History of Bates County, Missouri, Part 62

Author: Atkeson, William Oscar, 1854-
Publication date: 1918
Publisher: Topeka, Cleveland, Historical publishing company
Number of Pages: 1174

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The marriage of J. H. Baker and Alma Edith Beard was solemnized December 17, 1890. Alma Edith (Beard) Baker is a daughter of Henry and Eliza (Kretzinger) Beard, a highly valued and worthy pioneer family of Deepwater township. The Beard family came to Missouri from Ohio, of which state Henry Beard was a native. He was a mem- ber of a family that had settled in Ohio among the first pioneers of the Northwest Territory and in that state was reared and educated. The Beards later moved to Indiana and there the father and mother of Henry Beard died. He then came West and located in Kansas, where he was united in marriage with Eliza Kretzinger and in the years imme- diately following the Civil War they settled in Bates county, Missouri, on a farm in Deepwater township, a place comprising one hundred eighty acres of land. To Henry and Eliza Beard were born ten chil- dren: Charles F., Parsons, Kansas; Mrs. Emma Frost, of Deepwater township; Mrs. J. H. Baker, the wife of the subject of this review ; J. A., of Summit township; I. E., of Deepwater township: Ava M., Lone Oak township; Mrs. Minnie Ferris, who resides fin Canada; Mrs. Maud Parker, of Deepwater township; Mrs. Dora Thomas, of Pleasant Gap township; and Mrs. Nina McKinley, of Hudson township. The father died in 1895 and the mother remained on the farm and alone reared and educated their children. Mrs. Beard still resides at the old home- stead in Deepwater township and she is now sixty-seven years of age, one of the most honored residents of Bates county. Mr. Beard was interred in Smith cemetery in Bates county. To J. H. and Alma Edith Baker have been born nine children: Roy Castle, who married Stella Ritchey and resides on a farm in Summit township; Ethel Viola, wife of Omer B. Randall, of Shawnee township; Ira Henry, of Summit town- ship; Oscar Leland; James Lloyd ; Z. Z .; Vera Laverne ; Arlie, deceased ; and an infant son, deceased. Four of the children are at home with their parents.

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"Gold Medal Stock Farm" in Deepwater township was purchased by J. H. Baker in the autumn of 1907 from C. F. Beard, who had bought it from Joseph W. Webb. Mr. Webb had obtained the place from Mr. Matchett and he, in turn, had secured it from the one who entered the land from the government. This farm comprises two hun- dred twenty acres of choice farming land in Bates county, one hundred acres of the tract lying north of the Butler, Spruce, and Johnstown road and one hundred twenty acres lying south of the road and nine miles east of Butler. In point of location, no better could be desired and the land is chiefly prairie and well drained and watered. The soil is very productive, but Mr. Baker is as much interested in stock raising as in farming and at the time of this writing in 1918 he has on the place from eighteen to twenty head of Percheron horses, one of which is a registered animal, and jacks, and jennets, also registered; twenty-five head of cattle; and fifty head of pure-bred Poland China hogs. Mr. Baker has built a new stock barn in recent years and the residence, which was originally built by Mr. Matchett forty-five years ago out of lumber hauled from Pleasant Hill, has been remodeled and all the other buildings on the farm put in good repair and all are now neatly kept.

I. M. Kretzinger, ex-trustee of Deepwater township, and a well- to-do farmer and stockman of Bates county, is a native of Warren county, Iowa. Mr. Kretzinger was born March 24, 1865, a son of Nicholas and Margaret (Kingery) Kretzinger, a prominent pioneer family of Bates county. Nicholas Kretzinger came to Missouri with his family in 1867 and they located on a farm one mile north and one mile east of Spruce, on the place known as the Payne farm, which comprised forty-six acres of land. Mr. Kretzinger sold this place after a short time and purchased a tract of land embracing one hundred forty acres, a farm lying on the south side of Deepwater creek, and before he had had an opportunity to carry out his plans in improving the land death came in 1872. This latter farm owned by Nicholas Kretzinger was known as the "Dick" Choate farm. Mr. Kretzinger was laid to rest in Dickison cemetery in Bates county. Nicholas and Margaret (Kingery) Kretzinger were the parents of the following children: Mrs. Eliza Beard, the widow of Henry Beard, a resident of Deepwater town- ship, Bates county, further mention of whom will be found in connec- tion with the biography of her son, J. A. Beard, which appears elsewhere in this volume: Van, who resides in Oklahoma; John, who is engaged in farming in Deepwater township; George, Rich Hill, Missouri; Mrs.

