USA > Missouri > Bates County > History of Bates County, Missouri > Part 49
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In Kansas, W. W. Parish acquired his elementary education and at Sedalia, Missouri, he finished his school work with a most thorough business course. After completing his education, Mr. Parish accepted a position with the Altman-Miller Manufacturing Company as travel- ing salesman, which position he ably filled for five years. In 1892, he moved on a farm, which he had purchased, in Bates county and for eight years was engaged in farming and stock raising. Mr. Parish sold his country place in 1900 and moved to Adrian, where he entered the real estate business, in which he was employed at the time of his appoint- ment as postmaster of Adrian, on January 15, 1905. He served faithfully and well nearly nine years as postmaster until August, 1913, at the time the rural routes were being adjusted, examinations were being held for carriers, and the Postal Savings System was being installed, all of which meant an enormous amount of careful, detailed, tedious work. After his term of office had expired, Mr. Parish again turned his attention to the real estate business and in his line of work has been remarkably successful. His business methods, which are very efficient, require that he should do a large amount of traveling, as he handles vast tracts of land and his transactions extend far beyond the confines of Bates county into many different states.
W. W. Parish and Mary A. Hopwood were united in marriage on February 28, 1893. Mrs. Parish is a daughter of Charles and Ruth Hop- wood, early settlers of Cass county, Missouri. Charles Hopwood was a native of England. He was educated in the schools of London and was a master mechanic and skilled architect. To Mr. and Mrs. Hopwood were born five children: Mrs. Emma Bouse, Westphalia, Kansas; Mrs. W. W. Parish, the wife of the subject of this review; John P., of Lane, Kansas; Charles W., Harrisonville, Missouri; and Mrs. Sadie Stephens, Harrisonville, Missouri. Mrs. Parish possesses a remarkably tenacious memory and talks most interestingly of the early days in Bates county. She remembers well the time, when she was a little child, that the settlers would drive across the open prairie when the grass was as high as the horses' backs. In those days, no one thought of raising hay, for anyone was privileged to cut as much as he desired out on the prairie. Vividly she recalls the day the first train on the railroad came into Adrian, as the tracks passed through her mother's garden. Mrs. Parish states that the two places, Adrian and Archie, were named in honor of two sons of the railroad contractor. She obtained her education in the district schools of Bates county. To W. W. and Mary A. (Hopwood) Parish have been born three children: Lyman. T., who has answered the coun-
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try's call and is now in service in the United States army; Mrs. Hazel Newton, Kansas City, Missouri; and Mary Frances, deceased.
Politically, Mr. Parish is a life-long Republican in his belief and he has been an active worker in the ranks of his party for many years, having many different times been sent as delegate to the congressional conventions and taking a keen interest in local politics. Mr. Parish is fraternally affiliated with the Royal Arch Masons and derives much benefit and pleasure from lodge work. He is a most creditable descend- ant of one of the old colonial families of North Carolina, a grandson of Larkin Parish, an honored pioneer of Indiana, who died in Bates county, Missouri many years ago. Personally, W. W. Parish enjoys great popularity in this part of Missouri and his conduct in all relations of life has been that of the true gentleman. He discharges the duties of a good citizen with commendable fidelity and his influence in the community has always been exerted in behalf of all that is best and noble in life. The people of Bates county consider Mr. and Mrs. Parish one of their best families and Adrian is proud to claim them as its own representative citizens.
