USA > Missouri > Bates County > History of Bates County, Missouri > Part 38
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HISTORY OF BATES COUNTY
in 1904. Mrs. Cobb departed this life in 1907. They were parents of the following children: Mrs. Emma Irvin, Bussey, Iowa; Charles C., New Home township; Jesse R., of Sheridan. Wyoming, killed in a rail- road wreck December 30, 1917; Mrs. Rose Thomas; Samuel L., now living at the Thomas home; the first two children born, Sterling Price. died at the age of 32 years, and John Thomas, killed by a mine explo- sion at the age of 23 years. Four children have been born to J. A. and Rose Thomas: Arthur Lee, born August 20, 1907; the second child died in infancy ; Herschell Maxwell, born May 24, 1911; Woodrow Pen- dleton, born February 20. 1912. Mrs. Thomas is a member of the Bap- tist church and Mr. Thomas is a Democrat in politics.
Samuel Peter Halfert .- The late Samuel Peter Halfert, better known as S. P. Halfert, of West Point township, was an industrious and suc- cessful citizen, whose loss to the community in which he resided for so many years has been deeply mourned. He was born in Portage county. Ohio, February 4, 1840, and departed this life at his home in Bates county, March 5, 1909. He was a son of George and Rachel (File) Halfert, both of whom were natives of Germany. George Halfert, his father, emigrated from Germany when twenty-one years of age and landed in New York City with but one dollar in his pocket. Rachel, his wife, came from Germany with her parents when she was a child nine years of age. George Halfert died in Ohio in 1861 and the widow with her family removed to Michigan.
S. P. Halfert did not, however, locate in Michigan with the rest of the family. Being of an inquiring and inventive turn of mind. he worked out a formula which proved to be efficacious in the art of tan- ning furs. This recipe he traded for a tract of eighty acres of land located near Dubuque, Iowa. This tract was good prairie land and after working in the neighborhood of Dubuque for some time, Mr. Hal- fert disposed of the tract and located in Johnson county, Missouri, in 1866. In Johnson county, he bought eighty acres of land and there married Lina Kane, who died one and a half years after the marriage. Six months after the death of his first wife, Mr. Halfert came to Bates county and bought an "eighty" located near Cornland in the southern part of the county. He improved this tract and resided thereon for eighteen months, a bachelor. He then married and for a period of nine years cultivated this farm. Selling out the tract, he located, in the early eighties, in West Point township, as he had traded his posses- sions for one hundred sixty acres of land there located, a tract which
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HISTORY OF BATES COUNTY
was unimproved. This land he traded for eighty acres which were improved with an old house, cribs, and buildings of mediocre character. With the assistance of his able, energetic wife he prospered and increased his holdings to a grand total of four hundred eighty acres. This land has been divided since his death and the widow now owns the home- stead of one hundred sixty acres.
Politically, Mr. Halfert was a stanch Republican and always voted the Republican ticket. He took an active interest in political matters and was noted for his straightforwardness and plain manner of speak- ing. His honesty was proverbial and his rating as a citizen was high.
S. P. Halfert was united in marriage with Sarah Ellen Kelley on December 15, 1872. To this union were born the following children: John Charles Halfert, born October 18, 1874, and now residing on a farm in West Point township: George William Peter, born September 3, 1886, at home with his mother; John Charles Halfert married Anna Gifford and has three children: Ida Celeste, Virolee Ellen, and Clyde Marvin, who was named in honor of a preacher despite the wishes of his grand- mother, who desired that he be named in honor of his grandfather.
Mrs. Sarah Ellen Halfert was born December 13, 1854, in Pennsyl- vania, a daughter of John and Eliza (Johnson) Kelley, natives of the Keystone state who removed to Newton county, Indiana, in 1855 and resided there until 1867 when they came to Bates county. Mrs. Eliza Kelley died in Indiana in 1861, leaving six children, as follow: Mary Jane, died in Colorado; Mrs. Ollie Kelley, Butler, Missouri; John, died when a youth: Aaron, died November 5, 1908, on a farm near Corn- land, Bates county ; Sarah Ellen Halfert, of this review ; and Charles T., died in infancy. John Kelley was again married in 1873 to Mrs. Sallie Carpenter, who bore him four children: Samuel W., deceased; Andrew, living in northern Minnesota ; Mrs. Rena Dillon, who is living near Butler; May, residing in California. The second Mrs. Kelley died upon the birth of her last child. December 1, 1867, the Kelley family arrived in Bates county and settled upon a farm in the vicinity of Cornland. which farm Mr. Kelley cultivated until his death, February 18, 1881.
