USA > Missouri > Bates County > History of Bates County, Missouri > Part 32
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schools" of what is now Grand River township, Bates county, Missouri.
The marriage of Martin V. Owen and Emma D. Porter, a daugh- ter of David Porter, a highly respected pioneer of Bates county, Mis- souri, who settled in this part of the state about the time of the Civil War, was solemnized in 1882. To this union have been born three children: Mrs. Orpha Lee Robinson, Adrian, Missouri; Mrs. Ruby Mccullough, Adrian, Missouri; and H. B., Adrian, Missouri. Mr. and Mrs. Owen are worthy and consistent members of the Baptist church. For nearly three score years and ten, the Owen family has been known and respected in Bates county, Missouri and the name has become the synonym of all that is good and true and upright.
During the Civil War, Martin V. Owen enlisted with the Con- federates and served throughout the four-year-strife, being most of the time with "Fighting Joe" Shelby. After the conflict had ended, Mr. Owen returned to Bates county, Missouri and again engaged in the peaceful pursuits of farming and stock raising. He became the owner of extensive stock interests in western Missouri and at one time was the proprietor of a stock farm comprising one thousand six hun- dred acres of valuable land in Bates county. In 1888, Mr. Owen was elected president of the Adrian Banking Company of Adrian, Missouri and two years afterward, in 1890, he moved with his family from the farm to this city, where he purchased a tract of land embracing eighty acres lying adjacent to the city limits. He has rebuilt the residence and now has one of the attractive, comfortable homes of Deer Creek township, a two-story structure of eight well-arranged rooms, sur- rounded by a beautiful lawn. Mr. Owen has spent the past thirty years in the study of the intricate problem of finance, but at present is not so active in business as in former years and he is planning to retire in the near future and to spend the closing years of his long life of usefulness, filled with thousands of days of long, hard toil, in well-earned restful peace and quiet.
No calling in life brings out and develops stronger, nobler quali- ties of manhood or insures a better success and more ample competence than does the ancient and honorable vocation of farming. To the early pioneer, the hardships and privations incident to spending the best years of life in transforming dense forests and trackless prairies and dismal swamps into rich, cultivated fields, orchards, and gardens, thriving villages, towns, and cities, were but stronger stimuli to build with his own toil-worn, weary hands a comfortable home which should be a place
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of rest and happiness in his declining years. The retired farmer can bring to mind many satisfying thoughts of the difficulties encountered and overcome, of the long, hard, upward struggle of the days agone recompensed by the sure reward, of the old scenes, and of the old, tried and true friends. Thus is the heart of him made glad, who labors long and diligently with an honorable purpose. Mr. Owen has passed the seventy-eighth milestone in life and we hope he may remain with us for many more years, that another score of years will be added to his now noble age, ere, he hears the Master say, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant."
O. C. Johnson, farmer and stockman, Mound township. Bates county, was born in Vinton county, Ohio, September 21, 1872. He is a son of Hiram and Mary (Bailey) Johnson, the former of whom was born in Virginia in 1849. The mother of O. C. Johnson was born in Ohio and is descended from an old family of Ohio. The Johnsons are descended from Virginia colonial stock. The family came to Missouri in 1881, arriving here on November 30, of that year and they settled in Elkhart township. The Fairview church and school house is located on the old Johnson homestead in Elkhart township. During his entire life, Hiram Johnson followed the vocations of farmer and stockman, dying at his home in 1905. He was a life-long Democrat and took a keen interest in political matters. He was a member of the Central Protective Asso- ciation and was accounted a leading and substantial Bates county citi- zen. He was a hard worker and never knew a sick day until he was afflicted with his mortal illness. The widowed mother still resides at the homestead. Six children of the seven born to Hiram and Mary Johnson are living, namely: Etta J., wife of James Webb, Vinita, Okla- homa; Ida M., wife of George Black, East Boone township, Bates county ; O. C., subject of this review; Enson L., living in East Boone township; Mary R., wife of B. F. Wall, Passaic, Missouri; and Harley B., living on the homestead in Elkhart township.
O. C. Johnson first attended the public schools of Vinton county, Ohio, and after coming to Bates county he attended the district school in his home locality. He began his own career soon after his marriage in 1898 on the place which he now owns, consisting of eighty acres of good land. In addition to farming his own acreage, Mr. Johnson farms a considerable tract of rented land. He keeps good grades of horses, hogs and cattle and is making a success of his life work.
