USA > Missouri > Chariton County > Historical, pictorial and biographical record, of Chariton County, Missouri > Part 3
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24
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GEN. STERLING PRICE.
Major-General, his name becoming a household word throughout the South for his gallant service in behalf of the Confederacy, until it was vanquished. At the close of the war, Gen. Price located at St. Louis, engaging in the commission business. His death occurred in that city in 1867.
TRUSTEN POLK, twelfth Governor of Missouri, was born in Sussex county, Delaware, May 29, 1811; graduated at Yale College in 1831, and studied law at Yale Law School. In 1835 he emigrated to Mis- souri, engaging in the practice of his profession; during his absence from the state for the benefit of his health, in 1845, he was chosen a member of the convention called to remodel the State Constitution; was a Presidential elector in 1848, and was elected Governor of Mis-
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souri in 1856, but soon after re- signed for a seat in the United States Senate, for a term of six years, from March 4, 1857; was ap- pointed a member on Foreign Af- fairs and Claims; but on January 10, 1862, was expelled by the re- publican members upon the charge of disloyalty. Gov. Polk was a gentleman of clean habits and great honor and sincerity. After the war his public aets were in the in- terest of his church and the cduca- tianal interests of the state. His death occurred in St. Louis in 1876. Upon the resignation of TRUSTEN POLK. Governor Polk. Lieutenant-Gover- ernor, Hancock Jackson, of Randolph county, performed the duties of Governor, until the special election in August, 1857.
ROBERT M. STEWART, was born in New York, in 1815, where he received a good education; taught school; studied law and was admitted to the bar at Louisville, Kentucky; removed to Missouri in 1839 and a few years later located at St. Joseph, where he engaged in the practice of his profession. In 1845 he was elected a member of the State Constitutional Convention, where he soon gained considerable reputation as a debater. From 1846 to 1857 he was a member of the State Legislature: during the latter year was elected Governor, giving a satisfactory administra- tion. After his retirement as Governor, he became editor of the Herald at St. Joseph, until failing health forced his retirement. His death occurred in 1871. ROBERT M. STEWART.
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CLAIBORNE F. JACKSON, Governor of Missouri in 1860, was born in Fleming county, Kentucky, April 4, 1807, and emigrated to Mis- souri in 1822, was a captain in the Black Hawk War, and for twelve years a member of the State Legislature; was a prime mover in the organizations of the banking institutions of the State and at one time was Bank Commissioner ; elected Governor in 1860. Was for a short time a General in the Confederate Army. The Columbia Herald in a special edition issued in 1895, speaks of Governor Jackson as fol-
CLAIBORNE F. JACKSON.
lows: "Governor Claiborne F. Jackson was one of the most conspic- uous figures that Missouri ever knew. It was declared in 1861, and later, that he was a weak man, but at the same time no man in the history of the West had so much to do with its affairs or its progress. He was the Governor of Missouri at the outbreak of the war, and his efforts to lead the State into the Confederacy were met by the most determined opposition. He was the uncle of the younger Marmaduke, and had a great love for Missouri which nothing could undo. He had
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been reared in the South, and his many social and political ties bound him to her people." His death occurred at Little Rock, Arkansas, December 6, 1862, loved and admired by all Missourians.
HAMILTON R. GAMBLE was born in Virginia in 1791 and educated at the Hampden Sidney College ; emigrated to Missouri in 1818, set- tling in Howard county, receiving the appointment of Prosecuting
HAMILTON R. GAMBLE.
Attorney of a territory embracing at that time nearly one-third of Missouri. Soon after the death of Gov. Bates he located at St. Louis where he gained a well deserved reputation as a lawyer. In 1846 he was a member of the Legislature, and in 1852 Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, serving for three years, at that time being a Whig. After the breaking out of the war Governor Jackson was deposed from the Governorship and Gamble was chosen provisional Governor
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by a convention in Angust, 1861, for one year, but at the convention in 1862, he was retained until after the election in November, 1864. Governor Gamble was a gentleman of great power, high- minded and exceedingly popular. His death occurred in St. Louis, January 31, 1874, and his funeral was attended by the largest num- ber of people ever seen at an occasion of that character in St. Louis.
WILLARD P. HALL. Upon the death of Governor Gamble. Lieutenant-Governor Willard P. WILLARD P. HALL. Hall, of Buchanan county, became Governor. In order of succession the honors rightly fell to Lieuten- ant-Governor Thomas C. Reynolds, who at that time was accompany- ing the Confederate Armies of Missouri, and the convention elevated Hall to the Governorship.
