USA > Missouri > Bates County > History of Bates County, Missouri > Part 54
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Mr. Reinheimer was affiliated with the Knights of Pythias and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He was a worthy and consistent member of the German Lutheran church. He was still a young man, but fifty years of age, when cut down by the Grim Reaper, yet those fifty years were crowded with great activity and endeavor and were not lived in vain. The life of man is much like the waves of the sea. They flash for a few brief moments, reflecting the sun's golden beams, then are dashed upon the shore and disappear forever. The babe toddling from its crib is the man of tomorrow and with the lapse of a few short years is tottering toward the grave. Many in the innocence and beauty of childhood are taken to that "mysterious bourne whence no traveler ever returns," thousands like Henry Reinheimer in manhood's vigor and
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prime answer the last summons, while a few, like aged pilgrims going home from a long journey, lay down their staffs after three-quarters of a century of ceaseless toil and endeavor, yet at its greatest length how very short life is! It is for us, the living, to catch the inspiration from lives like Mr. Reinheimer's and emulate their virtues so that, when the "summons comes to join the innumerable caravan which moves to that mysterious realm, we may, like him, approach the grave,
"Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch About him and lies down to pleasant dreams."
Dr. W. E. Lampton, a prominent and successful osteopathic physi- cian of Butler, Missouri, is a native of Cooper county. He was born in 1858, a son of Benjamin C. and Anne (Wear) Lampton. Benjamin C. Lampton was a native of Cooper county, Missouri, and a veteran of the Mexican War. He moved with his family from Cooper county to Bates county and in 1881 located at Butler, where for several months he conducted a hotel. One year later, the Lamptons moved from Butler to Altona, where Mr. Lampton purchased a general store and for several years was postmaster. The mother died about the year 1868. Benjamin C. Lampton departed this life at Butler in 1904. Doc- tor Lampton has one brother living: Reverend T. A. Lampton, who is engaged in ministerial work in Oklahoma.
In the public schools of Cooper county, Doctor Lampton obtained his elementary education, which was later supplemented by a thorough medical education, received at Kirksville, Missouri. He graduated with the class of 1904 from the medical school and, immediately upon com- pleting the course, opened his office in the Farmers Bank building at Butler, where he has been located for the past fourteen years and now has a splendid and lucrative practice. Doctor Lampton was inter- ested in osteopathy for many years prior to attending school, due to the fact that his wife had been cured of a chronic disease by a physi- cian of this school when others had failed. Many people confound osteo- pathy with faith cure and massage treatments and are ignorant of the basic principles of this method of treatment. The underlying idea of osteopathy is the adjustment of structure, aiding the nerve and blood supply, and all schools of osteopathy now have a four-year course of medical training, at which time the structure of the human system is carefully studied.
In 1884, Dr. W. E. Lampton and Nannie Covington were united
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DR. W. E. LAMPTON.
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in marriage. Mrs. Lampton was born in 1862 at Bolivar, Missouri, daughter of the pioneer harness maker of that place, who came to Bolivar from Kentucky. Doctor and Mrs. Lampton are the parents of one child, a daughter, Mrs. Samuel Armstrong, of Oklahoma City, Okla- homa. The Lampton home is in Butler on North Main street. Doctor and Mrs. Lampton are well known in the best society circles of Butler and they are numbered among the most highly respected families of Bates county.
William M. Arnold, of Butler, is a native of Lafayette county, Mis- souri. He is a son of John E. and Maggie C. (Allen) Arnold. John E. Arnold was born near Leesburg, Virginia, and in childhood came with his father, Reverend Mosby Arnold, to Missouri. Reverend Arnold was a leading pioneer preacher, a gifted Methodist minister, who entered government land near Lexington, Missouri, paying one dollar and twenty- five cents for each acre of his large tract, and on his farm built the home of walnut logs, even the shingles being of walnut. He died on the Mis- souri farm at the age of eighty-six years. John E. Arnold and his family resided eleven miles west of Lexington until 1882, when they left the farm and moved to Butler. Mr. and Mrs. John E. Arnold were the parents of eleven children, as follow: Allen R., Kansas City, Missouri; Henry B., Big Spring, Howard county, Texas; Walter S., Kansas City, Missouri; Dr. T. W., a well-known and successful dentist of Butler, Missouri; Mrs. T. A. Black, deceased; Mrs. G. W. Logan, formerly of Cairo, Illinois, and now deceased: Mrs. Jesse E. Smith, Butler, Missouri; Agnes, Butler, Missouri; William M., the subject of this sketch; and two children died in infancy. The father died in 1913 and interment was made in the ceme- tery at Butler. Mrs. Maggie C. Arnold, the widowed mother, still resides at Butler and she is now eighty-two years of age.
