USA > Missouri > Macon County > General history of Macon County, Missouri > Part 76
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Dorian Dudley White, railroad agent at La Plata, belongs to the class of officials who aim to please those who have dealings with them and afford the public every proper accommodation. And, although he has been stationed at his present post only a few months, he has already won the regard and good will of the whole community. By his course he has also brought greater popularity to the railroads cen- tering in La Plata, and rendered them less subject to criticism and censure.
Mr. White is a native of Montgomery county, in this state, and was born at Wellsville on September 13, 1869. His parents, Fielding and Rebecca (Hyatt) White, also natives of that county, were born and reared at Middletown. The father's life began there in 1844, and there he grew to manhood and obtained his education. When he reached maturity he took up his residence at Wellsville and opened a drug store. He prospered in his undertaking and conducted the business with success and profit until his death, which occurred on December 15, 1893.
His marriage took place at Middletown and he and his wife became the parents of six children, all of whom are living and are: Naomi, the wife of A. N. Jones, of Wellsville; Anna, the wife of D. E. Payton, also of Wellsville; Dorian D., who now lives in La Plata, as noted above; Ollie, the wife of C. M. McCoy, of St. Louis; Lottie, the wife of H. W. Schultz, of St. Louis; and L. H., who lives in Dallas, Texas. In political faith and allegiance the father was a firm and faithful Demo- crat, and in religious connection he was allied with the Christian church. He was cordially devoted to his church and took a very active part in its good work for the benefit of the community in which he lived. He
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was one of the charter members of the congregation to which he belonged, and it was through a liberal contribution from him that the church edifice in Wellsville was erected. In all respects he was a most estimable man and a very desirable citizen, conducting his business on a high plane of integrity, and his private life with noticeable uprightness.
Dorian D. White obtained his education in the public schools of Wellsville and was graduated from the high school in that city. After leaving school he clerked in his father's store for two years, then engaged in railroad work as a telegraph operator at various places until he was appointed station agent at Gallatin, Missouri. He occupied that position six months, and at the end of that period was transferred to St. Peters, where he remained two years. His next assignment was to Jonesburg, and there he was retained four years. He was then sent to Atlanta and during the next four years had control of the railroad business in that city. In October, 1909, he was transferred to La Plata, and in that city he now has his home. In all the places in which he has lived and labored he has taken a hearty and helpful interest in the welfare of the community and has contributed essentially to the promo- tion of the comfort and convenience of the people. He has also assisted in promoting general advancement and improvement wherever he has been, and has won hosts of friends by his course.
Mr. White is a stockholder and director of the Bank of Atlanta and was one of its founders and a charter member of its directorate. He was married on October 16, 1897, to Miss Anna Tate, a resi- dent of La Plata and a daughter of Jesse and Sallie Tate. He is a pronounced Democrat in his political faith and activity, and he and his wife are zealous members and regular attendants of the Christian church. They are earnest but unostentations church workers, and they aid in every way they can to augment the force and increase the bene- ficial activity of all good agencies at work around them, social, intel- lectual, moral and religious.
DAVID E. ATTERBERRY.
This esteemed citizen of Atlanta, who has lived in Macon county sixty-five years, except when he was absent during the Civil war, and has reached the ordinary limit of human life as fixed by the psalmist, is a son of Seamon and Nancy G. (Weatherford) Atterberry, and a brother of Philander Atterberry of Lyda township, in a sketch of whom, which will be found in this volume, the life story of the parents and the family history is given. He is a worthy son of a distinguished
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sire, and in all the relations of life has fully sustained in his own career the family name and reputation.
Mr. Atterberry was born on January 13, 1840, in Davis county, Iowa, and came with his parents to Macon county, Missouri, when he was about five years of age. He obtained a limited education in a school taught by his father in what is now the city of Atlanta, which the father founded and laid ont. After leaving school he worked on the home farm and assisted the family until 1862. He then obeyed the impressive call of President Lincoln for volunteers to save the Union from dismem- berment and enlisted in Company E, One Hundred and Eighth Illinois Infantry. His company was at first under the command of Col. John Warner and later under that of Col. Charles Turner, and was in turn a part of the army divisions commanded by Gen. A. J. Smith and Gen- eral Grant. He served until the close of the war and was mustered out in Chicago in August, 1865.