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Mr. Johnson was married in 1898 to Miss Emily M. Black, a daugh- ter of Perry Black, now making his home in Adrian, this county. Mr. Johnson is a Democrat and has served two years as trustee of Mound township. Both he and Mrs. Johnson are members of the Presbyterian church and contribute of their means to the support of this denomina- tion.
Alexander M. Barclay .- The late Alexander M. Barclay was a pio- neer settler of Bates county, whose forty years of residence in Bates county were devoted to good deeds in the constant endeavor to do to the utmost of his ability and strength his part in the upbuilding of Bates county. When Mr. Barclay came to Bates county forty years ago, all of the visible property which he possessed consisted of a team of horses. His first investment in land was made on his promise to pay. During all these years he made good in his adopted county and became one of the most progressive and best-loved citizens of the county. Mr. Bar- clay was born in Smith county, West Virginia, September 4, 1847, a son of Joseph and Mary (Call) Barclay.
Joseph Barclay, his father, was born and reared in Kentucky, a son of parents who came to Kentucky from North Carolina, of English descent. He married a lady who was of Virginia parentage, and removed to Kentucky from Virginia when Alexander M. was but one year old, and made a settlement in Pulaski county, that state. In 1867, Joseph Barclay settled in Kansas, where the wife and mother died in 1905. Later, Mr. Barclay went to Oregon and died there. Two children of Joseph and Mary Barclay are yet living : Felis, residing at Vale, Oregon ; and John, living at Cambridge, Idaho.
Upon the outbreak of the Civil War, Alexander M. Barclay enlisted when fifteen years of age in the First Kentucky Cavalry and served thirty- one months to the day in continuous and active service of the most hazardous character, much of which was hand-to-hand fighting between the opposing forces. He participated in the battle of Mill Springs, Kentucky, and was present at the capture of the famous Rebel raider, General John Morgan, whose forces were surrounded in a natural pocket in Columbiana county, Ohio, and forced to surrender to the Union forces under General Hildebrandt. He fought in the Battle of Resaca, Georgia, and was in many sharp skirmishes and minor engagements, being among the first troops to enter the captured city of Dalton, Geor- gia. During the course of his military service, he received a few slight
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wounds and at one time was struck on the head by a Confederate sol- dier who wielded a pistol in an effort to compel his surrender. He had many narrow escapes from death and capture, but survived to receive his honorable discharge at Louisville, Kentucky, and now enjoys the honor of being one of the very few survivors of the grand "Old Guard," bearing the distinction of having been one of the youngest soldiers to fight in the Civil War.
After the close of his war service, he returned to Kentucky and fol- lowed the peaceful pursuits of farming until his removal to Missouri in 1878. Three years after coming to this county, he purchased his present home place on time, but with good management and diligence he was not long in paying for the land. The years that have passed brought prosperity to this aged veteran and besides his fine farm he was well-to-do and was a stockholder in the Walton Trust Company of Butler.
On December 9, 1869, Mr. Barclay was united in marriage with Miss Louisa F. James, and to this union there have been born two chil- dren: Mary, wife of William G. Dillon, of Mound township; and Susan, who married Charles Jenkins, of Mound township, and died in 1896. Mrs. Louisa F. (James) Barclay was born in Virginia and reared in Kentucky and is an aunt of Senator Ollie James, the famous Democratic leader and statesman of Kentucky.
Until the disbanding of the Adrian Post of the Grand Army of the Republic, Mr. Barclay was affiliated with the organization. He had always been a Republican and was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. He was progressive in his views and tendencies and had always endeavored to keep pace with the march of progress. Mr. Barclay loved to contrast the easy times of the present with the hard times and vicissitudes through which he was compelled to make his way during his young manhood, and recalled that in the days of long ago, he husked corn in Missouri for a wage of sixty-five cents a day during cold winter days when the weather was very similar to that which we have endured during the past winter of 1917-18 and that "it was cold enough to freeze a man to death." Happily the days of low wages and low prices for farm products are passed and the farmer "has come into his own," and is enjoying his share of the widespread prosperity which has enveloped the whole country. Mr. Barclay departed this life on February 8. 1918. and his remains were interred in Mt. Olivet cemetery on the Sunday
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following his death. His loss has been a sad one to the community and Bates county is bereft of a splendid and noble citizen whose life was well spent and whose soul rests in peace in the "Bourne from which no man returneth." His spirit is still with us and his example of right living was a noble one.
