Encyclopedia of the history of Missouri, a compendium of history and biography for ready reference, Vol. I, Part 83

Author: Conard, Howard Louis, ed. 1n
Publication date: 1901
Publisher: New York, Louisville [etc.] The Southern history company, Haldeman, Conard & co., proprietors
Number of Pages: 856

USA > Missouri > Encyclopedia of the history of Missouri, a compendium of history and biography for ready reference, Vol. I > Part 83

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Caffee, Amos H., physician and drug- gist, was born in 1834, in Newark, Ohio. His parents were M. M. and Elizabeth (Worden) Caffee, the former a native of Pennsylvania, and the latter of Virginia. The son, Amos H., was educated in his native town, studied medicine under Dr. J. M. Wilson, of the same place, and attended lectures in Cincinnati, Ohio. He visited Jasper County, Missouri, where he permanently located in the spring of 1859, and engaged in the practice of his profession until the beginning of the Civil War. He then removed to Cassville, Mis- souri, where he was appointed assistant sur- geon of the First (Loyal) Kansas Cavalry Regiment, and served until the spring of 1864, when he was transferred to the general hospital at Fort Smith, Arkansas. In De- cember of the latter year he was commis- sioned surgeon of the Thirteenth Kansas In- fantry Regiment, with which he served until the close of the war. In the fall of 1865 he returned to Jasper County, and carly in 1866, in association with J. W. Young, opened the first drug store in Jasper County after the resettlement began. He retired from prac- tice in 1875, and in 1877 bought the interest of his partner, continuing the business until the present time. He has served two terms as mayor of Carthage, and one term as county treasurer, and has occupied other po- sitions of honor and trust, besides assisting in various enterprises contributing to the growth and prosperity of the city and county. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, and has attained to the Commandery degrees. Dr. Caffee was married, May 21, 1867, to Miss Lacie A. Burham, of Washington, Iowa. Born of this marriage were two daughters, Edna E. and Jessie M. Caffee.

Caffee, William King, was born June 30, 1856, at Newark, Ohio. His parents were Warden J. and Sarah Margaret (Gill) Caffee. His father, who was a native of Ohio, de- scended from a Pennsylvania family, whose members performed military service during the Revolutionary War, was a druggist by

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occupation. During the Civil War he was assistant chief clerk in the office of the United States quartermaster at Philadelphia, one of the most important supply depots in the country during that period. He died in 1867. The mother was a native of New York, de- scended from New Hampshire ancestors, who served in the army during the Revolu- tionary War, and in the war with Great Britain in 1812. Her husband having died, she married Albert Monroe Drake, of Car- thage, November 17, 1868, and is yet living. William King Caffee received his primary education in the common schools in Phila- delphia. When he was eleven years of age, and after the death of his father, he came to Carthage, Missouri, with his mother. He afterward attended the Shattuck Military School, at Faribault, Minnesota, remaining there for four years. For a few years after leaving school he was engaged in a hardware store conducted by his stepfather, Albert M. Drake, at Carthage, and afterward became a partner with his uncle, Dr. Amos H. Caffee, in a retail drug business in the same city. At a later day he became an organizing member of the Caffee Drug Company, wholesale druggists, at Joplin, and is the present man- ager of that house, which controls an exten- sive trade in southwest Missouri, southeast Kansas, northwest Arkansas, Oklahoma, and the Indian Territory. He is also interested in the business of the Caffee jobbing and re- tail drug house at Carthage, and the Caffee retail drug house at Sarcoxie, Missouri. He is a stockholder in the Central National Bank at Carthage. Colonel Caffee, inheriting the martial characteristics of his ancestors, has had a marked fondness for military affairs. While a student at Faribault, Minnesota, he was a model member of the Cadet Corps, and was advanced to the position of adjutant. He was one of the original members of the Car- thage Light Guard in 1876, in which he was early made sergeant. In 1878 he was pro -. moted to second lieutenant, and the follow- ing year he was made captain, in which posi- tion he greatly advanced the efficiency of the company in manual of arms, manenvers and soldierly discipline. He held this rank until the organization of the Second Regiment, Missouri National Guard, in 1892, when he was commissioned colonel. With this rank he accompanied his regiment to the field at the outbreak of the Spanish-American War