Mr. Atterberry found that military life was no holiday. His com- pany was constantly on the march or in the field and saw some of the most active and dangerous service known in the momentous conflict between the sections of the country. He took part in the battles of Haynes' Bluff and Arkansas Post, the sieges of Vicksburg and Mobile, battle of Gun Town, and a large number of minor engagements. He was often in the very center of a deluge of death, but escaped unharmed, and after the close of the war returned to his Macon county home and gave his attention to farming, carrying on his operations extensively and vigorously, and continuing them until 1899, when he retired from business activity and moved to Atlanta, where he and his wife now reside. His fine and well improved farm comprises 180 acres and he owns valuable town property besides.
Enterprising and zealous as Mr. Atterberry has been in seeking to advance his own interests, he has not been oblivious of the welfare of his township and county, but has, on the contrary, done everything in his power to aid in promoting it. He has been an energetic supporter of all worthy undertakings for the development and improvement of the region of his home and the comfort and convenience of its people. As school director he rendered the township valuable and appreciated service for a number of years, and in many other ways he has fostered and advanced its general well being.
He was married on April 18, 1868, to Miss Minerva J. May, a daughter of Philetus and Rachel (Ford) May, long residents of Macon county, who came to this state from Indiana. Three of the five children born of the union are living: Rachel, the widow of the late John D.
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Wood, who is making her home with her parents; Mary, the wife of George Taylor, of Los Angeles, California; and Oren, who resides in Macon county. Their mother died in 1886 and on March 6, 1889. the father married a second wife, his choice on this occasion being Miss Martha A. J. Bunch, a daughter of J. W. and Lucinda (Bunch) Bunch. Mr. Atterberry is a Republican in polities, a member of the Grand Army of the Republic in fraternal relations and a Universalist in religion, he and his wife being active workers in the congregation to which they belong, and in which their productive membership is valued by all who are interested in the church and the good work it is engaged in.
ALBERT M. ATTERBERRY.
School teacher, soldier, merchant, farmer and stock man, lumber- man and local public official, Albert M. Atterberry of Atlanta has run almost the whole ordinary gannt of human occupation, and it is greatly to his credit that he has done well in each line of activity that he has followed. His grandfather and his father were Kentuckians and farm- ers, and both were men of consequence in their day and locality. They did what they found to do with zeal and fidelity, in both private and public life, and they never failed to uphold the highest ideals of Ameri- can citizenship, whatever was at stake. The grandfather's name was Thomas and the father's William P. Attebery.
William P. Atterberry was born in Barren county, Kentucky, in 1804 and on March S. In 1828 he left his native heath and moved to Wood- ford county, Illinois, where he acquired a farm of 160 acres and farmed vigorously and successfully until 1856. He then sold his farm there and bought one of 592 acres in Macon county, Missouri, on which he passed the remainder of his days, extensively engaged in farming and raising stock until his death, which occurred on April 25, 1878. He was very active and influential in politics but never sought or accepted a political office. He took a great interest in church work, belonging to the seet known as "Christian," and was one of the founders of the congregation of that sect at Eureka, Illinois, and a liberal contributor to Eureka college at that place, which is conducted under the super- vision of the church organization. He was married in 1826 to Susanna Glazebrook, of Kentucky, and by this union became the father of eight children, three of whom are living: Jolin J., whose home is in Adair county, Missouri ; Albert M., and Cynthia, the wife of Dr. II. K. Cunningham, of La Plata, in this county.
