been frail for several years, and the people of his home city were so accustomed to his condition, in which there seemed to be no change, that his sudden demise came as a great surprise to them, and a corresponding source of profound and sincere grief.
On the succeeding Monday his remains were borne to their last resting place, attended by a large part of the population of the city and many admiring friends of the deceased from other places, and were carefully consigned to the tomb with every manifestation of popular esteem and affection. He had lived among this people forty-four years without a blemish on his public or private life. He had been a farmer, a merchant and a banker in business relations, and in all these lines of usefulness had made conscience his guide and the "golden rule" his code of ethics. He had also occupied an exalted and responsible official position as judge of the county court for two terms, and in the dis- charge of all his official duties, integrity had been his polar star, and had enabled him to hold a straightforward course over every sea, even
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amid the raging tempests of political contention, warmly and heartily supported by his friends and followers, and uncensured by even the most radical of his opponents. Under such circumstances, it was in- evitable that the whole people should lament his death, and that every man, woman and child among them should feel a sense of personal loss in that event.
Edward G. Fetty was born in Marion county, Virginia, now West Virginia, on March 20, 1843, and was a son of Hartley and Catherine (Roberts) Fetty, also natives of that state, who became residents of Sullivan county, Missouri, in 1851. The father was a clergyman of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, and warmly sympathized with the Confederacy during the Civil War. He found the atmosphere around him in his Missouri home uncongenial to his opinions at the beginning of that momentous conflict, and left the state. When "the war drums throbbed no longer and the battle flags were furled," he returned to Missouri and located in Randolph county, where he died at the age of sixty-five years. His widow survived him a long time, passing away at Fayette, in this state, in 1908. They had thirteen children, eight of whom are living, four sons and four daughters, but none of them a resident of Linn county.
Their son, the judge, began his academic training in the schools of his native state and completed it in those of Sullivan county, Missouri, where he located with his parents when he was eight years old. In 1862 he went West, and during the next four years lived in Idaho and Washington. He returned to Missouri in the autumn of 1865, and on February 24, 1866, was united in marriage with Miss Cornelia Schrock, a daughter of Isaac and Charlotte E. (Burns) Schrock, prominent residents of Sullivan county. The young benedict and his bride at once selected Linn county as their future home, and in this county the judge passed the remainder of his days.
For a number of years he was actively and extensively engaged in farming on a tract of very productive and highly cultivated land west of Linneus. In 1888 he was elected judge of the county court from the western district as the candidate of the Democratic party, and at the end of his term was re-elected. In 1891 he moved his family from his farm to Linneus and started an extensive business in the hardware trade. When the Citizens Bank of Linneus was founded in 1905 he was chosen its president, and he was kept in that office to the great advan- tage of the bank until his death. He also served as president of the Linneus board of education and in numerous other public positions with marked ability.
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By the very nature and workings of his mind and character, Judge Fetty was a Democrat in faith and action. He believed in the integrity and common sense of the masses of the people, and at all times cham- pioned their rights and interests. So earnest, so sincere and so capable was he in his advocacy and defense of those rights and interests, that by common consent he was accorded a position of leadership in his party in this part of the state. He also followed the teachings and discipline of the Southern Methodist Episcopal Church in religious matters, and for many years was a member of the congregation of that sect in this city, taking an active part in all its good work and exercis- ing a strong and useful influence in its councils. His membership was serviceable to the church and highly appreciated by all who had the benefit of the activities it put in motion.
While in the West, in his young manhood, Judge Fetty followed mining to some extent and with a fair degree of success. In the hard- ware business his son, Marcus B. Fetty, was associated with him for a number of years. He and his wife were the parents of three children, two sons and one daughter, all of whom are living, as is their mother. The children are: Marcus B., secretary and treasurer of the Superior Hay Stacker Manufacturing Company, of Linneus; Isaac H., who is general manager for the Central Coal and Coke Company, of Kansas City, Missouri; and Edna, the wife of Dr. W. R. Adams, of Linneus.
Marcus B. Fetty, the oldest son of Judge Fetty, was born in Linn county and educated in its schools. He was reared on his father's farm, drew his stature and his strength from its soil, and gained his social prestige and business capacity among its activities. All that he is he has become here, so that in all respects he is wholly a Linn county product and representative. After completing his education, he taught school for three years, then became associated with his father in the hardware trade, adhering to that line of mercantile enterprise until 1903, when he was made secretary and treasurer of the large manufac- turing company with which he is now connected in that official capacity.
