USA > Missouri > Bates County > History of Bates County, Missouri > Part 79
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William Baie and Carrie Ridelspeger, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Frank Ridelspeger, were united in marriage in 1884 in Illinois. To this union were born five children: Mrs. Jennie Troeger, Hinckley, Illinois; Frank, San Simon, Arizona: Mrs. Cora Temme, deceased; Mrs. Ida Black, Kansas City, Missouri; and Roy, Adrian, Missouri. The mother died in 1894. Mr. Baie remarried, his second wife being Ida George, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William George, of DeKalb county, Illinois. William Baie and Ida George were united in marriage in 1899 and to them were born two children: Elizabeth and Sadie, both of whom reside at home with their father. Their mother, Ida (George) Baie
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died September 23, 1915 and Mr. Baie and his two daughters reside alone at the old homestead.
Politically, William Baie is affiliated with the Democratic party. He takes a keen interest in public and political affairs and has held several offices of honor and trust in his township. Mr. Baie has served his township as school director ever since he came to Bates county thirty- one years ago and he has been president of the school board and of the township board. He has been a member of the town board of Adrian for five years and was justice .of the peace of Deer Creek township for five years. He is a worthy and highly valued member of the German Lutheran church and has been a deacon and the church treasurer for many years. William Baie is numbered among the enterprising and public-spirited citizens of Bates county.
J. W. Cox .- To Mr. and Mrs. J. W. Cox of Elkhart township belong the proud distinction of having one of the largest families in Bates county, or this section of Missouri. If they have accomplished during a life time of endeavor, no more than the rearing of their fourteen children to become good and worthy men and women they will have done something well worth while. Mr. Cox is one of the native born old settlers of this county while still comparatively young as age goes in this part of Missouri. He was born in a log cabin built by his father in Homer township, on July 15, 1867, a son of Felix and Mary ( Hardi- man) Maloney Cox, the former born in Clay county, Missouri, and the latter was born in Ireland. The parents of Felix Cox were among the earliest pioneers of Clay county. The Cox home in Clay county was near that of the James boys and J. W. Cox remembers them very well and recalled that the James brothers frequently came to the Cox store to purchase provisions and trinkets. When the Civil War began, Felix Cox was eighteen years of age. He soon enlisted in the Tenth Kansas regiment and served with this organization until the close of the conflict as second lieutenant of his company. He fought in the battle of Westport and Mine Run and at one time was taken prisoner by the enemy. After the close of the war he came to Bates county in 1865 and made a settlement in Homer township, resid- ing there until August, 1867 when he came into possession of the farm where his son, J. W. Cox, now resides in Elkhart township. He spent the remainder of his life on this place with the exception of a few years when he resided in Butler for the purpose of giving his children better educational advantages than that afforded by the district school. He
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was engaged in mercantile business at Vinton for a time. He was a Republican in politics and always took a keen interest in political affairs. Felix Cox died in March, 1895, aged fifty-two years, the wife and mother dying in 1906 at the age of sixty-five years.
After receiving a fair education in the district school of his neigh- borhood and the Butler public schools, J. W. Cox took up farming for his life work and has since been diligently engaged in farming and stock raising upon his eighty-acre tract in Elkhart township. Mr. Cox was married in 1888 to Anna Peebles who has borne him fourteen chil- dren, as follow: Gertrude, married Albert Ferguson and lives in Elk- hart township; Florence, wife of Louis Wilkerson, resides at Road House, Illinois; Joseph, lives in Elkhart township; Lewis, resides at home ; Laura, wife of Will McMein, living near Amsterdam, Missouri ; Clay, a farmer in Elkhart township; Ethel, Lucille. Floyd and Lloyd (twins). John and James (twins), Darrell, and Murrel, at home with their parents. The mother of this large family of children was born in Illinois, a daughter of Abraham Peebles who came to this county and bought a half section of land whereon he resided until his death a few years later. After his death the other members of the Peebles family returned to Illinois.
Mr. Cox is an independent voter and is a member of the Modern Woodmen of America. His memory of the early days in this county is vivid and at the time of his father's settlement in Homer township. much of the territory now dotted with farm homes was a vast unfenced prairie over which herds of deer and cattle roamed at will. He recalls the building of the first wire fence in his neighborhood and remem- bers when parties cut the strands of wire of one fence which had been built across the highway. He remembers that Jesse and Frank James and two others of their band called at his father's store for the pur- pose of purchasing provisions and trinkets and tobacco. His father split rails and fenced his eighty-acre farm before the days of wire fence. He has seen herds of deer grazing on the prairie numbering eight and ten head and witnessed the killing of a deer by a bull dog, also saw several bands of Indians. Wolves were likewise numerous but he thinks that nothing has been more wonderful than the great changes that have taken place in the appearance of the country since the days of his childhood.
