USA > Missouri > Bates County > History of Bates County, Missouri > Part 80
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E. D. Fitz Gerald .- The career of him whose name forms the caption of this review is that of a self-made man who in the course of a few years has accomplished as much and more than the average individual does in a life time of endeavor. He is one of those excellent citizens of Bates county who came here from an adjoining state and has taken his position as an important member of the civic body of the county. E. D. Fitz Gerald, owner of a splendid farm of two hundred and forty acres in section 21, Howard township, was born at Chetopa, Kansas, in 1871, and was a son of William G. and Martha (Robinson) Fitz Gerald.
William Fitz Gerald, his father, was a native of Ireland of Scotch- Irish parentage who married Martha Robinson, a native of London, England, and soon after the marriage immigrated to America in 1868. They were early settlers in the state of Kansas where Mr. Fitz Gerald was engaged in banking. For a number of years he was cashier of a bank at Chetopa, in Miami county, Kansas. He died in 1873. To Will- iam and Martha Fitz Gerald were born the following children: Edward D. Fitz Gerald and Geraldine E. Fitz Gerald.
E. D. Fitz Gerald was reared and educated in Kansas and early in life took up the vocation of agriculturist. He came to Bates county. Missouri, in 1899 and for some years worked at farm labor. He was industrious and saving of his- earnings and after his marriage in 1901 he began renting land. He leased the farm which he now owns, for
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a period of seven years and then purchased it. Since coming into possession of the property he has added several substantial improve- ments, a house, a barn, and a large silo. During the past year he has harvested sixty acres of corn which yielded an average of forty bushels to the acre and has sown fifty acres to wheat. He sells from his place an average of seventy head of hogs annually and other products which yield him a good income.
Mr. Fitz Gerald was married December 24, 1901, to Miss Rose Ann White, who was born in Vernon county, Missouri, a daughter of Cass and Eva (Benham) White, natives of New York, who immigrated to Missouri in 1872 and made a settlement in Vernon county, where Mr. White became a successful farmer and stockman. Mr. White died in 1912 and his widow makes her home in Vernon county. Seven children have been born to E. D. and Rose Ann Fitz Gerald, as follow: Beulah Anna, aged fifteen years; Wayne Miles, aged thirteen; Ullis James, eleven years of age; Charles Bronson, ten years old; David Arnold, aged five years; Hattie May, who died January 16, 1911, at the age of one year and two months; Edith Pauline, four years of age.
Mr. Fitz Gerald is a Democrat in politics and takes a keen interest in civic and educational matters, having been a strong advocate of the inauguration of the consolidated school system, he being one of the school directors, which has provided transportation and graded school facilities for the children of Howard township at Hume, Missouri. He and Mrs. Fitz Gerald are members of the Methodist Episcopal church, South, and contribute of their time and means to the furtherance of relig- ious works. Mr. Fitz Gerald is a member of the Modern Woodmen of America and Domestic Workers, and Mrs. Fitz Gerald is affiliated with the Domestic Workers ( Royal Neighbors). Both are popular and highly esteemed in their home community where they are valued and useful citizens.
W. P. Connell .- The name of Connell is a historic one in Kansas and Bates county, Missouri, and recalls recollections to the old timers of both Kansas and Missouri of the days when the state of Kansas was in the making and that Jesse Connell, father of W. P. Connell, was a member of the first state constitutional convention held in Kan- sas and played a very prominent part in the making of a new state. History also records that he later came to Bates county and became prominently identified with the People's Party movement in this county and at the time of his death in 1892. he was the presiding judge of the
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county court in this county. W. P. Connell, an intelligent and highly respected old resident of West Boone township, owner of one hundred and sixty acres of land, was born January 9, 1845, in Trimble county, Kentucky, a son of Jesse and Nancy (Johnson) Connell, both of whom were natives of Kentucky.