Mr. Fetty is also a director of the Citizens bank and connected with other institutions of service to the city and county of his home. While warmly, intelligently and practically interested in public affairs, he is not an active partisan, and has never sought or desired a political office of any kind, although he has served as a member and the president of the local school board in obedience to the urgent wish of the people. He is connected with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Modern Woodmen of America in fraternal relations, and he and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church South. He ren-
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ders the congregation to which they belong excellent service as the superintendent of its Sunday school.
Mr. Fetty was first married in 1889 to Miss C. Eva Wilhite, of Grant City, Missouri, and by this marriage became the father of one child, his daughter Viola. Her mother died in August, 1894, and in September, 1897, the father contracted a second marriage, being united in this with Miss Nellie V. Stephens, a native of Linn county, and at the time of her marriage a resident of Linneus.
COL. E. C. BROTT
Still hale, vigorous and active, although nearly ninety years of age, and still wearing the harness of public office, which was fitted to his form many years ago and has never since been put off, having en- joyed the pleasures of life as a farmer, dared its dangers as a soldier in the Civil War, and dignified and adorned it as a public official in various positions of importance from time to time before he was selected for the one he now holds, and having mingled with men in active pur- suits in three of the great states of the Union and lived in four, Hon. E. C. Brott, the present police judge of Brookfield, has had a very inter- esting and varied career.
Judge Brott was born in Bath, Steuben county, New York, on December 7, 1824. His parents were Martin and Esther (Crandall) Brott, the former a native of New York state and the latter of Hartford, Connecticut. The father was a farmer and local preacher in the Metho- dist Episcopal Church. In 1830 he moved with his family to Medina county, Ohio, where he continued to farm and preach for a number of years. His wife died in that county in 1834. Sometime afterward the father married again, and later moved to Knox county, Illinois, where he died at an advanced age.
By his first marriage he became the father of three sons and one daughter, all dead but our subject; and of a house full of children by the second. Five of his sons were Union soldiers in the Civil War, all entering the service from Knox county, Illinois. He was of German ancestry and inherited from his forefathers all the sterling and service- able traits of character that distinguish the German people and make them so forceful, enterprising and progressive. With real German pluck he encountered all the difficulties of his trying life, and with real German persistency he battled with and conquered them.
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His son, the judge, was reared to the age of nineteen in Ohio, work- ing on his father's farm and as a clerk with a Mr. Royal Hammond in Bath; attending the primitive schools of the period and Smith's Academy in Bath, in the county of Summitt, which adjoins Medina on the east. In 1843, when he was nineteen years old, he bravely set out to make his own way in the world, and took a flight toward the sunset for the purpose. He drove across the country to Knox county, Illinois, making the trip in the winter. It was a journey of near seven hundred miles, as he was obliged to make it, through a country wild for the greater part and but scantily supplied with roads and bridges, and it entailed on him a considerable amount of hardship and some suffering. But his spirit and endurance were equal to the requirements, and he persevered in spite of every difficulty until he reached his destination in safety.
On his arrival in the locality he had chosen for his new home he worked four years as a farm hand and received as part pay for his services eighty acres of land. When he married at the age of twenty- three years he took up his residence on this tract of wild land, which was still rich with the unpruned growth of ages and whose soil was yet virgin to the plow. He broke up his land and converted it into a valuable and productive farm, living on it and cultivating and improv- ing it until 1866, a period of twenty-four years in all. In 1860 he was elected sheriff of Knox county, and served in the office until June, 1862, when he resigned under the fervor of his patriotic devotion to the Union and enlisted as captain of Company E, Eighty-third Illinois Volunteer Infantry. Before the regiment received its baptism of fire he was com- missioned major, and even prior to this he was offered the position of lieutenant-colonel in three different regiments, but declined all the offers in order to remain with his own company.
The first engagement in which the regiment took part was the battle of Waverly, Tennessee, and the next that of the second battle at Fort Donelson, in both of which the Union forces were victorious. After the capture of the fort, Major Brott was placed in command of it by General Thomas. He held this command eighteen months, and was then ordered to conduct a train of supplies to the army at Nashville, Tennessee. In the advance of the Federal troops on Atlanta, Georgia, he was given the command of a brigade as a reward for meritorious service, and remained at the head of that brigade until his return to Nashville.
Then General Thomas again assigned him to the command of Fort
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Donelson in response to a request for this action from several hundred citizens for twenty-five miles in and around the fort. He held this position to the close of the war and performed its duties with eminent satisfaction to the soldiers and people in the neighborhood of the fort and the Federal authorities over him in the field and at Washington. At the close of the war he was mustered out of the service with the rank of lieutenant-colonel, having won his promotion by his gallantry in action and his fidelity in every part of the service in which he was engaged.
