USA > Missouri > Bates County > History of Bates County, Missouri > Part 91
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which is now owned by the children of the family and managed by his son, Lucien.
William Baskerville was married October 31, 1870, to Miss Mary Caldwell, born in Kentucky, a daughter of James and Mary Caldwell. The following children were born to this marriage: Benoni R., farmer, Deepwater township; Virginia, Martha, Judith, at home and Lucien B., of this sketch. Mr. Baskerville died in June, 1914. Mrs. Baskerville departed this life in 1887.
Lucien M. Baskerville, youngest son of the family, was educated in the district school of his neighborhood, the Appleton City Academy, and the Missouri State University at Columbia, where he finished his studies in 1904. Not long afterward he was employed as foreman of the rolling mill department of the Acme Steel Goods Company, Chicago, Illinois, and remained with this concern for a period of five years. He began with the company as shipping clerk and was soon promoted to the post of foreman. Owing to his father's declining health by reason of advancing age he returned home and has since had charge of the home place of the family. Mr. Baskerville pursued a law course at Columbia and was admitted to the Bates county bar in 1904, and prac- ticed for a short time in Butler previous to locating in Chicago. In the fall of 1912 his candidacy for the office of representative from Bates county was announced and he was nominated and elected. Mr. Basker- ville and his sisters are living on the old home place which Mr. Basker- ville is managing. This farm consists of three hundred and twenty acres of excellent farm land. His brother, Benoni, and he are farming in part- nership and are making a great success of their farming and live-stock operations. They have about one hundred and fifty head of cattle on the place and have fifty head of Hereford cows for breeding purposes. Besides a good grade of Poland China hogs they have a herd of twenty- five head of sheep. The Baskerville farm is well improved and nicely located about five miles northwest of Appleton City and lies in the southeast corner of Deepwater township.
Benoni R. Baskerville was born in Deepwater township in 1872. He received his education in the district school and the Academy at Appleton City. He was married in October, 1903, to Jeannette Galt, a daughter of James and Mary (Brown) Galt, of Appleton City, the latter of whom died in 1912. Mr. and Mrs. "Ben" R. Baskerville have a daugh- ter, Pauline.
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HISTORY OF BATES COUNTY
Hiram G. Cummings, the capable trustee of Shawnee township, Bates county, was born in Jackson county, Missouri, on February 20, 1884, a son of A. B. and Eliza (Garten) Cummings, the former, a native of Jackson county, Missouri, and the latter, of Virginia. Mr. and Mrs. A. B. Cummings reside at Grainfield, Kansas, to which city they moved in 1906. They are the parents of the following children: Stella May, the wife of Walter Bailey, of Topeka, Kansas; Leva, the wife of Troy Bartlett, of Martin City, Missouri; Hiram G., the subject of this review ; Andrew, of Summit township, Bates county, Missouri; Roy, Grainfield, Kansas; Eric, who is now with the United States Expeditionary force in the trenches in France, enlisting on April 27, 1917, a Jasper county boy, twenty-seven years of age; Ruth, the wife of Marcellus Harrison, of Grainfield, Kansas; Marie, the wife of William Cline, of Grainfield, Kan- sas; and Goldie, who is a member of the teaching profession at Grain- field, Kansas.
In the public schools of Jackson county, Missouri, Hiram G. Cum- mings obtained his education. He was a resident of Cass county, Mis- souri, for three years prior to coming to Bates county, in 1903, with his parents. Mr. Cummings purchased his present home from Charles Moore in 1908, a tract of land embracing originally eighty acres, to which he has in 1915 added another eighty-acre tract purchased from the Nuckols brothers. The Cummings place now comprises one hundred sixty acres of valuable land located three miles west of Culver, Missouri, and eight and a half miles northeast of Butler, Missouri. Mr. Cummings has placed all the improvements thereon, including a comfortable resi- dence, a house of five rooms and two stories, built in 1908 and 1909; a barn, 30 x 46 feet in dimensions ; a good crib and granary. Mr. Cum- mings raises high-grade hogs, cattle, and sheep. He has, at the time of this writing in 1918, nineteen head of Shropshires. Among the citi- zens of his township, Mr. Cummings is rated highly as a progressive, industrious, intelligent agriculturist and stockman.
February 12, 1907, Hiram G. Cummings and Gertie Moore were united in marriage, the ceremony being performed at the home of her uncle, C. H. Moore, in Shawnee township. Gertie (Moore) Cummings was born July 18. 1882, in Shawnee township, a daughter of Leander Lewis and Laura (Laux) Moore, the father, a native of Pettis county and the mother, of Scott county, Missouri. Mr. Moore came to Bates county, Missouri, in 1880 and purchased and improved the place in Shawnee township now owned by Percy Lee Moore. Leander Lewis
HIRAM G. CUMMINGS AND FAMILY.
