USA > Missouri > Linn County > Compendium of history and biography of Linn County, Missouri > Part 74
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80
But before Dr. Gooch's professional life, or his preparation for it, began, he had thrilling experiences and adventures, which gave him opportunity to show the mettle of which he was made, and proved that it was sterling. In 1862 he joined Company K, Second Infantry, First Brigade, Confederate army, under General Price, and during his serv-
725
HISTORY OF LINN COUNTY
ice received a serious wound in the arm at the battle of Pea Ridge, which disqualified him for further military activity, and he was there- upon discharged and ready to return to his home.
He had, however, no other means of transportation than walking, and made the journey from Little Rock, Arkansas, to this county on foot. He was suffering from his wound, ill with chills and fever, and without arms of any kind, offensive or defensive. While in this condi- tion he lost his way in an extensive forest, and during his wanderings met with a ferocious panther, from which he only escaped by strategy and heroic exertion. After arriving home and getting his wound cured, he went to Nebraska in 1865, and for eighteen months was engaged in freighting in that state and Colorado. In his military service, on his long and wearying journey home, and in the hazardous pursuit he fol- lowed on the road, or along the old trails, he faced every danger with lofty courage, and although his physical strength was often severely tried, his spirit made it equal to every requirement, whether of peril or privation.
Of his professional career and services to the people of this county, it would seem superfluous to speak. His exhaustive knowledge of his profession and his wisdom and skill in applying that knowledge; his mastery of its theory and his resourcefulness in practice; his genial and sympathetic nature, which is so persuasive in effect and so helpful in a curative way, and his indefatigable industry in attending to calls during the years of his full energy and vigor, are so well known all over Linn county that no description of them here could add to the gen- eral knowledge on the subject in this locality, which has been the scene of his labors. The value, the productiveness, the advanced state of cultivation of his fine 200-acre farm in Jackson township, and the com- modious and complete improvements on it, are also so well known that no comment on them would be in place here. These all speak for them- selves in the territory for which this work is intended.
On February 11, 1874, the doctor was married to Miss Bettie Morris, a daughter of Jeremiah Morris, who came to Missouri in 1854, to Buchanan county, and came to Linn county in 1860. He emigrated to this state from Larue county, Kentucky. The cause of the Southern Confederacy enlisted his sympathy, and he served in its army for one year. His wife, the mother of Mrs. Gooch, was Miss Martha MeGovock before her marriage, and was a native of Wythe county, Virginia.
Dr. and Mrs. Gooch have had thirteen children, eleven of whom are living: Tilden, Linn, Richard, Lena, Mildred, Nannie, Cordie, Warren, Roy, Drink and Cleo. Lena is the wife of E. Phillips, and Mildred is
726
HISTORY OF LINN COUNTY
the wife of Carlus Stevenson. The doctor has never been very active in politics, but has always been interested in good government for his county, state and country, and always deeply interested in the welfare of the whole people. A lingering representative of the fading band of heroic pioneers who settled this county, he is held in reverence by all its residents.
WILLIAM T. MCGHEE
A native of Missouri, and from his boyhood a resident of Linn county, William McGhee, one of the prosperous and progressive farmers of Enterprise township, is well known to the people of this and other parts of the county, and all they know of him is to his credit. He is industriously and profitably engaged in farming and raising live stock, and is also active and progressive with reference to the affairs of his township and the whole of Linn county, and the people esteem him as one of their most useful and enterprising and far-seeing citizens.
Mr. McGhee was born in Calloway county, Missouri, on November 24, 1871. His parents, James W. and Rebecca (Miller) McGhee, were also born in Missouri, the latter in Calloway and the former in Linn county. The father was reared and educated in this county, and passed the whole of his life within its borders. He was an extensive live-stock man for his opportunities, and attained considerable local reputation for his success in the business. He and his wife were the parents of two children: William T. and his brother, Charles E. The father died in 1911, but the mother is living.
