USA > Missouri > Bates County > History of Bates County, Missouri > Part 55
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In 1872, the marriage of James J. McKee and Sarah Ann Hoffman, of Mount Pleasant township, was solemnized. Mrs. McKee is a native of Virginia, born on January 29, 1849. She came to Bates county in 1868 with her uncle, James Hoffman. To James J. and Sarah Ann McKee have been born three children: Newton W., who was killed at the age of twenty-one years by lightning while assisting with the work on the home farm; Mary B., the wife of John C. Lane, son of J. C. Lane, Butler, Missouri; and James F., at home with his parents.
In former years, James J. McKee followed freighting from the end of the Union Pacific railroad as it was built west. He made a trip to California in 1864, starting from Iowa. His second long journey was from Denver, Colorado, to Santa Fe, New Mexico. On the latter trip, he was caught in a blinding snowstorm when about fifty-five miles from his destination and all his cattle were lost in the storm. Mr. McKee hired Mexicans to take the two wagons on into Santa Fe, for which he was obliged to pay them two hundred dol- lars, at the rate of about four dollars a mile-and that was in the sixties.
Men of Mr. McKee's caliber are not to be found in every commun-
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ity, but wherever such a one is found the impress of his personality will be seen indelibly stamped upon the community. In this brief life history is exemplified the truth that success is the result of labor- well-directed, untiring labor. Beginning life with few advantages and handicapped by many discouraging circumstances, left fatherless at the age of thirteen years when he needed most a father's advice and counsel, Mr. McKee has triumphed over every obstacle and has steadily worked himself upward from penury to affluence and he is now num- bered among the most substantial citizens of Mount Pleasant township, where for many years he has enjoyed precedence as one of the most intelligent and enterprising men of Bates county. He has himself lived a good, clean, moral life and both he and Mrs. McKee are deeply inter- ested in whatever tends to benefit the public and exert a wholesome influence upon the community. We are proud to be able to still num- ber Mr. and Mrs. McKee among the best citizens of Bates county. The ranks of the brave and noble pioneers are all too rapidly thinning.
B. B. Canterbury, ex-deputy county clerk and secretary of the Bates County Old Settlers' Association, owner and manager of Real Estate & Loans at Butler, is a native of Kentucky. Mr. Canterbury was born December 7, 1857 at Little Louisa, Kentucky. He is a son of R. F. and Fannie E. (Hereford) Canterbury, who were the parents of six children, as follow: Elizabeth, who married Mr. Erwin and she is now deceased ; Ben B., the subject of this review ; Eudora. the wife of Mr. Daniels, Den- ver, Colorado; Susan Ann, the wife of Dr. J. T. Walls, Portland, Oregon; George M., Tulsa, Oklahoma; and Samuel S., who died in 1912 and is buried at Kansas City, Missouri. R. F. Canterbury, a native of Ken- tucky, came to Missouri in June, 1858 with his family and they located in Sullivan county, moving thence to Saline county and in 1872 to Bates county. The father purchased the Tomlinson & Shorb mercantile estab- lishment at Burdett and conducted that store from 1872 until 1881 and then moved the stock of goods to Archie, Missouri, where he continued in business for two years. From Archie, Mr. Canterbury came to Butler and resided until 1888, when he went west. He returned to Kansas City, Missouri in 1903 and at that place his death occurred two years later. Mr. Canterbury's remains were interred in the Mount Washington cemie- tery at Kansas City. Mrs. Canterbury, mother of B. B., the subject of this sketch, departed this life in 1901 and she was laid to rest in the cemetery at Kansas City. The. Canterburys were well known and highly respected in Bates county, where they were numbered among the best families and most progressive and valued citizens.
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B. B. Canterbury obtained his education in the public schools of Mis- souri and at the Warrensburg State Normal School, which institution he attended one term. Mr. Canterbury has made his own way in the world since he was a youth nineteen years of age. He served as deputy county clerk for one year, serving under W. E. Walton. Following this, he engaged in the real estate and abstract business for several years. In 1888, he moved to Howell county, Missouri, and there resided for four- teen years. While a resident of Howell county, Missouri, Mr. Canter- bury served four years as probate judge. He returned to Bates county, Missouri in 1902 and opened an office at Butler, where he has continued the real estate and loan business ever since. He is pushing the amortized or rural credit plan of farm loans, of which an example is given: Twenty years ago, a farmer borrowed one thousand dollars at six per cent., straight interest on the old-fashioned plan. He has renewed the loan at intervals with constant expense of renewals, commissions, abstract charges, and recorder's fees, and he still owes the principal, one thousand dollars. He has paid sixty dollars interest every year for twenty years or a total of twelve hundred dollars. The old-fashioned loan of one thou- sand dollars has cost the farmer, not including commissions, abstract charges, and recorder's fees, twenty-two hundred dollars. Under the amortized plan, he would have paid, as follows :
First eleven payments, of eighty-five dollars and sixty-eight cents each, a total of nine hundred seventy-five dollars and forty-eight cents.
