USA > Missouri > Bates County > History of Bates County, Missouri > Part 69
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In 1881, Mr. Evans was married to Mary V. Ferguson, a daughter of Morris and Rebecca Ferguson, of Johnson county, Missouri. Five children have been born to this marriage: Jesse Ora, Kansas City, Mis- souri ; Mrs. Pearl M. Moore, Shawnee township; Mrs. Minnie M. Crook, Johnstown, Missouri; Mrs. Iva B. Hays, Spruce township; John C., at home with his parents.
The old Evans homestead in Shawnee township was erected in 1859 and was built of lumber hauled by John Evans from Westport, Missouri. It is the oldest pioneer home in this section of Bates county still standing in a good state of preservation. In the days of Mr. Evans' boyhood there were many deer on the plains and he recalls seeing herds of fifteen grazing along the streams. A favorite greyhound of his ran down and caught a deer on Fishing creek in 1868. Wild turkeys were plentiful and fishing was excellent, especially in Fishing creek, which
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was so named because of the fine sport it afforded for the disciples of Isaac Walton. At that period there were no systems of roads and high- ways and when a boy, Mr. Evans could ride straight across country to Butler without passing a house or fence on the way. Among the "old timers" whom he remembers were Uncle Johnny Green, Uncle Mose Johnson, Joseph Reeder, Austin Reeder, and Henry France. The near- est neighbors were three miles away and visiting was an occasion long to be remembered, for the pioneers were hospitable and always pleased to entertain their friends, neighbors or strangers who were made welcome and treated to the best the home afforded.
J. W. Gilbreath, of Hudson township, is one of the oldest native- born pioneer settlers of Bates county. Seventy years have passed since he first saw the light of day in his father's cabin on the prairies of Hudson township. His boyhood days were spent amid surroundings most primitive and his home was a log cabin built on the banks of Panther creek, the said cabin later becoming the first school house in Hudson township. The nearest trading posts and the only trading points in those days were at old Papinsville and Johnstown, to which centers the goods needed by the settlers had to be hauled from long distances in the forties and fifties from the nearest landing places on the Missouri river. There were many Indians in the vicinity of the Gilbreath home in those days, the Indians of the plains making a cus- tom of coming in from the western plains to spend the winter in their village near Papinsville. When here they spent their time in hunting and were never bothersome to the settlers if treated rightly. The old Har- mony Mission was Indian headquarters for a number of years.
J. W. Gilbreath was born in Hudson township, December 19, 1847, and is a son of William and Rilla (Evans) Gilbreath who came to Bates county from Illinois as early as 1844 and were among the earliest of the Bates county pioneers. William Gilbreath was born in Washing- ton county, Illinois, and was a son of John Gilbreath, a native. of Bun- combe county, North Carolina. When a young man, John Gilbreath moved to Illinois in 1804. William Gilbreath entered several hundred acres of free government land in Hudson township, and built his first home three miles west and a mile south of the present site of Appleton City. After the war he removed to the home now owned by his son, J. W. Gilbreath, and for a period of twenty-five years was an extensive dealer in mules and livestock. J. W. Gilbreath, subject of this review, was the only son of his parents. He attended school in a log school
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house on Panther creek, which was the only school in Hudson town- ship for a number of years. He has followed farming during his entire life and has fed cattle for the past thirty-five years with considerable success. His fine farm consisting of four hundred thirty acres is located seven miles southwest of Appleton City and seven miles northwest of Rockville. This farm has been created from wild prairie land and the whole of it is under cultivation, there not being an acre of waste land in the entire tract. Two sets of farm improvements are located thereon and the farm residence consists of eight rooms and other buildings of a substantial nature.
December 24, 1876, J. W. Gilbreath was married to Miss Anna E. Nearhoff, who was born February 8, 1841 and departed this life on March 21, 1898. Two children were born to this marriage: Nellie May, wife of William Zimmerman; and William Edward Gilbreath. Mr. Zimmerman is deceased and Mrs. Zimmerman resides with her father. She has three children: Verree, Cleo, and Leota. Verree mar- ried Orveil Young and has one child: Orveil, Jr., born January 28, 1918.
