USA > Missouri > Bates County > History of Bates County, Missouri > Part 33
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of this famous soldier were made the occasion of a public demonstra- tion of the great esteem and love which was borne his memory by the thousands of Missourians who had known him in civil and military life.
During Grover Cleveland's administration, General Shelby served as United States marshal for the Western District. He has never inclined to seek political preferment but accepted the appointment of recorder under Governor David R. Francis, however, his magnanimity and sense of honor being so great that he turned over the salary he received to the widow of the former deceased incumbent. This was like General Shelby and similar acts of kindness characterized his whole life. He held his personal honor inviolate and always extended mercy and kindness to the captured foe whom he respected for playing the game of war according to his code of honor.
He was married to Elizabeth Shelby who bore him seven children: Orville, living in Montana; Joe, Kansas City, a police captain; Ben, living in Texas; Webb, Bates county, Missouri; Samuel, residing in Kansas City; John, living at La Cygne, Kansas; Annie, wife of F. W. Jersig, Texas, with whom the widowed mother is now residing.
Webb Shelby, a leading farmer of Elkhart township, was born in Lafayette county, Missouri, a son of General Joseph O. Shelby, whose biography immediately precedes this sketch. Mr. Shelby was reared partly in Lafayette county where he was born December 6, 1870. When fifteen years old he accompanied his parents to Bates county and has since lived in Mound township. Since coming to Bates county with his father in 1885, Webb Shelby has made farming and stock raising his chief occupations. He began life for himself at the age of twenty- two years and is self-made. What he has accomplished and accumu- lated has been with his own hands and brain. Mr. Shelby purchased his present home farm in Mound township in 1905. This place com- prises one hundred sixty acres, and to look at the well-kept appear- ance of this farm and the neatness of the buildings and farm arrange- ments thereon is to conclude emphatically that Mr. Shelby is a thoroughly good farmer, somewhat better than the average. He raises good crops of grain on his acreage and feeds the product to cattle for the market.
Mr. Shelby was married in 1902 to Miss Cassie Johnson, of Bel- ton, Cass county, Missouri. They have one child, John. Mr. Shelby, like his illustrious father before him, is a Democrat of the old school and takes a prominent and leading part in Democratic politics in Bates
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county. At present he is serving as Democratic committeeman for Mound township. He is genial, industrious, well-liked, prominent in his own right, and recognized as a worthy son of a great father.
John F. Fulkerson, one of the old settlers of Mound township, and a Union veteran, was born February 15, 1842, at Danville, Montgomery county, Missouri. He has lived in Bates county for over forty-five years. He was a son of Robert Craig and Malvina (Dickerson) Fulkerson, natives of Lee county, Virginia. Robert C. Fulkerson was descended from an old Virginia family which dates back to colonial times in American history. Robert Fulkerson was one of the early Missouri pioneers and was a large land-owner and slave-holder in Montgomery county during the ante-bellum days. He was a man of prominence in the communities in which he resided and served as sheriff of Lee county, Virginia, prior to his removal to Missouri. Upon locating in Montgomery county, he soon became one of the leaders of the new county and served several terms as county treasurer. He died at the age of eighty-four years. Mrs. Malvina Fulkerson died at the age of sixty years. John and Malvina Fulkerson were parents of seven children, two sons and five daughters, of whom the subject of this review is the only survivor.
After receiving such education as was afforded by the early day pub- lic schools in his native county, John F. Fulkerson studied at the Macon Normal College. Upon the outbreak of the Civil War, he enlisted in Company K, Thirty-third Missouri Infantry, and saw a great amount of active service during the course of the war. His command took part in the Red river expedition, in the battles of Yellow Bayou, Fort Rus- sell, and in the engagements at Cannelton, Old River Lake, Pleasant Hill, Lexington, etc. His military service extended over Arkansas, Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida and he took part in numerous skirmishes in addition to the principal engagements mentioned. Mr. Fulkerson lay sick for some time in the Military Hospital at Baton Rouge, but was never wounded in battle. He received his final discharge from the service at St. Louis after an honorable and brave service extend- ing over three years during which time he participated in some of the hardest and most exacting campaigns of the war.