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Emma Cunningham; I. M., the subject of this review; and William, of Vernon county, Missouri. The mother, one of the county's most estemed pioneer women, died in 1911 and her remains lie beside those of her husband in Dickison cemetery.

I. M. Kretzinger attended school in Deepwater township, Bates county. His educational advantages were not great, for he was obliged to assist with the work on the farm at a very early age and could attend school only occasionally during the winter seasons. His father died, when I. M. Kretzinger was a child five years of age and there were seven children left for the widowed mother to rear and educate. Mr. Kretzinger remained with her on the home farm until he was twenty- six years of age and then rented a tract of thirty acres from his mother, where he resided for a short time. He then moved to the Newberry farm and resided thereon for nearly eight years, when he purchased his present country home, a place comprising one hundred ninety-three acres of land located one and a fourth miles east of Spruce, Missouri. Mr. Kretzinger has improved the farm, rebuilding the residence, now a pretty cottage of eight rooms, and building three barns. This farm lies on the north side of Deepwater creek on the Butler-Clinton State highway. Mr. Kretzinger is interested in both general farming and stock raising and usually cultivates about fifty acres of the farm, leav- ing the remainder in bluegrass and pasture land. He has on his place, at the time of this writing in 1918, twenty head of Shorthorn cattle, eight head of horses, and a large herd of Poland China hogs, each herd headed by a registered male.

April 24, 1891, I. M. Kretzinger and Susie Newberry, a daughter of Capt. John B. and Elizabeth Newberry, were united in marriage. Mrs. Kretzinger died in 1900 and interment was made in the cemetery at Butler. Mr. Kretzinger remarried, his second wife being Ona Stark, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Stark, of Warrensburg, Missouri. Mr. Stark is now deceased. Ona (Stark) Kretzinger is a graduate of the Warrensburg State Normal School in the class of 1900. To Mr. and Mrs. Kretzinger has been born one child, a daughter, Madge, born December 20, 1910.

In the public affairs of his township and county, I. M. Kretzinger takes a most commendable interest and he has served as township trus- tee of Deepwater township. He and Mrs. Kretzinger are valued citi- zens of Bates county.

