USA > Missouri > Bates County > History of Bates County, Missouri > Part 92
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Judge Estes Smith, a late prominent citizen of Bates county, Mis- souri, was a native of Daviess county, Missouri. He was born February 6, 1856, a son of Stephen H. and Catherine (Harsha) Smith, honored and respected pioneers of Daviess county. Stephen H. Smith was born June 6, 1819, and Mrs. Smith was born May 14. 1823. They were united in marriage in 1840 and to them were born thirteen children. Stephen H. Smith died May 25, 1896, at Marceline in Linn county, Missouri. His wife died in Idaho in Latah county, near Troy.
Judge Smith came to Bates county, Missouri, in 1878 and located in
JUDGE ESTES SMITH.
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HISTORY OF BATES COUNTY
Mingo township. He was in business at Mayesburg for one year, after which he moved to the country place where his widow now resides, a farm comprising one hundred twenty-seven acres of choice land located seven miles southwest of Creighton. Judge Smith was one of the lead- ing men of affairs in his township and during his lifetime filled many different township offices. He was a lifelong Democrat. He filled the office of judge from the northern district of Bates county, serving one term. He was appointed superintendent of Drainage District No. 1 while the drainage work was in progress and in 1914 he was re-elected judge of the county court. Judge Smith has served but six months of his second term in the capacity of judge when his death occurred on June 16, 1915.
The marriage of Judge Estes Smith and Missouri E. Staley was solemnized May 15, 1883, at the Staley homestead in Mingo township. Missouri E. (Staley) Smith was born May 31, 1859, in Mingo township, Bates county, a daughter of Stephen M. and Elizabeth (Leflar) Staley, the former, born in Virginia in 1820 and the latter, in Illinois in 1838. Mr. Staley came to Missouri prior to the outbreak of the Civil War and settled on the farm where .Thomas Staley now resides. The Staley estate comprised three hundred sixty acres of land at the time of the death of Mr. Staley in 1875. Mrs. Staley now makes her home with her children, in Bates and Cass counties, Missouri. To Judge Estes and Missouri E. (Staley) Smith were born the following children: Stephen E., principal of the Osceola, Missouri, schools; Robert, who is engaged in lumbering in Idaho; Marvin, who joined November 2, 1917, in Wyo- ming with the Army of the United States, a Mingo township boy, edu- cated in the public schools of Bates county, born March 30, 1888, now thirty years of age, with Company M, One Hundred Sixty-first Infantry ; Clyde B. and Clarence Estes, at home with their widowed mother; Lil- lie May, who died at the age of four years in 1889; and Mary Lee, who died at the age of four years in 1895. Clyde B. Smith, born May 26, 1896, and Clarence Estes Smith, born October 14, 1898, above named, are engaged in farming and in raising Shropshire sheep and Shorthorn cattle. Judge Estes Smith died June 16, 1915, and interment was made in West cemetery. He was a highly valued member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons of Johnstown, Missouri, with whom he affili- ated in 1880, and was past master of the Wadesburg Lodge No. 348 of Creighton. Judge Smith was a devout Christian gentleman, an earnest and conscientious member of the Aaron Methodist church.
From sterling pioneer ancestry Judge Estes Smith was descended,
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and the family of which he was a most creditable representative was one of the best in western Missouri, of whom devotion to duty was a marked characteristic. He was long esteemed as one of Bates county's most honorable citizens, as one who had at heart the public good, who strived to do the right in every sphere to which he was called. The confidence which the people had in Judge Smith and in his ability was proven again and again by elevating him to responsible positions and the manner in which he invariably discharged all duties incumbent upon him demonstrated the wisdom of their choice, proved that their trust was in the keeping of a high-minded, efficient, and honest gentleman. Though his labors here are ended, the memory of his exemplary life will ever linger like a sweet incense to cheer the sorrowing hearts of those who loved him and the influence of his good deeds will encourage others to emulate his virtues and to trust the God whom he served and wor- shipped.