Last nine payments, of eighty-three dollars and sixty-three cents each, a total of seven hundred fifty-three dollars and twelve cents.
The sum total of all payments would be one thousand seven hundred twenty-eight dollars and sixty cents, leaving a balance of four hundred seventy-one dollars and forty cents in favor of the amortized plan.
Loans are made up to one-half the cash value of the land and loans from five hundred to ten thousand dollars can be made by Mr. Canter- bury. The payments may be made at any time designated and at any bank the borrower may choose.
In June, 1880, B. B. Canterbury and Frances M. Pentzer were united in marriage. Mrs. Canterbury was born at Alexandersville, Ohio, a daughter of H. V. Pentzer, who came to Butler about 1870. Mr. Pentzer died in 1905. To Mr. and Mrs. Canterbury have been born two chil- dren: Katie L .. the wife of O. A. Heinlein, manager of the Bennett- Wheeler Mercantile Company and mayor of Butler; and Deane B., who is with the Bennett-Wheeler Mercantile Company of Butler.
In 1910, B. B. Canterbury was elected secretary of the Bates County
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Old Settlers' Association, which position he still holds. At the last meet- ·ing of the association, the oldest settler was Judge Clark Wix, the oldest man present was Samuel Mellon, aged ninety-three years, and the oldest woman was Mrs. Catherine Patty, aged ninety-two years.
Mr. Canterbury takes an unusual interest in governmental affairs. He reads widely and extensively and is well known as a clear thinker and in conversation expresses himself concisely, fearlessly, and in a con- vincing manner. As was his father before him, Mr. Canterbury is highly esteemed among the enterprising, clear-headed, upright citizens and his family is widely known among the best in Bates county.
Judge A. B. Owen, one of Bates county's leading citizens, ex-collec- tor of taxes in Grand River township and in Bates county, ex-treasurer of Bates county, and ex-mayor of Butler, is a native of this county. Mr. Owen was born in Grand River township, September 18, 1856. He is a worthy representative of a sterling pioneer family of this part of Mis- souri, a son of Crayton and Elizabeth (Haggard) Owen, both of whom were natives of Kentucky and among the earliest settlers of this state. Crayton Owen was born in Clark county, Kentucky in 1834. He came to Missouri with his father, Martin B. Owen, in 1842. The Owens set- tled on Elk Fork creek, where the father entered several hundred acres of land. Their trading was done at Lexington, Missouri, and the father would go with a yoke of oxen and a large wagon once a year and at that time would lay in a supply of provisions sufficient to last the twelve months. During the Civil War, when Order Number 11 was in force, Martin B. Owen moved with his family to Pettis county, Missouri, return- ing after the war had ended to the homestead, where he died and is buried. Crayton Owen was employed by the Missouri Pacific Railway Company, when they were building the road through Pettis and John- son counties. After the Civil War closed, he returned to the farm and engaged in cattle buying and shipping. Mr. Owen was widely known as a successful stockman in Bates county, as a large shipper of stock. His shipping point was Holden, forty miles away. Elizabeth (Haggard) Owen was a daughter of Andrew Haggard, a native of Kentucky and a highly respected pioneer of Pettis county. In that county, Mrs. Owen was reared, educated. and married. At her father's home near Sedalia, Crayton Owen and Elizabeth Haggard were united in marriage in 1854 and soon afterward they settled on a farm in Grand River township. Mr. and Mrs. Crayton Owen were the parents of the following children : A. B., the subject of this review; Mrs. M. E. Powell, deceased; James,
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a civil engineer, Kansas City, Missouri; Mrs. Anna Reeder, Adrian, Mis- souri ; Mrs. May Taylor, Sedalia, Missouri; Mrs. Dottie Mitchell, Kansas City, Missouri; and Crayton, Jr., a prominent lumberman of Idaho. The father died in 1890 and his remains were buried in the family burial ground on the home place. Mrs. Owen died in 1916 at the age of seventy- five years and she was laid to rest in the cemetery at Kansas City, Missouri.
