USA > Missouri > Bates County > History of Bates County, Missouri > Part 52
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ited in an unobtrusive way he takes a deep interest in all movements which have for their object the betterment and uplift of the community.
Thomas Franklin Lockwood, M. D., a prominent physician of Butler, Missouri, is a native of Illinois. Dr. Lockwood was born January 11, 1865 in Sangamon county, a son of Isaac S. and Sarah (Dunbar) Lock- wood, the former, a native of Ohio and the latter, of Virginia. Mr. and Mrs. Isaac S. Lockwood were the parents of the following children : Mrs. Mary Jane Bartley, Denver, Colorado; Francis Marion, a success- ful farmer of Kay county, Oklahoma; George Harrison, of LaClede county, Missouri; Dr. Thomas Franklin, the subject of this sketch; Dr. William Albert, Ponca City, Oklahoma ; Isaac Otis and Ira Elmer, twins, the former of whom was drowned at the age of twenty-one years in a vain attempt to save the life of a friend who also drowned in Osage Fork in LaClede county and the latter is now residing on a farm in LaClede county ; and two children died in infancy. Isaac S. Lockwood was of Scotch descent. He was a widely known and highly respected pioneer of Barton county and was a resident of that part of the state of Missouri when the Civil War broke out and at that time he returned to Illinois. The Lockwoods had come to Missouri in the early fifties. Mr. Lockwood was a carpenter and millwright and built and operated several mills in the Ozark region and rebuilt many more. In the later years of his life, he devoted his time and energies to agricultural pursuits in LaClede county, to which he came after the Civil War had ended. Isaac S. Lock- wood died in 1903 at the age of sixty-six years and Mrs. Lockwood . joined him in death in 1913. Both father and mother were interred in the cemetery at New Hope.
Dr. Lockwood's childhood and youth were spent in Illinois and Mis- souri and the public schools of both states afforded him the means of a good elementary education. He early determined to devote himself to medical work and entered Northwestern Medical College, from which institution he graduated in 1887. Dr. Lockwood completed his work at Northwestern Medical College, St. Joseph, Missouri, with a highly creditable record and then entered the Medical College of Nashville, Tennessee, from which he obtained his degree in 1895. Dr. Lock- wood began the practice of his profession at Conway, Missouri, in LaClede county and was there located for six years, coming to Butler in the autumn of 1895. He moved to his present office, on the north side of the public square in this city, about 1900.
June 20, 1886, Dr. Thomas Franklin Lockwood and Ellen J. Barr
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were united in marriage. Mrs. Lockwood is a daughter of Dr. S. B. F. C. Barr, who before his coming to Missouri, was a leader of the medical profession in Lebanon, Tennessee. Dr. Barr was a native of Tennessee as is also his daughter, Mrs. Lockwood. Dr. Barr was a graduate of the old Vanderbilt Medical College, of Nashville, Tennessee. Dr. Barr died about the year 1881 in LaClede county, Missouri, where he had retired on a farm.
To Dr. and Mrs. Lockwood have been born two children: Eda Ethel, the wife of Talmage D. Crawford, of Nevada, Missouri, and the mother of two children, Mary Carmen and Franklin De Witt; and Oscar Harris Lockwood, who is at home with his parents. Dr. Lockwood is a valued and worthy member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, the Modern Woodmen of America, the Woodmen of the World and the Yoe- men. He is also affiliated with both the Bates County and Missouri State Medical Associations. He has served as secretary of the Bates County Medical Society and was vice-president of the State Medical Association in 1913. At the 1914 session of the latter association, Dr. Lockwood was the orator on medicine and he delivered an address on professional reminiscences, a plea for unity in the medical profession, a scholarly talk which displayed profound erudition and elicited much praise from the different members of the society. Dr. Lockwood is the local surgeon for the Missouri Pacofic Railway Company and secretary of the Board of United States Examining Surgeons.
