USA > Missouri > Macon County > General history of Macon County, Missouri > Part 92
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Dr. Francis W. Allen, the immediate subject of this brief review, began his academie training in the district schools and completed it at a first-rate high school. He afterward pursued a course of special training at the business college in Moberly. His preparation for his professional work was made in the State University at Columbia, from the medical department of which he was gradnated with the degree of M. D. in 1898. During the year following his graduation he served as an interne in the hospitals of St. Louis, and at the end of that period he began his practice at Middlegrove, in Monroe county. In 1903 he entered upon post-graduate courses of instruction at Rush Medical college in Chicago and the Chicago Polyclinic school. On completing these courses he returned to Missouri and located at Springfield, Greene county, where he was engaged in an active general practice nntil 1906. In that year he returned to Macon county and established himself in Morrow township, where he has ever since been living and practicing with a growing reputation for skill and ability and a steadily inereas- ing member of patients. He, like his father, is also a farmer and stock- man, owning and cultivating eighty acres of land and carrying on a flourishing business in raising live-stock for the markets. In the man- agement of his farm and his stock industry he finds relief from the exactions of his professional work, but this is never neglected for any other pursuit. Ile keeps in touch with the advances in his profession
HISTORY OF MACON COUNTY
by a studious and reflective reading of its best literature, and with its latest discoveries in practice by an active, participating membership in the North Missouri and Macon County Medical Associations. He is also examining physician for the Order of Modern Woodmen of America.
In political allegiance the Doctor is a Democrat, with an earnest interest in the success and general welfare of his party, to which he contributes by energetic work in its behalf. His fraternal alliances are with the Order of Modern Woodmen and the Order of Odd Fellows, in the proceedings of which he is zealous and helpful in his interest and service. He was married in 1901 to Miss Essie Pearl Boyd, a native of Boone county, Missouri. They have two children, their daughter, Helen V., and their son, Francis B. The Doctor stands well in his profession and deserves the high rank he holds. He has won the confidence and regard of the people by his tireless industry and acknowledged ability in his professional work and his energy and wisdom in the aid he gives to all undertakings designed to improve the county and promote its welfare. In all the relations of life he is recognized as an upright, useful and representative man.
JOHN R. HUGHES.
The sturdiness and reetitude so characteristic of the race from which he sprang are well represented in the career of this honored pioneer of Macon county, with whose business and civic interests he was prominently identified for more than thirty years, having been one of the leading business men and influential citizens of the village of Bevier. where his death occurred on the 3d of June, 1899. He passed to his reward secure in the high regard of all who knew him and left to his descendants the heritage of a good name and of worthy and kindly deeds performed without ostentation and with the simple dignity and sym, pathy that characterized him in all the relations of life. He won success in the face of obstacles that would have proved insuperable to men of less mental and moral stamina, and was, in the most significant sense, the architect of his own fortunes, since he became largely dependent upon his own resources while still a mere boy, owing to the somewhat straitened circumstances of the family.
John R. Hughes was a native of Wales, where he was born on the 3d of December, 1837, and where he secured his rudimentary ednca- tion, having attended night school after the age of ten years, as he thus early began to work in the mines during the daytime. His father was a miner in his native land, but followed other lines of work after
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coming to America. When the subject of this memoir was a lad of twelve years his parents immigrated to the United States and settled in Meigs county, Ohio. His folks were of sterling character and whose lives were summed up, as Lincoln said of his own parents, in "the short and simple annals of the poor." In the old Buckeye state John R. Hughes was enabled to extend somewhat his educational training, attending the common schools as opportunity afforded, but finding his portion that of ceaseless toil and endeavor during the greater por- tion of his boyhood and youth. He was reared to manhood in Ohio, and at Pomeroy, that state, on the 14th of October, 1863, was solemnized his marriage to Miss Elizabeth Reese, who likewise was a native of Wales, whence her parents came to America when she was a child of four years. She proved a devoted companion and helpmeet to her husband, and their mutual love and sympathy made their relations of idyllic order during that many years that they walked side by side down the pathway of life. She survived him and is still living at Bevier, Missouri. Of their fourteen children, nine died in infancy, and the other five are still living. Daniel R., a member of the bar of Macon county, residing in the city of Macon, is individually mentioned on other pages of this volume: Edward R. is identified with the newspaper business in the city of Seattle, Washington; John R., an able lawyer, is asso- ciated in practice with his brother, Daniel R., in Macon; Miss Eliza- beth resides in Bevier, and Jennie is the wife of John W. Howell, of Fort Smith, Arkansas.