William M. Arnold was reared and educated in Lafayette county, Missouri. He recalls how, in the sixties, the James and Younger boys were want to call at his grandfather's home and demand food-which never failed to be forthcoming immediately. On the occasion of one of their visits, one of the intruders promised to bring him a revolver, such as he himself carried, when he came again, but much to the boy's dis- appointment the promise was never fulfilled. As William M. Arnold was then but a very small lad, it was perhaps best that it was not. He remem- Sers, too, the throngs of settlers, who camped for many weeks near a large spring on his grandfather's pasture, when Order Number 11 com- pelled Jackson county people to leave their farms and find sustenance
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elsewhere. Amid the scenes of pioneer life and war, Mr. Arnold grew to manhood. He has made his own way in life since he was eighteen years of age. For several years, he was engaged in farming in Lafayette county. After coming to Butler he entered the employ of the Charles Sprague Grocery Company and later the Ed Steele Grocery Company. Mr. Arnold served as constable of Mt. Pleasant township for six years. He has been employed for the past twenty-two years by Mrs. E. Angela Scully, owner of the Scully lands in Bates county, as clerk at Butler, Missouri.
In 1886, William M. Arnold was married the first time to Lillie Patton, at Foster, Missouri. She died in 1899, leaving three children : Mabel, now the wife of W. L. Hodge, a prosperous merchant of Petty in Lamar county, Texas; Kate, the wife of J. H. McBee, manager of a large cotton plantation near Petty, Texas; and W. D., of Salt Lake City, Utah, who is a printer by trade. The mother was interred in the cemetery at Butler. Mr. Arnold was married a second time in 1900. Mrs. Arnold was formerly Mrs. Annie E. Smith, of Butler, Missouri. To William M. and Annie E. Arnold have been born two children: Marion F. and Asenith E. Mrs. Arnold, by her former marriage, is the mother of one son, Walker T. Smith, who enlisted with Company A, Twelfth Missouri Infantry, soon after the declaration of war by the United States and is at the present time located at San Francisco, Cali- fornia. Mr. and Mrs. Arnold reside in Butler at 501 West Fort Scott street.
Frank H. Crowell, the well-known agent for the forty thousand acres of farm land in Bates county, Missouri, owned by Mrs. E. Angela Scully, of Washington, D. C., is a native of Boston, Massachusetts. Mr. Crowell is a son of Joseph D. and Hulda S. (Lewis) Crowell.
The lands, for which Mr. Crowell is agent, were purchased in 1894 by Mrs. Scully. He says, "If I were writing my biography, I would simply state, 'I am alive and glad of it !' "
Dr. John W. Choate, retired physician and ex-representative of Bates county, Missouri, formerly United States pension examiner for this district, is a native of Bates county. Doctor Choate was born in 1858 in Deepwater township, a son of Nicholas and Pernelia Isabel (Wilson) Choate. Nicholas Choate was born in 1817 in Baltimore, Mary- land, a son of Mr. and Mrs. Elias Choate. In his early childhood, Nicholas Choate moved with his parents to Kentucky and in that state, in Logan and Simpson counties where they settled, spent his youth and
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was educated. When he was nineteen years of age, he left Kentucky and came on horseback to Missouri, locating first at St. Louis in 1836. For several years, Mr. Choate was employed as a farm laborer in St. Louis and Lincoln counties, Missouri. He was married in 1846 in Lincoln county, Missouri, to Lucinda Uptegrove and to this union were born two sons, who died in early manhood. The mother also died early in life and in 1854 Mr. Choate came to Bates county and entered a tract of land in Deepwater township, a farm comprising four hundred forty acres which he entered from the government at seventy-five cents an acre. Four years later he settled on this tract. In 1858, Nicholas Choate and Pernelia Isabel Wilson, daughter of Isaac and Rebecca Wilson, highly respected and prominent pioneers of Deepwater township, natives of Caldwell county, Kentucky, were united in marriage and to them were born five children, two of whom are now living: John W., the subject of this review; Mrs. Sarah J. Nickell, of Deepwater township, who is the present owner of one-half the farm entered from the government by her father, which land has never been transferred except from the gov- ernment to Nicholas Choate and from Doctor Choate deeded to Mrs. Nickell; and Mrs. Martha Keziah Lewis, who died at the age of twenty years, leaving one child, a daughter, Emma Lewis, who is now deceased. The mother died at the age of fifty years in 1878 and her remains were laid to rest in the cemetery at Johnstown, Missouri. During the troublous times of the Civil War, Nicholas Choate remained on his Bates county farm, engaged in agricultural pursuits, with the exception of fourteen days, when he was just across the line in Henry county. All his horses and cattle were stolen during his absence, but he was able to obtain the return of his cattle and by using oxen in place of horses in his farm work succeeded in raising four good crops during the war without the aid of horses. Nicholas Choate was an honest, honorable, upright citi- zen and he lived to a venerable age, his death occurring in 1898 at the age of eighty-two years. He was buried beside his wife in the cemetery at Johnstown.