Edward Crabb, late esteemed resident of Osage township, was a man of pronounced individuality and industry who achieved a splendid success in Bates county as a farmer, pioneer breeder of thoroughbred livestock, and citizen. He was born in Tazewell county, Illinois, De- cember 24, 1846, and died at his home in Osage township, this county, May 18, 1910. He was a son of Daniel and Margaret (Bailey) Crabb, natives of Ohio who were pioneers of Tazewell county, Illinois, being the third family to settle in that county. Edward Crabb was reared and educated in his native county in Illinois, and in December of 1869, came to Cass county, Missouri, where he remained until the spring of 1876. He disposed of his farm in Cass county in that year and made a purchase of land in Osage township which he developed into one of the finest and richest tracts in Bates county. He improved his place with an imposing farm residence, set out trees and otherwise beautified the place. Mr. Crabb accumulated a section of land in this township and was accounted one of the well-to-do farmers of his locality. Bates county owes much to him as having been one of the pioneers in the introduction of purebred livestock into the community. He was a great lover of horses and for a number of years was engaged in breed- ing standard bred and trotting and pacing animals, as well as Percheron draft horses, a vocation in which he achieved a pronounced success and
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which won him a wide and enviable reputation. The Crabb stables produced some very fine animals, and the "Redwood Redman" breed of racers originated by W. H. Cotten of Osage township, whose progeny became famous throughout the country, were bred from a dam raised by Mr. Crabb and sold to Mr. Cotten. The history of the track achieve- ments of the descendants of this dam and of "Redwood Redman," her son, form an epoch in the history of track racing which has rarely been surpassed for record breaking and fast time. Mr. Crabb brought to his farm the first imported English Shire horses ever seen in Bates county. For many years he was an extensive breeder of thoroughbred Short- horn cattle and handled several hundred head of cattle yearly. When Mr. Crabb came to Bates county, he was comparatively a poor man. He bought his first quarter section of land with the assistance of his father but it was not many years until he had made good in his own right and by his own endeavors. Mr. Crabb was an exhibitor of his fine live stock at the county fairs and won many premiums upon the excel- lence of his stock at fairs in western Missouri and Kansas.
Edward Crabb was married January 30, 1870, to Miss Maria Thomas, born in Wayne county, Indiana, May 15, 1846, a daughter of Edward S. and Lorena (Kidwell) Thomas, natives, respectively of Ohio and Indiana. Edward and Maria Crabb were married at Pleasant Hill, Mis- souri, where the future Mrs. Crabb was visiting her sister. The chil- dren born of this union are: Mrs. Lillian Riley, Kansas City, has four children-Lillian, Edward E., Alice, and Edith; J. Rolla, sheriff of Phil- lips county, Montana, married Jessie Wilson of Bates county, and has one daughter, Rollive; Daniel, owner of the old home place in Osage township; and Mrs. Margaret Gibson, Nevada, Missouri, has a son, Edward; and Edward, deceased. Mrs. Edward Crabb resides on the old home place with her son, Daniel. She is a member of the Church of Christ, Scientist. The late Edward Crabb was a Democrat in politics but his home was first in his heart and mind and he was a devoted hus- band and kind father to his family. He was also a member of the Church of Christ, Scientist, and was possessed of a kindly, generous nature, hos- pitable to the core, honorable and upright in all of his dealings, enter- prising and ever ready to lend his assistance to worthy projects for the good of his adopted county. "Lest we forget," this memoir is intended to perpetuate his name among those of his fellows and forever give Edward Crabb a foremost place among the builders of Bates county.
Daniel Crabb, a worthy son of his able father, was born August 3,
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1876 on the Crabb homestead in Osage township and has lived all of his life on the home place. He was educated in the district and Rich Hill public schools and is farming a large tract of three hundred fourteen acres which he owns. He is an extensive feeder of live stock and handles from one hundred to two hundred head of cattle annually besides raising about one hundred fifty hogs each year. He was associated with his father in his breeding enterprises for a number of years and learned to be a thorough livestock man. Mr. Crabb is affiliated with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Fraternal Order of Eagles, and the Modern Woodmen lodges of Rich Hill and is a genial, approachable citizen who is highly popular among his many friends and associates.
R. A. Murray, proprietor of the Adrian Cheese Factory of Adrian, Missouri, is one of the most prominent and successful dairy men in this section of Missouri. Mr. Murray was born in the province of Ontario, Canada, a son of William and Elizabeth Murray. The birthplace of R. A. Murray, Oxford, Canada, is the center of the great dairy industry in Ontario. His grandfather, Alexander Murray, was a native of Scot- land.