When Colonel Brott left the army he returned to Galesburg, Illi- nois, where he was soon afterward appointed deputy collector of inter- nal revenue, and this position he held until 1866, when he moved to this county and bought a farm, which he lived on and cultivated until 1893. He was elected sheriff of Linn county in 1870 and again in 1872, but prior to that time he did considerable construction work for the Han- nibal & St. Joseph Railroad between Cameron and Kansas City.
In 1892 he was appointed a justice of the peace and soon afterward police judge of Brookfield. He has served the people well and wisely, and to their entire satisfaction in this office ever since. His political allegiance is given with unwavering devotion to the Republican party, and he is still active in its service in spite of his advanced age. He has been a member of the Masonic order since 1856, and has ascended its mystic ladder to the degree of Knights Templar, and is also prominent in the Grand Army of the Republic.
Judge Brott was married in Illinois on February 15, 1848, to Miss Frances Vickery, a daughter of Ebenezer and Esther K. (Sheldon) Vickery, old residents of Tompkins county, New York, where Mrs. Brott was born. She died on July 19, 1887, and all but three of her seven children are also dead. The three who are living are: Edwin B., a resident of the state of Nebraska; Katharine, the widow of the late W. H. Truax, whose home is in Delaware; and Susan E., who is the wife of J. V. McCune and lives in Brookfield.
Farmer, soldier and judge, this venerable patriarch has contributed to the success and advancement of American institutions and the glory of American manhood in three of the great fields of endeavor and sources of our strength, security and progress. He has lived worthily and serviceably among this people for nearly half a century, and now there is not one of them that does not do him reverence. If challenged to show a fine specimen of their manhood the people of Linn county might well point to Judge Brott and say, "Where can his superior be found ?"
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LORENZO S. BOWDEN
This venerable pioneer merchant of Brookfield, who has passed the limit of human life as fixed by the psalmist, and is now retired from active pursuits, furnishes in his long and fruitful career a fine example of the value of industry, frugality and enterprise, in the business suc- ces he has achieved, and of the worth of upright living and useful citi- zenship, in the universal esteem in which he is held.
Although not a native of the United States, he has lived in this country and in Brookfield forty-six of the seventy-three years of his life, and has become thoroughly devoted to its interests and its institu- tions. He was born in Bradford, Yorkshire, England, in 1838, and is a son of John and Elizabeth Bowden, also natives of that country, and belonging to families resident for many generations among its people and drawing their stature and their strength from its soil.
Mr. Bowden grew to manhood and obtained his education in his native land, and after he left school learned his trade as a stairway builder there, serving an apprenticeship of five years at the craft and mastering it thoroughly in all its details. In 1859 he came to Canada and located in Montreal, led to this continent by the persuasive voice of the New World which was pleading for volunteers in her great army of conquest over the wilderness and industrial development.
He remained in the Dominion until 1865, then crossed the line into the United States, and being determined to try his fortune in some por- tion of the country's undeveloped interior, came to Missouri and took up his residence at Brookfield. Here he wrought zealously and profit- ably at his trade of general carpenter work three years, then turned his attention to another branch of productive industry, engaging in cabinet making and merchandising in furniture. He adhered to these lines of useful endeavor until 1892, when he sold his business to his son, Rich- ard N. Bowden, and retired to a life of relief from all business cares and active toil.
He did not, however, give up his hold on all his sources of profit or sever his connection with the business world altogether. He is still a stockholder in the Linn County Bank and interested in other institu- tions of value in the commercial and industrial life of his community. Neither did he lose interest in the public affairs of his city and county, or forbear his energetic and effective efforts to promote their develop- ment and improvement. He has served as alderman and acting mayor of Brookfield, and in many other ways contributed to the substantial and enduring welfare of the people in his locality.
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In political faith, with reference to national affairs, Mr. Bowden is a Republican and loyal in his devotion to the good of his party. But he has never been an active partisan or felt any desire for political office, only consenting to serve in the ones he has held at the behest of his friends who wished through his wisdom, public spirit and devotion to the public good to secure the welfare of the city. In fraternal life he has for many years belonged to the Masonic order and the Order of Odd Fellows, and in religious connection to the Congregational church.
