USA > Missouri > Bates County > History of Bates County, Missouri > Part 61
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Although George K. Newlon is a comparatively newcomer in Bates county, few men of twice his age and years of residence in Summit township have as excellent standing as has he. His record for fair dealings has been far above criticism and in every relation of life his upright conduct has commended him to his fellowmen as a young gentle- man of intelligence, industry, and irreproachable character.
T. D. Embree, ex-clerk of the circuit court of Bates county, Mis- souri, was born December 27, 1867, in Bates county, a son of M. L. and Alice (Hulse) Embree, one of the pioneer families of this part of Mis- souri. M. L. Embree was born in 1841 in Pettis county, Missouri, at the Embree homestead located twelve miles west of Sedalia, a son of Thomas and Elvira (Butler) Embree. Thomas Embree came with his family to Pettis county, Missouri, in the early forties and in 1849 they settled in Bates county on a tract of land in Spruce township, which had been entered from the government by Samuel Pyle, to which was added eighty acres of prairie land entered by his wife. Thomas and Elvira (Butler) Embree were the parents of the following children: M. L., the father of T. D., the subject of this review; M. J., who died in Canada in 1903; and Mrs. Lucy A. Alexander, who resides in the state ot Washington.
M. L. Embree was reared amid the stirring scenes of the pioneer period in Bates county, experiencing in his youth all the privations and
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hardships of life in a new country. He walked three miles to attend school, which was held in a little log school house, the only one in the township. John Reeder, from near Pleasant Gap, was the "master" and in the rude cabin M. L. Embree attended one term. There was a puncheon floor and puncheon benches and a large open fire-place in the room-the sum total of equipment and comforts. Mr. Embree attended school a few months during the winter seasons, the remainder of the time being devoted to hard labor on his mother's farm. He grew to man- hood strong of body and with a clear mind, he proved to be a most valuable assistant to his mother on the home place. He recalls the grief of the family upon receiving the news that his grandfather, Martillus Embree, had died on the way to California in 1850, his death being due to cholera. This was the time of the wild rush to the gold fields of that state and more than one household was grief-stricken in those days, for thousands died on the way there and the bones of human beings, horses, and oxen marked the pathway of the goldseekers. His father, Thomas Embree, died in 1852. Mrs. Embree survived her husband forty-three years, when in 1895 she died in the state of Washington.
In 1861, M. L. Embree enlisted with the Confederates at Johns- town, Missouri, and he served throughout the Civil War in Parsons' Brigade, Sixteenth Missouri Infantry, under General Price. Mr. Embree took an active and important part in the battle of Carthage on July 5, 1861, and in the engagements of his company in Missouri, Arkansas, and Louisiana. He was in Louisiana when General Lee surrendered in 1865. When the war had ended, Mr. Embree returned to Bates county, Missouri, and again took up his residence at the home place in Spruce township, where he resided until 1893, at which time he left Missouri to make his future home in Garfield county, Oklahoma, and in that state he has ever since resided.
The marriage of M. L. Embree and Alice Hulse was solemnized in 1866. Alice (Hulse) Embree is a daughter of Daniel and Catherine (Cloud) Hulse, pioneers from Kentucky, who settled in Spruce town- ship in the early days. Mr. Hulse was a Confederate veteran of the Civil War, having served two years in the Southern army. To M. L. and Alice Embree have been born eight children, seven of whom are now living: T. D., the subject of this review ; R. L., who died in Oklahoma, December 31, 1916: Mrs. Lizzie A. Barton, Grapevine, Texas; Mrs. Laura B. Cole, Kansas City, Missouri; Mrs. Anna Fleming, Comanche county, Oklahoma; Mrs. Viola Woodson, Hunter, Oklahoma; Mrs. Ida
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Weger, Comanche county, Oklahoma; and George, Garfield county, Oklahoma.
In 1849, in the boyhood days of M. L. Embree, he remembers that there were far more Indians than white settlers in Bates county, that deer and wild game of all kinds abounded, and that hunting was an occu- pation more than a pastime of the pioneers. He states that Major Glass, the Kennedys, and the Herrells were the only settlers on the prairie between Spruce township and Butler, though the city was not yet founded, the court house being located at Harrisonville. Mr. Embree has lived to see the removal of the county seat from Harrisonville to Papinsville and thence to Butler and the building of the three court houses in Butler. He was a witness of the first legal hanging in Bates county at Papinsville. Doctor Nottingham was hanged at the county seat for the murder of his wife. M. L. Embree is now seventy-six years of age and still enjoys fairly good health and possesses a remarkably retentive memory of early-day names, characters, and events.
