USA > Missouri > Bates County > History of Bates County, Missouri > Part 72
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On June 14, 1880, James E. Nickell and Miss Sarah J. Choate were united in marriage. Mrs. Sarah J. (Choate) Nickell was born April 26, 1863 and is a daughter of Nicholas and Pernelia (Wilson) Choate, a sketch of whom appears in this volume in connection with the biography of Dr. J. W. Choate of Butler, a brother of Mrs. Nickell. Mrs. Nickell was educated in the Willow Tree and Elm Grove district schools. Her first teacher was Phineas Holcomb, who taught in 1868-1869, the next being Henry Jarvis, now a practicing physician of Schell City, who taught in Elm Grove district, 1869-1870. The Willow Tree district was organ- ized in 1870. Mr. and Mrs. Nickell have two sons: Erie W., a jeweler at Clinton, Missouri ; Charles L., who is farming on the home place and was born May 31, 1883. C. L., after attending the district school in his neighborhood, attended the Butler public schools for one year and then spent two years at the Warrensburg Normal College. Mr. C. L. Nickell has a modern residence of eight rooms erected in 1909 and a large barn 38 x 42 feet, built in 1912. He is conducting general farm- ing operations on the Nickell home place and raising cattle and hogs
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for the markets. Charles L. Nickell was married in 1907 to Miss Rozella Barackman, a daughter of Benjamin and Rozella Barackman, of Spruce township, Bates county. To Charles and Rozella Nickell have been born three children: Helen, Wilbur, and Cecil.
James E. Nickell has always taken a good citizen's part in local affairs and has served his township capably as collector and trustee.
Thomas Bolin, Union veteran and farmer of Shawnee township, was born January 8, 1843 in Montgomery county. Kentucky, a son of Hiram Bolin, who was born in Culpepper county. Virginia. Hiram was a son of John Bolin, who was a pioneer in Kentucky. Hiram Bolin married Emily Hall of Kentucky, a daughter of Green Hall. Her grand- father, William Hall, was a soldier of the Revolution and served under General Greene as captain. Thomas Bolin was reared and edu- cated in Kentucky and he enlisted at the beginning of the Civil War, at Camp Dick Robinson, in Boyle county, Kentucky, in 1861, under Captain Gist. He served in Colonel Frye's brigade, and under General Thomas in the Fourteenth Army Corps. He fought in the first hard battle at Mill Springs, Kentucky. Other notable engagements in which he participated were Stone River, Tennessee : Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge, and many skirmishes and minor engagements, fighting from Dal- ton, Georgia to Atlanta. He was with Sherman at the capture of Atlanta and took part in Sherman's famous march from Atlanta to the sea and the capture of Savannah. He served over four years in the Union army and received his final discharge in September of 1865 at Wilmington, North Carolina. Mr. Bolin was captured by the Confederates in the rear at Atlanta and interned in Andersonville prison, where he remained for eleven months and then he managed to escape.
After the close of his war service he returned to Kentucky and resided in his native state until 1880, and then came to Henry county, Missouri, residing there until the early nineties when he made a settle- ment in Shawnee township, Bates county. Mr. Bolin has prospered in Bates county and owns a splendid farm of two hundred and forty acres, well improved. While a resident of Kentucky he took a prominent part in civic affairs and filled the offices of constable and magistrate.
Mr. Bolin was married February 12, 1868 to Ansel D. Hoskins of Estill county, Kentucky, who died January 10, 1914 and her remains are interred in the cemetery at Butler. She was a good and faithful wife and a kind mother to her children. To Thomas and Ansel Bolin were born children as follow: Albert, living in Arizona ; Laura, at home with
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her father; Green H., state mine inspector of Arizona; Sterling, Bates county, Missouri; Mrs. Emma Johnson, Platte county, Missouri; D. S., farming near Phoenix, Arizona; and Clara, at home with her father.
Although this aged veteran has passed the allotted span of three score years and ten and spent over four of the best years of his life in the service of his country, he is active and well preserved and is still able to do work about his farm.
