USA > Missouri > Linn County > Compendium of history and biography of Linn County, Missouri > Part 70
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under difficulties are required in as great a degree as contests with wild beasts and savage men, the fury of the elements and privation of the ordinary comforts of life, in an unsettled country, has ever exacted.
Dr. Catherine Standly, of Brookfield, is in some measure a type of the pioneers of enterprise in departments of useful labor apart from the subjugation and settlement of the wilderness. She was the first and is yet the only lady physician in this part of Missouri, and it must have required courage and determination of a high order on her part to enter alone upon a field of work until recently not occupied by the gentler sex of our race, and from which an unreasonable prejudice actually barred them. But she chose her life work after mature delib- eration, and when her face was once turned toward it, she never for a moment hesitated in pushing her way in pursuit of all it had to offer to capacity and faithful industry. Her success in it has fully justified her choice and nobly crowned her heroism.
Dr. Standly is a native of Linn county and the place of her birth was Laclede. She is a daughter of Dr. Z. T. and Jennie (Vance) Standly, both born and reared at Paris, Illinois. Further mention is made of the former in the sketch of her father, Dr. Z. T. Standly, which will be found elsewhere in this volume.
Their daughter Catherine, the interesting subject of these para- graphs, passed through all the grades of the schools in Laclede, and was graduated from the highest of them in her academic studies. Having made up her mind that she could do well for herself and also serve her fellow creatures substantially by devoting herself to the science of medicine, she began the study of it under the direction and instruction of her father. In 1898 she became a student in the medical depart- ment of the University of Illinois, from which she was graduated in 1902. After passing one year as an interne at the Mary Tompson hos- pital in Chicago, she selected Brookfield, this county, as the center of her practice, and took up her residence here at once, losing no time in starting on her professional career.
The doctor is a specialist in diseases of women and children, and has established herself firmly in the confidence and regard of the people of Linn county by her knowledge of her science, theoretical and prac- tical, her excellent judgment and skill in the application of that knowl- edge, her geniality of disposition and her general culture and excellence as a woman. In order to keep abreast of the department of profes- sional intelligence and work with which she is connected, she has pur- sued special courses of instruction at the Chicago Post Graduate School and been an industrious and thoughtful reader of the best literature of
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her profession, especially that which bears on her particular lines of practice in it.
She has also been a strong believer in the frequent comparison of experiences and interchange of ideas as a valuable means of broaden- ing and systematizing knowledge, and has for some years been an active member of the county and state medical societies and the American Medical Association, and for two years served with credit to herself and benefit to the organization as president of the Linn County Medical Society. It is greatly to the credit of the people of the county that they appreciate the merit of this lady at its full value and hold her in the highest esteem. And it is equally creditable to her associates in the medical profession in the county that they cheerfully and admiringly accord to her the true rank among them to which she is richly entitled.
Since the above was written she was married December 14, 1911, to Walter Brownlee, giving up her practice for a domestic life.
WILLIAM A. BORLAND
For forty-four years this skillful and successful farmer has lived on the Clay township farm which he now owns, and during all of that period has devoted his energies to its improvement and judicious culti- vation, during a portion of the time in connection with and under the supervision of his father, but for more than twenty years as its owner and sole proprietor. He has helped to make it very valuable and attractive as a country home, and by his industry, energy and mastery of his business has brought it to a high state of cultivation and pro- ductiveness.
Mr. Borland was born, reared and educated in Franklin county, Ohio, where his life began on October 4, 1844. He came to Missouri and Linn county with his parents in 1868, when he was twenty-four years old, and the farm, which was then an unbroken and uncultivated expanse, which he helped to clear, break up and bring to fruitfulness, has been his home ever since. His parents, John F. and Mary A. (Carder) Borland, were also born and reared in Franklin county, Ohio, and farmed there until 1868, when they moved to this county and located on this farm. The mother died here in 1878 and the father in 1888. They had seven children, all of whom are now deceased but two. The father served in a number of local offices, and was a man of conse- quence in the township. The grandfather, William Borland, was born in Ireland and came to this country soon after the establishment of the
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present form of government. He first resided for a while in Pennsyl- vania and then moved to Ohio at an early day in the history of the state. He was a soldier in the War of 1812.