William T. McGhee was brought by his parents to Linn county in his boyhood, and grew to manhood here. He obtained his education in the country schools in the neighborhood of his father's farm, and assisted in the labor of cultivating the latter and what was incident to the stock business carried on by his father. When he attained his majority, he started in the live-stock industry and as a general farmer for himself, and he has ever since been engaged in those two lines of employment and business.
On March 24, 1894, he was united in marriage with Miss May Muirhead, a daughter of Hugh Muirhead, who became a resident of Linn county in 1858, and is now deceased. Five children have been born of the union, and all of them are living. They are: Nettie, Jay, Jessie, Lessie and Frances. The father has taken an active part in political affairs in his township, and has served as township collector and trustee four years. He is an earnest working member of the
727
HISTORY OF LINN COUNTY
Democratic party, and his services in the field and his wisdom in coun- sel are warmly appreciated by both the leaders and the rank and file of his party.
The first member of this particular branch of the McGhee family to locate in Linn county was John McGhee, the grandfather of Will- iam T. He came to the county about the year 1845, and entered a tract of government land in Enterprise township. With great energy and continued industry, he cleared, broke up and improved his farm, making it one of the most advanced and attractive in the township at the time. But he did not live long to enjoy the fruits of his labor on it, dying at the early age of thirty-five. But, although his life was so short in the county, he left behind him, when he answered the summons inevitable to all mankind, an excellent example as a farmer and a good name as an upright, honest, straightforward and progressive man and citizen. His grandson, William T. McGhee, has the same reputation, and well deserves it.
GEORGE A. BARNES
The venerable subject of this brief review, who is one of the patriarchs of Jackson township, Linn county, has been a resident of the township in which he now lives continuously for fifty-four years, and has passed forty-five years on the farm which he now occupies and owns. His life record is interesting from many points of view, and worthy of commendation from all. He is now more than eighty- one years old. He is a native of another state than this; grew to man- hood in another many miles away from the border of Missouri; passed two years in the gold regions of the Pacific slope; then came back to Linn county, became possessed of the tract of land which constitutes his present fine farm, when it was an unbroken expanse of wilder- ness, and settled down from all his wanderings. He has since devoted his time and energies to improving his farm and making it comfortable as a home and valuable in its productiveness.
Mr. Barnes was born in Tennessee, on April 9, 1831, and is a son of William and Sarah (Durham) Barnes, the former a native of North Carolina and the latter of Tennessee. The parents and several of their children came together to Missouri in 1855 and located on a tract of government land in this county. The land had not been broken and was still wasting its substance and its strength in producing the wild growth of ages. Mr. Barnes lived on it a number of years and brought it to some degree of fruitfulness. In 1864 he crossed the plains to the
728
HISTORY OF LINN COUNTY
state of Washington, and there he passed the remainder of his life, which ended in 1884. The mother died in this county. They had a large family, all now deceased but George A. The father was a Baptist in religion and a Democrat in politics.
George A. Barnes was reared in Alabama and came to Missouri in 1856, but he passed some few years in Illinois first. He came direct to Linn county and remained here about one year. In 1857 he went to California, but, even if successful, his life as a miner in that state was not to his liking, although he stuck it out for two years. At the end of that period he returned to Missouri and, nine years later, took up his residence on his present Jackson township farm in this county, and on this he has made his home ever since.
In 1867 he was married on this farm to Miss Susan Morris, a native of Linn county. They have four children: John H., Parmelia E., Sarah J. and Jacob A. Even as late as then the country around him was largely undeveloped, almost wholly unimproved and but sparsely settled. Mr. Barnes resolutely joined hands with the other pioneers and helped to give an impetus to progress here that has been steady and continuous and has wrought wonderful improvements, and is still at work and with constantly augmenting power. It has been his good fortune to see the country leaping forward, and it is a source of great present comfort to him to know that he has done his full share in assisting in bringing about the change.
He has been assessor of the township, and in many other ways has been of service to its residents and all its civil, educational and religious institutions. For a number of years he has been retired from active pursuits, but he has never lost interest in the locality of his home, and has never stayed his hand when he could do it good. The people of the township respect him highly for what he has done, for the good citizenship he has displayed, for the uprightness of his long life and for his sterling manhood in private and public relations of every kind.