John M. Catterlin, a retired agriculturist, formerly in the loan busi- ness at Butler, Missouri, one of Butler's most substantial citizens, is a native of Ohio. Mr. Catterlin was born April 20, 1845, in Miami county, a son of Solomon B. and Eliza (Jones) Catterlin. Solomon B. Catterlin was a native of Ohio, born on his father's farm in Hamilton county near Cincinnati. Solomon B. Catterlin was a son of Joseph Catterlin, also born near Cincinnati, Ohio, who was a son of Joseph Catterlin, a native of New Jersey, who married a half-sister of King James VII of England. The Catterlins are among the oldest American families. Eliza (Jones) Catterlin was a native of Kentucky. The Catterlins came to Missouri from Ohio in June, 1881, and located temporarily at Butler, intending to purchase a farm in Bates county, but the father died in November, soon after their coming West, and the mother died in 1889, just eight years afterward. The remains of both parents are interred in Oak Hill cemetery in Bates county. Solomon B. and Eliza (Jones) Catterlin were the parents of five children: John M., the subject of this review ; Mrs. Amanda Jane Reisner, who died at Butler in 1891; Mrs. Emma Hickman, a former resident of Butler, now of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma ; Mrs. Mary C. Legg, the widow of T. W. Legg, a sketch of whom appears in this volume, and Clifford C., with the Standard Oil Company, of Butler.
John M. Catterlin received his education in the public schools of Piqua, Ohio, and at Oxford College, in Ohio. He was a youth, sixteen years of age, at the time of the outbreak of the Civil War and applied three times for admission to the Union army, but because he was at that time engaged in the pursuits of agriculture and being then the only son of that family he was refused admission, the country needing him on the farm. Mr. Catterlin came to Bates county, in 1869, and for eleven years after coming West was engaged in farming and stock raising. He retired from these pursuits in 1880 and moved to Butler, where he entered the farm loan business, in which he was employed until 1914, when he disposed of his business and has since been living in quiet
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retirement in this city. Mr. Catterlin built his present residence, still one of the most beautiful homes in the city, in 1881. It is a handsome, modern home, constructed of white pine at a cost of eleven thousand dollars and worth much more now. Mr. Catterlin recalls that, in the autumn of 1881, he bought coal at the Rich Hill coal banks, loaded into the wagon, for one cent a bushel.
The marriage of John M. Catterlin and Lucy A. Atkison was solem- nized in 1874. Lucy A. (Atkison) Catterlin was born in Cooper county in 1847, is a daughter of John and Hannah (Catterlin) Atkison, who came to Missouri in the early forties and located in Cooper county, whence they came to Bates county in 1860 and settled on a farm in Pleasant Gap township, which Mr. Atkison had purchased. Mrs. J. M. Catterlin was born and reared in Cooper county, Missouri, and she came with her parents to Bates county in 1860. Pleasant Gap, at that time, boasted three mercantile establishments, two of the merch- ants being Mr. Bryant and Joseph Smith. John Atkison conducted the Ohio House for two years following the Civil War. He was appointed sheriff during the Civil War and served out the term and was twice elected sheriff of Bates county after the war. When Order No. 11 was issued, the Atkison family moved first to Clinton and then to Old Germantown, Missouri, and resided on a farm. While there, on account of the depredations inflicted by the opposing armies, the Atkisons kept most of their clothing and all their bedding hidden in a box under the floor, for in the raids frequently made on the settlers by plunderers, all the good clothing and bedding were invariably stolen. To John and Hannah Atkison were born the following children: Mrs. Mary Jane Smith, deceased; Mrs. John M. Catterlin, the wife of the subject of this review; Robert Alexander, Butler, Missouri; Mrs. Sarah E. Catter- lin, deceased; Mrs. Susan E. Rogers, Butler, Missouri; and Mrs. Dora Risley, Santiago, California. John Atkison died April 24, 1900, at Butler, Missouri, and on June 29 of the same year he was united in death with his wife. Both Mr. and Mrs. Atkison were interred in Oak Hill ceme- tery. The Atkisons were one of the pioneer families of western Mis- souri, and their descendants have long been held in the highest esteem in Bates county. J. M. and Lucy A. (Atkison) Catterlin were the parents of three children, all of whom are now deceased: Hannah, died at the age of eight years; Solomon, died at the age of two years; and Grace, died at the age of fourteen years.
John Atkison served four years in the Union army during the Civil
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War. He left Bates county and enlisted, in 1861, in Company H, Seventh Missouri Cavalry Regiment. at Sedalia, and attained the post of captain of his company.
The Catterlin name has been closely interwoven in the record of the growth and development of Bates county, and no biographical com- pendium would be complete which omitted mention of John M. Catter- lin, who has for nearly fifty years been interested in promoting its material prosperity.
In politics, Mr. Catterlin is a Democrat. He is fraternally affiliated with the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, is a Mystic Shriner, and has attained all degrees up to and including the Thirty-second Degree.
