USA > Missouri > Bates County > History of Bates County, Missouri > Part 31
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twelve times. His was a religious nature and he set an example which has been followed by his children to this day. When the family drove through to Iowa, the present site of the great city of Chicago, at that time was but a cluster of huts around the fort. The elder Rosier was offered two hundred acres of land, now a part of the site of the Chicago stock yards, in exchange for his team and two hundred dollars in money. The outlook for the building of the great city, which has since grown on the marsh lands bordering Lake Michigan, was not then promising and the land seemed undesirable, so Mr. Rosier declined and set his face to the westward and took up the journey to Iowa. For thirty years, they remained on their Iowa farm and again moved west- ward, this time to Bates county, Missouri, arriving here in time to be classed as early settlers of this county. The family settled on a farm, in Mound township in 1882, where the parents lived until death called them, the father dying in 1909. The mother had departed this life in 1894. Both were devout members of the Brethren church, but Mr. Rosier affiliated with the Methodist church, South, upon coming to Missouri. He was a man of marked liberality in his donations to religious and educational institutions and no call upon him for financial contri- butions to a religious cause was ever refused. He assisted with his means in the building of Drury College in Iowa. Withal, he was a successful business man, one who looked well after his own financial affairs and was a good provider for his family, not alone in material sense but he saw to it that each member of his large family was well equipped with a good education. J. K. and Susan Ann Rosier were parents of ten children as follow: Lawrence, a merchant, Muskogee, Oklahoma; Elizabeth, widow of Lafayette Ash, who died at Tomb- stone, Arizona, and she is now making her home in Kansas City; Absa- lom, a retired merchant, Kansas City; William, a merchant at Belton, Missouri; Ella, wife of Burney Chandler, of West Union, Iowa; Albert S., a farmer, Fredonia, Kansas; A. C., subject of this review; Enoch H., Mt. Pleasant township, Bates county; Matthew, Butler, Missouri; and Dr. Lewis Rosier, a dentist, Independence, Iowa. Each of the foregoing children received the advantages of a good education. The daughters were educated in music.
. Following his primary education in the district school of his neigh- borhood, A. C. Rosier studied in the Old Butler Academy, and then pursued his classical studies in the University of Kansas for a time, after which he entered the United Brethren College at Avalon, Mis-
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souri, where he studied for three years, graduating in 1893 with the degree of Bachelor of Science. For a period of about seven years, he taught school and served one year as principal of the Belton High School, Belton, Missouri. After his teaching career, he and his brothers, Will- iam and Enoch, purchased a store at Belton and for a period of five years conducted a profitable mercantile business under the firm name of Rosier Brothers. Mr. Rosier then disposed of his interest in the busi- ness and returned to Bates county, where he engaged in farming with his father on the old home place. He has continued in agricultural pur- suits with considerable success and has one of the finest herds of Here- ford cattle in Bates county. For the past twenty years, Mr. Rosier has been engaged in the breeding of this fine variety of cattle and markets a considerable number each year. He is cultivating a total of three hundred twenty acres of good land, being owner of one hundred sixty acres, which are well improved.
In November of 1895, A. C. Rosier and Lulu May Funk, of Clay county, were united in marriage and to this union have been born four sons, as follow: Richard, Russell, David, and Vincent. Lulu May (Funk) Rosier is a daughter of John Funk, a deceased pioneer of Clay county, Missouri, a native of Kentucky, as was also Mrs. Funk. Mr. Rosier is politically allied with the Democratic party. He and Mrs. Rosier are both members of the Methodist Episcopal church, South. Mr. Rosier has been active in church and Sunday school affairs for many years. For several years past, he has served capably as superin- tendent of the Passaic Sunday School. He is one of the leaders in the Bates county and State Sunday School Associations. Mr. Rosier is a member of the Modern Woodmen of America.
Dr. Stephen Lafayette Standish .- The truly heroic and self-sacri- ficing figure in the early redemption of any unsettled country from a wilderness state is the "country doctor." It is his duty to administer to the sick and dying who all too frequently are not blessed with much of this world's goods and the remuneration of the country physician is small compared to what his brothers in the city are accustomed to earn. The early doctors in Bates county rode horseback across coun- try following the trails wherever possible and no call, no matter how distant nor how difficult to make, and no matter what the condition of the weather would stop the doctor from performing his duty. He was the counselor and friend of the settler and always became a leader in the community where he made his residence. The late Dr. Stephen L.
