General history of Macon County, Missouri, Part 44

Author: White, Edgar comp; Taylor, Henry, & company, pub
Publication date: 1910
Publisher: Chicago, H. Taylor & company
Number of Pages: 1106

USA > Missouri > Macon County > General history of Macon County, Missouri > Part 44

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During Judge Nortoni's term as assistant United States district attorney he also took part in the first trial of United States Senator Joseph Ralph Burton of Kansas, who was charged with having vio- lated the federal statutes by using his office as senator in the service of a crooked grain company in St. Louis by trying to prevent the issuance of a fraud order against it by the United States postoffice department and the exclusion of its fraudulent correspondence and literature from the mails, and receiving pay from the company for his work in this behalf. The senator was convicted at the trial but the United States supreme court reversed the decision of the lower court, and he was again convicted on a second trial in which Judge Nortoni took no part, as it occurred after his election to the St. Louis court of appeals. Senator Burton was sentenced to six months' confinement in the Iron county jail and served his sentence. He was also sentenced to pay a fine of $2,500.

In August, 1904, Judge Nortoni was nominated by the Republican judical convention assembled at Jefferson City as its candiate for judge of the St. Louis court of appeals, and in the election which fol- lowed he was triumphant, securing a plurality of nearly ten thousand over his principle opponent, Judge Valle Reyburn, a member of the court and the Democratic candidate for re-election. Judge Reyburn was a most estimable man and an excellent judge, but the tide was against his party, and Judge Nortoni's record in the district attorney's office gave him great strength before the people. He was elected for a term of twelve years, which will expire in January, 1917, it having begun on Jannary 1, 1905.

The most important cases in Macon county with which Judge Nor- toni was connected were the Kennedy murder case, the Ethel fire cases, twenty in number and involving about $40,000, the case of the State of Missouri against Cornelius O'Brien and the Hawk-Summers hog-steal-

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ing case. The Kennedy murder case arose out of the killing of Corne- lius Collins by Simon Kennedy at New Cambria on December 23, 1893. Judge Nortoni employed Captain Guthrie and Hon. Ben Franklin to assist him in the defense of Kennedy and he was acquitted. Nineteen of the Ethel fire cases were tried in the state courts, and one more impor- . tant than the others, known as the W. R. Phipps case, and involving $16,000, in the federal court. The case against O'Brien was for poison- ing Jack Mohaney's well, pond and cattle. He was convicted and sen- tenced to serve two years in the penitentiary, and was the only man the judge ever defended who served time.

Of Judge Nortoni's record on the bench it is enough to say that he has fully met all the high expectations raised by his election, and has shown himself to be a man of fine judicial attainments, the most unserv- ing integrity and eminent fairness and impartiality. He is also inde- fatigable in his industry in connection with his official duties, suffering no cause to be delayed longer than absolutely necessary when it is assigned to him for an opinion and making no expense for litigants that can possibly be avoided. He is a source of strength and an ornament to the bench as he is to the citizenship and manhood of the state,-an illustration of the highest attributes of life known among its people. He is everywhere revered and accounted in the first rank as a jurist and a man. On July 3, 1906, he bowed a second time beneath the flowery yoke of Eros, being united in marriage with Miss Emma T. Belcher, a native of Boone county, Missouri, who still abides with him and gives grace to the social life and cordiality and dignity to the hospitality of their attractive home, which is a social center of distinction and a popular resort of the most cultivated people in the state.

ISAAC HARRISON VERTREES.

The really strong elements of character in American manhood which have given it complete success over every form of difficulty in the conquest of nature, in political progress, in industrial achievement, in adapting means to ends without regard to obstruetions, and even in social life-which have formed its vigor at home and won it distinction abroad-are oftenest to be found in the men of sturdy independence and self-reliance, who have been obliged to make their own way in the world and have been in all essential particulars the architects of their own fortunes. One of these among the progressive and enterprising rural population of Macon county who must always challenge atten- tion by his success and ability in his chosen lines of endeavor, and who has won universal esteem by his worth as a man and his usefulness

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as a citizen, is Isaac Harrison Vertrees, of Easeley township, near Elmer, where he has passed almost all the years of his life to this time (1909).

