USA > Missouri > Linn County > Compendium of history and biography of Linn County, Missouri > Part 60
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Within the same year, 1889, he located at Marceline and entered upon his practice, and here he has lived and labored in his professional wor). ever since. His business has grown to extensive proportions and his reputation has expanded and risen as his practice has increased. The first political office he held in Linn county was that of city attorney of Marceline. In 1908 he was chosen to represent the county in the lower house of the legislature, and in 1910 was elected senator from the sixth senatorial district, an office which he is now filling with great benefit to the people of the whole state and decided credit to himself.
In the one session of the senate which he has attended he was chairman of the committees on constitutional amendments and federal relations, and a member of the committee on the judiciary, the com- mittee on labor and other important committees. It is on record that he was regular and prompt in his attendance at the meetings of he senate and the various committees to which he was assigned, that he took an active part in committee work and the proceedings of the sen- ate, and that he was always heard with attention and approval in both. He has a wide and accurate knowledge of public affairs, state and national, is well versed in parliamentary law, has great force and fluency
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as a speaker, and is everywhere known to be reliable in his statements and true as steel to any cause he favors.
In his political faith and alliance Senator White is a Democrat of firm conviction in the principles of his party and entire loyalty to them. He is an energetic worker for the candidates of his party in all cam- paigns and one of the most effective campaigners it has in this part of the state. In fraternal relations he is connected with the Masonic order, the Order of Elks and the Modern Woodmen of America. His interest in the progress and improvement of the county has always been warm and manifested in substantial work of value both in its wis- dom and its volume. He is one of Linn county's best lawyers, most representative citizens and most esteemed men. On April 6, 1893, he was united in marriage with Miss Carrie E. Wolcott, a native of Scot- land county, this state. They have one child living, their daughter Ruth W., who is still at home with her parents. Mrs. White shares fully in the general esteem and popularity which her husband enjoys, and in every sense, both are worthy of it all.
ARTHUR K. COATES
The youngest of the three Coates brothers, who are prominent farmers and influential citizens of Parsons Creek township, this county, and the only representative of a large family who now live in the county, Arthur K. Coates exhibits in his daily life all the traits and characteristics of elevated manhood and progressive citizenship that have distinguished his house for many generations, and have given it high standing and general public approbation wherever it has been known.
Mr. Coates, like his brothers, Edward R. and Mark G., sketches of whom are published in this history, is a native of Caroline county, Vir- ginia, where his life began in March, 1861. He is a son of John B. and Elizabeth J. (Rouzie) Coates, whose life story is briefly recorded in the sketch of his brother Edward. He came with the rest of the family to Missouri in 1877, after the Civil War had wasted all the substance of the household and here he attained his manhood and began the battle of life for himself as a farmer, following the occupation of his fore- fathers since the advent of the family in this country.
He continued farming in this county until 1888, then went to what was at that time Washington territory, where he remained two years. In 1900 he returned to Missouri, and, after a residence of twelve years
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in St. Louis, returned to this county, and here he has maintained his home ever since. When he came a second time to this county early in the present year (1912) he bought the farm of 120 acres on which he now lives in Parsons Creek township, not far from the town of Mead- ville, and on which he is preparing to carry on farming operations with vigor and every effort to win the greatest and most creditable success.
Mr. Coates was married on March 12, 1894, to Miss Eva Sloneker, a native of Missouri. They have one child, their daughter Lorain, who is now seven years old. Mr. Coates does not intend to devote himself alone to farming. He has extensive and accurate knowledge of the sheepbreeding industry, and will give a large part of his attention to that. The strain he has selected for his enterprise in this line is the American Merino, which he believes is particularly adapted to this latitude and climate and the conditions prevailing here.