in 1898. He assembled his command, of which his old company, the Carthage Light Guard, was a portion, at Jefferson Barracks, March 3d, and in a few weeks brought it to excellent condition, in point of discipline, and celerity and accuracy in battalion movements. May 12th the regiment was mustered into the service of the United States, and May 20th found it at Chickamauga, assigned to the Third Brigade, Third Division, First Army Corps. In September it was removed to Lex- ington, Kentucky, and in November to Al- bany, Georgia. On restoration of peace it was mustered out of the service of the United States, March 3, 1899. The regiment, dur- ing its term of service, achieved high reputa- tion for its morale and efficiency. Most creditable to it, and a high tribute to the ability of its commander, is the fact that its siek list was less than that of any regiment in the division. During three months of his active service Colonel Caffee was brigade commander, by virtue of seniority. After his regiment had been released from service lie resigned his commission, after connection with the military establishment of the State for a period of twenty-four years, a longer period than is ascertainable in the case of any other soldier of his rank. As a citizen he has always taken a deep interest in educational affairs, and has rendered efficient service as a member of the Carthage Board of Education. In politics he is a Republican, but has taken no directing part in party affairs. During the presidential campaign of 1896 he inclined to the free silver element of the party. In re- ligion he is an Episcopalian. He was mar- ried, September 7, 1878, to Miss Pattie Wilkins, daughter of James H. Wilkins, a leading attorney of Bowling Green, Ken- tucky. Her grandfather was the largest slave owner in that region, but was an ardent Un- ionist during the Civil War. Three children have been born of this marriage, of whom the first died in infancy. Those living are Ar- thur Gill, a student in the Virginia Military Institute at Lexington, Virginia, who will graduate with the class of 1901 ; and Mahlon Wilkins, a student in the Carthage High School. A high tribute to the probity and business ability of Colonel Caffee is found in his appointment as executor, without bond, of the will of Dr. Robert F. Brooks, of Car- thage, recently deceased. Dr. Brooks was a native of Indiana, and a surgeon in the

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CAHOON.

United States Navy during the last two years of the Civil War and for two years afterward. He was latterly a practicing physician in Car- thage. A bachelor, and without dependent relatives, he left his property subject to an- nuities to be paid to his three sisters during their lifetime, at their decease the property to be converted into money for the establish- ment of a hospital in Carthage. The estate consists in greater part of Jasper County realty, having a present nominal value of $10,000 to $12,000, but the mineral wealth of that region justifies the conviction that it will amount to much more by the time that the legacy is available for its intended pur- pose.

Cahoon, Benjamin Benson, Sr., lawyer, was born July 7, 1846, in Kent County, in the State of Delaware, son of Wil- liam R. and Louisa (Benson) Cahoon. His paternal ancestors came to this country from Scotland, where they belonged to the Clan Colquohoun, referred to by Sir Walter Scott as having engaged at one time in an exter- minating warfare with the Clan McGregor. In this warfare the Colquohouns were the greatest sufferers, and few of the blood were left when the feud ended. The American branch of the family settled in Delaware about the year 1700, and John Cahoon, the great-grandfather of Benjamin B. Cahoon, was a soldier in the Revolutionary War, serv- ing throughout the entire struggle under General Washington. The Bensons, Mr. Ca- hoon's ancestors in the maternal line, were of good English stock. His father was a car- riagemaker by trade, and for many years was a local Methodist preacher. Intellectually he was a strong man, and, morally, one of the best of men. In his youth Mr. Cahoon at- tended, until he was fifteen years old, some- what irregularly, the public schools at Smyrna, in his native county. It is in evi- dence that during these years he was much of the time a truant from school, and by no means what would be called a model boy, but he inherited from his parents on both sides a vigorous intellect, and a redeeming feature of his character at this time was the fact that he was very fond of reading good literature. He was less than fifteen years of age when the Civil War began, and three weeks after his fifteenth birthday he enlisted as a private sol- dier in the First Regiment of Delaware Vol-

unteer Infantry, mustered at once into the United States service. Ile served in the Army of the Potomac until the close of the war, and was wounded at Gettysburg. From the exposure and hardships which he endured during this period, he became and continues to be quite deaf. In spite of this hindrance, and notwithstanding the fact that he had lit- tle education to begin with, he has won a place in the first rank of Missouri lawyers and orators, and has been successful as a business man and farmer, his success being due to superior natural endowments and indomi- table perseverance and tenacity of purpose. What would have discouraged ordinary men has incited him to greater effort, and such a thing as yiekling to adverse circumstances has apparently never occurred to him. His first occupation after he ceased to be a soldier at the close of the war was that of a country school-teacher. While teaching school he read law at night under the preceptorship of Honorable N. B. Smithers, of Dover, Dela- ware. In June of 1868 he was admitted to the bar in Washington, D. C., and on the 6th of .August of that year he settled in Frederick- town, Madison County, Missouri, to begin the practice of his profession. When he opened his law office he had just $6.25 in his pocket, and this was the cash capital with which he began life for himself. For more than thirty years he has lived the life of a busy lawyer and student in Fredericktown, and without any adventitious aids has com- pelled fortune to yield to him many of her choicest favors. A man of versatile mind, his mental processes are quick and his reasoning logical, and with this he couples the diligence and practical method of the trained student. Both in legal argument and on the rostrum he is forceful and frequently eloquent, and among his professional brethren he is recog- nized as one of the best informed members of the bar of the State, not only in matters pertaining to the law, but in a general way. As a man of affairs he has been as successful as in the practice of his profession, and has accumulated a comfortable fortune. He has aided materially in advancing the interests of Fredericktown, and has himself made many substantial improvements in the way of build- ings erected in the town. He also contrib- uted liberally to establish there Marvin Colle- giate Institute, conducted under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.

