USA > Missouri > Encyclopedia of the history of Missouri, a compendium of history and biography for ready reference, Vol. II > Part 75
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FAGG.
into operation. While the act was approved by the Legislature, it required that before it became operative it should be ratified by vote of the people, and this was done at an election held in August, 1850, and on the first Monday of November following the first probate court was held by Judge Fagg, who was elected probate judge in opposition to Samuel F. Murray, who was then clerk of the county court. At the end of his four years' term, Judge Fagg, in 1854, was re- elected without opposition. In August, 1854, Edward C. Murray, of Louisiana, and Dr. Freeman, of Spencerburg, were elected Representatives to the State Legislature, Freeman, for some reason unexplained, re- signed, and a special election was held on January 1, 1855, to fill the vacancy. The can- didates were Colonel Thomas R. Vaughan, of Calumet, and Judge Fagg. The latter was elected by a majority of 300 votes. In 1857, for a short time, he was judge of the Louis- iana Court of Common Pleas. In 1858 Judge Fagg and Colonel G. W. Anderson were elected Representatives over Colonel Vaughan and Joseph Richardson, the regular nominees of the Democratic party. At the general election in 1860, owing to the unset- tled conditions in the State, there was much excitement and the hottest rivalry between the contending parties. On the ticket opposed to the regular Democrats were Sample Orr, of Greene County, for Governor, and Judge Fagg for Lieutenant Governor. The Demo- crats were the winners. The war breaking out in 1861, the general sentiment in Pikę County was in favor of the Confederacy. Although a native Virginian, and descended from a family of Southerners, Judge Fagg supported the Union and Federal authority. In August of 1861 he was appointed Brigade Inspector by Governor Gamble, and immediately proceeded to muster in a num- ber of companies of Home Guards, organized in Pike County, and they were rendezvoused at Louisiana. In September following he was appointed colonel and took charge of a regiment, and for some time did scouting and other service in Pike and neighboring coun- ties. His companies were mustered out in February, 1862. Just prior to the disbanding of his troops, Colonel Fagg was appointed judge of the Third Judicial District, by Wil- lard P. Hall, acting Governor, succeeding
Judge A. H. Buckner, who was elected in 1857, and the office declared vacant by Judge Buckner failing to take the oath of office prescribed by the "Ousting Ordinance." Judge Fagg commenced his judicial labors at Bowling Green, the first Monday in March, 1862. He held courts in all the counties comprising his circuit, excepting Callaway County. To be a circuit judge at that time was hazardous, and as a matter of precau- tion he at times had a military escort. In the fall of 1863, Judge Fagg was elected to succeed himself in office for a term of six years. The General Assembly in 1864 elected him secretary of the Senate, and at the in- terval between the sessions of that body, he was appointed clerk of the committee on re- vision of the State laws, and assisted in the revision of the Missouri Statutes as they were published in 1865. By the death of Judge Walter L. Lovelace, in 1866, a vacancy was occasioned in the State Supreme Court. Governor Thomas Fletcher appointed Judge Fagg to fill the vacancy, and he held the office until January 1, 1869. He then started in active law practice at Louisiana, with Colonel D. P. Dyer, with whom he continued a part- nership until 1882. For a portion of the time Judge Biggs, later of the St. Louis Court of Appeals, was a member of the firm. In 1882 Judge Fagg retired from practice and removed to St. Louis and engaged in the in- surance business. In 1890 he returned to Louisiana and formed a partnership with Honorable David A. Ball, and continued in practice until 1898, when he retired. The same year he was appointed postmaster at the city of Louisiana by President Mckinley, which position (1900) he still holds. In 1872, and again in 1878, he was a candidate for Congress against A. H. Buckner, and was defeated. In 1847 Judge Fagg was mar- ried to Miss Medora Block, daughter of E. S. Block, of Pike County. They have five children living. They are John M. Fagg, en- gaged in the fruit business in Santa Clara, California ; E. B. Fagg, a resident of Min- neapolis ; Clark Fagg, the youngest son, en- gaged in the grain business and president of the Duluth Board of Trade; and two daugh- ters, one the wife of M. G. Reynolds, of St. Louis, attorney of the United States Land Court at Santa Fe ; and the other the wife of C. W. Bright, of St. Louis.