In the district schools of Bates and Pettis counties, Missouri, A. B. Owen obtained a good common school education. Until he was twenty- five years of age, he remained at home with his parents and then at that time began farming independently in Grand River township and engag- ing in stock raising. Mr. Owen served as collector of taxes in his town- ship for nearly fifteen years prior to his election as county treasurer of Bates county in 1896 and re-election in 1898. He moved from the farm to Butler in the autumn of 1896 and at that time purchased his present home, a pleasant and comfortable residence located at 513 West Ohio street. Following the expiration of his four-year term in the treasurer's office, A. B. Owen was appointed by Governor Folk to the position of county collector of taxes to complete an unexpired term. When Estes Smith, judge from the northern district, died, Mr. Owen was appointed by Governor Majors to fill the unexpired term of eighteen months. A. B. Owen has served two terms as mayor of Butler and while an incum- bent in that office, there were more sidewalks built than at any other time in the history of the city. Though he is not now an official in public service, Mr. Owen has still plenty of work to do in managing and attend- ing to his financial interests, being the owner of property in Butler and Bates county and in Kansas City and a director of the Missouri State Bank and a director and stockholder of the Walton Trust Company.
December 23, 1879, A. B. Owen and Edna F. Reeder were united in marriage. Mrs. Owen is a daughter of Joseph Reeder, of Mingo town- ship. Mr. Reeder was a native of Virginia. He settled in Mingo town- ship prior to the outbreak of the Civil War. To A. B. and Edna F. Owen has been born one child, a daughter, Jennie, who is now the wife of Dr. J. S. Newlon, a sketch of whom appears elsewhere in this volume. Doctor and Mrs. Newlon are the parents of one child, a son, Robert Owen. Mr. and Mrs. Owen are active and valued members of the Chris- tian church, of which Mr. Owen has been a member since he was twenty- one years of age and a deacon for almost that entire period.
Mr. Owen is a man of sound, practical sense, unflinching integrity, (37)
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and scrupulous honor. He is a progressive business man in all that the term implies. He has always taken an active interest in the growth and development of his township and county.
J. W. Eggleson, a prominent citizen of Bates county and a well- known, progressive business man of Butler, Missouri, is a native of Illi- nois. Mr. Eggleson was born January 4, 1859 in Adams county, Illinois, the eldest of four children born to his parents, Asa W. and Amy (Eddy) Eggleson, both of whom were natives of Jefferson county, New York. Asa W. Eggleson was born in 1813. He came from Illinois to Vernon county, Missouri in 1866 and located on land lying on the line between Bates and Vernon counties. Mr. Eggleson owned the land which is now the site of the town of Panama. At the time of the coming of the Egglesons to Missouri, this was all open prairie and Mr. Eggleson and Lucius Horr built the first two houses there. One could then drive through to Paola, Kansas and not see one fence. At one time in the late sixties, when the farmers on the prairies had to go to mill driving to Pleasant Hill, Missouri or to Pleasanton, Kansas, Addie Robinson, a pioneer, made the trip for the neighborhood. Due to the slow methods of grinding, he was often detained several days waiting for the grist. J. W. Eggleson vividly recalls how the Egglesons existed on a ration of potatoes for three days or until Mr. Robinson's return from the mill. He also remembers the days of chills and fever, when at times there would not be a family on the prairie but was afflicted with this malady of pioneer times. In 1881, Asa W. Eggleson moved to Cedar county, Missouri and there he died at Jericho Springs in 1885. Interment was made in the cemetery in Balltown in Vernon county. Mrs. Eggleson, mother of J. W., departed this life in 1861 and her remains were interred in the cemetery at Loraine, Illinois. J. W. Eggleson was left motherless when he was a child two years of age. The following children were born to Asa W. and Amy Eggleson: J. W., the subject of this review; E. E., who is engaged in farming in Bates county, residing on Rural Route 6, Butler, Missouri; Maria A., the widow of F. W. Riddle, Kaw City, Oklahoma; and Amy, who died at the age of seventeen years.
J. W. Eggleson obtained his education in the public schools of Vernon county, Missouri. Until he was twenty-one years of age. Mr. Eggleson remained at home with his father. At that time he began farming on rented land, raising corn enough the first year to pay for his team of mules. Asa W. Eggleson gave to his two sons, J. W. and
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E. E., one hundred sixty acres of land, which were later found to be underlaid with coal. This land the Eggleson brothers sold to Charles Faler and then purchased eighty acres of land in Charlotte township, Bates county, which farm E. E. Eggleson now owns, and one hundred sixty acres, which they afterward divided. J. W. Eggleson at present owns the homestead in Charlotte township and a farm comprising one hundred acres in West Point township. He was for many years engaged in farming and stock raising, when he moved from the farm to Butler in 1914 and entered the garage business, purchasing the McFarland garage located on South Main street. He sold his place of business to the Newman brothers in the autumn of 1915 and in July, 1917 the garage was burned.