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Thomas Humphrey Dickison, an honored pioneer of Bates county, Missouri, a member of one of the oldest and best families of the state, ex-trustee of Deepwater township, is a native of Bates county, Mis- souri as its boundaries were at the time of his birth, December 23, 1846, or of what is now Little Osage township, Vernon county. Mr. Dicki- son is a son of Humphrey and Elvira Goff (Perkins) Dodge Dickison. Humphrey Dickison was a native of Licking county, Ohio. He came to Missouri in 1839 and settled on a tract of land, comprising one hun- dred sixty acres, in what was then Bates county. Mr. Dickison's wife, Myra (Goff) Dickison, whom he married December 6, 1821, died the year after their coming West on August 27, 1840 and her remains were interred in the Dickison cemetery on their farm, the first burial made there. To Humphrey and Myra (Goff) Dickison were born the following children: Ruth Anne, born October 16, 1822; Caroline, born December 22, 1824; William Goff, born March 11, 1827; Sarah Ann, born September 16, 1829; Anson, born March 4, 1832; Louisa, born June 1, 1836; Albert, born August 15, 1840. Mr. Dickison remarried, his second wife being Mrs. Elvira Goff (Perkins) Dodge, and to this union were born two sons: Thomas H., the subject of this review; and Edwin James, born November 17, 1852, who died in 1891 at Cats- kill, New Mexico and was buried at Trinidad, Colorado; and a daugh- ter, Myra H., born in 1844, died in infancy. Mrs. Dickison, the mother of Thomas H. and Edwin James, was a native of Vermont, a highly intellectual and well-educated woman, who came to Missouri in 1833 and was employed as teacher at the old Harmony Mission school as long as the mission was maintained. She was a widow at the time of her marriage with Mr. Dickison. Her first husband, Nathaniel B. Dodge, was killed in 1838 in a battle with the Indians on the island of the Marais des Cygnes. The savages of the forest had been killing the cattle and hogs of the early settlers of that vicinity for some time until the annoyance had become unendurable. The hardy, fearless frontiers- men mustered a small band of thirteen men to teach the Indians a lesson in the only terms which they seemed to understand. The for- mer demanded of the red men that they give over the marauders to be punished and this the Indians refused to do. In the battle which ensted, two Indians were killed and others seriously wounded. Nathaniel B. Dodge was the only settler killed, but three others were wounded, among them two brothers of Mr. Dodge: Newell and Edward, both of whom recovered. The first burial made in the Balltown cemetery, nine

THOMAS HUMPHREY DICKISON.

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miles north and east of Nevada, Missouri, was made for the remains of Nathaniel B. Dodge, the first husband of Thomas H. Dickison's mother. Mrs. Dickison died in October, 1862. Humphrey Dickison died Novem- ber 7, 1867.

There is a strange fascination about the horrible in life which draws both young and old to witness the most revolting sights of our civiliza- tion and it is not all queer that young, ten-year-old Thomas H. Dicki- son should have been heartbroken and have wept bitterly for one whole day when his father firmly and sternly refused to allow him to attend the hanging of Dr. Nottingham at Papinsville in the autumn of 1856. It is not possible to put old heads on young shoulders and judgment and control of one's natural impulses come only with years of experience- and there is no doubt that there were hundreds of wise, old heads pres- ent at Papinsville that day to see the doctor's swing from the gallows, a sad but true comment upon curious human nature. A downpour of rain can't change it.

Thomas H. Dickison obtained his education in the "subscription schools" of Vernon county. The hard, primitive life of the early pio- neers afforded but little opportunity for schooling and with the out- break of the Civil War in 1861 the majority of the few poor schools were obliged to close their doors. Mr. Dickison was reared on the farm and his youth was chiefly spent in assisting with the work on the home place and as most of his young life was spent out-of-doors he grew rapidly into a strong, vigorous, normal manhood. He resided in Ver- non county until 1867, when he came to Bates county. Humphrey Dickison had entered a vast tract of land in this county and his son, Thomas H., was given one hundred acres. Mr. Dickison is now the owner of one hundred ninety-one acres of land in Bates county, a farm lying one and three-fourths miles east of Spruce, Missouri. He left this state in 1870 and took up his residence in Texas, where he remained for six years and then returning to his present home in 1876 he has rebuilt the residence, a house of two stories, and placed all the improve- ments on the farm.

The marriage of Thomas H. Dickison and Emma Caroline Snod- grass was solemnized in 1873 in Fannin county, Texas. Mrs. Dickison was a daughter of Isaac and Martha (Stubblefield) Snodgrass. To this union were born nine children, five of whom are now living: Walter Edwin, farmer near Spruce, Missouri; Isaac Humphrey, a well-known merchant of Spruce, Missouri: Ennis Pearl. the wife of C. W. Stephen-