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Standish was one of the early physicians in Bates county, who did not win a fortune by the practice of medicine, but wisely supplemented his active practice with tilling the soil and raising cattle upon his home- stead in Walnut township. Doctor Standish was one of the most suc- cessful of physicians and enjoyed the respect and esteem of the people of the country side. He was a veteran of the Civil War and used to hardships. Combining farming activities with the practice of his pro- fession he would ride all night long to minister to ailing patients and then spend the daylight hours in looking after his farming interests and livestock. Such energy and enterprise met with due reward and he became one of the wealthy citizens of Bates county.
Stephen L. Standish was born in DuPage county, Illinois, Sep- tember 6, 1843, the son of Hiram and Polly (Bronson) Standish, both natives of New York. Hiram Standish was a descendant from the famous Standish family of Plymouth, Massachusetts, which was founded by Miles Standish, whose exploits were immortalized in the poet Long- fellow's "The Courtship of Miles Standish." The warrior spirit of Miles Standish was evidently bequeathed to his descendants, inasmuch as Stephen L. Standish enlisted in Company C, Twelfth Regiment of Illinois Volunteer Infantry, in 1862 and had three years of arduous service during the Civil War, serving until the close of the war. He was second lieutenant of his company. He was never wounded while in the service but suffered spells of illness which would incapacitate him for a time. After the close of this war service he studied medicine for two years at Rush Medical College in Chicago, graduating from Rush College in 1868. He came to Bates county in that year and began the practice of his profession. At the same time he settled on a farm located on Walnut creek in the township of the same name. At this period the prairie was unfenced and there was much open range. Doctor Standish took advantage of this condition and engaged in cattle rais- ing on an extensive scale. His home place was located in section 28, of Walnut township and he bought and shipped cattle, driving them to Pleasanton, Kansas, where they were loaded on the train for the city markets. He followed his profession and engaged in cattle raising until his removal to Hume, Missouri, in 1885. He then engaged in banking and established the Hume Bank of which he was cashier and virtual head until the bank was merged with its successor, the Com- mercial Bank of Hume. Doctor Standish was a large stockholder of this bank. For a number of years he was a breeder of thoroughbred
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Hereford cattle and owned one of the first herds of these fine animals ever brought to this section of the county. He frequently exhibited his fine stock at the Royal Stock Shows held in Kansas City, and local fairs, winning many premiums. Doctor Standish became a large land owner, accumulating nearly one thousand acres of Bates county land, and prior to the building of the north part of the town of Hume he owned the land which is now known as the Standish addition to Hume.
Doctor Standish was married May 19, 1869 to Miss Serepta Stan- dish, who was born September 25, 1852, in Livingston county, Illinois, a daughter of Chauncey and Mary (Truman) Standish, natives of Ken- tucky. Her parents moved to Missouri in 1867 and settled on Walnut creek in Bates county. Both of Mrs. Standish's parents died in this county, her father dying at the age of sixty-four years. The children of Doctor and Serepta Standish are as follow: Orra, at home with his widowed mother; T. Lyle, deceased; Chauncey, at home; Nellie, deceased; William Roy, a sketch of whom appears in this volume; Roscoe, deceased.
Politically, Doctor Standish was allied with the Republican party, and, while interested in the success of his party at the polls, he was never a seeker after political preferment. He was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church and was affiliated with the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, attaining the Royal Arch degree in that order. Doctor Standish accomplished a great work in Bates county and his name will always be honored as that of one who did much to assist in the building and the development of his adopted county. His death occurred May 5, 1911 at his home in Hume, Missouri, and his remains were laid away in the everlasting sleep from which the godly are destined to awaken to the higher and better life. He endeavored to live a Christian life according to the precepts of the Methodist denomi- nation of which he was a member and liberal supporter. His was a useful life, and his hundreds of friends mourned with his widow and family their great loss when he was called to the bosom of his Maker.
