USA > Missouri > Linn County > Compendium of history and biography of Linn County, Missouri > Part 48
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In June, 1887, he was united in marriage with Miss Mollie Melville, of Albany, New York. They have one child, their daughter Lois M., who is the wife of Ray Jones of Topeka, Kansas. All the members of the family belong to the Episcopal church, and are zealous workers for its welfare and advancement. The parents are among the most esteemed citizens of the county, are prominent in all domains of useful- ness for the good of the people, and fine exemplars of Linn county hos- pitality, social culture and elevated manhood and womanhood. They are widely known throughout this portion of the state, and in all places where they have acquaintances they have friends and strong popularity.
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HISTORY OF LINN COUNTY
HENRY CLAY PREWITT
Born with an adventurous disposition, and inheriting from his father a tendency to go about and see something of the world, Henry Clay Prewitt, one of the substantial and influential citizens of Linneus, this county, gratified his desire at an early age, and had a very inter- esting experience in doing it. But he fully satisfied his longing in one venture, and has ever since remained in one locality and been steadfast in his efforts to build that up and develop it to its highest condition in every way, while at the same time pushing his own advancement in a worldly way with all the energy and capacity he possessed.
The place of Mr. Prewitt's nativity was Fayette, Howard county, Missouri, and the date of his birth, June 29, 1835. He is a son of David and Nancy (Turner) Prewitt, and the only one of their nine children now living. The father was born in Halifax county, Virginia, on Decem- ber 21, 1791, and the mother in Madison county, Kentucky, in 1798. The father went with his parents to his wife's native county when he was a small boy, and in his new home he grew to manhood, was educated, and began his career. He and Miss Turner were married in about 1812, and for some time afterward he was in business in that county as a con- tractor.
When he determined to move his family to the Farther West, of which Missouri was then a part, he and his wife made the trip on horse- back, he carrying one of their two children on his horse and she the other one on hers. Their journey through expanses of trackless wilder- ness and the beginnings of civilization in many places was full of inci- dent and interest, but the record of it has not been preserved. They arrived at their destination wayworn and weary, but not otherwise the worse for the long and tedious jaunt. Their household goods were transported down the Ohio and up the Mississippi and Missouri rivers to the point of landing them most convenient to their location, the latter being near Fayette in Howard county, which was then sparsely settled and largely undeveloped.
The father took an active interest in the affairs of the county and was a leading man in building up and improving the portion of it in which the family lived. In 1832 he was elected sheriff of Howard county, and at the end of his first term was re-elected, serving two terms in all. In 1840 he moved his family to Linn county, and here he and his wife passed the remainder of their days. He died in Linneus on December 22, 1873, and the mother in the same place on March 16, 1870.
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Their son Henry was but five years old when the change of resi- dence from Howard to Linn county took place. He obtained his educa- tion in subscription and public schools in this county, remaining at home until he reached the age of seventeen. Then, fired by the excite- ment over the discovery of rich deposits of gold in California, he deter- mined to brave the dangers and hardships of an overland journey to that state in search of a more rapid improvement in his fortunes than he saw opportunity for at home. In accordance with this purpose he joined a company about to start for the land of promise with ox teams, and boldly ventured on the expedition.
The journey consumed five months, the party was attacked several times by hostile Indians, hunger, thirst, weariness and other discom- forts were frequent portions of its experience, and at times the progress was painfully slow and difficult. But the hardy adventurers patiently toiled on, and at length they reached the locality they sought and began operations in search of the golden treasure they had come so far to find. They located and "stuck their stakes" at Eldorado, which was then in Placer county, and Mr. Prewitt remained there four years and three months. He was successful, accumulating about $2,000 in his mining operations, and then came home by steamer down the Pacific, crossed the Isthmus of Panama by such means of transportation as were then available, and continued his journey by water across the Gulf of Mex- ico and up the Mississippi and Missouri to his father's residence, or as near as he could get to it by that route.
