USA > Missouri > Bates County > History of Bates County, Missouri > Part 58
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When J. K. Norfleet was a child six years of age, he came to Mis- souri with his parents and they located in Miller county. He attended school at Knob Noster, Missouri, whenever the opportunity presented itself and though Mr. Norfleet is the only member of his father's family who was not given many educational advantages, who received but little schooling, he is probably as successful as any in the business world. At the outbreak of the Civil War, Mr. Norfleet enlisted with the Confed- erates and served four years under General Price in Arkansas, Louisiana, and Missouri. Mr. Norfleet was at Baton Rouge, Louisiana when the war ended. He returned to Miller county, Missouri, and remained there
two nights, going thence to Saline county, where he resided for a short time. From Saline county, J. K. Norfleet went to Knob Noster, Mis- souri, where he made his home with his parents for four years, and then with them to Lafayette county near Mayview, where both mother and father died. Mr. Norfleet was engaged in the hardware business at Inde- pendence, prior to coming to Butler in 1901 and entering his present business which he has so admirably organized.
In 1869 J. K. Norfleet and Laura McClellan, daughter of Doctor McClellan, of Versailles, Missouri, were united in marriage and to this union have been born nine children, seven of whom are now living: Mrs. C. M. Brosins, Kansas City, Missouri ; Clyde K., a traveling salesman, Independence, Missouri; C. V., Sanford, Florida : J. D., Carl, and Roy. who are associated in business with their father in the firm of Norfleet
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& Ream; and Mrs. Birdie Pauline Ream, Butler, Missouri. Those deceased are: Mrs. Leona Monroe and Ella Ruby, who died at the age of five years. Mr. and Mrs. Norfleet reside in Butler.
Norfleet & Ream, dealers in groceries, hardware, automobiles, and Case threshing machines, began business in the city of Butler in 1901. They first rented a store room, 14 x 60 feet in dimensions, located on the west side of the public square and began in the mercantile business as a Racket store. At the time of this writing in 1918, the site of the establishment is two doors north of the former location, the present build- ing having a frontage of fifty-seven feet and a depth of one hundred feet. The Norfleet & Ream garage is located on Ohio street, the room being 50 x 100 feet in dimensions. The north room of the building on the public square, a building two stories in height, is used for the offices on the second floor and for salesrooms on the first floor. Norfleet & Ream own all the buildings in which they transact business. They purchased the building on the public square ten years ago and the garage building three years ago, dating from 1917. The members of the firm of Norfleet & Ream are, as follow: J. K. Norfleet, F. C. Ream, J. D., Carl M., and Roy J. Norfleet, sons of J. K. Norfleet. This is the largest business con- cern in Butler and the annual budget of business amounts to two hun- dred fifty thousand dollars.
J. K. Norfleet is one of the most enterprising and progressive citi- zens of Bates counuty. His soundness of judgment and clearness of fore- sight have won for him the highest regard of the leading business inter- ests of this part of Missouri.
Jacob R. Baum, proprietor of "The Baum Stock Farm" in Mount Pleasant township, is one of the progressive "hustlers" among the suc- cessful agriculturists and stockmen of Bates county. Mr. Baum is a native of Ross county, Ohio. He was born in 1867 near Chillicothe and in Ross county was reared and educated. Practically all his life has been spent in agricultural pursuits.
"The Baum Stock Farm" produces high-grade Percheron horses and white-face Hereford cattle, which Mr. Baum began breeding about eight years ago, dating from the time of this writing in 1918. This stock farm is located three miles northwest of Butler, in Mount Pleasant town- ship, and comprises one hundred sixty acres of valuable farm land. originally known as the "McFarland Farm." John Baum, father of Jacob R., purchased "The Baum Stock Farm" in 1886, but never came to Bates county, and spent all of his life in Ohio, dying in 1898. Jacob
HISTORY OF BATES COUNTY
R. Baum came to Bates county, Missouri, in 1889 and assumed control of the stock farm and has been profitably managing it ever since. His father would never leave Ohio to come West, and the son states that if a man once "drinks from the Miami river he either never leaves or always returns." Mr. Baum has at the present time on the farm thir- teen head of registered Percherons, the largest herd perhaps in Bates county, eleven head of registered Herefords and good grade cows, and ten head of good grade horses. "Jonas," an imported registered stallion formerly owned by W. H. Bayliss, of Bluemound, Kansas, heads the Percherons and "Subject, the Forty-first." registered steer purchased in Iowa and owned by Mr. Baum for eighteen months, heads the Herefords. He does not ship his products but finds a ready market at home for all he is able to produce. "The Baum Stock Farm" is equipped with a large stock barn, 36 x 71 feet in dimensions, having a shed attached for stock, hay, and grain, a hay barn. 36 x 48 feet in dimensions, tool shed, corn- cribs, hog houses, and all modern facilities for handling stock. Mrs. Baum has charge of the poultry industry and is making a name for her- self as a successful fancier, raising pure-bred White Leghorn chickens and Toulouse geese.