Watt Burress Dawson, prosecuting attorney of Bates county, was born in Wayne county, Ohio, March 18, 1874. He is a son of Eugene B. and Sarah (Moses) Dawson, the former of whom was a native of the Western Reserve section of Ohio and the latter a native of Massa- chusetts. Both parents of Watt B. Dawson were of old New England stock. Eugene B. Dawson was reared to manhood in his native state and in 1879 went to Trego county in western Kansas and homesteaded a tract of land. He is said to have sown the first wheat in that section of Kansas, taking the wheat with him from Ohio. After some years of residence there he went to Rich Hill, Missouri and rented land in that neighborhood for the first season. In the spring of 1883 he drove a herd of cattle to Linn and Anderson counties, Kansas, and in 1889 settled on a quarter section of land in Bates county, near Hume, in Howard township. He developed his farm and when old age came upon him he retired to a home in Hume where his death occurred in 1904. His remains are interred in the Hume cemetery. Mrs. Dawson resides at Hume and is aged eighty-two years. Mr. and Mrs. Eugene B. Daw- son were parents of nine children, as follow: Dr. N. B. Dawson, Ster- ling, Ohio; Lydia E., at home with her mother; Watt B., subject of this review ; Mrs. Mima C. Hofses, Parsons, Kansas; G. P. Dawson, died at Pleasanton, Kansas; Edward Marion, died at Rich Hill, aged twenty- one years; Wallace W., died at Hume, aged thirty-one years; Thomas, died in Ohio when eight years old : and Mary, died in Ohio at the age of four years.
After graduating from the Hume, Missouri, High School in 1894, Watt B. Dawson taught school in Bates county for five years from 1894 to 1899, inclusive. He then entered the Missouri State University at Columbia and pursued a literary and law course, graduating therefrom
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in the class of 1901. Following his graduation from law school he taught for another year and began the practice of his profession at Rich Hill. In the fall election of 1905 he was elected to the office of prosecuting attorney of Bates county, being the first attorney outside of the county seat to be elected to that county office. It had been the custom or habit to elect a county seat attorney to the office previous to the election of Mr. Dawson, a precedent thus being established. He carried every township in the county at the primaries excepting West Point. Mr. Dawson served three terms as prosecuting attorney and established a reputation as a fearless and able prosecutor. He was re-elected to the office in the fall of 1916 and is the present incumbent of the office. Since his election to the prosecutor's office he has made his residence in Butler and is associated in the practice of law with Mr. J. A. Silvers.
Mr. Dawson was married July 1, 1902 to Miss Emma N. White, a daughter of Mrs. Aramintha White of Rich Hill. Mrs. Dawson's father died when she was an infant. Mr. and Mrs. Dawson have two children: Mildred, and Donald.
A legal practitioner of excellent judgment, scholarly attainments, and profound knowledge of the law, and an official of known integrity, Mr. Dawson has achieved a place for himself as one of the most suc- cessful practicing attorneys in the county. He has always been a strong advocate of temperance and has always stood for strict law enforce- ment, having at various times used the powers of his office to compel the enforcement of the temperance and prohibition laws which govern the community. Mr. Dawson is a member of the Modern Woodmen of America, the Woodmen of the World, and the Knights of Pythias. He has served as a member of the board of trustees of the Baptist church for some time and both he and Mrs. Dawson take an active interest in church work.
James W. Robinson, farmer and stockman, Shawnee township, is cultivating one of the best improved farms in Bates county, known as the Robinson homestead, and upon which his father settled over a half century ago. This farm comprises a total of two hundred and eighty acres, all of which lies in Shawnee township, excepting twenty acres in Mt. Pleasant township. The improvements on this farm are splendid. A large eight-room house which was erected by the father of James W. Robinson makes a fine appearance. A large barn 36 x 50 feet in dimensions, with a twenty foot shed was erected in 1910. The place is principally devoted to stock raising and Mr. Robinson maintains
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a herd of from seventy-five to one hundred head of cattle, besides a considerable number of hogs, sheep and mules and horses. It is usually well stocked with good grades of livestock. James W. Robinson was born on the homestead in Shawnee township, in 1886, a son of James A. and Charlotte (Johnson) Robinson, natives of Indiana.