William Roy Standish, progressive young farmer of Walnut town- ship, is a native son of Bates county whose father, Dr. Stephen L. Standish, was one of the best known and most successful physicians of Bates county. A sketch of the life of Dr. S. L. Standish appears in this volume. William Roy Standish is proprietor of the old home place of the family on Walnut creek, which is one of the most attractive and
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best improved farmsteads in his township. The Standish home farm consists of a fertile tract of three hundred twenty acres which is well watered by the never failing water supply furnished by Walnut creek. Mr. Standish has remodeled the old home, adding concrete verandas and otherwise beautifying and modernizing the residence until it presents a likable sight from the roadway. The house is flanked on the east by a natural grove of forest trees bordering the stream. Mr. Standish is a heavy feeder of livestock and has thirty-five head of cattle on his place at the present time. During 1917 he harvested one hundred fifteen acres of corn, forty acres of which made the great yield of fifty-seven and a half bushels of grain to the acre, the rest of the tract averaging a little over forty bushels to the acre. He follows the latest methods of farming and generally gets good yields of crops from his well tilled land.
W. R. Standish was born April 23, 1884, on the farm which he now owns but was reared to young manhood in the town of Hume, where he attended the public schools. Following the completion of his public school course he completed a commercial course in business college at Kansas City and Sedalia, Missouri. Since that time he has followed farming and it is evident that he has chosen wisely and well his life vocation.
Mr. Standish was married on May 11, 1903 to Miss Grace Mabel Shellenburger, of Metz, Missouri. To this marriage have been born two children: Edra Beryl, born December 13, 1907; and Wynston Vere, born July 23, 1914. Mr. Standish is a Republican in politics, belongs to the Methodist Episcopal church, and is fraternally affiliated with the Modern Woodmen of America, the Mystic Workers and the Knights of Pythias.
Marshall Lee Wolfe .- The career of Marshall Lee Wolfe of Passaic, Bates county, has been a remarkable one, characterized by industry and professional usefulness in the active development of Bates county in a material sense, such as has not been surpassed by any one citizen in a decade and more. As a pioneer, farmer, surveyor, land-owner, and citizen, he has won a high place in the citizenship of this county and no individual is more widely nor more favorably known than Mr. Wolfe. He was born on a plantation on the banks of the Potomac river, in Frederick county, Maryland, December 8, 1843, a son of Josiah and Anne Lee (Bell) Wolfe.
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Josiah Wolfe was a native of Pennsylvania. His wife was a native of Maryland, a daughter of an officer of the United States navy who served under the intrepid Commodore Decatur in his famous and vic- torious naval campaign against the pirates of the Barbary Coast States. Josiah Wolfe died when Marshall Lee Wolfe was but an infant and his mother married Levi Hiatt, who brought the family to Missouri in 1859, making a settlement first in Lafayette county. Finding land in that county too high priced for his purse, Mr. Hiatt located in Johnson county, Missouri, near Warrensburg. Here the mother died in 1913, at the age of ninety years. There were five children in the Wolfe family, only two of whom survive: Marshall Lee, subject of this review; and John B., editor of the "California Democrat," California, Missouri.
Mr. Wolfe was educated in the public schools of Warrensburg, Missouri. When seventeen years of age, he enlisted in the Fifth Pro- visional Regiment of State Troops for service in the Civil War. For a great part of his time of enlistment he, with his command, was stationed at Old Germantown on the Deepwater river and was also stationed at various places in Missouri. At the close of the war he was married and then came to Bates county, first locating on a farm near Rich Hill, where he lived for fourteen years. After a few years' residence in Butler he settled on a farm northeast of the city. Of late years his residence has been at Passaic. About 1893, he went to Wyoming and bought several ranches in the Powder River valley, where he engaged in horse raising on an extensive scale, having as many as six hundred head of fine horses on his ranch as well as hundreds of sheep and cattle. Mr. Wolfe spent much of his time in Wyoming in the hunting of big game, and has killed buffalo, elk and bear in considerable numbers, having killed several "grizzlies" in the Rocky Mountain country. Mr. Wolfe was an excellent rifle shot and enjoyed hunting and he has hunted in all of the Rocky Mountain states. He recalls that hunting was good during the early days of his residence in Missouri when herds of deer and wild turkeys were to be seen in almost any direction. During past years he has spent his time in Missouri, Arkansas, and Wyoming. In Wyoming, he still has a large ranch, besides large tracts of land in Arkansas, totaling four thousand acres. At one time he owned over eleven hundred acres of Missouri land, but of late years he has been investing his capital in government land in the above-named states. During his long career he has been interested in the coal mining indus-
5
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try of Bates county and assisted in the development of the coal fields of this county.