411
FAGIN-FAIR, STATE.
Fagin, Aaron W., merchant and man- ufacturer, was born in Clermont County, Ohio, March II, 1812, and died in St. Louis in 1896. On the Ioth day of December, 1830, when he was but eighteen years of age, he married Miss Sarah Bradbury, daughter of a prominent pioneer of Clermont County, and for a time after his marriage engaged in farming in the neighborhood of his early home. Reaching the conclusion, however, that there were other pursuits which he should find more profitable, as well as more agreeable than farming, he removed to the town of New Richmond, Ohio, in 1831, and began life as a merchant. As proprietor of the village store at that place he did a thriv- ing business, and gradually extended his operations to trading in produce of various kinds on the Ohio River. In 1839 he dis- posed of these interests with the intention of retiring from business and devoting himself to his family and a life of leisure, which. he was able to enjoy and had richly earned through the success of his business enter- prises. His mind was too active, however, and his energies too intense to admit of a life of inactivity at that early age, and he soon found himself casting about for a new loca- tion and new business projects. St. Louis had impressed itself upon him as a city destined to become the metropolis of a large territory, and to that city he removed with his family in the year 1842. Beginning bus- iness there as a commission merchant, he traded largely with the upper Mississippi country and eventually gained control, in a large measure, of the lead output of the Galena mines. In 1849, in company with C. W. West and Alexander and William Ricard, of Cincinnati, he built in St. Louis the famous "United States Flouring Mill," which passed under his sole ownership and control at the end of two years. From that time forward he was- a conspicuous figure among the manufacturers of St. Louis and a pioneer among the men who built up the great flour manufacturing industry of that city. He ad- hered staunchly to the Union cause during the war, but was not an active participant in the dissensions which divided the old Mer- chants' Exchange, and in later years was a potent factor in the formation of the reunited Exchange. His first wife, a woman of many lovely traits of character, died in 1869, and in 1881, while living abroad, he married Miss
Anna Hanhart, an accomplished lady, who was a native of Switzerland. In 1882, while Mr. Fagin was in America on business, his wife died and was buried at Diessendofen, in the land of her nativity. This event changed his plans for a continued residence abroad, and at the end of five years, which had been spent in the Old World, he returned to St. Louis, where he lived to the end of his life, and where he continued to manifest his public spirit and his deep interest in the wel- fare of the city as long as he lived.
Fairfax .- A town of about 350 inhabi- tants, in Atchison County, on the Tarkio Valley Railroad. It was laid out in 1881, by Charles E. Perkins, and the same year in- corporated. It stands in the midst of a beau- tiful and fertile district of the Tarkio Valley. It has six stores, the Exchange Bank, capital and surplus $18,160, deposits $55,000; and a Presbyterian, a Christian and Southern Methodist Church.
Fair Grove .- A town in Greene County, sixteen miles northeast of Springfield, the county seat, and nine miles northwest of Strafford, its shipping point. It has a public school : a Baptist and a Cumberland Presby- terian Church; and lodges of Masons and Odd Fellows. In 1900 the estimated popula- tion was 120. A school existed here in 1846, taught by Chatham Duke.
Fair Play .- A fourth-class city in Pike County, on the Kansas City, Clinton & Southern Railway, ten miles west of Bolivar, the county seat. It has churches of the Bap- tist, Methodist Episcopal and Presbyterian denominations ; a Republican newspaper, the "Advocate"; an operahouse ; a bank ; a fruit cannery; and charcoal kilns. In 1889 the population was 500.