Mr. Vertrees was born in Illinois in 1854 and came with his par- ents to Missouri when he was but two years old. He is a son of Will- iam B. and Elizabeth (Mossberger) Vertrees, the former a native of Kentucky and the latter also of Kentucky. They were the parents of six children, but all of them are dead but the interesting subject of these paragraphs. The father enlisted in the army in 1861 for the term of the Civil war and served valiantly in that memorable sectional conflict. He faced death without flinching on a well-fought field, and was commended by his comrades and superiors for his bravery and unwavering gal- lantry. His service in the army was short, as brain fever caused his death shortly after enlisting. After his death his widow was married to the late Judge Easeley, whom she still survives. She now has her home with her son.

Isaac H. Vertrees passed his boyhood and youth under the terrible shadow of the Civil war and the disasters it wrought. His opportunities for academic acquirements were therefore limited and confined wholly to the facilities afforded for the purpose by the public schools, and even these he was able to attend only at irregular intervals in the winter months for a few years. The needs of the family were such that he was compelled to aid in providing for them, his own training in special lines for the battle of life, and his own advancement being secondary considerations. But he made the best use he could of the chances he had and laid a good foundation for the fund of general information he has since gathered in the stern school of experience and from reading, observation and reflection.

After leaving school Mr. Vertrees worked at various occupations for a time, doing whatever his hand found to do and doing all with enterprise, skill and a view to his elevation to higher functions in life. At the age of nineteen he turned his attention to farming for himself, and to this exhilarating but exacting and often exhausting calling he has ever since devoted himself. He now owns and farms 182 acres of excellent land and also carries on an extensive industry in raising cattle and other live-stock. He has made his farm a model country home, both in the manner in which he has cultivated and improved it and the liberality with which he has provided it with the necessary appliances for advanced modern farming and stock-raising and the comforts and attractions of domestic life. In addition, he is a stock-

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holder and director of the Farmers Exchange Bank of Gifford and extensively interested in real estate transactions of magnitude.

The varied interests which Mr. Vertrees controls and manages are many and engrossing, but they have not obscured his vision as to pub-' lic affairs or diminished his zeal in helping to promote the substantial and enduring welfare of the township and county in which he lives. To every commendable project for their advancement he has given willing and serviceable assistance, and, in connection with the progress of the region, he is accounted one of the useful and reliable forces. He lias been a valued member of the school board more than ten years, and all the schools have felt the impulse of his quickening spirit and the guidance of his strong practical mind. In politics he is a Republican, always interested in the success of his party and energetic in helping to bring it about. His religious alliance is with the Baptist church, and in its welfare he has shown an abiding and helpful interest. In fraternal affiliation he belongs to the Order of Fraternal Yeomen and to his lodge in the order he also gives a due share of his attention and enterprise.

In 1876 Mr. Vertrees was united in marriage with Miss Nancy Mason, a native of Indiana. Of the seven children born to them six are living: Martha Elizabeth, the wife of Edward Wolfe; Electa Belle, the wife of Douglas Thompson; Sarah Anne, the wife of Burr Boring; Rosa Etta, the wife of E. B. Seamon; Alfleeta Ellen and Maude Emiline. The influence of the family on the social and business life of the community has been potent for good, and its aid in building up the moral and mental forces at work among the people has been felt and appreciated. Wherever they live and whatever line of action they are engaged in the members of the household are esteemed as persons of great worth and radiating centers of wholesome and produc- tive stimulus for everything that is good in the locality of their homes.

WILLIAM HENRY MANGUS.

Nature bestowed on William Henry Mangus, one of the prominent and successful farmers and stoekmen of Easley township, in this county, an energetic and persistent disposition, however niggardly she may have been in her other gifts to him and grudging in the cir- cumstances in which she placed him. He accepted her endowment at its full value and has made the utmost of his opportunities in the use of it. He was born in Adair county, Missouri, in May, 1867, and his boyhood was passed there at a period when the state was still suffering from the devastation of the Civil war, and the path to wealth and dis-

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tinction for boys of moderate means was a narrow and thorny one. But he took the road as he found it, and made his way over it with steady advances, even though his progress was for a time slow and painful. His goal was, however, constantly in his vision, and no obstacle discouraged him from pressing onward toward it. His conquests in life are therefore all his own.