T. D. Embree is the only member of his father's family now resid- ing in Bates county, Missouri. He is the oldest of the eight children born to his parents and now the only one left in Summit township. He served four years as circuit clerk of Bates county, his term of office beginning January 1, 1907, and after retiring from this position he bought his present country home, a farm comprising eighty acres of land, known as the Orear farm, located six miles east of Butler in Summit township.
In 1894, T. D. Embree and Cora Teeter were united in marriage. Mrs. Embree is a daughter of Darius and Emma (Abbott) Teeter, of Spruce township. Mrs. Teeter died in 1901 and her remains were laid to rest in Cloud cemetery. Mr. Teeter still makes his home on the farm in Spruce township. Mr. and Mrs. T. D. Embree are the parents of two children; one child died in infancy ; and Alice Catherine, who was born in 1908, at home with her parents. Mr. and Mrs. Embree are widely and favorably known in this section of the state and they are numbered among the best and most valued families of Bates county.
John W. Harshaw, a pioneer of Bates county and one of the honored citizens of Deepwater township, is a native of Tennessee. He was born January 6, 1844. When he was a lad, fourteen years of age, he and his brother, Richard, or "Dick," as he was familiarly called, drove through from Tennessee to Missouri and they located first in Spruce, now Deep- water, township, moving shortly afterward across the Bates county line
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into Henry county, where they took up their residence with the Cald- wells.
When the Civil War broke out in 1861, Mr. Harshaw was but seventeen years of age. He enlisted with the Confederates in General Parson's Brigade in August of the ensuing year and served from that time until the close of the conflict in 1865. Mr. Harshaw took part in the battle of Lonejack, which occurred three days after his enlistment, serving under Captain Martin. During the remainder of the war, he was with General Price and saw active service in numerous important engagements, in the battles of Pea Ridge, Prairie Grove, Wilson Creek, Jenkins' Ferry, Helena, Arkansas, July 4, 1863; and Mansfield, Louisi- ana. Mr. Harshaw was with Price at the time of the surrender at Shreveport, Louisiana, in 1865.
After the Civil War had ended, John W. Harshaw was employed at St. Louis, Missouri, for a short time and thence came to Bates county, where he leased the Samuel Coleman farm for five years, and with the exception of three years he has been a resident of this county ever since. He purchased his present home in 1907, a farm comprising eighty acres of land, from Frank Winn, a place which had been entered by one of the Colemans and improved by Elvin Wilson, an excellent stock farm in numerous respects. The Harshaw place has the triple advan- tages of productive soil, convenient location from the county seat, and an abundance of water and fine shade. The farm buildings are all situ- ated upon an eminence, from which one can look upon the surrounding country and there distinguish the dome of the court house at Butler, fourteen miles away. The residence is a beautiful rural home, a house of seven rooms, having verandas upon three sides and surrounded witli handsome, old shade trees. This is one of the best, most neatly-kept country places in the township. The Harshaws spent three years in Yakima county, Washington state, and prior to that time Mr. Harshaw had at different times owned three farms in Bates county, namely, the McCork place; the Cutsinger farm; and the Hyatt farm, lying three miles east of Butler, which place he purchased from George Holland. The first farm he owned was located just east of Spruce now the W. A. Eads farm, and bought from William Price in 1878.
The marriage of J. W. Harshaw and Eliza McGlothlen was solemnized February 28, 1872. Eliza (McGlothlen) Harshaw is a daugh- ter of George and Elizabeth (Cain) McGlothlen, born on June 2, 1854, in Monroe county, Iowa. Mr. and Mrs. McGlothlen were
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reared in Indiana and from that state moved to Monroe county, Iowa, thence to Lucas county, Iowa, coming thence to Bates county, Missouri, in 1870 and locating in Spruce township near the town of Spruce. They later returned to their old home in Iowa and from that state went to Washington, where Mr. McGlothlen died in Yakima county. To J. W. and Eliza Harshaw have been born seven children, five of whom are now living: Laura Elizabeth, who died in infancy; Harlan H., in the West, married Dora Slayback, and has two children; Mattie L., the wife of C. T. Norton, of Deepwater township; John, who died in infancy; Mary, the wife of D. W. Newlon, of Spruce township; Stella C., the wife of Claude Hoover, of Hanford, Washing- ton ; and Nita R., at home with her parents. The three eldest daughters of Mr. and Mrs. Harshaw were, prior to marriage, school teachers and Miss Nita R. was for two years the postmistress at Spruce. All the girls attended the Warrensburg State Normal School and the youngest daughter took in addition a business course, studying stenography and typewriting. Miss Nita R. Harshaw was a student at Draughton's Practical Business College, Fort Scott, Kansas, and of the North Yakima Business College in Washington.