Mrs. J. R. Simpson, nee Margaret Lutsenhizer, who is yet living at the advanced age of seventy-five years, was the first instructor of Doctor Choate. She was at that time a young girl and she took much pleasure in teaching the embryo physician his "a-b-c's." Doctor Choate later attended the public schools of Bates county and Butler Academy. He is a graduate of the medical department of Washington University at St. Louis, Missouri, in the class of 1886, and at that institution was
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one of two students receiving honorable mention and he also received the second prize for commendable work done in chemistry. Dr. John W. Choate opened his office and began the practice of medicine at Creighton, Missouri immediately after obtaining his medical degree. After six months, he left Creighton and moved his office to Johnstown, where he purchased the practice of Dr. Matchett in the medical profession and and in the drug business for thirteen years, when he came to Butler, in 1899, and since that time has not practiced medicine. Upon coming to Butler, Doctor Choate engaged in the real estate and loan business and for several years was thus employed. He has been, for the past four years, the farm and loan inspector for the Walton Trust Con- pany, a position he resigned recently upon the occasion of his son, Leslie R. Choate, joining the National Army. He purchased the interest of M. E. Fulbright in the Choate & Fulbright Real Estate Loans & Insur- ance and the firm is now Choate & Son. Doctor Choate is one of the directors of the Walton Trust Company of Butler. He was elected representative from Bates county to the Missouri State Legislature in 1892 and served two terms and in 1896 was re-elected for two years, under the administrations of Gov. William J. Stone. Prior to that time, the doctor had been brought prominently into public notice, when he was appointed under Cleveland's first presidential administration, 1885- 1889, United States pension examiner for his district, a position which he most ably filled.
In 1889, Dr. John W. Choate and Lulu L. Jackson, daughter of Judge John L. and Mattie E. Jackson, of Cass county, Missouri, were united in marriage and to this union have been born two children, a son, Leslie R., who is a graduate of the Butler High School, of Sedalia Business College, Sedalia, Missouri, who for the past two years has been with the firm of Choate & Fulbright Real Estate, Loans & Insurance, and at the present time is associated with his father in business, though expecting to be called by the government into service. Leslie R. Choate was with General Clark on the border in the recent trouble between our country and Mexico, serving as the general's secretary. Young Choate was recently transferred to the department of sergeant of ordnance and is stationed at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. He is an intelligent, alert, young man of excellent capabilities and will "make good" in any line of en- deavor he chooses. The youngest child died in infancy. Doctor and Mrs. Choate reside in Butler at 405 North Main street. They are well and favorably known in the best society circles of the city and county
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and they number their friends by the score in this section of Missouri.
Doctor Choate recalls that in the early days of the history of Bates county, people living in the vicinity of Johnstown firmly believed that the prairies between that place and Butler would never be fenced. Mr. Borland, now residing near Johnstown, made the remark one day in the presence of Nicholas Choate, while looking across Deepwater val- ley, "Surely this will be fenced sometime, but I will never live to see it." Mr. Borland is still living there on his farm near Johnstown, amid the splendidly improved country places of the county and the fences of hedge and wire suggest the marvelous changes which have come within the lifetime of a single individual. Doctor Choate has always taken a deep interest in everything pertaining to the early his- tory of Bates county. A pile of stone and brick and a clearing of perhaps one acre, overgrown with brush and trees, which evidently had been made long before the earliest known settlers came, was discovered by the doctor, when he was a young man, at the line between Bates and Henry counties. Wondering if this small patch of once cleared ground and the pile of brick and stone might be a clue to the name of one who had once lived there, Doctor Choate searched the records of the original government survey, made in 1837, and found among the notes that the line between the two counties at this particular point ran through "Christopher Greenup's garden" and again in the report mention was made that farther north another Greenup, probably a brother, lived just across the line in Henry county. The latter pioneer resided on land later owned by Isaac Wilson, the maternal grandfather of Doctor Choate. These old pioneers were evidently hunters and trappers, who went farther west when the incoming settlers ten and fifteen miles away crowded them out.