George Crooks of Charlotte township has lived in Bates county for over half a century and can readily be classed as one of the real
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"old settlers" of the county. He was born in Grundy county, Illinois, in 1860 and is a son of Peter and Caroline (Owens) Crooks. His father was a native of Scotland and during his younger days was a deep sea sailor and ship carpenter who was promoted to become a mate of sailing vessels. For several years he sailed the high seas and finally immigrated to America, where he was married to the wife of his choice who was born in Illinois state. He settled down to farming in Grundy county, Illinois, and resided there until his removal to Bates county. He was one of the early settlers in Grundy county, where the father of Mrs. Owens was one of the pioneers. Mr. Owens frequently recalled that at one time he was offered a quarter section of land within the city limits of Chicago in exchange for a pair of boots but did not think that he would get the worth of the boots. The site of Chicago in those early days was not an enticing place for settlers and Mr. Owens was not the only pioneer who declined an opportunity to own a piece of swamp land. The Crooks family located in Charlotte township when they came to Bates county in 1866 and Mr. Crooks resided upon his farm for the remainder of his life. He was a Republican and wielded quite an influence in local politics but always declined political prefer- ment. There were five children in the Crooks family, as follow: Laura, wife of John Cope, New Home township, Bates county; James, Santa Cruz, California; Agnes, married James H. Park, living near Virginia. this county ; George, subject of this biography ; and Peter, deceased.
George Crooks has practically grown up with Bates county, and was educated in the old Butler Academy after his course in the local school. He has always followed farming and stock raising and ably cultivates his fine farm of one hundred sixty acres. He is a Republi- can in politics and has served as a member of the local school board. Mr. Crooks is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church of Vir- ginia. He has a good recollection of conditions in this county during his boyhood days and remembers seeing herds of deer, wild turkeys and game of all kinds. The family came to this county at a time when the greater part of the county was unfenced prairie land, and the trails ran straight across country. taking the shortest distance between two points. This was the condition until the coming of the wire fencing which required that regular roadways be laid out throughout the county. All those changes, Mr. Crooks has witnessed, and has seen the unset- tled country transformed into a productive and fertile land dotted with handsome farm homes and towns and villages. He has witnessed
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the days of the ox-team give way to the horse-drawn vehicles and that in turn give way to the automobile as a more rapid method of trans- portation.
S. C. McKee, of Elkhart township, is a native son of Missouri, having been born on a pioneer farm near Austin in Cass county, in 1852. He is a son of James and Louisa Jane (Best ) McKee. His father was born in Tennessee and accompanied his brother, John McKee, to Cass county where they made a settlement near Austin. James McKee was the first blacksmith to open a shop in Austin, and he died there when S. C. McKee was but six months old. His wife, Louisa Jane (Best) McKee, was born in Dayton township, Cass county, and after the death of James McKee, she married John Tate. When Order Number 11 was issued, the family located in Harrisonville, Missouri, where they resided until the fall of 1864 then they went to Illinois and lived in McLean county. Both Mr. and Mrs. Tate spent the remainder of their days in Illinois. To James and Mary McKee were born three children: William, was killed while serving in the Union army dur- ing the Civil War; Mrs. Louisa Jane Tate, lives in Illinois; S. C., sub- ject of this sketch. To the second marriage of Mrs. Louisa Jane McKee with John Tate, was born a son, Thomas Tate.