The late Judge Jesse Connell was born in Kentucky in Trimble county and reared and educated in his native state. He was an intelli- gent, versatile citizen of excellent educational attainments, a natural- born leader of men, so it is not strange that after locating in Leaven- worth county, Kansas, in 1854, he soon became identified with the his- toric making of a great state. He soon became identified with political movements in his section of Kansas and was elected to represent Leav- enworth county as a member of the first state constitutional conven- tion held in 1857. He played a prominent and effective part in the making of the first set of laws under which Kansas was governed and resided in that state until 1875, when he came to Missouri and located on a farm in Clay county. He resided in Clay county until 1880 and then came to Bates county. His powers of leadership soon evidenced themselves in this county and he became identified with the People's Party movement which was then sweeping the Western states and gaining in strength and power each continued year of its existence. He was a candidate for judge of the county court of Bates county in the election of 1892 when the People's or Populist Party swept the county and elected practically all the county officials. He was made presiding judge of the county court as a result of this decisive election but died during the year, in Butler. His remains are interred in Oak Hill ceme- tery. The death of judge Connell marked the passing. of one of the truly historic characters of the border days. He was the father of ten children, five of whom are yet living as follow: Robert, living in Clay county, Missouri; Mrs. Nannie Watkins, Liberty, Missouri; May, also living in Liberty, Missouri; Jack, a resident of Centerview, Mis- souri ; Mrs. Kate Wright, Long Beach, California; William P., subject of this review.
W. P. Connell received his early education in the common schools of Leavenworth county, Kansas, and pursued a course at St. Benedict's College. Atchison, Kansas. He removed with his father to Clay county, Missouri, in 1875, and came to Bates county with him in 1880. For a period of twenty-seven years, Mr. Connell cultivated a farm located one mile south of his present home place and in 1907 purchased eighty (52)
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acres, which in connection with a farm of eighty acres, forty acres owned by his brother-in-law, makes a good farm of one hundred and sixty acres which they cultivate in common.
Mr. Connell was married in Leavenworth, Kansas, in 1866, to Sarah Viola Cox, born in Hancock county, Illinois, in 1844, a daughter of Luke and Elizabeth (Daws) Cox, natives of Virginia. Luke Cox her father, died in Illinois in 1857. The widow, born in 1829, was mar- ried, second time, to Robert Perry Higdon, of Alabama, and moved to Leavenworth county, Kansas, in 1864. Her second husband died at Ft. Smith, Arkansas, during the Civil War period. She was married, third time, to John Freeland, who died in Leavenworth county, Kan- sas. Mrs. Freeland is now living at the Connell home. The following children have been born to W. P. and Sarah Viola Connell: Mrs. Minnie Scott Black, living on a farm near Adrian, Missouri; Mrs. Bettie Wright, Kansas City, Missouri; Mrs. Johanna Clapp, Montana. Mr. and Mrs. Connell have eleven grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. In 1916 this worthy couple celebrated their Golden Wedding Anniversary and a considerable gathering of friends and relatives were present to wish them many returns of the day and to partake of their hospitality and cheer.
Mr. and Mrs. Connell are members of the Quaker faith and are good, worthy citizens of Bates county who are respected and admired by all who know them. He is a Democrat in politics and has served his town- ship for eight years as trustee and was justice of the peace for eight years. W. P. Connell is a worthy son of an honored and revered par- ent whose name will live long in history as one of the makers of a great state.
G. B. Bohlken, prosperous farmer and stockman of Homer town- ship, vice-president of the Bank of Amoret, Missouri, is a Bates county citizen of German birth who has made a splendid record in his adopted land. He began life in this country as a farm hand, followed by a period of homesteading on the plains of Nebraska, where his home was a sod house, and later by a successful career in Bates county as farmer and stockman. Mr. Bohlken was born in Germany in 1845, a son of C. H. and M. Bohlken, who lived and died in their native land. Mr. Bohlken received a good education in the schools of his native country and in 1869 he immigrated to America. He was endowed with very little of this world's goods when he arrived in Illinois and his work was as farm hand for six months at a wage of twenty-five dollars per month. He
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then rented a farm and cultivated rented land in Illinois until 1886, when he went to Cheyenne county, Nebraska, where he homesteaded a half section of land whereon he grazed cattle for a number of years. His home on the prairie was a sod house, which followed the dugout wherein he and his family first lived. He ranged cattle on the plains and im- proved his land, and it can be said that Mr. Bohlken has no complaint to make of any hardships endured while on his ranch, life being easy, and no hard work connected with herding cattle. He disposed of his Nebraska land in 1895 and came to Bates county, where for the follow- ing twelve years he operated a tract of Scully land on a lease. In 1907 he bought his present splendid farm of two hundred and eighty acres in Homer township.