OBADIAH BROYLES
There is nothing in history more impressive, and, if viewed with the eye of true discernment, nothing more grand and inspiring, than the march of empire in this country, moving from the Atlantic slope over the Alleghanies, across the Mississippi valley, and on over the Rockies to the shores of the Pacific. And that it was largely an advance of mighty consequence due to individual effort rather than to organized forces, only adds to its grandeur, in the last analysis.
729
HISTORY OF LINN COUNTY
One family of this militant conquest of the wilderness, step by step, by hardy pioneers, independent of one another, yet all tending to the same glorious end, is represented in Jackson township, Linn county, Missouri, by Obadiah Broyles, one of the leading live-stock breeders of this part of the state now, but a child of five years when he became a resident of this county. He was born in Boyle county, Kentucky, on May 13, 1848, and is a son of Christopher and Margaret J. (Broyles) Broyles, also natives of that state, where the mother died soon after the birth of her son Obadiah. The father was a farmer in his native state, and he followed the same pursuit after reaching this state and county.
In 1853, gathering his household goods about him, and such per- sonal property as he deemed necessary for supplying his wants on the way and enabling him to get a start in the wilderness to which he was going, he left "the dark and bloody ground," and journeyed with teams to Missouri and Sullivan county, where he laid the foundations of his new home. He bought forty acres of land which was still in the sleep of ages and had never heard the commanding voice or felt the per- suasive hand of the husbandman. On this little tract in the wilds he built a crude log cabin as a home for himself and family, and at once went to work to break up his land and make it yield his household a livelihood. He made it fruitful by his persistent and well directed labor, and lived on or near it until his death, which occurred in 1877.
By his first marriage he became the father of four sons and four daughters. Three of the sons and two of the daughters are still living. Their mother, as has been stated, died in Kentucky, and the father married, as his second wife, Mrs. McCormick, a widow, who added three to his offspring, all of whom are living. The father attempted nothing in his work but general farming and raising enough live stock for his own purposes. But he succeeded in making his way to a com- fortable estate in this county for his day and circumstances, and left his mark on this locality in doing it.
His son Obadiah had no educational advantages in the way of direct schooling. When he was of a suitable age to go to school, there was no school available in the neighborhood of his home. And if there had been, he could not have derived much benefit from it, for from his boyhood he was forced, owing to the circumstances of the family, to make his own way by working out by the month, as there were many mouths to feed, and all the force the family could command was put in action to satisfy their requirements.
730
HISTORY OF LINN COUNTY
He continued to work for others until he reached the age of twenty- six; then, in 1870, in response to the longings within him, began to do something on his own account. In 1882 he bought 260 acres of land, the nucleus of his present farm of 580 acres, and began to repeat on it the work of development and improvement wrought by his father on his patch in the wilderness on which he got his start and reared his family. He broke up his land gradually and improved it with good buildings. And as one tract became fruitful, he bought another, until he acquired the whole of his present fine farm of 580 acres, as has been indicated.
Mr. Broyles was first married in 1874 to Miss Mary Fields, who died in 1887. They had seven children, five of whom are living: Wal- ter; Ada, who is now the wife of Frank A. Whetstone; Orson; Cordia, who is the wife of C. J. Gore, and Mary E., who is the wife of Winfield Edens. In 1889 he married, as his second wife, Miss Nettie Wood, a daughter of James N. Wood, who became a resident of Linn county during the Civil War. They have seven children: Fannie J., Alfred, Almira, Irene M., Curtis L., Hope C. and Flora I. His second wife is still living. Her parents were Indiana farmers, who moved from their native state first to Iowa and afterward to this county.
The principal industry which Mr. Broyles is engaged in is breed- ing draft horses, fine jacks and registered Hereford cattle, and in this industry he is easily one of the leaders in this part of the state, and is widely and favorably known as one. He is also held in good esteem as a man and a citizen of enterprise and progressiveness, earnestly and practically interested in the abiding welfare and continued improve- ment of his township, county and state in all avenues of advancement.