Wilbur J. Park .- The Park family is one of the oldest, most hon- orable families in Bates county, members of this family having settled here sixty years ago when the greater part of Bates county was in an unoccupied state. W. J. Park, a sterling representative of this old and respected family, residing on his splendid farm in Elkhart township, was born in Hampshire county. Virginia, July 11, 1856, and has lived in Bates county since he was two years of age. His father was Jefferson Park and his mother, prior to her marriage, was Barbara Davis, both of whom were born and reared in Hampshire county, Virginia, of old Virginia stock. Jefferson Park immigrated to Bates county, Missouri, in 1858, accompanied by his brothers, Washington, Samuel, and Wesley Park, all of whom settled in the same vicinity excepting Wesley, who went further westward and located in Pottawatomie county, Kansas, remaining in Kansas until after the close of the Civil War, when he returned to Missouri and here made his permanent home. Jefferson Park settled on a farm located just one mile south of the farm owned by the subject of this sketch, in Charlotte township. He and his brother. Washington, purchased four hundred acres of land from Russell B. Fisher and the former made his home on this place until the outbreak of the Civil War. Being a man of pronounced Union sympathies and loyal to the government he could not abide the views and actions of the pro-slavery advocates, and accordingly removed to Linn county, Kansas, to remain there during the years of warfare. He was pro- nounced in his views and intensely loyal to the Union, outspoken to to such an extent in expressing himself that he had many clashes with those whose views and opinions were just the opposite. He lost con- siderable property through the depredations of "bushwhackers" and at the time of his departure from Kansas, he and his family were forced to travel by ox-team motive power because of the fact that all his horses had been driven away by marauders. He returned to Missouri in the fall of 1865 and proceeded to repair the damages which his farm had suffered, it being practically necessary for him to begin all over again and replace (23)
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the buildings and fences. The Park farm, eventually, became one of the best improved tracts in the county and Jefferson Park made his home thereon until his death on February 1, 1897, at the age of seventy-six years. He was born February 1, 1899. To Jefferson and Barbara (Davis) Park were born the following children: Rhoda Ann, born November 1, 1849, married Dr. R. A. Rising, and died in August, 1916, at her home in Cowley county, Kansas; Phoebe J., born January 23, 1852, in Virginia, and died in childhood, December 28, 1865; Luther D. C., born June 1, 1854, resides in Nevada, Missouri; Wilbur J., born July 11, 1856, subject of this review; Ezra B., born November 6, 1865, in Missouri, died April 28, 1895; Ulysses G., born March, 1864, in Linn county, Kansas, now living in Clark county, Kansas ; Lydia S., born May 25, 1867, married Fletcher Orear, she died at Butler. Missouri, September 29, 1908; and Laura J., born April 2, 1869, and died September 9, 1870. The mother of this fine family of children was born January 30, 1829, and died De- cember 29, 1915.
Jefferson Park was a follower of Abraham Lincoln and a stanch Re- publican during his whole life after attaining his majority. He and his wife were members of the Methodist Episcopal church and were liberal supporters of religious and charitable works.
Wilbur J. Park, subject of this review, spent his boyhood days in Bates county and received his education in the public schools. He has followed farming pursuits continuously from his youth and has made a pronounced success of his life work, owning an eighty-acre farm which comprises his home place and also eighty acres which were formerly part of the Park homestead in Charlotte township. He carries on general farming and stock raising. Mr. Park was married April 16, 1882, to Miss Mary Chandler, and to this marriage have been born the following chil- dren: Floyd, who married Vera Angel, of Bates county, and resides at Adair, Oklahoma; Leroy J., married Minnie Largent, of Bates county, and lives on the old home place in Charlotte township: Odessa, resides at Ogden, Utah; and Leonard, married Vesta Leitch, a native of this county, and they reside on the Leitch farm in Bates county. Mrs. Mary (Chandler) Park was born in Tennessee, a daughter of L. L. and Mar- garet (Belcher) Chandler, both natives of Tennessee, the former dying when Mrs. Park was four years old. The family moved to Illinois when she was a small child and her mother now resides at Longton, Kansas. Mrs. Park is one of three children born to her parents, the others being Amanda and John S., who live with their mother at Longton, Kansas.