Fairport .- A village of about 200 in1- habitants in Grant Township, DeKalb County. It is beautifully located, on an eminence in the midst of a fertile and pros- perous farming district, nine miles north of Maysville, and has four stores, a graded school, a Methodist Church, a Grand Army of the Republic post and a lodge of Good Templars.
Fair, State .- The State Legislature of 1899 passed an act providing for the holding
412
FALL FESTIVITIES IN KANSAS CITY-FANCHER.
of an annual State Fair at a place selected by the Board of Agriculture, and set apart the moneys in the Horse Breeders' Fund- derived from licenses issued to bookmakers, auction pool-sellers and registers of bets-in support of the enterprise. Sedalia, Mexico, Moberly and Marshall were competitors for the location, which was finally awarded to Sedalia, that city offering a beautiful and valuable tract of land of 150 acres as a site for Fair Grounds. The fairs are held under the management of the State Board of Agriculture, the premiums being supplied by the State. The first one was held in the year 1900.
Fall Festivities in Kansas City .- The Fall Festivities in Kansas City, which annually attract sight-seers from all the trib- utary region, had their beginning in 1886, in the organization known as the Priests of Pallas, whose membership embraces the most active men of business and social cir- cles. Their annual public entertainment is an illumined night pageant of historical, al- legorical and fabulous scenes, in which the actors are living figures properly costumed, with appropriate surroundings. This is fol- lowed by a select full dress ball, which is the society event of the year. In 1894 was or- ganized the Kansas City Karnival Krewe, having for its purpose the entertainment of visitors and the advertising of local business enterprises. This body has annually given a novel display, in the nature of a trades parade, a street fair, or a carnival parade. It finds its conclusion in a masked ball. "The Manufacturers' Association of Kansas City, U. S. A.," and its Woman's Auxiliary, have of late years given an annual Home Product Show for the display of articles of merit of local manufacture, in connection therewith providing concert and vaudeville entertain- ments.
Fancher, Salathiel Chapman, a pioneer real estate man of Kansas City, and a promoter of many important public im- provements, was born February 4, 1840, in Greenwich, Ohio. His father, Thaddeus S. Fancher, Sr., was born in New York in 1809, and in 1820, in company with his father, who was a major in the War of 1812, emigrated to Ohio. In 1833 Thaddeus S. Fancher, Sr., was married to Amy M. Chapman, a native
of Connecticut, and born in 1817. Mr. Fan- cher was a first cousin to General George Meade, and was a staunch Republican. He was a farmer and stock-raiser by occupation, and, through the exercise of untiring indus- try and thrift, acquired a bountiful compe- tency for his declining years, after having reared and educated a family of six sons and four daughters. He died at the age of eighty-five. His wife survives him at a very advanced age. Their youngest son is the Honorable Thaddeus Fancher, Jr., of Indi- ana. Louis N. Fancher, next to the young- est, held many honorable positions, and was one of the original owners of the town site of Eureka, Kansas. The third son was Sala- thiel C., the subject of this sketch. Varney P. Fancher, the second son, was a soldier in the Civil War. Being captured as a prisoner of war, he served a long term in Libby Prison, and, from the effects of his confine- ment there, he died a short time after his release. S. C. Fancher received his rudimen- tary education in the historic "little log schoolhouse," and, with his fellow pupils, sat upon split-log benches without backs. After- ward, for a short time, he attended an acad- emy at Savannah, Ohio, and later went to Valparaiso College, at Valparaiso, Indiana. He was thorough in his mastery of the sci- ences, mathematics and other important branches, but his literary training was inter- rupted by the call to arms for service in the Civil War. He was reared on a farm, and his early experiences were of the rugged sort that went to make real men. At the age of sev- enteen he taught school in a small town in Indiana, his school being composed of sixty pupils and ranging all the way from the primer grade up to the older aspirants who were wrestling with geometrical secrets. This young man was in a trying position in that day, when it was the delight of the stal- wart scholars to eject their teacher from the school room. It is vividly recalled by Mr. Fancher how, as a beardless youth, standing before his pupils on the opening day of the school term, he informed them that he had no rules to lay down; that he wanted to be one among them, and that the only advice he desired to give was that they do right and pleasant relations would follow. During the intermission the boys of the school were en- gaged in a game of wrestling and the teacher was invited to take a hand. The invitation
413
FANCHER.