Jacob R. Baum was first united in marriage with Maggie Carr, of Ross county, Ohio. To Jacob R. and Maggie (Carr) Baum was born one child, a daughter, Nettie. Mrs. Baum died in 1905. Mr. Baum and May McCann. of Butler, Missouri, were united in marriage in 1906 and Miss Nettie makes her home with them at "The Baum Stock Farm."
Fraternally, Mr. Baum is affiliated with the Ancient Free and Accep- ted Masons, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and the Modern Woodmen of America. Mr. Baum is devoting his life to the ancient and honorable pursuit of agriculture and the farming and stock interests of Bates county are represented in this volume by no more worthy man.
Clark Wix, the widely-known justice of the peace of Deepwater township. ex-judge of the county court of Bates county, Missouri, ex-deputy internal revenue collector of Missouri, and ex-postmaster of Butler, Missouri, proprietor of "Walnut Grove Stock Farm" in Hudson and Deepwater townships, is an honorable representative of one of the prominent pioneer families of western Missouri. Mr. Wix was born February 5, 1850, on his father's farm in Pleasant Gap township, Bates county, Missouri, a son of Joseph and Sarah (Beatty) Wix, the former, a native of Tennessee and the latter, of Kentucky. Joseph Wix was born in Overton county, Tennessee, on June 15, 1820. In 1835, the Wix
CLARK WIX.
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family left Tennessee and settled on a tract of land in Fulton county, Illinois, a farm located near Fulton. One year later, Joseph Wix left the homestead in Illinois to try his fortune in the West, as Horace Greeley aptly said, "to grow up with the country," and in 1836 came to Bates county, Missouri, with a cattleman, who brought stock to Polk county in this state, helping him drive the cattle. At Bolivar, Missouri, they encountered the surveyors returning from old Papinsville, who told Mr. Wix that the country from which they came was as fine land as they had ever carried a chain over and for him that was suffi- cient recommendation. Joseph Wix parted with his friend, the cattle- man from Illinois, and set out for Papinsville. On his arrival in Bates county, he found that the Indians of this part of the state were cele- brating with a drunken jubilee, and-knowing from experience the sav- age characteristics of an intoxicated red man-Mr. Wix became alarmed about his own safety and started to go on farther north, when, a few miles out from the site of Papinsville and just north of the site of Pleas- ant Gap, he saw a horse coming which he recognized as belonging to an old friend and neighbor, an Illinois man, and he inquired of the boy- driver to whom the animal belonged. The lad replied that the horse was owned by "Dick" Elliott, a settler from Illinois. Mr. Wix's sur- mise was proven correct. Mr. Elliott assisted the newcomer in locating and he settled on the farm, where he made his home the remainder of his life, in Bates county, on the place now owned by his son, Seth Wix. Joseph Wix was one of the first settlers of this county and of the town- ship, in which his farm lay, one of the first merchants. There was a small store at Pleasant Gap at the time of his settling in Missouri and he opened one at his country home and for it hauled his merchandise from Boonville, Cooper county, Missouri, employing yokes of oxen, traveling by way of Dayton and Boonville. Mr. Wix was one of the leading men of affairs in western Missouri, a man of much intelligence and skill, an exceptionally capable workman in those days before the cry for specialization and in 1841 and 1842 his abilities were recognized as far as Fort Scott, Kansas, where he was called to assist in roofing the fort. He served his township, Pleasant Gap, for twenty years as justice of the peace, he was judge of the Bates county court from 1861 until 1863 and again from 1866 until 1869, and he was a member of the Missouri State Militia in Capt. John B. Newberry's company. For three years, during the Civil War, Squire Wix and his family resided in Jefferson county, Kansas. They returned to their home in April,