Mr. Mangus is a son of Jacob and Sarah (Kreps) Mangus, the former a native of Pennsylvania and the latter of Pennsylvania par- entage, although born in Ohio. The father came with his parents from their Pennsylvania home to Missouri when he was ten years old. Ife was a farmer most of his life, and also took an active part in the public affairs of the locality in which he lived, always working with force and effect for the success of the Republican party and serving for a number of years as a member of the local school board. When the Civil war broke out he enlisted in the Union army in Company I, Sev- enth Missouri Cavalry, which was in service to the end of the conflict. Mr. Mangus took part in many battles and skirmishes, one of the most notable being the sanguinary contest of Perry Grove. Both he and his wife are still living and have their home at Gifford. They have had four children. Only two of the four are living, William H. and his sister, Airy Fritz. The latter is a resident of New Mexico.

William H. Mangus was reared to the life of a farmer and he has followed it all his years. His education was seenred at the public schools near the family homestead, and he assisted his father in cul- tivating that while attending school and after he left school until 1SSS. He was then twenty-one years old and eager to begin operations on liis own account. He therefore found or made a way for the gratifica- tion of his desire and began the career as a farmer, which he is still expanding and rendering more successful and impressive, and which he has been extending steadily from the start. His farm comprises 320 acres and the land is nearly all under cultivation except the grazing ground necessary as pasturage and a range for the large number of cattle and other stock he raises, feeds and ships every year. He is also a stockholder in the Farmers Exchange Bank of Gifford.

In politics Mr. Mangus is a Republican and a zealous worker for his party. He has served on the local school board nine years and is now president of it. His interest in the schools has been earnest and broad-minded, and he has aided them to great progress in elevating their standard and widening their usefulness in the most practical ways, making them more and more helpful to the pupils in lines of the great- est need. In 1893 he was married to Miss Bina Day, whose parents

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HISTORY OF MACON COUNTY

came to Missouri from Illinois, but who was born in Knox county of this state. They have five children, Nellie, Chester, Paul, Harry and Day. They are all living at home and still adding to the brightness and cheer of the family circle.

HENRY D. ROBINSON.

Some men are born prosperous, some achieve prosperity, and some have prosperity thrust upon them. In this paraphrase of Bacon's renowned apothegm, the class to which Henry D. Robinson, of Gifford, belongs is noted second. He is very prosperous and a man of consid- erable worldly wealth, but all his acquisitions are the results of his own efforts and ability, and every element in the make-up of his successful and inspiring career has been brought into play by his own hand. Throughout his mature life he has been quick to see and alert to seize his opportunities, and then he has shown great enterprise and breadth of view in making the most of them for his own advantage and the benefit of the locality in which he lives.

Mr. Robinson was born in this county in 1861. His father, Creed W. Robinson, was a native of Virginia and came to Missouri to grow up with the country in 1836. For the state was then practically in its youth, although even as it was it had already, by its lusty demands for recognition, greatly disturbed the political waters of the country and centered all eyes in public life upon its strength and promise of future greatness. Mr. Robinson took his place in the leading industry of the region in which he settled, and during the remainder of his life was one of Macon connty's progressive and influential farmers. He was married in 1851 to Miss Wilhelmina Schmidt, a native of Ger- many. They had nine children and reared six of them to maturity. Five are still living: Lucy E., the wife of Joseph Eitel, of Ethel; Alexander W .; Henry D .; Minnie, the wife of William Severs, of Elmer, and William N. When the Civil war broke out the father enlisted, but the command to which he belonged was never called into active service. His father was born in Ireland and his mother in England.