was readily accepted, and before he returned to the school room young Fancher had downed every boy that dared to try him. From that time he was master of the situa- tion and exercised perfect discipline over the school. He ran away from college at Valpa- raiso, Indiana, in order that he might attend the National Republican Convention at Chi- cago that nominated Abraham Lincoln for President, and the great experience left an indelible and helpful impression upon his mind. At the outbreak of the Civil War, Mr. Fancher enlisted in the Forty-first Ohio In- fantry, W. B. Hazen's regiment, organized at Cleveland, and served four years and three months. When he was mustered out he re- ceived a medal from his State. He partici- pated in a number of the most important battles, including Shiloh, Fort Donelson, Corinth, Stone River, Chickamauga, Look- out Mountain, Missionary Ridge, and the Atlanta campaign, which was, in reality, a succession of battles from Chattanooga to Atlanta. When Sherman started for the At- lantic Coast, with no organized enemy in front or rear, Crittenden's corps, to which the Forty-first was assigned, turned back toward Nashville, with but a squad of cavalry and a few pieces of artillery, and with Hood's entire army at no great distance on their flank. It was soon discovered that Hood would try to cut off the retreat, and then the race for life began. It was a memorable re- treat and a glorious one. At Franklin the little band of patriots stopped long enough to fight the most decisive battle ever waged on this continent, with the exception of the one fought by General Sam Houston in Texas. Four months later the great battle of Nashville was fought, and in this engage- ment S. C. Fancher commanded a detach- ment of skirmishers that preceded the charg- ing column. When it was over he had not a whole garment on his person, although he was unhurt. In 1866 Mr. Fancher came West, purchased lands in Johnson County, Missouri, and, in partnership with W. C. Taylor, an attorney, engaged in the real es- tate business at Holden, Missouri. They laid out an important addition to Holden, and in many ways helped to build up the town and county. In 1868 Mr. Fancher re- moved to Kansas City, and has since been an honored resident there. During the first week of his residence there he purchased
several thousand acres of land in Nemaha County, Kansas, an investment in "blue sky" as it was then termed. Although it was con- sidered customary for purchasers to first look at the land and then consummate a deal, Mr. Fancher took the opposite course in this instance. He bought the Kansas acres, went to look at the land later and had his deed recorded. A short time later he was approached by a stranger, who asked if he were the man who had just recorded a deed to a certain tract of land. There was an af- firmative reply, and the stranger informed Fancher that he owned the land and that the transfer was invalid. Then followed a threat- ened law suit covering several months, and a compromise was finally effected. Mr. Fan- cher accepted such gladly, as the land which remained to him after the settlement cost him less than one dollar per acre. In the presence of the man who had contested the land title with him, he remarked that he would return to Kansas City and engage in the real estate business. The erstwhile stranger remarked that he had such a pur- pose in view also, and a proposition for part- nership was followed by an agreement that they meet in Kansas City thirty days later. At the appointed time Mr. Fancher met, in the office of the Kansas City "Times," Dr. Morrison Munford, and the copartnership that had been agreed upon away out on the prairies of Kansas began in earnest. They were both strangers in the city, both single and both full of determination and pluck. They began business by publishing the "Real Estate Index," on the first page of which ap- peared a novel cut showing Kansas City as the hub of a large wheel, with Chicago, St. Louis, Omaha, Denver and other cities on the circumference thereof. All of the rail- road lines entering the city were shown, as well as the prospective lines. So effective was this illustration that the daily newspa- pers of Kansas City paid for the privilege of publishing it. It was reproduced in a num- ber of the most important real estate journals of the country, and the two young men-the one an ex-Confederate and the other a former Union soldier-found themselves, at the end of a few months, the best known men in Kansas City, the leaders in every impor- tant enterprise, and growing factors in the commercial development of the city of which they were rapidly becoming so important a
414
FARBER-FARM PRODUCTS.
