USA > Missouri > Linn County > Compendium of history and biography of Linn County, Missouri > Part 71
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His father, Daniel Neal, the grandfather of James, was a Revolu- tionary soldier and served throughout the war for American independ- ence. He was conspicuous in the battle of Brandywine, near Philadel- phia, in September, 1777, in which the gallant La Fayette was seriously wounded. A spectacle case made by this Revolutionary patriot is still in the possession of the family, and kept as one of its most cherished heirlooms. The father of James A. Neal was married three times, and his offspring numbered seven, four sons and three daughters, all now deceased.
James A. Neal attained his manhood in his native state. In 1833 he came on horseback to Howard county, Missouri, but he soon after-
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HISTORY OF LINN COUNTY
ward returned to Kentucky. In 1836 he came again to this state and took up his residence in Kansas City, where he remained until 1839, working on the Shawnee Indian Mission, where Indians were instructed during the thirties. After passing about two years more in Kentucky he came a third time to Missouri, arriving in Linn county in 1841 with the intention of remaining.
The next year he took up a tract of wild land from the govern- ment and to the improvement of this he devoted the rest of his life. He cleared and broke up his land, and by continuous and wisely applied industry made his farm one of the most productive and valuable of its size in the county. He lived to see the region he entered when it was a wilderness, with only a log cabin here and there, and all its possibili- ties as yet undeveloped, or nearly so, well populated, highly improved and far advanced on a career of vast progress and usefulness. Before he departed this life he saw the erstwhile unpruned and untamed growth of centuries replaced by the golden harvests of systematic in- dustry, the once unbroken expanse of woods and prairie made over into rich and fruitful farms, all the products of civilization expanding their benefits around him, and the whole region the home of an enterprising, ambitious, self-reliant and patriotic people. And it is greatly to his credit that he did his full share toward bringing about the vast and highly gratifying change of conditions.
Mr. Neal was married in Linn county in 1842 to Miss Elizabeth Russell, a daughter of Thomas and Sophia (Mullins) Russell, early Linn county pioneers. Mrs. Neal survived her husband four years, her life having ended in 1902. Their offspring numbered fourteen, and eleven of them are living: Sarah, Presley, Clinton, Clayton, Mary, Martha, La Fayette, James, Joseph, Sophia and William. Sarah is the wife of George W. Myers, of Peoria, Ill., and Sophia, widow of John W. Humphfres, who resides in Meadville, Nebraska.
In the public affairs of the county Mr. Neal always took an active part during his years of vigor and energy. He served as sheriff from 1865 to 1869, and during the Civil War was in the state militia taking part in all it had to do in the troublous and turbulent years of the great strife between the sections of our then torn and bleeding country. For a long time he and his wife were among the most attentive, serviceable and devout members of the Methodist Episcopal church, and fraternally he was connected with the Order of Odd Fellows for more than half a century. He fell into his long sleep in the fullness of years and after having enjoyed for nearly three score the unstinted esteem and, during
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the closing period of his life, the veneration of all the people of the county.
STEPHEN F. BASKETT
Among the advanced, progressive and studious farmers of Linn county Stephen F. Baskett holds a high rank, being regarded, not only in his own township of Clay, but throughout the county as one of the leading men in his business. He began farming on his own account at the age of twenty-one, and has been engaged in this occupation ever since. He has therefore had long experience in the business, and he has, in addition, made a study of it and kept in touch with its advance- ment in every way.
Mr. Baskett is a native of Sullivan county, Missouri, and was born near Fields' mill on November 28, 1867. His parents, George P. and Mary E. (Fields) Baskett, were also born in Missouri, the former in Sullivan county and the latter in Linn county. The father's life began in 1845. He was educated there, and in 1862, when he was but seven- teen years of age, enlisted in defense of the Union in Company A, Twenty-third Missouri Volunteer Infantry. The regiment was soon in the midst of hostilities and was kept in active field service to the end. of the war. Mr. Baskett took part in the battle of Shiloh and many other important engagements.
