USA > Missouri > Macon County > General history of Macon County, Missouri > Part 33
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 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98
Mr. Ross is a good and progressive citizen in every relation of life. He does well his part in his private character and conduet, and in reference to public affairs he is always upright, enterprising and patriotie. No undertaking which he deems of advantage to the com- munity goes without his active and helpful support, and no agency at work for the good of the people ever laeks his cordial assistance and his energetie and intelligent efforts in its behalf. His political allegiance is given heartily to the Democratie party and his services for its success are at all times effective and highly appreciated. But they are based on conviction and involve no material advantage for himself except what springs from the general elevation and good government of the county and state. For he has always refused every overture made to him to become a candidate for public office. His fraternal connection is with the Modern Woodmen of America and his religious affiliation with the Southern Methodist church. He is zealous in his devotion to both and does his part to advance their interests in every proper way.
In 1873 Mr. Ross was united in marriage with Miss Anna E. Weakley, who came with her parents to this state from Virginia, where she was born. Five children were born to the union and four of them are living: Margaret, the wife of W. R. Burton of Callao; John F., an engineer on the Illinois Central railroad; Omer C. and Myrtle.
316
HISTORY OF MACON COUNTY
JAMES WELDON POSEY.
The department of labor known as farming, which has engaged a large part of the human family from the birth of the race, has ceased to be a mere vocation affording only a living to those who engage in it, and not always that, and, under the genius of modern discovery, pro- gress and improvement, has been developed into a science of high rank and an industry of colossal proportions and importance. Accord- ing to the readiness with which communities, counties, states and nations have realized this and applied it, their agricultural interests have been magnified in volume and value, and all their other interests have increased in extent and power proportionally. Macon county, Missouri, is one of the portions of this country in which the appreciation of these facts has been practical and almost universal, and has wrought wonderful results. In this county farming is generally conducted on a scientific basis and its allied industry of raising live stock has received similar progressive and intelligent attention, and both have advanced® and prospered in an eminent degree.
James Weldon Posey of Liberty township is one of the many farmers and stock men in the county who have profited by the new view of their business, and have followed it in an intensive manner with great advantage to themselves and corresponding benefits to the region and all its people. He is a native of the county, born on March 17, 1865, and the son of Green Harrison and Deborah (Russell) Posey, natives of Kentucky. The father came to Missouri in 1855 and located at Bloomington, where he farmed extensively and with steadily increasing prosperity. He became influential in the township and held a number of the offices in the gift of its people, working always for their benefit and the general improvement of the locality. He was a Demo- crat politically but always had the best interests of the township at heart and held them, in all his career, above partisanship or any per- sonal consideration. . He died on April 12, 1893, and his wife on March 29 of the same year. They were the parents of eight children of whom the living are: Mary, the wife of Vincent Sullivan of Macon; Nanny, the wife of George Morford of Kansas; Green R., James W. and Anna E., the wife of D. W. Mayhew of Callao, all worthy and esteemed citizens of the communities in which they live. He was twice married and had the following children by his first wife, Sarah A. Simpson of Brevier, Mrs. Levina J. Brown, of Brevier, Wm. H. of Kansas City and Mrs. Permelia E. Wilkes of Callao. Her maiden name was Emily J. Vandiver and she died in 1850.
1
JUDGE NATHANIEL M. SHELTON
317
HISTORY OF MACON COUNTY
James W. Posey received only a district school education and a limited one at that. The struggle for advancement among men began early with him, and as soon as he left school he started on the rugged aseent toward success and consequence by beginning at once the work he had laid out for himself. He became a farmer and has been one ever since. But he did not find progress easy or rapid at first, nor did he have the knowledge of the business he has acquired through study of its possibilities and the requirements for developing them, and conse- quently he was obliged to feel his way, as it were, and fight for his advancement. His subsequent gains and his present prosperity and standing are therefore all the more gratifying in that he has won them for himself by learning how to use all his resources to the best advan- tage, applying for the purpose everything he acquired in reading, observation and close reflection. He now owns a fine farm of 200 acres, which is well improved and which he farms in a scientific manner. He also carries on an extensive business in live stock and a flourishing dairy industry.