In politics Mr. Coates is a Democrat, warmly interested in the suc- cess of his party and energetic and effective in all campaigns in helping to promote that. He is a man of broad views with reference to public improvements, and always ready and willing to do his full share toward bringing them about, and is everywhere and at all times deeply inter- ested in the general well being of the community in which he lives. His religious connection is with the Methodist Episcopal church. The resi- dents of his township hold him in high esteem and throughout the county he is favorably known and sincerely respected as an upright man and a progressive, practical and serviceable citizen.
MARK G. COATES
Actively engaged in farming in this county from the time when he was eighteen years of age, and for many years prominent in the political and social life of the region, filling with credit to himself and benefit to his township a number of local offices, and all the while manifesting a deep and helpful interest in the progress and improvement of his local- ity, Mark G. Coates, one of the leading farmers of Parsons Creek town- ship, has honestly earned the high esteem in which he is held by the people and won by his demonstrated merit the influence he wields among them.
Mr. Coates was born in Caroline county, Virginia, on June 27, 1859. He is a son of John B. and Elizabeth J. (Rouzie) Coates, an account of whose lives appears in a sketch of his brother, Edward R. Coates, elsewhere in this work. The father died in Linn county on July 16,
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1880, and the mother is still living here. Their old plantation in Vir- ginia was a part of one of the battlefields of the Civil War, and the father was a soldier in the Confederate army under "Stonewall" Jack- son, which defended it against the Union troops and helped to write the name of the village of Milford, near which it is located, on the thrilling pages of the history of that terrible, sanguinary and mo- mentous conflict.
Mark G. Coates grew to the age of eighteen in his native county and was educated in its public schools and at its college in Bowling Green, the county seat. He came to Missouri with his parents in 1877, and from then to the present time (1912), excepting two years spent in Kansas, has been engaged in farming in the township in which he now resides. His farm of 120 acres is a model of neatness and skillful culti- vation, and is improved with commodious and comfortable buildings and provided with every appliance necessary for its tillage according to the most approved methods of farming.
Mr. Coates has taken a very active interest in the public affairs of his township for many years. He has served as township clerk and assessor, as a justice of the peace and as a member of the school board. He is a Democrat in political faith and allegiance and prominent and influential in the councils of his party in this county. Fraternally he is connected with the Modern Woodmen of America, and in church relations he and his wife are Methodist Episcopalians.
In all undertakings for the advancement and further development of his township Mr. Coates is a forceful factor, leading in thought and action, and stimulating others to exertion by the force of his example and his personal influence. He is public-spirited always, and all his manifestations in this respect are marked by breadth of view and dis- criminating intelligence. The people of his township regard him as one of their best and most serviceable citizens and one of their most upright and representative men, and as worthy of their esteem from every point of view.
On May 2, 1894, he was joined in wedlock with Miss Ada E. Wat- son, a daughter of Thomas L. and Eliza J. (Parks) Watson, a brief account of whose lives appears on another page of this volume. Two children have been born of the union, a son named John T. and a daugh- ter named Jane Marie. All the members of the family stand well in the regard and good will of the people, who have found them all worthy of high esteem in every relation in life, and serviceable in connection with every agency working for the good of the community, morally, intel- lectually, socially and materially. They are all widely known in the
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county for their genuine merit and the elevation and progressiveness of their citizenship.
LOUIS T. ROWLAND
During all of the last thirty-two years this enterprising, progres- sive and successful farmer and live stock breeder has been a resident of Linn county, contributing essentially and substantially to its prog- ress and improvement, helping to swell the volume of its products and its commercial and industrial importance, and representing in a grati- fying way the strength and manhood of its citizenship. He has a spe- cial fondness for these lines of endeavor, and has made such a careful and discriminating study of all their bearings that he has impressed himself on the public estimation of his township as one of its best and most judicious farmers and stock men.
Mr. Rowland is a native of Delaware county, Ohio, born at the county seat of that county on February 12, 1856. His parents, Thomas J. and Mary (Jones) Rowland, were born and reared in Wales, where their families were domesticated for many generations. The father's life began on August 7, 1817, and ended in Delaware, Delaware county, Ohio, on May 10, 1893. The mother died in the same city on April 10, 1880. The father came to the United States in 1842 with his parents. His father, John Rowland, was a local exhorter for the Congregational church, and died near Delaware, Ohio, in 1850.