Dr. Lockwood does not belong to the class of professional men who are content with past achievements, but he is a constant student, keeping in touch with the latest discoveries and researches of medical science. In various ways, the doctor has been and is identified with the material prosperity of his city and his name is almost invariably found in connection with all enterprises for the public welfare.
J. B. Lotspeich, an honored pioneer citizen, Confederate veteran, and prosperous agriculturist, is a native of this state. Mr. Lotspeich was born October 16, 1841, at Springfield, Missouri, son of Ralph and Nancy (Gilliland) Lotspeich. Ralph Lotspeich was a native of Georgia. He came to Missouri among the earliest settlers, about 1841, and located near Springfield, later settling on a farm in Cooper county, where he died in 1895. Nancy (Gilliland) Lotspeich was a native of Tennessee. She died in 1899 and her remains were laid to rest in Pilot Grove ceme- tery in Cooper county, beside those of her husband. Ralph and Nancy (35)
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Lotspeich were the parents of the following children: J. B., the sub- ject of this sketch; Robert, a Confederate soldier of the Civil War, who served under General Price and was killed in the battle of Pearidge, Arkansas; James, a veteran of the Confederacy, who served under Gen- erals Price and Shelby and was shot through the hips in a skirmish in Arkansas, whose death occurred in 1898; Sarah, the widow of Marion Burney, who was killed while serving in the Confederate army in a skir- mish in Arkansas; Ossin, Yelton, Oklahoma; William, Pettis county, Missouri; Ollie, the wife of R. S. Nelson, Springfield, Missouri; and Charles, who died in Cooper county, Missouri about 1907.
When J. B. Lotspeich was a youth, there were no public schools in Missouri and he was instructed at home and in private schools in Cooper county. He was a young man, twenty years of age, when the Civil War broke out and he enlisted with the Confederates and served until the close of the long struggle of four years. Mr. Lotspeich actively participated in battles fought in Missouri, Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee and at the time of General Lee's surrender was in Mississippi. About 1870, he located on a farm in Saline county and there remained ten years, coming to Bates county in 1880 to reside on a rented farm, which was situated where the townsite of Adrian now is, for one year. He then purchased eighty acres of land, lying near the present site of Amsterdam, and four years later traded it for a tract of one hundred sixty acres of land five miles north of Butler, paying the difference in the value of the two farms, and the latter country place is still in Mr. Lotspeich's possession and it has been his home for the past twenty years. He has been very success- ful in farming, stockraising, and feeding and in addition to his home farm has bought and now owns one hundred ten acres of land in sec- tion 21 and one hundred forty-five acres of land in section 33 in Mound township, a portion of which is the townsite of Passaic in Bates county. Mr. Lotspeich was residing on the rented farm, the townsite of Adrian, when the railroad was built through in 1880. He recalls how the town "boomed" from the very beginning, and, contrary to the general rule of places of mushroom growth, Adrian is today still one of the best towns in the county. Prior to the building of Adrian, the principal trading point for the people of that vicinity was Crescent Hill, where Henry Fair and Nelson and Henry Moudy were the leading merch- ants. Mr. Lotspeich well remembers how the whole town of Crescent Hill literally moved to Adrian, when the railroad came.
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In 1874, J. B. Lotspeich and Nannie Jester, daughter of Stephen and Bettie (Saunders) Jester, of Marshall, Saline county, Missouri, were united in marriage. Mr. and Mrs. Jester were natives of Ken- tucky. To J. B. and Nannie Lotspeich have been born eight children, seven of whom are now living: Luolla, the wife of C. A. Campbell, Butler, Missouri; Jester, who died in 1885 at the age of seven years; Hugh, who resides in Wyoming but receives mail from the postoffice at Decker, Montana; Ernest, who resides in Wyoming; Percy, Mecaha, Montana; Johnny, the wife of Orval Ray, Butler, Missouri; Ralph, Decker, Montana; and Frank, who was, at the time of this writing in 1917, with the United States Navy Training Camp at Mare Island, Cali- fornia studying wireless telegraphy, having enlisted at Denver, Colorado on June 18, 1917 and is now aboard the battleship "Connecticut." Mrs. Lotspeich was a member of the Christian church for several years prior to her marriage and in Saline county in 1876 Mr. Lotspeich joined the same church.