Governor Hall was born at Harper's Ferry, Virginia, in 1820; graduated at Yale at the age of nineteen, and admitted to the bar at Huntsville, Missouri, in 1841 ; a year later he located at St. Joseph and became eminent in his profession ; was a representative from Missouri to the Thirtieth, Thirty-first and Thirty-second Congresses. Died at St. Joseph November 1, 1832.
THOMAS C. FLETCHER, Gov- ernor of Missouri from January 2, 1865, to 1869; was the first Re- publican, the first native born and up to that time the youngest Gov- ernor of the state. Of 101,937 votes, Fletcher received 71,531 votes to 30,406 cast for his demo- cratic opponent, Thomas L. Price. Governor Fletcher was born in
THIOMAS C. FLETCHER.
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Jefferson county, January 22, 1827. In 1860 he advocated the election of Mr. Lincoln and after- wards endorsed the course of Lyon and Blair.
JOSEPH W. MCCLURG was born in St. Louis county, Missouri, February 22, 1818; taught school in Louisiana and Mississippi at the age of 17, and was a deputy sheriff in St Louis before he was twenty-one. In 1841 he located in Texas and was admitted to the bar; in 1844 engaged in the mer- cantile business in Missouri; was JOSEPH W. MCCLURG. Colonel of the Osage Regiment of Infantry, and also of a cavalry regiment; a member of the State Con- vention in 1862; was a Representative from Missouri to the Thirty- eighth, Thirty-ninth and Fortieth Congresses. Elected Governor of Missouri in 1868 and was a candidate for re-election in 1870 but was defeated. In 1889 he was appointed by President Harrison, Register of the United States Land Office at Springfield, Mo.
B. GRATZ BROWN was born in Lexington, Kentucky, May 28, 1826; graduated at Yale in 1847; studied law in Louisville, and lo- eated at St. Louis, Missouri; was a member of the State Legislature from 1852 to 1858; assisted in the establishment of the Missouri Dem- ocrat, and was its editor from 1854 to 1859. In 1861 he volunteered and raised a Union Regiment, and became Colonel. Elected to the United States Senate in 1863, by the radical emancipationist, serv- ing on many important commit- tees. In 1872 he recived a compli-
B. GRATZ BROWN.
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mentary vote for President. Died in St. Louis December 13, 1885, honored and respected as an hon- est, intelligent gentleman.
SILAS WOODSON, Governor of Missouri from 1873 to 1875, was born in Kentucky in 1819, and re- ceived his early training in the "log-school-house" of the neigh- borhood, which was supplemented by a thorough course of study and reading in after years; when twen- ty-one he was licensed to practice law, and three years later was elected to the Legislature, being SILAS WOODSON. re-elected several times in the next twelve years. In 1854 he removed to Missouri, locating at St. Joseph, where he soon rose to considerable prominence as a lawyer; was elect- ed Circuit Judge in '60; chairman of the Democratic State Convention in 1872 and nominated by the democrats as a compromise candidate. He was inaugurated January 8, 1873 and served two years.
CHARLES H. HARDIN was born in the State of Kentucky in 1819, but removed to Missouri at a very early day; reared at Columbia he enjoyed the advantages of good schools, and afterwards graduated from Miami University, of Ohio: entered upon the practice of law at Fulton, Callaway county, and in 1848 was elected prosecuting at- torney of the third judicial cir- cuit; from 1852 to 1860 was a Whig member of the Legislature; represented Boone and Callaway counties in the State Senate, and in 1873 was elected Governor, making an admirable, conserva-
CHARLES H. HARDIN.
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tive executive. Among other noteworthy acts of Governor Har- (lin's life was the endowment of Hardin College, at Mexico, Mo., an educational institution for girls, named in his honor.
JOHN S. PHELPS was born De- cember 22, 1814, in Hartford Co., Connecticut: was educated in Hartford at Washington (now Trinity) College, and studied law in the office of his father, Elisha Phelps; emigrated to Missouri in 1837, locating at Springfield; elect- ed to the Legislature in 1840, and JOIIN S. PHELPS. four years later was sent as a Rep- resentative to the Twenty-ninth Congress, which position he retained until the close of the Thirty-sixth Congress; was a member of the Select Committee of Thirty-three on the Rebellious States, and was also re-elected to the Thirty-seventh Congress; a Colonel of Volunteers in 1861; Military Governor of Arkansas, by appointment of President Lincoln in 1862; Commissioner to settle war claims of Indiana in 1867, and elected Governor of Missouri in 1876.