Mr. Bohlken was married in Germany in 1869 to Catherine Hemen and came directly after his marriage to America, accompanied by his bride. Mrs. Bohlken was a faithful helpmeet to her husband until her death in 1897. Children were born to this marriage as follow: Mrs. Margaret Emanuelson; Mrs. Mary Fitz; Mrs. Annie Wilkerson; Mrs. Helen Alberts; William, Sina, and George, at home with their father; Henry, deceased. Mr. Bohlken is independent in his political views and votes as his conscience dictates. He is a member of the Lutheran denominational faith and is highly esteemed as one of Bates county's most substantial citizens.
J. R. Trent, foreman of the A. H. Warren Cattle Ranch in Bates county, was born at Humansville, Cedar county, Missouri, in 1890. He is the son of T. S. and Jennie (Knapp) Trent, the former of whom was a native of McDonald county, Missouri. Mrs. Jennie Trent was born in New York state and came to Missouri with her parents in 1880. Mr. and Mrs. Trent came to Bates county in 1913 and are now living in Sum- mit township. J. R. Trent was reared and educated in Cedar county, Missouri, and took up the vocation of farming and stock raising. He came to Bates county in 1909 and managed the Frank Robinson farm until he took charge of the A. H. Warren ranch in 1913. This ranch comprises a total of two thousand one hundred and thirty-one acres in Summit, Shawnee, and Mound townships and has been in operation for the past ten years. It was first placed in operation by Messrs. Huffing- ton and Warren, of Kansas City, but upon Mr. Huffington's death, Mr. A. H. Warren became sole proprietor of the ranch. There are now two hundred sixty-two head of cattle on the ranch, sixty-three of which are on full feed. This number is somewhat below the usual number of
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cattle kept on the place and there is usually a carload of hogs in feeding for the markets. The land comprising the ranch is all in lease and is part of the Scully lands in this county, all being owned by the Scully estate excepting ninety-three acres, which is owned by Mr. Warren. The residence on the place was built by Green Walton, and is situated four miles north and three and three-fourths miles east of Butler, Missouri. Four men are employed to assist in the operations of the ranch.
J. R. Trent was married on October 18, 1908, to Miss Freda Nel- son, a daughter of N. Y. and Mary Nelson, of Cedar county, Missouri. Mrs. Trent was born in Princeton, Illinois, Bureau county, and came to Missouri in 1906. Mr. and Mrs. Nelson are parents of four children besides Mrs. Freda Trent, as follow: Palmer E .: Mrs. Selma Mitten ; Mrs. Jennie E. McDonald. Kansas City, Missouri ; and Mrs. E. G. Ward, Butler, Missouri. A brother of Mr. Trent, named Loren Trent, resides on a farm at Manzanola. Colorado.
Mr. Trent is one of the best stockmen in this section of Missouri and has learned thoroughly how to care for livestock by being asso- ciated with stockmen, applying himself. and being by nature possessed with a natural liking for his profession. His employer says of him that he is one of the best stockmen he ever employed. The Warren Com- pany ships from eight to ten cars of livestock to the markets each year and modern methods of feeding are used on this large ranch. It is equipped with the largest silo in Bates county having a capacity of two hundred and fifty tons of silage, and erected in 1914. Mrs. Trent attends to the poultry department on her own account and has at the present writing over one hundred and fifty Barred Rock chickens on the place. Mr. and Mrs. Trent are energetic, industrious and ambitious people who are determined to make a success of their lives and will without doubt meet with the greatest success in their chosen vocation.
A. J. Smith, a leading attorney of Bates county, Missouri, one of Adrian's most prominent and influential citizens, president of the Old Settlers Association, is a native of Ohio. Mr. Smith was born in 1855, a son of J. J. and Deborah (Blue) Smith, of Delaware county, Ohio. Deborah (Blue) Smith was a daughter of Michael Blue, a native of Ohio and of Irish descent. J. J. Smith moved from Delaware county, Ohio to Columbus in Franklin county and in 1866 came to Bates county, Mis- souri and purchased a tract of land, comprising one thousand eighty acres, for three dollars and sixty cents an acre. Two years afterward, in 1868, Mr. Smith returned to this part of the state with his family
