USA > Missouri > Bates County > History of Bates County, Missouri > Part 56
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inquired of him why he doesn't move to town and escape the hard work of the farm he has always wisely replied that he is happier where he is and would rather be on the old home place where he and his noble wife reared their children and where they have together enjoyed the passing of the seasons for more than fifty years.
Frank T. Clay, a successful and prominent pharmacist of Butler, Missouri, is one of the enterprising and leading business men of Bates county. Mr. Clay is pre-eminently a self-made man. He is a native of Texas. He was born in 1878 in Tarrant county, a son of Mark S. and Rachel A. (McGuire) Clay. Mark S. Clay was born in Virginia in 1825. He died June 3, 1915 at Butler, Missouri, where he had been living a quiet, retired life since 1886. At the time of his death, Mr. Clay was ninety years and three months of age. Mrs. Clay, a native of Indiana, survives her husband and is now residing in Butler at 211 North High street. Mark S. and Rachel A. Clay were the parents of four children, who are now living: W. H., a prosperous farmer and grain dealer, South St. Joseph, Missouri; George, a well-known laun- dryman of St. Joseph, Missouri; Frank T., the subject of this review; and James, a well-to-do druggist, Caldwell, Idaho. Mark S. Clay enlisted in the Civil War in 1861 at Springfield, Illinois and for many months served with the Twenty-second Illinois Infantry. He later enlisted with the Fourth Wisconsin Cavalry at Madison, Wisconsin. After the Civil War had ended, Mr. Clay returned to his home in Illi- nois. Later, he came from Illinois to Missouri and thence went to Texas, returning from that state to Missouri in 1881, where he spent the remainder of his long life of usefulness. Mark S. Clay was an honored and highly valued member of the Grand Army of the Republic.
Frank T. Clay obtained his elementary education in the public schools of Bates county. He has since added to his store of knowledge by wide reading and by practical experience gained in the best, most thorough, but hardest of all schools. He began studying the drug business in the drug store of H. L. Tucker in 1894. Ten years later, when Mr. Tucker died, Mr. Clay was able to purchase the stock of drugs and merchandise and to successfully continue the business. Clay's Drug Store is one of the best business establishments in the city. Mr. Clay is a registered pharmacist, having obtained his certificate in 1902. His stock of goods is complete, fresh, and neatly kept. He occupies a building 22 x 70 feet in dimensions, a structure comprising two stories. Mr. Clay has, in addition, won for himself distinction as a curio collector
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and he is justly proud of his collection of Indian arrow heads and fifty- three rattlesnake rattles, to which he is constantly adding. Mr. Clay has his specimens nicely displayed at his store.
Mr. Clay is affiliated with the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, of which fraternal order he has been a member since 1904, the Scottish Rite Masons, the York Rite Masons, the Shriners since 1910, the Benevo- lent and Protective Order of Elks, and the Modern Woodmen of America.
Thomas Webster Legg, a late worthy and widely known citizen of Butler, Missouri, a noble and upright gentleman whose life for many years was closely interwoven with the local history of Bates county, was a native of Piqua, Miami county, Ohio. He was born November 20, 1854. He was a son of Joseph and Elizabeth (Webster) Legg. Joseph Legg was a skilled cabinet maker of Piqua, Ohio and at the age of eighteen years his son, Thomas W., had mastered the carriage maker's trade. He was reared and educated at Piqua.
December 26, 1876, T. W. Legg and Mary C. Catterlin were united in marriage at Piqua, Ohio. Mrs. Legg is a daughter of S. B. and Louisa (Jones) Catterlin, the former, a native of Ohio and the latter, of Kentucky. Both father and mother of Mrs. Legg died at Butler, Missouri, to which city they had come from Ohio to make their future home. Mr. Catterlin departed this life one year after their coming West and Mrs. Catterlin joined him in death a few years later. To T. W. and Mary C. (Catterlin) Legg were born three children, two of whom died in infancy, one child, a daughter, now living: Mrs. A. C. Coberly, who resides with her widowed mother, the wife of A. C. Cob- erly, a prominent business man, who is in the employ of the Logan Moore Lumber Company, manager of the Butler lumber yard and manager of advertising for the thirty branch yards controlled by the company. Mrs. Legg and the Coberlys reside in Butler at 506 West Ohio street.
In 1879, Mr. and Mrs. T. W. Legg came from Piqua, Ohio to Butler, Missouri. Mr. Legg, within a short time afterward, began the erection of a carriage shop. His first shop was a large, two-story structure, a frame building, and a few years after Mr. Legg had completed it the shop was destroyed by fire. He rebuilt immediately and continued the business of iron working and carriage making until his death on April 22, 1914, after which his widow managed the factory until in November, 1917 the shop was again destroyed by fire. Mr. Legg built carriages, buggies, and spring wagons and in addition did a large amount of repair work. There are scores of people in Bates county who still own vehicles made by T. W. Legg in his shop at Butler.