After his marriage John R. Hughes continued his residence in Ohio until 1867, when he came to Missouri and took up his abode in the village of Bevier, Macon county, where he secured employment as clerk in a general merchandise store. In 1871 he engaged in business on his own responsibility, opening a well-equipped store in the same town, but the panie of 1873 soon followed and tested to the full his resource- fulness and stability and integrity of character. That he weathered the storm successfully is evident when we revert to the fact that he was the only one of the twenty merchants in Bevier that did not fail as a result of this memorable financial panic. With utmost cantion, wisdom and circumspection he conserved his resources and so effectively han- dled his business affairs that his every creditor received one hundred cents on the dollar. He continued in business at Bevier until his death, and his success was of no mean order, testifying alike to his personal popularity, his honorable methods and his enterprising spirit. No man in the community has enjoyed a more generous measure of pub- lic confidence and esteem than did he, and upon the record of his entire
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career there rests no suspicion of wrong or shadow of injustice. He made his life count for good in all its relations and his memory is revered by all who came within the bounds of his kindly and beneficent influence.
Though a staunch Republican in his political views of a generic order, Mr. Hughes was never offensively partisan, and in local affairs was liberal in his political influence and action. His first presidential vote was cast for President Lincoln, in 1860. In 1890 he was elected justice of the peace, and of this office he continued incumbent for three successive terms, giving an administration which made the position justify its title. Both he and his wife were most devout and zealous members of the Congregational church, with which he identified himself when seventeen years of age. He became a deacon of the church when but twenty years old and of this position he continued incumbent with- out interruption during the residne of his long and signally useful life. Ile became a man of broad mental ken and of mneh intellectual strength, but he never ceased to regret the lack of educational oppor- tunities in his youth, and this was the more insistent in doing all in his power to accord to his children the best of opportunities and to support by his aid and influence every measure tending to conserve educational work in his home, village, county and state. He was the first candidate to be initiated in Eskridge Lodge, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, in Bevier, and was its first representative in the grand lodge of the state. He continued to be actively affiliated with this lodge until his death, and all of his sons are members of the same fra- ternity. A man of intrinsic nobility, simple and unassuming, affable and kindly in his intercourse with his fellow-men, Mr. Hughes was a power for good in his field of labor and sphere in life, and his name merits a place of honor in this compilation, through which may be perpetuated a slight tribute to his memory.
JOHN HENRY GROSS.
The son and the grandson of pioneers in this state, and himself born and reared long enough ago to see it before anything like its present advanced development and strident progress were manifest, John Henry Gross, one of the progressive and successful farmers of Liberty township, Macon county, has been connected with the building of our great state from his birth, and from the time when his energies were sufficient for the purpose, has borne faithfully his full share of the work.
Mr. Gross was born on February 17, 1854, in Independence town-
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ship. this county, and is a son of Noah and Mary (Sears) Gross, the former a native of Kentucky, and the latter of Kentucky, Randolph county, who rode in her mother's lap on horseback to Missouri. The father was born in 1816, and when he was but two years old was brought to Missouri by his father, Abraham Gross, also a Kentuckian, born, reared and married in that state, and for some years prosperous as a farmer there. He located his young family in Randolph county on a tract of land which he acquired there, and at once began to take an active and leading part in redeeming the wilderness, as the region was then, and reducing it to systematic cultivation. He aided in laying the foundations of its future progress and planting the seeds of the advanced civilization which now characterizes it and passed the remain- der of his life in that county. His son, Noah, grew to manhood in Randolph county, and obtained his education in the primitive country schools, which were then the only academie institutions in this part of the state.