A. J. SMITH.
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and they located temporarily at Butler. In the spring of 1869, the Smiths settled on the farm, in Mound township, a part of which the son, A. J., now owns. Their residence was a small box house, scarcely large enough for their family. J. J. and Deborah ( Blue) Smith were the par- ents of six children, three of whom are now living: Dr. Norman P., deceased; Mrs. Mary E. Walter, Adrian, Missouri; Dr. Harvey B., de- ceased; Jolin C., Adrian, Missouri; A. J., the subject of this sketch; and Deborah, deceased. The mother died in Ohio, when her youngest son, A. J., was a little child, three years of age. Several years after the death of Mrs. Smith, J. J. Smith remarried, his second wife being Mar- tha Livingston, a daughter of Judge Livingston, of Ohio. Mr. Smith was a highly intellectual man and well educated. He was engaged in teaching school for many years in Ohio but after coming West and settling in Bates county he devoted his entire time and energies to the pursuits of agriculture and stock raising. During his career, he suffered many financial reverses, but he was the type of man who knows no failure and his perseverance and invincible spirit in the end brought him a fair measure of success. J. J. Smith was one of Bates county's most highly respected and valued citizens and his death on May 18, 1895 was universally lamented in this part of the state by all who knew him.
In the public schools of Bates county, Missouri, A. J. Smith received his elementary education. He later entered Butler Academy and after completing the academic course was engaged in teaching school for several years until he had saved from his earnings a sum of money sufficient to enable him to pursue a course in law at the Missouri State University. Mr. Smith graduated from the Missouri Law School at the State University in 1881 and after completing his work at the university he returned to his father's home on the farm to obtain a much needed rest. Prior to opening his law office at Adrian, Mr. Smith again entered the teaching profession and taught school for one term. For twenty years, he was engaged in the regular practice of law, since which time he has been doing office practice only. In 1898, A. J. Smith purchased the interests of the other heirs to the old home place and is the present owner of two hundred fifty acres of land in Mound township, a farm of one hundred sixty acres upon which he has built a very nice, comfort- able cottage of six rooms, and a farm of ninety acres also well improved with a pleasant residence, a cyclone cellar, a sufficient number of barns, and supplied with an abundance of good water. Mr. Smith rents both places and from them derives a very satisfactory income. He is also
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the owner of a large lot in Adrian, 140 x 200 feet, upon which he has built two residences. The older house was his first home in Adrian and the new one is his present home, a handsome, modern structure of thirteen rooms supplied with both hot and cold water and finished with hardwood floors, built in 1911.
The marriage of A. J. Smith and Laura M. Hunter, a daughter of W. M. and Elizabeth Hunter, of Butler, Missouri, was solemnized Sep- tember 29, 1885 and to this union were born three children: Alvin C., deceased; Mrs. Martha E. Wallace, Altamont, Missouri; and Leon H., Adrian, Missouri. The mother died in 1900, leaving the three small children, the youngest but five years of age. Mr. Smith remarried, his second wife being Mary L. Nichols, a daughter of Stephen Nichols, and to them has been born one child, a daughter, Mary Lucile, who is at home with her parents.
Politically, A. J. Smith is affiliated with the Republican party. He takes a keen and commendable interest in public and political affairs and has served as city attorney of Adrian for many years. He is in close connection with the financial interests of Bates county and is at present a stockholder and the attorney of the Adrian Banking Com- pany, of which institution he was vice-president and director for thirty years.
Mr. Smith readily recalls the time in Bates county, when one might travel a distance of many miles and not pass a settlement, when he from the doorway of his father's home has killed countless wild ducks and prairie chickens, and when the old stagecoach used to travel from Grand River to Butler by way of the Mound. Later, the route of the stagecoach was changed, after a trail had been beaten, so that it passed the Smith homestead. Mr. Smith relates in his own inimitable way many delightful stories of his youth, many incidents, too, of hardship and privation which he experienced in his boyhood days and in his early manhood, and many interesting cases which he has had in his later years since entering the practice of his profession. Mr. Smith is president of the Bates County Old Settlers' Association.
The record of A. J. Smith is the record of a man of talent, who began life under the embarrassing circumstances which poverty entails and who, by his own unaided efforts, has worked himself up from a lowly position to one of the highest standing in Bates county, Missouri. From the first, Mr. Smith's life has been one of industry and persever- ance and the honorable course he has undeviatingly followed, the admir-
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able methods he has invariably adopted, have won for him the support and confidence of all with whom he has had business or social relations. It is to such strongminded men that our country's prosperity is chiefly indebted, for in the building of communities and in laying the broad, deep foundations of future progress they are potential factors and must be considered as true benefactors of the race. A. J. Smith deserves great credit for the rapid strides he has made from a most humble sta- tion in life to one of influence and affluence in his community. Bates county is proud to enroll such gentlemen as he among the county's best and most intellectual, substantial citizens.