Among the old settlers along the line between Bates and Henry counties were, in 1860 and in the years prior to that, Hiram Snodgrass, William Baskerville, Barney Fereck, David Clark, Barber Price, James White, Mr. Treman, Mr. Tyree, Mr. Ludwick, and several different families of the Colemans, all of whom Mr. Harshaw vividly recalls. He did his trading at Johnstown in 1858, when there was but one good town in western Henry and Bates counties and that was Johnstown. There were several flourishing mercantile establishments at Johnstown in those days: Messrs. Warrens, Cummins, and Harbert, each had a prosperous store; old Mr. Chard conducted a drug store; Mr. Sayers owned a tin shop; Howard & Willard had a carriage shop; John How- ard was the village blacksmith; and James H. Calloway was the genial and popular innkeeper. Ann (Ludwick) Howard, the widow of John Howard, still resides at Johnstown. The town was burned during the Civil War and has never been rebuilt.
Mr. Harshaw will be seventy-five years of age in January, 1919, and he still reads with comfort without the aid of glasses. He is a typical pioneer, one of the prominent men of Bates county who have done so much to advance the agricultural interests of this section of the state.
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George W. Borland, a highly honored and valued Union veteran of the Civil War, an enterprising farmer and stockman of Deepwater township, is a native of Pennsylvania. Mr. Borland was born October 22, 1841 in Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, a son of James and Mar- garet (Barr) Borland, who were natives of Allegheny county and Jef- ferson county, Pennsylvania, respectively. James Borland was born in 1818 and died in January, 1891. Margaret (Barr) Borland was born in 1821 and died in 1904. Both parents died in their native state. Mrs. Borland was laid to rest in a burial ground in Ross township, Allegheny county, located near Pittsburg.
In the public schools of Pennsylvania, George W. Borland received a good common school education. He enlisted in the Civil War in 1863 and served with Company K, Sixty-first Pennsylvania Infantry, taking part in about twenty-five engagements. Mr. Borland was in the battles of the Wilderness, May 5-6, 1864; Spottsylvania Court House, May 8 to 21, 1864; Cold Harbor, June 3, 1864; and with Sheridan in the Shen- andoah valley. From the Rapidan to the James river, Grant's list of casualties in the campaign of The Wilderness was fifty-four thousand nine hundred twenty-nine men. Lee lost probably nineteen thousand. Mr. Borland was mustered out and honorably discharged at Braddock Barracks in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on July 4, 1865.
In April, 1866, George W. Borland left Pennsylvania and came to Missouri, where he located on a farm in St. Louis county. He was a resident of that county for thirteen years before coming to Bates county, Missouri in February, 1879. At that time, Mr. Borland purchased the Slayback farm, which comprised two hundred acres of land located one mile west of Spruce in Deepwater township. Since, he has added to his holdings and now the Borland place embraces two hundred seventy- one acres of choice land in Bates county, forty acres of which are "bot- tom land" and the remainder upland. Mr. Borland has himself placed upon the farm every tree and building now there. The improvements, which are of the very best, include a nice residence, a house of seven rooms, two and a half stories, built in 1879 and remodeled in 1890; a barn, 32 x 60 feet in dimensions, constructed of a native timber, a general- purpose building, built in 1891; a feeder: a tenant house; and four splendid wells and an excellent cistern. The Borland place is one of the most attractive rural homes in the township and one of the finest stock farms in the county. Mr. Borland had more than one hundred acres of land in corn this past season of 1917. He recalls that when
GEORGE W. BORLAND AND WIFE.
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he and his family came to Bates county in 1879 they were obliged to travel a distance of ten miles across the prairie weekly to Butler to obtain their mail. Now, their mail is delivered daily at their door. In 1879, there was no store at Spruce. Within a few years after the Bor- lands settled in Bates county, Mr. Smith opened the first mercantile establishment at that place.
