USA > Missouri > Linn County > Compendium of history and biography of Linn County, Missouri > Part 76
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Mr. Robbins remained two years in the Golden State, teaching school and working with a threshing outfit, and at the end of the period mentioned returned to his native state. But the West still wore a winning smile for him, and in 1858 he again turned his face in the direction of the setting sun, coming to Missouri and locating on a tract of 160 acres of wild land which he purchased-the land now occupied by his widow and one of her sons. He put up a log house in which to shelter his family and log stables for his livestock, and began industriously to break up his land and bring it into productive- ness. He lived on the land and did what he could to make a good farm out of it until his death on October 31, 1868, which resulted from the kick of a horse.
He was married in Pennsylvania in 1858, on February 4, to Miss Martha C. Christy, a native of Allegheny county in that state. They had seven children, six of whom are now living: Elizabeth E., who is the wife of A. M. Ward, of Kirksville; Nannie A., the wife of Dennis Wood, of St. John, Kansas; Charles F., a Linn county farmer; Mar- garet C., now Mrs. Henry Smiley, of Wheeling, Livingston county; William C., who is living on the old homestead with his mother; and Bertie M., who is the wife of Edward Darling, also a resident of this county. .
Mr. Robbins was a frugal and industrious man, eager to make the best possible provision he could for his family. With this end in view, while developing his farm he also taught school in this county during the winter months. He was also a strong Union man, and in 1860 cast
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the only vote received by Abraham Lincoln for President in Parson Creek township. During the Civil War he served as first lieutenant of one of Linn county's companies of Missouri State Militia. On account of his loyalty to the Union his family suffered greatly from depreda- tions by raiders, being twice robbed of their live stock and provender, and subjected to other indignities, including threats of personal injury.
At the time of their father's death the oldest of the children was less than ten years of age. The mother certainly deserves great credit for her care and good management in raising so large a number of children left in their tender years without the aid of a father's pro- viding and protecting hand. She was made in the heroic mold of womanhood for which the noble race of pioneer women were dis- tinguished, however, and assumed her duties with resolute courage and performed them with great constancy and fidelity. She is a veri- table old-timer in this region, and recollects distinctly the days when deer stalked boldly into her dooryard and wild turkeys gobbled and strutted around her cabin, fearless of danger, and almost as if in defiance of the intrusion of a new and conquering race into their erst- while unquestioned domain. In those days the nearest church was so far away that she and her husband could get to it never oftener than once a month, and frequently not that often. The nearest neighbor they had was a mile and a half across the prairie, and the schools were few, widely scattered and of the most primitive character. She is an admirable monument and reminder of a condition of life that has passed away forever, and is as widely and highly esteemed as any lady in the county. Her sons, as they grew up, developed and im- proved the farm of 240 acres, making it one of the best in the township.
SIDNEY O. PARSONS
The life of this interesting business man began in Jefferson county, Iowa, on May 31, 1873, so that he is now thirty-nine years of age. But, although he must rank as a young man yet, he has seen a good deal of life in various ways, and has lived and labored usefully in three of the great states of the American Union, thirteen years in the state in which he was born, ten in Kansas and sixteen in Missouri, and his record is good and creditable to him in all, and especially so in this state, where he has passed nearly all his years since attaining his manhood.
Mr. Parsons is one of the enterprising and progressive business
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men of Bucklin, this county, where he has lived continuously since coming to Missouri. He has also mingled in the public life of the com- munity with advantage to it and considerable credit to himself. He is a son of John J. and Mary S. (Smith) Parsons, the former a native of Iowa and the latter of Ohio. They are both living and are prac- tically retired from active pursuits after having been engaged for years in zealous and profitable farming.
Their son Sidney was reared to the age of thirteen in Iowa, then, in 1886, the family moved to Smith county, Kansas. In 1896 the son came to Linn county and located at Bucklin, where he has ever since been engaged in business and official duties, having served as city alderman from his ward and as city collector two terms. He is a Democrat in political relations and always active and effective in the service of his party, as a member of which he was chosen to the offices he has filled.
