USA > Missouri > Bates County > History of Bates County, Missouri > Part 41
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During Thomas H. Tilson's boyhood days, the only school house was located four miles distant, and he was enabled to attend but little during the winter term of three months, securing in all about thirty-two days' schooling in his boyhood. Being strong and willing, he assisted in the support of the family for a number of years before he attempted to make a start for himself. Before his mother's death he became owner of the old homestead by purchasing the several interests of the other heirs. His father pre-empted the forty-acre tract upon which his own residence is built and he settled upon this farm in 1875. This farm was the nucleus around which he has built up his splendid large estate. During former years, Mr. Tilson was an extensive feeder of cattle for the market, and dealt heavily in mules for a period of seven years. He has made considerable money through handling hogs and cattle.
His first marriage took place in 1881 with Mary Ann Floyd, who died in 1896, leaving two sons and a daughter, namely: John W., a ranchman near Gillette, Campbell county, Wyoming; Mrs. Audrey B. McCauley, Washington; Thomas Francis, now in France with General Pershing's National Army, a member of Headquarters Company, One Hundred Sixty-third United States Infantry Regiment, Forty-first Division, which had been stationed at Camp Merritt, New Jersey. Mr. Tilson's second marriage occurred on January 11, 1911, with Anna L. Thompson, born in Kansas, a daughter of T. C. Thompson, a Union veteran, who died in Bates county in 1915. Two children have blessed this marriage, Charles Burnett, aged five years, and Opal Lucille, aged three years.
The Democratic party has generally had the allegiance and support of Mr. Tilson and he has filled the office of constable of New Home town- ship. He is a member of the Christian church and is affiliated with the Rich Hill Lodge of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons. During the sixty-six years in which he has lived in Bates county he has seen wonder-
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ful changes and has done well his part in the development and upbuild- ing of this county, besides having the honor and distinction of being one of the few remaining pioneers who were among the first to brave the loneliness and hardships of the pioneer life on the frontier of civili- zation in this county in order to carve a home from the wilderness. Too much credit and encomiums can not be given the memory of the brave men and women, such as were the parents of Thomas H. Tilson, who were in the vanguard of the people who settled and developed Bates county and made it habitable for mankind.
Jesse G. Doolittle .- For a period of over sixty years the name of Doolittle has been prominently identified with the agricultural and banking interests of Bates county. The family is one of the oldest in this section of Missouri and dates from the year 1857 when John Doolittle, father of the subject of this review, made a settlement in Walnut township. The first progenitor of the family in America came across the Atlantic from England in 1620 and settled in Massachu- setts. J. G. Doolittle, cashier of the Farmers Bank of Foster, Missouri, was born May 18, 1887, on a farm in, Walnut township. He is a son of John and Mary ( Campbell) Doolittle, the former, a native of Vermont, and the latter, a native of Cass county, Missouri.
John Doolittle was born in Vermont in 1828, a son of Col. Joel Doolittle, a scion of an old New England family. John Doolittle was reared to young manhood in his native state and there received a good education. He accompanied his father to the Pacific Coast during the stirring days of the great gold rush of 1849. He and his father, accompanied by others, made the long trip overland by ox-team, which trip naturally consumed weeks and months. Time was no object to them, however, and they chose the most comfortable way to travel, transporting plenty of provisions and seeing the country as they made the long journey. On the outward-bound trip, the "Argonauts" went by way of St. Louis across Missouri, and then overland to Sacramento. This gave them a good opportunity to view the country and it is practi- cally certain that John Doolittle passed through this part of Missouri and was so impressed by the agricultural possibilities lying dormant in the undeveloped country that he was influenced later to make a permanent settlement in Bates county. He and his father spent six years in the gold mines of California, accumulated comfortable for- tunes, and then returned home by way of the Isthmus of Panama and New York City. In 1857, he came to Bates county and settled upon a farm located three miles west of Foster in Walnut township. He
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developed the place into a fine property and increased his holdings as the years passed until he owned over eight hundred acres of valuable land. He resided on his place until his death in 1900 at the age of seventy-two years. Mr. Doolittle was one of the prominent and influen- tial citizens of the county. He was widely and favorably known through- out this section of Missouri. John and Mary Doolittle were parents of the following children: Mrs. Elvira Smith, Cass county, Missouri; Mrs. Irene Moore, Kansas City, Missouri; Mrs. Dora Smith, who died in Foster, Missouri; A. A., who is engaged in business in Kansas City; Jesse G., subject of this review; T. B., Kansas City, Missouri, Mrs. Mary (Campbell) Doolittle, mother of the above-named children, was born in 1842, in Cass county, Missouri, a daughter of James and Irene (Dickey) Campbell, natives of Virginia, who came to Missouri in 1840 and made a settlement in Cass county, residing there until 1849, when they removed to Bates county and were among the very earliest set- tlers of Walnut township. W. M. Campbell, one of the founders of the Farmers Bank of Foster, a man who was very prominent in Bates county affairs for many years, was a brother of Mrs. Doolittle. Mrs. Mary Doolittle now makes her home in Kansas City.