The next year, when he was twenty-two, he engaged in mercantile business in Linneus, and he continued in trade in that city thirty-five years. He also took an active part in public affairs, and in 1888 was elected county treasurer. This office he filled two full terms to the entire satisfaction of the people of the county, and with a record highly creditable to himself. He has never been an office seeker, however, and in the case alluded to yielded to solicitation in accepting the nomi- nation and the renomination, because he felt that he might be of service to the county in the office if elected. His political connection is with the Democratic party, and his church affiliation is with the sect known as the Christians.
Mr. Prewitt was married on February 22, 1857, to Miss Mary Frances Hunt, a daughter of Henry M. and Elizabeth (Frazier) Hunt, prominent citizens of Ray county in this state. Six children have been born of the union, three of whom are living: Flora, who is now Mrs. Wood O'Rear, of Linneus; Elizabeth, who married Thomas Atkin-
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son and lives with him at Middlesboro, Kentucky; Maggie, who was the wife of E. A. Corey, of Linneus, both now dead; and Fannie Clay, the wife of Benjamin H. Smith, of Long Beach, Los Angeles county, Cali- fornia. In their several localities all the members of the family enjoy in a marked degree the regard and good will of the people among whom they live and labor.
JOHN C. PHILLIPS
Treading now close upon the verge of four score and ten years of life, and having passed the whole of his existence in this state, John C. Phillips of Linneus is a shining link connecting the present day activ- ities of this region with its primitive life of toil, privation and danger in its pioneer period of struggle, patience, endurance and hope. He saw the region when, clad in the barbaric splendor of the wilderness, it awoke at the voice of high command from its deep sleep of ages and rose to greet its lord, the genius of civilization. He has lived to see it filled with the homes of a prosperous and progressive people, well ad- vanced in the development of its resources, rejoicing in its beneficent civil institutions, and rich in all the essentials of cultivated life. The retrospect of his years may well give him pleasure in the reflection that he has been of service in helping to work out the transformation and bring about the great improvement he is able to see all around him.
Mr. Phillips was born in Howard county, Missouri, on May 31, 1835. His father, Jeremiah Phillips, was a native of Shelby county, Kentucky, where his life began on January 22, 1802, and the mother was of the same nativity as the son. Her maiden name was Jemima Lay, and she was the father's second wife. His first marriage was with Miss Martha Hackley of Howard county, this state, who died in that county in about 1825. She was the mother of four daughters, all of whom are now deceased. The second marriage of the pioneer farmer who helped to open Linn county to civilization, was a fruitful one, resulting in eighteen children and giving the immediate subject of these paragraphs seven brothers and ten sisters. Three of Mr. Phillips' brothers are living; George D., who is a resident of Portland, Callaway county; William J., whose home is in Howard county; and Jeremiah, who lives at Aurora, in Lawrence county. Their mother died in 1861 and their father in 1876. But some years before the death of the latter he contracted a third marriage.
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He first came to Missouri in 1821 on a prospecting tour. At that time he bought some land in Howard county and remained in the state one year. He returned to his Kentucky home, where he passed the next twelve years. In 1833 he came to this state, locating on the land he had previously purchased, and making such improvements on it as he was able to in the four years he spent on it. In 1837 he moved to Linn county and started another Missouri home in the wilderness, building a little log house for himself and his family about two miles north of the site of the present city of Linneus, which had just been indicated as the county seat, but was not declared such with full legal formality until three years later by an act of the legislature passed in December, 1840, legalizing all that had previously been done toward making that town the seat of justice and center of government in the county, includ- ing the change of its name from Linnville to the one it now bears, and under which its history has been developed.
Mr. Phillips bought considerable land in this locality, most of it from the government, and owned 260 acres at the time of his death. He served as county treasurer and later as sheriff and collector of taxes. He was also circuit clerk and recorder for twelve years, his tenure of this office ending in 1861, when he resigned rather than take an oath of allegiance to the government of the United States at that time, the Civil war having begun and his sympathies being with the Confederacy. After his resignation he lived retired until his death. For many years he was an active and devoted member of the Masonic order, and throughout his life a firm and faithful Democrat of the old school in his political faith and allegiance. His father, George Phillips, a native and life-long resident of Kentucky, was of Scotch-Irish parentage, and the son of pioneers in the Blue Grass state.