William Edward Gilbreath was born March 31, 1879 and was reared and educated in Hudson township. On November 20, 1915 he was united in marriage with Miss Lydia Frances Schott, a daughter of George H. and Mary Louise Schott of Calhoun, Missouri. To this marriage has been born a son, William Warren Gilbreath. E. W. Gil- breath is owner of one hundred sixty acres of good land and is actively engaged in farming and stock raising. He has a fine herd of Hereford cattle to the number of forty-seven head. He is a well educated citi- zen, having attended the schools of Appleton City, and the Central Business College at Sedalia, Missouri. Mrs. Gilbreath also studied at Hill's Business College in Sedalia. Mr. Gilbreath's farm is well equipped with good buildings, including a seven room residence, a large barn 36 x 48 feet, sixteen feet to the square, another barn 20 x 60 feet with a sixteen foot shed, a granary 20 x 14 feet with a concrete floor and foundation of the same material, a hen house 10 x 30 feet in size. Mr. Gilbreath was elected assessor of Hudson township in April of 1917 and is now filling the duties of this office satisfactorily to the people of the township.
Thomas J. Pheasant .- The late Thomas J. Pheasant of Hudson township, was an industrious and enterprising citizen who did well his part in the development and up-building of Bates county. He was born in Jefferson county, Indiana, September 3, 1856, son of Charles Pheas-
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ant. He was reared and educated in his native state and migrated to Bates county, Missouri in 1882. Not long after his arrival in this county he made a permanent location on the farm now owned by his widow. He purchased this land from Judge Robards. This farm consists of one hundred fifteen acres and is kept in a high state of cultivation and is finely improved with a good residence, barns and other buildings and during his life time in this county, Mr. Pheasant kept in a good state of repair. He followed farming and stock raising and dealt rather extensively in livestock, buying and shipping large number of cattle and hogs each year prior to coming to Missouri. He took a good citi- zen's part in local civic affairs and served as constable of Hudson town- ship and also served as a member of the township board. Mr. Pheas- ant died March 22, 1915.
On December 9, 1886, Thomas J. Pheasant and Miss Elizabeth Wilson were united in marriage. This marriage was a happy and pros- perous one and the young couple worked in perfect harmony in the rearing of their fine family and the building up of their fine farm. Their first home was in a little, old log cabin which was built in pioneer days by the father of Judge Robards and which was situated on the hill one mile north of the present home of the Pheasant family. The logs used in the building of this cabin were cut in the Osage river bottoms and hauled to the site of the cabin, the cutting and hewing of the logs being accomplished with incredible labor, long, long ago. This cabin con- sisted of two rooms with a loft above. Iron rods at each corner held the logs together. The logs were so joined in order that prowling Indians would be unable to pry up the corners of the cabin in case of an attack. In later years the old cabin, after it had served its purpose as a habitation for man, was torn down and the material used in the construction of a barn on the Pheasant place. The present home of the family was the former home of Judge Robards. This residence was remodeled by Mr. and Mrs. Pheasant in 1902 and is a comfortable and attractive farm home.
Six children were born to Thomas J. and Elizabeth Pheasant, as follow: Mrs. Clay Mauck, living in Hudson township, a former teacher in St. Clair, Bates and Henry counties; Bruce, serving his country as a private soldier in the encampment at Fort Logan, Colorado, having enlisted in the National Army, while homesteading a tract of land in Wyoming; Mrs. O. E. Reid, living in Cass county, Harrisonville, also a former teacher who taught school in Bates and Cass counties prior
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to her marriage; Charles E., a sturdy, industrious young citizen, twenty- two years of age, who is operating the home place; Elizabeth, a student in the Appleton City High School, class of 1919; and Thomas De Witt, a student in the first year class of the Appleton City High School. The Pheasant home place is located three and a half miles west of Appleton City and is well equipped with two good barns, a silo having a capacity of one hundred tons and is well stocked with cattle and hogs and sheep, there being one hundred and ninety-five head of the latter animals on the place at the present writing.
Mrs. Elizabeth (Wilson) Pheasant was born December 1, 1862 in Virginia, and is a daughter of Edward and Sarah (Powell) Wilson, natives of Cumberland county, Virginia. Edward Wilson came to Bates county in early pioneer days and entered government land in Hudson township. Mrs. Pheasant's brothers and sisters are as follow: Good- rich Wilson, Elk City, Oklahoma; Edward C., Calumet, Oklahoma; G. T. Wilson, Calumet, Oklahoma; Mrs. Daniel Donahue, Appleton City, Missouri; Mrs. George G. Shoup, Appleton City, Missouri.