November 17, 1866, Mr. Wolfe was united in marriage with Kitty Dawson, of Knob Noster, Johnson county, Missouri, who bore him two children: Carby. deceased; and Dawson, residing in Arkansas on the Wolfe lands. The wife, and mother of these children, died December 21, 1880. His second marriage was in 1882 to Pattie Henderson, and to this marriage were born children as follow: Mrs. John Crim, Butler, Missouri; Mrs. Bird Cook, Wyoming; Frank, living in Canada; and Mrs. Emma Jennings, living in Wyoming.
During his entire life since attaining his majority, Mr. Wolfe has been allied with the Democratic party. He was elected county surveyor of Bates county in 1880 and was re-elected to this important office in 1884, by a majority of one thousand one votes, which is unquestionably the largest majority ever given any candidate for official preferment in Bates county. His career in the surveyor's office was a notable one, which has never been surpassed. During the course of his adminis- tration many of the large bridges of the county were built under his supervision and planning. The feat of joining Rogues' Island in the Marais des Cygnes river to the mainland was a notable undertaking in engineering and one which the county judges declared could not be done. Mr. Wolfe had made an exhaustive study of the Eads' plan of controlling the Mississippi in the delta country and applied his knowledge to conditions in this county. He joined the island to the mainland by deepening the other channel opposite by building levees or by bunches of willows together and weighting them down with stones, compelling the water to cut its own channel within the borders of the willow bat- tices. Mr. Wolfe surveyed thousands of acres of Bates county lands and "old timers" of the county well remember his careful and conscien- tious work. He laid out hundreds of miles of roadways and surveyed more miles of road than any other surveyor in the county. During his first term of office, a state law was passed which created an addi- tional duty on his part as county mine inspector. Later the law was passed creating a board or a commission consisting of five members whose duty it was to examine and select a state mine inspector in competitive examination. With nineteen other applicants for this posi- tion he underwent the examination before this commission and was successful, receiving his appointment as state mine inspector from Gov.
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John S. Marmaduke. He served in this important state office for five years and then resigned. While filling this position, the practical mining knowledge which he had gained while interested in coal mining was of considerable benefit to him in his work.
Mr. Wolfe is fraternally affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons. He is a mem- ber of the Christian church. Although he is well past the allotted three score years and ten, his activity has been little diminished with the passing of time, his mind is still vigorous, and his interest in things mundane continues to be as great as ever. He is one of the fine, old characters of this county and the state of Missouri and one of the few remaining pioneers of this important division in the upbuilding of which he has assisted so materially. His accomplishments in the engineering field in this county will long endure as a monument to his ability and genius. Marshall Lee Wolfe ranks among the historic characters of a great county.
H. L. Wright .- Nearly fifty years have elapsed since H. L. Wright, of Mound township, was born in Bates county. The Wright family came to this county and made a settlement in Elkhart township in 1868 during a period when the county was practically in its infancy and was just making its second start along the path of progress and development. Mr. Wright has grown up with his native county and has progressed with his fellow citizens, and although he has endured many vicissitudes during his life time, has experienced the cyclones, has known hardships imposed by drouths and the various disappointments which fall to the lot of the tiller of the soil, he has prospered and is owner of one of the best farms and one of the finest country residences in this part of Mis- souri. H. L. Wright was born in Elkhart township, Bates county, December 22, 1869, a son of Francis Marion and Philara (Holland) Wright, the former, a native of Brown county, Ohio, and the latter, of Tazewell county, Illinois.
When but a boy, Francis Marion Wright accompanied his parents to Illinois and there he grew to manhood. He was married in Illinois and in 1868 came to Bates county to make a permanent home for his family, locating in Elkhart township. He purchased unimproved land, from a Mr. Danielson, and followed farming during the remainder of his active life. Mr. Wright was a Republican in his political views. He departed this life in 1890 and one year later his wife followed him to
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the grave. They were parents of nine children, four of whom are living: Mrs. M. L. Burnett, Mound township; P. K., living on the old home- stead in Elkhart township; James A., Cottonwood, Idaho; and H. L., subject of this review.