Doctor Choate is an excellent citizen, belonging to that large and eminently respectable class of business men who have done so much to develop the resources of our country and give stability to the body politic. He is highly esteemed by his neighbors and friends and stands "four square to every wind that blows," a man in whom the citizens of Bates county repose universal confidence and trust and who has proven himself worthy of this mark of favor.
J. M. Christy, M. D., one of the most prominent physicians of Bates county, Missouri, is a native of Fleming county, Kentucky. Doctor Christy was born at the Christy homestead in Kentucky a son of Ambrose B. and Eliza J. (Logan) Christy, both of whom were natives of Ken-
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tucky. The Christys came to Missouri from Kentucky in 1865 and settled at Fayetteville, where the father died twelve years later, in 1877. Eliza J. (Logan) Christy was a cousin of John A. Logan, the illustrious states- man and general, of Jackson county, Illinois, who was nominated for the vice-presidency of the United States in 1884 on the ticket with James G. Blaine. To Ambrose and Eliza J. Christy were born four children, as follow: Mrs. W. E. Seamands, Warrensburg, Missouri; W. A., Mansfield, Missouri ; Dr. J. M., the subject of this review ; and Mrs. Lula E. Rowe, formerly of Butler, Missouri, now of Boise, Idaho.
Doctor Christy attended the first term of school held at the War- rensburg State Normal School and afterward taught school for four terms in Linn district in Johnson county, Missouri. The doctor is a graduate of the Kentucky State University, Lexington, Kentucky in the class of 1877 and of the New York Homeopathic Medical College in the class of 1882. In 1916, Doctor Christy attended the annual meeting of the alumni associations of both institutions, of which he is an alumnus, and also visited both colleges, finding a few of his former classmates and in each school but one professor who was one of the faculty at the time of the doctor's graduation. Doctor Christy also attended the meeting of the alumni of Missouri State University at Columbia upon his return from Lexington, Kentucky. Dr. J. M. Christy began the practice of medicine at Fayetteville in Johnson county and in December, 1880 located at Butler, where he has ever since remained.
In 1876, Dr. J. M. Christy was united in marriage with T. Fanny Ellis, daughter of James M. Ellis, a highly respected and well-known citizen of Warrensburg, Missouri. To this union have been born three children, two died in infancy and a daughter, Stella A., who is now the wife of George G. Gilkeson, formerly of Warrensburg, Missouri, now of Chicago, Illinois. The doctor and Mrs. Christy reside in Butler on North Main street.
Doctor Christy is a public-spirited citizen, a man of widely varied business interests, and in countless ways he has been and still is promi- nently identified with the material prosperity of Butler and his name is invariably found in connection with all enterprises for the public welfare of Bates county. He was one of the organizers of the Peoples Bank of Butler, and he is still one of the directors of this financial institution, and prior to that was a director of the Missouri State Bank for twenty years. Doctor Christy is a stockholder in the Walton Trust Company, the Missouri State Bank, the Peoples Bank, the American Trust Com-
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pany of Warrensburg, Missouri, and the International Life Insurance Company of St. Louis, Missouri.
The Christy farm, one mile south of Butler, is one of the beautiful country places of Missouri. There are two different and complete sets of improvements upon the place, two comfortable residences and five barns. Doctor Christy is interested in breeding registered Poland China hogs and he is now the owner of the first herd of Holstein cattle brought to Bates county, Missouri, a herd comprising fourteen cows which were brought to Missouri from Iowa and formerly belonged to different par- ties, Mr. Douglass, a well-known dairyman, owning a part of the num- ber. A lake on his farm, of four hundred twenty-three acres of valuable land, covers four and a half acres of the place and the doctor has this stocked with fish and has bathing and swimming facilities, including a bathhouse near the shore of the lake. Any spot along the water is a delightful place to rest on summer evenings. Doctor Christy says that his farm is his "side line" and looking after it, his recreation and he believes that it will add ten years to his life time.
