USA > Missouri > Linn County > Compendium of history and biography of Linn County, Missouri > Part 62
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WILLIAM SHARP
Representing the second generation of his family that has taken the wild land of Linn county in hand and brought it to systematic pro- ductiveness, and a residence of the household of sixty-one years in this region, a period which spans all the time intervening between the dawn of civilization here and the present high state of development and improvement the county has attained, William Sharp, of Jefferson township, is an interesting personage in the chronicles of Linn county, and both because of that and of his own high character and elevated citizenship, is worthy of special consideration in a work of the kind the promoters and publishers of this history are preparing for the purpose of perpetuating the record of the men who have made the county what it is and the course of events through which their triumphant march of progress has been made.
Mr. Sharp has a particular claim to attention from the fact that he was one of the boys born here in the early days and has lived in the county ever since. His life began in Locust Creek township on December 8, 1852, on a farm then occupied as tenants by his parents, John P. and Caroline (Hansford) Sharp, the former a native of Tennessee and the latter of Virginia. They are still living in this county, and are among its most revered pioneers and esteemed citizens.
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The father is a farmer and brought his family from his old home in Tennessee to this county by ox teams in 1851. The journey was long and tiresome, especially for him, as he was obliged to walk most of the way, and it was full of hazard too, for along the greater part of it the friendliness of the Indians could not be relied on and the wild beasts of the forest and plain were deadly in their hostility. Against these dangers he was unarmed except with his flintlock rifle and his expert- ness in the use of it.
After his arrival in Linn county he rented land of Judge Moore for a number of years, then in 1859, or about that year, bought the farm on which he now lives in Brookfield township. This comprises 160 acres, and its present state of development and improvement is the result of the persistent and well applied industry of himself and his sons. For it was a wild, unbroken tract of prairie when he bought it, on which civilization had as yet made no mark and domestic comfort was still buried in the soil.
He and his family cleared the land of its wild growth, broke it up for cultivation and started it on its way to its present high value and fruitful fertility. The first dwelling erected on it for the abode of the family was a log cabin, and wild game was the main dependence for animal food for its inmates. This was abundant, however, and easy to get, and the land soon began to yield supplies for the other needs of its cultivators. The parents are still living on that farm, and they now dwell in comfort where they first camped in hope, having wrested the bounties of Nature from her great storehouse by their own determined efforts.
Ten children were born in their household, six sons and four daugh- ters, and seven of them are living. One son is a resident of Michigan; one has his home in Montana, and still another dwells in Louisiana. William and two of his sisters live in Linn county. During the Civil War the family was troubled and the farm was wasted by the depreda- tions of the predatory soldiery on both sides of the great sectional con- flict, and suffered severely from the levies made upon them. The parents are zealous members of the Baptist church and helped to plant the sect firmly in this locality, helping to build the first houses for its use and strengthen its early congregations here. They also aided in putting up the first schoolhouse and maintaining the early country schools. Mr. Sharp's grandfather passed the whole of his life in Ten- nessee, where he died at the age of one hundred and four years, a veritable patriarch in his community and revered by all its people as such.
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William Sharp grew to manhood on the old family homestead, which he helped to clear and break up, and secured his education in subscription schools maintained in the neighborhood. He worked with and for his father until he reached the age of twenty-two, then rented land and farmed it on his own account for twelve years. At the end of that period he bought the farm on which he now lives, which, like his father's, was all wild land and wholly unimproved when he took pos- session of it. He has devoted all his subsequent years to its develop- ment and improvement, and has made of it a good and valuable farm and a comfortable and attractive country home.
On March 18, 1877, Mr. Sharp was joined in wedlock with Miss Alice Duckworth, a daughter of Nelson and Sarah Duckworth, who came to this county in 1865 from their native state of Maryland, and died here a number of years ago. Mr. and Mrs. Sharp have had three children, but death has robbed them of all. In political relations Mr. Sharp is a Democrat, but he has never held or desired a political office, and has never taken a very active part in political contests. He has not, however, been indifferent to the progress and improvement of his township and county, but has been energetic and serviceable in helping to advance their interests in every way open to him. The people around him have always found him ready to aid in every worthy enterprise, and they have a high regard for him because of his genuine manhood and public spirit.