William A. Borland, as has been noted, came to Linn county with his parents after attaining his majority. He remained at home with his parents after their arrival in this county and helped to clear and farm the wild land on which the family located. Prior to this, how. ever, he left his Ohio home for a time in the service of his country, enlisting in 1862 in Company D, Ninety-fifth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, in which he served to the close of the war, three years in all. He took part in the battle of Richmond, Kentucky; the siege of Vicksburg, Mis- sissippi, and the hard fought conflict in Nashville, Tennessee, and also participated in numerous engagements of a less important character. After the war was over he returned to his Ohio home, and since then has always been engaged in general farming on a progressive scale.
Mr. Borland was married on January 4, 1880, to Miss Ida Norvell, a daughter of Francis Norvell, who came to Linn county from Ken- tucky in 1845. One child has been born of the union, a daughter named Gertie, who is now the wife of Oliver Harvey. In political faith and allegiance Mr. Borland is a Republican and loyal at all times to the principles of his party. In church connection he is a Presbyterian and his wife a Baptist. They are true to their church duties, as they are to all others, being excellent citizens and warmly and practically interested in the progress and further development of their township and county and the promotion of their welfare in every way. They are favorably known throughout Linn county and in every part of it are highly respected. They are prosperous in their business, too, and esteemed wherever they are known as good farmers, whose work is an example to the people around them and whose general worth is highly com- mendable. Clay township has no better citizens, and none for whom the people generally have a higher regard. They are modest as to their merits, but their friends and acquaintances everywhere know how to estimate them properly.
HARVEY S. JOHNSON
Although young yet in years, Harvey S. Johnson, county clerk of Linn county, has been well prepared by education and training in offi- cial duties for the position he now holds, and is filling with such entire satisfaction to the people. They note his capacity, his fidelity to duty, his obliging disposition and his careful attention to their interests and
.
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those of the county, and they realize that they acted wisely in electing him to the office.
Mr. Johnson is a native of "the dark and bloody ground," Ken- tucky, which has made a spectacular figure in every phase of our his- tory, and won great renown for its people in each of them. He was born in Fleming county of that state on April 2, 1880, but became a resident of Missouri and Linn county when he was but four years old. His parents, Benjamin F. and Mary (Dillon) Johnson, were prosperous farmers in Kentucky until the spring of 1884, when they moved to this county and located on a farm a short distance east of the town of Browning, and began farming operations according to the most advanced and approved methods of this period. The father is also extensively engaged in rearing and dealing in cattle and mules.
The son began his education in the rural schools of Linn county and completed it at the Chillicothe Normal School, which he attended in 1898 and 1899. After leaving that institution he returned to his home on his father's farm, and during the next two years did his part of the work of cultivating it and pushing forward its development and im- provement. He determined to try his hand in another line of endeavor, and in 1901 entered mercantile life at Browning. He followed this with a gratifying measure of success until 1903, when he was appointed deputy county clerk by Benjamin B. Edwards, then county clerk, but in failing health.
He entered upon his duties with alacrity, and in a short time exhibited so thorough a mastery of the requirements of the office that when Mr. Edwards died, ending a very useful and appreciated life and public service of a high order, the governor of the state readily yielded to the preponderating voice of the people, and appointed the deputy to serve out the unexpired term. When the time came for another elec- tion, in 1906, the action of the governor was fully justified by the people of the county, who elected Mr. Johnson for the succeeding term in the office.
In politics Mr. Johnson is a Democrat and always loyal to his party and energetic and effective in its service. As a citizen he is pro- gressive, public-spirited and enterprising, enthusiastic in his support of every worthy undertaking for the development and improvement of the county and the betterment of its people. But he applies his energies in this behalf with intelligence and judgment, and seeks the advance- ment of his locality only along lines of wholesome progress, involving enduring welfare and substantial advantages of permanent value.
