USA > Missouri > Macon County > General history of Macon County, Missouri > Part 74
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He was united in marriage with Miss Nancy E. Gilbreath of this county, and by this union became the father of seven children, five of whom are living: Samuel, whose home is in La Plata. this county; Hugh F., who is also a resident of Macon county; William H., who lives in Texas; John C., the subject of this memoir ; and James N., who is one of the prosperous and progressive citizens of California. In politics the father was an active and loyal member of the Democratic party of the ultra state rights' school, and he gave his every energy, his most zealous service and finally his life in behalf of his political convictions and the wing of his party to which he belonged. He was a Baptist in religious faith and a member of Mission Baptist church. Industrious and frugal in the pursuits of peaceful industry, valiant
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HISTORY OF MACON COUNTY
and all-daring in war, and patient under the hardships and privations of prison life, he was a man of whom Missouri is justly proud as a representative of his citizenship, and whose memory is securely embalmed in the admiring regard of her people.
His son, Jolın C. Carpenter, began his career as a farmer and stock man at the age of twenty-two, when he bought 120 acres of land as a base of operations and on which he has ever since lived, labored wisely and flourished in a gratifying measure. He has increased his farm to 225 acres, improved it judiciously and brought it to a high state of development and productiveness. His stock industry has also been conducted with energy and capacity, and been kept up in magnitude to the limit of his resources for its successful and profitable prosecution, making it one of the leaders in its class in this part of the state.
Mr. Carpenter has also been active and helpful in promoting the welfare of the township and county and the substantial advancement of their people. He has served well and with approval as school director and in many other ways has been of decided benefit to the region in which he lives by his enterprise, breadth of view and public- spirit. On March 3, 1878, he was united in marriage with Miss Ella Graves, a daughter of John R. and Mary (Gates) Graves, esteemed residents of Macon county, of which she is a native. She and her husband are the parents of three children, all of whom are living. They are: Aura, the wife of W. E. Hertzler, of Independence township, this county; and Wilbur and Nellie, who are living at home. The father's political allegiance is given to the Democratic party and he is very energetic and zealous in its service. Although in no sense an office seeker himself, he does all he can to aid in securing the success of his party, the election of its candidates in all campaigns and the maintenance and increase of its power at all times. He is regarded as one of the leading men in his township and is highly esteemed for his demonstrated worth and sterling manhood, which find expression in elevated and serviceable citizenship.
GENERAL GILMORE SLAUGHTER.
Prominent among the progressive and prosperous farmers of Rich- land township, a leading man in the live stock industry of the same locality, and an important and influential citizen in the social and polit- ical life of his community, General Gilmore Slaughter is a credit to Macon county and to the stalwart manhood of Missouri. He is not a native of the state, having been born in Fayette, Seneca county, New York, on June 16, 1863, but has lived in Macon county ever since he
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was seven years of age, and during the whole of his youth and manhood to the present time, has been actively and fruitfully engaged in pro- moting its industries and advancing the substantial and enduring welfare of its people along all lines of wholesome progress.
Mr. Slaughter is a son of Andrew B. and Mary (Brown) Slaughter, the former born in Germany in 1827 and died January 31, 1895, and the latter a native of Seneca county, New York, where she was born Sep- tember 10, 1823, and died January 26, 1872, in Macon county, Missouri. The father came alone to this country when he was fifteen years old, arriving in 1845 and taking up his residence in the town of Fayette in the great Empire state of the East. There he met with and married Miss Mary Brown and by this marriage he became the father of four children, three of whom are living and named as follows: Jacob, a resident of Macon county, Missouri; Chester, whose home is in Fayette, New York, and General Gilmore, the immediate subject of this brief review. The father brought his family to Macon county in 1870 and settled in Riehland township. Here he was actively engaged in farm- ing on a tract of eighty acres of land, which he bought soon after his arrival in the locality, during the remainder of his life. He died January 31, 1895. His birth occurred July 9, 1827.