The marriage of George W. Borland and Doretta Puellman was solemnized October 21, 1869 in St. Louis county, Missouri. Mrs. Bor- land is a native of St. Louis county, a daughter of Lewis and Doretta Puellman, who emigrated from Germany to the United States and set- tled in St. Louis county, Missouri, about 1837. One sister of Doretta (Puellman) Borland is now living, Johanna, the wife of James Collins, of St. Louis county, Missouri. Mr. Collins was born in Ohio near Ravenna. To George W. and Doretta Borland have been born four children: Joseph A., who married Mary E. Cumpton and they reside on a farm in Deepwater township; George W., Jr., who died December 8, 1906 and is buried in White cemetery in Bates county; Margaret Jane, deceased, the wife of W. E. Dickison, of Deepwater township; and Cora Belle, who is at home with her parents, the sunshine and comfort of her father's household and her mother's invaluable helper.
Throughout his long life of three score years and seventeen George W. Borland has discharged the duties of citizenship with the same loyalty and zeal which characterized him on Southern battlefields when he followed the Stars and Stripes to victory. He has endeavored to live up to the highest ideals of manhood, to discharge with fidelity and honor all obligations incumbent upon him and he is well worthy of the universal respect and confidence accorded him by his fellowmen.
S. B. Kash, a prominent farmer and stockman of Deepwater town- ship, is one of the prosperous citizens of Bates county. Mr. Kaslı is a native of Wolfe county, Kentucky. He was born in 1860. a son of W. L. and Debby Jane (Swango) Kash, both of whom were natives of Wolfe county, Kentucky. W. L. Kash came to Bates county, Mis- souri, with his family in 1872 from their plantation home near Hazel- green, Kentucky, and located on the Redmond farm, which Mr. Kash rented. He afterward purchased a tract of land, embracing one hundred twenty acres, located one and a half miles from old Johnstown. Mr. and Mrs. W. L. Kash were the parents of the following children: S. B., the subject of this review ; Mrs. Ora Ann Gutridge, deceased: David, who resides in California : James E., Eldorado Springs, Missouri: Mrs.
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Mary E. Simpson, who resides in California; Mrs. Lillie Moore, Mont- rose, Missouri; and Joseph M., Johnstown, Missouri. W. L. Kash was a well-to-do and influential citizen of Bates county, one who always took an active and keen interest in the public welfare and in political matters. He served several years as member of the township board and invariably gave his support to all worthy enterprises. He was one of the leading stockmen of the county in his day and at the time of his death was owner of two hundred acres of valuable land in this county. Mr. Kash died July 9, 1916, at the Kash homestead near Johnstown. His widow still survives him and she is now eighty years of age. Mrs. Kash makes her home with her daughter, Mrs. Lillie Moore, in Henry county.
When S. B. Kash was a lad twelve years of age, his parents moved from Kentucky to Missouri, so he had received the beginning of his education in the schools of Wolfe county, Kentucky and after coming to Bates county, Missouri, attended Elm Grove school. He remained with his parents until he was twenty-one years of age and then he began farming independently on the S. W. Gutridge farm, the owner giving Mr. Kash one-fourth the produce and his board. Later, Mr. Kash rented land for several years and for two years operated a threshing machine in the county. He moved to his present country place in 1883 and farmed thereon for ten years before he purchased it. The original pur- chase included five hundred eighty acres of land, to which Mr. Kash has since added a tract of two hundred twenty acres, and his place now comprises eight hundred acres of choice land in Deepwater township and Spruce township. For many years, Mr. Kash has been widely recognized as a most progressive and energetic stockman and his stock interests in recent years have been very extensive. He considers that the breeding and raising of hogs has been his best and most profitable line and he now has on his place a large herd of big-bone Poland China hogs, which are of good grade. Mr. Kash began with pure-bred stock and he has kept up the grade to a high standard. He raises horses and mules, also.
The marriage of S. B. Kash and Susan E. Coleman was solemnized in 1883. Susan E. (Coleman) Kash is a daughter of Bonaparte and Elizabeth (McCombs) Coleman, the former, a native of Kentucky and the latter, of Missouri. The Colemans came to Bates county, Missouri, in 1855, and settled on the farm which is now owned by Mr. and Mrs. S. B. Kash. Mrs. Coleman died in 1860 and the father died in 1891.
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Both parents are interred in Coleman cemetery. Mrs. Kash is the only living child born to her parents and she was born on the farm where she now resides. To S. B. and Susan E. Kash have been born four children : R. A., who is engaged in farming on the home place and who married Lela Stevens and to them have been born two sons, William Carl and Roy Donald; two sons died in infancy; and O. N., who is at home with his parents.