The early education of Jesse G. Doolittle, subject of this review, was obtained in the public schools of Foster and in the Chillicothe Normal College, Chillicothe, Missouri. Following his classical education, he pursued a business course in the college at Sedalia, Missouri. After completing a practical business education he engaged in farming in Wal- nut township until his acceptance of the position of cashier of the Farmers Bank at Foster. He became a director of this bank in 1905. In 1909, he became president of the bank and in 1911, he took charge of the bank, as cashier. Mr. Doolittle resided on his farm of three hundred twenty acres, located west of Foster, until 1912, at which time he took up his residence in Foster, from which point he still oversees the work on his farm. In addition to his duties as bank cashier, he is secretary and treas- urer of the Bates County Bankers' Association.
The marriage of J. G. Doolittle and Bertha E. Bailey was solemnized in 1914. Mrs. Bertha Doolittle is a daughter of the late J. W. Bailey, of Walnut township, concerning whom an extended biographical review is given elsewhere in this volume. Mr. and Mrs. J. G. Doolittle have one child, Louise, born March 25, 1915.
Mr. Doolittle is allied with the Republican party and takes an interest in local and county politics, doing all that he can to assist
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his party's success at the polls. He and Mrs. Doolittle are members of the Methodist Episcopal church, North. Mr. Doolittle is fraternally affiliated with the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, Foster Lodge No. 554. Mr. Doolittle is one of Bates county's hustling young citi- zens, one of the youngest successful bankers in the state. At the time he became president of the Farmers Bank, he was the youngest bank president in Missouri and he has given ample evidence of decided busi- ness judgment and financial ability of a high order.
The Farmers Bank of Foster, Missouri, was organized in 1877 and is one of the oldest established financial institutions in the county. This bank was organized by William E. Walton, president emeritus of the Walton Trust Company of Butler, Missouri; W. M. Campbell, the first president ; J. Everingham, now deceased; Dr. T. C. Boulware ; J. P. Edwards; and L. W. Jones, now deceased. F. M. Allen served as assistant cashier under William E. Walton for the first year. Judge John H. Sullens was the next cashier, followed by W. A. Ephland, who was succeeded by W. S. James, who served until J. G. Doolittle took charge in 1911. Prior to becoming cashier of the bank, Mr. Doolittle served as president, succeeding W. M. Campbell in 1909.
The capital stock of the Farmers Bank is fifteen thousand dollars; surplus fund is six thousand dollars; with total resources of one hun- dred twenty thousand dollars at this writing, December, 1917. The present officers are as follow: H. A. Rhoades, president ; J. G. Doolittle, cashier; and H. A. Rhoades, J. G. Doolittle, H. G. Davis, E. E. Laugh- lin, Bertha E. Doolittle, directors.
E. A. Porter .- The one hundred sixty acres of land owned by E. A. Porter and located one mile west of Adrian, in Deer Creek township, is one of the best improved and finest agricultural plants in this section of Bates county or in Missouri. Everything about the place denotes thrift and good farm management on the part of the proprietor. When Mr. Porter purchased this place, in 1907, it was practically devoid of improvements. During his tenure, he has erected a thoroughly modern eight-room residence of handsome appearance. He has built a large, white barn 50 x 60 feet in size : a hog and cattle barn, 36 x 40 feet in dimensions; a concrete-floored feeding shed for hogs ; and a silo, having a capacity of one hundred tons. Mr. Porter feeds generally about one hundred head of Poland China hogs and keeps a herd of Red Polled and Durham milch cows. Altogether he has spent in excess of eight thou- sand dollars upon farm improvements and the unanimous judgment
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of persons who observe the Porter farm is that he is thoroughly pro- gressive, energetic, intelligent agriculturist.