After the close of the war he returned home and changed his resi- dence to Linn county a few years later. He died here on March 19, 1888. The mother is still living. Of the ten children born to them seven are living, and all of them are residents of Linn county. The father served as township clerk and in other local offices. He was a member of the Methodist Episcopal churchı. He was a man of promi- nence and influence in his township, and was regarded as one of its most estimable citizens.
The grandfather, Stephen J. Baskett, came to Missouri from Ken -. tucky when he was a young man and located in Sullivan county. He was a merchant and farmer. Late in life he came to Linn county, and here he died well advanced in years. He was thrice married, his first wife being a Miss Slaughter, who was a native of Howard county, this state. They became the parents of two sons and four daughters.
Stephen F. Baskett was brought by his parents to Linn county at an early age. He grew to manhood here and was educated in the dis- trict schools. At the age of twenty-one he started his life work as a
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farmer, and he has never had or sought any other occupation. This has been entirely to his taste, and he has so conducted his operations in it that he has made it very profitable in a pecuniary way, and secured for himself a high and widespread reputation for his capacity and skill as a farmer.
On February 21, 1892, Mr. Baskett was united in marriage with Miss Martha E. Smithi, a daughter of Daniel Smith, who was born in Ohio and became a resident of Linn county in 1876. No children have been born of the union. Mr. Baskett takes an active interest in the public affairs of his township and county. He has served as township collector, and in other ways has rendered the locality of his home excel- lent and valued service. He is always zealous and energetic in promot- ing the progress of this part of the state, and his zeal and energy are at all times guided by intelligence and inspired by an earnest desire for the lasting good and general welfare of the community. Fraternally he is a member of the Order of Odd Fellows, and his wife belongs to the Methodist Episcopal church, which he also attends. They both take an active part in church work. Mr. Baskett has ever been a great lover of music, and for a number of years taught vocal music at nights in connection with his farm work, and still takes an active part in drill- ing voices for special work. He is also warm and practical in the sup- port of his fraternity. Every interest of the county has his ardent aid, and no duty of citizenship is too burdensome for his faithful per- formance of it, or too small for his attention. He is one of the most representative men in his township.
SETH GRIFFETH
Made an orphan at the age of three years by the death of his father, and consequently thrown on his own resources at an early age, Seth Griffeth, one of the best known and most prosperous farmers in Clay township, this county, has made an excellent record and proved that he contained in his make-up the elements of self-reliance and re- sourcefulness which fitted him for any emergency and enabled him to command circumstances to his purposes and make them minister to his advancement.
Mr. Griffeth is a native of Missouri, born in Sullivan county on October 19, 1861. His parents, Wesley and Sarah (Wilsey) Griffeth, were born and reared in Pike county, Illinois. The father was a farmer
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HISTORY OF LINN COUNTY
and followed his chosen occupation in his native state until about 1857, when he moved to this state and took up his residence on a tract of unbroken prairie land in Sullivan county. He improved this property and made a good farm of it, living on it until his death, in 1864. The farm is fourteen miles west of Milan, and is now one of the most de- sirable in that part of the county. During the Civil War the father served in the state militia in this state. The mother is still living and has her home now at Parsons, Kansas, where she has been living a number of years.
They were the parents of two sons and three daughters. Two of the daughters have died. The father was a hunter of considerable local celebrity. Game was plentiful in Sullivan county when he located there, and he was very successful and skillful in securing hosts of tributes to his alertness in the chase, especially deer and wild turkeys. His wife was a devoted member of the Christian church and took a cordial and helpful interest in the welfare of the congregation to which she be- longed.
His son Seth grew to manhood in Pike county, Illinois, and obtained his education there. In 1880 he returned to Missouri, and during the next sixteen years lived on the old homestead in Sullivan county. In 1896 he moved to Linn county and has lived ever since on the farm in Clay township which he now owns and cultivates, and which he has brought to a high degree of improvement and productiveness. He is a capable and wideawake farmer, studies his land and its needs and keeps in touch with the advances in the science of agriculture, and he makes his farming pay him good returns for the labor and care be- stowed upon it.