The Kash family settled in Bates county, Missouri, when the farm, which S. B. Kash has so well improved and cultivated, was prairie land upon which herds of Texas cattle grazed in the summer time and the first home between the present Kash place and Butler was the home of old Mr. Barr, one of the earliest settlers of the county . The Kash family were residing on the Redmond farm in the memorable year of 1874, when the grasshoppers dispensed with all difficulties and perplexities as to the disposition and transportation of crops for that year and in the spring of 1875. The uninvited and most unwelcome pests took their departure in June, 1875, and an excellent crop of corn was raised that summer by the elder Mr. Kash, who sold twelve hundred bushels of corn at twelve and fifteen cents a bushel in the autumn of 1875. In speaking of the early days, S. B. Kash recalled a most striking example of the irony of fate and of how mistaken the judgment of the best of men may at times be. In the fifties, John Beaman was the owner of a tract of land in Bates county, a part of which is now the townsite of Butler. He traded his farm for another, near old Johnstown, which was at that time the big town of the county. John Beaman died at Johnstown when he was ninety-three years of age. He lived to see Butler growing into a city and Johnstown dwindling into a deserted village.
Although his father was a prominent Democrat of his township, S. B. Kash has never taken much interest in politics except to perform his duty as a public-spirited citizen and cast his vote. Mr. Kash long ago made it his policy to meet all business obligations when due and in no manner has any confidence or trust in him been betrayed. He has long ranked with the best and most enterprising men of this part of Missouri.
J. H. Baker, proprietor of "Gold Medal Stock Farm" in Deepwater township, is one of twelve worthy descendants of a good, old, sterling pioneer family of Bates county, Missouri. Mr. Baker is widely known in this part of the state as a successful and prosperous agriculturist
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and stockman. He was born May 8, 1870, in Pleasant Gap township, a son and seventh child of Zephaniah and Martha Ellen ( Hale) Baker, the former, a native of Indiana and the latter, of Iowa. Zephaniah Baker brought his family to Missouri in the early fifties and they settled on a tract of land located near the present townsite of Butler. When the Civil War broke out in 1860, on account of the terrible drought of that year, the Bakers moved back to Iowa, where they remained dur- ing the four years of the conflict. They returned to Bates county, Mis- souri, in 1866 and Mr. Baker sold his farm, which was near Butler, and located one mile north of Pleasant Gap and about two years afterward, on a farm lying three and a half miles southwest of Pleasant Gap in March, 1872. To Zephaniah and Martha Ellen Baker were born twelve children, all of whom were reared to maturity and are now living, the youngest child being thirty-eight years of age at the time of this writing in 1918: J. W., the capable sheriff of Bates county, Missouri; Mrs. Lillie Ferrell, Rich Hill, Missouri; John T., a well-to-do merchant of Rich Hill, Missouri; Mrs. Mary Griffin, of Pleasant Gap township; Mrs. Anna Olan, who resides in Oklahoma; W. A., a well-known farmer and stockman of Pleasant Gap township; J. H., the subject of this review; Mrs. Parthena Beard, Parsons, Kansas; Mrs. Ella Dillon, Southmound, Kansas; Charlie Z., of Pleasant Gap township; Mrs. Ida Davis, Enid, Oklahoma; and George W., of Summit township. Mr. Baker, father of the children, was a highly respected, industrious citizen. He was for many years employed in hauling merchandise for Brooks & Mains, merchants of Pleasant Gap, from Pleasant Hill to Pleasant Gap and he was known to practically everyone in his township. Zephaniah Baker died at his country home in February, 1907. A few years prior to his death he moved to Butler but became dissatisfied and bought a farm of forty acres near his son, W. A., where he died. The widowed mother survived her husband but a short time, when they were united in death. Mrs. Baker, one of Bates county's noblest and bravest pioneer women, died in 1910. Both father and mother are interred in Rogers cemetery in Bates county.
J. H. Baker received a good common-school education in the public schools of Pleasant Gap township in Bates county. His boyhood days were spent in assisting with the work on his father's farm and in attend- ing the country school near their home. Mr. Baker remained with his parents until he was nearly twenty-one years of age and then he began farming independently on the home place, a part of which he rented
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for some time and then purchased a tract of one hundred twenty acres of land formerly belonging to his father. Mr. Baker, in early manhood, left Missouri and went to Oklahoma, where he took up a claim in Gar- field county. After relinquishing his claim in Oklahoma, he returned to Bates county, Missouri, and in 1900 again located on a farm near the Double Branches church in Pleasant Gap township, where he resided for six years. He then disposed of that place to his brother, W. A. Baker, and purchased his present country home in Deepwater township, about ten years ago.
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