Mrs. Halfert is a remarkable woman who has accomplished wonders in the management and improvement of her fine farm since her late husband's death. She has remodeled and rebuilt practically every struc- ture on the place and has all of them attractively painted in a dark red color, the residence and buildings making a handsome appearance from the roadway. She has had erected a thirty-barrel water tank for farm
.
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purposes which is kept filled by a pump operated by wind-mill power and everything is in first-class condition. A cyclone devastated the farm in 1909 and did considerable damage but it was quickly repaired. This energetic farm lady, despite her years, does a great part of the farm work and maintains a herd of ten dairy cows which yield one can of cream weekly from February to July, thus bringing her an income of seven dollars weekly. She has a total of eighteen head of cattle and nineteen head of Duroc Jersey hogs on the place. During the laying season, she disposes of two thirty-dozen cases of eggs each week from her poultry plant. Mrs. Halfert attends to her poultry and hogs, and does a great part of the milking herself. At this writing, December, 1917, she had four hundred bushels of oats in her granary and more than one thousand bushels of corn in crib. She owns a splendid team of horses and a brood mare. In the spring of 1917, she disposed of more than three hundred dollars worth of horses and mules. Mrs. Halfert is a woman who is highly capable of managing her own affairs. She believes in keeping up with the times and her success in conducting a large farm has demonstrated that at least one woman can manage a business successfully. She is emphatically in favor of woman suffrage and looks forward to the time when she will be able to vote equally with men. Altogether, Mrs. Halfert is a remarkable woman in more ways than one- kind hearted, obliging, and broad-minded-and she has a deep and abid- ing love for her home county and her country.
James W. Bobbitt, retired merchant and former postmaster of Sprague, Missouri, has, since the very beginning of the town of Sprague. been one of the leading citizens of this locality. He was born in Pulaski county, Kentucky, January 18, 1850, a son of Joseph D. and Polly Ann (Barrow) Bobbitt, both of whom were born and reared in old Kentucky. The parents of Joseph D. Bobbitt were natives of Virginia, who made a settlement in Kentucky during the early years of the history of that state. Mr. Bobbitt migrated to Missouri and arrived in Pettis county on March 10, 1870. For a time he was engaged in the mercantile busi- ness in Pettis county until his removal to Wilson county, Kansas, where he again engaged in mercantile pursuits, remaining in Kansas until he came to Sprague, Bates county, Missouri, in 1900. He was engaged in business here until a short time before his death in 1910. Mrs. Polly Ann Bobbitt died in 1908. Mr. and Mrs. Bobbitt were the parents of the following children: James W., subject of this review; William Per-
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HISTORY OF BATES COUNTY
kins, a resident of La Fontaine, Kansas; Mrs. Nannie Prigmore, a widow living at Pueblo, Colorado; and Perry Davis Bobbitt, Canon City, Colo- rado.
J. W. Bobbitt received his schooling in Kentucky, his common- school education being followed by a course in the Davis Academy in Kentucky. He accompanied his parents to Missouri in 1870 and for two years after his arrival in Pettis county he and his brothers followed farm- ing while the father conducted his store. He then engaged in business with his father. In 1878, he came to Bates county and settled on a farm four miles north of Sprague. In 1881 he located in Sprague and opened one of the first mercantile establishments in the village. He established the first harness business, and then opened a general mer- cantile store which he conducted until 1906 when he retired from active business pursuits. Mr. Bobbitt has an eighty-acre farm, located west of Sprague, which is cultivated by a tenant.
Mr. Bobbitt was married March 8, 1876, to Miss Hattie E. Winston, who was born in Pettis county, Missouri, a daughter of Drayton and Mary Winston, natives of North Carolina, who first made a settlement in Pettis county, Missouri, and then came to Bates county in 1882, set- tling on a farm located north of Sprague where both died in the same year, of 1887. To James W. and Hattie Bobbitt have been born children as follow: Mrs. Minnie McCray, Pueblo, Colorado, who has two chil- dren-Murle, and William W .; Mrs. Cecil Gault, Buhl, Idaho, who has three daughters, Theo, Esther, and Genevieve; Clyde, at home with his parents ; and Mrs. Auda Lee, Pueblo, Colorado, who has an infant daugh- ter, Johanna Elizabeth.