On February 24, 1894, he was married in Smith county, Kansas, to Miss Rose Harper, of that county. They have two children, Bera M. and Harvey H. The father is a member of the Order of Odd Fel- lows and Modern Woodmen of America, and is zealous in his devotion to the Christian church, to which he has belonged for a number of years. He takes great interest in all the organizations to which he belongs, and his membership in them is warmly appreciated by their other members. He performs all his duties with the energy with which he carries on his business, and is enterprising and progressive in everything he undertakes. The residents of the city of his home esteem him highly, and he has shown himself to be well worthy of their regard, confidence and good will in every way.
QUINCY R. BRUCE
A veteran of the Civil War, and since "the battle flags were furled" an industrious and successful farmer, Quincy R. Bruce, of Jackson township, has well met the requirements of his manhood and his duty to his country in war and peace, and has the respect of all who know him for his fidelity in both, as well as for his uprightness as a man and his usefulness and progressiveness as a citizen. And this respect is based on thorough knowledge of him, for he has lived in this county more than half a century.
Mr. Bruce is a native of Lawrence county, Ohio, where his life began on August 3, 1839. His parents were Vincent and Corinthia
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(Clark) Bruce, the former a native of Ohio and the latter of Vermont. The father was born in 1810, and was a stonemason and farmer by occupation, following these industries in his native state and after coming to Missouri and Linn county in 1859, bringing his five sons and their mother with him. The family located on unbroken land in Jackson township, and there the father died in 1867. The mother passed away July 17, 1891, at the age of ninety years.
The father was an active and energetic Republican, always a zeal- ous worker for the interests of his party, and as its candidate he served in a number of township offices. In religious connection he was a devoted member of the Baptist church. The grandfather, William Bruce, was born in Virginia and married in West Virginia. He moved to Ohio in early married life, and was killed by a runaway slave. The great-grandfather was born and reared in Scotland. He came to this country about the time of the Revolution, and was killed at Marietta, Ohio, by Indians.
The tragedy that darkened the lives of his forefathers has also been present in that of the subject of this sketch. He was reared to the age of twenty in his native state, then came with his parents to this county. The awful storm cloud of the Civil War was then darken- ing our sky, and two years later broke with all its fury on our unhappy country. Mr. Bruce was one of the first to volunteer for the defense of the Union, enlisting in 1861 in Company C, Eighteenth Missouri Infantry, in which he served three years and saw a great deal of active field work. He took part, with his regiment, in the battles of Shilolı, where Death rode rampant through the ranks of both contending armies; Corinth, Mississippi, where two savage engagements were fought; Buzzards' Roost, Peachtree Creek, the siege of Atlanta, and many minor conflicts.
Mr. Bruce was discharged at St. Louis, Missouri, November 18, 1864, on account of illness incurred in the service. He returned to his Missouri home and turned his attention to farming in this county, and here.he has been engaged in the same pursuit ever since. He has been successful in his farming operations and through them has accumu- lated a comfortable estate. He has also taken an active and service- able interest in the political, civil, moral and educational affairs of the county, and his citizenship has been well appreciated by the people because of its elevated character and its usefulness.
He was married in 1867 to Miss Mary J. Smith, a native of this county. Her parents, William B. and Maria (Gillespie) Smith, came to Linn county in 1841, and were therefore pioneers here. Mr. and
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Mrs. Bruce have five children living: Cora, Archie, Daniel, Zella and Jesse. Cora is the wife of W. R. Phillips and Zella of A. M. Kilborn. Their father is a Republican in political relations and has always been active in the service of his party. On one occasion he was its nominee for the office of county judge. His religious connection is with the Baptist church.
ALEXANDER GOOCH
The son of a pioneer and himself entitled to all the reverence and distinction that pertains to the rank, Alexander Gooch, of Jackson township, enjoys the high esteem of all the residents of Linn county, not only on this account, but also because of his excellent personal character, his enterprise and progressiveness in the days of his great- est activity and the long continued usefulness he has exhibited to every interest of this region, to which he was brought in childhood, and in which he has lived ever since and labored with fidelity and good results from his boyhood.