In 1873, S . C. McKee returned to Missouri and took charge of the old home place of his father in Cass county. Ten years later he came to Bates county and purchased his present home place of one hundred forty acres in Elkhart township. He has since been engaged in gen- eral farming and stock raising and raises Shorthorn cattle and Poland China hogs. He was married in 1874 to Catherine Stambaugh, a native of Cass county, who has borne him twelve children: Magdalene, wife of John James, Windsor, Colorado; Charles W., Los Angeles, Cali- fornia : Ida Ethel, married Lester Anderson, Omaha, Nebraska; Maude Estelle, wife of Oscar Warnick, Warrensburg, Missouri; Oscar Law- rence, Great Falls, Montana ; Dora Juanita, wife of Jack Bigler, Kansas City, Missouri; Tempest Alice, living in New York City; Trixie Annetta, Doyleston, Massachusetts; Samuel Sullivan, Red Oak, Iowa ; George Washington, farming in Bates county; Olive Annie, a public school teacher, Centerview, Missouri; Stanley Carrollton, at home. Two children have died: Bertha and Hallie. Bertha died in infancy, and Hallie Maye, wife of Joe Earnest Duvall, of Amsterdam, is deceased. Her death occurred at Joplin, Missouri. The mother of this large family of children was born in Cass county, a daughter of George Wash-
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ington and Jennie L. (Huff) Stambaugh. Her mother was a daughter of L. B. Huff and was born in Indiana near Terre Haute, and came to Missouri with her parents in 1855. She is now living in Kansas City. George W. Stambaugh was a native of Kentucky, born of Virginia parents. He became prominent in the affairs of Cass county where he settled in about 1854. He lost his life at the hands of "bushwhackers" at the beginning of the Civil War. After his death, his widow married J. E. Sawyer and to this marriage were born three children: Josephine, wife of James Owens, Kansas City: L. B., a Christian Science reader and practitioner, Kansas City : Dr. J. F., a practicing physician at Kan- sas City.
Had Mr. and Mrs. McKee accomplished no more than the rearing of their splendid family of twelve children they would be entitled to more than honorable mention in this history of Bates county. Better than wealth, fame, or honors, is the credit of having contributed to the Nation a fine family of sons and daughters who have taken their places in the world and are living useful lives according to the precepts laid down by their parents. Mr. McKee is a Democrat who has found time while rearing his family, to fill the offices of tax collector and constable in his township. He was a member of the Farmers Alliance years ago and is now connected with the Farmers Union, its natural successor.
George H. Pahlman, cashier of the Bank of Amsterdam, Missouri, is one of the youngest bankers in Missouri and is one of the most effi- cient and capable in Bates county today. He is a native of Bates county, having been born on a farm in Charlotte township, March 28, 1889, a son of G. C. and Anna J. (Dutton) Pahlman, natives of Illinois.
G. C. Pahlman was born in Illinois in 1861 and was reared to young manhood in his native state. He migrated to Missouri in 1885 and made a settlement in Charlotte township, Bates county soon after his marriage with Anna J. Dutton who was born in Illinois in 1865 and came to Bates county with her father, Samuel Dutton, in 1870. Mr. and Mrs. Pahlmman still reside on their farm in Charlotte township. They are parents of the following children: James T., Carmen, Okla- homa; G. H., subject of this review; Glenn W., Nashua, Montana ; Holly F., a farmer of Charlotte township: Emma E., a student in But- ler High School.
G. H. Pahlman was educated in the public schools of Bates county and the State Normal College at Warrensburg, Missouri. For a period
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of three years he taught school in this county and then entered the Bank of Amoret as assistant cashier. In the year 1916 he took charge of the Bank of Amsterdam as cashier. This bank was first organized in 1892 by W. J. Bard, John McKee, C. A. Emerson and H. P. Nickel with a capital of ten thousand dollars. The first cashier was C. A. Emerson and the first president was H. P. Nickel. Mr. Emerson was succeeded as cashier by W. W. Badgeley, who was followed by W. W. Rubel, who was succeeded by Clyde Bailey. Mr. Pahlman followed Mr. Bailey as cashier of the bank. The bank was burned out in the fire which occurred on February 3, 1916 and practically swept away the business district of Amsterdam. The bank being well insured the loss was slight, being but about $750 all told. A new bank building was erected and opened for business in the spring of 1917. This building is built of brick with a tiled floor and fitted up with handsome modern fixtures at a total cost of $4,100, the building costing $2,600 and the new fixtures costing $1,500. The bank's capital and surplus in Decem- ber of 1917 is $15,000. The undivided profits are over $5,000. The deposits will exceed $125,000. The present officers are: John McKee, president ; William Henderson, vice-president ; cashier, G. H. Pahlman and the assistant cashier is Mrs. M. Pahlman. The directors are: John McKee, John Morewood, Alex Morewood, W. A. McBurney, and G. H. Pahlman. In addition to his duties as cashier, Mr. Pahlman conducts a fire insurance and farm loan department on his own account.