John C. Phillips was brought to Linn county by his parents when he was but two years old. He grew to manhood on his father's farm and secured what education he could in the primitive schools of the period of his boyhood and youth, when the schoolhouse was a crude log structure furnished with slab benches, and open for the instruction of the aspiring progeny of the surrounding country only during the few winter months of the year. He began the struggle for advancement among men on his own account as a clerk in a store at Milan, Sullivan county, in 1855, where he passed three years, fruitful in valuable ex- perience but meager in financial recompense for his services. While living there and clerking in the country store of his employer he found the great happiness of his life in his marriage, on October 22, 1856, with
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Miss Cynthia E. Sorrell, of Randolph county, a young lady of Ken- tucky parentage and, like himself, a pioneer product of Missouri.
Of the nine children born of this union seven are living: Leonidas C., a resident of Linneus; Eliza, the wife of W. B. Craig, of the same city; Ernest H., who lives in Rock Island, Illinois; William J., who also dwells in Linneus; Sarah E., the wife of Robert Smith, of Brookfield; Maggie M., the wife of George W. Menefee, of Kansas City, Kansas; and Dr. Nova G., who has his home in the same great and growing metropolis. Their mother is still living also, venerable in years and strong in the regard of all who know her.
In 1858 Mr. Phillips came to Linneus to live, having been appointed deputy circuit clerk and recorder. In 1861 he went out of office with his father and began clerking for Prewitt & Combs, dealers in general merchandise, with whom he remained until 1865. Two years later he started a grocery and hardware store of his own, which he conducted until 1875, when he was elected county treasurer. At the end of his term in 1877 he was re-elected, and when his second term closed in 1879 he once more turned his attention to mercantile life, forming the firm of Phillips, Myer & Brinkley for the purpose of carrying on an enter- prise in the general merchandise trade. This enterprise continued with Mr. Phillips as a member of the firm until 1885, and the next year he opened a dry goods store in association with his sons Leonidas, John W. and Ernest, and for ten years thereafter gave the affairs of this his constant attention. In 1896 he retired from all active pursuits, deter- mined to pass the remainder of his days at rest from arduous labor and free from the cares of business as conducted in the rush of our twentieth century life.
Mr. Phillips has been a life-long Democrat in politics, loyal in the support of his party and at all times devoted to its welfare, although not an aspirant for anything in its gift for himself. He and his wife have for many years been zealous and devout members of the Christian church, their connection with it dating from 1865, and their activity in its work for the good of the community being continuous from the start. They are esteemed in all parts of their city and county, and by all classes of the people, as most estimable and worthy citizens, whose years of active effort have been employed for the good of their fellow men and women, and whose record of usefulness fills out the gospel measure, according to their capacity and opportunities, and will live after them, a perpetual benefaction to the community which has the benefit of it in direct results and in the force of its high examples of sin- cere, serviceable and upright living.
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HISTORY OF LINN COUNTY
HENRY BROWN
The native shrewdness, thrift and self-reliant resourcefulness of the Scotch people are well illustrated in the character, make-up and career of Henry Brown, one of the leading merchants of Marceline and senior member of the firm of Brown & Taylor, hardware dealers in that city. He has been a resident of Marceline since 1895, and during the whole of his life in this county has been engaged in the hardware trade. He has prospered in his undertaking, given the community in which he operates a fine example of upright and straightforward merchandis- ing, attained the first rank in business circles in this part of the state, and won the lasting regard and good will of the people of all classes and conditions.
Mr. Brown was born near the village of Stuartfield, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, on December 17, 1858. His parents, George and Mary (Innes) Brown, were of the same nativity as himself, and passed the whole of their lives in the locality of their birth, where they died and were buried at the end of their estimable lives, universally respected and lamented. They had two sons and three daughters, their son Henry being the only one of their offspring who became a resident of the United States.