Mr. Posey has always exhibited a hearty and serviceable interest in the welfare and progress of his township and county, manifesting it by his activity in behalf of all projects in which their good is involved. and also by his freedom from partisanship and his support of the party and the men for public office whom he believes to be most likely to promote the general weal and the best interests of all the people. His religious allegiance is given to the doctrines and tenets of the Chris- tian church and he is an active church supporter and an important and valued member of the congregation to which he belongs. He was married on September 26, 1887, to Miss Mittie A. Harrison, whose parents came to Missouri from Kentucky, but who was born and reared in this county. They have three children : Clarence O., Hazel M. and Walter E.
HON. NATHANIEL MEACON SHELTON.
Eminent as a jurist, occupying an exalted place in the confidence and esteem of the people as a citizen, and an ornament to any social circle of which he is a part, Hon. Nathaniel Meacon Shelton, of Macon, circuit judge of the Second Judicial District of Missouri, is an honor to the state in which he lives, the profession to which he belongs, and high-toned American manhood, of which he is so shining an example.
The Judge was born near Troy, Lincoln county, this state, on March 17, 1851. His parents were Meacon A. and Anna (Berger) Shel- ton, natives of Pittsylvania county, Virginia, where the father was an
318
HISTORY OF MACON COUNTY
extensive planter and owner of large tracts of land and numerous slaves. They were married in 1828, in their native state, and when they determined to migrate to the then far distant and uncivilized region beyond the Mississippi from their ancestral home, they came to Mis- souri, in 1833, making the trip overland with teams and bringing with them a good herd of cattle and a number of their negroes. The father entered government land in what is now Lincoln county, which the fam- ily lived on, cultivated and improved until 1870, when the parents sold their property and thereafter made their home with their daughters until death called them from their earthly lahors. The father died in 1873, aged 76, and the mother in 1887, aged 80 years. They were the parents of three sons and six daughters. Of these two sons and one daughter are living, and all are residents of Missouri. The family, like uncounted others, paid its toll to the awful slaughter of the Civil war, one son dying in the military service of the Confederacy, being a surgeon in the Southern army.
The father was a Whig until the party of that name died through the sectional strife in politics which preceded the war, and after that became a Democrat. For more than twenty years he was the pre- siding judge of the Lincoln County Court, and his name is revered by the people of all Missouri as that of a capable and upright jurist and a citizen whose life was above reproach. He was twice married, his first wife, whose maiden name was Ann Evans, dying in her native state of Virginia.
The Shelton family is of English origin, the American progenitors having emigrated from Great Britain to this country early in the sev- enteenth century. Abraham Shelton, great-grandfather of the present Judge Shelton, was long a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses, in which he served with Patrick Henry and other distinguished men of itis day who gave the political history of the world a new direction and wrote their names in illuminated letters on its heroic pages. He also served in the House of Delegates after they gained their independence. He was active in the agitation leading up to the Revolution, and was widely and favorably known throughout his own and the other Ameri- can colonies as a wise counselor, a pure patriot and a fearless defender of his faith.
His son, Crispin Shelton, the Judge's grandfather, was also an extensive planter in the Old Dominion, and died on his plantation there after many years of usefulness and elevated manhood. His widow came to Missouri and died some years later at the home of her son, the Judge's father. In two of the great commonwealths of this
319
HISTORY OF MACON COUNTY
country members of this family have lived and labored for the gen- eral welfare, dignifying and adorning the citizenship of the nation and giving examples worthy of imitation everywhere by their readiness to take their places in every crisis, and their fidelity to every duty, whether in private or in public life.