The late James A. Robinson was born in Ripley county, Indiana, February 24, 1846, and was a son of Joseph Jefferson Robinson who located in Pettis county, Missouri, and there spent the remainder of his days engaged in farming pursuits. At the outbreak of the Civil War, James A. Robinson enlisted in Company E, Seventh Indiana Cavalry regiment and served until his honorable discharge in 1864. He re-enlisted as a veteran in Company M, Thirteenth Indiana regiment and served in behalf of the Union until January, 1866. Following his honorable discharge from the service he came west to Pettis county, Missouri, and thence to Bates county in that same year. He located in Shawnee township and developed a splendid farm from the prairie land which at that time was thinly settled. Mr. Robinson became a well respected and prosperous citizen of Bates county and reared a fine fam- ily of children. He was married to Charlotte Johnson of Indiana and the following children were born to this marriage: Elizabeth, at home; Mrs. Ella Flescher, wife of J. H. Flescher, Jolly, Texas; L. F., Pawnee, Okla- homa; Jefferson J., Grainfield, Kansas; Adelia, wife of Marion Penny- cuff, Kansas City, Kansas; Harvey M., Ida Grove, Iowa, married Stella Warner, who died in November, 1915, who was a daughter of C. A. Warner, of Foster, Missouri, and left two children-Harvey and Ralph; Dr. John A. Robinson, a graduate of the St. Louis Medical College, and now located in St. Louis; Dr. Edward Robinson, Adrian, Missouri; Maggie, died in infancy ; Myrtle, at home; Mattie, Kansas City, Kansas ; J. W., subject of this review. James A. Robinson died at his home place in Shawnee township, in June, 1915. Mrs. Robinson departed this life August 14, 1908. They were a worthy and industrious couple who nobly did their part in developing Bates county, and contributed to the com- monwealth a splendid family of eleven children, all of whom occupy positions of standing in the various communities in which they have made their homes.
James W. Robinson, manager of the Robinson home place, was educated in the district schools and has chosen to become a farmer, thus following in his father's footsteps. For several years he was the mainstay of his parents in their old age and was a devoted son to them.
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He is an excellent farmer and raises considerable live stock on the place. Mr. Robinson is an industrious and loyal citizen of his native county and keeps the homestead in splendid condition as a matter of duty and pride.
O. A. Heinlein .- The most satisfactory thing that can be said of the career of a successful citizen, in recording the story of his accomplish- ments in the realms of business, industrial, or other fields, is-that "He is a self-made man," and is justly entitled to all that he possesses and has accumulated, because of the fact that his success has been due to his own honest endeavors. The title of "self-made man" can be well applied to Mr. O. A. Heinlein, mayor of Butler, Missouri and president of the Bennett-Wheeler Mercantile Company of Butler, Missouri, and vice- president of the Farmers Bank. During thirty-five years of endeavor in Bates county, Mr. Heinlein has achieved a success which is creditable and due to the following of a fixed plan and energetic application to the duties at hand, a policy which has placed him at the head of one of the most important commercial concerns of western Missouri, and his recognition by the citizens of Butler as a man capable of filling the post of city executive. Mr. Heinlein began his career as a clerk at small wages in the mercantile establishment of which he is now president, and steadily forged his way to the front. During the years that have passed, he has become a leader in the business world of this county. O. A. Heinlein was born in Christian county, Illinois, December 16, 1864, a son of Lawrence and Elizabeth (Johnson) Heinlein. Lawrence Hein- lein, his father, was born April 28, 1828 in Ohio, Guernsey county, a son of Asa Heinlein, a native of Ohio reared in Guernsey county. He mar- ried Elizabeth Johnson, born October 14, 1830 in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania. To this marriage were born children as follow: Samuel E., employed with the Emerson-Brantingham Company, Kansas City, Missouri; F. M., a retired farmer living at Blue Mound, Illinois; Mrs. J. A. Wear, Butler, Missouri; O. A., subject of this review; H. W., traveling salesman for the Hall Lithograph Company, Kansas City, Mis- souri ; two children died in infancy. During his entire life, Lawrence Heinlein followed agricultural pursuits. Mr. Heinlein moved to Illinois in 1848 and settled near Springfield. He came to Bates county, Missouri, in 1883, driving from Illinois overland in a covered wagon, and located on a farm in Spruce township. He resided upon a farm until his retire- ment to a home in Butler, in 1896. His death occurred in this city in 1901. Eight years later his wife followed him to the grave, dying in
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.
1909. Both parents are buried in Oak IIill cemetery. They were sub- stantial and well respected citizens of Bates county, who added mate- rially to the citizenship of the county.