After leaving school and teaching for a while he learned the car- penter trade. In the year 1853 he built a home which was one of the best houses in the county. He burned the brick and lime, also dressed the weather boarding. It took two years to complete this work. Dur- ing the remainder of his life he worked at his trade and also farmed and raised live-stock, except for a few years before his death, when he lived retired from all active pursuits. He died in 1902 at the age of eighty-six years, sixty-three years after his marriage. This occurred in 1839 and united him with Miss Mary Sears, of Randolph county. They had eleven children, seven of whom are living: James F., a resi- dent of Maeon county; Disa E., the widow of the late Charles Talbott ; George W., who lives in Randolph county; Sarah E., the wife of Rufus Goodson; John Henry, the subject of this sketch ; Thomas J., and Min- nie N., the wife of Jesse Truitt. The four last named are all residents of Macon county, Thomas J. living in the city of Macon. In polities the father was a Democrat and in religious affiliation he belonged to the Primitive Baptist church, being a charter member of the congregation in which he was enrolled, and one of its zealous and faithful members.
Jolin Henry Gross began his education in the district school of Independence township and completed it at the Kirksville Normal School. Following the example of his father, he became a teacher in the public schools, following this ennobling work during twenty-one winter terms and assisting his father on the home farm in the summer. He continued this dual occupation until 1899, having started a farm- ing and stock-raising enterprise of his own in the spring of 1884, and
CAPT. B. F. STONE
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in this he has ever since been energetically and successfully engaged. He owns 240 acres of first-rate land and has most of it under vigorous and profitable enltivation. His home is considered to be among the prettiest in the county. His stock industry is also a thriving one.
In politics Mr. Gross is an active, working Democrat, but he has never held or sought an office. His religious affiliation is with the Prim- itive Baptist church, and he has long been moderator and deacon in the congregation to which he belongs. On November 23, 1883, he was married to Miss Myra B. Wilhite, a daughter of Smith and Rebecca (Grant) Wilhite, of Boone county. Three children were born of the tion and two of them are living, Ordell and Durward, both of whom take a great pride in their home and farm life, are still abiding with their parents.
CAPTAIN BENJAMIN F. STONE.
Capable, industrious and prosperous in business, and true to every duty of citizenship in peace and war, in publie office and private life, Capt. Benjamin F. Stone, a well known resident of Macon and an old soldier who still bears the mark of his military service in defense of the Union, is deservedly ranked as one of the most estimable and worthy men in his native county of Macon, where he was born on February 12, 1840, and has passed nearly all of his subsequent life. He obtained his education in the district schools and at MeGhee College, being graduated from the latter in 1859, and pursuing a post graduate course in the same institution in 1860 and 1861.
He is a son of Joseph and Melinda (Burris) Stone, the former a native of Tennessee and the latter of Wayne county, Kentucky. Reuben Stone, his paternal grandfather, was born and reared in South Caro- lina and moved from that state to Tennessee and some time afterwards to Wayne county, Kentucky. Later he located in southern Illinois, fol- lowing general farming in all the different places of his residence. He was a soldier in the War of 1812, serving in a Kentucky regiment. His family consisted of four sons and five daughters, all of whom are now deceased. He died in southern Illinois.
His son Joseph, the Captain's father, was a carpenter and also a farmer. He moved to Randolph, Missouri, abont 1835, and two years afterward became a resident of Macon county, entering a tract of gov- ernment land seven miles southwest of what is now the city of Macon. On this farm he and his wife passed the remainder of their days, and finally laid down their trust in life on the land that was hallowed by their labors, which redeemed from its wild condition and transformed it into
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a comfortable and valuable country home. Here they reared to maturity nine of their children, of whom they are now living four of the sons and two of the daughters.