Socially he is very popular, a welcome addition to all good circles
EUGENE STURTEVANT
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and a fruitful contributor to their enjoyment. He is a gentleman of high character, superior intelligence and a most genial and companion- able nature. In every relation of life he is a type of the best citizenship of Linn county, of western push, enterprise and resourcefulness, of patriotic devotion to the interests of his country-of elevated Ameri- can manhood in every way, and he is universally appreciated and esteemed as such wherever he is known and by the people of all classes and conditions.
EUGENE STURTEVANT
While himself a man of peace, with all his years and energies to the present time (1912) employed in the domain of production, Eugene Sturtevant, one of the leading farmers and stock men of the Grantsville township, this county, comes of a martial strain, his father having been a soldier in the Civil War and his grandfather one in the War of 1812. He would not hesitate to follow their examples if occasion required it, but happily in his day there has been no great demand for volunteers to either defend the country from foreign invasion or the Union from dismemberment.
Mr. Sturtevant is a native of Sandusky county, Ohio, born on July 19, 1857, and one of the two living children and sons of Lyman and Elsie Jane (George) Sturtevant. The father was born on October 17, 1837, in Jefferson county, New York, and was reared there until he reached the age of seventeen. About 1854 the family moved to San- dusky county, Ohio, and there, having completed his education in the district schools of his native county, he worked on his father's farm for some years. At the beginning of the Civil War, when that tornado of death and disaster burst forth on the country, he promptly joined the forces mustering for the defense of the Union, and the next three years found him in the army, and facing death on many a sanguinary field of bitter conflict. As a member of Company A 72 Ohio Volunteer Infantry, serving three years with the army of the Potomac, taking part in the batle of the Wilderness, Petersburg and others.
After the term of his service expired he returned to his Ohio home, and in 1870 moved to Missouri and took up his residence in Linn county about seven miles north of Brookfield, and devoted his attention to farming. He was married on December 10, 1855, to Miss Elsie Jane George, and they became the parents of three children, two of whom are living, Eugene and his brother M. G., a sketch of whom will be found in this volume. The father was for many years one of the
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most active and serviceable members of the Grand Army of the Re- public in this part of the country, holding his membership in the Post located in Brookfield.
Eugene Sturtevant was thirteen years old when his parents moved from their old Ohio home to their new one in this county. Here he grew to manhood and completed his education, turning his attention to farming, the occupation of his forefathers for several generations, as soon as he left school. He now owns a farm of 280 acres seven miles north of Brookfield, which is near the old family homestead and one of the best in the township. Its natural richness and fertility have been increased by the careful and intelligent cultivation bestowed on it, and the buildings and other improvements are in keeping with the rest of its attractions and elements of value, which are all of a high order.
On February 15, 1880, Mr. Sturtevant was united in marriage with Miss Zylpha D. Lambert, and they became the parents of one child, their daughter Mabel Engenia, who is now (1912) traveling in Europe She is a graduate of the Law Department of State University and was the successful contestant as best law student open to all nations, for a trip around the world. Having lost his first wife, the father, on Feb- ruary 23, 1895, married a second, uniting himself at this time with Miss Mary J. Thompson. They also have one child, their son Roy L., who is living at home with his parents, and assisting in the work on the farm and the management of the extensive business in rearing and feeding cattle for the markets, which his father has been conducting during the last twenty years or longer.
Mr. Sturtevant's paternal grandfather, Charles Sturtevant, who was a man of much more than ordinary intelligence, force of character and influence, was born in Jefferson county, New York, and moved to Sandusky county, Ohio, in 1846, and died there on November 10, 1863. He was a soldier in the War of 1812, as has been stated, and at all times, in war and peace, took an earnest interest in the welfare of his country, and employed all his energies in seeking to promote it. He filled a number of local offices while living in New York, and rose to prominence among the people of his county, as he did among those of his new locality in Ohio. His public spirit and breadth of view made him a leader, and his intelligence and energy in carrying out whatever he undertook sustained him in that relation to his community, wher- ever he lived. His memory is still warmly cherished in Ohio, and the beneficial force of his example as a citizen is often referred to in the section of the state in which he passed the last years of his useful and appreciated life.