The Republican party has always had the allegiance of Mr. Bobbitt, who has been one of the leaders of his party for many years in Bates county. He has held many positions of trust during his long resi- dence here and has acquitted himself creditably in every instance. For a period of twenty-three years, he served as postmaster of Sprague. In March, 1915, he was elected tax collector of Howard township and served for two years in this office. He has always taken a great interest in school matters and at the present writing is president of the local school board. When Sprague was actively maintained as an incorporated town, he served as a member and clerk of the town council. Mr. Bobbitt is a member of the Christian church and is serving as clerk and treasurer of the Sprague Christian church. He is fraternally affiliated with the Woodmen of the World and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
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HISTORY OF BATES COUNTY
P. L. Shelton, superintendent of the Hickory Hill Mining Company, Foster, Missouri, is a native son of Bates county who has achieved a striking success in the coal mining field of this county. At the present critical period of our nation's history (1918) when there is hardly a locality, industry, or city which is not crying for coal, and more coal, in order to ward off the chills of winter and keep the wheels of industry going, the individual who is doing his utmost to assist in supplying this demand is performing a public service of great value. The mines in Mr. Shelton's direct charge give employment to over fifty men at high wages and the only difficulty experienced in conducting mine operations is in securing the necessary cars in which to ship the output. A strip mine is operated near Foster which has a capacity of forty tons daily and employs fifteen men. The Hickory Hill Mine, one of Mr. Shel- ton's newest ventures, is a slope mine, located about one and one-fourth miles west of Foster upon a tract of two hundred ten acres underlaid with a splendid coal deposit and having an average output of one hun- dred tons. This mine is in the infancy of its development and was opened by Mr. Shelton in January, 1917. From twenty-five to fifty men are given employment at this mine, which is equipped with modern hoisting machinery operated by gas engines at a cost of eighty dollars per month. making a distinct saving in the hoisting expense of the coal to the top of the mine tipple for screening and loading. A tramway one-fourth of a mile in length conveys the coal to the railway spur or independent switch on the Missouri Pacific railroad.
The birth of P. L. Shelton occurred on a farm in New Home town- ship, May 25, 1871. His parents were James C. (born in 1847, died in 1895), and Susan (Eads) Shelton (born August 29, 1845), the latter of whom is now making her home in Kansas City. James C. Shelton was born on a pioneer farm in Deepwater township, a son of Robert Shelton, a native of Kentucky, who was among the very earliest pio- neer settlers of Bates county, coming here in 1845 when this entire sec- tion was an unsettled wilderness of prairie and forest. In 1849, Robert Shelton drove a freight wagon to the Pacific Coast on the hunt for gold in the mining country. He made the entire distance while driving a slow-moving ox-team. James C. Shelton was accidentally killed while employed in a strip mine ditch. his death being caused by the caving in of the sides of the ditch, so-called. Susan (Eads) Shelton, was likewise a member of one of the oldest pioneer families of Missouri, her birth occurring at California, Missouri. To James C. and Susan Shelton were
P. L. SHELTON.
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HISTORY OF BATES COUNTY
born eight children, seven of whom are living: P. L., eldest of the family : Edward A., Kansas City; Mrs. S. Cordelia Blackburn, Kansas City; Mrs. Melissa Snuffer, Kansas City; Mrs. Mary Pierce, Kansas City; H. C., also living in Kansas City; and Mrs. Anna Stuart, Utah.
Not long after the birth of P. L. Shelton, his parents located in Walnut township, on a farm one-fourth of a mile east of Foster. He was educated in the Walnut township schools and assisted his parents in the support of the family until he was twenty-six years old. He began to make his own way in 1897 and has been employed in coal-mining on his own account since 1891. Mr. Shelton has been carrying on farming and mining operations for the past twenty years and is an enterprising, energetic citizen who is considered the busiest man in the town of Foster. During the greater part of this period he has been an operator and an employer of labor and knows every phase of the mining industry, having learned his business in the hard school of practical experience. He has a substantial interest in the Hickory Hill Mining venture and is the prac- tical owner of the strip mines near Foster.
Mr. Shelton was married on March 31, 1897, to Jennie B. Webb, who was born in Ray county. Missouri. December 6, 1878, a daughter of H. H. and D. E. (Stevens) Webb, natives of Tennessee and Missouri, respectively. Her parents came to Bates county in 1885. Her father is deceased and her mother resides in Moberly, Missouri. Mr. and Mrs. Shelton have a fine family of five sons and three daughters, namely : Pleasant H., a student in the Kansas City Business College; Myrtle, a student in Westport High School ; De Witt, Herbert, Paul, Arlo, Mildred, and Marie, at home. It is worthy of mention that Mr. Shelton's father operated the old Campbell's Crossing ferry boat located on the Marais des Cygnes on the route of the old overland trail to Fort Scott. An uncle of P. L. Shelton, Will Lee Shelton, served four years in the Con- federate army during the Civil War.