part. In 1873 Dr. Munford retired from the firm of Munford & Fancher, the latter con- tinuing the business and the publication of the "Real Estate Index" until 1876. At this time he invented and secured a patent on a valuable article, which he had ·manufactured Farber .- An incorporated village in Au- drain County, on the Chicago & Alton Rail- road, nineteen miles east of Mexico. It has two churches, a school, a bank, a hotel, and about a dozen other business enterprises, in- cluding a newspaper, the "Forum." Popula- tion, 1899 (estimated), 300. in Cincinnati, and from which he realized a small fortune in one and a half years. In conducting this side issue, however, he did not sever his connection with the real estate interests, and in 1878, when the business re- ceived a fresh impetus, he was ready to take an active hand. During his active life Mr. Fancher has negotiated some of the most im- Farley .- A small town in Lee Township, Platte County, ten miles southwest of Platte City, the county seat. It takes its name from Josiah Farley, who laid it off in 1850. It has two stores and a population of 150. portant deals in Kansas City's history. It was he who first advocated the erection of a great hotel, where the Midland now stands. Prior to the erection of this hotel he sold the lots upon which it stands, to L. T. Moore, for $100,000. Mr. Moore proceeded with the deal which Mr. Fancher had inaugurated, and it was successfully consummated. A major- ity of the lots on Walnut Street, between Sixth and Twelfth Streets, were sold by Mr. Fancher. He started the "boom" on Balti- more Avenue, and was the prime mover in the effort to have that thoroughfare im- proved. At present, in 1900, he is at the head of an extensive real estate and loan business, is president of the Kansas City & Fort Smith Investment Company, and is manager of the Eureka Truss Manufacturing Company. Mr. Fancher was married, April 13, 1871, to Miss Margaret J. Brown, a. most accomplished woman, and daughter of Col- onel Richard Brown. Twenty-nine years Farm Products .- Missouri is an agri- cultural State -- not so exclusively as it was before the marvelous development of produc- tive industries in its chief cities, during the last three decades of the century, placed it ago Mr. and Mrs. Fancher moved into their present comfortable home, at the northwest corner of Eighth Street and Forest Avenue. They have four children, all daughters. The oldest is married, wife of Louis O. Hauge, . conspicuously among the manufacturing and the two younger ones are still in school. Mr. Fancher has always been a Republican in politics, and although he has been an ac- tive worker in the ranks, he has never sought elective office. He served on the central committee a number of years, and was at one time a candidate for the appointive office of internal revenue collector, being defeated by General H. F. Devol. Mr. Fancher takes active interest in philanthropic work; is a member of the Kansas City Provident Asso- ciation and of the Christian Church. No other man has done more to advance the in- terests of Kansas City than S. C. Fancher.
His career has been marked by material suc- cess, and those who are acquainted with the record of this worthy man hold him only in highest honor and esteem.
Farm Animals .- The numbers of farm animals in Missouri in the year 1897, as re- turned by the county assessors, were as follows : Horses, 912,324, valued at $17,549,- 465 ; mules, 236,810, valued at $5,346,769; asses and jennets, 7,583, valued at $277,084; neat cattle, 1,864,542; sheep, 644,098, valued at $774,424; hogs, 3,375,609, valued at $5,- 905,870 ; total number of all farm animals, 7,030,966 ; valuation, $54,212,926. As it is the practice in Missouri to assess farm ani- mals, never at more than one-half their real value, and, generally less, the real value of farm animals in the State may be set down at $100,000,000.