He has been successful in business, acquiring a competency by his capacity and industry, and very useful as a citizen, winning a high and permanent place in the regard of the people around him by his sterling manhood, unwavering integrity and faithful performance of every duty in public and private life. No man in Linn county is more highly or more universally esteemed, and none is more deserving of the good opinion and confidence of its inhabitants. His day has been one of toil and many trials. Its evening is calm and benignant, filled with the retrospect of years well employed, duties faithfully attended to and services to his fellow men cheerfully rendered. It is also crowned with the cordial good will of the people among whom he has lived and lab- ored, and to whom his presence, his nativity and his example liave been full of benefit.
Richard N. Bowden, his son and successor in business, who is still conducting successfully the mercantile enterprise he founded, was born in Canada on August 12, 1860, and came to Brookfield with his parents. He grew to manhood in this city and obtained a limited education in its public schools, his period of opportunity in this respect being short, as duty called him into business at the age of thirteen. In 1892, as has been stated, he bought his father's establishment, and since then has so managed it that he has made himself one of the leading merchants in this part of the state in his line.
He also has taken an active interest and a leading part in the development of the city and county of his home, giving attention in a practical and serviceable way to every undertaking designed to pro- mote the welfare of the people and augment the industrial, commercial, intellectual, moral and social power of his community. He was elected mayor of Brookfield in 1898 and served four years. During his second term ir the office the paving of the city streets was begun through his productive influence and admirably carried forward under the impulse of his enterprise and fine executive ability and his superior business capacity.
Fraternally Mr. Bowden is a Freemason, an Odd Fellow and a
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member of the Order of Elks. He is devoted in his loyalty and very helpful in his services to his lodges in these fraternities, and in social circles is accounted one of the leading men in the city. In 1889 he was united in marriage with Miss Vina B. Ives. They have three children, two sons and one daughter, all of whom, like their parents, are held in the highest esteem throughout the city, in all parts of the county, and wherever else they are known.
BERNARD J. C. BETTELHEIM
(Deceased)
With Romance playing its fantastic tints around his birth; with the danger of privation and violence overshadowing his childhood; with this period of his life leading somewhat along the points and pinnacles of great affairs where History holds her splendid march; with a ship- wreck and a rescue at sea on his way from the Orient to this country; with a residence of three years in one of the great states of the Ameri- can Union and one of ten in its rival for supremacy among our com- monwealths; with forty-two years of active, practical business experi- ence in Missouri, and with Tragedy standing warder at his death and demanding its grewsome toll in the awful suddenness of that event- with all these varying threads running through its warp and woof, the life story of this late lamented business man and citizen of Brookfield is one of unusual and thrilling interest.
Mr. Bettelheim was born on November 11, 1845, on board the Wil- liam Jardine, an English sailing vessel bound from London to Loochoo Island, Japan. His father, Bernard Bettelheim, was a native of Hun- gary, and a man of great learning. He was a graduate of the medical department of the University of Leipzig, Germany, and was sent to Japan in the interest of several London merchants to promote the silk industry. Being a devout and enthusiastic Christian, he also deter- mined to do missionary work among the people of the island to which he was sent. His wife, whose maiden name was Elizabeth M. Barwick, was born and reared in England.
On their arrival at Hong Kong the parents had their infant bap- tized according to Christian rites, and named him Bernard James Gutz- luff Bettelheim. The activity of the father became offensive to the authorities of the island and he was thrown into prison, where he lan- guished until released through the mediation of Commodore Perry, the commander of the historic American fleet which opened the ports of
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Japan to the trade of the world. Notwithstanding his imprisonment, the father acquired great influence over the natives at his station. He mastered their language and preached the gospel to them in their native tongue, and he also ministered to them when they were ill, and this dual service gave him a strong hold on their veneration and affection.
During Commodore Perry's stay at the island the doctor was of great service to him as an interpreter, and through the commodore's friendship secured a safer footing with the authorities and greater freedom in his missionary work. After a residence of nine years in his Oriental home he brought his family to this country, taking passage on a sailing vessel bound for New York. It took nine months to make the voyage, and near the end of it the ship was wrecked in the neighbor- hood of the Bermudas. No lives were lost, however, and the Bettel- heim family reached its destination in safety, and lived in New York three years thereafter.
At the end of the period mentioned the family moved to Pontiac, Illinois, and after living there ten years, came to Brookfield in 1868. Here the father died in 1870 and the mother in 1873. As is not unusual with the people of his native land, the doctor was an accomplished lin- guist, being able to speak and write fluently in twenty-six different languages at the time of his death. He was also a gentleman of fine social culture, high character and a stern sense of duty which made him very zealous in everything he undertook to do. The people of this country respected him highly, and in all the relations of life he proved himself worthy of all the regard they bestowed upon him.
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