After the close of the Civil War, he returned to the old home in Montgomery county and remained there engaged in agricultural pur- suits until 1872, when he came to Bates county, and purchased his pres- ent farm of eighty acres in Mound township for six dollars and fifty
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cents an acre. Since coming to this county, Mr. Fulkerson has followed farming and stock raising constantly.
John F. Fulkerson was married on August 31, 1873, to Anna Painter, who was born near Warrenton, Warren county, Missouri, February 14, 1845, a daughter of Adam and Nancy (Burns) Painter, both of whom were born in Page county, Virginia, where they were reared and married, coming to Missouri soon after their marriage in the early thirties. Mr. Painter became owner of three hundred sixty-five acres of land, and while owning slaves in his native state he disposed of them prior to his removal to Missouri. He was a farmer, stock raiser, and a good Demo- crat of the old school. Both parents of Mrs. Fulkerson died in Warren county, the father dying in 1871 and the mother departing this life in 1873.
Mr. and Mrs. Painter were parents of twelve children, five of whom are yet living. Four sons of this family served in the Confederate army and the older brother of Mrs. Fulkerson was wounded in the battle of Vicksburg, Mississippi. To Mr. and Mrs. John F. Fulkerson have been born two children : Robert, who resides in Ruby, Alaska, where he went in 1898, and is engaged in the mining business at which hazardous occu- pation he has made and lost several fortunes; Fletcher, an extensive farmer located near Paul, Idaho.
Mr. Fulkerson is allied with the Republican party but is inclined to vote independently, and does his own thinking as to men and meas- ยท ures during political campaigns. He cast his first vote for Abraham Lincoln in 1864 while wearing the uniform of the Federal government. Mr. and Mrs. Fulkerson are counted among the most valued and esteemed citizens of Bates county and are proud of the fact that they are Missouri- ans born and bred.
Frank J. McCune .- Bates county abounds in picturesque spots for home places in the country side and many fine farms are named for some striking feature of the tract of land to which the name applies. It is a matter of record that "Mound Slope Farm" located in Elkhart township and owned by F. J. McCune, was the third farm in Bates county which was legally registered under its present title. The beauti- ful McCune home is situated upon the slope of the mound from which Mound township takes its name and is one of the richest farmsteads in this section of Missouri, the soil being of the black gumbo which has such high value, rich in the materials which nourish successive crops,
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and is not easily worn out. Its owner takes a just pride in maintaining the beauty, and well-kept appearance of his place and a remarkable view of the surrounding country can be obtained from the veranda of the McCune residence, the town of Adrian, five miles away being plainly visible.
F. J. McCune was born December 10, 1853, in Athens county, Ohio, a son of Nelson and Lucy ( Blakely) McCune, both of whom were natives of Ohio and practically spent their lives in Athens county. They reared a fine family of children, three of whom are living: Blakely, the eldest son, a member of Company B, Thirty-sixth Ohio Infantry, died on the battlefield of Antietam while serving in the Union forces during the Civil War, his remains being interred at Sharpsburg, Maryland; A. H., died at San Diego, California ; George, died in childhood; Lue, married Loren Hill, of Amesville, Athens county, Ohio: Ella, married J. F. Lacy, of Hull, Illinois ; and F. J., the youngest son of the family, subject of this review.
Reared to manhood in his native county, Mr. McCune decided that the West offered better opportunities for advancement than his native state, and he accordingly left his home county in 1882 and came to Bates county. He at once located in Elkhart township and purchased the northern part of his present farm, located in east Elkhart township. The McCune farm consists of four hundred eighty acres, which are kept in a thorough state of cultivation and produce excellent crops. Mr. McCune follows general farming and stock raising in a progressive manner and is accounted one of Bates county's most intelligent and indus- trious farmers.
October 15, 1879, Frank J. McCune was united in marriage with Cora Wyatt, of Athens county, Ohio, a daughter of Charles and Harriet (Henry) Wyatt, both of whom were born, reared and spent their lives in Athens county, Ohio. Five children have blessed this marriage: Charles Nelson, proprietor of one hundred twenty acres of land in Elk- hart township, which he is farming, and he resides at home with his parents : Ella, the wife of W. W. McReynolds, Elkhart township, and has two sons, Kelver and Billy: Clarence Wyatt married Lola Carroll and has two daughters, Wilma and Helen, is farming an irrigated tract at Kuna, Idaho: Grace, at home: and Edward Henry, a teacher in the public schools of this county.