ALEXANDER SAYERS
Although only sixteen years of age when he became a resident of Linn county, Alexander Sayers of Jackson township is properly classed as a pioneer in this region, not merely by courtesy or construction, but because of the actual facts in the case. He was a youth in years but a man in stature and strength when he came, and he took a man's place and did a man's work in the great task of settling, improving and devel- oping the country. And his record for stalwart manhood and faithful service among the people here is excellent from the beginning.
Mr. Sayers was born in Tazewell county, Virginia, on February 15, 1832. His parents, John and Elizabeth (Goodwin) Sayers, were
731
HISTORY OF LINN COUNTY
also natives of Virginia. They moved to Kentucky some years after their marriage, and there they continued farming, the occupation that had employed their energies in their native state. Long years they lived and labored in Kentucky, and at last died on the farm they had made valuable and attractive by their industry and skill, and which had yielded abundant harvests in return for arduous but wisely directed toil. The grandfather, whose name was also Alexander Sayers, was a pioneer of Kentucky, often a companion of Daniel Boone, and an Indian fighter of local renown.
Alexander Sayers grew to the age of sixteen in Virginia, and ob- tained there all the schooling he ever got from the schoolmaster. In 1848 he came to this state in company with his uncle, Samuel Sayers, traversing the long and dreary distance with teams and consuming a month and a half in the journey. On their arrival in Linn county they located in Jackson township, and here Mr. Sayers found employ- ment in a grist and saw mill on Locust creek. In 1854 he was married to Miss Elizabeth Morris, a daughter of Thomas Morris, a pioneer of Linn county, who became a resident of it in 1837.
After his marriage Mr. Sayers determined to quit working in the mill, which had been the scene and beneficiary of his labors for six years, and start an enterprise of his own. He bought a tract of land in Sullivan county which he improved and lived on until 1865. In that year he returned to this county and took up his residence on the farm which he now owns and occupies, and which has been his home ever since. It was in the wilds when he took possession of it, and still the habitation and roaming ground of its aboriginal occupants, man and beast. Deer and wild turkeys were plentiful, and he got his share of them by the skill of his marksmanship and good judgment as a hunter. But he made no specialty of this.
Mr. and Mrs. Sayers have had eight children: John W., Thomas, James A., Martha S., Mary E., David L., Walter and Altie E. The father has always been warmly interested in the welfare of his town- ship and county, and willing to do everything his circumstances would permit to advance it. During the Civil War he served as a state mili- tiaman, and while not called into actual hostilities, he was always ready for the call if it came and prepared to do his full duty in obedi- ence to it.
In his political relations he is an ardent Democrat, and as such has served as township supervisor and collector. But in the performance of his duties while in office he knew no party, but exerted all his activi- ties in behalf of the whole people and for the common good. His
732
HISTORY OF LINN COUNTY
religious connection is with the Methodist Episcopal church, of which he has been a member for many years. And in the congregation to which he belongs he is a zealous and faithful worker in every depart- ment of its activity. The people around him have found him true to every trust and worthy of their highest confidence and esteem, and they have bestowed their regard on him freely.
BROWNING SAVINGS BANK
This enterprising, progressive and highly useful financial institu- tion, which the people of Browning and the surrounding country make liberal use of as a depository of their savings, and which they hold in very cordial confidence and esteem, was founded in April, 1884, and opened for business on the fourteenth day of that month, with a capital stock of $10,000. The first officers were B. D. Bolling, president, and C. A. Deadrick, cashier. The original directors, in addition to Mr. Bolling, were C. A. Deadrick, J. H. Biswell, J. Schrock, Perry McCol- lum and J. W. Anderson, the last of Hamilton, Missouri. Mr. Bolling has held the office of president of the institution from the time of its organization, but the cashier has been changed several times in the twenty-eight years of the bank's history.
The changes in the cashiership were in regular order as follows: C. A. Deadrick was succeeded by W. P. Taylor, and Mr. Taylor by W. T. Prather. Mr. Prather retired in favor of T. M. Sayers, and he in turn gave way to J. B. Harmon, who is now the vice president, and whose successor as cashier was F. R. Duncan, who still fills the posi- tion. The capital stock remains as it was at the founding of the bank. But the volume of business has been greatly expanded and the reputa- tion of the institution for sound and conservative management, coupled with commendable enterprise in the control of its affairs, has grown and spread as time has passed until now the bank is considered one of the best of its magnitude in the state.