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HISTORY OF LINN COUNTY
Mr. Eugene Sturtevant has served four years as trustee of Grantsville T. P. and as collector for two years and a member of the T. P. board for the Post six years. In politics he is a Republican, and is also a member of I. O. O. F. Wife is member of Baptist church.
HOWARD T. MURRAIN
It is not surprising that the leading industry of Linn county is farming, and it would not be if there were other great industries avail- able from mineral deposits or other sources. For the land is so fertile and responsive, the climate is so genial and uniform from year to year, and the seasons are so regular in circuit and character that farming is a pleasure, and under any kind of ordinary circumstances is almost cer- tain to be profitable in this part of the great state of Missouri. Men of almost every taste and condition in life turn to agriculture in this locality as the pursuit most likely to bring them good returns for their labor and least likely to delude them with false hopes.
Among the men who have found this domain of human endeavor profitable and reliable, Howard T. Murrain, of Locust Creek township, who lives in the vicinity of Purdin, is prominent and has made an excel- lent record as a progressive and successful farmer. He was born in this county in 1860, and is a son of George and Louisa (Turner) Murrain, the former a native of Virginia and the latter of Kentucky. The father was a farmer, and came with his father, Gilliam Murrain, to Missouri and Linn county in 1837. The family located north and east of Lin- neus, where the grandfather of Howard cleared a farm, carving it out of the wilderness, and transforming its unpruned luxuriance of produc- tion into succeeding harvests of the fruits of systematic cultivation.
Gilliam Murrain was a soldier in the War of 1812, and when a young man was united in marriage with Miss Elizabeth Mitchell. They had three sons and six daughters that grew to maturity. Their son George was reared from an early age to manhood in this county, and was married here. During the earlier part of the Civil War he served in the home militia, and while in that service died from the effects of exposure in 1862. The mother and three of their four children, Mrs. Emma Shoup, of Hamilton, Missouri, and Mrs. D. L. Marshall, of Brookfield, Missouri, are living. The mother's father, Absalom Turner, died in Kentucky, and a few years later his widow married as her second husband Benjamin Burt, who came to Linn county to live in
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1841, and located near Miles' mill. He died while crossing the plains to the gold fields of California in 1849.
Howard T. Murrain grew to manhood in this county and obtained his education in the Linneus schools. While attending school he worked on the farms, and after completing his education continued to do so until he took up the struggle for advancement among men for himself. Then, being trained to farming, he sought no other occupa- tion, and this he has adhered to ever since. By his energy, thrift and good management he has made his calling profitable and himself one of the substantial farmers of his township. He has also been promi- nent in the public affairs of the township, serving it as collector for a number of years.
Politically Mr. Murrain trains with the Republican party, but, while he is always eager for its success because he is a firm believer in its principles, he is not an active partisan. His religious connection is with the Methodist Episcopal church, and fraternally he belongs to the Order of Odd Fellows. On May 6, 1894, he was married to Miss Nellie Purdin, a daughter of Alexander and Susan M. (Southerland) Purdin, and by this marriage has become the father of two children, his son Alexander T. and his daughter Edma L. His farm is proof of his skill and vigor, his intelligence and his progressiveness as a farmer, and the general esteem in which he is held shows his high standing as a man and a citizen.
LEE A. WILSON
Of Virginia ancestry, Ohio parentage and Linn county, Missouri, nativity, Lee A. Wilson, a prominent and successful farmer of Clay township, is connected in his family history with three of the great commonwealths of the American Union, and his record shows that he possesses many of the salient characteristics which distinguish the residents of them all. By inheritance and training he has the traits prominent in the two older states, and by actual residence among the people of Missouri he has acquired the habits and customs peculiar to them, the aspirations they cherish, the motives which impel them and the state pride they so justly feel.