Mr. McCune is a Republican in politics and he, with the other mem-
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bers of his family, is a member of the Presbyterian church. The McCune place is not only noted for the fine appearance and view from the slope of the mound from which the farm gets its name, which view enables one to see Butler, eleven miles away, and the town of Adrian, five miles distant, but the farm is underlaid with gas which was found at a depth of two hundred fifteen feet by the boring of a test well, although no attempt has ever been made to make commercial or local use of the output. The McCune family have a permanent and respected place in the civic and social structure of Bates county and the members of this enterprising family are always found in the forefront of all movements to advance the interests of their home county.
John Dever, progressive, enterprising farmer and stockman, Mound township, was born in Guernsey county, Ohio, July 8, 1860 and was a son of Andrew and Elizabeth (Wise) Dever, the former, a native of Ire- land, and the latter, a native of Ohio. The family moved westward to Hancock county, Illinois, in 1868 and in that county the parents spent the remainder of their lives engaged in agricultural activities. Their remains are interred in Oakwood cemetery, Hamilton, Illinois. John Dever is one of five children born to his parents who grew to maturity, as follow: R. W., Macon county, Missouri; Thomas, Marshall county, Kansas; Mary C., wife of Robert Wise, Shelby county, Illinois; Gash- ium G., Shelby county, Illinois ; and John, subject of this review.
Mr. Dever was reared in Hancock county, Illinois, and remained in his native state until 1899, when he came west to Linn county, Kansas, residing there on a farm for ten years. In 1909, he came to Bates county and invested in farm land in Mound township, and has since become prominently identified with the agricultural activities of this county. He is owner of two hundred acres of land and is engaged in general farming and stock raising.
On December 28, 1882, the marriage of John Dever and Frances Anna Gayley was solemnized. Mrs. Dever was born in Woodford county, Illinois, July 4, 1859. No children of this marriage are living, but Mr. and Mrs. Dever have an adopted son, Elmer W., who is cultivating one of the Dever farms in Mound township.
The Republican party has always had the stanch support and alle- giance of Mr. Dever but he is inclined to independence in local political affairs. He is affiliated fraternally with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Lodge No. 13, Adrian, Missouri. He was identified with the
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Grange movement and was one of the organizers of the Farmers' Club of the Adrian neighborhood, a movement which is the natural outcome and successor of the Grange. He is a member of the United Brethren church at Deer Creek, and is considered one of the leading and most progressive citizens of his neighborhood, always seeking to advance any movement which is intended for the betterment of conditions in the agricultural sections in which he has spent his life.
Lewis C. Eichler, farmer and stockman of Mound township, is one of the oldest and best-known pioneer citizens of Bates county. Mr. Eichler owns one of the best farms in the county upon which he has recently erected one of the handsomest residences to be seen on the countryside. His career in Bates county and Missouri extends over a long period of over fifty years, and his record has been a most hon- orable one. Mr. Eichler was born in St. Charles City, St. Charles county, Missouri, in 1836, a son of George and Mary (Weems) Eichler.
George Eichler, his father, was born in Germany, and when a young man, immigrated to America and settled in Baltimore, Mary- land, where he followed his trade of skilled cabinet maker. After resid- ing in Baltimore for several years, he removed to St. Charles county, Missouri. Soon after the territory of Kansas was thrown open to settlement he made the trip to that state in order to appease his hunger for a tract of land, and made a settlement near the city of Lawrence. Border warfare and the trouble between the slavery and anti-slavery advocates caused him to leave Kansas and settle in Bates county where he pre-empted a quarter section of government land which cost him one dollar and twenty-five cents an acre. Upon the outbreak of the Civil War it became unsafe for Southern families to reside in this county and when Order Number Eleven was issued in 1863 he removed with his family to Lafayette county, where his death occurred in 1864. The border troubles and the Civil War both combined to cause him to lose all of his possessions and he was left in destitute circumstances during his later years. He was father of twelve children, three sons and nine daughters. His wife died upon the homestead in Bates county in 1858 and is buried in the family burial place.