The life of Albert M. Atterberry began on November 9, 1841, in Woodford county, Illinois. He began his education in the district
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schools of his native place, continued it at Eureka college, in the same county, and completed it in some of the higher schools of Macon county, Missouri, whither he came with his parents when he was fifteen years old. After leaving school he was engaged in teaching until 1861. Then, being cordially attached to the Union, he volunteered in its defense against dismemberment, enlisting at Eureka, Illinois, in Company K, One Hundred and Eighth Illinois Infantry, under Col. John Warner and later Col. Charles Turner, in the commands of Gen. A. J. Smith and General Grant. He served until the close of the war and was mustered out on July 27, 1865, at Vicksburg, Mississippi. His mili- tary service was active and took him into the thick of the fight on many a bloody field, among them the siege of Vicksburg, the big battle of Champion Hill and Black River, and the hot contests at Arkansas Post and Guntown, Mississippi, besides a large number of engagements of less importance.
After the war Mr. Atterberry returned to his home in this county and engaged in merchandising in Atlanta. He continued this enterprise two years and was very successful in it. At the end of the period men- tioned he sold the business and bought eighty acres of land and began farming and raising live stock. He prospered in this venture also and increased his holdings until he owned 400 aeres. He sold part of his land and, in 1888, entered the live stock and commission business in the National Stock Yards at East St. Louis. After operating there in that line for two years under very favorable conditions, he returned to his farm in 1890 and remained on it until 1893. He then removed to Atlanta and engaged in the lumber trade as a member of the firm of Shain & Atterberry. The firm was highly successful and the business flourished vigorously. But at the end of eleven years Mr. Atterberry tired of it and determined to retire from active pursuits and enjoy the rest and recre- ation he had so richly earned. Accordingly, in 1904 he sold his interest in the firm and since then he has been largely a gentleman of leisure, It has done some business in the domain of transactions in real estate.
Mr. Atterberry is a stockholder in the Atlanta State Bank and owns considerable farming land and a large amount of business and residence property in the city of Atlanta and elsewhere. He has been a very enterprising and successful man and fortune has smiled upon him with a bounty corresponding to his devotion and fidelity before her shrine. In politics he is a Democrat and an important factor in the management of his party. Under the township organization he was assessor and collector and a member of the township board, and he is now secretary of the school board. When Atlanta was incorporated he was elected
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mayor and served as president of the city board of councilmen three years. His fraternal connections are with the Masonic order and its auxiliary, the Order of the Eastern Star. In his Masonic lodge he has been Senior Warden two years, Worshipful Master two years and secretary twenty-one years. He has also been Worthy Patron of his lodge in the Eastern Star five years. He and his wife are active, work- ing members of the Christian church. On January 19, 1870, he was married to Miss Jeannette Atterberry, a daughter of Martin and Eliza- beth ( Weatherford) Atterberry, the former a native of Kentucky and the latter of this county. Of the three children born of the union two are living. Phradie, the wife of Nicholas M. Moody, of Macon county, and Claude, who lives in Atlanta.
JOSEPH WARD.
Retired now from active pursuits and spending the evening of his long day of toil and trial in peace after many conflicts, in comfort after much hardship and privation, Joseph Ward, of Atlanta, is a fine exem- plification of the truth stated by the sacred writer that the end of a good man is peace. Although not a native of Macon county or the state of Missouri, Mr. Ward has lived in Jackson township about forty-five years, forty of them on the farm on which he located when he came to the county, and during all of this long period has been deeply interested in and very helpful to the industrial, political and social life of the region. He has not chafed under the harness of citizenship, but has cheerfully and vigorously pulled his full share of the load of promoting the best interests of the township and county, giving both excellent service himself and stimulating others to increased exertion by the force of his influence and example.
Mr. Ward was born on February 20, 1838, in Armstrong county, Pennsylvania, and is a son of Jeremiah and Rachel (Kowan) Ward, the former a native of Columbiana county, Ohio, and the latter of Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania. The father was born in 1805. and was reared and edneated in his native county. When he reached man's estate he moved to Armstrong county, in the adjoining state of Pennsylvania, where he followed farming with enterprise and profit, after he got a start. until 1854, when he moved to Cedar county, Iowa. where he died in 1861, his life ending at Mechanicsville, in that state. He began the battle of life as a day laborer, but was industrions and frugal, spending no time or effort in vain, but making every hour and every stroke count to his advantage. When he died he was possessed
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of a fine Towa farm of 116 acres of land, which he had himself improved and carried to a high state of productiveness.