Wesley Denton, cashier of the Peoples Bank of Butler, with Dr. J. M. Christy organized the Bates County Calf Club and in October, 1917 brought to this county and distributed within a few miles of Butler one hundred nine head of high grade Holstein calves among the chil- dren of Bates county. In case the youngsters were unable to pay cash, a note was taken granting the privilege of paying for the calf one year later. At the end of the year, in October, 1918, the calves were to be brought to Butler and sold at auction. One of the wise provisions, for the benefit of the children, is that in case of the death of the calf three- fourths of the cost price will be paid to the loser by the other parties who purchased calves. In 1918, the profitableness of raising good grade cattle will be thoroughly demonstrated and proven. The basic idea of this most unusual departure of the Peoples Bank of Butler, with which Doctor Christy is connected, is to encourage the handling of the best grade dairy cattle, to interest the boys and girls in the most profitable side of stockraising, and at the same time to build up the farms so long devoted to grain. And in the years to come, the one hundred nine firm friends of the Peoples Bank of Butler this business venture will assuredly make may prove to be a valuable asset. Doctor Christy has also prom- ised Bates county a cheese factory, provided that sufficient support is guaranteed, his unselfish motive being to encourage the dairy business in this section of the state.
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The reader has undoubtedly concluded, and correctly, from the fore- going brief synopsis of Doctor Christy's career that his has been a very busy life, into which a multitude of interests have been crowded. The lessons mastered in his youth taught him industry, enterprise, and human- ity. The medical profession in Bates county is honored by having such as he a worker among and with them. Dr. J. M. Christy is widely recog- nized as one of the best posted and most intellectual gentlemen in the city of Butler.
James J. McKee, an honored pioneer of Bates county, is one of the highly valued citizens of Mount Pleasant township. The McKee home- stead is located on the Butler and Appleton City road and a portion of the residence has been standing since 1869, when Mr. McKee settled in Bates county. Mr. McKee is a native of Richland county, Ohio. He was born September 14, 1837, a son of J. W. and Isabella (Fulton) McKee, both of whom were natives of Cumberland county, Pennsyl- vania. The McKees moved from Pennsylvania to Ohio, where the son, James J., was born, and thence to California in the spring of 1850. Mr. McKee was outfitted for the journey across the plains from Mis- souri to California at Independence, Missouri. He crossed the plains and mountains with oxen and upon reaching California obtained employ- ment in the mines and in November of the same year he contracted cholera and died. It will be recalled that this was the period of the excited rush for the newly discovered gold region in California, that from 1848 until 1861 the mines there yielded more than five hundred million dollars for which thousands of good men gave their lives. J. W. and Isabella McKee were the parents of eight children: Alexander, deceased; William F., deceased; James J., the subject of this review ; J. P., who resides in McDonald county, Missouri; Mary, the wife of George McCully, deceased; Sarah, the wife of Houston Culbertson, deceased; Isabelle, Butler, Missouri; and Anna K., the wife of D. N. Thompson, Butler, Missouri.
In 1869, James J. McKee and D. N. Thompson came to Bates county, Missouri, from Henry county, Iowa, and purchased one hun- dred sixty acres of land, the present home place of Mr. McKee, and later added to their holdings two hundred forty acres of land located one mile north of Butler. Mr. Thompson bought and sold stock, driv- ing to Appleton City to make shipments. He afterward purchased Mr. McKee's interest in the farm one mile north of Butler. The McKee residence, a part of which was built in 1869 and rebuilt in the eighties,
JAMES J. McKEE AND WIFE.
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is an eight-room structure. The farm owned by James J. McKee is considered one of the best in the township. The land slopes to the south and is well improved and located, the improvements including a barn, constructed of native lumber, 24 x 51 feet in dimensions, another one, 44 x 60 feet in dimensions, and numerous sheds. Mr. McKee put up the first barn in 1877. He has at present on the farm fifteen head of Hereford cattle, all registered cows, which breed he began raising in 1899 when he purchased three head of registered Herefords from James McKittrick, of Greenwood, Jackson county, Missouri, and he has had as many as fifty registered Herefords on his place at one time since he became interested in raising them. Previous to 1899, Mr. McKee handled Jersey cattle extensively, but he learned at that time that dairy cattle were not in the same demand as beef cattle and he sold his herd, having no difficulty to find a ready market in the vicinity of his farm. In addition to stock raising, Mr. McKee takes much pleas- ure in horticulture and he keeps his ten-acre orchard in splendid condi- tion and finds apple growing a very profitable business. His favorite apples for commercial purposes are : Mammoth Black Twig, Ben Davis, Gano, Jonathan, and Winesap. Of the early maturing varieties, he prefers the Early Harvest, Bellflower, Maiden Blush, and Rome Beauty.
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