Hon. Nathaniel M. Shelton grew to the age of eighteen on the pater- mal homestead in Lincoln county. He obtained his scholastic training in private schools, Parker Seminary in Troy, this state, and at William Jewell College, located at Liberty, Missouri, which he attended two years. He then taught school one year, and at the end of his service as a teacher was appointed deputy clerk and recorder of Montgomery county, Missouri. During his two years of wise and faithful service in that capacity he studied law under the direction of Judge Elliott M. Hughes. In 1874 he entered the law department of the Missouri State University. After passing one year of laborious study in that institution, he was admitted to the bar in 1875 in Montgomery county, before Judge Gilchrist Porter, at Danville, Missouri.
Judge Shelton began the practice of his profession in the same year in Schuyler county, and continued to practice in that county until his elevation to the bench in 1898. He was re-elected judge at the end of his first term, with a steady growth in popularity and strength before the people, whose confidence he has won and retained by his course on the bench, his demeanor as a man and his breadth of view and progressiveness as a citizen. Prior to his election as judge he served as attorney for the Wabash railroad for a number of years in Schuyler county, rendering the company good and faithful service without contravening the rights or interests of the people. In 1884 he was elected to the lower house of the state legislature, and was re-elected in 1886. In that body he was chairman of the committees on education and criminal jurisprudence, and rendered such excellent service and showed himself so well equipped for the administration of public affairs that in 1888 he was elected to the state senate. In the senate he served capably and with high credit to himself as chairman of the judiciary committee.
In 1902 the Judge moved to Macon county, where he has ever since resided. In politics he has been a life-long Democrat, and before his election to the bench was very active in council and on the hustings in the service of his party, holding firmly to the belief that its political principles and theory of goverment are the correct ones, and that in their ascendency in state and nation rests the enduring welfare of the American people, collectively and individually. He has always been
320
HISTORY OF MACON COUNTY
one of the progressive men in the judicial district, looking with favor on every worthy enterprise for its improvement and the strengthening of its mental, moral and material forces, and lending all the full measure of aid circumstances allowed him to advance. Fraternally he is a Free Mason of the third degree and a member of the order of Modern Woodmen of America; and socially he is a gentleman of the old school, preserving against all innovations the high character and courtly man- ners of our earlier and, perhaps, better days, not as assumptions or from force of habit, but because they are inherent with him and as much parts of his nature as the organs of his body and the faculties of his mind. Professionally he is in the front rank of Missouri jurists, strictly upright, fair and just, learned in the law, wise in applying and inter- preting it, and fearless in enforcing it.
The marriage of Judge Shelton occurred on November 21, 1878, and united him with Miss Belle T. Garges, a native and life-long resi- dent of this state. Of the four children born to them three are living : Mabel, the wife of Wilbur M. French, M. D., of Chicago, Illinois ; Charles W., who is preparing for admission to the bar, and Anna E., both of whom are living at home. All the members of the family belong to the Christian church.
GEORGE POHLMAN, JR.
This diligent and faithful employe of the federal government and energetie church and Sunday school worker, who is one of the most highly esteemed young men in the city of Macon, is a son of George and Barbara (Shudy) Pohlman of Middle Fork township in this county, a brief account of whose lives will be found in this volume, and the first born of their three living children. He was born on January 31, 1887, on the present farm of his parents in Middle Fork township, and there grew to the age of eighteen, receiving his scholastic training in the district schools of that locality and the high school in Macon, from which he was graduated in 1904.
After leaving school Mr. Pohlman taught for about one year, and in August, 1905, entered the employ of the government as a mail carrier in Macon city. He has continued to this time (1910) to render faithful and satisfactory service in that capacity and place, rising steadily in the esteem of the people, and showing decided merit as a basis for their good will and regard. They have confidence in him because he has proven to their satisfaction that he deserves it, and they hold him in cordial regard because of the moral character and engaging social qualities which he possesses.