O. A. Heinlein was educated in the public schools and in Butler Academy. After leaving school he entered the Bennett-Wheeler Mer- cantile Company establishment as a clerk at twenty dollars per month. So diligently did he apply himself and so careful was he with his earnings that he was enabled to purchase a small interest in the con- cern on January 1, 1891. He continued to invest his savings in the business and to apply himself assiduously to attain familiarity with every phase of the conduct of the business, and he was elected president of the company on January 1, 1898. Since this time he has been the active head of the business which has grown constantly in importance and size. The Bennett-Wheeler store was originally located on the site of the Missouri State Bank. It was moved to the site of the Farm- ers Bank, and in 1890 the store was located in its present quarters at the northeast corner of the public square. The brick store building is two stories in height, and is 50 by 100 feet in dimensions, with an additional main floor space of 50 by 145 feet. The store covers an entire block. The concern also occupies two floors on the opposite side of the street measuring 50 by 100 feet and 25 by 75 feet in dimensions. The stock of hardware goods and implements carried by the Bennett- Wheeler Mercantile Company is the largest in Bates county. Mr. Hein- lein is owner of one thousand acres of land in Bates county. He is vice-president of the Farmers Bank of Butler.
In 1910, the marriage of O. A. Heinlein with Miss Katie Lambert Canterbury occurred. Mrs. Heinlein is a daughter of Ben and Frances Tillie (Pentzer) Canterbury, well-known residents of Butler, concern- ing whom a biographical review is given elsewhere in this volume. Mr. and Mrs. Heinlein have four children: Oscar Allen, Jr .; Frances Elizabeth; Ben Canterbury; and Katherine Ann. The Heinlein resi- dence is located at 200 North Delaware street and is one of the many beautiful, modern homes of Butler.
Along with his business activities, Mr. Heinlein has ever been cog- nizant of his obligations as a citizen of Butler and Bates county. Every movement having for its purpose the advancement of the material wel- fare of the county and its people have found him in the very forefront from its inception. He served a term as city councilman and was elected mayor of the city, in April, 1916. Since taking over the duties of his
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office he has applied to the conduct of city and municipal affairs the same business methods which have made his own business such a pro- nounced success, the result being that Butler is practically out of debt. The indebtedness of the city amounted to $8,000 at the beginning of his term of office, all of which has been paid, and the city now owns its own water and electric light plants which are ably managed at a profit to the city treasury. For the past twenty-eight years, Mr. Hein- lein has been secretary and treasurer of the Presbyterian Sunday School of Butler.
E. C. Wilson, the well-known cashier of the Farmers Bank of Rockville, Missouri, is one of Bates county's prominent financiers. Mr. Wilson was born July 31, 1891, at Clinton in Henry county, Missouri, a son of Mr. and Mrs. C. B. Wilson, who settled in Henry county forty years ago and are now residents of Clinton, Missouri. To Mr. and Mrs. C. B. Wilson have been born the following children: Frank, of Clin- ton, Missouri; C. D., of Clinton, Missouri; W. A., of Parsons, Kansas ; Jessie, an only daughter at home with her parents; and E. C., the subject of this review.
In the city schools of Clinton, Missouri, E. C. Wilson received his elementary education, which was afterward supplemented by a thorough business course at Colt's Business College. After completing his school work, Mr. Wilson was engaged in railroad work until he entered the Farmers Bank of Rockville, Missouri, as cashier in 1916, succeeding J. R. Wyatt, who has succeeded L. Wyatt, the cashier at the time of the organization of the institution. The Farmers Bank has doubled its business during the past year and much of its marked and splendid success has been and now is undoubtedly due to the energetic efforts of its capable cashier, who has mastered well the intricate problem of finance.
The marriage of E. C. Wilson and Mayme L. Griffith, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Wesley Griffith, of Clinton, Missouri, was soleinnized May 19, 1916. Mr. and Mrs. Wilson are very popular with the young people of Rockville and they move in the best social circles of Bates county. Mr. Wilson is held in the highest respect by the leading busi- ness men of the county, who know him to be a young man of ability and exceptionally keen discernment and business judgment.
The Farmers Bank of Rockville, Missouri, was organized July 10. 1913, with a capital stock of ten thousand dollars. The present capital stock of the bank is ten thousand dollars, the surplus fund and undi-
-
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vided profits fifteen hundred dollars, and the deposits, at the time of this writing in 1918, more than sixty-six thousand dollars. The offi- cials of the Farmers Bank of Rockville are, as follow: J. N. McDavitt, president ; August Fischer, vice-president; E. C. Wilson, cashier; and John T. Mock, Gates Merryfield, M. G. Wilson, C. L. Roberts, and T. W. Gray, directors. This bank is one of the sound financial insti- tutions of Bates county, Missouri.
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