Henry D. Robinson's mother died on July 22, 1906, and his father on March 12, 1909. The son was reared as nearly all the boys around him were. He grew to manhood on his father's farm and attended the public school in the neighborhood when he had opportunity. His schooling was necessarily limited and irregular, for the demands of the farm work were exacting and insistent, and everything else had to give way to them. After leaving school he turned his attention to farming

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and raising live stock, and having put his hand to the plow in these lines of effort, he has never looked back, but has steadily pursued his chosen way. His devotion to his calling made him attentive to all its require- ments, and this persistent watchfulness brought its dne reward in great success and rapidly increasing prosperity. His home farm now contains 321 acres, and the whole tract is rich in its annual yield, all of it being under vigorous and skillful cultivation except the portion needed for grazing purposes. In addition to this, which is one of the most valuable farms in the township of Easley, Mr. Robinson owns a considerable amount of fine real estate, including both town and country properties. He is also one of the stockholders and directors of the Bank of Gifford, and holds the same relation to the Gifford Tile and Brick Manufacturing Company.

Mr. Robinson's allegiance in political affairs is given to the Demo- cratie party, and while he neither seeks nor desires public office for himself, he renders his party loyal and effective service in all its cam- paigns. The only official station from which he has sought to serve the public is that of membership on the local school board, and this he has held during the last eight years, accepting the office and performing its duties solely for the good of the community, and with the desire to make the schools as effective and useful as possible. His fraternal relations are with the Odd Fellows and the Modern Woodmen of America. He takes great interest in these fraternities and aids materially in the effort to extend their usefulness to the widest bounds and raise them to the highest standard of excellence and develop them to the fullest state of vigor and prosperity attainable.

Mr. Robinson was married in 1901 to Miss Lydia Rosella Buck, a native of Macon county and the danghter of Sylvester and Mary J. Buck who came to this state from Ohio. They have two children, their son Henry Manford and their daughter Rosetta Marie. The parents are well esteemed as representatives of the highest social life and most elevated citizenship in the community, and as exemplifying in every way the best attributes of exalted American manhood and womanhood.

GEORGE WASHINGTON BAILEY.

Although he has a distinguished name, and one that stands for all that is pure, heroie and lofty in manhood, George Washington Bailey of Easley township in this county has borne it worthily during the forty years of his life to this time, and has shown in his quiet but successful career some of the elements of manhood which the mention of it inevitably suggests. He has not been called into the limelight of

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public notice, or contended with opposing forces on any field of historic renown, but in the faithful and nnostentatious discharge of daily duties, and in the way of making the most of his opportunities, he has so conducted himself and his affairs that the great soldier of the Revo- lution would commend his course with approval and feel that his name has not been discredited by this man of our day.

Mr. Bailey is a native of the township in which he now lives, where his life began in 1869. His father, George Bailey, was born in Virginia, and became a resident of Missouri in 1832. He saw much of frontier existence, with its trials and perils, its arduous labors and pinching privations. But he also witnessed its subsequent triumphis, and shared in their enjoyments as he had done in the struggle to win them. He was married in 1856 to Miss Anne Mariah Swalley, who was born in Ohio, where her parents settled when they moved West from their native state of Pennsylvania. Her grandfather was also a Virginian by birth. She and her husband passed their years of residence in this state, after their marriage, in farming with industry and ability, and reared eight of their nine children to maturity. The seven of them now living are: Mary Elizabeth, the wife of J. E. Miller of Oklahoma; Byron C .; James W .; Emma Rebecca, the wife of William Griffith of California; and George W .; Joseph and Charles. The father was obliged to hew out his own way in the world without favoring circum- stanees or any of the bounties of Fortune except such as he wrested from her reluctant grasp. In his day and generation he achieved a worthy success, but the divison of his estate gave a very small allowance to each of his children, and they in turn found themselves almost wholly dependent on their own exertions for advancement, just as he had been.