THOMAS T. CRITTENDEN, Gov- ernor of Missouri for four years from January 1881, was born in Shelby county, Kentucky, Janu- ary 2, 1834; received his primary education in the log-cabin-school- house of Cloverport, on the Ohio river, and in 1855 graduated at Centre College; studied law at Frankfort with his uncle, JJ. J. Crittenden and removed to Mis- souri locating at Lexington; en- rolled in the State Militia in 1862 and was made Lieutenant-Colonel;
THOMAS T. CRITTENDEN.
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was appointed Attorney-General in 1864 to fill an unexpired term; was elected to Congress from Mis- souri in 1872 and again in 1876, serving on the committee on In- valid Pensions and elected Gover- nor of Missouri in 1880. Among other important acts of his admin- istration, for which he will be kindly remembered, was the breaking up of the James Boys band of outlaws, one of the most daring rings of murderers, bank and train robbers that ever cursed civilization.
JOHN S. MARMADUKE, a native JOHN S. MARMADUKE. of Saline county, Missouri, was born in March, 1833; until seventeen years of age remained actively engaged upon his father's farm; attended Yale College for two years and then entered Harvard College; received the appointment of a United States cadet to the Military Academy at West Point, New York, in 1853; graduated in 1857 and received the appointment of Second-Lieutenant in the United States army; resigned and return- ed to Missouri in 1860; entered the Confederate army as a Colonel in 1861, and the following year was made Brigadier-General for gallant service performed at the Battle of Shiloh. In 1864 he was promoted to Major-General, but was soon afterwards taken prison- er and held until after the close of the war; engaged in various busi- ness pursuits and for several years that of journalism; was Secretary of, the Missouri State Board of Agriculture in 1873 and 1874; from ALBERT P. MOREHOUSE.
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1875 to 1884 was State Railway Commissioner, and Governor of Missouri for three years, death claiming him December 28, 1887. Immediately after the death of Governor Marmaduke, Lieuten- ant-Governor Albert P. More- house assumed charged of the Governorship, which he held for one year. Governor Morehouse was a native of Ohio, and remov- ed to Missouri in 1856, first teach- ing school and afterwards engag- ing in the practice of law.
DAVID R. FRANCIS, was born in THOMAS C. REYNOLDS. Kentucky in 1850, and with his parents moved to St. Louis when sixteen years of age; attended Wash- ington University for four years, graduating in 1870. During the war, from 1861 to 1864, he was a newsboy in Richmond, Kentucky, and it was from his savings in the sale of papers that a portion of his collegiate expenses were paid. After leaving school Mr. Francis suc- . cessfully engaged in various com- mercial pursuits and soon rose to a position of prominence. In 1884 he became President of the Mer- chant's Exchange, of St. Louis. and in March of the following year was elected Mayor of that city; was elected Governor of Mis- souri in 1888 and inaugurated Jan- uary 14, 1889. His administration as chief magistrate was attended by the happiest results, earning for him the respect not only of the people of his own state but of oth- ers abroad. August 25, 1896, he was appointed by President Cleve- land Secretary of the Interior to fill vacancy created by the resigna- DAVID R. FRANCIS.
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tion of Secretary Hoke Smith, assuming the duties of that office September 1, 1896.
WILLIAM J. STONE, present Governor of Missouri, was born in Madison county, Kentucky, May 7, 1848; educated at Missouri University; studied law and be- came Prosecuting Attorney of Vernon county from 1873 to 1874; was elector on the Tilden and Hen- dricks ticket in 1876; elected to the 49th, 50th and 51st Con- gresses, and was elected Governor GOVERNOR WILLIAM J. STONE. of Missouri, upon the democratic ticket in November, 1892, defeating Major William Warner, of Kan- sas City, the republican nominee.
Men of Earlier Days.