E. G. Grant, proprietor of the "Grant Stock Farm" in Summit township, is one of the enterprising farmers and stockmen of Bates county. Mr. Grant is a native of Kansas City, Missouri, born in 1887, the only son of Charles and Ann ( Hazlett ) Grant, the former, a native of England and the latter, of Ireland. To Mr. and Mrs. Charles Grant have been born two children: Nellie, who makes her home with her father at Butler; and E. G., the subject of this review. Charles Grant purchased the farm, which is the home of his son, E. G., about 1890 from Thomas Bushear, who died at Kansas City, Missouri, in 1916, and the Grants resided at their country place until the autumn of 1909. Mr. Grant is now making his home at Butler, Missouri.
In the district schools of Bates county, E. G. Grant obtained his elementary education. He later attended the Butler High School for two years. Mr. Grant has resided on the farm, which is now his home, practically all his life, as he was a little child, three years of age, when his father brought the family to this county to make their home. The "Grant Stock farm" comprises one hundred ninety acres of land, most of which is "bottom land" drained by Willow branch, and was formerly known as the Glass farm. Major Glass used to be the owner of the place and the cemetery, which occupies one acre of the farm, was in the days gone by named in his honor. His wife and child were the first two persons interred in the burial ground. This is one of the fine stock farms of Summit township and Mr. Grant is successfully raising white-face cattle and Poland China hogs, keeping registered
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males at the head of each herd, and Barred Plymouth Rock chickens. Since acquiring the ownership of the farm, Mr. Grant has built a barn, 48 × 48 feet in dimensions, installed a wind-mill and scales, put up hog-tight wire fencing in all the pastures, and remodeled the residence.
The marriage of E. G. Grant and Susan Tyler was solemnized in 1909. Susan (Tyler) Grant is a daughter of W. B. and Rachel (Moore) Tyler. W. B. Tyler, a Confederate veteran of the Civil War, was born in Kentucky. Mrs. Tyler is a native of Missouri, as is also her daughter, Mrs. Grant. Mr. Tyler enlisted in the Civil War when he was a very young man and served throughout the struggle. He is a descendant of Charles Tyler, an honored pioneer of Bates county, Missouri, who set- tled on a tract of land near old Johnstown, in the earliest days of the settlement of this part of Missouri. Grandfather Tyler and Grand- father Moore were both brave, old pioneers and wealthy slaveowners of Bates county in the days before the War. Mr. Moore died near Lamonte, Missouri, during the Civil War, when his clothing and bed- ding were taken from him by the Federals, his death coming as the result of exposure. To E. G. and Susan Grant have been born two children : William and Charles.
As a public-spirited, progressive citizen, there is no more highly valued man in Bates county than Mr. Grant.
William H. Brannock, one of the pioneers of Bates county, a suc- cessful farmer and stockman of Summit township, is widely known throughout the county as a breeder of high-grade Percherons. For more than fifty years, the Brannock name has been a familiar and highly respected one in Butler and Bates county for the Brannocks settled here in 1866, when this part of the state was still in its primitive condition, having but one highway across the prairie and abounding in wild deer and prairie chickens. Mr. Brannock is a native of Ken- tucky. He was born in Harrison county in 1841, a son of Darius and Catherine (Hall) Brannock, natives of Kentucky. Darius Brannock moved with his family from Kentucky to Indiana in 1848 and from Indiana to Missouri in 1866, settling on the farm now owned by Will- iam H. Brannock, a place comprising two hundred eighty acres of land formerly owned by Jeptha Hollingsworth, a wealthy slaveowner of Bates county in the days before the Civil War. Mr. Brannock was a stonemason by trade and he followed his vocation previous to coming to Missouri and for several years afterward. He erected the Sheriff Atkinson building in Butler, a building which stood on the east side
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of the public square on the site of the one now occupied by the Levy Mercantile Company. He paid Mr. Hollingsworth ten dollars an acre for his farm and at the Brannock homestead, Darius Brannock departed this life a few years after he had come West. Mrs. Brannock survived her husband many years, when in 1903 they were united in death. Both father and mother were interred in Oak Hill cemetery.