Mr. Griffeth was married in Sullivan county in 1888 to Miss Mary Walker, a daughter of Frank and Jane (Hoover) Walker, the former a native of Kentucky and the latter of Pennsylvania. Mr. Walker located in Sullivan county in 1841, taking up a tract of government land on which he passed the rest of his life. Mr. and Mrs. Griffeth have had five children, three of whom are living: William G., I. Trussell and Arthur F. Their mother had two children by a former marriage: Jane E. Clevenger and Edith M., the latter being now the wife of Eberly Dennis, of Linn county. All the members of the family belong to the Cumberland Presbyterian church.
They are well and favorably known throughout the county and stand high in the regard of the people in every part of it. They have lived uprightly, taken a serviceable interest in every public need of
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their township and county, performed all the duties of good citizenship with fidelity, and given excellent examples of manhood and womanhood to the people living around them, in every way. Among the sterling and sturdy residents of Clay township they are in the first rank, and no family in the locality of their home is held in higher esteem, and none deserves to be.
ORSA A. POTTER
For a number of years a prosperous farmer of the rich prairie soil of central Illinois, and since 1904 engaged in tilling that of a fine farm of 240 acres in Jefferson township, this county, which is in many re- spects more desirable than almost anything his native state has to offer in the same line, Orsa A. Potter has devoted all his time and energies from his youth to the vocation of the old patriarchs of sacred history, and has found it both pleasing in pursuit and profitable in results.
Mr. Potter was born in Shelby county, Illinois, on February 10, 1870, a son of William and Sarah (Barrett) Potter, the former a native of Ohio and the latter of Pennsylvania. The family name was orig- inally Potterf, and the early members of the family in this country made honorable records in colonial and Revolutionary history under that name. Mr. Potter's parents were farmers. The father journeyed on horseback from his Ohio home to Shelby county, Illinois, in 1850, and there broke up a tract of wild prairie, which, by industry and good management, he transformed into a valuable and productive farm. He then repeated this performance on another tract, and after such and other signal service to the region laid down his trust, dying in 1899. The mother survived him seven years, passing away in 1906. The father was a Republican in political faith and always effectively service- able to his party.
His father, Samuel Potterf, was a son of Jasper Potterf, a soldier in the Revolutionary War, who defended the cause of the American colonies through its successions of brightness and gloom from the time when the war began until the surrender of Cornwallis at York- town, Virginia, at which he was present, and which he helped to bring about. He was a sharp shooter in the service, and many a haughty British officer was forced to bite the dust in obedience to a summons from his unerring rifle. After the war he settled in Ohio, and there he passed the remainder of his days.
Orsa A. Potter was reared on his father's farm in Illinois and
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HISTORY OF LINN COUNTY
obtained his education in the country schools in the neighborhood of its location. After leaving school he farmed in the same county on his own account until 1904, when he came to Missouri and Linn county and bought the farm of 240 acres which he now owns, occupies and cultivates in Jefferson township. He has his land all brought to an advanced state of productiveness and the farm well improved with good buildings. He studies his business and keeps in touch with the latest discoveries and methods in farming, and is known far and wide as one of the enterprising, progressive and successful farmers of this part of northern Missouri.
He carries on general farming operations as extensively as the size of his farm will permit, and in addition conducts a flourishing and expanding business in breeding Hereford cattle and Percheron horses. By this industry he has done a great deal to improve the live stock in his township and county, and thereby been of considerable service to the people around him. He has also made the business profitable to himself by giving every detail of its management the most careful and studious attention, thereby winning for himself and his output a high and widespread reputation, he being everywhere considered a careful, judicious and reliable breeder of high grade live stock.
Mr. Potter was married on September 14, 1892, to Miss Alfaretta Pogue, a native of Shelby county, Illinois, and a daughter of Hiram and Rachel (Hunt) Pogue (Rachel Hunt's parents were Quakers of Indiana), early settlers in that county and both now deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Potter have one child, their son Loren W., who still abides with them under the parental rooftree, and assists his father in the work of the farm and the stock breeding industry.