Captain Stone found life strenuous work as soon as he entered upon its duties as a man. In the fall of 1861 he enlisted in Company K, Tenth Missouri volunteer infantry in defense of the Union. The regi- ment was under the command of Col. Samuel A. Holmes and soon became a part of the Army of the Cumberland. The young soldier made a gallant record as long as he was in the service, participating in the battles of Iuka and Corinth, Mississippi, and numerous other engage- ments, and becoming corporal of his company. On October 4, 1862, he was shot through the right elbow, the wound resulting in the loss of his arm, in consequence of which he was discharged on account of his disability for further service in February, 1863.
After this serious disaster he returned to Macon county and for a time engaged in teaching school. He then studied law under the direc- tion of B. R. Dysart of Macon and was admitted to the bar in 1867. Previous to this, however, he was appointed county school commissioner in 1866 and filled the office acceptably for a period of six months. In 1868 he was elected county treasurer for a term of two years, and was then chosen recorder of deeds for one of four years. In each of these official positions he made an excellent record and held the confidence and regard of the people for his ability, fidelity and high character.
At the end of his term as recorder of deeds he bought the Macon Times, which he edited and published two years, then, in company with J. M. London, consolidated it with the Macon Journal under the name of the Macon Examiner. Two years later he bought his partner's interest in the paper and some time afterward sold it to J. A. Hudson, who changed its name back to "The Macon Times," and continued its publication under that name. During the Captain's connection with the paper it rose to considerable influence and was noted for the ability and force with which it was conducted, its strong independence and unwavering devotion to the best interests of the county and state.
When Captain Stone abandoned the field of journalism he turned his attention to the real estate business and during a number of succeeding years contributed essentially and extensively to the improvement of the city, putting up many residence, business and public buildings, among them the Jefferson hotel, which is still a popular hostelry and bears the name he gave it. During the last thirty years he has been in business as an abstractor, building up an extensive industry in this useful line
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of effort and becoming known all over the county for the excellence and accuracy of his work and the high and broad intelligence with which he has condneted it.
Captian Stone was maried in Macon county in 1875 to Miss Mittie Powell, a half sister of Henry Powell, a sketch of whom appears in this work. They have five children living: Dr. Frank P. Stone, who was a dental surgeon in the United States army and saw service in the Philip- pines, and who is now engaged in a general practice of his profession at Hobart, Oklahoma; Mary M., the wife of Dr. Bridgeford of Macon; Mabel S., who was for years a teacher in the schools of Macon, and is now attending the State University, and Hattie C. and Harry B., who are still living with their parents. All the members of the family belong to the Methodist Episcopal Church Sonth, and in political relations the father has been a life-long Democrat, strong in his convictions and influential in the conneils of his party. Macon connty has no better citizen and none more worthy of the confidence and esteem of the people, all shades and classes of whom hold him in high regard.
MARTIN V. MCKENZIE. (Deceased.)
During the last forty-seven years, nearly two-thirds of his whole life to the time of his death, March 20, 1910, Martin V. MeKenzie, of Independent township, was a resident of Macon county and the locality in which he died. He came here a young man of twenty-six years of age, and the region in which his productive activities were employed was then young, too. While he passed on to middle age and beyond it the region has grown into advanced development, industrial importance, commercial force and political influence, and will go on in its career of progress. The end of effort came with the end of life for him, but the forees he helped to put in motion and the agencies for good he helped to create and strengthen will still augment in power and continue expanding their usefulness. This is one instance in which the good a man has done will live after him, and Mr. MeKenzie was fortunate in being able to see already an abundant harvest enriching the world from seed he helped to sow. He was the oldest inhabitant of the village of Barnesville, and what that is and the country around it has come to be is largely the fruit of his labor and the product of energies awakened by lis example.