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At one time, Mr. Legg was a member of the city council of Butler. He was a director of the Butler Building & Loan Association and a director and stockholder in the Peoples Bank of Butler, one of the charter members of the latter financial institution. Mr. Legg was deeply interested in church and Sunday school work. He was a devout member of the Butler Methodist Episcopal church, of which he was chorister, organist, and superintendent of the Sunday school. Mr. Legg had held the same positions in Ohio. He was superintendent of the Methodist Sunday school for more than thirty years. Mrs. Legg still treasures gifts and remembrances given Mr. Legg by the church and school in appreciation of his long years of faithful service. He was at one time and for many years president of the Bates County Sunday School Asso- ciation and had visited the different schools in all parts of the county. Since early manhood, Mr. Legg was affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He died April 22, 1914 and interment was made in the Oak Hill cemetery at Butler.
Incomplete would be a biographical compendium of Bates county without mention of T. W. Legg. His name has been inseparably linked with the history of the business interests in Bates county. He was a model citizen, a gentleman, one who had justly earned an enviable repu- tation as a successful manufacturer, an enterprising citizen, a true Chris- tian. He was widely and favorably known throughout the county as a man of extraordinary good sense, skill, judgment, and force of charac- ter. His death was long deeply deplored in Bates county and the memory of the "good fight" he made remains a priceless heritage. His influence in behalf of all that was noble and uplifting will be felt for scores of years to come, a monument to his memory more enduring than obelisk.
George W. Dixon, one of Bates county's successful merchants, a grocer, hardware and music dealer of Butler, is a native of Kansas. Mr. Dixon was born October 16, 1864 in Miami county, Kansas, a son of J. W. and Martha E. (Tharp) Dixon, both of whom were born in Vir- ginia. J. W. Dixon was a Union veteran of the Civil War. He enlisted with the Federal troops at Miami county, Kansas, and for many months served with Company I, Ninth Kansas Infantry, and later with the Cass county home guards. In the second year of the Civil War, in 1862, J. W. Dixon and Martha E. Tharp were united in marriage in July and to this union were born nine children, all of whom are now living and the youngest child is, at the time of this writing, thirty-seven years of
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age: Etta, the wife of Houston Gillogly, of western Kansas; George W., the subject of this review; Emma, the wife of A. C. Stewart, Miami, Oklahoma; Elmer, Dodge City, Kansas; Anna, the wife of O. D. Kuhu, Miami county, Kansas; Ella, the wife of Mr. Dunham, of Iola, Kansas; J. W., B. O., and Jud P., who are engaged in the junk business at Rich Hill, Missouri. Years before the war, J. W. Dixon came to Kansas and settled within two and a half miles of the state line, in Miami county. Kansas in 1857. With him came J. W. White and Archie Trammel. A son of Archie Trammel, William Trammel, is now residing on a farm near Rich Hill, Missouri. Mr. Dixon returned to the farm after the close of the war and continued to reside there the remainder of his life. He died in 1885. The widowed mother is now living at Butler, Missouri.
George W. Dixon received his elementary education in the public schools of Miami county, Kansas, and later, he was a student for one and a half years at Kansas Normal College, Fort Scott, Kansas. Mr. Dixon began life for himself in 1889, alternately teaching school and farming in the winter and summer seasons in Miami county for a period of seven years. In 1899, Mr. Dixon purchased the G. B. Hockman furni- ture stock in Butler, Missouri and since acquiring the store he has added hardware, musical instruments, and groceries and has moved to his pres- ent location in 1907. Mr. Dixon owns the store building, a two-story brick structure 45 x 80 feet in dimensions, which fronts on Main street. He carries a complete line of groceries, furniture, hardware, and stoves, which are on the ground floor of the store, and linoleums, rugs, furni- ture, and musical instruments, on the second floor.
In 1903, George W. Dixon and Dora Collins were united in mar- riage. Mrs. Dixon is a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. S. H. Collins, of Chap- man, Nebraska. The Dixon home is in Butler, located on Havanna street, an attractive, modern residence built in 1917. In addition to his home, and his store, Mr. Dixon is owner of a good farm comprising one hundred twenty acres in Vernon county, Missouri and he is one of the organizers and stockholders of the Peoples Bank of Butler, with which financial institution he has always maintained a close connection.