Mr. Gooch was born in Chariton county, Missouri, on November 23, 1835. He is a son of Rowland and Delia (Millsap) Gooch, the former a native of Madison county, Kentucky, and the latter of North Carolina. The father was born in 1813, and throughout his life from his young manhood he was engaged in tilling the soil. His parents, Gideon and Nancy (Leavell) Gooch, brought him to Missouri in 1829, and located in Chariton county, then almost wholly a wilderness. The trip was made with wagon teams, and had the usual succession of hardships, privations and perils.
On his arrival in this state Gideon Gooch took up a tract of land in Chariton county, but after spending ten years in clearing this tract and reducing it to productiveness, he moved his family to Grundy county, where he ended his days. He was a soldier under General William Henry Harrison in the War of 1812, and took part in all the battles with the Indians fought by that distinguished warrior, remain- ing three years in the service in a regiment commanded by Colonel Dudley. At one time he was surrendered to the British with the rest of his regiment, but was in captivity only a short time. He and his wife were the parents of eight sons and six daughters, all now deceased.
Their son, Rowland Gooch, the father of Alexander, grew to man- hood in Chariton county, and in 1841 came to Linn county, locating in Jackson township on land which he received from the government. He cleared this land, transformed it into a good farm and lived on it
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until his death, which occurred in 1899. His wife died in 1855, and he afterward married Mrs. Louisa Haller, the widow of Dr. Haller. By his two marriages he became the father of eight children, six of whom, five of the sons and one of the daughters, are still living. He was a great hunter, and loved the sport. Deer and wild turkeys fell in great numbers under his unerring aim, and not only kept his larder stored with good provisions but added to his fame as Nimrod of great expertness. He was a member of the Baptist church for many years and faithful in his devotion to it.
Alexander Gooch grew to manhood in Jackson township and obtained a limited education at a school kept in a rude log school- house on his father's farm. He remained at home until he reached the age of twenty and assisted in clearing the farm. In 1855 he began farming for himself on government land, which he took up in its wild state. He broke up the soil, brought it to productiveness, put up all the improvements on it, and made of it the excellent farm on which he now lives.
He was first married in 1854 to Miss Mary F. Bragg, and by this marriage became the father of eight children, five of whom are living: William J., John A., Harvey P., Mary E., and Howard B. Their mother died in 1871, and in 1874 the father married Miss Mary E. Phillips, a native of Kentucky. Four children were born of this union, Nova J. and Jerry P. are living. During the Civil War Mr. Gooch served as a member of the Home Guards. He was a justice of the peace for twenty years, and was school director for a number. In religious connection he is a Baptist. He is well known and highly re- spected throughout the county.
STEPHEN W. MCCOLLUM
A veteran of the Civil War, and since the close of that momentous sectional conflict, which so nearly rent our country asunder, for years an industrious and thrifty mechanic, and ever since a progressive and prosperous farmer, Stephen W. McCollum, of North Salem township, has a record of usefulness and fidelity to duty which would be credit- able to any man. In times of peace he has forged the implements of useful and productive industry; and in times of war he has shown that he knew how to handle the implements of aggressive and defensive warfare.
Mr. McCollum is a native of Clay county, Kentucky, born on
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HISTORY OF LINN COUNTY
August 10, 1827. His parents, David and Rachel (Morris) McCollum, were born and reared in South Carolina, and moved from that state to Kentucky early in their married life. The father was a blacksmith, and worked at his trade in his native state and that of his first adop- tion. In 1840 he brought his family to this state, and in 1843 to Linn county, and here the father continued to work at his trade. Both par- ents died in this county. They had twelve children, all of whom, also, are dead but their son Stephen W., and he is now nearly eighty-five years old.
He was about fourteen years of age when the family moved to Missouri. Almost all educational advantages, as furnished by schools, were denied him, but Nature was his teacher, and she imbued him with a spirit of independence and self-reliance, which the additional lessons of experience, always thorough but sometimes severe, intensified and made practical. As soon as he was large and strong enough he began learning his trade as a blacksmith under the instruction of his father.