Mr. Murray, whose name introduces this review, attended school at Oxford until he was sixteen years of age, when he entered the dairy business in the employ of the Strathallen Butter & Cheese Company, serving as an apprentice for three years. At that time the Strathallen Butter & Cheese Company received sixty thousand pounds of milk daily. Mr. Murray then entered Guelph Agricultural College and Dairy School, from which institution he graduated in the class of 1895. After com- pleting college, he assumed charge of a cheese and butter factory owned by an English company in Liverpool, England, and at the same time attended the Strathroy Dairy School, from which he graduated in 1898. In the spring of the same year, he resigned his position as manager of the factory owned by the English company and located in Richland county, Wisconsin, at Richland City. He well recalls his first experience in and impressions of Richland City. He arrived a total stranger in the . city and was at once sighted and accosted by two tenacious cabmen, who represented the two leading hotels of the city-the Park Hotel and the Mitchell House-and as he saw no method of escape but to choose one of the two cabs he climbed into the one driven by the more respectful of the drivers, and he was taken to the Mitchell House. After the clerk of the hotel had extracted an outrageous amount of Mr. Murray's hard- earned cash, a room was assigned the newcomer in the third story of the
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building, a back room having no ventilation, no sunlight, and no heat. Here R. A. Murray uncomfortably and unhappily spent his first night in Richland City-the longest night probably he has ever experienced. He was up and out with the first beams of the morning light and on reaching the city streets the first sight which attracted his attention was a team of mules hitched to a wagon heavily loaded with furniture which were foundered and were floundering in mud. Mr. Murray's first day in Richland City was haunted by his first cheerless impressions and the day was "cold and dark and dreary." He is not the type of man to be easily daunted, but the rare kind that "sticks," and in spite of a very discouraging welcome, Mr. Murray succeeded well at Richland City. At the time he located there, there was but one cheese factory in the entire county and he opened the second one. At the present time, in 1918, there are seventy-two cheese factories, fifty-four creameries, and three condenseries in Richland county, Wisconsin, making this county one of the foremost in the dairy industry. It is Mr. Murray's firm belief that Bates county, Missouri, will in the near future develop like interests.
In 1901, R. A. Murray graduated from the Madison Dairy School, at Madison, Wisconsin. He won, shortly afterward, the gold medal at the Cheese Makers' Convention in Wisconsin for the best cheese, scor- ing ninety-nine and one-fourth points. Mr. Murray later operated the Boaz. Cheese Factory at Boaz, Wisconsin. In 1902, he purchased a factory at Yuba, Wisconsin, where he remained four and a half years. When he assumed control of the establishment, the factory was taking in four thousand gallons of milk daily and after he had owned it for several months, the factory was handling thirty thousand gallons of milk daily. Mr. Murray purchased another plant in 1908, a factory located in Michigan, of which he disposed in 1912, when he and his wife began an extended trip covering two years. December 28, 1914, Mr. Murray assumed charge of the Prairie City plant in Bates county and on November 1, 1916 located at Adrian and has since been engaged in the manufacture of cheese in this city. He is now owner of the Adrian Cheese Factory at Adrian.
The marriage of R. A. Murray and Maude Finch was solemnized in 1902. Mrs. Murray is a daughter of Andrew and Louise Finch, of Dorchester Station, Ontario, Canada. Mr. and Mrs. Murray are highly respected and very popular in the best social circles of Adrian and of Bates county and they have a large number of friends and a wide acquain- tanceship throughout the country.
The Adrian Cheese Factory was established January 1, 1917. The
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Farmers Lumber Company of Adrian, Missouri erected the building and sold it to R. A. Murray for four thousand dollars. The factory has prospered from the beginning and is now receiving the hearty sup- port of the dairymen of the community. During the month of August, 1917, forty-seven cents was paid a pound for butterfat to all who delivered their milk at the factory, while those farmers who shipped their milk elsewhere received but thirty-seven cents.
Mr. Murray's methods of work are extremely interesting and instructive. He places the milk in a huge vat, having a capacity of seven hundred gallons, and provided with steam heat, and this milk is kept at a temperature of one hundred four degrees for an hour and a half, at which time the curd is tested. In testing the curd, Mr. Murray presses a handful of it together until it resembles a tile in shape and putty in consistency and, after heating an iron rod, touches the hot iron to the curd and closely observes how the tiny threads were formed, when the curd was pulled away from the hot iron to which it was sticking, and also the odor which resulted from the burning. It smells then very much like burnt hair, which means that it requires twenty more minutes of cooking before it gives forth an odor like that of toasted cheese. Tlie building is painted white throughout the interior and all the floors are of concrete. Purity and cleanliness reign everywhere within and all the openings of the building are well screened. The whey, that which remains after the curd has been extracted, which George Eliot describes in "Adam Bede" as possessing "a flavor so delicate that one can hardly distinguish it from an odor, and with that soft, gliding warmth that fills one's imagination with a still, happy dreaminess," valued highly in Eng- land as a beverage, has considerable food value and from it large cheese factories make what is known as "Premost" cheese. The Adrian Cheese Factory pumps the whey into a large tank and it is taken back home by the farmer, who feeds it to his hogs. Eighty-five per cent. of the weight of the milk, which the farmer brings to the factory, is returned to him in whey. At the time of this writing in 1918, the dairy farmer is receiving two dollars per hundred pounds for his milk and the whey returned to him. There is no doubt that the Adrian Cheese Factory is destined in the very near future to be one of the largest and most important industries in western Missouri.