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HISTORY OF BATES COUNTY
and Laura (Laux) Moore were the parents of the following children : Percy Lee, a prosperous farmer of Bates county, Missouri; Mrs. Hiram G. Cummings, the wife of the subject of this review; and Ora May, who died in infancy. Mr. Moore died February 5, 1885, and his wife was united with him in death two years later, on March 10, 1887. Both father and mother were laid to rest in Bethel cemetery in Bates county. To Hiram G. and Mrs. Cummings have been born four children, who are now living, and one deceased; Ann Eliza, who died at the age of sixteen months; Roger Lee; Hazel Verlinda; Clifford Hiram; and Allen Laux.
Mr. Cummings is serving his third term as a member of the school board of Shawnee township and in 1917 he was elected trustee of the same township and is the present incumbent in that office. Mr. Cum- mings is a young man of strong character, practical mind, and the success he has now achieved is but the prediction of a larger measure of success to be won in the future. Mr. and Mrs. Cummings have a host of friends in Bates county and in their community no family is held in higher esteem.
Lyman Hensley, a prominent citizen of Butler, Missouri, is a representative of one of the pioneer families of Bates county. Mr. Hensley is a native of Homer township, Bates county. He was born at the Hensley homestead on January 22, 1874, a son of W. C. and Mary Jane (Halley) Hensley. W. C. Hensley was born in Kentucky in 1844 and Mrs. W. C. Hensley was born one year later in the same state. They came to Missouri from their native state in 1868 and settled near old Mulberry, where two years afterward Mr. Hensley purchased two hundred forty acres of land, now known as the Stevens farm. Mr. Hensley was a veteran of the Civil War. He served two years, a Union soldier, in Company B, Kentucky cavalry, as message bearer, and while in service was seriously injured, receiving a gunshot wound. After coming to Missouri, Mr. Hensley engaged extensively in farming and stock raising, in buying and shipping stock for the St. Louis and Kansas City markets. He was a well-to-do and highly respected citizen of his township, a kindly, courteous, companionable gentleman who made many friends in this state. W. C. Hensley died on the farm where he and his noble wife reared to maturity their family of twelve children: John, who is now deceased: Sallie, the wife of Ben Biggs. of Hume, Missouri; Anna, who is now deceased; Charlie, a widely-known and successful auctioneer and shipper of livestock, Columbus, Kansas ; Leora.
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deceased; Carrie, the wife of E. P. Nickell, of Kansas City, Missouri; Lyman, the subject of this review; Jessie, the wife of Clifford Jackson, Denver, Colorado; Bettie, the wife of J. W. Allen, Alma, Nebraska; Mary Lou, the wife of Hugh McGee, Rawlings, Wyoming; H. C., Neodesha, Kansas; and Lola, deceased. The widowed mother now makes her home at Hume, Missouri. The father was laid to rest in Mulberry cemetery in Bates county.
Mr. Hensley, whose name introduces this review, obtained his edu- cation at Hotwater school house in Homer township. The name of the school house recalls the amusing incident in commemoration of which the building was named. The early-day settlers in this particu- lar district had decided by vote to move the school house two miles north of the original site. The vote was not unanimous, and Grandma Doddsworth was very much opposed to the proposition. She moved into the school house and made preparations to "stand pat" and when Jack Showers, who had the contract to move the building, came, she threw scalding-hot water upon him. The poor old lady was afterward forced to capitulate and the school house was moved, "ag'in' her voice and vote," as Will Carleton puts it in "The New Church Organ."
In his boyhood days, Lyman Hensley was want to ride to Butler behind his father on "Old Cooly," a mare which lived to be thirty-seven years of age, the idolized pet of the Hensley children, and the three often swam across the intervening streams in the days before bridges were known in Bates county. Mr. Hensley's prairie home was on the old Butler-La Cygne stage route and when he was seventeen years of age he was employed as mail carrier on this route for nearly a year. He remained at home with his parents until he was twenty-two years of age, engaged in the pursuits of agriculture. He was thus employed for ten years prior to his coming to Butler to reside and to enter the stock business in this city. Mr. Hensley buys and sells cattle, hogs, horses, and mules. He formerly attended sales as auctioneer but in recent years he has abandoned this line of work. Mr. Hensley was a candidate for probate judge of Bates county in 1914 on the progressive ticket.