On July 24, 1861, he enlisted in Company A, Eighteenth Missouri Volunteer Infantry, in defense of the Union, and he served actively and to his cost until he was honorably discharged from the army on February 6, 1865. At Marks' Mill he was taken prisoner, and during the next ten months he suffered all the horrors of one of the awful prison pens of the Confederacy. This experience was far worse, in his estimate, than the fourteen big battles in which he took part, including the engagement at Prairie Grove, Arkansas. He was wounded twice, once in the neck and once in the head.
After his discharge from the army he returned to his home and resumed work at his trade. This he followed for a number of years. He has now been living retired from all active pursuits for some time, bearing his burden of years cheerfully and with considerable vigor and activity, and finding the evening of his long and useful life com- forted by the universal esteem bestowed upon him as a man and a patriarch by the people of his whole township and many other parts of Linn county.
Mr. McCollum was married on February 11, 1849, to Miss Eliza- beth Bolling, a native of Missouri. They had five children, Benjamin F., William M., Mary, Robert and Shannon D. The mother of these children died on September 27, 1874, and the father took as his second wife Mrs. Margaret Bunch, a widow, who is still living. Among the few remaining links that connect Linn county of the present day with the dawn of its history, none is more generally, more sincerely or more deservedly revered than this venerable couple. They have lived long
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and lived serviceably here, and the people around them are proud of the high examples they have given of true and faithful Ameri- can manhood and womanhood. Mr. McCollum's grandfather, David McCollum, was a native of South Carolina, a blacksmith by occupa- tion and an excellent citizen, like all the other members of the family. He died in Indiana.
THOMAS S. LAMBERT
Thomas S. Lambert is an industrious and prosperous farmer of Enterprise township in this county, who is a native here and has passed the whole of his life to this time (1912) within the limits of Linn county. He was born in the county on September 11, 1869, a son of Albert and Ruth (Stanford) Lambert, the former a native of Ohio and the latter of Kentucky. The father is a carpenter and farmer, and has lived in the county since 1862, when he came to this locality with his parents. He attained his manhood here and completed his educa- tion in the schools of this section. He is still living and actively engaged in his customary industries, and with results beneficial to himself and advantageous to his community.
His father, Albert Lambert, moved to Missouri and Linn county from Ohio in 1865, as has been noted, and lived here. Of the children born to him two sons and one daughter are living. The maternal grandfather, Thomas Stanford, settled in this county in 1851 on land which he took up from the government, and which he broke up, im- proved and brought to an advanced stage of development and culti- vation. During the Civil War he was a soldier in the Union army for three years and saw a great deal of active service in the field and on the march. He is now living in the state of Oklahoma, in prosperous circumstances and is generally esteemed there as his memory is held in high respect here.
After leaving school Thomas S. Lambert learned the carpenter trade and has since worked on a saw mill, operated a threshing outfit and been profitably engaged in farming. He is a handy man, can turn his abilities to many lines of usefulness, and has always found his capacity in demand. He is now following farming as his main occupation, although he still works at his trade when there is need of it to help some enterprise in the community along, to accommodate a neighbor, or to keep himself employed in times of leisure. He is well known throughout Enterprise township and in many other parts of
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HISTORY OF LINN COUNTY
the county as a good mechanic, a progressive farmer, a straightfor- ward and upright man and a progressive and public-spirited citizen.
Mr. Lambert was married on December 25, 1887, to Miss Hannah Hannon, a native of this county. They have ten children: Henry, Charles, Loland, Fred, Loland, Minnie, Ethel, Goldie, Roy and Gladys. While the father's life to the present has been quiet and entirely, unostentatious, it has been very useful. He has sought no prominence in social or political life, having no taste for either, and has taken no very active part in political controversies and contentions. He has done his duty with reference to public affairs with a good citizen's sense of responsibility, and been content, for the rest, to go his way along the path of daily requirements and without public notice. His fidelity to duty has not, however, gone unnoticed, and he is generally esteemed as an excellent man and citizen.