Mr. Mckenzie was born in Ohio in 1837. His father, John McKen- zie, and his mother, whose maiden name was Sally Van Netten, were also
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born and reared in that state. They were well-to-do farmers and pur- sued the even tenor of their way through life in daily usefulness and unostentatious worth. They had nine children and of these only three are living, Harriet, Alice and Addison. The mother died in August, 1865, and the father in June, 1867, highly respected by all who knew then.
Martin V. MeKenzie attained his manhood in his native county and secured his education in its public schools. After leaving school he engaged in farming there until 1863, prospering moderately in his undertaking and steadily advancing in the race for supremacy among men. In April of the year last mentioned he came to Missouri and took up his residence in Macon county. Farming had been the occupa- tion of his years from boyhood, and in this promising agricultural region he naturally turned to it again and with a quiekened interest bern of the new conditions with which he was surrounded. He added stoek-raising to his enterprise in this locality, and he pushed his inter- ests with all his skill and power and built them up to considerable proportions.
Mr. MeKenzie was engaged in mercantile life at Barnesville for fourteen years. He conducted his business with spirit, energy and breadth of view, and attained rank as a wise and progressive merchant throughout the business world around him. He took a great interest and a leading part in the development and progress of the township and county, giving his aid cheerfully and liberally to every worthy enterprise involving the welfare of the people and helping to guide with wise counsel the general advance along lines of the most wholesome growth and toward the most practical and enduring expansion. For more than twenty years he served on the school board and was one of its most energetic and useful members. He was a Democrat in politics, and. during his years of activity, was one of the wheel-horses in the serv- ice of his party. In 1864 he was joined in marriage with Miss Nancy Biswell, who was born and grew to maturity in this county. They had two children, their daughter, Alice, and their son, Arthur B. The mother of these children died in 1874 and in 1876 the father contracted a second marriage, uniting himself with Miss Anna Hull, a native of Kentucky. They became the parents of two children, James G. and Sallie. From the dawn of his manhood he made his own way in the world, and so condneted his affairs that he made every advance in life a stepping-stone to higher achievements, and, at the same time, advanced the interests of the community in which he lived along with the prog-
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ress of his own. Macon county had no citizen of greater worth and none whom its people more highly esteemed.
JOHN W. WADDILL. (Deceased.)
Enterprising in many lines of business and successful in all, making every faculty he possessed and every day of his time tell to his advan- tage. John W. Waddill, of Elmer, was a worthy representative of the progressiveness and business capacity of the people of Macon county. And as he gave to the welfare of the township and county of his home the same careful attention and to the promotion of their interests the same energetic and resourceful activity that he devoted to his own affairs, in contributing so essentially to the growth and development of his community he won the high regard of its people as a representa- tive, also, of their public spirit, breadth of view and elevation of tone in reference to local public affairs and the general advancement of this portion of the state. In this behalf he was active himself and was very serviceable in the activities his influence and example awakened and directed in many other members of the community.
Mr. Waddill was a native of Tennessee, where he was born in 1854. His father, Thomas G. Waddill, was also a native of that state and one of its enterprising farmers until 1857, when he moved to Missouri and took up his residence in Macon county. Here he renewed his farming operations and continued them until his death, which occurred in 1899. He was married to Miss Mary Hanley, who was also born and reared in Tennessee. Of the nine children born to them, six are living: Mary, the wife of Henry Nelson; Samuel; George D .; James; Richard and Sylvester. The mother died in 1897.
John W. Waddill was bred to farming and followed it all his life. He grew to manhood on the parental homestead and took his first les- sons in the principal pursuit that engaged his powers in helping to per- form its useful and necessary labors. When he could be spared from these he attended the district school in the neighborhood and thus acquired all he had opportunity for in the way of academic instruction. When he left school he continued to assist his parents on the farm unti! the time came for him to assume the burden of life for himself, and he then started on his own account the farming industry which ever ocen- pied him and gave him consequence as a man of substance, and enabled him to win an exalted place in public esteem as a good farmer and an excellent citizen. He owned and farmed 120 acres of land and carried
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