Distinctively one of the leading farmers and stockmen of Bates county, J. B. Lotspeich is exceptionally worthy of mention in a work of this character, pre-eminently entitled to be classed with the enterprising, representative, "self-made" men of Missouri. The firstborn of a large family of eight children, Mr. Lotspeich enjoyed but few advantages in his youth and experienced all the privations and straits of pioneer life and war. Early in life he mastered the lessons of industry, thrift, and self-reliance, lessons few college graduates grasp, and beginning life with but limited financial resources, with innumerable difficulties to overcome, he has acquired a sufficiency of this world's goods to make the remainder of his long life of usefulness comfortable and free from care.
J. R. Jenkins, president of the Peoples Bank of Butler, Missouri, is one of the conspicuous figures in the history of Bates county. Mr. Jenkins had twenty-one years of experience in the banking business before he became connected with the Peoples Bank of Butler. Mr. Jenkins was born in Virginia and came to Missouri, in 1858, locating first in Henry county, and for the past forty years has been a resident of Bates county.
For two terms, each of four years, Mr. Jenkins served as circuit clerk of Bates county. Since the organization of the Peoples Bank of Butler in 1908, he has been at his desk regularly every day, attending business with the same careful exactness and keen interest which charac- terized his habits when he first started in business. Mr. Jenkins is a
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member of the Mother Church of Christian Science and he was one of the organizers of this church in Butler. He has taken the lead in many public enterprises, encouraging the moral as well as the material advance- ment of the community.
Arthur C. Moreland, county superintendent of public instruction of Bates county, Missouri, is one of the most prominent and influential citi- zens of this county. Mr. Moreland is a native of Bates county. He was born December 1, 1883, in Osage townsrip, a son of James H. and Lucinda J. (DeJarnette) Moreland, who were the parents of five chil- dren, all of whom are now living: Arthur C., the subject of this review; Dr. George H., a prominent physician now serving as a first lieutenant in the National army; Fannie, the wife of William Papalisky, of Buffalo, New York; Grace M., the wife of Archie Thomas, of Butler, Missouri; and Miss Jessie, a well-known and popular teacher in the rural schools of Bates county, Missouri. All the children of Mr. and Mrs. James H. Moreland have been engaged in the teaching profession and each has at some time during his or her career been employed as an instructor in the schools of Bates county. James H. Moreland was born in 1853 in Shelby county, Kentucky, a son of Porter Moreland, a native of Shelby county. Porter Moreland was one of the honored pioneers of Bates county, to which he came in 1868. He settled on a small tract of land, located in Osage township, a farm originally comprising sixty-three acres, to which he later added thirty-seven adjoining acres of land. On this farm in Bates county, Missouri, Porter Moreland died in 1884 and since his death the Moreland homestead has been sold. W. L. Rider now owns the original farm of sixty-three acres and J. H. Brown owns the tract of thirty-seven acres. James H. Moreland was a youth fifteen years of age, when he came to Missouri with his parents and his mature life was all spent on the Moreland farm in Bates county, where he was engaged in farming and stock raising. Lucinda J. (DeJarnette) More- land was born in Kansas, January 31, 1860, a daughter of Joseph DeJar- nette, of French Huguenot descent. The DeJarnettes settled in Bates county as early as 1869. Mrs. Moreland died at the Moreland homestead on June 4, 1895. Eleven years later, in 1906, she was joined in death by her husband. Interment was made in Rider cemetery. Mr. and Mrs. Moreland were highly respected in this county. In the early history of Bates county, the Moreland name was as it is today, the synonym of honorable and noble manhood and womanhood and no family has been more closely identified with the growth and development of this part of Missouri than the Moreland family.