The marriage of Lyman Hensley and Carrie May Henderson, a native of Pickaway county, Ohio, a daughter of John and Margaret Henderson, was solemnized February 10, 1898. Mr. and Mrs. Hender- son came to Homer township. Bates county, Missouri, in 1884, and located near Mulberry on the Leach place, which they had purchased and that is now owned by Angela Scully. They are both now deceased
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HISTORY OF BATES COUNTY
and their reniains are interred in a cemetery at Columbus, Kansas. To Lyman and Mrs. Hensley have been born five children: Harvey, Marie, Goldie, Ruth, and Antoinette, all of whom are at home with their parents.
As a citizen, Lyman Hensley discharged his duties with com- mendable fidelity and few men in Bates county enjoy a larger share of public respect and confidence.
J. A. Beard, a well-known and successful farmer and stockman of Summit township, is one of the Bates county boys of yesterday wlio have "made good." Mr. Beard was born January 2, 1875, at the Beard homestead in Deepwater township, a son of Henry and Eliza (Kret- zinger) Beard, one of the worthy and most prominent pioneer fami- lies of Bates county. Henry Beard was a native of Indiana. He came with his family to Missouri in 1867 and they settled in Bates county on a tract of land in Deepwater township. Mr. Beard died in 1897 and interment was made in Smith cemetery. His widow still survives her husband and now, at the age of seventy-two years, resides on the home place in Deepwater township. Henry and Eliza (Kretzinger) Beard were the parents of the following children: Charles F., who was at one time sheriff of Bates county and now resides at Parsons, Kansas ; Mrs. Emma Frost, of Deepwater township; Mrs. J. H. Baker, the wife of J. H. Baker, a sketch of whom appears elsewhere in this volume; J. A., the subject of this review; I. F., who is engaged in farming on the home place in Deepwater township; Ava, of Lone Oak township; Mrs. Minnie Ferris, who resides in Canada; Mrs. Maud Parker, of Deepwater township; Mrs. Dora Thomas, of Pleasant Gap township; and Mrs. Nina McKinley, of Hudson township.
In Deepwater township, Bates county, J. A. Beard was reared and educated and, at the age of twenty years, began farming independently. The first farm he ever owned was a part of the Allen place, a tract com- prising sixty acres, which he sold within a short time after purchasing. Mr. Beard then bought one hundred acres of land in Pleasant Gap town- ship, of which he disposed at the time he left Missouri and went to Colorado, in which state he resided two years, and Kansas, where he was a resident of Labette county for two years. After four years, Mr. Beard returned to Bates county. J. A. Beard was engaged in the mer- cantile business at Pleasant Gap for one year and for eight years was a leading auctioneer of the county, but in the future he intends to devote his entire time and attention to the pursuits of farming and stock raising.
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He has, at the present time, on the farm three head of Shorthorn cattle, thirty head of Duroc Jersey hogs, and seven horses of good grade.
February 17, 1897, J. A. Beard and Lizzie King, a daughter of Alfred and Minerva King, of Butler, Missouri, were united in marriage. The Kings came to Bates county from Ohio in 1886 and they located near Rockville, where they remained for five years, and then returned to their native state to reside for three years, when, they again came to Bates county and at this time located at Butler, where Mrs. King still makes her home. Mr. King died in 1906 and his remains were interred in Rogers cemetery in Bates county. To J. A. and Lizzie (King) Beard have been born eight children, all of whom are now living and are at home with their parents: Harley, Hershel, Buell, Ava, Basil, Cecil, Lucille, and Willie Kenneth.
J. A. Beard was left fatherless at the time he most needed a father's advice and assistance and financial support in getting started in life, and he was but one of a large family. Bates county is proud to number him among the most valued of the "self-made" men of Summit township.
John P. Connor, proprietor of the "Connor Stock Farm" in Sum- mit township, one of the finest stock farms in Bates county, is one of the county's prominent farmers and stockmen. Mr. Connor is a native of Illinois. He was born March 17, 1867, in Ford county, Illinois, a son of John, Sr., and Bridget ( McClellan) Connor, natives of Ireland. Mr. and Mrs. John Connor, Sr., had located in Pennsylvania upon land- ing in this country and from Pennsylvania had moved to Illinois, where they settled in Ford county, among the earliest pioneers in 1865. To John, Sr., and Bridget Connor were born the following children: Mary, the wife of Ed Finnegan, of Leonard, Colorado: Mrs. Helen Brophy, deceased: Alice, the wife of John Brophy, of Whiteside county, Illi- nois; Mrs. Kate Gadsell, of Champaign county, Illinois; and John P .. the subject of this review. The father is now deceased and the widowed mother resides at Pana, Illinois.