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1865, to find all the buildings on the farm had been burned, the fences destroyed, and their stock gone. It was not a pleasant scene or a happy outlook for the future, but Joseph Wix was a true, brave, undaunted pioneer and he nobly set to work to begin life anew. To Joseph and Sarah (Beatty) Wix were born the following children: Sarah Elizabeth, deceased; John D., who was accidentally killed while serving with the Missouri State Militia during the Civil War; Perry, who died about 1855; Clark, the subject of this review; Thomas H., Yates Center, Woodson county, Kansas; A. L., Butler, Missouri; and Rev. Lewis L., a well-known minister and successful farmer of Deep- water township, a sketch of whom appears elsewhere in this volume. The mother died May 8, 1857, when her youngest born was a babe three days old. Interment was made in Deweese cemetery in Bates county. Sarah (Beatty) Wix was a daughter of Robert Beatty, a native of Kentucky, who located in Saline county, Missouri, in the earliest days of the history of Missouri and from Saline county came to Bates county. Mr. Beatty died in 1853 and his remains were laid to rest in Smith cemetery in Bates county. Mrs. Wix was one of the bravest of Bates county's pioneer women. Joseph Wix remarried, his second wife being Mrs. Eliza A. Cox, and to this union were born two children: Joseph F., who resides on the home place in Pleasant Gap township; and Mrs. Fannie A. Pherrington, of Eureka Springs, Arkansas. By a third mar- riage, Joseph Wix and Rosanna Deweese were the parents of four children, who are now living: Benjamin F., who is engaged in the teaching profession and at present is employed in teaching the Cumpton school; B. M., the merchant and postmaster of Pleasant Gap, Missouri; Seth, who is engaged in farming on the home place in Pleas- ant Gap township; and Mrs. Minnie Ballweg, of Pleasant Gap township. Joseph Wix died February 26, 1895, at the Wix homestead. He was seventy-five years of age and, with the exception of three years resi- dence in Kansas during the Civil War, the greater part of his life after attaining maturity was spent within the geographic limits of Bates county, Missouri. His career was a busy and useful one and a striking example of honorable dealings, steadfastness of purpose, and invincible courage that is well worthy of emulation by the young man obliged to rely upon his own resources for a start upon the rugged highway which leads to success. Interment was made in Myers cemetery in Hudson township, Bates county.
Clark Wix obtained his elementary education in the "subscription
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schools" and the public schools of Bates county. When he was twenty- one years of age, he began life independently engaged in the pursuits of agriculture and stock raising. He farmed on the home place for three years and then purchased a part of his present farm in Deep- water township. C. E. Sharp entered from the government that part of "Walnut Grove Stock Farm" upon which the Wix residence is located and 240 acres of the farm were entered by B. Reed, a speculator from Tuscarawas county, Ohio. Ninety acres were entered by Mr. Dinsmore, of Ohio. "Walnut Grove Stock Farm," so-called from the grove of walnut trees planted on the place by Mr. Wix, comprises seven hundred sixty-five acres of choice land in Deepwater and Hudson town- ships. Mr. Wix has himself improved the farm, adding a handsome resi- dence, a house of eight rooms, in 1887; a new barn, 60 x 60 feet in dimensions, constructed of native timber sawed on the farm, which is probably the largest, best-built, most substantial barn in Bates county ; a second barn, 24 x 30 feet in dimensions, with two twelve-foot sheds attached; a stock barn, 24 x 50 feet in dimensions ; and numerous other farm buildings needed in the efficient handling of large herds of stock. There are three different sets of improvements on "Walnut Grove Stock Farm." Mr. Wix has on the farm, at the time of this writing in 1918, from twenty-five to thirty head of horses and mules, perhaps seventy-five head of cattle, and twenty-five head of sheep. He raises only high grade Hereford cattle, the head of the herd being registered, and Duroc Jersey hogs. He is the owner of a splendid registered jack, also. Three hun- dred acres of "Walnut Grove Stock Farm" are in bluegrass and pasture land.
The marriage of Clark Wix and Caroline E. Brown was solemnized February 26, 1871. Caroline E. (Brown) Wix is a daughter of John W. and Elizabeth (White) Brown and a native of Champaign county, Ohio. Mrs. Wix's parents came to Missouri in 1866 and settled in Bates county on a farm in Hudson township and they are both now deceased. John W. Brown was an elder of the Methodist church for forty years and the leader of the movement which resulted in the building of Brown's Chapel in Hudson township, a church named in honor of the founder. He was the father of nine children, two daughters being the sole survivors of the entire family, namely: Mrs. Clark Wix, the wife of the subject of this review; and Mrs. George W. Pharis, of Hudson township. Mr. Brown died in 1900 at the age of eighty-six years. The remains of both the mother and father lie interred in Myers cemetery in Bates county.