Mr. Potter is a firm and faithful Republican in political relations, and at all times zealously loyal and serviceable to his party, although he has no desire for anything it has to bestow in the way of public office. His farming and his live stock industry occupy his time and attention, except what is necessary for social requirements and the duties of citizenship, and he prefers to leave the administration of public affairs to those who have a taste and desire for it. Fraternally he is connected with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and in religious affiliation belongs to the Methodist church in Laclede. He is an excellent farmer, a wise and successful stock breeder, a sterling and progressive citizen and an upright and straightforward man, and the residents of Linn county esteem him in every locality in accordance with this estimate.
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HISTORY OF LINN COUNTY
JOHN W. LOCKHART
Prominent as one of the leading farmers of Clay township in this county, held in high esteem as a capable and successful school teacher for many years, and revered for his religious services as a local preacher, John W. Lockhart is altogether worthy of the rank he holds in the estimation of the people, as is shown by his success and achieve- ments in his several vocations, his high character and his faithful per- formance of all the duties of citizenship in behalf of his township and county.
Mr. Lockhart, although not "native here, and to the manor born," his life having begun in Henry county, Illinois, on April 10, 1864, is as warmly interested in the progress and development of Linn county as if he were a son of its soil. In fact, he has drawn his stature and his strength from that soil, for he has lived in Clay township from the time when he was four years old, and scarcely remembers any other home. He is a son of John W. and Elizabeth (Hull) Lockhart, natives of Virginia, the father born in Rappahannock county on June 13, 1818, and the mother in the same county on June 18, 1835.
The father was a wagon maker and a first rate workman at the craft. In the fifties, sometime, he moved his family to Henry county, Illinois, where he farmed and did repair work at his trade until 1868, when he came to Missouri and located in Linn county. He bought a tract of wild land in Clay township which he cleared and improved, making it over into a first rate farm on which he lived many years. He died at Breckenridge, Caldwell county, this state in 1903, and the mother passed away in Linneus in 1884. They had two children, one of whom has died.
Mr. Lockhart's grandfather, Willis Lockhart, was also a Virginian, and his great-grandfather was a soldier in the war of the Revolution. They were prosperous planters in Virginia, and of Scotch ancestry. The mother's family originated in England, and the progenitors of the American branch of it also came to this country and settled in the "Old Dominion" in colonial times. The members of both houses took part in the affairs of the commonwealth in various ways in the earlier days, helped to lay its foundations and rear the superstructure of its colonial greatness and aided in the development of its later progress as a state.
Mr. Lockhart was but four years old when the family moved to Linn county, and he grew to manhood here and obtained his education in the district schools of Clay township and at Avalon College. After completing his education he taught school in Linn and Ray counties for
1
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HISTORY OF LINN COUNTY
a period of twelve years, being engaged in farming at the same time and ever since. He has also long been prominent in the councils of the Methodist Episcopal church, as his parents were, and has rendered local congregations excellent service for many years as a preacher in time of need. In public affairs he has taken an active and serviceable part, and has shown capacity of an unusual order for them in service as township trustee.
On August 31, 1886, Mr. Lockhart was married in this county to Miss Emma B. Cuberly, a daughter of William Cuberly of Ohio, an early settler in Linn county. Seven children were born of the union, all of whom are living: Myrtle, who is now the wife of E. E. Gibson, and Irving, Victor, Harry, Mary, Pauline and Frank. Their mother died on October 4, 1910, and in 1911 the father married a second time, uniting himself with Miss Anna Grice, a native of West Virginia, who is, like himself, well esteemed in all parts of the township and elsewhere where she is known.
WELLS D. BROWN (Deceased)
The late Wells D. Brown, of Marceline, where he was one of the leading business men of the city for more than twenty years, had a very interesting and successful business career. His activity and alertness for opportunities led him to many places in several different states, and gave plenty of spice and variety to his operations. But wherever he lived and in all that he did he always commanded the high regard and esteem of the people around him, and was an orna- ment and a great benefit to every community in which he lived, being a man of great public spirit and energy and effectiveness in behalf of the general welfare of his locality.