ARTHUR C. MORELAND.
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Arthur C. Moreland is a graduate of the Warrensburg State Normal School in the class of 1917. He was a student at this institution for six years and prior to entering the Normal School, he taught school in Bates county for twelve years. In April, 1915, Mr. Moreland was elected superintendent of the Bates county public schools, which position he still occupies at the time of this writing in 1917. At the present time, there are one hundred thirty-two district schools in Bates county and one hun- dred thirty of these are under the supervision of Mr. Moreland, the exceptions being the Butler and Rich Hill public schools. In his official station, Mr. Moreland has given new impetus to the cause of educa- tion in Bates county by inaugurating a number of splendid reforms and advancing the standards of proficiency for both pupils and instructors. As an educator, Arthur C. Moreland is well and favorably known through- out the state and he takes an active interest in the various educational associations. He is himself a scholar, a man of open mind, and he has made his influence felt as a potential factor in the noble work to which he is devoting his life and energies.
August 12, 1914, Arthur C. Moreland and Loe Reese were united in marriage. Mrs. Moreland takes a keen interest in school work. She was a teacher in the Butler schools at the time of her marriage. To Mr. and Mrs. Moreland has been born one child, a daughter, Doris. They reside in Butler at 408 West Pine street.
John W. Coleman, secretary and manager of the Denton-Coleman Loan & Title Company of Butler, Missouri, is one of Bates county's most progressive "hustlers." Mr. Coleman was born October 24, 1889 near Johnstown in Bates county, Missouri, the only son of Samuel L., Jr. and Martha A. (Eads) Coleman. Samuel L. Coleman, Jr. was born in Bates county, Missouri and has lived all his life in this county. He is a son of Samuel L., Sr. and Nancy (Witt) Coleman, both of whom were natives of Kentucky. The former was born in Todd county and in early manhood came to Missouri, locating in Bates county at Johns- town in 1854 and one year later Samuel L. Coleman, Jr., the father of John W., was born in the new western home. At the time of the outbreak of the Civil War, the Colemans moved from Bates county to Lincoln, Missouri and there the father, Samuel L. Coleman, Sr., died in 1864. The widowed mother survived her husband many years and departed this life at Butler in 1912. Samuel L. Coleman, Jr. was born at Johnstown in 1855 and he has been a resident of that place ever since. He is well known and highly respected in this county and
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has been prominent politically, serving the county four years .as treas- urer. Martha A. (Eads) Coleman was a native of Sangamon county, Illinois. To Mr. and Mrs. Samuel L. Coleman, Jr. were born two chil- dren: Nannie A., the wife of J. M. Kash, a prosperous agriculturist of Bates county, Butler, Missouri; and John W., the subject of this sketch. The mother died in 1916 at Butler and her remains were laid to rest in the cemetery at Johnstown, Missouri.
John W. Coleman attended Butler High School and Central Busi- ness College, the latter institution at Sedalia, Missouri. Mr. Coleman left school in 1908 and for four years served as deputy county treasurer of Bates county, under his father. When his term of office had expired, John W. Coleman entered the employ of Holloway & Choate and for one and a half years was engaged in insurance work with their agency. In 1915, Mr. Coleman organized the Denton-Coleman Loan & Title Company of Butler, Missouri and is the present efficient and enter- prising secretary and manager of this company.
October 12, 1911, John W. Coleman and Bessie Cussins, daughter of Dr. and Mrs. J. C. Cussins, of Decatur, Illinois, were united in mar- riage and to this union has been born one child, a son, Samuel T., who was born October 24, 1915. Mr. and Mrs. Coleman reside in Butler on North High street.