JAMES F. BELSHE (Deceased)
Although he has been dead nearly twelve years, and in that period the residents of Linn county have made rapid progress and advanced on a swelling tide of prosperity and improvement, and have therefore been busy about a multitude of interests, the name and record of James F. Belshe are still fresh in the memory of Linn county people, and his example is yet potential among them for good. He was one of the leading farmers in the county in his lifetime, and dignified and adorned his calling by the intelligence, enterprise and vigor with which he followed it through life. And he was also a wide-awake and public-spirited citizen, deeply interested in the welfare of his com- munity and zealous in helping to promote it.
Mr. Belshe's life began in Howard county, Missouri, on January 15, 1835, and was therefore connected with the county from a very
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early period in its history. He was a son of William and Nancy (Botts) Belshe, the former a native of Kentucky and the latter of Tennessee. The father came overland by team to this state and located in Howard county about 1825. The family resided in that county until 1839, when its residence was changed to Linn county, and here the father took up a large tract of land in Parsons Creek township. He added to his domain by subsequent acquisitions until he owned about 1,200 acres. The land was easy of attainment then, for he was one of the first if not the very first white man to settle in the neighbor- hood in which he lived.
When the parents came to this state they brought a number of slaves with them, and so were able to break up, clear and improve the land with more ease and rapidity than other householders who had no one but themselves to do the work. The father took an active part in the public affairs of the county and because of his superior intelli- gence and enterprise became a leading man in its early history. He was also very zealous in the work of the Baptist church, putting up the first house of worship for the sect in this locality, his activity in church matters making him even better and more widely known than he otherwise would have been.
In political faith and allegiance he was attached to the Democratic party, and a great worker in its behalf. His first wife died in this county in 1861 and he passed away here in 1874. They had twelve children, six sons and six daughters, of whom four of the sons and two of the daughters are living. After the death of their mother he married Mrs. Nancy Gooch, and a few years later death robbed him of her also. He then married as his third wife a Mrs. Bragg of this county at the time of her marriage.
James F. Belshe was reared in Linn county and educated in its district schools. He assisted in clearing his father's farm and break- ing up its stubborn soil, beginning at this work when he was still but a boy. He continued farming until his death, and in connection with that industry also bred and raised high grades of horses and cattle. Like his father, he was a man of prominence and influence in the county, and in a number of township offices helped to administer the public affairs of this region for a long time, serving as school trustee for a continuous period of thirty years. He was a Democrat in politics and a Baptist in religious connection, and throughout his mature life gave valued service to the general public by his work in each organization.
When he was scarcely more than twenty years of age Mr. Belshe
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was married to Miss Julia Slagel, and through this union became the father of five children, four of whom are living: James G., London E., and Joseph V. and William V., twins. Their mother died in 1862, and on May 19, 1867, the father contracted a second marriage in which he was united with Mrs. Phebe Taggart, a widow. The offspring from this union also numbered five, and three of them are living: Edward L., Henry F. and Fountain D. Their mother is still living but the father died on October 21, 1900.
He was one of the county's best citizens and one of Missouri's most representative and serviceable farmers. But his usefulness was not shown in his own occupation alone. Every form of the industrial life of this part of the state of Missouri held his close attention and interest, and every agency at work for the good of its residents always had his earnest and helpful support and the benefit of his intelligence and good judgment. He was very popular among the people and enjoyed their esteem in bountiful measure. They knew him to be wise, progressive and prudent in the management of his business, strictly upright in all his dealings and correct in his deportment in all the rela- tions of life from the beginning to the end of his long, clean and fruit- ful career. No man in Linn county stood higher in public estimation, and none in his lifetime deserved a higher rank.