Beverly D. Bolling, the president of the bank, was born at Perry- ville, Boyle county, Kentucky, on April 18, 1852, and is a son of James Paine and Lucinda (Kenley) Bolling, also natives of Kentucky, who became the parents of two children, their son Beverly D. and their daughter Luella, who is now the widow of Thos. H. Gooch. Her hus- band was a soldier in the Union army during the Civil War. James P. Bolling was a millwright and farmer, and followed the two industries
733
HISTORY OF LINN COUNTY
to which he had been trained during his residence in Kentucky and also after becoming a resident of this state.
In 1860 the family moved to Missouri and located for a short time in Sullivan county, removing to Nodaway county in the spring of 1861. In the fall of that year the father enlisted in defense of the Union in Company B, Thirty-fifth Missouri Volunteer Infantry. The regiment soon became a part of the Army of the Cumberland, and Mr. Bolling remained in it until he died from an illness contracted in the service, his end coming at Cairo, Illinois, on February 24, 1864, and leaving his son an orphan at the age of twelve years.
Not long after the father joined the army the mother removed her children to Sullivan county again. The son remained there about one year, then went to Louisville, Kentucky, to pursue a course of business training in the Bryant & Stratton Commercial College. After com- pleting this course and working for a time at various occupations he secured a position in the custom house as admeasurement and record- ing clerk for steamboats. He held this position two years and three months, but found the confinement and close application the duties required telling on his health and reducing his flesh.
He therefore deemed it advisable to seek a change of climate, and came to Linn county, Missouri, locating near Enterprise in the town- ship of the same name. After remaining there two or three years he removed to Texas in 1873, and during the next few months rambled over that great state. Finally he took up his resident in the northern part and accepted a position as commissary with a grading company on the Trans-continental Railway, holding the place for three months. He then took a trip over parts of the state he had not previously vis- ited, and at the end of it located in Madison county, where he was appointed deputy clerk of the district court, a position he held for three years, improving his leisure time by studying law, and in Novem- ber, 1874, he was admitted to practice by Judge James Burnett of that district.
Mr. Bolling practiced law about one year, and then abandoned Texas and the profession at the same time. He moved to Browning and started an enterprise in the lumber trade, and at the same time keeping a stock of farm implements, and kindred commodities. His business started practically with the town and has grown with its growth. In the course of a few years it expanded to such proportions that he handled annually about one hundred carloads of lumber and a number of farm machinery. His mother died at Browning in 1887, after a residence of several years in the town.
734
HISTORY OF LINN COUNTY
Mr. Bolling's grandfather, Richard K. Bolling, was born at Peters- burg, Virginia. He moved from the Old Dominion to Kentucky in his young manhood, and several years afterward was accidentally killed in a fight arising out of a feud. While looking at the fight as an inno- cent spectator he received a wound from a pistol ball which proved fatal. His wife was, before her marriage to him, Miss Priscilla Little, and they became the parents of eight children, seven sons and one daughter, all of whom have been dead for a number of years.
On February 25, 1877, Mr. Bolling was united in marriage with Miss Sarah O. Fleming, a daughter of Judge Jas. T. Fleming. Their living children number four: James P., a farmer and stock-breeder; John L., a bookkeeper in Kansas City, Missouri; Bernice L., who is still living with her parents; and Beverly F., who is attending school.
Mr. Bolling is a member of the school board of Browning. He is a Republican in politics, but too deeply immured in business to be either desirous of public office or an active partisan. His lumber and implement business was quite successful, and under his wise and skill- ful management the bank over which he presides has also become an institution of magnitude, doing an extensive and very active business. On February 29, 1912, its resources amounted to $219,290.45. The sur- plus aggregated $30,000, and the net undivided profits $10,139.14, all on a capital stock of $10,000.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.