The elder Mr. Ward was married in 1830 to Miss Rachel Kowan, a native of Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania. They had eleven ehil- dren, only four of whom are now living: Joseph, the interesting sub- jeet of this brief memoir; Emeline, the wife of George Greenfield, of Shelby county, Missouri ; and Jeremiah and John I., both of whom are residents of the state of Colorado. In his political allegiance the father was a Whig and in his religious affiliation he was connected with the Methodist Episcopal church. His venerable and venerated widow died in Shelby county, Missouri, in the autumn of 1909 at the advanced age of ninety-seven years.
Their son Joseph obtained a very limited education in the district schools of his native county, the only text book he owned while attend- ing them being a testament. After leaving school he worked on his father's farm until 1861. Then roused by the armed resistance to the integrity of the federal Union, which had begun the Civil war, he enlisted as a corporal in Company H, Thirty-fifth Towa Infantry, serv- ing at first under the command of Colonel Hill and later under that of Colonel Keeler, being assigned to several divisions during his three years of service, and finally mustered out at Davenport, Iowa. He participated in the battles of Nashville, Vicksburg, Red River, Mobile and others of historic renown, and also in numerous engagements of minor importance. He was hit three times with bullets but received injury from only one, the others having spent their force before reaching him.
After the war Mr. Ward came to Missouri and located in Macon county. He bought 100 acres of land and on this and the additions he has since made to his acreage he was actively and successfully engaged in farming and raising stock until 1905, when he retired from active pursuits and moved to Atlanta. At that time he owned 356 acres of first rate land, but he has since sold a portion of it. He has taken an interest in other matters of profit to himself and benefit to his com- munity, having been one of the charter members in reorganizing the Atlanta State Bank and served as a director and the vice-president of the institution for a period of twelve years. But he is no longer connected with the bank, having sold his stock in it in the summer of 1909.
In the public affairs of his community Mr. Ward has been one of the most active and serviceable men in it. Under the township organi- zation he was treasurer of the township and since then he has been
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president of the board of town trustees of Atlanta and mayor of the city. He is a Republican in politics and at all times deeply interested in the welfare of his party. In fraternal life he is an active member of the Grand Army of the Republic and in religious affiliation a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. He is very energetic in church work and is now one of the trustees of the congregation to which he belongs and a member of the church board of management.
In 1866 he was united in marriage with Miss Judith E. Maxey, a native of Macon county and daughter of Joel H. and Peggy Maxey, residents of the county for many years. Only two of the six children born of the union are living: Jennie R., the wife of Morton Meisner, of Colorado Springs, Colorado, and Alice, the wife of Ernest Ocker, of Macon county, Missouri.
PHILANDER ATTERBERRY.
The pioncers of all seetions of Missouri, like those of other parts of the country, were a heroic race and flinched at nothing. They dared all that endangered them and endured with fortitude all that oppressed. And they have left enduring marks of the altitude of their spirit and the firmness and force of character that distinguished them. Some of them built special monuments to their enterprise and daring, although at the time they had nothing in view but the betterment of their own fortunes and the development of the country, which they found a wilderness and left rich in many of the products of civilization and cultivated life.
Among the latter was Seamon Atterberry, the father of Philander Atterberry, of Lyda township, in this county. He laid out the town of Atlanta in what was at the time literally a howling wilderness and started it on its career of usefulness and progress. His father, Elijah Atterberry, was born and reared in South Carolina and in his young manhood moved from that state to Kentucky, locating in Barren county. There his son Seamon was born in 1814 and grew to the age of twelve years. Then the family moved to Missouri and took up its residence in Monroe county, where Seamon grew to manhood, engaged in general farming and also taught school until about 1836. About that time he moved to Davis county, Iowa, and there he continued farming until 1844. The wilderness, however, had for him a savor that no other condition could supply, and in the year last mentioned he again sought it in this county, taking up his residence where the town of Atlanta now stands and building a house of some pretensions in size for that period. In this he taught the sons and daughters of the hardy pioneers the rudi-
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ments of learning, and seeing with clearness of vision the possibilities of the region, he determined to found a town in it. He therefore laid out what is now Atlanta, and built the first schoolhouse in it on his own land. He continued to teach for a number of years and also farmed and operated two sawmills. The first of these was run by horse power and the second by steam.