In Champaign county, Illinois, John P. Connor was reared and, in the district schools of the county, educated. He has followed farm- ing and stock raising practically all his life with the exception of one year when he was engaged in railroading. The "Connor Stock Farm" in Summit township comprises six hundred forty acres of land. which were formerly a part of the Fry Ranch in Bates county. Mr. Connor purchased his place in 1910 and has since devoted his time and attention to raising high-grade stock, having eighty head of cattle and
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HISTORY OF BATES COUNTY
thirty head of horses and mules on the farm at the time of this writing in 1918. The farm, which is indisputably one of the best in the township and in Bates county, is situated eight miles southeast of Butler. The place is well equipped with all the latest facilities for handling stock and the improvements include a well-built stock barn; a cattle barn, 30 x 200 feet in dimensions; a huge crib for corn and grain, and, at the present time, filled; and hog houses. Two hundred forty acres of the "Connor Stock Farm" are annually planted in grain, the remainder being given to pasture and meadow. Mr. Connor raises Aberdeen Angus cattle and he is the owner of two registered males. He also has on the farm a horse eligible for registry.
The marriage of John P. Connor and Helen Brophy, a daughter of John and Mary (Ryan) Brophy, of Champaign county, Illinois, was solemnized in 1892. Both parents of Mrs. Connor are now deceased. To this union have been born seven children: Mary, the wife of James Gordon. of Summit township; Ellen, the wife of John Shautz, of Shaw- nee township; Charles, John, William, Leo Patrick, and Margaret, at home with their parents.
Although Mr. Connor is a very public-spirited gentleman, he is not an active partisan politically, being content to labor quietly among his fine stock at his beautiful country place in Summit township. He is well informed on the leading questions and issues of the day and is firm in his convictions of right and wrong. He has ever been indu: - trious and he deserves the success which has attended his well-directed efforts.
James R. Gordon, a well-known young agriculturist of Bates county, was born August 5, 1884, on his father's plantation in Fleming county, Kentucky, located near Flemingsburg, a son of J. W. and Victoria Gordon, the former, a native of Kentucky and the latter, of Virginia. J. W. Gordon was a son of James and Betsy (Wallingford) Gordon. James Gordon, grandfather of James R., the subject of this review, was a native of Ireland. He had emigrated from his native land in early manhood and had come to the United States, where he settled in Ken- tucky and was united in marriage with Betsy Wallingford. a member of a prominent colonial family, of Wallingford, Kentucky. J. W. Gordon was a Confederate soldier in the Civil War and he served three years with John T. Morgan's regiment. Mr. Gordon died in 1915 and his remains were interred in the cemetery near his home in Fleming county, Kentucky. His widow still survives him and at present is making her (59)
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HISTORY OF BATES COUNTY
home at Penfield in Champaign county, Illinois. J. W. and Victoria Gordon were the parents of the following children: Mary Alice, deceased; John William, deceased; George W., Wallingford, Kentucky; James R., the subject of this review; Anna, the wife of Cleveland Wycoff, of Champaign county, Illinois; Eugene, of Champaign county, Illinois; and Eunice, the wife of Claud Mart, of Wallingford, Kentucky, who are twins.
In the public schools of Fleming county, Kentucky. James R. Gordon received his education. Prior to coming; to Missouri, Mr. Gordon was engaged in tobacco growing in Kentucky and since he came to Bates county in 1912 and purchased the lease to the land on which he now resides he has followed the pursuits of farming and stock raising. Mr. Gordon's farm comprises one hundred sixty acres of the Angela Scully lands.
James R. Gordon and Mary Connor, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. J. P. Connor, a sketch of whom appears in this volume, were united in marriage in 1912 at Butler, Missouri. Mrs. Gordon was born Novem- ber 11, 1892, in Champaign county, Illinois. To Mr. and Mrs. Gordon have been born three children: John William, Mary Agnes, and James Robert, Jr. The Gordons are highly respected in their community.
James M. McGovern, a valued member of the directorate of the Missouri State Bank of Butler, a prosperous farmer and stockman of Summit township, is a native of Macoupin county, Illinois. Mr. McGov- ern was born September 14, 1858, a son of William M. and Hester A. ( McPherron) McGovern, natives of Tennessee. Mr. and Mrs. William MI. McGovern were the parents of the following children: John, deceased; William, Jr., who resides in Kansas; Ephraim, deceased : Eugene. Kansas City, Missouri: Mrs. Eliza Edwards, Fort Smith, Arkansas; Frederick, Kansas City, Missouri; and Oscar, deceased. The father died in Macoupin county, Illinois, in November, 1858. Mrs. McGovern survived her husband many years, when in 1897 they were united in death. The mother died at Kansas City, Missouri.
