USA > Missouri > Bates County > History of Bates County, Missouri > Part 93
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All three sons of Edmund and Mary ( Blackburn) Cope enlisted and served in the Civil War, Samuel B., with the Seventh Missouri Cavalry ; John Quincy Adams, with the Second Kansas State Militia in the Topeka Regiment ; and Seth E., with the Eleventh Kansas Cavalry. John Quincy Adams Cope fought in the battle of Westport and assisted in driving Price southward. After the battle mentioned, he returned to his home. receiving his honorable discharge. Seth E. Cope took part in the
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Indian conflicts on the plains in 1865. In the autumn of 1866, John Quincy Adams and Seth E. Cope came to New Home township and purchased one hundred sixty acres of land. Their father, Edmund Cope, took up a homestead claim of forty acres of land; Samuel B., forty acres; John Quincy Adams, forty acres; and Seth E., forty acres. Afterward, John Quincy Adams Cope bought an additional tract of one hundred twenty acres for ten dollars an acre. He cared for his father and mother as long as they lived.
Politically, Mr. Cope is affiliated with the Republican party. He . twice cast his vote for Abraham Lincoln, the first time in Clark county, Missouri, and again, in 1864, at Indianola, Kansas. In religious mat- ters, Mr. Cope is a Deist, believing in Nature, in a Hereafter, and in the doctrines of Christianity. He has been a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons since 1865 and in point of membership is the oldest Mason now living in Bates county. Mr. Cope is a member of the Foster Blue Lodge, of the Butler Chapter and Commandery.
John Wright, a well-known citizen in Bates county, is a native of Kentucky . Mr. Wright was born in 1853, a son of James and Eliza- beth (Dean) Wright, both of whom were natives of Kentucky. James Wright came to Missouri in 1881 and settled on a farm of eighty acres of land in Mount Pleasant township, a place formerly owned by Henry Medcalf, of Kentucky, and now owned by Lewis Deffenborgh. Mr. Wright resided on this farm until his death in 1887. Mrs. Wright departed this life in 1905 and both father and mother were interred in the cemetery at Oak Hill. James and Elizabeth (Dean) Wright were the parents of the following children: Jackson, Okmulgee, Oklahoma ; Mary C., the widow of John McCann, Butler, Missouri; Angelina, the wife of G. W. George. Carlisle, Kentucky; John, the subject of this review; R. M., who died about 1897 and whose remains are interred in Oak Hill cemetery; Dorcas, who died in 1886; Sallie J., the wife of C. O. Blake, Mount Pleasant township, Bates county, Missouri; and Bettie, who first married John Walls, now deceased, and then Thomas Gibson, of Kansas City, Missouri.
John Wright came to Mount Pleasant township, Bates county in 1878. He rented land for one year and then purchased forty acres of land, on which tract his present country home is located. At different times later, M. Wright added to his holdings tracts of forty acres each and he is now owner of a farm comprising one hundred twenty acres of valuable land. All that is now on the Wright farm in the way of
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improvements, John Wright has himself placed there. In addition to his country place, Mr. Wright owns the old John Farris homestead in Butler, a handsome residence of eight rooms with a barn and an abun- dance of shade and fruit trees situated on a tract of two and a half acres of land in Burton's addition.
At Aberdeen, Ohio, the marriage of John Wright and Mary A. McCann was solemnized on November 11, 1875. Mary A. (McCann) Wright is a daughter of James and Susan (Barr) McCann, both of whom were natives of Nicholas county, Kentucky. The Wrights and the McCanns were neighbors in Kentucky and John and Mary were friends and playmates in their school days. Mrs. McCann died in 1891 and Mr. McCann joined her in death in April, 1907. Their remains are resting in Concord cemetery in Nicholas county, Kentucky. To John and Mary A. Wright have been born two children: Carrie E., the wife of Charles W. Dickerson, of Butler, Missouri; and Anna Maud, the wife of Harry French, of Charlotte township, Bates county, Mis- souri. Mr. and Mrs. Wright are very proud of their five grandchil- dren, the sons and daughters of Mr. and Mrs. Harry French: Kenneth Wright, Dorothy Belle, Doris Louise, Mary Mildred, and John Willie.
Mr. Wright moved to Butler from his farm several years ago and while a resident of Butler he was twice elected assessor and served capa- bly and well for two terms. After six years in the city, he returned to the farm and in Mount Pleasant township he was again elected assessor and he served one term. When Mr. Wright again took up his residence in Butler, about two years ago dating from the time of this writing in 1918, the voters of this city knew where to find an honest. conscien- tious official and he was for the fourth time elected assessor and served another term in office, making a record of eight years of efficient, satis- factory service.