Mr. Pheasant was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church and so lived his life that it was as nearly in keeping with the teachings of the Savior as was possible for mortal man. He was honest and straightforward in his business dealings and won a name for himself as a reliable and trustworthy citizen among his fellow-men. His death was a time of sorrow for his family and many warm friends and asso- ciates who had grown to love him and respect him for his many excel- lent qualities. He was a good provider for his family, a kind husband, and a loving parent to his children for whose welfare and correct up- bringing he was very ambitious and lived his industrious life solely for their benefit. Mr. and Mrs. Pheasant were always in complete accord with the advanced ideas of caring for their children and in giving them every educational advantage of which they were capable. Mrs. Pheas- ant and the members of her family are all earnestly affiliated with the Methodist Episcopal church.
A. A. Prier, farmer and stockman, Hudson township, was born on a farm in Henry county, Missouri, January 20, 1873, and is a son of one of the old Missouri pioneers who owned the farm which became the townsite of the flourishing town of Appleton City in Henry county. He is a son of William M. Prier, one of the real old settlers of this section of Missouri.
William M. Prier was born in Edgar county, Illinois, June 9, 1830
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and received his schooling in a little log school house in that county at a period when the pupils used quill pens with which they did their writing. He has had many experiences well worth the telling. When a boy fifteen years old he was bitten by a rattlesnake while industriously cradling oats. While in New Orleans he was stricken with the cholera in the year 1851. While a member of the United States secret service he was shot in the leg. He was then serving as deputy United States marshal-and landed his man even though he received a wound while doing it. In 1851 his father moved to Iowa, and in 1852, William M. Prier went there to make his own home and resided there for the next sixteen years. In 1868 he came to Missouri and located on the site of Appleton City in St. Clair county, buying the land which later became the townsite, at a cost of two dollars and ten cents an acre. In 1870, he sold this land to the Appleton City Townsite Company for twenty- five dollars an acre. For the ensuing six years he was marshal of the new town. In 1883 he came to Bates county and bought his farm in Hudson township, a place which is now owned by Jasper Varnes. In 1893 he bought the adjoining farm of one hundred sixty-three acres from James Cherry and has since made his home thereon. Mr. Prier possesses a remarkable memory concerning the old times and loves to contrast the past with the present. In speaking of the price of calves in the old days as compared with the present. Mr. Prier says that in 1844 he bought a calf for one dollar and seventy-five cents and it was a much better calf than one which his son sold for forty dollars in October, 1917. Sheep in those days of seventy-eight years ago were sold for fifty cents a head, and now, they are worth fifty dollars a head. Mr. Prier has in his pos- session the first compass used in St. Clair county, Missouri, and he assisted the surveyor in making the survey of the town plat of Appleton City in that county. For a period of six years he served as chairman of the township board of Hudson township and helped to survey the highways of his home township. He also surveyed a part of Deep- water township and achieved a reputation as an exact and accurate surveyor while engaged in this work. He has served as justice of the peace of Hudson township for two terms and has never missed voting at but one election since 1852. at the time he moved from Illinois to Iowa. When he settled at Appleton City in 1868 there were but four houses in sight on the landscape and in driving to Harrisonville from his home he would not see a house until he struck the mound region northeast of Butler. For twelve years this aged and versatile pioncer
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was engaged in the United States secret service-from 1864 to 1876.
In 1852, William M. Prier was married to Artemesia Brown of Edgar county, Illinois. Mrs. Prier died in 1906 and her remains are interred in Myers cemetery. The following children were born to this marriage: Marion C., deceased; Cynthia A., deceased; Charles E., died at Moline, Kansas ; Benjamin L., superintendent of the water works at Osawatomie, Kansas; C. W., Tahlequah, Oklahoma, in the State Normal School; Alva A., who is farming the home place.
Alva A. Prier was born June 25, 1873 in St. Clair county, Missouri. He was educated in the public schools of Appleton City and has always been engaged in farming. Since 1906, he has been managing the home place on his own account and has been making a pronounced success of his farming operations. For the past eleven years he has been en- gaged in raising sheep and has forty-four head of the animals on the place in addition to cattle and hogs.