Dr. John R. Hull, a successful dentist of Adrian, Missouri, is one of the prominent citizens of Bates county. Dr. Hull was born July 19, 1878 near Knob Noster. Missouri, a son of Frank and Louisa Hull. His
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parents died when he was a very small child and he was reared by his sister, Mrs. B. F. Summers.
In 1894, Dr. John R. Hull entered Butler Academy and for four years was a student at this institution. After completing the academic course, Doctor Hull went to Los Angeles, California, where he entered the mercantile business and for eighteen months conducted a grocery store. He then returned to Butler, Missouri and in 1900 matriculated at Western Dental College, Kansas City, Missouri, from which college he graduated with the class of 1903. Dr. John R. Hull began the prac- tice of dentistry associated with his brother, Dr. J. T. Hull, of Butler, and for one year was engaged in the practice of his profession at Butler: In 1904, Dr. John R. Hull opened his office in the First National Bank building at Adrian and in this city has since been successfully employed in dental work. His office is one of the best and most completely equipped dental offices in Bates county and Doctor Hull possesses great natural ability, excellent training, and a world of patience. He is a member of the Western District Dental Society, of which he has served as secretary, of the executive council of the Missouri State Dental Asso- ciation, and of the National Dental Association. He does not permit himself to fall behind the times in his profession, but by close study and careful, thoughtful research keeps well abreast of this most pro- gressive age in all matters relating to the dental science, perusing thoughtfully the best professional literature of the day.
The marriage of Dr. John R. Hull and Josephine Walter, a daugh- ter of Henry W. and Mary E. Walter, one of the leading pioneer families of Bates county, Missouri, was solemnized November 29, 1905. Mr. and Mrs. Walter came to Bates county in 1867 among the first settlers and experienced all the countless privations and hardships of pioneer life. They obtained their supplies, in the early days, from Pleasant Hill. Mr. Walter died in 1897 and the widowed mother makes her home at Adrian, Missouri. Dr. and Mrs. Hull reside in Adrian, where they have a beautiful home, an attractive, modern bungalow. Doctor Hull is also owner of a farm, comprising eighty acres of land, located on the Adrian and Butler road. He takes much pleasure in overseeing the work of his country place and is interested in both general farming and stock raising. His farm is one of the splendid stock farms of Mound town- ship, conveniently located, abundantly watered, and productive. Dr. and Mrs. Hull are worthy and valued members of the Methodist church,
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of which the doctor is steward and in the Sunday school a teacher of the boys' class.
Fraternally, Doctor Hull is affiliated with the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, the Knights Templar, the Eastern Star, the Knights of Pythias, and the Modern Woodmen of America. He takes an active part and deep interest in lodge work and is past Master Mason, past Patron of the Eastern Star, past Chancellor and Commander of the Knights of Pythias, and ex-secretary of the Modern Woodmen of America.
In his relations with his fellowmen, professional, business, or social, Doctor Hull's conduct has been open and straightforward, his integ- rity unassailable, his actions those of a true gentleman, possessing to a inarked degree sincerity and purity of motive. The nature of his pro- fessional duties and business enterprises affords him little time to devote to social affairs, but he is personally one of the most amiable and genial of men. Both the doctor and Mrs. Hull are held in the highest respect and esteem in Adrian.
Edward H. Wyatt, a retired farmer and stockman of Adrian, Mis- souri, is one of Bates county's prosperous and most highly respected citizens. Mr. Wyatt is a native of Ohio. He was born in 1855, a son of Charles and Harriet (Henry) Wyatt, natives and life-long residents of Ohio. Charles Wyatt was a son of John Wyatt, of Ohio, and Har- riet ( Henry ) Wyatt was a daughter of Matthew Henry, of Ohio. Charle: Wyatt was a member of the teaching profession in his native state, being employed in teaching in the public schools and also in teaching music. He was ruling elder of the Presbyterian church and superintendent of the Amesville Presbyterian Sunday School for many years and choir leader for at least a score of years. He was the owner of a splendid farm, a tract of land comprising five hundred acres, in Athens county, Ohio and was engaged extensively in stock raising. Charles Wyatt was considered a wealthy man in his day and a very successful citizen. To Charles and Harriet (Henry) Wyatt were born ten children, eight of whom are now living: Edward H., the subject of this review; C. E., Lawton, Oklahoma; W. P., Athens, Ohio; Mrs. Cora M. McCune, on a farm near Adrian, Missouri; Charles, Amesville, Ohio; Mrs. Mary McDaniel, Amesville, Ohio; Emma, Amesville, Ohio; and Mrs. Lucy Stires, Guysville, Ohio.