In politics Mr. Pahlman is allied with the Democratic party. He is affiliated with the Methodist Episcopal church. He was married Octo- ber 28. 1912, to Miss Mayme E. Mckibben, who was born in Charlotte township a daughter of William F. and Julia E. (Wolfe) Mckibben, natives of Illinois. William F. Mckibben, who is now living in Amster- dam, was born November 8, 1855, in Stephenson county, Illinois, a son of David T. and Eliza J. (Tompkins) Mckibben, natives of Pennsylvania and Canada, respectively. The Mckibben family came to Bates county, Missouri, in 1869 and located at Butler, where the parents lived a retired life .until death. William Mckibben engaged in farming on his own account in Charlotte township in 1885. After renting land for three years he purchased a farm of one hundred and twenty acres which he improved, added eighty acres thereto and sold out in January, 1917. He was married in 1884 to Julia E. Wolfe, a daughter of C .W. Wolfe, who came to Bates county from Iowa in 1869. The following children were born to this marriage: Bertha Gertrude, wife of O. W. Walker,
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Kansas City, Missouri; Mary E., wife of the subject of this review and who is assistant cashier of the Bank of Amsterdam.
Edward C. Hess, a well-known and prosperous farmer and stock- man of Deer Creek township, is a native of Illinois. Mr. Hess was born in LaSalle county in 1875, a son of Götthard and Catherine (Kern) Hess, who settled on a farm in Deer Creek township, Bates county, Missouri in 1879. When the Hess family settled in this part of the state, there were very few settlements, wild game might be found in abundance, and even the cattle, horses, and hogs ran at large over the open prairie. Before Adrian was founded, the trading point of the Hess family was Harrisonville. Götthard Hess was born in Germany, in 1844, and died in 1896. He came to America when a young man and first located in LaSalle county, Illinois, and there married Catherine Kern, also born in Germany in 1834, and died January 17, 1906. They were parents of four children: Henry, Madison, Kansas; Mrs. Ida Schmidt, Mound township, Bates county; Mrs. Emma Feraris, Mound township, Bates county ; Edward C., subject of this review. By a former marriage with Mr. Haas, Catherine Kern Hess was mother of four children, two of whom were reared: Mrs. Louise Rogers, died in January, 1917; Fred, Kansas City, Missouri.
Mr. Hess, whose name introduces this review, attended school at Hess school house in Deer Creek township. Will Duncan was his first instructor and, later, he was taught by Professor Putnam and then by the professor's wife, Mrs. Putnam. He remembers one of the pioneer preachers of Bates county, to whom he often listened in his boyhood days, Reverend Showalter. Mr. Hess states that Reverend McClintock was the chief carpenter of those who built his father's residence in 1881. Revival meetings were frequently held in the brush arbors, in the early eighties, and attracted immense crowds of settlers from all parts of the country, the young people coming long distances to attend, riding on horseback. "Spelling bees" and "debating societies" afforded oppor- tunities for instruction, entertainment, and recreation for the pioneers. opportunities which were universally seized. E. C. Hess has spent his entire life, up to the time of this writing in 1918, on the farm and he has always been interested in agricultural pursuits. The first money he ever earned was made by hauling a load of wood to town and his first investment was a young pig, which he watched and cared for with all the solicitude and caution of one who has all his earthly possessions at stake. Mr. Hess is now owner of a splendid farm in Deer Creek
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E. C. HESS AND FAMILY.
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township, a place comprising two hundred forty acres of valuable land. He, in addition, rents a tract of land embracing three hundred three acres and is engaged in raising stock extensively, having at the present time, in 1918, three hundred head of stock on the farm. He devotes some time to general farming and this past season, of 1917, harvested one thousand five hundred sixty-three bushels of wheat, one thousand nine hundred bushels of oats, and fifty tons of fine hay and one hundred thirty acres of the farm were planted in corn, which averaged forty bushels to the acre. Mr. Hess planted seventy-five acres of his land in wheat last autumn. His farm is well equipped with all needed conveniences for handling large herds of stock and amounts of grain and hay.