Thomas J. Rowland and his wife were the parents of five children who are now living, Louis W. being the only one who is a resident of Missouri. His brother, William R. Rowland, served in the Sixty-sixth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, Company E, during the Civil War, and upheld the cause of the Union on some of the bloodiest and most disastrous battlefields of that terrible deluge of death and devastation. He did his duty with full fidelity, but went through the conflict uninjured.
Louis T. Rowland was reared in his native county and educated in its public schools. After leaving school he worked as a clerk and sales- man in a store there for some years. But mercantile life, especially in a subordinate capacity, did not satisfy his desires, and he longed to be at the head of some business of his own, and farming was the line he pre- ferred. Accordingly, in 1880 he came to this county and bought the farm of 185 acres in Jefferson township which he now owns, occupies and cultivates.
He has improved this farm with good, new modern buildings and equipped it with every appliance required for its proper cultivation
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in the most approved and up-to-date manner. He carries on a vigorous general farming industry, and in addition is one of the leading breeders of Poland China hogs in this part of the state. In all his operations in both branches of his enterprise he is careful over every detail, and his output is always first class and has everywhere a high rank in the markets.
Mr. Rowland was married on January 21, 1879, to Miss Eliza J. Glover, a daughter of Arthur and Mary A. (Warren) Glover, natives of Ohio, both now deceased. Four of the children born of the union are living : Mary D., who is now the wife of T. J. Threlkeld and resides in Alliance, Nebraska; Darly R., who is farming in this county; Esther L., who is living at home with her parents, and Roy, who is also still a member of the parental family circle. The father belongs to the Repub- lican party in political relations, but he is not an active partisan. His religious affiliation is with the Methodist Episcopal church. Through- out the county he is well and favorably known as an enterprising, pro- gressive and public-spirited citizen, and everywhere he is high respected as such.
LUDWIG C. BRENDAHL
For more than forty years an enterprising and progressive farmer in Jefferson township, this county, and, prior to entering upon his present industry, for two years employed in laying track for the Han- nibal and St. Joseph Railroad, Ludwig C. Brendahl has shown his inter- est in the progress and further development of this part of Missouri in two lines of constructive work, and rendered good service to the region in both. The industry and thrift, which are characteristic of the race from which he sprang, and which he has exhibited in a very commend- able degree, have made his work effective, and his breadth of vision and enterprise have given what he has done for himself, high rank in quality and an extensive range in volume and value.
Mr. Brendahl is a native of Prussia, in the German empire, where his life began on March 8, 1838. His parents, John and Mary (Peters) Brendahl, were of the same nativity as himself, and the father passed the whole of his life, except a portion spent in military service, in the locality of his birth, where he died on October 8, 1870. He was a car- penter and wrought faithfully at his trade in times of peace. But when war prevailed and his country was engaged in it, he was at the front in defense of what it was contending for. He took part in the war of the allied countries of Europe against Napoleon, and was present at
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Waterloo when the star of that illustrious conqueror went down into everlasting gloom. In one of the battles in which he was engaged he was shot through the foot. The mother came to the United States after his death and died in Clinton county, Iowa, in about 1874. They were the parents of six sons and two daughters, of whom the daughters and three of the sons are living, and all residents of this country but one of the sons.
Ludwig C. Brendahl grew to manhood in his native land, and at the age of twenty years entered the German army for the three years' service required of all young men by the law of that country. Soon after his term of military service expired in 1861 he was drafted for another short period of army duty in 1862 and again in 1866. In 1867 he came to the United States and for a few months dwelt in the state of Michigan. From there he came to Missouri and Linn county in 1868, and for two years worked on the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad repairing track, as has been stated.