His son, General G. Slaughter, obtained his education in the Davis district school of Richiland township, and after completing its course of instruction, worked out by the month and assisted the family until 1884. In that year he bought sixty acres of good land as a start in the industries of farming and raising stock, to which he had deter- mined to devote himself, and to which he has adhered with unwavering persisteney ever since. He has been very successful in his under- takings and all his years of labor have been years of progress. He now owns 318 acres of land, and has his farm well improved with attractive modern buildings, equipped with everything needed for its advanced cultivation, and brought to a high state of development and produc- tiveness. His stock industry is also a thriving and profitable one, and both this and his farming operations are condneted with vigor, intelli- gence and skill.
On February 27, 1884, Mr. Slaughter married with Miss Mary E. C. Percival, a danghter of Jered Erostus and Snsan (Allen) Percival. (She was born April 12, 1844 and died January 8, 1893.) They were long esteemed residents of Macon county. Jered E. Percival was born at Shounee Town, Illinois, Jannary 6, 1841 and died October 4, 1869 in Macon county, Missouri. He served in the Civil war as a member of Company I, Seventh Missouri Cavalry. Mrs. Slaughter was born and
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reared in Macon county, and they had three children: Mary, the wife of William Yates of this county; Susan, the wife of Harvey S. Easley, also of Macon county, a sketch of whom will be found in this work; and Bedford G., who lives on the home place. The father is an ardent Republican in his political allegiance and a zealous and energetic worker for the good of his party. He is a member of the Christian church and takes a leading part in all its worthy undertakings for the improve- ments of the community and the good of mankind. Mrs. Slaughter's death occurred March 2, 1908.
Mr. Slaughter has been in all respects the architect of his own fortune, and his record is altogether to his credit. It shows a grati- fying and steady progress from nothing to consequence, the result's being achieved wholly by his own efforts and ability. He is a man of prominence and influence in his township and held in universal esteem for the uprightness of his life, the elevation of his character and his usefulness as a citizen.
HENRY WILLARD HALL.
Nature has no choice spots for the birth of her great men. When her purposes require it she is all Athens, all Stratford-on-Avon, all rural Virginia, in which she brought forth a race of heroes for our Revolutionary struggle. Neither is she strenuous in her exactions as to age. Often she endows young men with the breadth of view, the comprehensiveness of grasp and the ready and resourceful ability for great affairs which is ordinarily the result of long training in practical experience and through other means of development. In his way and to the extent of his operations, Henry Willard Hall is an illustration of this fact. He is but thirty-six years old, or scarcely that, and yet he is operating as a farmer and stockman on a scale which is the goal of many a long life in this part of the country and yet is but his starting point.
Mr. Hall was born in Macon county, Missouri, on May 17, 1874, and is a son of Henry and Mrs. Augusta (Pulver) Hall, the former born in Michigan in 1829, and the latter in this county. They were married in 1873 and had three children, only two of whom are living, IIenry W. and his brother, Charles, who lives in Adair county, this state. The father was a carpenter and worked at his trade in many states, being of a roving disposition and keeping on the move at inter- vals until his death, which occurred in June, 1901.
Ilis son, Henry W., obtained his education, it might be said. on the wing, attending schools in a number of different places, but principally
JOSEPH PARKE
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and her alone, she unbosoms her treasures of legal lore and success in the application of it in the same generous measure. A striking illustration of these truthis is to be found in the career of Joseph Parke, of La Plata, one of the eminent attorneys and counselors of Macon county, who has been assiduous in his attentions before the altar of Themis, and has found his fidelity an open sesame to her storehouse, securing a large measure of professional reputation and a substantial return in more material acquisitions.
Mr. Parke is a native of Henry county, Iowa, where he was born in 1848. His father, John Parke, was born and reared in Pennsylvania, in the eastern part, and emigrated to Henry county, Iowa, in 1842. There he worked industriously at his trade as a cabinet-maker until his death on June 7, 1851. In 1820 he was married to Miss Sarah Barry, a native of Pennsylvania, who was born January 1, 1804, and they became the parents of ten children, six of whom grew to maturity. our subject being the youngest. The mother survived her husband a full quarter of a century, dying on Christmas day, 1876. By his death she was left with a large family of young children to rear and educate, but, although the task was one of great magnitude and difficulty, she entered upon it with resolute courage and performed it with fidelity and a considerable degree of success.