George W. Bailey accepted his destiny with cheerfulness and entered upon his life work, when the hour came, with alacrity. He grew to manhood on the parental homestead and took his part in its laborious cultivation. When he could be spared from this he attended the country school near by during the winter months of a few years, then took up the burden of life for himself by working as a hired hand on farms in the neighborhood of his home. At the age of twenty-two he started his own career as a farmer and stock-breeder, and to this he has given almost his whole attention during all the subsequent years. He has lost no time, and his industry and good management have brought him a large measure of success. He now owns 499 acres of good land, with the whole tract well cultivated and prolific in returns except the portion necessary for grazing his stock. He is also a stockholder

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native of England, where he was reared and educated, and as a young man he severed the home ties and set forth to seek his fortunes in America. From his place of disembarkation on the Atlantic seaboard he made his way westward and located in the state of Illinois, whence he later removed to Missouri and located in Bevier, Macon county, to which place he returned after a few years' residence in the state of Wyoming, of which commonwealth he was a pioneer settler. His wife, whose maiden name was Emma Roberts, was a native of Missouri, and they are survived by three children, of whom the subject of this review is the third in order of birth; Thomas S. is a resident of Bevier, and Mary is the wife of Marion Shoop, of Novinger, Missouri.

After the death of his father the widowed mother removed with her family to Bevier, where her death occurred, and here Charles A. was reared to maturity, being afforded the advantages of the public schools and of St. James Academy, an excellent local institution conducted under the auspices of St. James' church, Protestant Episcopal, and later he completed a course in a business college at Quincy, Illinois, so that he faced the battles of life with adequate equipment in an educa- tional way as well as in sturdy personal attributes of character.

In 1891, when twenty-two years of age, Mr. Wardell engaged in the general merchandise business at Pittsburg, Kansas, where he became associated with John S. Sharp, under the firm name of Wardell & Sharp. The firm built up an excellent trade and the business was continued until 1893, when it was sold to a merchantile firm in Fort Scott, that state. After this disposing of his interests in the Sun- flower state Mr. Wardell returned to Macon, where he initiated his career in connection with the banking business. He assumed a very subordinate position in the State Exchange Bank, and by his ability and careful attention to the duties assigned to him he gained sneces- sive promotions until he was finally elected to the office of cashier, of which he has been incumbent since 1908. For fourteen years was assis- tant cashier prior to his election and in which he has shown marked discrimination and judgment in handling the executive affairs of the institution. No citizen of Macon has a stronger hold upon popular con- fidence and regard, and this fact has inured greatly to the success of the bank with which he is identified and in which he has won advance- ment through fidelity and effective service. He is a stockholder and director of the institution, which is one of the solid and popular banks of this section of the state, the same basing its operations upon a capital stock of $100,000 and enlisting the capitalistic and adminis- trative co-operation of leading citizens of Macon county.

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Progressive and public-spirited as a citizen, Mr. Wardell takes a loyal interest in all that tends to conserve the advancement and stable prosperity of his home city and county, and he gives his support to all that makes for good government in a local and generic way. His political allegiance is given to the Democratic party bnt to him public office has shown forth no allurement. He and his wife are commun- icants of St. James church. Protestant Episcopal, and in a fraternal way he is identified with Macon Lodge, Benevolent & Protective Order of Elks.

On the 15th of June, 1898, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. War- dell to Miss Elizabeth Sanvinet, who was born and reared in Macon and who is the daughter of that prominent and influential citizen, Gustave Sanvinet, of Macon, Missouri. Mr. and Mrs. Wardell have one child, Thomas E., who was born on the 1st of September, 1902.

CHARLES C. NEET.

This enterprising and successful farmer and stock-breeder of Easley township, Macon county, was born on Christmas day, 1875, on the farm on which he now lives and on which he has passed the whole of his life to this time (1909). He is a son of James N. and Sarah (McClanahan) Neet, the former born and reared in Sullivan county and the latter in Macon county. The father came to this county about 1871 and purchased a farm. A little later he moved to Harrison county and remained three years. He then returned to Macon county, and here he lived until 1898, when he retired from active work and took up his residence at Browning in Linn county. He owns 1,000 acres of land, all of which are devoted to his extensive cattle and other live stock interests.

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General history of Macon County, Missouri, Part 44

Author: White, Edgar comp; Taylor, Henry, & company, pub Publication date: 1910 Publisher: Chicago, H. Taylor & company Number of Pages: 1106

Author: White, Edgar comp; Taylor, Henry, & company, pub
Publication date: 1910
Publisher: Chicago, H. Taylor & company
Number of Pages: 1106