He was reared and educated in Scotland and learned the hardware business there. But his native land did not seem to offer him oppor- tunities for advancement commensurate with his desires, and he deter- mined, even as a youth, to seek better chances elsewhere. Accordingly, in 1880, when he was twenty-two years old, he came to this country and took up his residence in Chicago. In that city he was employed for a period of fifteen years as stock clerk by the hardware firm of Hibbard, Spencer & Co.
In 1895 he moved to this county and located in Marceline, where he at once founded the Brown Hardware Company, of which he was sole proprietor for a number of years. He then took M. H. Taylor in as a partner, and the firm has since been known as that of Brown & Tay- lor. It occupies a leading place among the business establishments of the city, and is one of the most enterprising and progressive mercantile institutions in this section of the state. The members of the firm know their business thoroughly, the marts of supply intimately and the wants of the community exactly, and they use all their knowledge for the benefit of their patrons and the good of their locality and the territory tributary to their trade in general.
Mr. Brown was married in Nevada, the county seat of Vernon county, Missouri, on January 17th, 1887, to Miss Amelia Miller, a native
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of this state. They have three children: Mary I., who is now the wife of W. G. Ennis; Amelia, who was a student in the Pookville school, and Frances A., who is also attending school. The father has always taken a leading part in the public affairs of the city of his home. He served as an alderman two terms, during which the city water works and elec- tric light plant were constructed. Every interest of his city, township and county has his intelligent attention, and all good undertakings for their welfare have his cordial and effective support. In fraternal life he is a Freemason of the Royal Arch degree, and takes a prominent part in the work of the fraternity in this community. His church connection is with the Presbyterians, and in the congregation in which he holds his membership he is one of the elders. Linn county has no better mer- chant, man or citizen, and none for whom the people have a more ex- tensive or genuine regard. They know his worth and esteem him in accordance with it.
JOHN H. PERRIN, M. D.
Every physician of any practice is called upon to preside over the birth of many a child, but there are not many who, like Dr. John H. Perrin, of Marceline, are called upon to preside over that of a new town. He was on the site before Marceline was laid out, heard its first sound of life, aided at its baptism and helped to bind on its swaddling clothes. He has ever since been one of the watchers over its growth, promoters of its progress, contributors to its enlightenment and substantial aids in every way.
Dr. Perrin was born in Howard county, Missouri, on December 1, 1847, and is a son of William H. and Sarah E. (Winant) Perrin, the former a native of Kentucky and the latter of Boone county, in this state. The doctor's father was born in 1819 and was brought to Mis- souri by his parents in 1821. He grew to manhood and was married in Howard county, and in 1849 moved to Macon county, locating near Callao. When the Mexican war began he promptly enlisted for the con- flict in a Howard county regiment, in which he served to the end of the war.
He was also a soldier in the regular Confederate army under Colonel Bevier in the Civil War, and was discharged after the battle of Lexington, Missouri, on account of illness incurred in the service. In 1868 he entered the ministry of the Baptist church, and remained in it until his death in 1873. The mother is still living. They were the parents of nine children, seven of whom are living, the doctor being the
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only one resident in Linn county. His paternal grandfather, Charles Perrin, was born and reared in Virginia, from whence he moved to Kentucky, and in 1821 came to Missouri, making the journey with teams. He died in Macon county.
Dr. John H. Perrin was educated in the schools of Macon and Chariton counties and by private study. He taught school until 1877, and while doing so studied medicine under the direction of Dr. J. W. Proctor, of Lagonda, Missouri. In 1877 he entered the College of Phy- sicians and Surgeons in Keokuk, Iowa, from which he was graduated with the degree of M. D. in 1878. He practiced at Bynumville, Missouri, until 1887, then came to Marceline, being the first physician to locate in the neighborhood and arriving and taking up his residence here before even a village was started.