HISTORY OF BATES COUNTY
To Clark and Caroline E. (Brown) Wix have been born nine children : Ida May, deceased : Nellie F., the wife of Charles Burge, of Long Beach. California : Bessie, deceased: Levi, deceased: Sarah E., the wife of Charles R. Holloway, a professor in the Portland high school, Port- land. Oregon; Mrs. Albert Cox. Long Beach, California: John E., Salt Lake City, Utah: Joseph Hilton, recently married and living on the home farm; and one child died in infancy.
For many years, Clark Wix has been a citizen of distinctive prestige in Bates county. He has held several different offices of public honor and trust and he has invariably proven himself to be a capable and trust- worthy official. He has filled the office of justice of the peace in Deep- water township for many years, thus following in the footsteps of his honored father, has served as judge of the county court from 1886 until 1889, was deputy internal revenue collector of Missouri for five years, during the administrations of Mckinley and Roosevelt, and for four years was the efficient postmaster of Butler, Missouri. Mr. Wix is one of Bates county's most prominent and influential citizens, a man of many excellent qualities, a citizen of marked ability, a worthy son of one of Missouri's noblest pioneers. Judge Wix is a stockholder and director of the Missouri State Bank and the Walton Trust Company.
T. C. Pollard, the well-known and energetic owner, manager, and "live wire" of The Pollard AAgency of Butler, the largest insurance agency in southwestern Missouri, is a native of West Virginia. Mr. Pollard was born in 1874 near Powhatan, West Virginia, a son of Thomas T. and Phoebe ( Ball) Pollard, who were the parents of the following chil- dren: Mrs. Mary Hamm, Hopkins, Missouri; Mrs. Ida M. Baird, Ban- croft, Iowa: Mrs. Luella M. Baird, Pawpaw. Illinois: Mrs. Effie J. Barnes, Hopkins, Missouri: and T. C., the subject of this review. The father died about 1874 and in 1880 Mrs. Pollard came to Hopkins, Mis- souri with her children and at that place her death occurred in 1914.
When T. C. Pollard was a babe, six months of age, his father died and, thus, the boy was early in life placed upon his own resources. Since he was a lad. eleven years old. Mr. Pollard has made his own way in the world. Seventeen years ago, he began his insurance work with L. C. Gray, the present state agent for the Springfield Fire Insur- ance Company of Springfield, Massachusetts for Missouri and Kansas, at Kansas City, Missouri. Mr. Pollard has been writing insurance con- stantly since that time. He left Kansas City in 1906 and went to
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Greeley, Colorado, where he opened an agency, or rather organized an insurance company, the Colony Investment Company, which is still doing a thriving business in that state. Seven years later, Mr. Pollard left Greeley and went to Rolla, Missouri, where he followed the insur- ance business for two years, in charge of the Livingston Clino Bland Insurance agency. In June, 1916, he came to Butler, Missouri, when he purchased his present agency. He attends personally to every policy written, keeping close account of the policy and date of expiration. Mr. Pollard has traveling men looking after new business as well as the old, when losses occur, he is just as desirous to adjust and pay the insurance as to write a new policy. All losses are adjusted at Mr. Pollard's own office and his maxim of business is, "Do it now."
In April, 1900, T. C. Pollard was united in marriage with Nora L. Lancaster at Ada, Kansas. Mrs. Pollard is a daughter of John G. and Alpha Lancaster, both of whom are now deceased. Mr. Lancaster died at Boulder, Colorado on October 17, 1912 and five years later, to the day, he was joined in death by his wife. Mrs. Lancaster died October 17, 1917. To T. C. and Nora L. Pollard have been born four children : Charles L., Naomi B., Harold C., and Donald N. Mr. and Mrs. Pollard reside in Butler at 112 West Fort Scott street.
The Pollard Agency was first established by Thomas Evelsizer about 1890 and was then known as the Continental Insurance Agency. Mr. Evelsizer sold the agency after several years. Later it was acquired by Ben Canterbury. Mr. Canterbury and Mr. Travis conducted the business in partnership for many years under the firm name of Canter- bury & Travis. The latter partner sold his interest back to Mr. Canter- bury, from whom T. C. Pollard purchased the agency in June, 1916. The Pollard Agency has now thirteen companies and is doing the largest insurance business in this part of the country, covering the counties of Bates, Cass, St. Clair, and Vernon for two fire insurance companies, one life insurance company, and one casualty insurance company.
Although T. C. Pollard is a very recent addition to the good citi- zenship of Butler, he has in the brief period of his residence in this city won a conspicuous place in the respect and esteem of the business men of Bates county and is now classed with the most valued, substantial, and intelligent citizens.