FREDERICK L. BOTTS
Although young in years and also in his career as a farmer, Fred- erick L. Botts of Parsons Creek township has already written his name firmly in public estimation as one of the progressive, up-to-date and successful agriculturists of Linn county, and by his cordial, practical and helpful interest in the progress and improvement of this part of Missouri has taken rank as one of the wide-awake, alert and public- spirited citizens who are developing its resources to the best advantage and building its power and influence into enlarging magnitude in the industrial and commercial aggregates for which the whole country is famous.
Whatever he is, too, Mr. Botts is wholly a product of Linn county, and therefore a true representative of the industry, resourcefulness, enterprise and force of character of the people who inhabit this politi- cal division of Missouri. He was born in this county on November 16, 1877. He obtained his education in the district schools in the neighbor-
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hood of his boyhood home, and since leaving school, he has diligently added to the wealth and productiveness of the county by skillfully cul- tivating one of its large, fruitful and desirable farms.
Mr. Botts is a member of a family that has been prominent in Linn county affairs from the dawn of its history. His great-grandfather came to this part of the state of Missouri about the year 1834, one of the early pioneers, and helped to lay the foundations of the civil and educational institutions of Linn county. His name was Thomas Botts, and he was a man of considerable local prominence and influence. One of his sons, William Leonard Botts, was the father of Frederick, and he also was born in this county.
v William L. Botts was a farmer, working for his father and help- ing to clear and improve the wild domain on which that gentleman settled when he located here, and afterward repeating the performance on his own account. In his young manhood he married with Miss Almeda Jacobs, a native of Sullivan county, Missouri. They are now living in Meadville, retired from active pursuits and enjoying the rest from labor and the general esteem of the people which they have so richly earned by their long and useful industry and continuous upright and commendable manner of life.
» They have two sons and one daughter living: Their son Frederick L., his brother Clifford L. and their sister Estella, who is now the wife of Ben Doolin, a resident of this county. Their grandfather, Joshua Botts, was a son of Thomas Botts, one of the first settlers in the county. The grandfather was brought to this part of the state as a child and passed the remainder of his life here. He followed in his father's course and cleared a farm on which he lived until his death. He mar- ried Miss Elizabeth Harvey, who is still living and has her home in Meadville. They were the parents of four sons and four daughters.
Frederick L. Botts has been actively and profitably engaged in farming in Linn county on his own account from his youth, starting out early in the vocation to which he was reared and adhering to it with tenacity ever since. On December 1, 1907, he was united in mar- riage with Miss Lula Stephenson, a daughter of Thomas J. and Julia (Thorne) Stephenson. Her father, Thomas J. Stephenson, came to this county after the Civil War and remained here until his death in 1910. Mr. and Mrs. Botts are members of the Methodist Episcopal church, prominent in social life in their community, and earnest in their efforts to advance the interests of their township and county in every way they can.
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HISTORY OF LINN COUNTY
THOMAS M. BOTTS
All of the three score years of the life of this valued citizen and enterprising farmer of Parsons Creek township to the present time (1912) have been passed in the state of Missouri, and thirty-eight of them in Linn county. Wherever he has lived he has made an excellent record as a farmer and as a man of enterprise and public spirit, and the people have known and appreciated his worth and usefulness in other localities as they do in the township and county in which he is now living.