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son, of Deepwater township; Ethel C., the wife of Arthur Strode, and they reside with Mr. Dickison on the home farm; and Cyrus B., who resides on a Scully lease in Bates county. Mr. Dickison has seven grandchildren, of whom he is very fond: Ophelia Fay and Omeda May Dickison, children of Mr. and Mrs. Walter E. Dickison; George Hum- phrey, Hazel Pearl Dickison, children of Mr. and Mrs. Isaac Humphrey Dickison; and Lois Alene Stephenson, the only daughter of Mr. and Mrs. C. W. Stephenson; Walter Lee and Velma Ruth are children of Cyrus B. For three generations of the Dickisons, there has been a Humphrey Dickison in the family, a noble, old name which the bearer should be proud to bear and ashamed to tarnish by a single unworthy act. The saddest event in the life of Thomas H. Dickison occurred October 27, 1917, when death entered the Dickison home once more and again broke the family circle. Mrs. Dickison, her husband's faith- ful and brave helpmeet and beloved companion for forty-three years, the loving mother of their children, answered the last summons last autumn.

Mr. Dickison has always taken a deep interest in the general growth and development of his county and state and has manifested a most commendable interest in the public and political affairs of his township. He has served one term in the office of township trustee of Deepwater township. He has watched Bates county steadily emerge from an unsettled wilderness and prairie and become one of the best and most prosperous sections of Missouri and during all these years he has contributed his full share toward bringing about this marvelous development. Thomas H. Dickison is one of the county's most excel- lent citizens, a noble son of a noble father.

William Y. Osborne, a prominent citizen of Butler, a retired farmer and stockman of Charlotte township, is a native of West Virginia, a descendant of one of the leading colonial families of the South. Mr. Osborne was born July 19, 1847 at Franklin in Pendleton county, West Virginia, a son of J. W. and Rachel Griggsby (Hamilton) Osborne. J. W. Osborne was one of the beloved Methodist ministers of the South, one who was engaged in ministerial work for fifty years. His son, W. Y., treasures among his priceless possessions the Bible which Reverend Osborne had when he entered the ministry at the age of twenty-five years. J. W. Osborne was a son of Joseph Osborne, a veteran of the War of 1812, who took an important part in the battle of Baltimore, who was a son of an English officer that had been in the

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siege of Yorktown, the turning point in the Revolutionary War of 1776, . when Cornwallis surrendered on October 19, 1781 with his eight thou- sand men. Rachel Griggsby (Hamilton) Osborne was a daughter of a wealthy plantation owner and slaveholder, John Hamilton. W. Y. Osborne has been given a book by his mother's sister, Mrs. Henrietta (Hamilton) McCormick, which volume contains the genealogy of the Hamilton family, tracing the lineage of Mr. Osborne back to ancestors of prominence in the Civil War, in the War of 1812, in the Revolutionary War, and in Scotland. Two brothers of Mrs. J. W. Osborne, the mother of W. Y. Osborne, were active participants in the War of 1812. The Griggsbys, Hamiltons, and McCormicks were of the "F. F. V.'s." Mrs. Henrietta McCormick has in her possession the powder horn carried by Alexander McNutt in the battle of the Cowpens, fought January 17, 1781, one of the most important engagements of the Revolutionary War. Rev. J. W. Osborne departed this life in April, 1881 at Baltimore, Mary- land. He was seventy-five years of age. To Rev. J. W. and Mrs. Osborne were born the following children, who are now living: W. Y., the subject of this review ; Dr. Oliver, a well-known attorney of St. Paul, Missouri; John H., a prosperous capitalist of Elk Falls, Kansas ; and Virginia Elizabeth, of Chicago, Illinois.