ALBERT S. LAMBERT
Prosperous in a worldly way, with his highly improved, well cul- tivated and richly productive farm of 440 acres; prominent in his busi- ness as an enterprising and progressive farmer, whose skill in culti- vating his land always brings him excellent returns for his labor, and standing well in the regard of the whole people of Linn county as a man and as a citizen, Albert S. Lambert, of Enterprise township, has found Linn county a good place for a man of industry, ability and self- reliance, and has never regretted that his parents brought him to this locality when he was but fifteen years old, although the severance of old ties when he left his native state might have been a source of deep regret and sorrow to him.
Mr. Lambert was born in Washington county, Ohio, on March 10, 1850, and is a son of Albert and Elizabeth (Edgerton) Lambert, also natives of Ohio, the former born in Belmont and the latter in Wash- ington county. The father's life began in 1814. He grew to manhood in his native state and afterward passed nearly thirty years as a farmer there. In 1864 he left Ohio for Missouri, but on the way stopped in Iowa, where he and his family spent one winter. In the spring of 1865 they came on to Linn county and on arriving here located on an unimproved and unbroken track of land on Bear branch in Grants- ville township. This the father and sons cleared and improved into an excellent farm, and on it the father died in 1895. The mother lived until 1907, when she too passed away.
EDWARD M. RANDOLPH
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HISTORY OF LINN COUNTY
They were the parents of twelve children, nine of whom are living. The father was a Quaker in his religious belief and practices. The grandfather, Albert Lambert, was a native of North Carolina and moved from that state to Ohio in his early manhood. He accompanied his son Albert and the rest of the family to this county, and here he passed the remainder of his days, dying at a good old age.
'Albert S. Lambert was fifteen years old when his parents brought him to this county, and here he completed the country school educa- tion he had begun in his native state. He remained at home and assisted his father in clearing, improving and cultivating the home farm until 1868, then, although he was but eighteen years old, he began working for himself in the department of labor to which he had been trained, starting in as a farmer on a small scale and gradu- ally enlarging his possessions and his operations as he prospered, clearing one piece of land after another and improving each in turn. He now has a farm of 440 acres, all cleared and the greater part of it under cultivation, and it is one of the best in the county.
On June 27, 1867, Mr. Lambert was married to Miss Ruth Stand- ford, a daughter of Thomas Standford, a pioneer of this county who located here in 1851. Mr. Standford was in the Civil War two years, and on the Union side. He belonged to Company K. Seventh Missouri Volunteer Infantry. He is still living but is a gentleman well advanced in years. Mr. and Mrs. Lambert have had four children, three of whom are living: Thomas S. C., Lillie (Mrs. George Spencer) and Herman.
In addition to his extensive farming operations Mr. Lambert has for some years been largely engaged in breeding registered Hereford cattle and Poland-China hogs. Both in the extent of his business in this respect and in the quality of his products he is one of the leading live stock breeders in the county. In his live stock enterprise as in his farming he gives his close personal attention to every detail, and omits nothing on his part necessary to secure the best results, and in his efforts toward this end he is entirely successful.
EDWARD M. RANDOLPH
The interesting subject of this brief review is practically the father of Merceline. While others were associated with him in found- ing the town, his was the controlling spirit in the enterprise and his the guiding hand in carrying it into effect and fruitfulness. He directed the laying out of what was at the time intended as a village, with hopes of its growth and development into a town of some size
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and pretensions during his life, doubtless, and with the possible dream of its becoming in time a city of magnitude and a potency of weight in the mercantile, industrial and civic life of the county and state. To what extent his hopes have been realized it remains with him to say. But the village he founded has far surpassed the expectations of others in the rapidity of its growth and the enterprise and sweep of progress it has developed.
Mr. Randolph is evidently not satisfied with what has been achieved, or else he has been stimulated by that to still greater efforts, and his view has been expanded to wider possibilities. For he is still actively engaged in the real estate and loan business, and is adding every year to the size, beauty and importance of the city, the comfort and enjoyment of its residents, and its consequence among the munic- ipalities of Linn county and the state of Missouri.
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