Joseph Parke was reared and educated in the city of Ottumwa, Towa. He was deprived of the guidance and assistance of his father at the age of three years, but he found in his mother a faithful friend and a safe and sympathetic adviser. Besides, he had within himself the qualities that compel success and the disposition to use them. His direct scholastic training was necessarily limited, owing to the circum- stances of the family, but its deficiencies have been made up by Mr. Parke's extensive reading, observation and reflection, and been richly atoned for in the lessons of experience and his wisdom in laying them to heart. He is a gentleman of extensive general information, and of positive and accurate knowledge of many subjects of the highest human interest. And, what is more to his credit, his acquisitions in every line of effort are the fruits of his own ability and energetie practical industry.
Mr. Parke began the study of law in 1874. at Kirksville, Missouri, and was admitted to the bar on June 11, 1875. He at once began the practice of his profession at La Plata, and has been engaged in it there ever since. He has risen to eminence as an advocate and counselor. exhibiting on all occasions extensive knowledge of the law and its con- struction by the courts, and admirable skill and shrewdness in the appli-
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cation of his acquirements. His professional brethren esteem him highly for his acumen and comprehensive ability, and the whole people hold him in cordial regard because of his integrity, his progressiveness and his exalted and serviceable citizenship. While pushing his own car of progress with all the energy and prudence he could command, he has not been oblivious of the general welfare of the community around him and has been sedulous and constant in helping to protect and promote the best interests of its people.
Although he has never held or desired a political office, he is an active worker for the principles and candidates of the Republican party, of which he has been a zealous member from the dawn of his manhood. He has taken a warm and earnest interest in all the details of its campaigns, serving as a delegate to all its state conventions for many years, and a national delegate in 1896 to the convention which uominated Win. MeKinley for president, and doing all in his power to give its assemblies wise counsel and its activities proper guidance and trend. His services in this respect are so highly appreciated by both the party leaders and the rank and file that he is regarded as one of the party's best advisers and his judgment is always deferred to in matters of party judgment. In fraternal relations he is allied with the Masonic order, and his membership in it is highly valued because of the interest he takes in its work and the judicious counsel he is able to give its local authorities in every time of need. Mr. Parke is able to give all of the work in the different degrees from memory, even to the burial service, with the exception of the lectures of the second degree.
In 1875 Mr. Parke united in marriage with Miss Lottie MeQuary, a native of this county. All of the eight children born to them are living. They are: Jay Clinton, cashier D. & R. G. Railway, Trini- dad, Colorado; Austin E .. a successful lawyer living at Los Angeles, California; Charlotte, the wife of T. E. Francis, attorney, of St. Louis, with the firm of Boyle & Priest, and reporter for the St. Louis Court of Appeals; Grace Linn, the wife of Dr. T. J. Collins, who lives at Trenton, Missouri; Chester J., engineer for the Prairie Oil Gas Company, at La Plata; Mrs. Mary Stagg, wife of J. B. Stagg, assistant civil engineer A., T. & S. Fe R. R. at Topeka, Kansas, and Josephine Kay and Pauline, who are living at home with their father. Mr. Parke is approaching the sunset of life and he finds his evening serene and benignant because his day has been active and productive. It has been filled with useful labor for himself and others, and given him a record of fidelity to every duty and capacity for every requirement.
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Now, "honor, love, obedience, troops of friends, such things as should accompany old age," attend him and will go with him to the end.
FRED N. McDAVITT.