W. Y. Osborne attended the city schools of Chicago, Illinois and Bryant & Stratton Commercial College of Chicago. He was employed in commission houses in Chicago for six years and then retired from business and began farming in Illinois near Chicago and in other parts of the state. Mr. Osborne left Illinois in March, 1875 and went to Texas, in which state he was for six years employed in the sheep rais- ing business on a large ranch, having at one time a herd of seven thousand sheep on the range. He has in his early manhood traveled extensively, visiting and residing in many different states, and since June, 1881 he has been the owner of a valuable farm comprising one hundred twenty acres of land in Charlotte township. Bates county, Missouri. To his original holdings in this county, Mr. Osborne has since added a tract of forty acres of land and on this farm of one hun- dred sixty acres his son, William E., now lives. W. Y. Osborne was for many years one of the successful and influential farmers and stock- men of his township. He moved from his country place to Butler in December, 1914 and now resides at 310 Fort Scott street in this city. He and Mrs. Osborne are spending the closing years of their lives, which have been spent in hard but honorable labor, in quiet comfort

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and ease. Their home in Butler is a beautiful, modern residence and Mr. Osborne enjoys working in his garden and in reading when he can no longer be employed out-of-doors. He has traveled over all the plains of the Southwest and while in the business of sheep growing was located at Colfax county, New Mexico. He is a most interesting conversa- tionalist and the relation of his travels and experiences on the plains would make a remarkably valuable, instructive, and delightful book.

The marriage of W. Y. Osborne and Eliza E. Cowgill was solem- nized December 21, 1881. Eliza (Cowgill) Osborne is a daughter of James and Anna Barbara (Schaub) Cowgill, of Mount Carmel, Bates county, Missouri. Mr. Cowgill died in New Mexico in 1895 and Mrs. Cowgill joined him in death in July, 1898. The remains of each parent were brought back to Bates county, Missouri for burial and they are interred in Morris cemetery. To W. Y. and Eliza E. Osborne have been born six children: Mary M., the wife of Jesse Lynds, deputy United States marshal, Muskogee, Oklahoma; Perry H., of Mount Pleasant township; William E., of Charlotte township, on the home place ; Grace M., the wife of Logan Cope, New Home township; Robert George, of St. Paul, Minnesota, who has been called for service in the army of the United States; and Lillian, who is at home with her parents. The Osbornes are widely and favorably known in this part of the state and in Bates county there is no family of higher standing.

Jesse E. Smith, cashier of the Missouri State Bank of Butler, Mis- souri, is one of Bates county's most enterprising, young "hustlers." Mr. Smith is a member of a highly respected and prominent family of Butler, a native of Saline county, Missouri, a son of John W. and Susan P. (James) Smith, who came from Kentucky to Missouri in 1870 and located in Saline county, coming thence to Bates county in January, 1888, settling at Butler, where Mr. Smith followed the livery business and blacksmithing and later the stock business, buying and selling horses and mules. John W. and Susan P. Smith were the parents of the fol- lowing children : James H., Arkansas City, Kansas; John R., Arkansas City, Kansas; Jesse E., the subject of this review; Mrs. J. A. Carey, Pittsburg, Kansas: Dr. G. R., a successful dentist of Duncan, Okla- homa ; and Mrs. C. W. Knipple, Wichita, Kansas. The father died at Butler in May, 1916 and interment was made in Oak Hill cemetery. The widowed mother now makes her home with her daughter, Mrs. C. W. Knipple, at Wichita, Kansas.

Jesse E. Smith received the first part of his elementary education

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in the public schools of Saline county, Missouri. He later attended the city schools of Butler for four years. Mr. Smith began his business career in the employ of W. G. Womack, a grocer of Butler, Missouri, about 1892. He was for six years employed by Deacon Brothers and ten years by F. H. Crowell, agent for the Scully lands in Bates county. In 1908, Mr. Smith accepted a position with the Missouri State Bank of Butler as assistant cashier and five years later, in 1913, was appointed cashier of the institution, which position he is capably filling at the time of this writing in 1918, one of the most responsible positions in Bates county. Since Mr. Smith entered the field of business at Butler several years ago, he has never had to ask for a position. The other man has always done the asking-a mute tribute to the intrinsic worth of this promising, alert gentleman, a tireless worker.

Jesse E. Smith and Sallie L. Arnold, a daughter of John E. and Margaret (Allen) Arnold, a native of Lafayette county, Missouri, were united in marriage and to this union have been born two children: Arnold and Agnes. Mr. Arnold is deceased and Mrs. John E. Arnold is a resident of Butler, Missouri. The Smith residence is located at 514 West Fort Scott street in Butler.