In 1872 he bought the farm on which he now lives, and which he has improved with good buildings and all the other appliances required for its advanced and profitable cultivation. The farm comprises 240 acres and is all under tillage according to the most approved methods of farming at this time, and its operations are managed with such excel- lent judgment and conducted with such vigor and intelligence that every acre yields good returns for the labor and care bestowed upon it.
Mr. Brendahl is also one of the most extensive breeders of Poland- China hogs in this part of the West. This branch of his industry is also well managed, and yields considerable and steady profit to its pro- moter, who, although he is one of the oldest farmers in the county in continuous connection with the industry here, is also one of the most enterprising and successful, in both the volume and the value of his work and the fruits of it all in every department.
On June 24, 1870, Mr. Brendahl was married in this county to Mrs. Varonacaw (Billiger) Bakeman. They have had three children, two of whom are living. The daughter Bertha, who was Mrs. Christian John- son, died in 1898, leaving two daughters, Helga M. and Christina. Their sons Adolph and Emil, who now have the active management of the farm and the live stock industry. Their mother died on March 1, 1904, but they have remained with their father with filial devotion, deter- mined to make his declining years as comfortable and free from care as possible by relieving him of all the burdens incident to the business in which the family is engaged. He is a devout member of the German Lutheran church, a most worthy and estimable citizen, a square and
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upright man, faithful to every duty and earnestly desirous of the sub- stantial and enduring welfare of the region in which he has passed so long a period of his life, and is well known and highly esteemed in all parts of the county of his residence and those which adjoin it.
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J. L. WOOD
This busy, enterprising, progressive and very successful farmer and miller of Jefferson township, Linn county, Missouri, is in himself and in his possessions and operations one of the most interesting gen- tlemen in the county. He is the owner of 1,600 acres of land, 400 acres of which are covered by fine timber. He farms the land extensively, the cleared portion, and manufactures lumber from the timber on a large scale. Thus in two ways, by his agricultural productions and by the output of his mills, he contributes a great deal to augment the industrial and commercial wealth and importance of Linn county and northeastern Missouri.
His land is interesting too, highly interesting, aside from its extent and its fruitfulness. Many Indian and prehistoric relics of great value to the archeologist have been found on it, and geologists in the employ of the government of the United States have visited it to make scien- tific investigations. They have found it a fruitful field, and have reveled in the richness of its records and suggestions. The results of their examinations have been published in the government reports.
Mr. Wood is a native of Illinois and was reared in Chicago. He was educated in that city also, and remained there until 1886, when he came to Linn county and began farming on an extensive scale. The products of his broad acres devoted to agriculture yield abundantly, and supply material for his large and busy flour mill, which was built in 1878 and conducted successfully from the start. Since coming into his possession it has frequently been operated day and night for weeks at a time to its full capacity, and then has not always been able to meet the requirements.
In addition to this mill Mr. Wood owns and runs two large saw mills of considerable capacity, and these are kept busy with material supplied by his own timber lands. It would seem that these various enterprises, especially since they are very extensive ones, would fully satisfy his desire for work and business cares. But Mr. Wood is a very enterprising man and has an unusually active and resourceful mind.
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He could never be content if he were not undertaking something new or doing more considerably anything he has on hand.
Year by year he has been pushing his farming to greater and greater proportions, and he is now promoting a project to drain the Locust creek bottoms, the work on which he hopes soon to begin. This is an undertaking of considerable magnitude and expense, but no task seems too hard or to involve too many difficulties for this resourceful man. And he carries on his large operations with an ease that is sur- prising to all observers, and marvelous to many who have little or none of his ability. It is so in almost all occupations. What the master mind can do without apparent effort or anxious care, ordinary mental capa- city is staggered by the sight of and awed by its successful achievement.
The natural wealth which he is developing and transforming into useful commodities for the benefit of mankind has lain for ages un- touched. And even since the region in which it is located has been peopled by men and women of energy and enterprise, it has remained almost wholly dormant. It awaited the advent of the commanding might of mind, which came in the person of Mr. Wood, and it is yield- ing up its treasure to him with a readiness and bounty that prove his caliber and generalship. He is doing a great deal toward the develop- ment of his part of the county and the people of his township regard him as one of their most useful men.