At the time of his death, which occurred on July 4, 1886, he owned and cultivated 500 acres of land and had considerable town property. It will easily be inferred that he was a man of consequence in the com- munity and wielded considerable influence; also that he was a leading spirit in all public affairs. During the Civil war he was postmaster of the town and practically held its destiny in his hands. In politics he was a Republican, and in all the relations of life a very reliable and upright man. He was a zealous member of the Masonic fraternity and belonged to the Universalist church, in which he was a very earnest and energetic worker for the good of the cause. He was married in 1837 to Miss Nancy G. Weatherford, a native of Tennessee, but at the time of the marriage a resident of Monroe county. They had seven chil- dren, five of whom are living: Mary E., the wife of William T. Will- iamson, of Atlanta ; David E., who lives in the same place; Sarah Ann, the wife of John B. Kimrel. of Moulton, Iowa ; Philander and Benjamin C., both residents of Atlanta. Their mother died on February 8, 1852, and in October, 1853, the father married a second wife, his choice on this occasion being Miss Mary C. Dabney, also of Macon county. They had three children, two of whom are living: Buford M., of St. Joseph, and Erasmus M., of Williston, North Dakota. Four of the sons served in the Union army during the Civil war, freely offering their lives on the altar of their country and in defense of what they believed to be right.
Philander Atterberry was educated in the public school in Atlanta, but owing to the undeveloped state of the country and the lack of nearly all the ordinary concomitants of civilized life, the school was primitive in character and limited in scope, and his education was therefore neces- sarily a meager one, embracing only the rudiments of scholastic acquire- ments. After leaving school he worked on the home farm and gener- ally assisted the family until 1867. He then started out in life for him- self, working as a hand on neighboring farms and farming for himself seventeen acres of land given to him by his father. In 1869 he rented a large farm, and since then he has been continuously and very success- fully engaged in general farming and raising stock, making a specialty of mules and dealing in them extensively. He owns and cultivates 343
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acres of land in his home place, and also farms vigorously and with skill and intelligence a large acreage which he rents for the purpose. In addition he is a stockholder in the Atlanta State Bank and owns some mining stock of value.
On February 18, 1869, Mr. Atterberry was united in marriage with Miss Melissa J. Farmer, a daughter of John M. and Elizabeth J. P. Farmer, early settlers in Macon connty. Five children have blessed the union and all of them are living. They are: Anna, the wife of E. E. Moss, of Macon county; Cora E., the wife of J. B. Fisk, of Macon city; Fannie M., the wife of Joseph Newmyer, also of Macon city; Fred A., who lives in Atlanta ; and Eula C., who still abides with her father. The mother of these children died on May 29, 1895, and on March 17, 1896, the father married a second time, uniting with Mrs. Mary E. Fuqua, a daughter of James H. and Mar- garet Ann Farmer. The offspring of this union numbers three: Ray- mond L., Florence J. and Noble Eugene, all of whom are living under the parental rooftree and contributing to the brightness and warmth of the family fireside.
In polities Mr. Atterberry is a Republican and consistent in his loyalty to his party, as he is earnest and effective in his services to it. Ile is one of its reliable workers in his township in all campaigns and omits no effort possible for him to make with propriety to bring success to its candidates, and his zeal and industry in the party service is highly appreciated by both its leaders and its rank and file. But he has never sought, accepted or desired a political office for himself. His religious allegiance is given to the Universalist church, and he takes an active and leading part in all its works of benevolence and morality, aiding every worthy undertaking it inangurates and helping in every way he can to build up and strengthen the partienlar congregation in it to which he belongs. In all the relations of life he is accounted estimable and fully entitled on demonstrated merit to the universal esteem which he so richly enjoys.
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