In 1885, J. W. Eggleson and Anna Corlett were united in marriage. Mrs. Eggleson is a native of Leavenworth county, Kansas, a daughter of Christopher and Laura (Walker) Corlett. Mrs. Eggleson's father was born on the Isle of Man in 1835 and in 1854 he emigrated from his native land and came to America. Mr. Corlett settled in Illinois and in that state was united in marriage with Miss Walker. Both father and mother died in Charlotte township, Bates county, to which they came in 1880, and their remains are buried in the cemetery known as the Morris ceme- tery in this county. J. W. and Anna Eggleson are the parents of five children: Willa, the wife of Bird Barr, whose death occurred in August, 1915; Pearl, the wife of Clarence Porter, of Charlotte township, Bates county ; Orland, who married Sallie Simpson, of Butler, and to them has been born one child, a daughter, Anna Laurie; Bert and Frank, who are at home with their parents. The Eggleson home is in Butler at 211 West Fort Scott street.
J. S. Newlon, M. D., a well-known and successful practitioner of Butler, Missouri, a specialist in the diseases of the eye, ear, nose, and throat, is a native of Nebraska. Doctor Newlon was born in Kearney county, Nebraska in 1883, a son of Samuel J. and Ellen (Seevers) Newlon, the former, a native of Ohio and the latter of Iowa. Samuel J. Newlon was a well-to-do and enterprising agriculturist. He was reared and edu- cated in his native state and in 1854 left Ohio to make his home in Iowa, whence he moved with his wife and two children to Nebraska, where Dr. J. S. Newlon was born. Later, the Newlons returned to Iowa and in that state remained until 1903, when they came to Bates county, Missouri, locating near Butler on a farm. There the father died in 1912 and the mother still resides. To Samuel J. and Ellen Newlon were born the
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following children: D. W., a prominent farmer and stockman, Culver, Missouri; Lorraine, who is at home with the widowed mother on the home place; Dr. J. S., the subject of this review; Mrs. H. O. Welton, Butler, Missouri; George, who is engaged in farming on the home place; Thomas D., a widely known automobile salesman, Kansas City, Missouri; Selina, who is a student in the Warrensburg State Normal School; and Alfred, a motor machinist, Kansas City, Missouri.
Dr. J. S. Newlon is a graduate of Winterset High School in Iowa. After completing the high school course, Doctor Newlon entered Haynes Academy at Excelsior Springs, Missouri, matriculating later in the University Medical College at Kansas City, Missouri. He is a graduate of the latter institution in the class of May 8, 1908. Doctor Newlon has also attended the New York Polyclinic Institute. He began the practice of his profession at Ballard, Missouri, in 1908 and five years afterward located at Butler. He gives special attention to the diseases of the eye, ear, nose, and throat. Doctor Newlon is secretary of the Bates County Medical Society and also of the Missouri State Medical Association. He is a member of the Southeastern Medical Associa- tion, also.
September 15, 1915, Dr. J. S. Newlon and Jennie Mae Owen, the only daughter of Judge and Mrs. A. B. Owen, of Butler, Missouri, were united in marriage. A biography of Judge A. B. Owen will be found elsewhere in this volume. To Doctor and Mrs. Newlon has been born one child, a son, Robert Owen, who was born May 8, 1917, just nine years to the day from the time his father graduated from the Uni- versity Medical College.
David W. Beaman, an honored pioneer of Bates county, is a mem- ber of one of the oldest pioneer families of Missouri. Mr. Beaman was born March 20, 1848, in Pettis county, Missouri, a son of William and Jane (Stanford) Beaman, the former a native of North Carolina and the latter, of Tennessee. William Beaman came to Missouri in 1826 and located in Pettis county, on a tract of land near the Cooper county line. In April, 1866, the Beaman family moved to Bates county and settled on a farm in Summit township, where Mr. and Mrs. Bea- man spent the remainder of their lives. To William and Jane Beaman were born six children : Mrs. Margaret Jones, deceased ; Franklin, a vete- ran of the Civil War, who served with Company C, Forty-fifth Mis- souri Infantry, and whose last known address is Soldiers' Home, Leavenworth, Kansas; Mrs. Jemima Frances Walker, Sedalia, Mis-
DAVID W. BEAMAN AND WIFE.