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During his entire life, Mr. Wright has lived in Bates county and has followed the traditional vocation of his fathers, becoming a success- ful agriculturist. He improved his present splendid farm in 1910. After he had placed the finishing touches upon the buildings and was looking forward to years of undisturbed prosperity in his newly completed home, there came the cyclone of June 15, 1912, and in the twinkling of an eye, the results of his handiwork and preparation for comfortable living were wiped out of existence and dispersed to the four points of the compass by the power of the strong wind which tore down fences, razed buildings, and scattered the lumber far and near. All the family heirlooms, which had been gathered during a lifetime, were gone forever. Mr. Wright later, found the covers of the old family photograph album at some distance from the site of the home. A fine orchard of fifty trees was utterly destroyed. The first warning which the family had of the approaching tornado was the appearance of a black, angry-looking, twist- ing cloud. which was sweeping down upon them from the west, leaving death and destruction in its wake and destroying everything in its path. The Wrights took immediate warning and Mr. and Mrs. Wright hurried to the storm cave, as they heard the roaring and crashing which accom- panied the cyclone. Within five minutes' time the storm had passed and had done its fearful work. Livestock were carried some distance away. the tornado wiping out every vestige of a once comfortable home. Mr. Wright has since rebuilt and replaced the farm buildings at consid- erable expense.
Mr. Wright was married in 1910 to Adelia L. Addleman, who was born in northern Missouri, but was reared in Bates county, a daughter of J. M. Addleman, now residing in Mound township. Mr. Wright specializes in the breeding of Shorthorn cattle and Poland China and Chester White hogs. He is engaged in general farming and stock rais- ing. He is affiliated with the Central Protective Association and both he and Mrs. Wright are members of the Adrian Christian church. They are upright, worthy people who have a host of friends in Bates county and are numbered among the best citizens of this section of the state.
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Martin V. Owen, an honored and highly valued citizen of Bates county, Missouri, a veteran of the Confederate army in the Civil War, president of the Adrian Banking Company of Adrian, Missouri, a .prominent stockman of this section of the state, is a native of Ken- tucky. Mr. Owen was born February 17, 1840 in Daviess county, a son of M. B. and Jane (Haggard) Owen. M. B. Owen was a son of Mr. and Mrs. John Owen, a well-to-do farmer of Henry county, Ken- tucky prior to his marriage with Jane Haggard, a daughter of John Haggard, a native of Kentucky. The Owens came to Missouri from Kentucky in 1853 and located on a tract of land in Cass county, as the boundaries were at that time. At a later date, the county was divided and that part which belonged to the Owen family became a part of Bates county. Mr. and Mrs. M. B. Owen, with their children, took a boat at Owensboro in Daviess county, Kentucky and landed at Westport Landing, Missouri, which was all that then existed of the present metropolis, Kansas City, and made the remainder of the journey in a wagon drawn by oxen. The father entered a vast tract of land in this part of Missouri and engaged in farming and stock raising.
Martin V. Owen was a bright, observing lad, thirteen years of age, when he came with his parents to Missouri and he has a most vivid recollection of the appearance and primitive condition of the country at that time, more than a half century ago. Roving bands of Indians frequently visited their settlement and of the dusky savages the young white boy was much afraid. In the fifties, there were few settlements in western Missouri except along the rivers and streams, practically none out on the open prairie. Mr. Owen has seen more than one destructive prairie fire. In his youth, supplies were obtained from Lex- ington, to which city the pioneers would go with a wagon drawn by oxen. It required four to five days to make the trip. Roads were simply beaten trails across the prairie and were frequently impassable. Wild game of many different kinds abounded and there was no need for the early settlers to be hungry as wild turkeys, ducks, geese, prairie chickens, and deer might be easily obtained. Martin V. Owen recalls one particular night in his youth, when the moon was shining brightly, that he in a few moments killed five wild turkeys. Wolves, too, made their unwelcome presence known and felt in the early days and count- less times did young Martin V. Owen hear them as they howled around his wagon loaded with supplies, when he camped along the road from Lexington. Mr. Owen received his education in the "subscription
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