In the spring of 1861, Lewis C. Eichler enlisted in the Confederate Army in Colonel Rains' Regiment and served during the war in Generals Parsons and Price's Divisions. His first battle was at Lone Jack, Mis- souri, where he received a wound in the hand. He participated in the battles of Drywood, Oak Hill, and Helena, Arkansas. He took an active
LEWIS C. EICHLER.
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part in many minor engagements and skirmishes. The most important and greatest battle in which Mr. Eichler fought was at Prairie Grove and his period of service extended throughout the war in the states of Missouri, Louisiana, and Texas. After the war ended he remained in Arkansas in gainful employment until the fall of 1868.
In 1868, Mr. Eichler returned to the homestead which had been the home of the family prior to the war and set to work to rebuild what had been destroyed during the war time. Times were hard, money was scarce, but everyone was in the same plight and he managed some- how to get ahead and has these many years been engaged successfully in farming and stockraising. He is owner of two hundred acres of very fine land which is well improved, forty acres of which are located in Elkhart township. Mr. Eichler has specialized in the breeding of Durham cattle and has one of the finest herds of this breed in the county. Only recently he has finished the building of a splendid, new. modern residence, where he proposes to spend the remaining years of his long and fruitful life in comfort.
The marriage of Lewis C. Eichler and Sallie J. Early occurred May 18, 1876, and to this union were born four children: Lucie Lee, who resides at home with her parents; Harry, died at the age of two years ; Charles, died at the age of four years; and John, cultivates the family acres. The mother of these children was born in Lafayette county, July 24, 1846, a daughter of John and Elizabeth (Dean) Early, the former of whom was a native of Virginia and the latter of Kentucky. John Early was a wealthy slave holder and had a large estate at the outbreak of the Civil War but was ruined financially during the course of the conflict. He was a cousin of General Jubal A. Early, the noted Confed- erate commander of Civil War fame.
The life of this aged citizen has been spent usefully and productively in active pursuits. In addition to his farming activities he has followed the trade of carpenter more or less for many years and is skilled in this useful art, having learned his trade under the tutelage of his father. Mr. Eichler has always been allied with the Democratic party and served as justice of the peace for Mound township for four years. He and the members of his family are religiously associated with the Methodist church, South. Mr. Eichler recalls vividly the troublesome days of the border warfare and remembers many of the jay-hawkers who made raids into Missouri over the border. He remembers Colonel Johnson's raid through Bates county, and states that Johnson's men
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even cut down or destroyed the fruit trees which had been planted and carefully nurtured by the settlers. Johnson had nearly five hundred men in his command and this party left terror and desolation in their wake. When the Eichler family located in Bates county, the first post- office was located at the old and historic town of Papinsville, which at that time was a government post. Mr. Eichler likewise remembers that some excellent apples grew on the Mission grounds at Papinsville and he always ate of the fruit in season when going to Papinsville to trade. He states that a Frenchman named Francis Lorain was the first actual settler at Papinsville, and this man kept a store and trading post. Mr. Eichler always kept on good terms with the nomadic Indians and found them harmless, but badly given to petty thieving, necessitating con- stant watchfulness on the part of the housewives, being likewise ever- lasting beggars. The milling of the settlers was done at Papinsville and also at Balltown, the first settler at that place being a Scotchman named McNeal who conducted a trading post. For a number of years he pre- served a copy of the first newspaper published in Bates county, called the "Bates County Standard," but this paper was destroyed when the Eichler residence was burned some time ago.
When Lewis C. Eichler came to Bates county the country was largely an unpeopled wilderness in which wild game abounded. There were herds of deer, great flocks of prairie chickens and wild turkeys. There were no roads and the settler followed trails across the prairie and blazed tracks through the woods. He has witnessed the growth of this county and taken an active and influential part in its upbuilding. There are few of the real old pioneers left to tell the tales of the early days, and of these. Mr. Eichler is one of the most honored.