1 Mr. Botts came into being in Saline county, this state, on Novem- ber 27, 1852, and is a son of Addison and Martha A. (Worden) Botts, the former a native of Kentucky and the latter of Missouri. The father was born in Hancock county, Kentucky, in 1822, and in 1825, when he was but three years old, his parents brought him to Howard county in this state, making the journey overland with teams. On his arrival in Howard county the father took up a tract of unbroken gov- ernment land in the improvement and cultivation of which he passed the rest of his life. He was a man of prominence and influence in the early history of Howard county, serving as county judge for a con- tinuous period of twelve years and still occupying the office at the time of his death. His wife, at the time of her marriage to him, was a Mrs. Lucas. Their offspring numbered five, two sons and three daughters, all of whom are now deceased.
v Their son, Addison Botts, the father of Thomas M., attained his manhood in Howard county and remained there, living with his par- ents and working for his father, until 1844. In that year he moved to Saline county, where he did as his father had done in Howard county -took up a tract of wild land and made a good farm of it. In 1860 he moved his family to Carroll county in this state, where he lived a number of years, and where his wife died in 1860. He then moved to Oklahoma, and passed away in 1899. They were the parents of three sons and eight daughters, all of whom are living but two of the daugh- ters.
. Thomas M. Botts grew from the age of eight years to manhood in Carroll county and obtained the greater part of his education in its district schools. He remained at home until 1874, then united himself in marriage with Miss Cleopatra J. Littrell of Howard county, and changed his residence to this county and settled on the farm on which he now lives. Mrs. Botts is a daughter of David J. Littrell, who was
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born in Howard county, Missouri in 1818 and came to Linn county to live in 1841.
On his arrival in this county he took up a tract of wild govern- ment land, which he lived on until his death in 1893, devoting his time and energies to first clearing and then improving it, until under his skill as a husbandman and his industry in his work it became an ex- cellent and highly productive farm. He was married three times; first to Miss Sarah Botts, and after her death to Miss Sarah V. Harvey, of whom death also robbed him. His third matrimonial union was with Mrs. Isabella Ryan, a widow.
v Mr. and Mrs. Botts have four children: Minnie, who is the wife of J. W. Trimble of Chillocothe; Ida, who is the wife of E. F. Post of Wheeling, Mo .; Nannie, who married M. M. Powers and resides in Kansas City, and Charles W., who is a resident of California. The parents are members of the Baptist church. They are well known throughout the country, and in all parts of it stand in the highest re- gard of the people as most estimable citizens and fine types of Linn county residents, representative of its sturdiest and most sterling citizenship.
JOHN H. BOTTS
This well known and widely esteemed farmer of Clay township, Linn county, has several elements of unusual interest in his claim on the respect and good will of the people of this part of Missouri. He represents the fourth generation of his family that has lived in and drawn sustenance from the soil of Linn county, and is a scion of a household that has been maintained in the state of Missouri for almost one hundred years. His grandfather became a resident of the county in 1834, and passed the remainder of his days here, and his father, the great-grandfather of John H., also came to the end of his life in the county at the age of one hundred and ten years.
. Mr. Botts was himself born in the county on September 22, 1839, obtained what education he could get in the primitive schools of his boyhood in this region, and from his early youth has been actively en- gaged in farming here, never having lived any where else. The place of his birth was about one mile south of his present home, and there- fore the whole of his life to this time (1912) has been passed in the township in which he now resides, and in helping to develop its re- sources and increase its industrial and commercial importance and in- fluence in the state.
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· His great-grandfather was a Revolutionary soldier, too, and was present at the surrender of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown, Virginia, in 1781, which ended the war for our independence; and he is a son of the first school teacher in this section, who afterward became his mother. In addition to these unusual and highly interesting conditions, he is a gentleman of the strictest integrity and uprightness, an enterprising, progressive and public-spirited citizen and an excellent farmer.
Mr. Botts is a son of Seth and Maria (Harvey) Botts, the former a native of Tennessee and the latter of Kentucky. The father was com- monly called "Major Botts," as he was a prominent man and had con- siderable influence in the county. He came to Missouri with his parents in 1816. His father, Thomas Botts, located the family in Howard coun- ty on land which he took up from the government, and which he cleared and transformed into a good farm. He lived on that farm until about 1834, when he moved to Linn county and took up his residence on its western boundary line, again entering land from the government and repeating on it what he had done on his former land in Howard county. He also operated a mill on Locust creek, and thereby gave the people of the section for many miles around one of the greatest conveniences they enjoyed at that early day. He died on his Linn county farm in 1852, and his wife passed away there some years later. They were the parents of three sons and five daughters, all of whom are now deceased. The great grandfather's name was also Thomas Botts.