321
HISTORY OF MACON COUNTY
He ranks high and enjoys great popularity among his associates in the service, having served as chairman of the State Letter Carriers association and being at present the vice-president of the organization. His superiors in official circles also accord him great credit for faithful and intelligent service and a general demeanor that is altogether acceptable and aids in giving the service a high reputation for its efficiency and the elevated character of its employes.
In his church relations Mr. Pohlman is a very active and zealous member of the Southern Methodist church. He is assistant super- intendent of the Sunday school attached to the congregation to which he belongs and the President of one of its large and studious classes. He is also a member of the official board of the church and president of the Epworth League branch in the church. No good element of church, Sunday school or League work escapes his attention or lacks his earnest, energetic and serviceable support in both counsel and active assistance.
In the general duties of citizenship he is zealous and upright, allying himself unalterably with no faction in politics, no clique in society, no exclusive organization in fraternal life and no limited circle in any relation among men, but finding congenial associates in all, an atmosphere of health and improvement wherever good men congregate and opportunity for usefulness and service to his fellowmen every- where. He is broad in his views and progressive in all his tendencies. For all measures designed to improve the community around him and add to the comfort, convenience and general welfare of its people he is always ready to speak forcibly and act with intelligence and energy, and in behalf of all moral and educational agencies at work among the people he is at all times ready to expend whatever influence he can exert and help to awaken all the activities available to him through his own force or the powers he can put in motion in others by his per- suasion or example. At the age of twenty-three he is accounted worthy of general esteem and those who know him best look forward to eminence for him in any locality that may have the benefit of his services and the credit of his citizenship.
GEORGE POHLMAN.
Over the childhood of this now enterprising and highly successful farmer and stock man of Middle Fork township, Macon county, the terrible shadow of our Civil war hung darkly and deeply, and that shadow rested heavily over all the early years of his struggle to make headway in the world and obtain a competency for himself. It did not,
322
HISTORY OF MACON COUNTY
however, suffice to arrest his industry and frugality or stay his progress toward the goal he had set for himself. He found it necessary at an early age to make provision for his own advancement, for he had no other dependence than his stout heart, strong arm and determined spirit. He grappled with the difficulties in his way and one by one subdued them, and even made many of them assistants in his progress and servants to his will.
Mr. Pohlman was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on January 1, 1860, and is the only child of John and Catherine (Weigel) Pohlman, the former born in Berlin, Germany, in 1827, and the latter a native of Germania in Bavaria. The father came to this country in 1849 and located in Wisconsin where he remained three years profitably engaged in rafting timber under contract. At the end of the period named he moved to St. Louis. Here he obtained large contracts to furnish cord wood for use on the steamboats, loading it on barges for convenience in transferring it to the steam giants which then formed the only means of transportation along the Mississippi river. He prospered at this business also, but the Civil war came on and soon ended his labors with his life. In 1862 he enlisted in the Federal army in the Third Mis- souri regiment, and after a service of three months was killed by another Union soldier by mistake near Albany, Missouri. He was married in October, 1859, and by this union became the father of one child, his son George, who is the subject of this sketch. He was a Republican in politics and a Lutheran in religious connection.
Thus widowed after three years of married life, and by a terrible tragedy which no one could foresee or prevent, the mother took upon herself the difficult task of rearing her young son and preparing him for usefulness in life. But the times were hard, her means were slen- der, and the disturbed condition of the country, particularly in the region in which she lived, added to the troubles she was obliged to bear, and made the burden of her duty almost too much for her to bear. She managed, however, to give her son a limited district school education in Ray county, where they were then living, and as soon as he was able he sought by every means in his power to reciprocate her devotion and return his assistance to her for hers to him. He sought employment wherever it was to be found. working diligently on farms and in saw mills, and contributing all he could of his meager earnings to aid in her support.