States- but still one of the most important yielders of farm products, and its farms con- stitute a very large element of its wealth. In 1880 the farms of Missouri numbered 215,- 575, valued at $375,633,307; in 1890 they numbered 238,043, valued at $625,858,361, and in 1899 the number was estimated at 258,847, and their value at $900,000,000. In 1880 the value of the farm crops was re- turned at $95,912,660; in 1890, $109,751,024, and in 1899 it was estimated at $125,000,000. In 1870 the corn crop was 66,034,075 bushels ; in 1880 it was 202,414,413 bushels; 1890 it was 196,999,016 bushels, and in 1899 it was
415
FARMERS' FIRE INSURANCE COMPANIES, ASSOCIATION OF.
162,915,064 bushels. In 1870 the wheat crop was 14,315,926 bushels; in 1880, 24,966,627 bushels ; in 1890, 30,113,821 bushels, and in 1899, 11,398,702 bushels. In 1870 the oats crop was 16,578,313 bushels; in 1880, 20,670,- 958 bushels ; in 1890, 39,820,149 bushels, and in 1899, 20,299,350 bushels. The rye crop in 1870 was 559,532 bushels ; in 1880, 535,426 bushels; in 1890, 308,807 bushels, and in 1899, 19,052 bushels. The barley crop in 1870 was 269,240 bushels; in 1880, 123,031 bushels ; in 1890, 34,863 bushels. The buck- wheat crop in 1870 was 36,252 bushels; in 1880, 57,640 bushels ; in 1890, 28,440 bushels. In 1870 the cotton crop was 1,246 bales; in 1880, 20,318 bales ; in 1890, 15,856 bales, and in 1899, 33,120 bales. The flaxseed crop in 1870 was 10,391 bushels; in 1880, 379,535 bushels, and in 1890, 450,831 bushels. The maple sugar yield in 1870 was 116,980 pounds ; in 1880, 58,964 pounds, and in 1890, 20,182 pounds. The maple syrup yield in 1870 was 16,317 gallons, in 1880, 16,225 gal- lons, and in 1890, 8,333 gallons. The sorg- hum molasses yield in 1870 was 1,730,17I gallons ; in 1880, 4,129,595 gallons, and in 1890, 2,721,240 gallons. The hay crop in 1870 was 615,611 tons; in 1880, 1,083,920 tons, and in 1890, 3,567,635 tons. The to- bacco crop in 1870 was 12,320,483 pounds ; in 1880, 12,015,657 pounds, and in 1890, 9,- 424,823 pounds. The crop of Irish potatoes in 1870 was 4,238,361 bushels ; in 1880, 4,189,694 bushels, and in 1890, 8,188,921 bushels. The crop of sweet potatoes in 1870 was 241,253 bushels ; in 1880, 431,484 bushels, and in 1890, 561,551 bushels. The wool clip in 1870 was 3,649,390 pounds : in 1880. 7,313,924 pounds, and in 1890, 4,040,084 pounds. The yield of but- ter in 1870 was 14,455,825 pounds ; in 1880, 28,572,124 pounds, and in 1890, 43,108,521 pounds. The yield of milk in 1880 was 3,- 173,017 gallons, and in 1890, 193,931,103 gal- lons. The product of cheese in 1870 was 204,090 pounds ; in 1880, 283,484 pounds, and in 1890, 288,620 pounds. The yield of poul- try in 1880 was, chickens, 6,810,068; other fowls, 2,096,085: in 1890, chickens, 22,785,- 848; other fowls, 2,405.940. The yield of eggs in 1880 was 28,352,032 dozen; in 1890, 53,- 147,418 dozen. The yield of apples in 1890 was 8,698,170 bushels; peaches, 1,667,789. The surplus farm products, that is, such as were sent to market in 1898, as given by the Missouri Commissioner of Labor Statistics,
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