Mr. Brown was born on November 2, 1852, in the village of Ontario, Wayne county, New York, where he was reared to the age of eleven years and began his education. In 1863 he became a resident of Coldwater, Michigan, and in 1877 located in Monroe county, Mis- souri. There he began his business record and was married on Janu- ary 9, 1879, to Miss Martha Jane Wood, the daughter of Caleb and Sarah Wood, who came to this state from Bourbon county, Kentucky, and were among the very first settlers of Monroe county, Missouri.
Four children were born of this union: Charles Burton, whose life began on April 23, 1881, died in infancy; Fred Wood, whose time of birth was April 13, 1883; Sarah Estella died, who came into being on
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September 12, 1886, and Frances O., who was born on February 25, 1890. Two of the children are living, and in their several locations and stations in life are exemplifying the excellent traits of character for which their parents were everywhere distinguished.
In 1882 the parents moved with what family they then had to Chi- cago, where they remained two years, then returned to Missouri, taking up their residence at Clarence, Shelby county. In 1888 the family moved to Marceline, and in 1890 the father started the leading lumber business in that city, which he conducted with great success and excel- lent results until his death. This occurred on May 25, 1911, at the comparatively early age of fifty-seven years and seven months, and removed from the activities of the town and county one of their best merchants and most enterprising and progressive citizens, as well as one of the most serviceable.
Mr. Brown took a very active, intelligent and helpful interest in everything pertaining to the locality of his home, and could always be counted on to give strong support to whatever made for its further development and improvement or ministered to the welfare of its resi- dents. No duty of citizenship was too small for his attention or too large for him to undertake and successfully perform. The people of Marceline esteemed him highly for his excellent character, his strong sense of fidelity, his uprightness in all his transactions and his general worth and usefulness as a man.
WILLIAM B. McGREGOR
Bearing the name of a warlike clan distinguished in Scottish his- tory, and a scion of families prominent in its deeds of valor, William B. McGregor, although a native of Linn county, Missouri, and now a resident of Locust Creek township, has had his interest in the chroni- cles of his ancestors quickened by breathing in the fragrance of their native heather and mingling freely with their other descendants through narratives of their doings given him by his father, who acquired a knowledge of them during his two long residences in Scotland.
He was born on a farm about two miles south of St. Catharine in this county, on January 29, 1876, and is a son of Duncan and Rachel Ellen (Dick) (Young) McGregor, the former of whom was born in Prince Edward's Island, Nova Scotia, in 1832, and the latter in Ohio in 1841. When the father was only one year old he was taken to
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Scotland, where he remained until he was twenty-one. He then returned to the United States, and located for some years in Pennsyl- vania, afterward removing to Missouri and finding a new home at Dry Hill, near St. Louis. He remained here engaged in mining until 1860, then went back to Scotland for another residence of about five years. At the end of that period he once more came to Linn county, and here he passed the remainder of his days.
He was married on March 4, 1875, and being a man of very pro- gressive ideas, he and his wife took an earnest interest and active part in everything pertaining to the development and improvement of the township and county of their residence. They were especially zealous in the work of the Methodist Episcopal church, the father being one of the trustees who built the Seely chapel. But they were ready and energetic in all other worthy projects undertaken by the congregation to which they belonged, and were accounted among its most valuable and useful members.
Their son William was reared in Linn county and obtained the greater part of his education in its schools. He attended a common school to the end of its course of instruction, then the high school at Marceline, and afterward the college in Brookfield. After leaving the institution last named le secured special training and preparation for the profession of teaching at the Kirksville State Normal School. He began teaching in 1897, when he was twenty-one years of age, and taught three years in country schools and ten as principal of the schools in Brookfield.
His extended services in this line of useful endeavor commended him to the people of the county as a capable, intelligent and upright man, and in November, 1910, they showed their appreciation of his worth and his fitness for administrative duties by electing him county recorder by a majority of 300 votes, as the nominee of the Democratic party, to which he has belonged from the dawn of his manhood, and in whose service he has ever been zealous and effective, although not, at any time, allowing partisan considerations to influence his work as a school teacher, or in reference to any general interest of the people.
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