In Macoupin county, Illinois, in the common schools, James M. McGovern obtained his education. He was reared to manhood in Illinois and for eleven years was employed in the coal mines located near his father's home. Mr. McGovern came to Kansas City, Missouri. in 1890 with his widowed mother and entered the employ of the Metro- politan Street Railway Company. He worked for this company for three years and then moved from Kansas City to Bates county and settled on his present farm in Summit township, after residing for some time on
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HISTORY OF BATES COUNTY
a part of the Argenbright farm, which he purchased in 1893. The McGovern farm in Summit township comprises eighty acres of choice land, conveniently located within five miles of Butler, abundantly watered, and nicely improved. About half the place is in pasture land and grass. Mr. McGovern has built a barn since he acquired the owner- ship of the farm and has improved and remodeled all the other build- ings on the place. He is engaged in raising cattle, horses, and hogs, and he has made a marked financial success with his stock.
The marriage of James M. McGovern and Clara J. Anderson was solemnized in 1907. Clara J. (Anderson) McGovern is a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William Anderson, honored pioneers of Macoupin county. Illinois. Mrs. Anderson died when her daughter, Clara J., was a young girl, seventeen years of age. Mr. Anderson is still living and is now eighty-six years of age. Mr. and Mrs. McGovern have for many years made an annual visit to their relatives and friends in Macoupin county, Illinois. By a former marriage, James M. McGovern is the father of three children : Clarence M., the youngest child and only one now living, a well-to-do farmer and stockman residing two miles southeast of But- ler, Missouri, who married Cora Powell and to them have been born two children, Rosa Lee, and Annetta Ailene. The first wife, and the mother of Clarence M. McGovern, Cora (Overstreet) McGovern, departed this life in 1906. William M. McGovern, the father of James . M., the subject of this review, and Sterling Overstreet, the father of Cora (Overstreet) McGovern were comrades in the Mexican War of 1846.
Mr. McGovern is a man of strong character, practical mind, and rare business ability. He possesses to a marked degree the gift of foreseeing with remarkable accuracy the outcome of all transactions.
Fred Wolf, assessor of Mount Pleasant township, is a native of Ohio. He was born in Adams county and was there reared and edu- cated. At the age of nineteen years, he came to Bates county, Missouri -"a-foot and alone"-and located at Pleasant Gap, where he was employed at any kind of work he could obtain in the summers and for two winters attended school.
In 1892, Mr. Wolf purchased his first land, a tract of seventy-three acres, which he sold in the autumn of the same year and then bought a farm comprising eighty acres. Five years later, Mr. Wolf disposed of his second country place and in 1896 moved to Butler. In April, 1898. he resigned his position as clerk in a mercantile establishment at Butler and enlisted in the service of the United States in the Spanish-
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HISTORY OF BATES COUNTY
American War, enlisting at Butler. He was sent to Jefferson Barracks at St. Louis, then to Chickamauga Park and to Lexington, Kentucky, and thence to Albany, Georgia, where he was mustered out at the close of the conflict. At one time, Mr. Wolf was sent on a sick furlough to the City Hospital at St. Louis, and while he was recuperating in the soldier's ward it was being reported in Butler that he was dying and later that he was dead. When he returned home, Mr. Wolf had the most unusual experience of reading his own obituary in the Butler newspa- pers. Prior to leaving Butler, he was employed at the Hill Cash Store as clerk. Afterward, he was with the American Clothing House in the shoe department for one and a half years and with the Levy Mercantile Company for one year. He purchased his present home place of eighty acres of choice land located two miles west of Butler in Mount Pleasant township in 1910 and moved to it.
In 1895 Fred Wolf and Stella Burch were united in marriage and to this union were born two children: Bernice Vivian, who is now a junior student in the Butler High School; and Ronald Wayne, at home. Mrs. Wolf died in 1906. A sister of Fred Wolf has charge of the house- hold and is caring for the children.
Mrs. Wolf was a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. James K. Burch, a promi- nent pioneer family of Bates county. James K. Burch came to this part of Missouri in 1844 and located on land eight miles south of Butler.
While a resident of Pleasant Gap township. Fred Wolf was elected assessor and served capably two years. He is the present assessor of Mount Pleasant township. Mr. Wolf is a worker. His life has been one of untiring activity and has been crowned with the degree of success which is attained by those only who devote themselves indefatigably to the work that lies before them. He is widely recognized in Bates county as a man of intelligent views, excellent judgment, and sterling moral worth.
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