The marriage of E. C. Hess and Anna Feraris, a daughter of Peter Fera: is, a prominent citizen of Bates county, was solemnized in 1901. To this union have been born six living children: Louis, Marie, Earl, Rolla, Hadley, and Pauline, all of whom are at home with their parents. Aubrey was born August 4, 1904, and died September 30, 1904. Mr. and Mrs. Hess are members of the German Lutheran church. In the social circles of Deer Creek township, there is no family more highly respected and valued than that of which E. C. Hess is head. E. C. Hess is one of the best class of citizens, a gentleman who, because of his sterling per- sonal qualities, is today occupying a prominent position among the lead- ing, successful farmers and stockmen of this section of Missouri.
Dr. William A. Williams .- For the past thirty-seven years Dr. W. A. Williams has been ministering to the sick and ailing in the section contiguous to Hume, Missouri. He is one of the best-known pro- fessional men of the county and for many years has been an active and prominent figure in the political history of Bates county. He is one of the real leaders of the Missouri Democracy, and Doctor Williams enjoys a wide and favorable acquaintance among the people of this sec- tion of his native state, for he was born in Missouri, a son of one of the early pioneers of Missouri.
John H. Williams, his father, was born in North Carolina, April 1, 1820, a son of Absalom Williams, who emigrated to Missouri in the fall of 1845 and settled in Pettis county, where he resided until his death in April. 1867. John H. Williams was reared to young man- hood in Pettis county and was married in Johnson county to Miss Ara- bella C. Gilliam on June 6, 1851. They were the parents of nine chil- dren, four living, of whom the subject of this review is the eldest, the others being : Joseph P., residing in Hume, Missouri; Mrs. S. H. Thomp-
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son, Kansas City; Mrs. R. F. Collins, Enid, Oklahoma. The mother of these children was born at Boone's Lick, Howard county, Missouri. January 25, 1832, a daughter of William Gilliam, who located in Howard county in 1831, and moved to Johnson county, Missouri, in 1840. Mrs. Williams is now living in Hume. John H. Williams started for Illi- nois during the Civil War time but abandoned his intention of locating in that state. When peace was declared, he located at Dresden, Pet- tis county, where he became a merchant and live-stock dealer. During his younger years he taught school and followed the profession of civil engineer. Afterward, he moved to a farm on the Blackwater in Pettis county. For sixty-seven years he was a constant sufferer from asthma. an affliction which prevented him from attaining the maximum of suc- cess which was his just due. He removed to Hume, Missouri, in 1881 and resided there until his untimely death on May 5, 1889, his demise being caused by a fall which resulted in a fractured hip, death resulting soon afterward.
Doctor Williams was reared and educated in Pettis county, receiv- ing his classical education at Lake Forest Academy, after which he studied medicine for one year at the University of Missouri. Following his course at the Missouri University he entered the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Keokuk, Iowa, and graduated from this institution on February 14, 1877. He began the practice of his profes- sion at Logwood. Pettis county, where he remained for two years. He then practiced for two years at Lamonte, Missouri, and in August, 1880. went to Silver Cliff, Colorado, remaining there for one year. In Sep- tember, 1881, he made a permanent location in Hume, Bates county, and for the past thirty-seven years has successfully practiced his pro- fession. Doctor Williams has kept abreast of the advances made in the science of his profession and rarely a month passes which does not find him in the hospitals of Kansas City, frequently visiting the city twice each month in the interest of his professional practice.
Doctor Williams was married in 1905 to Miss Edna Z. Bacon, who was born in Vernon county, Missouri, and is proprietor of the Fashion Store at Hume. He is a member of the Bates County, Tri-County, and the Missouri State Medical Societies. Doctor Williams is affiliated fraternally with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, No. 1026, Rich Hill, Missouri, and is prominently identified with the Knights of Pythias Lodge. He has served as Chancellor Commander of the Hume Lodge of Pythians since its organization with the exception of but a few
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years and has been a member of the Grand Lodge and representative from the Hume Lodge since 1893. He has attended the sessions of the Grand Lodge of Pythians in the state of Missouri for the past twenty- four years. For fourteen years he was supreme representative of the Ancient Order of United Workmen and is past master for the state of Missouri in this order, having filled practically every executive office in the order. He is also affiliated with the Woodmen of the World and the Degree of Honor.
Politically, Doctor Williams is one of the most influential Demo- crats in this section of Missouri. For many years he has been active in the councils of his party and has assisted many of his friends to political preferment. For thirty years he has been identified with the party organization in Missouri and has never missed a county or state convention where he has been one of the guiding spirits. Having no desire for political or civic honors himself he has been interested in politics for pure love of the game and the excitement of taking part in a political contest.
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