On May 6, 1897, Alva A. Prier was married to Carrie Belle Hall, of Hudson township. She died in 1908 leaving two children: Cora Alice, and Anna Belle. On November 3, 1909, Mr. Prier was united in marriage with Lela T. Padgett of Hudson township and two chil- dren have blessed this marriage: Lela May, deceased, and Margaret Marie. Mrs. Lela Prier is a daughter of J. W. and Sarah Padgett, well known residents of Hudson township. Mr. Prier has served as a member of the township board and is one of the most enterprising of the younger citizens of Hudson township. W. M. Prier became a Mason in 1856. He has killed one hundred wolves in Bates county, is active and strong for his age, works daily and walks miles each day, is the second oldest pioneer in Bates county.
Charles A. McComb, director and farm inspector of the Walton Trust Company, Butler, Missouri, was born on a farm in Spruce town- ship, Bates county, April 9. 1870, a son of Rev. Lewis and Mary J.' (Radford) McComb. He was reared and educated in Bates county and has carved out a niche for himself in the commercial life of the county by his own honest endeavors and the exercise of natural ability of a high order. In 1897 he went to Wagoner, Indian Territory and engaged in the mercantile business until importuned by his father to return home and purchase the old home place and care for his aged father during his declining years. He did so and remained engaged in farming pur- suits until after his father's death. He remained on the farm until 1910 and then removed to Butler, where he became associated with J. W.
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Choate and J. W. Coleman in the real estate and insurance business. After building up a large and lucrative business in Butler he disposed of his interest in the real estate and insurance office six years later and in January, 1916, he associated himself with the Walton Trust Company as one of the directors and land examiner of this important financial concern.
Mr. McComb was married on April 10, 1892, to Miss Edith O'Rear, of Butler, Missouri. To this marriage have been born five children : Levi, deceased; Lloyd, deceased; Claude A., aged eighteen years, a stu- dent in Butler High School; Nina Vesta, fifteen years old, also a student in Butler High School; and Walter, deceased.
Since attaining his majority, Mr. McComb has been active in civic affairs and taken a prominent and influential part in all public enter- prises which have been intended for the betterment of conditions in Bates county. He has held several positions of trust and always discharged the duties intrusted to him with singular fidelity and faithfulness to the public. He is much interested in church work and has served as super- intendent of the Sunday school in his home neighborhood for many years, and has also served as superintendent of the Sunday school of the First Baptist church of Butler for some years. He was one of the lead- ing laymen having charge of the erection of the new Baptist church at Butler. His work in connection with his duties with the Walton Trust Company is of a broadening character and requires constant travel over Missouri and Kansas and he has acquired a wide and thorough business training which is invaluable to a successful man. Mr. McComb is one of the leading and enterprising citizens of Bates county who is fast forging to the front rank, and while still a young man as years go, he is destined to achieve greater success as the years come and go. His standing in the community of his birth is high and his friends are legion. Mr. McComb enjoys the universal respect and esteem of all who know him ; possessing the graceful and happy faculty of making friends of those with whom he is brought into daily contact, his popularity is unbounded.
James R. Simpson, Bates county pioneer, ex-sheriff, and ex-recorder of this county, is likewise a son of one of the oldest of the pioneer fami- lies of Missouri. The life time of James R. Simpson extends over a long, long period of seventy-five years in Missouri, during which he has wit- nessed a great state in the making, took part in a great war, and been an influential figure in the settlement and development of Bates county,
JAMES R. SIMPSON.
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where over sixty years of his long life have been spent to his own advantage and decidedly to the well being of Bates county. Mr. Simp- son was born at Old Westport, Missouri, June 24, 1843, and is a son of James M. and Frances E. (Cummins) Simpson. His father, James M. Simpson, was born in old Kentucky in 1808 and was a son of Richard Simpson, who was one of the early pioneers of Westport, and who died there, his remains being interred in the cemetery at Kansas City. He came to Missouri in 1826 and first settled in Cooper county, later moving to Westport. Frances E. (Cummins) Simpson was born in Tennessee in 1816 and was a daughter of Richard W. Cummins, who was an early pioneer of Cooper county, and served in the first legislative assembly ever held in Missouri, representing Howard and Cooper coun- ties in 1820. He, Richard W. Cummins, came to Bates county in about 1853, and located in Deepwater township, where his death occurred in 1860, his remains being interred in Stratton cemetery.