Robert Brannock and William H. Brannock are the sole surviving members of their father's family. William H. Brannock was reared and educated in Indiana. He attended school at Greencastle, Indiana, and remained with his parents and assisted with the farm work until after the death of his father, about 1873, when he took charge of the home place and continued to carry out his father's plans. A small house, of two rooms, was built in 1867 and later rebuilt and made larger. Mr. Brannock built a new residence in 1913, a comfortable, pleasant home of seven rooms, and a good barn. His farm comprises fifty-three acres of land located four miles southeast of Butler. He is an expert horse- man and naturally so, for all the Brannocks as far back as they are known have been interested in fine horses. Mr. Brannock raises Percherons of high grade.
In 1864, the marriage of William H. Brannock and Clara Nelson was solemnized. Mrs. Brannock is a daughter of William Nelson, a late resident of Greencastle, Indiana. To this union has been born one child, a daughter, Minnie, who is at home with her parents.
Measured by the true standard of manhood, Mr. Brannock's life has been a decided success. He is an excellent agriculturist and breeder, industrious and enterprising and though not laboring on quite so exten- sive a scale as some of his neighbors, he has by capable management of his business affairs acquired a fair share of this world's goods. Per- sonally, he is a very companionable gentleman, and a man of many friends.
R. J. Thomas, a prosperous farmer and stockman of Mount Pleas- ant township, is one of Bates county's successful citizens. Mr. Thomas is a native of Illinois, born in Schuyler county, in 1866, a son of Daniel and Sarah (Guinn) Thomas. Daniel Thomas was a native of Ohio. Hle came with his family to Missouri in 1869 and located at Butler. IIe drove through from Illinois. He was a well-digger by trade and after locating at Butler followed his vocation in this city and vicinity. Prob- ably half the wells in Butler which were dug from 1869 until 1880 were dug by Daniel Thomas. He was a genial man of kindly disposition,
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industrious and capable and popular with the residents of this city. His death in 1887 was long lamented by all who knew him. Mrs. Thomas departed this life in February, 1917, at the age of eighty years. She was one of the noblest of the brave pioneer women who settled in Bates county. The remains of both father and mother were interred in Oak Hill cemetery. Daniel and Sarah Thomas were the parents of the following children: Fleetwood, Butler, Missouri; David, who died at the age of fifteen years ; R. J., the subject of this review; Mrs. Phoebe Taylor, Butler, Missouri; Daniel, Jr., St. Louis, Missouri; and John, who died in youth.
R. J. Thomas attended the city schools of Butler. Since he was twelve years of age, he has made his own living, working by the day, month, and job. When he was twenty-five years of age, he began farm- ing for himself. Mr. Thomas first purchased the John Keeton place of forty acres of land, to which he later added one hundred twenty acres adjoining land and then sold the farm and returned to Butler. Two years afterward, Mr. Thomas purchased a tract of land compris- ing eighty acres and he had successively added tracts of forty acres each to his original holdings until he was the owner of two hundred acres of choice land in Bates county, a farm located three miles east of Butler. This place he sold seven years ago and purchased his present country home from Lott Warren, a farm embracing one hundred sixty acres of land situated one mile east of Butler. Mr. Thomas' place is a splendid stock farm and he has twenty acres of it in pasture, forty acres in hay, and the remainder under cultivation. He devotes much time and attention to raising Duroc hogs and to horses and mules. The Thomas farm is abundantly supplied with water from wells and a spring. The improvements are in excellent repair and include a comfortable residence, two barns, a hog shed. cribs, and numerous other farm buildings.