By great industry and frugality he accumulated some money and in 1881 established a home for both on a farm of 100 acres in Ray county, which he bought and improved, and on which he raised good
323
HISTORY OF MACON COUNTY
crops of grain and hay. Mother and son lived on this farm until 1885 and made substantial progress against the sea of troubles that opposed them. In the year last named the son sold the farm and moved to Macon county, locating on the land on which he now has his home in Middle Fork township, six miles southeast of Maeon. Here he has continued his farming operations and been extensively engaged in raising stoek ever since, making his stock industry a specialty and conducting it on a large seale. He has been very successful, and now owns 360 acres of good land in Maeon county and 140 in Ray county, which he has purchased since he left that county, and which he has rented to a tenant.
Mr. Pohlman has been diligent and determined in advaneing his own fortunes, and he has also been very active and serviceable in help- ing to promote the development and improvement of the township and county of his residence and the welfare of their people. He has served as school director continuously for a period of twenty-two years and as road commissioner for a period of nine. He is independent in politieal affairs and a member of the Christian church in religion, as is his wife, also, and both are very zealous and energetic in church work.
On August 12, 1885, Mr. Pohlman was united in marriage with Miss Barbara Shudy, a daughter of Franeis and Johanna Shudy, residents of Shelby county. Six children have blessed the union and brightened the household and three of them are living: George, who resides in Maeon City, a brief sketch of whom will be found in this work, and Catherine and Mildred, who are still members of the parental heme and ornaments of its fireside, aiding in dispensing its graceful hospitality and making it attractive to the hosts of friends of the fan- ily who frequent it, and find it a social center of refinement and a model domestie establishment.
WILLIAM PITTS JACKSON.
Although he bears names of high distinction in English and American history, William Pitts Jackson, one of the successful and progressive farmers and stoek men of Morrow township in this county, with his residenee and interests located near the town of College Mound, has done them no diseredit. He has not aspired to eminenee in either publie or private life, but he has met in a commendable manner every requirement of elevated citizenship, and has given in his career a fine illustration of the commanding might of enterprise, industry and reso- lute determination under the guidance of capable American manhood
V
324
HISTORY OF MACON COUNTY
in their application to the opportunities afforded for their exercise in this land of boundless resources.
Mr. Jackson is a native of Randolph county, Missouri, where he was born in 1863. His father, James Robert Jackson, was a native of Virginia and came to this state in 1857, taking up his residence in Randolph county. Here he met with and married Miss Sallie W. Allin,; a native of that county in which her parents were early settlers from Kentucky. William P. is the fourth of the ten of his parents twelve children who are now living, the other eight being Mollie, Amanda, Elizabeth, Sallie, Anna, Vertah, Fred and Lucy. The parents were prosperous and energetic farmers and accumulated a considerable estate by their continued and well-directed industry and frugality. They were also held in high esteem as worthy and useful citizens. The mother died on December 4, 1872, and the father on April 13, 1909, he having attained the ripe old age of eighty-two years before he passed away.
Their son William P. began his education in the local schools near his home, continued it in a graded school at Huntsville and completed it at William Jewell College, which is located at Liberty, Missouri. After leaving college he began the work of farming and raising live stock in which he has passed all his subsequent years. He has acquired by his own efforts a fine farm of 114 acres and built up a considerable business in raising stock. He also has improved his farm with good buildings and cultivated it with great energy and success, making every acre of it that yields to the plow produce excellent results for the labor bestowed upon it.
In connection with the development and advancement of his town- ship and county he has been very active and serviceable. Every worthy enterprise in which the welfare of the people is involved commands his close attention and has the benefit of his intelligent and efficient aid. Political affairs also interest him greatly and he takes a leading part in giving them what he considers proper direction and control. He is a zealous member of the Democratic party and always gives it his earnest and effective support. He served as census enumerator in 1900 and has for some years been the clerk and one of the directors of the school board. He is also a deacon and the clerk in the congre- gation of the Baptist church to which he belongs. In connection with his other duties he is now looking after the interests of his father's estate, of which he is the administrator. He is a very busy man, but he has the faculty of doing his work easily and without worry, and so gets through with it without any waste of effort. In 1890 he was
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.