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The allegiance of Mr. Park to the tenets and principles of the Repub- lican party has generally been constant, although he is inclined to much independent thinking and voting in local and state matters, rather than yielding a blind obedience to any political fetich or organization. If a can- didate for office is well qualified, according to his idea, he willingly sup- ports that individual for the office sought regardless of his political affil- iations, and he pursues the same course with measures which are intended to make changes in the government, be it local, state or national. He is the present justice of the peace of Elkhart township and he had served one term in this capacity prior to the beginning of his present term of office.
John Speer, proprietor of the "Round Barn Farm," located in Mound township, on the Jefferson Highway, two and a half miles south of Adrian, was born in Summit township, Bates county, on a farm located nine miles southeast of Butler, July 1, 1871. He was a son of Henry and Emma (Boyd) Speer, the former of whom was a native of Shelby county, Ohio, and the latter, of Illinois. Henry Speer was a soldier in the Union army and served throughout the Civil War. He is now deceased and the widow now resides in Butler. Three children were born to Henry and Emma Speer, as follow: John Speer, subject of this review; Minnie, wife of Louis Deffenbaugh, Butler, Missouri; and William Percy, of Independence, Kansas.
The early education of John Speer was obtained in the public schools of Bates county, after which he graduated from the old Butler Academy. He remained on the farm until he was eighteen years of age and then removed to Butler, where he became associated with his father in the nursery business under the firm name of Speer & Son, succeeding Hal- loway & Speer. He was engaged in the nursery business for seven years, and was then employed by the Logan Moore Lumber Company for four years, following. In 1890, he took possession of his present farm of one hundred sixty acres and has established a reputation as a dairyman and breeder of registered Jersey cattle. Mr. Speer maintains an aver- age of thirty head of purebred Jersey cows upon his place, which is fitted with modern conveniences for the economical conducting of the business with the least possible labor. Mr. Speer is a member of the Southwest Jersey Cattle Breeders' Association. The circular barn which he has had erected, has a circumference of one hundred ninety- two feet, is fifty feet in height, and equipped with a silo, in the exact center, which is forty feet high and eleven feet in diameter. This barn
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was erected in 1908 and is one of the most convenient in this section of the state for dairying purposes. The interior is so arranged that the stock are placed in stalls facing the center of the building. thus enabling the stock tenders to feed from the filled silo very conveniently and quickly with little or no waste. The Speer place is equipped with gasoline power which is used for many purposes, such as running the cream separators, churning, and doing the family washing each week, besides cutting wood and crushing the silage for filling the silo.
Mr. Speer was married on December 19, 1900, to Miss Maud Gar- rison, who was born and reared in Bates county, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. J. C. Garrison, natives of Wisconsin. Mrs. Garrison died in the spring of 1917 at the age of eighty-six years. J. C. Garrison was a millwright by trade and he built the original Powers' mill in this country, and is accounted one of the earliest of the Bates county pioneer settlers.
The Republican party claims the support of Mr. Speer and he has served as justice of the peace of Mound township and has been a member of the township board. He is affiliated with the Modern Woodmen of America and the Presbyterian church of Butler.
General Joseph O. Shelby, a dashing and beloved commander of Confederate forces during the Civil War and a resident of Bates county during the latter years of his eventful life, was born at Lexington, Kentucky, in 1831. At the age of nineteen years he removed from Kentucky to Lafayette county, Missouri, and established a rope fac- tory. His manufacturing venture flourished with able management and he was in a fair way to amass riches when the border warfare began. He espoused the cause of the South and went to Kentucky and raised a company of cavalry and took the field in Kansas with Clark, Atchi- son, and Reid. The border troubles over, he returned to Waverly, Missouri, and his company was disbanded at St. Joseph, Missouri.
With the firing of the first gun upon Fort Sumter in 1861, young Shelby was one of the first in the field. He organized a company of cavalry and marched to Independence, Missouri, which was then threat- ened with attack by the Federal forces stationed at Kansas City. This was his first actual entrance into the war in 1861 at the age of thirty years. He joined General Price's forces in western Missouri. His first battle was fought at Boonville, where the Confederate army was defeated by the Federals under General Lyon. The history of Shelby's military career would be a minute history of the entire war fought west of the Mississippi river. He was a participant in every hard-fought
GENERAL JOSEPH O. SHELBY.