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CAIN.

A broad-minded, generous and charitable man, his graces of character are rendered more attractive by a commanding presence and pleasing personality. He was county at- torney of Madison County in 1870, and from 1870 to 1874 was circuit attorney of the Twentieth Judicial Circuit, composed of the counties of Madison, Bollinger, Perry, Ste. Genevieve and St. Francois. With these ex- ceptions he has held no offices, but has de- voted himself untiringly to professional and business interests. He was a delegate in 1872, as well as in 1900, to the National Republican Conventions at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Aside from the law he has, perhaps, given the largest share of his attention to his farming interests, which have been to him a source of both pleasure and profit. A stalwart member of the Republican party, he has been promi- nent in its counsels for many years, and has declined a nomination to Congress, tendered to him by that party. In 1896 he was pre- sented to the Springfield convention as a candidate for the Republican gubernatorial nomination and led all other candidates until a movement was set on foot which stampeded the convention and resulted in the nomination of R. E. Lewis. He has been a member of the Masonic order, the order of Odd Fellows, and the Ancient Order of United Workmen. February 3, 1869, Mr. Cahoon married Miss Isabelle Mary Le Compte, daughter of Elroy and Melanie Le Compte, of Ste. Genevieve, Missouri. Mrs. Cahoon's mother is a sister of the late United States Senator Lewis V. Bogy. As is well known, both the Bogy and Le Compte fami- lies are of the old French Creole stock, and are closely related to the Chouteaus, Valles, Roziers, and numerous other fine old French families of Missouri. Mrs. Cahoon died at Fredericktown, January 15, 1889, at the age of forty-one years, leaving three children. Of these, Virginia B. is now the wife of George Earl Alt, of Cape Girardeau. Eu- genia A. is the wife of R. H. Weatherly, of St. Louis. Benjamin Benson Cahoon, Jr., is a ranchman at Saco, in Madison County, Missouri.

Cain, George W., a leading farmer of Adair County, was born in that county Jan- uary 3, 1833. His father was John Cain, a noted Missouri pioneer, who had many inter-

esting experiences in helping to lay the foun- dations for development and the advance- ment of civilization in this State. John Cain was born in North Carolina in 1776, and at the age of twenty-two years was married to Ruth Blithe. Two years later he removed to Kentucky and established his home near Louisville. While residing there his first wife died, leaving two children, Winnie and Celia Cain. Twenty-six years later he married Miss Emily Hill, and ten children were born of this marriage, of whom George W. Cain was the eldest son. In 1805 he removed to Missouri, settling in what is now Howard County. In 1830 he removed to what is now Adair County, forming one of the first settlements in that county. John Cain settled a few miles northwest of Kirksville, and on his land was built a fort for protection against the Indians. This fort was called Fort Clark, being named after Colonel John B. Clark. Mr. Cain died in Adair County at the ripe age of eighty- three years, esteemed by all who knew him for his sterling integrity and his many good qualities of head and heart. George W. Cain was reared in that county and obtained his early education in one of the old-time school- houses of that region. This schoolhouse was built of round logs, had a huge fireplace and a stick chimney. The seats were made of split logs, supported by wooden pins. Desks also made of split logs were put up against the walls of the building, and at these desks the pupils stood up to write, with pens made by the teacher from goose quills. In this prim- itive educational institution Mr. Cain gained the rudiments of knowledge, and while work- ing in the forests to clear up the farm, or following the plow in preparing it for culti- vation, he revolved in his mind various prob- lems which had to be met and solved. As he gained experience in practical affairs, his knowledge broadened, and he became a capable and sagacious business man. After the death of his father he continued to reside on the farm on which he was born, caring for his mother until her death. Some time after- ward he married Miss Cliristina Novinger, who was born in Dauphin County, Pennsyl- vania. Mrs. Cain was a daughter of Isaac Novinger, who came with his family to Adair County at an early day. Mr. and Mrs. Cain were united in marriage in 1859, and have lived happily together for more than forty years. Their children are Oliver, Philander,

GMain

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CAINSVILLE-CAIRO.