E. A. Porter was born in September, 1869, on a farm in Bates county, a son of R. I. and Catherine (Pulliam) Porter, the former, born in Jefferson county, Missouri, in 1838, and the latter, born in Cass county in February, 1849. The father of R. I. Porter was a Mis- souri pioneer who came to this state from Illinois. Catherine (Pulliam) Porter was a daughter of Augustus Pulliam, who came to Missouri from Kentucky in the early fifties. R. I. Porter was reared to young manhood in Jefferson county and during the early sixties he journeyed to Montana, where he followed mining in the Western mountains for a period of five years or thereabout. In 1866, he located in Bates county and settled on a farm eight miles northeast of Adrian in Grand River township, where there were both timber and water in abundance. He developed this tract into one of the finest farms in Bates county and recently sold it for a good price. Mr. and Mrs. R. I. Porter now reside in Nevada, Missouri. They have three children: Edward A., subject of this review; Dr. E. M., of Great Falls, Montana, one of the most famous surgeons of the Western country ; and Miss Eva, who lives with her parents at Nevada.
Edward A. Porter was educated in the district school near his father's home and afterward attended Butler Academy, following which he studied at the Warrensburg Normal College. He cultivated the home place until he was twenty-one years old and, after his marriage, he settled on a farm one mile southwest of Altona. He first pur- chased eighty acres of land which he improved and to which he suc- cessively added two "eighties." He ultimately owned two hundred forty acres of land, which is rated among the best farms in the county. Mr. Porter sold this farm at a considerable profit in 1907 and invested the proceeds in his present home farm.
Mr. Porter was married in February, 1890, to Miss Mary Cantrell, who was born in Bates county, Missouri, a daughter of Stephen and Lillian (McClure) Cantrell, natives of Georgia, who came to Bates county in 1868 and resided here until death claimed them. Three children have been born to Edward A. and Mary Porter, as follow: Cora, wife of Virgil S. Proctor, living in Montana; Lola, wife of Frank Mathers, assistant cashier of the First National Bank of Adrian; and Alma, at home with her parents.
The Democratic party has always had the allegiance of Mr. Porter
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and he has always been more or less interested in the affairs of his party. For a period of ten years he filled the office of assessor of Grand River township. He and Mrs. Porter are members of the Metho- dist Episcopal church. Mr. Porter is fraternally affiliated with the Modern Woodmen of America, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and the Encampment.
William H. Patchin .- During the forty years in which William 11. Patchin, substantial farmer and stockman of West Boone township. has resided in Bates county, he has won a place for himself as a success- ful farmer and business man excelled by no citizen of the county, who has stayed close to the mother earth in the effort to secure a livelihood and competence. From a modest beginning in his young manhood. during the strenuous days of the great rush for free homesteads in Oklahoma in 1889, in which he was a successful participant, he has suc- cessfully built up his holdings until he is owner of five hundred sixty acres of splendid farm land in West Boone township. Three hundred twenty acres of rich prairie land comprise the home farm upon which Mr. Patchin erected a modern eight-room farm residence in 1910. The residence is lighted and heated with natural gas flowing from a well, drilled in 1911 to a depth of one hundred ninety-eight feet on the place. Mr. Patchin is an extensive stockman and large feeder of cattle of which he feeds from one to two carloads annually. He also feeds from one to two carloads of hogs each year. Mr. Patchin has all the grain grown on the farm fed to his livestock and the grain ration is supple- mented by a balanced ration of cottonseed meal and oil meals. He has made a thorough study of livestock production and attributes his success as a stockman to careful and observant feeding. W. Il. Patchin was born AApril 20, 1865, in Hancock county, Illinois, a son of Hiram and Susan ( Power) Patchin, natives of New York and Virginia, respectively.