Mr. Shelton is a Democrat who takes a proper interest in political affairs but has little time for politics. He and Mrs. Shelton are mem- bers of the Presbyterian church. Mr. Shelton is a member of the Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows, the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, the Modern Woodmen of America, the Mystic Workers, and the Ancient Order of United Workmen, and the Rebekahs. Mrs. Shelton is a mem- ber of the Daughters of Rebekah, and the Royal Neighbors Auxiliary lodges. Mr. and Mrs. Shelton have good and just right to be proud of the fact that they are members of two of the oldest pioneer families
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of western Missouri. The Shelton home is a cheery and hospitable one, and Mr. Shelton is deservedly popular with his employes and the men with whom he is doing business. He is one of the most successful busi- ness men of Bates county and a hustler of the most energetic type.
David W. Thompson, postmaster, Hume, Missouri, is a native-born Missourian. He was born on a farm in Cass county, April 20, 1868, a son of J. L. and Nancy (Elliot) Thompson, natives of Ireland. Both J. L. Thompson and Nancy Elliot came to America from their native land when children with their respective parents, and were reared in Cass county, Illinois. They were there married and, in 1866, migrated to Mis- souri and made a settlement in Cass county. After a residence of four- teen years in Cass county, they removed to Bates county and settled on a farm located two miles south of Hume in Howard township, in 1880. Two years later, the father died in 1882. The widow finished rearing the fine family of eight sons and a daughter and now resides in Hume. The children of J. L. and Nancy Thompson are as follow: Mrs. Emma R. Hern, Hume, Missouri; William M., a farmer living at Hume; John M., prosperous farmer and live-stock buyer, Hume, Missouri; Joseph F., farmer, Hume; James B., farmer, Hume; Robert A., who lives on the old home place south of Hume: David W., subject of this review; Ed- ward W., Kansas City, Missouri; Arthur A., window trimmer for the firm of Browning, King & Company, Kansas City, Missouri. All the eight sons of J. L. Thompson are Democrats of the tried and true variety.
David W. Thompson was twelve years of age when he came to Bates county with his parents. His common school education was completed in the district school of his home locality and he attended the Normal School at Ft. Scott, Kansas, for one year. His first employment, other than working on the home farm, was as clerk in a general store at Hume, prior to his marriage. For a period of two years, he was engaged in the mercantile business in Hume on his own account and, in 1894, dispos- ing of his business in town, he purchased a farm of eighty acres in section sixteen of Howard township. This tract of land had been devastated by a tornado, which had swept through this section of Missouri, and Mr. Thompson erected practically all of the improvements on the place. Some time after making his initial purchase of eighty acres, he added a forty- acre tract, making one hundred twenty acres in all, which he owns. This farm is well improved and highly productive. Mr. Thompson cul- tivated his farm until his appointment as postmaster of Hume, at which time he removed to a residence in the town.
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D. W. Thompson was married in 1892 to Miss Dana Ellis, of Vernon county, Missouri, a daughter of Robert Ellis, now deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Thompson have two chidlren : Ceran E., aged twenty-five years, who is employed in the offices of the Kansas City & Southern Railway at Kansas City, Missouri; and Mildred E., aged eighteen years, a student in the Hume High School, class of 1918.
Mr. Thompson is a Democrat in his political allegiance and takes a good Democrat's interest in politics. He was appointed to the position of postmaster of Hume on January 21, 1915, and took up the duties of his office on February 1, 1915. His conduct of the affairs of the office during the past two years of his incumbency has been such as to please the most exacting of the patrons. He is a member of the Baptist church and is a member of the Fraternal Aid Society.
Thomas Henry Lewis, better known as "T. H. Lewis," owner of four hundred twenty-four acres of excellent farm land in West Point township, is a son of the Rev. A. H. Lewis, late of Bates county, and one of the most widely known, pioneer Baptist ministers of Missouri, a sketch of whom appears in this volume. Mr. Lewis has a splendidly improved farm upon which he has resided since April of 1890. Upon this farm he placed practically all of the improvements and fencing. During the past year of 1917, he harvested ninety-five acres of corn, which yielded a total of twenty-four hundred bushels of grain; thirty acres of oats which yielded one thousand fifty bushels of oats; twenty-six acres of hay which cut thirty tons in all. He had planted a total of one hundred twenty-five acres in wheat for next year's harvesting in compliance with the calls of his government for a greater wheat acreage in order that America may feed herself and the allies in the great world war. He has, at the present writing, a fine herd of forty-eight head of Shorthorn cattle, forty-four head of Duroc Jersey hogs, forty-three sheep, and twenty-five head of horses and mules.