Ellen and William. The two eldest sons arc associated together in the breeding of short- horn cattle in Adair County. The daughter, Ellen, is married to a well-to-do farmer of that county, and the youngest son, who is an osteopathic physician, is practicing his pro- fession in Michigan. During the Civil War Mr. Cain served six months in the Enrolled Missouri Militia, which rendered valuable services to the Union cause. In politics he has always been a Democrat, and takes pride in the fact that his three sons have followed in his footsteps.

Cainsville .- A city of the fourth class, on the Grand River, in Harrison County, seventeen miles northeast of Bethany. It is the southern terminus of the Des Moines & Kansas City Railroad. It has Baptist, Chris- tian and Methodist Episcopal Churches, a graded school, two hotels, two flouring mills, a sawmill, a bank, a newspaper, the "News," and about forty miscellaneous stores and business places. It has telephone connec- tions with neighboring towns. Population, 1899 (estimated), 1,000.

Cairns, Anna Sneed, educator, is a daughter of Rev. Samuel K. Sneed, of Louis- ville, Kentucky, and Rachel Crosby, of Mil- ford, New Hampshire. Her father was for fifty-four years a minister of the Presbyte- rian Church, and a pillar in the new-school branch, which his influence held firmly to abolition sentiment, as he had freed his own slaves long before the birth of this daughter. Born in 1841, she was an omnivorous reader at five, at an age when. fortunately for her, children's books were not. Curled up in her little erib, or perched in one of her favorite seats, way up in the trees, she read Gold- smith's History of Rome, Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, Milton's Paradise Lost, D'Au- bigne's History of the Reformation, and Robinson Crusoe, until Martin Luther, and Brutus. Christian and Christiana, Adam and Eve, and the affable Archangel Raphael, and her beloved Robinson Crusoe were as dear to her as Santa Claus and Jack the Giant Killer are to others.

At seventeen she began her life work of teaching. In 1861. the first year of the war, she founded Kirkwood Seminary, without a dollar in money, without a foot of ground, without a stick of school furniture. and with

seven scholars. It grew for thirty years, until it was transferred, in 1891, to St. Louis, and was then reincorporated as Forest Park Uni- versity for Women, a school which is the ont- growth of all her life and thought, and is the true exponent of herself.

After the Centennial of 1876 she resumed her long-neglected study of painting and drawing. She became deeply interested in the effort that Mrs. John B. Henderson made to establish a school of design in St. Louis, attended its sessions on Saturday, and studied so faithfully that she filled her sideboards and mantelpieces with beautiful dishes and plaques, the work of her own hands. Then she became interested in wood-carving, and carved the beautiful mantel in black walnut which is in her private parlor, and which has so many suggestive scenes from the life of her ancestors, and is so rich in precious mem- ories of the past. This mantel has attracted so much attention that it has been many times written of in the papers. After giving her leisure time for several years to painting and drawing, the hand of Providence led her into total-abstinence and prohibition work. She united with the Woman's Christian Temper- ance Union, and was instrumental, with Mrs. H. H. Waggoner, the first president of the St. Louis W. C. T. U .. in reviving this work very greatly in the city.

In the winter of 1897 she introduced a con- stitutional amendment into the Legislature to strike out the word male from the Constitu- tion, and made an impassioned appeal in the Senate Chamber at Jefferson City in its favor. She has also been interested in having women as school directors and superintendents throughout Missouri. She, with her sister, Mrs. Harriet Worthington, represented the Forest Park University Alumnae Association at the Biennial Conference of Women's Clubs in Denver, in June, 1898, where she spoke in one of the churches on the Sabbath, and more recently has been interested in temperance work among the soldiers of Jefferson Bar- racks. But all of this is but the play of a mind and heart whose life work is found in Forest Park University. As long as the building, and the university within its walls, remains the pride of St. Louis, it will be her monument. as it is her lifework.

Cairo .- An incorporated town on the Wabash Railroad, six miles north of Mob-

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CALDWELL COUNTY.

erly, in Randolph County. It was settled in 1858. The town has a good public school, one union church, two sawmills, one flour- mill, hardware, grocery, drug, and three gen- eral stores, besides shops, etc. Population, 1900 (estimated), 200.