Hiram Patchin was born in 1816 and died in 1881. His birth and carly upbringing were in New York state, whence he migrated to Illi- nois in 1841. He was a son of Abijah Patchin, of an old American family. Hiram Patchin was married in Illinois to Susan Powell, who was born in Virginia in 1828, and died in Bates county in 1893. He built up a good farm of one hundred sixty acres in Hancock county, Illinois, and resided there until 1877, when he came to Bates county and purchased a farm in West Boone township just to the west of the present home of his son, William H. He reared a family of four chil-
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dren: Harvey, deceased; Mary Jane, deceased ; Mrs. Alice Akins, living near Gentry, Arkansas; and William H., this subject.
William H. Patchin was eleven years of age when he came with his parents to Bates county. His schooling was practically completed before coming here, due to the fact that schools were very few and poor in Bates county in that early period of its history. With a deter- mination to secure a farm for himself, he joined the rush of homestead- ers in 1889, when the territory of Oklahoma was thrown open for set- tlement, and secured a fine quarter section of land. He developed and improved his homestead and resided there until 1894. He then sold out and returned to his old home county, purchasing one hundred acres of farm land adjoining the town of Merwin. He increased his hold- ings to two hundred acres, which he sold in 1909, and moved to his present location, where he made an initial purchase of eighty acres: He has simply added one tract after another to this small nucleus until he has one of the large stock farms of the county.
Mr. Patchin resided in Butler from September 1, 1913, to March 27, 1914, in order to give his children the advantage of a high school education. While a citizen of Butler, he became widely acquainted in the city and made many warm friends, becoming associated with the Walton Trust Company and the Denton-Coleman Trust Company, as a stockholder.
Mr. Patchin was married February 5, 1890, to Miss Bessie Winn, who was born in Johnson county, Missouri, August 13, 1870, a daughter of A. C. and Louisa Frances Winn, natives of Orange county, New York, and Greene county, Illinois, respectively. Her parents removed from Indiana to Johnson county, Missouri, in 1865, and came to Bates county from Johnson in the fall of 1872, settling in West Boone town- ship. Mrs. Winn is deceased and Mr. Winn resides with his daugh- ter, Mrs. Lucinda May Baker, in West Point township. He is eighty- one years of age. To William H. and Bessie Patchin have been born children, as follow: Elmer, born May 12, 1894, a graduate of the Mechanical Engineering School of Kansas City, studied four years in the Butler High School and now in the employ of the Federal Govern- ment at the Philadelphia Navy Yard; Lawrence, born December 16. 1897, a graduate of the Butler High School and now a student in the Kansas City Business College ; and Carl Henry, born March 27, 1913.
Politically, Mr. Patchin is allied with the Republican party. He
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is essentially a home man, one who finds his time taken up with his extensive agricultural affairs and his family. He and Mrs. Patchin are held in high esteem by their many friends in Bates county, and are numbered among the county's leaders.
William C. Foster, one of the leading livestock producers of Bates county, proprietor of "Fair Acres," a splendid country estate situated in the southern part of Walnut township, near Hume, Missouri, has achieved a success in the agricultural and livestock fields which is remarkable, in view of the fact that his beginning in Bates county forty years ago and more was a modest one, and made without capital. Mr. Foster has accumulated a very large acreage during these years, his home estate comprising 378 acres of rich prairie land, in addition to another farm of 105 acres in Walnut township, and a recent purchase of a tract of 154 acres in Howard township. His first investment in land was in an eighty-acre tract bought in 1879 at a cost of six dollars an acre. He later paid sixty dollars an acre for one hundred five acres. Mr. Foster has a large, comfortable farm residence, and two large barns on his place. He is an extensive feeder of cattle and has at the present writing (January, 1918) one hundred thirty head of cattle. He feeds and sells from one hundred to one hundred fifty head of cattle annually ; and about one hundred head of hogs.
W. C. Foster was born July 25, 1846, in England, and was a son of George and Martha Foster, who emigrated from their native land in 1851 and made a permanent settlement in Illinois, where both lived the remainder of their days and died. W. C. Foster remained in Illinois until 1872, and then came westward to Pettis county, Missouri. He rented land in Pettis county for five years, after which, in 1877 he came to Bates county. After tilling rented ground until 1879 he bought his first eighty-acre farm on time payments. His subsequent successful career is an epitome of industry, untiring energy, and excellent financial management on his part. If Mr. Foster were asked to tell how he had managed to build up his large estate and explain how he had become one of the wealthy men of Bates county, his answer would undoubtedly be, "Hard work, good management, and always stay on the job."