Mr. Lewis was born in Saline county, Missouri, in 1862. He was three years old when his parents moved to Ray County, Missouri. He was ten years of age when the family made a permanent home in Bates county in 1872. He was reared on the home place of the Lewis family and attended Willow Branch school. School was held in a small building 16 x 24 feet in size. His best teacher, as he recalls, was Prof. DeWitt Daniels, who was learned in the classics and taught his pupils the higher branches, thus giving the ambitious students the benefits of higher edu- cation and saving them the necessity of leaving home to attend a school
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HISTORY OF BATES COUNTY
of higher learning. Mr. Lewis began for himself when he became of age and farmed his father's place until 1890, when he began entirely on his own account. While he received some assistance from his father, he has achieved the greater part of his success through his own endeavors. His first purchase of land was one hundred sixty acres, to which he added fifty-three and three-tenths acres, then fifty-one acres, then eighty acres, and to his enlarged tract was added still another eighty acres. His first home, built in 1890, was a small affair, 14 x 24 feet, which he rebuilt in 1903 and 1904, making a substantial farm residence of eight rooms which sits well back from the roadway to the south. Upon the Lewis farm are about twenty-five acres of timber, which furnish fuel and lumber for building purposes for the farm.
Mr. Lewis was married in 1890 to Miss Fannie E. Covington, who was born in Culpepper county, Virginia, and who first came to Missouri upon a visit to the Lewis family. She is a daughter of Robert C. and Frances (Brown) Covington, of Culpepper county, Virginia. To this mar- riage have been born the following children: Robert L., a farmer in Elkhart township; Abram H., a soldier in the National Army. now in training at Fort Sill, Oklahoma : Virginia Frances, Percy Wallace, Dora Elizabeth, at home: Thomas Coleman, deceased; and Frank, at home.
The Democratic party has always had the allegiance of Mr. Lewis, although he has never taken an active part in political matters. He and the members of his family are affiliated with the Baptist church.
J. C. Biggs, cashier of the Commercial Bank of Hume. Missouri, was born in Fort Scott, Kansas, in 1858, a son of Andrew E. and Sarah ( Pay- ton) Biggs, natives of McLean county, Illinois, and Ohio, respectively.
Andrew E. Biggs, his father, came to Bourbon county, Kansas, in 1857, and entered homestead land which now forms a part of the site of the thriving city of Ft. Scott. His purpose in coming to Kansas at that early period was to take part in the making of Kansas into a free state. Naturally, his presence in Bourbon county was not desired by the slavery men, who were at that time in the majority. He, with others of his per- suasion, found it necessary in order to save their lives, to leave the terri- tory. He returned to his old home in McLean county, Illinois, in 1859. and remained there until 1878, when he again came to the West and located in Miami county, Kansas. He followed farming in that county until 1880, at which time he removed to Custer county, Nebraska, and took up a homestead. Five years later, he returned eastward and made his final settlement in Bates county, where he resided until his death in
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1904 at the age of sixty-three years. He was the father of seven children, as follow: J. C., subject of this review; B. F., proprietor of a meat and grocery store in Hume; Mrs. Ella Palmer, Kansas City, Missouri; Mrs. Phoebe McLean, deceased ; Mrs. Lizzie Snell, Hume, Missouri ; Harmon, a railroad man whose headquarters are at Wichita, Kansas: Charles, also a railroader living at Hume. The last four children mentioned in the preceding paragraph were born of a second marriage of Andrew E. Biggs with Jennie Settle. Mrs. Jennie Biggs now makes her home at Hume.
J. C. Biggs, subject of this review, received his education in the com- mon schools and at Wesleyan University, Bloomington, Illinois. For a period of seven years he taught school successfully in Illinois and Bates county, Missouri, his last year in the profession of teaching. 1883-1884, having been spent in Bates county. During the years of 1885 and 1886, he was engaged in the mercantile business at Virginia in Bates county. Following which he canie to Hume in 1887 and from 1887 to 1892 he was engaged in the drug business, the Biggs' Drug Store now being conducted by his son. From 1892 to 1896, he was connected with the old Hume Bank, after which he again re-entered the drug business and remained in this business until 1903, when he organized the Commercial Bank of Hume, a banking concern which has a well-merited and successful growth for the past fifteen years. His capabilities as banker have been recog- nized, and as its cashier he has been the guiding hand for this bank. In addition to his banking interests, Mr. Biggs is a successful farmer and prides himself upon the fact that he is as much a farmer as a banker. He is owner of four hundred acres of splendid farm land in Howard town- ship, the cultivation of which place receives his personal attention. The Biggs farm produces, upon an average, one hundred head of hogs and from forty to eighty head of cattle, annually.
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