JOHN G. CLINEFELTER
Brought to Linn county at an early day in its history and when he was but two years old himself, and having passed all his subsequent life within its borders; beginning early to earn his own living and progress- ing from poverty to comfort and then consequence as the county advanced in development, population, productiveness and importance, John G. Clinefelter, one of the prominent farmers and live stock men of Jefferson township, has epitomized in his own history, to some extent, that of Linn county itself, and is truly a representative man among its people.
Mr. Clinefelter was born near Postville, Allamakee county, Iowa, on September 5, 1863, and is a son of Peter and Mary (Jones) Cline- felter. The father was a native of Pennsylvania and passed the whole of his life from boyhood on a farm and engaged in or connected with the farming industry. When the great, unpeopled West allured him,
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in his young manhood from his eastern home by its promise of rich and fruitful opportunities, he located first in Minnesota, but soon afterward moved to Allamakee county, Iowa.
From Iowa he moved his family to Missouri and Linn county in 1865, and on his arrival in this county he bought an unimproved and unbroken tract of prairie land east of Forker, which by industry and good management he transformed into a fine farm and improved with good, comfortable buildings. On this farm he lived and labored until his death in 1873. The mother died two years before, that is, in 1871. They had three sons and two daughters, but of the five John G. is the only one now living in this county. The family is of German origin, and all its members have shown in their daily lives the patient and persistent industry, and the other admirable traits of the great race from which they sprang.
John G. Clinefelter grew from infancy to manhood in Linn and Chariton counties, and began roughing it in the world's great battle- fields at a very early age. The circumstances of the family were such that he was obliged to begin earning his own livelihood when he was but ten years old, and this necessity deprived him of almost all oppor- tunity to attend school or acquire any instruction from books or teach- ers. But he had the great force of Nature for an instructor, and from her he learned self-reliance and resourcefulness, acquired knowledge of his own powers and learned how to use them with readiness for emer- gencies and a scorn of obstacles to his progress. Added to these the hard but thorough lessons of experience were valuable to him, and so he in time became a well informed man in a general way and one that was most practical, and able to turn his hand to almost any employ- ment he found available to him.
He began his career by working for meager wages on farms for others, then rented land and for some years farmed as a tenant. In 1893 he bought the farm he now owns and cultivates, which he has improved with good buildings and other structures needed for its proper management, and made one of the most productive in the township in which it is located. His farming operations have been extensive and have been of a general and comprehensive character. But they have not occupied all his time and energy or fully satisfied his desires. A number of years ago he began breeding Jersey cattle and pedigreed Duroc-Jersey hogs, being the pioneer in this county in breeding that strain of hogs. He has also, for some length of time, conducted an annual sale of hogs and cattle for breeding purposes. He has been
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very successful in his live stock industry, as he has been in his farming, and is now considered one of the substantial and prosperous farmers of the county.
Mr. Clinefelter was married on December 25, 1888, to Miss Effie A. Anderson, a sister of George W. Anderson, an enterprising and pros- perous farmer of Jefferson township, a sketch of whom is published in this volume. Of the children born of this union three are living: Erma, who is now the wife of Galen Lewis, of this county; and Fred F. and Harold A., who are still living at home with their parents, and assisting in the management of the work on the farm in all its departments.
In political faith and allegiance Mr. Clinefelter is a Republican, but, while he is true and loyal to his party, he takes no active part in political controversies and has never sought or desired a political office of any kind. Fraternally he is a member of the Modern Brotherhood, and he and his wife belong to the Methodist Episcopal church. He is favorably known and cordially esteemed in all parts of the county as an excellent farmer, a citizen who is warmly interested in every means of promoting the general welfare of the locality in which he lives, and a man of strict integrity, high character and commanding enterprise.
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