Mr. Dixon has taken a keen interest in civic affairs and he was at . one time a member of the city council of Butler. Mr. Dixon is one of the leading dealers in Bates county and has deservedly earned the lib- eral patronage accorded him by the public.
Judge J. F. Smith, a prominent attorney of Butler, Missouri, the efficient city clerk and city attorney of Butler, ex-judge of the probate
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court, is a native of Franklin county, Missouri. Judge Smith was born March 31, 1859, a son of Nathan L. and Martha Ann (Adams) Smith. Nathan L. Smith was born in 1815 in Virginia. He was reared to maturity and educated near Richmond of that state. About 1835, Mr. Smith, then a young man, heard the call of the West and he left Vir- ginia and came to Missouri, walking all the way. He was a blacksmith by trade and he followed his line of work at Old Port William for a number of years. He followed farming during his later life. Martha Ann (Adams) Smith was a native of Warren county, Missouri. She was born in 1826. To Nathan L. and Martha Ann Smith were born eleven children: David L., a retired farmer residing at Gray's Sum- mit in Franklin county, Missouri; William P., deceased; Alphonso . Theodore, deceased; Theopholis, deceased; Charles Wesley, who resides in Texas; Thomas D., Sedalia, Missouri; James Fletcher, Butler, Mis- souri; Mary Elizabeth, Martha Ann, Nathan L., Jr., and Daniel, who died in infancy. The mother died in 1889 at the age of sixty-three years and the father died February 7, 1908 at the age of ninety-three years. Both parents were laid to rest in the family burial ground at the old homestead in Franklin county, Missouri.
Judge Smith attended the common schools of Franklin county, Mis- souri. On leaving school, he alternately taught school and engaged in farming in Franklin county. He began the study and reading of law in the office of Crews & Booth in Union, Franklin county and in that county was admitted to the bar. He then came directly to Bates county and began the practice of his profession. Judge Smith came to Butler in 1882 and shortly afterward located at Rich Hill, where he remained for fifteen years in active legal practice. During this period, he served as mayor of Rich Hill for several years. In 1897, he removed to Butler. One year afterward, a vacancy in the probate court occurred due to the death of Judge Dalton and Mr. Smith was appointed to fill the vacancy. He served two years as judge of the probate court and since that time has been engaged in the practice of his profession at Butler. At the time of this writing, in 1918, Judge Smith is satisfactorily filling the positions of city clerk and city attorney, which offices he has occupied eight years.
In 1899, Judge J. F. Smith and Miss Hattie Scott were united in marriage. Mrs. Smith is a native of Bates county, Missouri, a daughter of Ben F. and Elizabeth Ann Scott, honored pioneers of this county. Ben F. Scott was widely and favorably known and universally respected.
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He formerly resided on a farm north of Butler and he held several different offices of public trust in his township. Afterward, the Scotts moved from the farm to Butler and resided here until death called them. He died in 1914 and Mrs. Scott joined him in death three years later, in 1917. Mrs. Smith was reared in Butler and educated in the city schools. She is deeply interested in church work and takes an active and prominent part in the work of the Butler Christian church, of which she is a valued member. Mr. Smith is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias, the Modern Woodmen of America, the Woodmen of the World, the Yeomen and the Masonic order, all fraternal orders of Butler. The Smith home is located in Butler on Ohio street.
Milton H. Price, a prominent farmer and stockman of Summit town- ship, is one of Bates county's successful citizens and a member of a well-known pioneer family of Henry county, Iowa. Mr. Price is a native of Baltimore county, Maryland. He was born on December 12, 1839, a son of Jehu and Susan M. (Matthews) Price, natives of Maryland, who settled in Henry county, Iowa, in 1859 and resided in that state the remainder of their lives. The mother died February 27, 1873, and the father joined her in death on March 6, 1873. The remains of both par- ents were interred in Prairie Grove cemetery in Henry county, Iowa.
In October, 1859, M. H. Price and his brother, S. T. Price, left home to try their fortunes in Iowa, driving across country from Maryland. It will be recalled that 1859 was a momentous year in the history of our country and that for many months before the outbreak of the Civil War many events of tremendous import occurred. This was the year John Brown's raid upon the United States arsenal at Harper's Ferry, Virginia. On October 16, 1859, he with about twenty followers sur- prised and captured the arsenal, the supplies, and arms and the next day he was captured. One week later, the two Price boys appeared at Newmarket in Shenandoah county, Virginia-strangers coming upon the scene at a very inopportune time-and they were naturally looked upon as suspicious characters, the federal officers being convinced that they were two of Brown's men. To escape arrest and conviction, the young men had no little difficulty in establishing their identity and inno- cence.