This progressive and prosperous young farmer, who is one of the most successful and enterprising men engaged in this line of productive industry in the township of Richland, Macon county, is a son of Asa W. and Mary M. (Murry) MeDavitt, a brief sketch of whom appears elsewhere in this volume, and both in his character as a man and his record as a farmer and stockman admirably sustains the family reputa- tion and is a credit to the citizenship of the locality in which he lives. He is not a native of Missouri, having been born in Adams county, Nebraska, during the residence of his parents in that state. But the greater part of his life to the present time (1910) has been passed here and he is a thorough Missourian in everything but his birth.
Mr. MeDavitt's life began on March 10, 1876, and his education in the district schools of Macon county, to which he was brought by his parents in his boyhood. He completed his scholastic training at Lom- bard College in Galesburg, Illinois, and after leaving that institution taught school one year. Thereafter, preferring to make farming and raising stock his occupation, for a time at least, if not for life, he worked on his father's farm until 1889, then went to work improving and devel- oping one of his own, comprising eighty aeres, which his father gave him when he attained his majority. He has adhered steadfastly to his chosen employment ever since and has made it pay well by giving it elose and careful attention and applying to it all the information he has been able to gather from studious reading and reflective observation of the teachings of his experience. His methods in his farming opera- tions and also in his stock industry are modern and are applied with a vigor and intelligence that are bound to command success, and this he has enjoyed in a marked degree, making his farm a silent but eloquent testimonial to the value of enterprise and progressiveness in agriculture and his live stock business an equally strong argument for the same elements of power in that line of endeavor.
Enlightened, wideawake and energetie as he is, with reference to his own affairs, he is no less so in connection with the welfare and progress of his township and county. With a true citizen's loyal devo- tion to the locality of his home, he gives every commendable project for its improvement and advance in development and commercial or indus- trial power his ready, active and effective support, acting on the convic- tion that the general well being of any community promotes the interests
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of every one living in it, and that it is the duty of all to do whatever they can to bring the region in which their lot has been cast to the highest and best condition its resources will allow, and help to make its people as intelligent, progressive and comfortable as possible under the circumstances of the case. Ilis farm now comprises 105 acres and he has it all under cultivation.
On August 17, 1889, Mr. MeDavitt was united in marriage with Miss Ruth Reesman, of La Plata, a daughter of David B. and Cordelia (Randal) Reesman, prominent residents of that town. The marriage has resulted in three children, Elwood, David W. and Mary, all of whom are still members of the parental household. The father is a Republican in polities and a Knight of Pythias in fraternal life. He and his wife are zealous and devoted members of the Universalist church and take a leading part in all its useful exertions for the good of the community and its residents. They are looked upon as among the leading citizens of their township and stand high in the regard and good will of all its people.
FRANCIS MARION CURTIS.
1
Born and reared in this state, aiding in its defense against armed invasion and internal strife during the Civil war, and engaging ener- getically and productively in its industries throughout his mature life to this time (1910), Francis Marion Curtis, of Richland township, Macon county, has been closely connected with its progress and a valuable con- tributor to its development and improvement in every material, mental, moral and commercial phase of its varied and multitudinous activity. Although not a native of Macon county, he has lived in it for a continu- ons period of twenty-eight years since his last location among its people, and before that passed the greater part of his youth in Missouri. He has therefore had plenty of opportunity to become known to its inhabitants and win their esteem by his uprightness and business enter- prise as a man and his usefulness as a citizen.
Mr. Curtis was born in Ray county, Missouri, on December 11, 1838. He is a son of Samuel K. and Nancy (Gentry) Curtis, the for- mer a native of Tennessee and the latter of Kentucky. On the father's side the family long lived in Tennessee and its members were promi- ment and influential in the history of that state, the paternal grand- father, Elijah Curtis, being one of the leading citizens in the county of his home there. The same is true of the ancestry of the mother in Kentucky. Samuel K. Curtis was born in 1800 and came to Mis- souri with his parents while he was yet a boy and the present great
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state of the Middle West, in which he passed the remainder of his days. that now challenges the admiration of the world by its enterprise and progress, was but an expanse of unpruned wilderness, given up to the dominion of the savage and the wild beasts of the forests and plains. On its arrival in this state the family located in Ray county, and there the father of Francis M. Curtis grew to manhood and obtained a district school education. He remained in that county until 1852. then moved to Macon county and took up his residence in Richland township, where he entered eighty acres of government land on which he passed the rest of his life successfully and profitably engaged in farming and raising live-stock. At the time of his death, which occurred in 1874. he owned and had under vigorous and advanced cultivation 280 acres, which made one of the attractive and valuable farms of the township, and was a model that inspired other farmers to increased enterprise and activity. His marriage to Miss Nancy Gentry occurred in 1836 and brought him five children, three of whom are living: Francis Marion, of Richland township; David, who resides in Adair county, and General Jackson, who is also a resident of Macon county.