The Missouri State Bank of Butler, Missouri was organized in 1880 by William E. Walton, who was for thirty-seven years its well- known president and cashier. Mr. Walton also organized the Walton Trust Company, the latter financial institution in 1896, and was presi- dent of the same for twenty-one years, when at his request he was suc- ceeded by his nephew, J. B. Walton, on January 1, 1917. The capital stock and surplus funds of the Missouri State Bank of Butler and the Walton Trust Company exceed a half million dollars. The present capital stock of the former bank is fifty-five thousand dollars and the deposits at the time of the last official report published on March 4, 1918 amounted to one million, eighty-seven thousand, four hundred seventy-three dollars and twelve cents.

Alfred A. Miller, one of Butler's respected citizens and a repre- sentative of a sterling pioneer family of Bates county, Missouri, is one of the native sons of Mount Pleasant township. Mr. Miller was born June 23, 1860 at the Miller homestead, a son of Alpheus and Rachel Ann (Wright) Miller, the former, a native of Ohio and the latter, of West Virginia. Alpheus Miller was born in 1817 at Gallipolis, Ohio and Mrs. Miller was born at Wheeling, West Virginia. They were the parents of the following children: G. C., who was born November 16.

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1846 and is now deceased; J. T., who was born January 3, 1848 and now resides at Altoona, Kansas; Sarah E., the wife of J. E. Thompson, who was born September 16, 1850 and now resides at Washington, Iowa; Martha E., who was born July 22, 1852; Emma M., the wife of William R. Huffman, who was born June 16, 1854 and was the mother of two children, Lulu B. and Anna E., and the mother and younger daughter are both now deceased; John R., who was born April 7, 1856 and died January 31, 1918; W. W., who was born March 23, 1858; and Alfred A., the subject of this review. Mr. and Mrs. Miller were united in marriage October 16, 1845 and for ten years following they were residents of Gallipolis, Ohio, coming to Bates county in 1855. Mr. Miller entered from the government a large tract of land located in the center of the county in Mount Pleasant, Summit, and Lone Oak town- ships. During the Civil War, the Millers moved from their farm to Calhoun in Henry county, Missouri, returning to this county in 1865. Alpheus Miller was an industrious and prosperous farmer and stock- man in the early days and at the time of his death was owner of three hundred fifty acres of choice land in Bates county, a farm now in the possession of his children and grandchildren. He died in September, 1892 and interment was made in Fairview cemetery in Lone Oak town- ship, Bates county. The widowed mother, one of the most beloved and bravest of Mount Pleasant township's pioneer women, survived her husband twenty-one years, when in 1913 they were united in death and she was laid to rest beside him in Fairview cemetery.

Alfred A. Miller attended the district schools of Mount Pleasant township in Bates county and acquired a good common school educa- tion. In early manhood, he began farming and stock raising. Mr. Miller recalls the days in Bates county when deer could be seen fre- quently from the doorway of his old home and when cattle roamed at large over the wide, unfenced prairie. The Miller children all attended school at Miller school house located in the vicinity of their home. This school building was the first to be erected in the neighborhood and it was built in 1870. The lumber and seats were hauled from Pleasant Hill, Missouri and Alfred A. Miller recalls how he was taken along on the three-day journey to herd the oxen when they were turned loose at the noontimes. Jefferson Aldridge, a cripple, was employed at Miller school house to "keep school" for the first two terms and he was in turn succeeded by M. A. Stewart. The old school house was torn

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History of Bates County, Missouri, Part 62

Author: Atkeson, William Oscar, 1854- Publication date: 1918 Publisher: Topeka, Cleveland, Historical publishing company Number of Pages: 1174

Author: Atkeson, William Oscar, 1854-
Publication date: 1918
Publisher: Topeka, Cleveland, Historical publishing company
Number of Pages: 1174