M. H. Price was a student at Milton Academy, Baltimore, Mary- land at the same time that John Wilkes and Edwin Booth were students at the same institution. There were probably one hundred students enrolled at Milton Academy at that time and Mr. Price recalls seeing
MRS. MILTON H. PRICE.
MILTON H. PRICE.
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the brothers frequently in the amateur theatricals staged at the school. Edwin Booth, the peerless actor of the American stage, was but six years older than Mr. Price. The father of the Booth brothers, Junius Brutus Booth, was undoubtedly one of the greatest tragedians that ever lived and he gave to the world three sons of note: Junius Brutus, Jr., John Wilkes, the author of the greatest tragedy in the life of our nation, and Edwin, the greatest actor of America in his day. Strange stories were current in Baltimore of the elder Booth's peculiarities and eccentricities, of how he forbade the use of animal food on his place, "Belair," near Baltimore, the taking of animal life, and even the cutting down of trees. He could often be seen bringing his butter and eggs to the Baltimore markets in person.
For thirty-four years, M. H. Price resided in Henry county, Iowa, on the home place, where his parents had settled in 1859 and which he had inherited from his father's estate. Mr. Price sold the farm in Iowa and came to Bates county, Missouri on February 1, 1894, locating on a farm, which he purchased in Mound township. This place com- prised eighty acres of land and on it Mr. Price lived for four years. He then purchased a farm of one hundred sixty acres in Summit town- ship and since has increased his original holdings until his place now embraces two hundred forty acres of valuable land, eighty acres lying on the north side of the Summit road and one hundred sixty acres on the south side. There is an excellent orchard, covering three acres of land, on the farm and sixty acres of the place are devoted to pasture. Mr. Price made the remark, at the time he first saw his present country home, "If I owned that farm, there are just two things that would make me leave it-the sheriff or the undertaker." He bought the farm one year afterward and he hasn't changed his mind yet. He is profitably engaged in raising registered Percheron horses and he is the owner of a registered Kentucky jack. Mr. Price gained some prestige among the horsemen of Bates county, when he presented at the Bates county fair, "Brilliant," a colt which he had raised. "Brilliant" weighed eight hundred pounds when seven months of age and won three premiums at the different county fairs in Bates county, when a colt, when one year old, and again when two years old. The picture of "Brilliant." the colt, may be seen at the Farmers Bank in Butler, Missouri, and he, himself, is still on the farm, a valued possession of M. H. Price, who is a lover of fine horses.
M. H. Price and Laura Blackstone were united in marriage, January
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26, 1878. Laura (Blackstone) Price, born at Middleburn, Guernsey county, Ohio, September 28, 1845, is a daughter of William Presley and Cecelia C. (Hayes) Blackstone, of Illinois. William Presley Blackstone was born in Belmont county, Ohio, in 1818, a son of William Blackstone, who came to America when he was twelve years of age with his father, Ebenezer Blackstone, a native of Scotland, a veteran of the War of 1812. Hugh Benjamin and Nathan Blackstone, sons of Ebenezer Blackstone, were veterans of the War of 1812. The Blackstones are relatives of William Blackstone, an eminent English jurist, who was born in Lon- don, July 10, 1723, and died in a railway carriage while traveling between Rouen and Caen, May 1, 1850. Cecelia C. (Hayes) Blackstone was born in Guernsey county, Ohio, in 1822. She was a distant relative of Rutherford B. Hayes, the nineteenth President of the United States. The Blackstone family in America trace their lineage back to a Scot- tish chieftain, who fought side by side with Baliol, William Wallace, and Robert Bruce. Mrs. Price has in her possession an old land warrant signed by James Madison, President of the United States, and dated October 21, 1816, which is made to Daniel McPeek, of Guernsey county, Ohio, who entered land which her father purchased. This paper came with the abstract to the land. To Mr. and Mrs. M. H. Price have been born three children : Presley B., at home; Tacy C., who married Harry Ray- bourn and she died in 1910, leaving two daughters, Marie Elizabeth and Laura; and Blanche S., who married Del Lutsenhizer, a prosper- ous farmer of Deepwater township, and to them have been born two children, Hazel and Howard Benton. Mrs. Price's parents moved to Geneseo, Illinois, in 1857 and Mr. Blackstone became very wealthy.
Politically, Mr. Price is affiliated with the Republican party and he has served the public ten years as township committeeman, being chairman of the committee. He is a gentleman of strong conviction and pronounced views and a fearless upholder of principles which he believes to be right. Mr. and Mrs. Price are numbered among the county's most valued citizens.