The marriage of R. J. Thomas and Luella Martin was solemnized in 1884. Mrs. Thomas is a daughter of R. F. Martin, of Butler. Mr. Martin was a Union veteran of the Civil War. He died at Butler and his remains were interred in Oak Hill cemetery. To R. J. and Luella (Martin) Thomas have been born five children: Charles W., at home with his parents: James Virgil, at home with his parents; Nellie, the wife of Clarence Bolin, Butler, Missouri; Ada May and Helen Louise, who are at home with their parents.
Nearly a half century ago, the Thomas family settled in Bates
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HISTORY OF BATES COUNTY
county, and for nearly fifty years members of the family have been connected closely with the development and growth of the county. He has invariably given his support cheerfully and his influence liberally to all worthy enterprises for the public good and by living a good life him- self. R. J. Thomas exerts a potent influence upon all with whom he comes in contact.
J. P. Ellington, a progressive farmer and stockman of Mount Pleasant township, is the owner of one of the best stock farms in Bates county. Mr. Ellington is widely known as a successful horseman and breeder of mules, cattle, and hogs. He is a native of Bath county, Kentucky. He was born June 30, 1873, a son of Joseph G. and Alice (Wyatt) Ellington, both of whom were also natives of Ken- tucky. Joseph G. Ellington came to Missouri in 1882 and settled in Bates county on a farm in Pleasant Gap township. He bought at the time of his settlement here a tract of eighty acres of land, to which he later added forty acres, a place located twelve miles from Butler, and for ten years was engaged in tobacco growing. Joseph G. and Alice Ellington were the parents of five children: Ed, Butler, Missouri ; June, the wife of Robert Fondrum, of Gardner, Texas; J. P., the sub- ject of this review; Lee, who is now the owner of the Ellington home- stead; and Fannie, the wife of Everett Morilla, deceased. The mother died November 13, 1901, and the father joined her in death August 12, 1917. Both parents were laid to rest in Myers cemetery in Hudson township. Mr. and Mrs. Ellington were well-known and respected throughout Pleasant Gap township and they have been sadly missed from the number of good citizens in Bates county.
At High Point, one of the district schools of Hudson township, J. P. Ellington obtained his education. When he was twenty-one years of age, he left home and moved to his own farm, which lies one mile south of his present country place. Mr. Ellington purchased the latter farm, which comprises two hundred fifty acres of land, in 1910. a place formerly owned by Joe T. Smith, of Butler. In addition, Mr. Elling- ton owns a tract of forty acres of land in Summit township. The home farm is situated one and three-fourths miles east of Butler and lies partly in Mount Pleasant and partly in Summit townships. This is an excel- lent stock farm nicely located, well watered, and splendidly improved. The residence is a house of seven rooms, built on the highest point of the farm. There are three different sets of improvements on the Elling- ton place. With the residence is a large barn, which is used for stock.
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On the south tract, there are two barns, and on the forty acres in Sum- mit township there are also good improvements, including a residence and well-constructed barn. Mr. Ellington deals extensively in horses and mules, but he also gives some attention to raising cattle and hogs. He has about the average number of cattle and a herd of hogs. One hundred acres of the farm are in pasture and one hundred acres ar: rich "bottom land."
June 9, 1897, J. P. Ellington and Alice Morilla, a daughter of Charles and Emma (Thomas) Morilla, formerly of Lone Oak township and now of California, were united in marriage. To Mr. and Mrs. Ellington have been born three children: Edna, who is now in her senior year at the Butler High School; Virgil, a student in the But- ler High School; and Harold, a pupil in the grades.
Mr. Ellington is a man of untiring industry, which is equaled only by his capacity to accomplish the vast amount of work he undertakes.