Stephen Cole Collier, prosperous and enterprising farmer and stock- man of Walnut township, is a member of one of the oldest of the Mis- souri pioneer families who is keeping up the reputation of his ancestors as able and intelligent tillers of the soil. In his own right he is owner of a splendid tract of two hundred and forty acres of prairie land in Walnut township, located south of Foster-a beautiful, level tract of land which is kept in a high state of cultivation by the proprietor. During 1917, Mr. Collier harvested 3,500 bushels of corn from a tract of sixty acres with other crops in proportion. He has fifty acres planted to wheat for the next harvest and has thirty-three head of cattle on his place at the present time, aiming to feed from fifteen to twenty-five head of cattle each year for the markets.
S. C. Collier was born August 11, 1867, in Saline county, Missouri. He is a son of James S. Collier, born in 1832 and departed this life October 27. 1913. His mother was Margaret Elizabeth Cole, prior to her marriage, and was born in 1838 and died in 1885. James S. Collier was born in Virginia and made a settlement in Saline county, Mis- souri, during the fifties. In 1872 he made a trip to Montana, where he was engaged in ranching and cattle raising with his brother-in- law, Frank Cole, the men driving a herd of five hundred heifers across the plains to the free ranges of Montana. He returned to Missouri in July, 1879, and made a visit to Bates county. Taking a liking to the country he purchased a farm of two hundred and forty acres south of Foster in Walnut township and proceeded to improve the place. He resided here engaged in farming and stock raising until his death. He was the father of two children, now living: Stephen Cole, subject of this review; and Mrs. Anna Smiley, Barton county, Missouri. Mrs. Margaret Elizabeth (Cole) Collier was born in Missouri in 1838 and died in 1885. She was a daughter of Holbert Cole, a native of Kentucky,
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who settled at the site of Old Fort Boone on the Missouri river, and assisted in the building of this fort early in the nineteenth century, thus becoming one of the earliest of the Missouri pioneers who had to brave the hardships of the frontier and live in continual fear of attacks by the savage Indians who roamed over the wild and unsettled country which was then the Missouri territory. James S. Collier served in the Confederate army, enlisting from Cooper county, Missouri, under the famous Confederate commander, Gen. J. O. Shelby, who spent the latter years of his life in Bates county. Elsewhere in this volume is written a history of the life of General Shelby, together with an account of his military operations, which will give a fair account of the cam- paign in which James S. Collier participated under Shelby.
S. C. Collier was educated in the district school and the old Butler Academy. He has always lived upon the home place, receiving as his share of the estate, one hundred and sixty acres, to which he has added an "eighty," making two hundred and forty acres in all. Mr. Collier was married on May 12, 1896, to Livona Wilson, born in Bates county, in 1874, a daughter of T. J. and Mary Elizabeth (Gilliland) Wilson, natives of Missouri. T. J. Wilson, her father, was born on a pioneer farm in Henry county, near the townsite of Leeton, Missouri. He was a son of Tennessee parents who were early pioneers in Missouri. In early maturity, he settled in Bates county and farmed for a number of years until his removal to Seattle, Washington, in 1907. His wife, Mary Elizabeth Gilliland, was born in 1848 and died in August, 1896. She was a daughter of Lewis Gilliland, a native of Tennessee. who came to Bates county in the thirties and took up a claim on Wal- nut creek, where he remained until 1850, when he, with others, started for California but died there. One of the mementoes of his trip was a gold necklace which was made from gold which he sent from Cali- fornia to his wife, Lucy Gilliland.
Three children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. S. C. Collier : Mrs. Mary Margaret Moore, Nevada, Missouri; Alice Irene, at home with her parents; and Stephen Dow, aged fifteen years. Mr. Collier is aligned with the Democratic party and is a member of the Metho- dist church, South. He belongs to the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons and has been a member of this order for the past twenty-five years. For twelve years he has been affiliated with the Knights of Pythias lodge.
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