Francis M. Curtis was educated in the district school near his home and. after completing its course of instruction, worked on the home farm and assisted the family until 1861, when he enlisted in the Federal army, at Macon in Company I, Seventh Missouri Cavalry, under com- mand of Colonel Foster. He served eleven months in the war and took part in a number of skirmishes in the vicinity of his home, that is in Macon and the nearby counties, and at the end of his term he was mustered ont at the same place that witnessed his enlistment. In 1862 he quit the army and returned to his home in this county. During the next twelve years he worked again on his father's farm, and in 1870. desiring to do something on his own account. he bought 120 acres of land in Adair county. This farm was his home and the seat of his progressive operations until 1882, when he returned to Macon county and took up his residence on the farm which is now his home. He has 200 acres of first-rate land, all of which is under good cultiva- tion and is well improved with commodions and comfortable buildings. His farming operations are extensive and carried on with the utmost energy and all the skill he has acquired in long experience and from an industrious study of the requirements of the business he is engaged in. Hle conduets. also, a flourishing industry in raising live-stock and does it in such a way as to make it profitable to himself and a valuable addition to the productiveness of the township in which it is located and so successfully prosecuted.
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In polities Mr. Curtis gives his fealty and active service to the Republican party. Fraternally he is a member of that fast-fading host. the Grand Army of the Republic, and in religious affiliation he is connected with the Christian church in whose improving activities he takes a leading part. He is also a zealous member of the Masonic frater- nity, to which he has belonged for a great many years, and in which he has found a great deal of enjoyment. On June 5, 1863, he was united in marriage with Miss Martha Phillips, a daughter of James and Ruth (Chambers) Phillips, and a native of Macon county. Eight children were born of the union, but only three of them are living: Emma J .. the wife of S. H. Elliot, who resides in the county of Macon ; James S., a highly respected citizen of Macon county, and John F., whose home is in the state of Montana. The wife and mother passed away August 3, 1909. She was a lifelong member of the Christian church and highly respected by all who knew her.
JOSEPH V. LANE.
The great state of Pennsylvania, which is a veritable hive of almost every form of human industry, has sent abroad throughout the rest of the country many men trained to usefulness in her busy and produe- tive fields of labor, who have put in motion in other places the forees of fruitfulness which they drew in with their stature and strength from her soil. Among the men of this class who have located in Maeon county, Missouri, and contributed to its progress and development, adding to its industrial and commercial power and aiding in giving tone and character to its citizenship, Joseph V. Lane, of La Plata town- ship, is entitled to honorable mention and the high place he holds in the regard and good will of the people living around him among whom he has long lived and labored.
Mr. Lane was born in Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, on October 31, 1844. There also his father, John Lane, was native and was born in 1791, and there he passed almost the whole of his life, actively engaged in general farming until his death, which occurred in 1863. He was married, in Pennsylvania, to Miss Elizabeth Stoakley, a native of New Jersey, and they became the parents of twelve children. only five of whom are now living. They are: Bennet, whose home is in West- moreland county. Pennsylvania; James, who resides in Mckeesport, in the same state; Mary, the wife of Manry Sutton, who lives in Indiana county, Pennsylvania; Susan. the wife of Isaac Jacobs, a resident of Washington county, Pennsylvania, and Joseph V., the only member of the family who lives in Missouri.
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