The Denton-Coleman Loan & Title Company of Butler, Missouri was organized in March, 1915, with a capital stock amounting to twenty thousand dollars and with the following officers: C. A. Denton, presi- dent; Wesley Denton, second vice-president ; Samuel L. Coleman, first vice-president ; John W. Coleman, secretary and manager; and J. E. Thompson, treasurer. At the time of this writing in 1917, the officers are still the same. This company paid their stockholders eight per cent. per annum until May 31, 1917, at which time they had an accumulated fund of four thousand dollars, undivided profits, that they returned to the stockholders and increased the capital stock to sixty thousand dol- lars, the officers remaining the same. The Denton-Coleman Loan & Title Company has at the present time loans in force amounting to nearly one million dollars. They have two branch offices, one at Ben- tonville, Arkansas and the other at Harrisonville, Missouri. Their loans are chiefly confined to farm land in southwestern Missouri and north- western Arkansas. The company has a complete set of abstract books for Bates county, Missouri.
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Mr. Coleman is essentially a business man and a firm believer in the efficacy of honesty. He possesses keen, deliberate judgment and is seldom mistaken in his estimate of men and affairs. He is the type of man, now so rarely found, who will allow no difficulty deter him from a purpose to which he has once addressed himself. With the busi- ness men of Butler and with the public generally, Mr. Coleman has always maintained an enviable reputation.
George P. Wyatt, a lumberman of Butler, Missouri, is a native of Ohio. He was born in Athens county in 1869, one of three children born to his parents, H. C. and Mary F. (Pratt) Wyatt, both of whom were natives of Ohio. The children of H. C. and Mary F. Wyatt were, as follow: Mrs. Anna Jewett, deceased; George P., the subject of this sketch; and Edward, who died in infancy. H. C. Wyatt was born in Athens county, Ohio in 1830 and in that state was reared to maturity. At the time of the outbreak of the Civil War, he was a young man, thirty-one years of age. He enlisted with the Thirty-sixth Ohio Infan- try and served until dangerously wounded at the battle of Missionary Ridge on November 25, 1863, when the Federal list of casualties totally amounted to fifty-five hundred men, after which time Mr. Wyatt was stationed as guard near Washington, D. C. until the close of the conflict. In 1871, H. C. Wyatt came to Butler, Missouri and engaged in farming for several years, when he abandoned agricultural pursuits and estab- lished the lumber business on Ohio street. now known as the H. S. Wyatt Lumber Company. Mr. Wyatt purchased the Warner Lumber Company at that time and he and his son, George P., continued the busi- ness until November 19, 1915, when they were succeeded by H. S. Wyatt, son of George P., of whom further mention will be made in this review. Mary F. (Pratt) Wyatt, mother of George P., died in 1907 and H. C. Wyatt has been making his home with his son since her death.
George P. Wyatt came to Butler, Missouri, with his parents when he was not yet three years of age. He attended Butler Academy and when sixteen years of age, succeeded H. C. Wyatt in the lumber busi- ness and continued in this business until 1915, when his son, H. S. Wyatt, succeeded him.
In 1891, George P. Wyatt and Nettie Steele were united in marriage. Mrs. Wyatt is a daughter of John Steele, of Butler. To Mr. and Mrs. Wyatt have been born five children, four of whom are now living: H. S., owner of the H. S. Wyatt Lumber Company, a progressive, ambitious,
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young man and unmarried; Doris, a student at Monticello Seminary, Godfrey, Illinois; Ruth, who is attending Butler High School; Esther, who is a pupil in the graded schools of Butler; and Mary, deceased.
When local option was voted in at Butler, Missouri, George P. Wyatt served the city as street commissioner and marshall for four years for one dollar annually. He was afterwards elected city alderman. At the close of this term he was nominated for the office of mayor without opposition, but his health prevented his acceptance. Mr. Wyatt is now one of the directors of the Butler School Board.