Caldwell County .- A county in the northwestern part of the State, bounded on the north by Daviess County, on the east by Livingston and Carroll, south by Ray, and west by Clinton and DeKalb Counties ; area, 275,480 acres. The surface of the county is sufficiently undulating to afford excellent drainage, and about half of it is upland prai- rie, the other half timber, which is so evenly distributed that few sections of its area are destitute of wood. Shoal Creek runs through the county, near the center, from west to east. Crooked River drains the extreme southwestern corner. These streams have numerous small tributaries. The soil is a dark, sandy loam of great fertility, and 98 per cent of the land of the county is arable, and about 85 per cent is under cultivation, the remainder being in timber, consisting chiefly of oak, white and black walnut, hackberry, elin and cottonwood. There are considerable deposits of bituminous coal in the county, which is mined for home use and export. Lead and zinc have also been discovered, but not in sufficient quantities to justify serious attempts at the development of mines. All the hardy varieties of fruit grow abundantly, and the cultivation of orchards and vineyards is one of the profitable industries of the county. The chief pursuits are stock-raising and gen- eral farming. According to the report of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 1898, the sur- plus products shipped from the county were : Cattle, 15,414 lead ; hogs, 86,818 head ; sheep, 8,406 head; horses and mules, 587 head ; oats, 6,520 bushels; corn, 2,186 bushels; flaxseed, 429 bushels ; hay, 78,800 pounds ; flax, 861,048 pounds ; shipstuff, 5.540 pounds ; himber, 24,- 272 feet ; walnut logs, 24,000 feet ; coal, 6,504 tons ; brick, 82,000 ; stone, 69 cars ; wool, 204,- 035 pounds ; poultry, 738,899 pounds ; eggs, 522,542 dozen; butter, 135,966 pounds; cheese, 42,011 pounds ; game and fish, 3,977 pounds; tallow, 10,195 pounds; hides and pelts, 86,341 pounds; strawberries, 130 crates; raspberries, 103 crates ; fresh fruit, 9,069 pounds ; vegetables, 7,000 pounds ; furs and feathers, 5,125 pounds. Other articles

exported were cordwood, lime, whisky, wine and vinegar. There were no permanent set- tlements made in the territory now Caldwell County until 1830. That year Jesse Mann, who is credited with being the first perma- nent settler, located on land near what is now the center of the county, in the vicinity of the site of Kingston. A few other settlers, among whom was Rufus Middleton, settled the same year on Shoal Creek. It is not known that any others took up their resi- dence in the county until 1832, when Zepha- niah Woolsey settled in what is now the eastern part of the county. In 1834 Robert White, Richard Beerner and a few others set- tled near where Woolsey had located. Dur- ing the few years following there were nu- merous settlements made. In 1836 the first mill was built in the county. It was located on Shoal Creek, was run by water power, and was a combined saw and grist mill. The State Legislature organized Caldwell County, De- cember 26, 1836, by detachment from Ray County. The author of the bill creating the county was General Alexander W. Doniphan, and he named the county after Colonel John Caldwell, of Kentucky. The Mormons, who had been driven out from Jackson and Clay Counties in 1836, moved into Caldwell County and laid out a town, which they called Far West. Leaders among the Mormons who settled in the county were Joseph and Hyrum Smith, John Carroll, Sidney Rigdon, W. W. Phelps, Edward Partridge, Philo Dib- ble, Elias Higbee, Oliver Cowdery and many others. Far West was the rallying point for all the "Saints," and Joseph Smith and his associates planned to make it one of the grandest cities of the world. This town was made the first county seat. The Mormons, in 1837, far outnumbered the Gentiles, and at the first election from their ranks elected nearly all the county officers. Emissaries of the "Saints" were sent to the Eastern States, and to different parts of Europe, and con- verts by the hundreds rushed to the new Mecca, the sanctified city of Far West. The fertile prairies of Caldwell County were con- verted into farms, and Mormon settlements extended into Daviess, Livingston and Clin- ton Counties, but Far West was the central point for all. By 1839 it contained nearly 3,000 inhabitants. For the city a magnificent temple was planned. It was intended to be the grandest in the western hemisphere. The

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Encyclopedia of the history of Missouri, a compendium of history and biography for ready reference, Vol. I, Part 83

Author: Conard, Howard Louis, ed. 1n Publication date: 1901 Publisher: New York, Louisville [etc.] The Southern history company, Haldeman, Conard & co., proprietors Number of Pages: 856

Author: Conard, Howard Louis, ed. 1n
Publication date: 1901
Publisher: New York, Louisville [etc.] The Southern history company, Haldeman, Conard & co., proprietors
Number of Pages: 856