Charles Marsteller, one of the prominent agriculturists of Mount Pleasant and Lone Oak townships, is a member of a pioneer family of Bates county. When the Marstellers settled here there was no court house at Butler, but one was erected soon after they came, which build- ing was destroyed during the Civil War and a second constructed. In the lifetime of the Marstellers in Bates county, there have been three different court houses erected at Butler. Mr. Marsteller was born at Butler, Missouri, in 1862, in the home which is now Judge Silvers', a son of Randolph and Mary A. Marsteller. Randolph Marsteller was a native of Licking county, Ohio. He came to Bates county, Missouri in 1857 and purchased the farm now owned by his son, Charles. Dur- ing the Civil War, when Order Number 11 was issued, the Marstellers moved to Henry and Pettis counties and remained there until the con- flict had ended. When Mr. Marsteller came back to his home in Bates county, he was obliged to begin life anew for all the buildings he owned. including five houses, practically all his stock, the fencing, and from five to eight hundred bushels of corn were destroyed. In the war. he served with the Home Guards under Captain Newberry. The Marstel- lers returned to the farm to live, a place formerly owned by Lucinda Seal and comprising five hundred acres of splendid, productive land, of which Charles Marsteller owns one hundred forty-five acres located two and a half miles south of Butler. To Randolph and Mary A. Mar- steller were born six children: Harriet, the wife of Mr. Daniels, of Lone Oak township: James A., Lone Oak township; Mollie, the wife
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HISTORY OF BATES COUNTY
of Mr. Pierce, Battleground, Tippecanoe county, Indiana; Florence, deceased; Tena, deceased; and Charles, the subject of this review. Mr. Marsteller was actively identified with the farming and stock interests of Bates county for many years. He was a man of industrious habits, an excellent, public-spirited citizen, who served his township many years as justice of the peace. He died about 1883. Mrs. Marsteller departed this life April 10, 1914. Both father and mother were laid to rest in the cemetery known as Oak Hill. Mr. Marsteller was an enterprising and energetic farmer, a gentleman of native abilities of a high order. He was honest himself and not only expected but thought everyone else to be so. Generous and obliging, he assisted to the limit of his ability all worthy enterprises. His death and that of Mrs. Marss- teller, a brave pioneer woman, were sadly lamented in Bates county.
Charles Marsteller attended the city schools of Butler. He remained at home with his father and his mother until both were taken from him and he still makes his home on a part of the old home place, a farm of one hundred forty-five acres. The Marsteller farm lies partly in Mount Pleasant and partly in Lone Oak townships. Mr. Marsteller is numbered among the best citizens of his community and he is widely and favorably known throughout the county. He is unmarried.
Seth E. Cope, a well-known and highly respected citizen of Bates county. Missouri, an honored pioneer of New Home township, veteran of the Civil War, was born May 21, 1845, in Monroe county, Ohio. Mr. Cope is a son of Edmund and Mary (Blackburn) Cope, the former, a native of Virginia and the latter, of Maryland. They were the parents of four children : Samuel B., deceased; John Q. Adams, a sketch of whom appears elsewhere in this volume; Maria A., the wife of Leonard Tripp, of Mountain View, Wyoming; and Seth E., the subject of this review. A more elaborate genealogy of the Cope family is given in connec- tion with the biography of John Q. Adams Cope.
In Clark county, Missouri, Seth E. Cope received his education. The Copes had moved from Ohio to Jowa in 1847 and thence to Mis- souri in 1851, locating in Clark county, where they resided for several years when they moved to Kansas in 1862. In 1864 Seth E. Cope enlisted with Company E and was later transferred to Company F. Eleventh Kan- sas Cavalry, and was in active service in Kansas, Arkansas, and in the land of the Cherokee Nation. Capt. Evan G. Ross, Company E., who later became United States Senator and whose vote acquitted President John- son from impeachment, was later appointed governor of New Mexico by
SETH E. COPE.
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HISTORY OF BATES COUNTY
President Cleveland, was a brave officer. Mr. Cope says William Gil- breath was the largest slave-holder in the county and was a strong Union man. Mr. Cope had a special pension bill passed for a blind girl, a soldier's daughter. Mr. Cope was an important participant in the battle of Mine Creek and in the engagements accompanying Price's famous raid from Lexington to Weber Falls, Arkansas. The regiment, of which he was a member, made the Indian campaign in Wyoming and on the plains in 1865. Mr. Cope states that Quantrill, returning from the raid on Lawrence, Kansas, on August 21, 1863, disbanded in New Home town- ship, Bates county, Missouri, just north of the river, a part of his men going down the north side and a part down the south side of the Marais des Cygnes. Mr. Cope was discharged from the Union service August 31, 1865, at Fort Leavenworth and took a one-hundred-dollar bond in pay- ment for services.