Major Seth Botts, the father of John H., was born in 1813 and reared on the frontier. His opportunities for schooling were very lim- ited, as the pressing needs of the family required the exertion of every available force to clear and improve the wild land on which it was de- pendent, and he was obliged to assist in this work from an early age. He came with his parents when they moved to this county, and here he too took up government land and made it over into a valuable farm. He added to his possessions by subsequent purchases until at one time he owned 1,000 acres of good land, and had a great deal of it under cul- tivation. He owned a number of slaves who helped him in his work, and he became a man of consequence in the county and one of its leaders of thought and action.
/The mother died in 1880 and the father passed away at the home of his son, John H., in 1901. They had four sons and three daughters, all of whom are living but one of the daughters. In their church re- lations the parents were Baptists and leaders of the sect in this part of the country. They were largely instrumental in planting it in this lo- cality, giving the use of their home for its early services for years, and
.
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helping to establish and strengthen it in every way they could. They were also zealous in other lines of improvement, especially that of public education. The mother, as has been stated, was the first school teacher in this part of the state, and she never lost her interest in school work. , John H. Botts grew to manhood in Clay township and obtained his education in the country schools of his boyhood and youth, such as they were. He was very young when he began to assist his father in the work on the farm, and he kept steadily at it for many years, remaining at home until he was twenty-seven years old. He then moved to the farm he now owns and lives on, and which has ever since been his home and the object of his greatest care and attention. It has responded generously to his skillful husbandry, and under his management has become one of the best in the township, and equal in value, attractive- ness and fertility to almost any other of its size in the whole of Linn county.
. On May 6, 1874, Mr. Botts was married to Miss Sarah Heckman, a daughter of John and Elizabeth (Overpeck) Heckman, she came to this state many years ago from Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. Botts have one child, their son Frank S., who is married but still living with them. The father has served as township trustee seven years. He is a Democrat in political relations, a Freemason fraternally, belongs to the Church of Christ in religious affiliation, and is a deacon of many years service in his congregation. No man in the county is better or more favorably known, none has shown more merit, and on none have the people more liberally or more cordially bestowed their confidence and esteem.
JOSEPH J. LITTRELL
(Deceased) v
The late Joseph J. Littrell of Parsons Creek township, who de- parted this life on April 24, 1899, at the age of nearly sixty-seven years, was one of the most extensive, enterprising, progressive and prosper- ous farmers not only in his township but in the whole of Linn county. His farming was his sole occupation, except some raising and feeding of live stock as incidental to it, and he gave his whole time and attention to it, saving what was necessary for the duties of active and patriotic citizenship, and the results were commensurate with his efforts and devotion.
Mr. Littrell was born in Howard county, Missouri on December 4,
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1832, and was a son of James and Melvina (Harvey) Littrell, natives of Bourbon county, Kentucky. They moved to this state and Howard county about 1825 and were married there. Even that county was sparsely settled at the time and by reason of his superior intelligence and force of character the father became a man of prominence and in- fluence in connection with its political, educational and social affairs, and also an extensive landholder.
In 1841 the family moved to Linn county, and here the father took 1 up a large tract of government land, to which he added until he, at one time, owned about 900 acres, on which he erected what was probably the first frame house in this part of the state. The mother died in 1878, and the father's life ended at the home of his son Joseph in 1884. He owned a number of slaves before the Civil war, some of which he brought with him from Kentucky, and all of which he lost in Missouri when slavery was abolished in this country during the war. He and his wife were the parents of five children, two sons and three daughters, all of whom have died but the last born of the daughters, who is now the widow of Dr. Gish of Kansas City, Mo.
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