Mr. Foster was married March 27, 1870, to Amanda Smith, born August 14, 1840, in Columbiana county, Ohio, a daughter of Michael and Rebecca Smith. Mrs. Foster's parents died in Ohio and she came to Illinois in 1868. The following children have been born to William C. and Amanda Foster: William C., a farmer and stockman living in
MRS. WILLIAM C. FOSTER.
WILLIAM C. FOSTER.
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Howard township; Mrs. Mattie, wife of U. G. Goodenough, living on the Foster home place, has six children : Marie, William, Charles, Alvin, Ada, and Esther ; Mollie, wife of J. E. Lee, a farmer of Walnut township; Stella, wife of Edward Graves, Walnut township.
Mr. Foster is a pronounced Democrat and a member of the Metho- dist Episcopal church. He is affiliated fraternally with the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons of Hume, Missouri. In addition to his farming interests, Mr. Foster is president of the Commercial Bank of Hume, a thriving and well patronized financial institution. He is one of the most popular and most highly respected citizens of his locality, whose honesty and integrity of purpose are proverbial and whose word in a business transaction is considered inviolable.
Niels Peterson, of West Point township, is one of the most suc- cessful farmers of his day and generation. Beginning in this county as a poor man in 1900, he made his first investment in a farm, buying on time. His first year was a bad one, 1901, being a dry year during which he raised practically no crops whatever. The year before he made his purchase he paid five hundred dollars cash rent for a place but did not earn his rent. He decided wisely that it was much cheaper to pay interest than to pay rent for land, especially when it seemed so difficult to raise anything at all. Things began soon to go his way, and he has prospered from year to year. Mr. Peterson is now owner of one hundred thirty-five and a half acres of excellent land, a farm which is kept in a high state of cultivation by methods which only citi- zens from that far-away land of Denmark, where he was born, instinct- ively know how to apply.
Niels Peterson was born in the little kingdom of Denmark, Sep- tember 14, 1850, a son of Peter Larson and Helen Ludwig, both natives of Denmark, who lived all their days in the land of their birth. On March 14, 1873, Mr. Peterson left the land of his birth to seek his fortune in America, arriving in New York City, April 9, 1873, a poor, immigrant lad, who found it necessary to at once obtain employment or starve. In this country, however, there is always work for the will- ing and able, and he soon obtained employment as a laborer in the great city and he remained there for seven years.
Coming of a hardy race to whom economy is both a necessity and a virtue, he saved money sufficient to invest in a farm in Cloud county, Kansas, but suffered the misfortune of being defrauded out of his title by the shrewd and unscrupulous individual with whom he made the
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trade. He remained in Kansas for six years, saved another stake, and then located in Ottawa county, Kansas, where he remained for twelve years without appreciably increasing his fortunes. All the while, how- ever, his wonderful cheerfulness and optimism upheld him and he eventually got together enough funds to make another start. He came to Bates county in the fall of 1900 and after one season's experience in paying cash rent for his land he again bought a farm. During the past year of 1917, Mr. Peterson had planted twenty-five acres of corn which yielded the splendid crop of fifty bushels to the acre. Some of the acreage yielded as high as sixty bushels to the acre. From six acres of corn planted for silage he filled his sixty-ton silo and provided feed for his fine herd of Hereford cattle. Where others have failed with the use of a silo, Mr. Peterson has solved the problem of perfect silage during the winter months. He planted his corn, intended for silage, on June 20, 1917, and harvested the crop when the stalks were still full of moisture, thus avoiding the necessity of using artificial methods of giving moisture to the silage by watering, practiced with indifferent success by others. The silage is allowed to settle of its own weight and when taken from the silo for feeding purposes it is still sweet and savory, full of natural juices and makes ideal provender for livestock.
Mr. Peterson is certain that he has discovered the proper way to put up silage and, besides being the first man in his neighborhood to erect a silo, he is the first in his section to properly fill the silo. There is absolutely no waste with his methods of feeding, as the livestock eat every shred and scrap of the forage. He has a fine herd of thorough- bred Herefords, including eleven cows and as many calves, all in first- class condition. In 1908, Mr. Peterson erected a large barn, painted red, with concrete floors, thirty-four feet wide, twenty-nine feet high, with a twelve-foot shed on each side, one of the best barns in the neigh- borhood.
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