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battle fought in this section of the country and he was always the first to charge the enemy and the last to retreat. He had charge of the most important raids made by Price's army and had command of a splendid fighting force of ten thousand men, of whom four to five thousand were constantly under arms and always on duty. General Shelby knew the name of every man enrolled in his command and knew where to call him when needed for service. In 1862. he was commissioned a colonel of cavalry; in January, 1863, he was created a colonel in command of a brigade ; and in May, 1864, he was commis- sioned a general of brigade or brigadier general.
He distinguished himself by exceptional bravery at the battle of Pea Ridge. March 4, 1862, where he was exposed to a heavy fire and by a brilliant maneuver he saved one of Price's battalions from cap- ture or annihilation. After the battle of Cane Hill, General Shelby's command was the last to evacuate Corinth when it was abandoned by the Confederate forces. He was severely wounded during the attack on Helena, July 4. 1863, but he recaptured his battery from the Fed- erals after receiving his wound. He then made a raid through Mis- souri to Boonville, during which many farms and homes were destroyed. From Boonville, he marched to Marshall and then retreated with his command into Arkansas, going into winter quarters at Camden, Arkan- sas. His activities were resumed in the spring of 1864 and he fought numerous minor battles in northern Arkansas. When the last raid into Missouri was decided upon in 1864, General Shelby was found to be the youngest general in the list west of the Mississippi river. The Confederates had planned to attack St. Louis, but this was given up upon learning of the strength of the St. Louis defenses. They advanced upon Jefferson City, and this city was also found to be too strongly fortified for attack, and the plan to attack the capital was abandoned. The army then moved westward and was engaged with the Federals in several sharp encounters. On October 20, 1864. General Price's army reached Independence and Blue river and in the movement which followed, both Generals Marmaduke and Shelby were engaged and drove the Federals back to Westport. On October 22, Shelby received orders to capture Westport and a desperate battle ensued during which Shelby lost eight hundred of his men, but so great was his strategy and so quick were his movements that Price's army was saved from capture by the Federals although the battle was lost and the retreat through Missouri was begun. He was placed in command of the rear guard of
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Price's retreating army and fought his way foot by foot to Newtonia, Arkansas. The last battle of the war west of the Mississippi was waged there. When it came to a question of final surrender, Shelby advo- cated further resistance to the Union forces. Kirby Smith, then in command, was unpopular and was in favor of surrender. At Shelby's request he withdrew from the command, turned over his power to General Buckner, who in turn surrendered to the United States.
The cause of the Confederacy being lost, General Shelby con- ceived the idea of doing further fighting in Mexico which at that time was under the rule of Emperor Maximilian who had been placed upon the throne by the French forces. He organized a force of six hundred men who armed themselves in Texas and marched through the state toward Mexico. At Houston, Texas, were vast supplies which were in danger of being despoiled by a force of one thousand renegades. Shelby wanted the suffering women and children to be nourished from these supplies. In line with this desire he sent one hundred picked men into the city to accomplish his purpose. So great was the terror of his name that the evil-doers agreed to desist from the proposed attack and the city was quieted. When near the city of Austin, he was called upon by the citizens to assist them in preventing the looting of the state treasury and vaults which contained besides the entire monetary wealth of the state government, much valuable wealth placed there by business firms and citizens for safe keeping. The citizens had knowledge of a plot to loot the capital. Shelby very willingly gave his services to this cause and the Texas treasury was saved from spoliation. At the first station in Mexico he left it to a vote of his men as to which side they should join in the Southern country. They decided that, inasmuch as the French were supporting the Emperor Maximilian and had promised to furnish money and supplies to still uphold the Confederacy, they would offer their help to the Emperor. Maximilian refused Shelby's proffer of the services of his men and the adventure was ended. General Shelby returned to Lafayette county and remained there until his removal to Bates county in 1885. He purchased a farm of seven hundred acres in Elkhart township and was engaged in the peaceful pursuits of agriculture and stock raising until his death, February 23, 1897. His funeral was attended by a vast con- course of people and he was interred with military and civic honors at Forest Hill cemetery, Kansas City. The final obsequies over the burial
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