Frank Priestly, proprietor of the Peoples Feed Yard at Butler, Mis- souri, is one of Bates county's successful business men. Mr. Priestly is a native of Linn county, Kansas. He was born July 5, 1868, a son of Joseph and Melinda (Taylor) Priestly. Joseph Priestly was born in England in 1830. He emigrated from his native land when he was a young man, twenty-one years of age, and came to America. Mr. Priestly located first in Illinois and later settled in Kansas in 1858. Melinda
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(Taylor) Priestly is a native of Illinois. Her father died when she was but an infant and her mother remarried, her second husband being Levi Ward. The Wards and Melinda Taylor settled in Linn county, Kansas in 1854. To Joseph and Melinda Priestly have been born six children, who are now living: Mary, the wife of William Gould, of Oregon ; Emma, the wife of John Donnelly, of Oklahoma; Frank, the subject of this review; Hattie, the wife of Jack Williams, Spokane, Washington; Will- iam, Anadarko, Oklahoma; and Clara, who is at home with her par- ents at Pleasanton, Kansas. Edward, William, and Joseph Priestly, three brothers, located on a vast tract of land near Trading Post, Kan- sas in 1858, purchasing "squatter's" rights there. Joseph Priestly and his wife, the parents of Frank Priestly, resided on this land until Feb- ruary, 1904 when they moved to Pleasanton, Kansas, where they now reside. Mr. Priestly is now eighty-seven years of age and his wife is seventy-seven years of age. A biographical sketch of Mr. and Mrs. Priestly appears elsewhere in this volume.
Frank Priestly received a good common school education at the Priestly school near Trading Post, Kansas. The Priestly school was named in honor of the Priestly brothers, Edward, William, and Joseph, upon whose land the school building was located. In 1890, Frank Priestly purchased the Cottrell homestead in Valley township, Linn county, Kansas and there resided for five years, going thence to Pueblo, Colorado, where he remained five years. When he returned to Kansas, Mr. Priestly purchased a farm located two miles south of Pleasanton, where he lived until his coming to Butler, Missouri. He purchased a . feed yard at Butler, which he later traded for a farm he formerly owned, the place south of Pleasanton, Kansas. He was residing on the farm two years, when he repurchased the Peoples Feed Yard, the yard he had previously owned and which he still owns and manages. Mr. Priestly handles coal, feed, wood, and grain and in connection operates a feed stable.
November 27, 1889. Frank Priestly and Minnie M. Cottrell were united in marriage at the Cottrell homestead in Valley township, Linn county, Kansas. Mrs. Priestly is a daughter of Moses L. and Ruth A. (Whitaker) Cottrell, both of whom are now deceased. Mr. Cottrell was born in Darke county, Ohio in 1827 and Mrs. Cottrell was born in Indiana in 1839. To Moses L. and Ruth A. Cottrell were born the following children: John H., of Colorado; Mrs. Rosa J. Black, Green- wood county, Kansas; Mrs. Josie (Cottrell) Nuckols, deceased; and
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Mrs. Frank Priestly, the wife of the subject of this review. The father died in 1883 in Linn county, Kansas and he was joined in death by the mother on June 21, 1892. Both parents were laid to rest in East Mount Zion cemetery in Lincoln township. Mr. and Mrs. Priestly are the parents of three children: Winnie, who is teaching her fourth term of school in the Taggart district in Bates county; Ray, who is on the home farm at Pleasanton, Kansas; and Marion, at home with his par- ents. Mr. and Mrs. Priestly have in addition reared and educated a nephew, George Nuckols, son of Mrs. Josie (Cottrell) Nuckols, a sister of Mrs. Priestly. The Priestly home is in Butler at 204 West Dakota street.
As a citizen, Frank Priestly stands high above reproach, being noted for his honesty and honorable dealings and from the beginning of his career to the present time he has commanded the unqualified respect and esteem of his many friends and neighbors and business associates.
E. A. Bennett, one of the organizers of the Bennett-Wheeler Mercan- tile Company of Butler, a skilled mechanic, a successful business man of Bates county, was born May 14, 1849 at Springfield, Ohio. Mr. Bennett is a son of B. G. and Anna (White) Bennett, the former, a native of Chester, Pennsylvania and the latter, of Hagerstown, Maryland. B. G. Bennett was born in 1818. He came to Missouri in 1872 and settled in Holt county, where he resided until his death. Mr. Bennett died at Oregon, Missouri, about 1897. He was an expert mechanic and a citizen universally respected and esteemed. Mrs. Bennett died in 1911 while visiting her son in Oklahoma. Both father and mother were interred in the cemetery at Oregon, Missouri.
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