/ E. D. Wilcox, a successful farmer and stockman of Mount Pleasant
(39)
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township, is one of the excellent citizens of Bates county who are widely and favorably known beyond the confines of their immediate community. Mr. Wilcox is a native of Council Bluffs, Pottawattamie county, Iowa. He was born in 1865, an only surviving child of Milo W. and Mary (Weldon) Wilcox. Milo Wilcox was a native of Ohio and Mrs. Wilcox was born in Kentucky and in youth came from her native state with her parents to Ohio. Milo Wilcox and Mary Weldon were united in marriage at Springfield, Illinois, and immediately afterward located in Iowa, where their son, E. D., was born. They moved from Iowa to Bates county, Missouri, in 1866 and in September of that year settled on a tract of land in Mount Pleasant township, the northwest quarter of section 8, for which Mr. Wilcox paid five dollars an acre. Mrs. Wilcox did not live long to enjoy the new home. Two years after their coming West, in 1868, she died, leaving her son a babe then but three years of age. In 1869 Milo Wilcox was united in marriage with Mary Ashley, a native of Bates county, and to them were born five children: Mrs. Lillie Silvers, Springfield, Missouri; Roy, Butler, Missouri; Manning, But- ler, Missouri; Newton, Butler, Missouri; and Mrs. Nellie Huffman, Springfield, Missouri. Mary (Ashley) Wilcox died in 1895. Mr. Wilcox continued to reside on the farm, where he had settled in 1866, until his death in 1906. He was highly respected in his township, where he was numbered among the leading citizens. Mr. Wilcox was public-spirited and enterprising and deeply interested in educational work, serving faithfully and well on the district school board for many years in his community. He and Isaac Conklin built the school house, located near the Wilcox home, which was named in honor of Mr. Wilcox. The school was organized about 1866 and there all the Wilcox children attended school. In all that constitutes genuine manhood and good citizenship, Milo Wilcox occupied a conspicuous place among his fel- lowmen. Honest and upright in all his dealings, with integrity unques- tioned and a record untinged by the breath of suspicion or calumny, Mr. Wilcox fully merited the esteem and confidence in which he was held by the people of his township and county.
The old Butler and West Point trail ran due west of the Wilcox homestead, in the early days. The land was practically all open prairie when the Wilcox family settled in Bates county and the traces of the old trail may still be seen in the pasture at the Wilcox home. Milo Wilcox drove a span of mules to Missouri from Iowa and the year fol-
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lowing his coming west he disposed of his team for five hundred dollars. E. D. Wilcox recalls the many deer he saw in the county in the days of his boyhood. He remembers hearing his father relate how he hauled the lumber for the two rooms of the Wilcox residence from Pleasant Hill, Missouri. In a pioneer home, amid pioneer surroundings, E. D. Wilcox was reared to manhood and was educated. He obtained his education at the Wilcox school house, attending no other school.
Milo Wilcox made it a rule that when his sons had attained the age of eighteen years they were to begin life for themselves and thus, at the age of eighteen years, E. D. Wilcox began to make his own way in the world. He rented land and engaged in farming and then after several years was enabled to purchase a farm in Sheridan county, Kan- sas, to which he moved in 1902. After three years, Mr. Wilcox returned to Bates county and purchased one hundred twenty acres of land lying direct- ly north of his old home place, forty acres of which he afterward sold. He then purchased additional land on the east side of his farm, complet- ing an eighty-acre tract, forty acres of which were inherited by Mr. Wilcox from his father's estate. Seventy acres of this east eighty-acre tract were formerly a part of the home farm. Mr. Wilcox is successfully engaged in general farming and stock raising. He keeps on the place an excellent grade of Poland China hogs, which have proven in recent years to be a profitable investment.
In 1890, E. D. Wilcox and Mary Walton were united in marriage. Mary (Walton) Wilcox is a daughter of T. J. and Allie Walton, of Butler, Missouri. Mrs. Walton died in 1894 and Mr. Walton still resides at Butler. To Mr. and Mrs. Wilcox have been born two children : Irene, the wife of Carl Thompson, of Passaic, Missouri; and Walton, who resides at home with his parents.
With the energy characteristic of a Wilcox, E. D. Wilcox has improved his farm and put the place in splendid condition, constantly adding to the beauty and attractiveness of his country home until now the Wilcox place is one of the most comfortable, desirable rural resi- dences within the boundaries of the township. Mr. Wilcox is a quiet, plain man of the people, one noted for good sense and broad, intelli- gent views of men and affairs. Honorable and upright in all his deal- ings, aiming to do right as he sees and understands the right, his life has been far above criticism. Mr. and Mrs. Wilcox are well-known and highly valued by the best families of Bates county.
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