From the time of his arrival until now (1912) he has remained here and been engaged in a large and active general practice, but de- voting special attention to diseases and affections of the eye. He has been very successful in his work and is highly esteemed as a physician of extensive and accurate knowledge in his profession, both by his pro- fessional brethren and the people of the county in general, and his practice extends, with his reputation, over large portions of the adjoin- ing counties of Macon and Chariton. Wherever he is known his knowl- edge and skill are appreciated, and his genial nature makes him uni- versally popular.
Dr. Perrin was first married in 1881 to Miss Levina Logan, who died in 1899. They had one child, their daughter Mary H., who is now at home. On September 4, 1907, the father contracted a second mar- riage, in which he was united with Miss Amanda Scherer, a native of Clark county, Missouri, who still abides with him and is one of the most esteemed matrons in the city.
The doctor has served as an alderman of the city from the First ward two terms. He has also served one term in the lower house of the state legislature. He has always taken an earnest and intelligent inter- est in public affairs, and while in the legislature demonstrated his wide and comprehensive knowledge of matters of governmental principle and policy, local, state and national. He applied this knowledge in an effective way for the benefit of his constituents and the people of the whole state.
For a number of years Dr. Perrin has been one of the prominent and influential members of the County and State Medical societies, and in their meetings his counsel has been always considered of high value and been much sought by the other members. He is a Knight Templar
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in Freemasonry, and in church connection is a Baptist, having been a member of the church since 1873. One of the oldest physicians in the county, and with a life of usefulness distinguished for professional suc- cess, civic enterprise and public spirit and uprightness in all relations, it is an evidence of the virtue and intelligence of the people among whom he has so long lived and so effectively labored that he is crowned with their universal esteem, confidence and good will.
WILLIAM E. PARKS
A pioneer resident of Marceline, and now one of its leading busi- ness men, William E. Parks is entitled to double credit for his share in promoting the development and progress of the city, and giving it name, standing and influence in the commercial, industrial, political and social life of the county. He selected it as his residence in its in- fancy, has abode in it during all its subsequent years of advancement, has ministered to the welfare of its people in many ways, and is now providing for their comfort and convenience by conducting one of the best marts of trade within its limits, and aiding in the beneficial realiz- ation of every project undertaken for its enlargement, improvement and adaptation to its rapid growth.
W. E. Parks is a native of McDonough county, Illinois, where his life began on December 2, 1856. He is a son of William H. and Eliza- beth (Crane) Parks, the former a native of Ohio and the latter of Penn- sylvania. The father was a farmer and a son of James Parks, who moved from Ohio to Illinois, where his life ended after a long career of upright living and usefulness as a good farmer and sturdy citizen. His son, William H. Parks, grew to manhood in Illinois, where William E. was born, and while yet a young man moved to Missouri in 1869, locating in Chariton county, six miles south of Marceline. Here he lived on a farm which he improved, remaining until 1892. He then took up his residence in Marceline, where he died in 1906. His widow is still living and is now past eighty years of age. He was a soldier in the Union army during the Civil War, enlisting in Company H, Twelfth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, in 1864, and served until the close of the war.
William E. Parks reached his manhood on the Chariton county farm near Marceline and obtained his education in the district schools, at Brookfield Academy and in the State Normal School at Warrens- burg. After leaving the last named institution he taught school for
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twenty-three consecutive years. He located at Marceline in 1889, one year after the town was laid out, and built a dwelling for himself, which was among the first erected within the limits of the present city after it was founded and started on its noble career of progress and development.
In this same year, 1889, W. E. Parks was married to Miss Ella M. Akers, a Missourian by nativity. They have had five children, all of whom are living: Rowena J., Chelsea C., Addison D., George A., and Ermine J. After his marriage the father continued to teach school for a number of years. He was principal of the Marceline High School from 1896 to 1900, and of the Bucklin school in 1901-1902. In the year last mentioned he began merchandising in the hardware trade, and in this he has ever since been engaged. His store is one of the leading business places in the city, and is conducted according to his rule of the strictest integrity in everything.
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