DANIEL BOONE, the great pioneer settler of Missouri, and a fa- mous backwoodsman and trapper, to whose courage, endurance and skill, America, and especially Missouri and Kentucky, owe much, was born in Bucks county, Pennsylvania, July 14, 1732. In early life he emigrated to North Carolina; but his love of the wilderness not being sufficiently gratified there, he planned an expedition into Kentucky, then a wilderness almost unknown, reaching the Red River in June, 1769. Here he was captured by the Indians, but escaped, and acci- dently falling in with his brother who had pursued his track, they lived together in a cabin during the entire winter. In May of the fol- lowing year Boone's brother started home and Daniel was left alone in the perilous forest. In July the brother returned, and after explor- ing a considerable portion of country, they returned in 1771 to Caro- lina. Soon afterwards Boone was engaged by a Carolina company to purchase the lands on the south side of the Kentucky river, where, in 1775, he built a fort about 18 miles southeast of the present Lexington, on the site now occupied by the town of Boonesborough, which, though now of trivial size, was the seat of the first Legislature west of the Alleganies. In 1777 and '78 the place was frequently besieged by the Indians, but successfully resisted each attack until at length the Indians retired. In 1794, having lost his lands in Kentucky by means of a defective title, and through some hunters hearing of the wonder- ous fertility of the soil west of the Mississippi River and the great abundance of game; he resolved to emigrate west, loeating in what is now known as Warren county, Missouri, where the Spanish author- ities gave him a grant of 2,000 acres of land. He had a great love for the wilderness, and spent much of his time at his favorite occupation of hunting and trapping bears, being the chief hero among the many rude and picturesque figures of the frontier. Countless stories are related of his many adventures and hair-breath escapes. His death occurred September 26, 1820, in his house which was a stone structure, in St. Charles county, the first of its kind ereeted in the state. His body was buried in a cherry coffin prepared by himself,
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DANIEL BOONE AND HIS FAITHFUL DOG. A
but was removed and with that of his wife, afterwards interred with becoming honors at Frankfort, Ky., In 1845.
. The accompanying illustration is a faithful copy of his only original portrait in existence, which was painted from life by Chester Harding, and now hangs in the Kentucky state house at Frankfort.
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LEWIS & CLARK'S EXPEDITION, Through the instrumentality of President Jefferson, in 1803, an expedition headed by Merriwether Lewis, Private Secretary to the President, and William Clark, of the American army, set out to explore the country west of the Mississippi river to the Pacific ocean. The first winter was spent encamped on the banks of the Mississippi, opposite the mouth of the Missouri. May 16, 1804, the company, composed of nine young men of Kentucky, 14 soldiers. GEN MERRIWETHER LEWIS. two Canadian boatmen, an inter- preter and a hunter, with one keel boat fifty odd feet long, and two open boats, began their ascent of the Missouri. Passing the little French village of St. Charles, the first large tributary of the Missouri reached was that of the Osage. Proceeding on their journey, passing the Kansas, in due time the Platte was reached. Here they found a number of tribes of Indians, among others the Pawnces, Ottoes and Kites. Having covered a distance of sixteen hundred miles, the win- ter of 1804-5 was spent near the center of Dakota. April 7, 1805, the party again resumed their journey, 32 strong, and continued to ascend the "Big Muddy" until the mouth of the Yellowstone was reached, at the confluence of three ncarly equal streams, which were named Jefferson, Madison and Gallatin, then President, Secretary of State and Secretary of the Treasury of the United States. Jefferson, the northernmost of the three, was ascended to its source. In Angust, horses and a guide were procured from the Shoshone Indians and the journey continued through the mountains, reaching the plains of the western slope CAPTAIN WILLIAM CLARK.
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RUFUS EASTON.
September 22. October 7, they went down the Kooskoosy, a branch of the Columbia, reaching the mouth of that river, Novem- ber 15, having traveled more than four thousand miles from the mouth of the Missouri . river. Spending the third winter on the banks of the Columbia river, the homeward journey was begun March 23, 1806, reaching St. Louis, September 23, 1806, after an ah- sence of two years and four months. For the service of the men composing this expedition, Congress made valuable grants of land.
RUFUS EASTON. Prominent among the noted men of Missouri in Territorial days, and for a number of years after her admission to statehood, was Rufus Easton, the first postmaster of St. Louis. Mr. Easton was born in Connecticut in 1774, and emigrated to Missouri in 1804, having previously distinguished himself in New York as an at- torney, he received the appointment of a Territorial Judge of the United States Court, becoming the attorney of the court two years later ; was postmaster of St. Louis in 1808, and was sent to Congress in 1813. At the organization of Missouri under state government, he became £ Attorney-General, which office he held until 1826 ; died in St. Charles in 1834, hon- ored and respected throughout the State for his thorough devotion to the upbuilding and advance- ment of the social, moral and commercial interests of his people.