The marriage of E H. Wyatt and Hattie Brown was solemnized in 1877. Hattie (Brown) Wyatt is a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John D.
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Brown, of Athens county, Ohio. To this union has been born one child, a son, who is now living: George B., who is general manager of the Farmers Elevator Company of Adrian, Missouri, married Lulu Steele of Warrensburg and they have two sons: George Steele Wyatt and Dugald Edward Wyatt. Both Mr. and Mrs. Wyatt are consistent members and workers of the Presbyterian church and Mr. Wyatt has been ruling elder of the Fairview Presbyterian church for many years. They reside in Adrian, where they have a most pleasant and comfortable home.
E. H. Wyatt and his brother, A. T. Wyatt, came from Ohio to Mis- souri in 1881 and purchased a herd of one thousand sheep and engaged in the sheep raising industry in Bates county. Open prairie furnished an abundance of grazing territory in those days, for one might drive for miles and miles in this section of the state and not encounter a single bit of fencing. The Wyatt brothers purchased tracts of land at different times and constantly added to their holdings until they owned a vast tract comprising one thousand acres. After some time, they disposed of their herd of sheep and devoted their time and energies to general farming and stock raising. They had bought their land in some instances for as little as five dollars an acre. A. T. Wyatt finally decided to leave Missouri and settle in Kansas and E. H. Wyatt was left to continue the work alone. He is now owner of a farm in Bates county, a place embrac- ing four hundred eighty acres of land, which he rents. He is a stock- holder in the First National Bank of Adrian, Missouri, in the Farmers Elevator Supply & Manufacturing Company, and in the Farmers Lun- ber Company of Adrian, Missouri.
The life-story of E. H. Wyatt has been the story of a worker, of a busy man of affairs, of a Christian gentleman, whose ideal in life has been to worthily discharge his duty toward the Master and his fellowmen as he sees and understands it. There are few better types of the enter- prising, "self-made" business men in Bates county than Mr. Wyatt. From small beginnings, by prudence, industry, and perseverance, and the ability of the pioneer to conquer all discouraging obstacles, he has succeeded in carving a name that shall endure as long as the history of Bates county is written and achieving a success in life that should be an inspiration to the young men of the rising generation. And now, in the eventide, surrounded by everything calculated to make the remainder of his earthly sojourn agreeable and pleasant, E. H. Wyatt can enjoy the consciousness that all that he has and all that he is he has justly, honestly, honorably earned by his own personal exertions.
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William C. Hedden .- For over fifty-two years, William C. Hedden has resided in the Fairview neighborhood of Osage township. He is one of the best known of the Bates county "old timers," and has become wealthy as a tiller of the soil in this county. Mr. Hedden is a large land-owner, his home place comprising two hundred twenty acres of splendid, rich prairie soil which is one of the finest improved places in Bates county. The first home of Mr. Hedden in Osage township, was a story and a half affair of two rooms, to which various additions and improvements have been added until he has an imposing nine-room house which sits on a rise of land west of the roadway and which is reached by a driveway bordered by magnificent maple trees which have grown from seed planted years ago by Mr. Hedden. When Mr. Hedden made his first purchase of land in March of 1871, a tract of two hundred acres at a cost of five dollars an acre, the country round about was a vast prairie with but few trees in sight. Now, his home is situated in a beautiful setting of giant trees which he has caused to grow where not a tree stood before. Mr. Hedden also owns a farm of one hundred forty acres across the line in Vernon county. The view from the front door of the Hedden home is a very attractive one, the fertile prairie stetching as far as the eye can reach and dotted here and there with beautiful farmsteads and the cities of Rich Hill and Nevada can be seen in the distance. As advancing age has compelled his relinquish- ment of the arduous duties of the farm, Mr. Hedden has turned over its inanagement to others younger and more able to till the large acreage and he is now living in comfortable retirement in his pleasant home, his interesting diversion being the weekly letters which he writes to the "Rich Hill Mining Review," a pleasant occupation which has been his enjoyment under the pseudonym of "Gabe" for over thirty years.
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