Herman Engelhardt .- The Engelhardt farm, widely known as "Pleasant View Farm" located in Charlotte township. is one of the finest and most productive agricultural plants in this section of Missouri. It consists of three hundred twenty acres of land, every square yard of which serves some useful purpose. The residence on the place was erected by the proprietor in 1905 and consists of seven good-sized rooms. Eight years later, in 1913, Mr. Engelhardt built one of the finest barn structures in Bates county, a building 48 x 58 feet and forty-eight feet in height, with a gambrel-roof, the loft underneath this roof having a storage capacity of ninety tons of hay and forage. This building with the cow barn and silos cost Mr. Engelhardt something over two thousand two hundred dollars to build. He is extensively engaged in raising Red
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Polled cattle and Poland China hogs and does considerable grain farming, most of the grain produced by his fertile acres being fed to livestock on the place. This farm produced the champion yield of seventy bushels of oats to the acre in 1917 and also produced nearly three thousand bushels of corn. The wheat crop averaged twenty bushels to the acre, one of the best, if not the best, yields in Bates county. One hundred tons of hay were cut from the meadows last year. Mr. Engelhardt employs plenty of help to operate his large acreage and believes in spending money unstintedly on his land in order to make money. His methods of cultivation are such as to increase rather than diminish soil fertility and each year has seen his prosperity increase as a result of such wise measures.
Mr. Engelhardt was born in 1858 in Saxony, Germany, a son of Frederick and Collene Engelhardt who lived all of their days in the land of their birth. Herman Engelhardt served for a time in the German army and in his youth learned the trade of nail-maker. This was in the days when nails were laboriously made by hand and Herman became skilled in the art of nail making, being able by a few strokes of the ham- mer to turn out quickly and efficiently a nail of any size. He immigrated to America in 1882 and obtained employment in the Rolling Mills at Rose- dale, a suburb of Kansas City, where he remained for a time and then located in Douglas county, Missouri. In this county, he homesteaded a tract of government land and by the hardest kind of labor cleared and placed in cultivation one hundred twenty acres. He started his career as a farmer with little or no means at his disposal and in less than eighteen years created a salable property in Douglas county from what had before been a wilderness. He spent his winters in chopping down the trees and preparing his ground for cultivation and in order to provide for his family he did railroad work during the summer seasons. In 1901, he traded his Douglas county farm for a tract of one hundred acres in Charlotte township to which he has since added other acreage until he now owns three hundred twenty acres. Mr. Engelhardt gives great credit to his faithful wife and the members of his family for assistance in achieving his marked success.
While living in Kansas City, he was married in 1883, to Pertha Glass, who was also born in Saxony, Germany, and to this marriage have been born five living children: Paul H., a farmer living in Char- lotte township: Lena, wife of Francis Gasch, a native of Austria, Mar- shall county, Kansas; Ida, who married Fred Nowatna, Piatt county,
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Kansas; William, at home: and Elsie, also at home with her parents. Politically, Mr. Engelhardt is independent and votes as his conscience and judgment dictate. He is a member of the Christian church, and Mrs. Engelhardt and the children are members of the Methodist Episco- pal church. Mr. Engelhardt is one of the most progressive and enter- prising citizens of Bates county, one who has good and just right to be proud of his fine farm and the success which has come to him through his own efforts and with no other assistance than that cheerfully given by the members of his family who have all worked together harmoniously for the common good of the family. Bates county is likewise proud of stich citizens as he, men who have demonstrated that successful tillage of her soil depends to the greatest extent upon the individual himself.
John Robert Walters, of Lone Oak township, is one of the oldest and most honored of the Bates county pioneers. Besides being one of the oldest of the citizens of his township, not only in age but in years of residence in the county, he has reared one of the largest families in the county. This is not all, however, for he spent some of the best years of his life in defense of the Union during the Civil War. He was born October 3, 1844, in a primitive home on Camp Branch creek, in Cass county, between Pleasant Hill and Harrisonville. His early recol- lections of conditions during his boyhood days, in Cass and Bates coun- ties, are vivid. He has seen his father shoot deer to the number of two and three before breakfast. Deer. as well as other wild game, were plentiful on the prairies and years ago he has shot deer himself and hunted the wild prairie chicken and turkeys. Having lived in Bates county since 1849, he is entitled to honorable mention as one of the oldest of the real pioneers of the county.
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