JOHN B. CLARK; a native of Madison county, Kentucky, was
JOHN B. CLARK.
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born April 17, 1802; moved to Missouri and in 1824 was appointed Clerk of Howard county; engaged in the practice of law; in 1832 com- manded a regiment of mounted militia during the Black Hawk War; was made Major-General of militia in 1848; a member of the Legisla- ture during the sessions of 1850 and 1851; was commanding officer in the expulsion of the Mormons from Missouri; was elected to the Thir- ty- fifth Congress, and re-elected to the Thirty-sixth and Thirty-sev- enth Congresses; and took part in the War of '61, as a Colonel, having been expelled from the House in July, 1861. General Clark was noted as one of the most powerful stump speakers of Missouri, and an attor- ney of great ability, being engaged in every important criminal cases in Central Missouri.
THOMAS H. BENTON, a man of iron will, sublime courage and wonderful mental ability, who was for thirty years United Stater Sen- ator from Missouri, and probably the greatest statesman in our his- tory, was born in Orange county, North Carolina, March 14, 1772; was educated at Chapel Hill College and studied law at William and Mary College; was appointed a Lieutenant-Colonel in the U. S. army in 1801, but resigned his commission the following year, and com- menced the practice of law at Nashville, Tennessee, having for his friend and patron Andrew Jackson, at that time Judge of the Supreme Court of Tennessee. During the War of 1812, with England, Mr. Benton was one of Gen. Jackson's aides de-camp. His residence in Missouri dates from 1815, when he located at St. Louis, where he en-
gaged in journalism. Through his paper he made a strong fight for the admission of Missouri as a state, and on that event occurring, in 1820, with David Barton, he was made one of the new Senators, a po- sition he acceptably filled, uninterruptedly, for thirty years. Immedi- ately after his appearance in the Senate he took a prominent part in the deliberations of that body, and soon became recognized as one of the foremost statesmen in the country, and an able leader in the coun- eils of his nation. In the early years of his service as Senator he gave much of his time and influence to the advocacy of such land laws as should faciliate the great pioneer movement which was then going in the west and southwest. During the two administrations of General Jackson, Colonel Benton was one of his staunchest supporters, and his influence was felt by the democratic party in its relation to every important question. His conservatism, or love for hard money, silver and gold, earned for him the euphonious title of "Old Bullion." In
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1849, when the famous Jackson resolutions were passed by the Mis- souri Legislature, instructing the Missouri representatives in Congress to vote for the non-interference with slavery, Mr. Benton refused. At the next session of the General Assembly the opposing Democrats voted with the Whigs, defeating Col. Benton, and electing Henry S. Geyer, of St. Louis, as his successor. In the fall of 1849, Chariton county was honored by the presence of Col. Benton. According to previous announcement he expected to speak at Brunswick, but on ac-
THOMAS H. BENTON.
count of the cholera at that place, he visited Keytesville for two days and a ldressed the people upon the political issues that were then be- fore the public. From 1853 to 1855 he represented St. Louis in Con- gress, but was defeated as a candidate for Governor in 1850, after which he retired to private life. The Thirty-eighth General Assem- bly voted to place his statue with that of Frank P. Blair, Jr., in Wash- ington as a representative Missouri statesmen. His death occured in
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Washington, on the 10th of April, 1858, of cancer of the stomach.
HENRY S. GEYER, who succeed- ed Mr. Benton in the Senate, was born in Fredrick county, Mary- land, in 1798, removed to Mis- souri about 1815, and adopted the profession of law, in which he be- came eminent as a practitioner; took an active part in politics and was a member of the conven- tion in 1820 which framed the state constitution; was an active member of the Legislature, and HENRY S. GEYER. served as Speaker of the house for the first five years after the admission of Missouri to statehood; was elected Senator in 1851 and served until 1857, being the only Whig ever elected to the Senate from Missouri. While in Washington, Mr. Geyer made an argument in the famous Dred Scott case which attract- ed attention throughout the world. As a lawyer, he stood at the head of his profession; a man of excellent ability, pleasing manners and of high character. His death occurred at St. Louis, March 5, 1859.
JOHN RICE JONES, of Pike coun- ty; located in Missouri in 1808, and was the first English lawyer in the state, and a member of Missouri's first Supreme Court. He had been President of the Ter- ritorial Council and a member of the first Constitutional Conven- tion. His death occurred in 1824. He was a man of great popularity, high character and excellent abil- ity.
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