Mr. Wilson was born in this county on January 4, 1883. His par- ents, Enoch G. and Amy (Marple) Wilson, were therefore not early arrivals here and do not rank among the county's revered pioneers. But they were excellent citizens of their day and esteemed as such. They were natives of Licking county, Ohio, where the father was born
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in 1833 and the mother a few years later. They grew to maturity in their native state and were married there in 1864. The father was a school teacher in that state and also did some farming there. One year after his marriage he and his young wife came to Missouri and located in Livingston county, where they lived fifteen years on a farm they redeemed from the wilderness and developed into value.
In 1880 they moved to this county and took up their residence on the farm in Clay township now owned and cultivated by their son Lee. It, also was unimproved when they took possession of it, and they erected the buildings and made the other improvements on it, having bought the land in its totally uncultivated state. On this farm the father died in 1889. Their offspring numbered four: Lillian, who is now the widow of W. J. Mccollum; Eliza B., who is the wife of Fran- cis W. Thompson and has her home with him in the state of Oklahoma; Nellie, who married Joseph Perry and now lives in Linn county; and Lee A.
The father always took an active and serviceable part in the affairs of the locality in which he lived. He served as assessor and collector of taxes while living in Livingston county, and in every other way open to him contributed to the welfare and advancement of his home township there and here. Fraternally he was a Freemason and in religious affiliation was connected with the Methodist Episcopal church. The grandfather was born and reared in Virginia and moved to Ohio in his young manhood. He passed the remainder of his life farming in that state and died in Newark, Licking county, well advanced in years.
Lee A. Wilson has passed the whole of his life to this time (1912) in Linn county. He was educated in the public schools and from the dawn of his manhood has been engaged in farming on the land his father redeemed from the wilderness. He has been successful in his operations, and is accounted one of the best farmers in Clay township. He is also one of the township's most appreciated and acceptable citi- zens, with warm interest in its welfare and the progress and benefit of its residents in every way. He is a member of the Order of Odd Fel- lows and the Modern Woodmen of America, and he and his wife belong to the Methodist Episcopal church.
In 1906 Mr. Wilson was united in marriage with Miss Ocie C. Good, a daughter of Simon and Lula (Allen) Good, a sketch of whom appears on another page of this volume. Mr. and Mrs. Wilson have one child, their daughter Hazel. Their farm is a monument of their enterprise and thrift. Their upright lives are creditable to the citi-
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zenship of Linn county, and the universal esteem in which they are held is not only a proof of their merit but also of the excellence of the people around them, who know how to appreciate genuine worth.
JAMES A. NEAL
(Deceased) '
One of the names which sparkle with undimming luster all through the early chronicles of Linn county is that of Neal, and it was the patronymic of members of the family to which the pleasing subject of this brief record belongs. They were early arrivals in the county, John M. Neal locating in what is now Clay township in 1836, and other members of the family coming either with him or soon after his arrival. They were men of mold and became prominent and influ- ential in the civil affairs of the county in their day, leaving their impress on the life of this region in indelible characters, all of which are entirely to their credit.
James A. Neal was himself an early settler in the county, locating within its limits in 1841, and on the Clay township farm on which he passed the remainder of his long and useful life in 1842. He was born at Georgetown, Scott county, Kentucky, on June 8, 1811, and died on his farm in this county in 1898, at the advanced age of eighty-seven, and after a residence of fifty-seven years in Linn county. His parents were Presley and Frances (Mackintosh) Neal, the former a native of Vir- ginia and the latter of Pennsylvania. The father moved to Kentucky late in the eighteenth century, and there the mother died. The father continued to farm in that state until the burden of years rendered him incapable of further active labor. He then came to this county to live with his son James, and on the farm of the latter he died in 1868.
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