Wesley Denton, the capable and obliging president of the Peoples Bank of Butler, Missouri, is one of Bates county's most enterprising citizens. Mr. Denton is a native of Illinois. He was born August 21, 1879, in Hamilton, son of Judge C. A. and Emma (Baldwin) Denton, a sketch of whom appears elsewhere in this volume. The Dentons came from Illinois to Bates county, Missouri, in 1880, locating at Rich Hill, and eight years later in October, 1888, moved to Butler.
Mr. Denton, whose name introduces this review, obtained his ele- mentary education in the public schools of Butler, Missouri. He is a graduate of the Butler High School in the class of 1898. After complet- ing his high school course, Mr. Denton was employed as clerk in the postoffice at Butler, working under Postmaster A. O. Welton for seven months. On account of ill health, he was obliged to resign his position as clerk and later accepted a position, in the law office of Francesco & Clark, as stenographer, which he filled for six months and then left Butler to accept a position in Kansas City, Missouri, with the A. J. Gillispie Live Stock Commission Company in 1900. Returning to Butler, three years afterward, Mr. Denton entered the Farmers Bank of Bates County as bookkeeper. In August of the same year, 1903, he resigned his position with the Farmers Bank and entered the employ of the Missouri State Bank, as bookkeeper, and in a short time was promoted to the assistant cashiership of the bank. In 1908, J. R. Jenkins and he organized the Peoples Bank of Butler. Missouri, and Mr. Denton was elected cashier of the institution, serving in that capacity until Jan- uary, 1918, when he was elected president. A sketch of the Peoples Bank of Butler, Missouri, is given in connection with the review of J. R. Jenkins, which will be found elsewhere in this volume. This finan- cial institution, with which Mr. Denton is connected, has proven to be one of the solid enterprises of the community and has been an important factor in maintaining the financial credit and stability of Bates county.
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No small amount of the success of the enterprise is due to the indefat- igable efforts and wise discrimination of Mr. Denton, whose capabilities have been demonstrated to a marked degree. His energy and tact have done much toward pushing the bank to the front in the banking circles of this section of the state.
November 25, 1911, Wesley Denton and Edith Lindsay were united in marriage. Mrs. Denton is a daughter of A. Lindsay and Alice (Wyatt) Lindsay, prominent residents of Butler. To Mr. and Mrs. Denton have been born two children: Alice and Ruth. Both Mr. and Mrs. Denton are members of the Presbyterian church of Butler and Mr. Denton is affiliated with the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, Butler Lodge No. 254. He has also served as director of the Butler Commercial Club for several years ..
The greater part of Mr. Denton's life has been spent in Bates county, and he has the interests of his community as well as his own in mind. His career has been one of great activity and has been crowned with a degree of success attained by those only who devote themselves tire- lessly to their work. Mr. Denton is a man of earnest purpose and high ideals.
A. W. WeMott, the senior member of the widely and favorably known firm of WeMott & Major, harness dealers and manufacturers, is a native of Texas. Mr. WeMott was born at Bryan. Texas, in 1861. He is of French descent, a son of T. T. and Ellen S. WeMott. His father was a native of New York and his mother of Massachusetts. T. T. WeMott was a carpenter by trade, but he also engaged in farming extensively and successfully. He came to Missouri with his family in May, 1868, and settled at Butler in Bates county. The elder WeMott was well known in this city as a gentleman of exceptionally fine character, loyal to his home and friends. When he was nearing the "Valley of the Shadow," at Kansas City, Missouri, Mr. WeMott requested on his death bed that he be taken back to Butler for burial, back to the old home where his friends, who had known and esteemed him for so many years. still lived. His remains rest in Butler cemetery. T. T. and Ellen S. WeMott were the parents of the following children: Herbert, deceased : Mrs. Ada Powell, Kansas City, Missouri; Alice, Kansas City, Missouri; Mrs. Stella Corder, Kansas City. Missouri; Claudia and Maude, both of Denver, Colorado; and A. W., the subject of this sketch.
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