James M. Simpson was eighteen years old when lie came with his father to Missouri. He moved from Westpoint to Cass county and had a farm in Peculiar township which he cultivated for some years previous to locating in Harrisonville, where he engaged in business in partnership with Hugh Glenn, father of Judge Allen Glenn, of Harri- sonville. He moved to Bates county in 1856 and brought a number of slaves with him. When the Civil War broke out he went to Texas, where he died in 1863. James M. and Frances E. Simpson were parents of the following children : Henrietta W., deceased wife of William Lud- wick; Alzira, deceased wife of Dr. J. C. Maxwell; John K., deceased ; Charles William, deceased ; James R., subject of this review; Mary Eliza- beth, deceased wife of J. H. Fletcher; Duke Williams, Ardmore, Okla- homa; Roberta Pauline, wife of Dr. Milton Godbey, both of whom are deceased; Frank Simpson, Ardmore, Oklahoma.
James R. Simpson attended the primitive schools of Peculiar town- ship, Cass county, and also the public schools at Harrisonville in the same county, his last schooling being obtained in Bates county. In March, 1861, he enlisted at Harrisonville, under Capt. W. H. Erwin for service in the Confederate army and served for four years, the greater part of his service being under the command of General Joe Shelby. For details concerning the campaigns and battles in which Mr. Simpson took an active part the reader is referred to the biography and military history of General Shelby, which is given elsewhere in this volume. Mr. Simpson fought at the Battle of Wilson's Creek, Helena,
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Arkansas, and at Little Rock, Arkansas. His service extended over Missouri, Arkansas and Texas, being in the latter state when the war closed. After the war was over, he returned to Bates county and has since been profitably engaged in the peaceful pursuits of agriculture. Mr. Simpson purchased his present farm of one hundred sixty acres in 1880. This farm is located in Deepwater township. In addition to his home farm, Mr. Simpson owns another tract of forty-eight acres not far away .. The Simpson farm was entered from the government by J. L. Ludwick, who came to Bates county in 1839.
On March 24, 1870, James R. Simpson and Abiah Lutsenhizer were married and to this marriage have been born the following children: Olive L., wife of W. E. Dickison, Spruce, Missouri; Stella May, wife of C. V. Peacock, Spruce, Missouri; Clyde, deceased. Mrs. Abiah Simp- son was born in Deepwater township, October 30, 1844, and is a daugh- ter of Jacob and Katherine Lutsenhizer, who came to Bates county in 1839 and settled in Deepwater township within four miles of the Simp- son place, the former dying here in 1844 and the latter dying in 1863. Mr. and Mrs. Lutsenhizer were parents of nine 'children, all of whom grew to maturity and are now deceased excepting Mrs. Simpson. The names of these children were: Mrs. Sarah Durand, Henry, Oliver, Margaret, Esther, Susan, William W., Thomas B., and Mrs. Abiah Simpson.
Jacob Lutsenhizer was a son of Henry Lutsenhizer, who lived and died in Westmoreland county. Pennsylvania. The wife of Henry Lut- senhizer was Judith Marchand, of Pennsylvania, a daughter of Dr. David Marchand (II), of Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, who served as a surgeon in the Continental army during the War of the American Revolution with rank of captain and who was a son of Dr. David March- and (I), descended from French-Huguenots who came from France to America in 1700.
For many years Mr. Simpson was a breeder of Red Polled cattle and Duroc Jersey hogs and was the pioneer breeder of these varieties of livestock in his section of Bates county, bringing the first of these fine breeds here in 1880. It was only natural that a citizen of his pro- nounced abilities would take an active part in politics and he became prominently identified with the Democratic party in Bates county. He was elected sheriff of the county in 1878 and re-elected to this office in 1880, serving in all for four years, during this time giving entire satis- faction to the people of the county. In 1882 he was elected recorder of
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deeds and so well did he perform the duties of this important office that he was again elected to the office in 1884, serving in all four years. It has probably been given to no living pioneer citizen of Bates county to have seen so much of the development of the great state of Missouri as has Mr. Simpson. It can truly be said that he is one of the oldest of the widely-known pioneers of the state of Missouri and Bates county. No man living has been more closely identified with the upbuilding of the county than he. He has seen this county emerge from an unsettled wilderness state to become one of the thickly settled garden spots of the west and has seen Bates county take her place among the great counties of the state through the united efforts of her citizens. When the story of the county is completely written, one of the most honored places in this history belongs rightly to him and his family.
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