In the fall of 1866, he came to Bates county and selected his land and at Butler, heard Colonel McClurg speak. In the spring of 1867, Seth E. Cope came to Bates county, Missouri, and settled on a farm in New Home township, where he has lived continuously since. Mr. Cope now makes his home with his brother, John Q. Adams Cope, of whom further mention is made in this volume. The former has resided in Bates county for fifty-one years and has known personally and still knows probably every individual of prominence in the county.
In January, 1885, Seth E. Cope and Gussie Littlefield, a daughter of Warren Littlefield, of New Home township, Bates county, Missouri, were united in marriage. To this union were born two children, who are now living: John Logan, of New Home township, Bates county ; and Etta, who is now married and resides at Hoskins, Iowa. Mr. Cope is widely and favorably known in western Missouri and among the most valued men of Bates county he occupies a conspicuous place. He is a gentleman of the old school, possessing countless sterling qualities of mind and heart, and he has a host of friends in this section of the state. Fraternally, Seth E. Cope is affiliated with the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons and is a Royal Arch Mason, Miami Chapter No. 76.
John Logan Cope married Grace Osborne, of Bates county, and has a daughter, Ruth, born July 1, 1917, for whom Mr. Cope has bought a government bond. Mr. Cope is promoting the plan of every grand- father buying a bond for every grand-child born since 1917.
Etta married Edward Wolverton and has two sons: Clay Reese, aged six years and six months; and Howard Logan, aged four years.
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In the seventies Mr. Cope had introduced and passed through Colonel Burdette, a bill by the general government establishing a mail route from Osceola to Garnett, passing through Chalk Land, Papinsville and Rich Hill, New Home, Walnut, Pleasanton and Mound City, etc.
John Quincy Adams Cope, pioneer of New Home township, Bates county, Missouri, proprietor of two hundred forty acres of land in New Home township, where he has resided for fifty years, an honored veteran of the Civil War, notary public in Bates county for thirty years, is one of the county's best known and most prominent citizens. Mr. Cope is a native of Ohio. He was born December 5, 1835, in Columbiana county near Lisbon, a son of Edmund and Mary (Blackburn) Cope. Edmund Cope was born May 2, 1807, a son of John and Mary (McCabe) Cope, who were united in marriage in 1803 in Frederick county, Maryland. Mr. and Mrs. John Cope removed with their family to Fairfield town- ship, Columbiana county, Ohio, where they settled in 1810. John Cope was a son of Oliver Cope, who emigrated from Wiltshire, England and came to the colony of Pennsylvania among the earliest settlers from his native land, in 1687. Oliver Cope was the father of the following chil- dren: William, Elizabeth, Ruth, and John. Edmund Cope, a son of John Cope, was united in marriage with Mary Blackburn in 1832 and to this union were born the following children: Samuel B., who was born October 6, 1833, and died at Enid, Oklahoma, in 1913; John Quincy Adams, the subject of this review; Maria A., who was born April 20, 1838, is now the wife of Leonard Tripp; and Seth E., who was born May 21, 1845. a sketch of whom appears elsewhere in this volume. Edmund and Mary ( Blackburn) Cope moved with their family to Van Buren county, Iowa, in 1847, thence to Clark county, Missouri, in 1851, and to Kansas in 1862. In the state of Kansas, the Copes resided at differ- ent times in Jefferson, Shawnee, and Jackson counties. In 1867, they came to Bates county, Missouri. Mary (Blackburn) Cope was born in 1800 in Maryland. The father died in 1884 and the mother joined lıim in death four years later, in 1888.
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