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souri; Mrs. Missouri Ann Stelman, Beaman, Missouri; Carlton Jobe, a veteran of the Civil War, who died August 12, 1917, at Fort Dodge, Kansas; and David W., the subject of this review. By a former mar- riage, William Beaman was the father of five children: Lucinda, John, Martha, Sarah Ann, and Thomas, all of whom are now deceased. John Beaman was also a veteran of the Civil War. He was born in North Carolina. The father died July 8, 1874, on the farm in Bates county and three years later, in March, 1877, he was joined in death by his wife. The father was interred in Glass cemetery. The mother was buried in Mt. Olivet cemetery.
February 11, 1867, David W. Beaman came to Bates county and settled on his present farm in Summit township in the same year. His father and mother with his brothers, John and Carlton Jobe, and his three sisters, Margaret, Jemima Frances, and Missouri Ann, had pre- ceded him and were already comfortably situated in Summit township in a small box house, which they had built on the farm. Their trading point was Butler, where Doctor Hill conducted a general store, dealing chiefly in dry goods and hardware, and Doctor Pyle kept a drug store. David Beaman is now owner of two hundred fifty acres of valuable land in Summit township, about half of which is devoted to pasture. Mr. Beaman has for years been engaged in stock raising and in former times was want to feed a large number of cattle annually for the market. He has, at the time of this writing, in 1918, forty head of stock on the farm. A good barn was built by Mr. Beaman about fifteen years ago and he is at the present time remodeling the residence.
The marriage of David W. Beaman and Missouri Delitha Ellitt, a native of Arkansas, was solemnized on January 17, 1866. Mrs. Beaman's father died in Arkansas when she was a little child and, when she was three years of age, she came to Missouri with her mother and they settled in Pettis county, where Mrs. Beaman was reared and educated. She has one brother living, William H. Ellitt, of Wichita, Kansas. Mrs. Ellitt died in Pettis county, Missouri. Mr. and Mrs. Beaman were mar- ried in Pettis county and soon afterward settled in Bates county on the farm which is still their home. To David W. and Missouri D. Beaman have been born eight children: William, Iola, Kansas; Jane Elizabeth, the wife of C. B. New, of Cromwell, Iowa; John, who is engaged in farming on the home place; Robert Luther, Tipton, Kansas; Minnie Luetta, the wife of George Kersey, of Butler, Missouri: James Nila, Adrian, Missouri; Leora Viola, the wife of H. C. Hyatt, of Adrian,
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Missouri; and Effie Lillian, the wife of Charles Aman, of Independence, Kansas. Mr. and Mrs. Beaman celebrated their Golden Wedding Anni- versary on January 17, 1916. They are still enjoying fairly good health and are as active, physically and mentally, as many a score of years younger. Mr. Beaman would have been sixty-seven years of age within two days when he was obliged to call for the assistance of a physician for himself for the first time in his life.
Mr. and Mrs. Beaman have twenty-five grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. William married Mary Brooks and has five chil- dren: Ina, Roe, Emmet, Amos, Archie; Mrs. Mary E. New has four children : Boyd, Claude, Walter, Hugh. John married Myrtle Dent and has six children: Oliver, Mabel, Clarence; Howard, Wendell, Ruth. Luther married Alta Smith and has three children: Roberta, Robert, Norman. Mrs. George Kersey has two children, Kendall and Chris- tine. Mrs. Leora Hyatt has two children, Henry Clay, Sr. and Elsie. Mrs. Effie Aman has three children, Orville, Ellitt, Loran.
Mrs. Ina Dixon, daughter of William Beaman, has one child. Boyd New is father of one child, Ruby. Claude New is father of one child, Eugene.
Mr. Beaman was a resident of Bates county, Missouri, during the grasshopper visitation in 1874 and 1875 and he recalls their coming and how they ate everything green in sight, from peelings of sumac bushes to the growing plants in the fields. But, there is no cloud so black but has its silver lining, and the next season he raised the largest crops he has ever raised. Mr. Beaman was a resident of Deepwater township for a few months previous to his coming to Summit township. When he came to Bates county, he was the owner of one horse, three calves, and seven pigs. A kindly neighbor hauled the pigs from Pettis county to Bates county for him. If any man in Bates county has earned the right to be called "self-made," that man is David W. Beaman. He began life with little of this world's goods but with the most valuable capital with which any young man could possibly be endowed-good sense, a clear brain, discriminating judgment, a strong arm, and determi- nation to succeed. Mr. Beaman is not a theorist but a man of sound, practical ideas. He has undoubtedly earned the distinction of being numbered among Bates county's best citizens and most representative pioneer agriculturists. Mr. Beaman loves the country, the freedom of the great out-of-doors, to watch and study the mysteries of Nature in growing plants and animals, and when people have querulously
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