Mr. Wright has steadily climbed upward in life, overcoming count- less obstacles and forging to the front until he now ranks high with the successful citizens of Butler and Bates county.
J. F. Bedinger, of Mount Pleasant township, is one of the success- ful farmers and stockmen of Bates county. Mr. Bedinger is a native of Illinois. He was born in 1885 at Normal, a son of William H. and Mary E. (Bishop) Bedinger, both of whom were born in Kentucky and died in Illinois. William H. Bedinger was a prosperous farmer and stockman of Illinois.
J. F. Bedinger is a descendant of colonial ancestors. George Mich-
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ael, his great-grandfather, came to America from Germany with his parents and they settled in Pennsylvania. He was at Philadelphia at the time the Declaration of Independence was signed and later fought at Valley Forge, serving under General Washington. J. F. Bedinger obtained his elementary education at Normal, Illinois and afterward attended the State University of Illinois. In early maturity, he came , to Missouri from Bloomington, Illinois, and located at Kansas City, where he conducted a hat store for several years. He came from Kan- sas City to his present country home in Bates county.
The Bedinger farm comprises two hundred forty acres of land located three miles southwest of Butler. This farm is one of the attrac- tive country places in Bates county. There are two sets of improvements. The Bedinger residence is a comfortable house of seven rooms and with it is a barn, 34 x 60 feet, and a garage. On the east one hundred sixty acres are a cottage of four rooms and a barn, 80 x 50 feet. A well, twenty feet in depth, was dug on the farm in 1917 and from it water is piped to the barn. The water runs over the top of the well and into the pipes at the rate of about thirty barrels a day, thus an abundance of good water is supplied the stock. He is just beginning the raising and breed- ing of registered Hereford cattle. He has at the present time twenty- six head of Hereford heifers eligible to be registered, heifers from the Jacob Varren herd at Appleton, Missouri. "Vincent," 481148. a regis- tered steer from the Judge E. Hurt herd, heads the Bedinger herd.
In. February, 1915, J. F. Bedinger and Maud Florence Snyder, daugh- ter of George Snyder, of Kansas City, Missouri, were united in mar- riage. To this union has been born one child, a son, George Wesley, who was born July 23, 1917.
Mr. Bedinger is keenly alive to everything pertaining to the growth, development, and betterment of his township and county and he has always been a stanch advocate of progress. Mr. and Mrs. Bedinger have countless friends in Bates county.
H. H. Council, proprietor of the Butler Steam Laundry, is a native of Indiana. He was born in 1870, a son of Thomas and Mary Council, both of whom are now deceased. His father died when the son, H. H .. was a child nine years of age. Mrs. Council departed this life seven years ago, in 1910. To Thomas and Mary Council were born three sons. who are now living: Harry, Lansing, Michigan; Charles, a successful rancher at Mondak, Montana; and H. H., the subject of this review.
H. H. Council attended the public schools of Indiana until the death (60)
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of his father, when he was obliged to make his own way in life and labored as a farm "hand" for his board and clothing, attendance at school being of secondary importance. Mr. Council was given the opportunity to acquire an education at intervals, which were brief, few, and far apart. He drove a riding cultivator for his cousin, when he, H. H. Council, was too small to hold the plow handles. Mr. Council came West as far as Des Moines, Iowa, when he was eighteen years of age and entered the laundry business there, which business he has followed for thirty years. He remained in Iowa several years and from that state moved to Missouri, locating first at St. Louis, then at Kansas City, and at last at Butler.
In 1891, H. H. Council and Ida A. Seamen, of Des Moines, Iowa, were united in marriage and to this union were born six children : Thomas, who has been in the service of the United States Government for the past four years, enlisting at Kansas City, Missouri, serving in the Philip- pine Islands three years, and when war was declared by the United States on April 6, 1917 he was sent by the Government to Leavenworth, Kansas and is now with the Coast Artillery at Galveston, Texas; Marie, the wife of Omer E. Brown, of Butler, Missouri; Edward, who enlisted in February, 1917 in the United States navy and is now on the battle- ship U. S. A. "New York:" Clyde, who is twelve years of age and is at home with his father: Nina, who is nine years of age and is at home: Donald, who is six years of age and is at home. The mother died at Butler, Missouri in December, 1915. Interment was made in the ceme- tery at Butler. Mr. Council has kept his little ones together and has given them as good home and training as he could, though sadly handi- capped by the loss of his life partner.
Mr. Council came to Butler in December, 1913, at which time he bought out Kienberger & Macomb, owners and managers of the steam laundry, which they had obtained from C. Sells. Since H. H. Council acquired the ownership of the laundry, he has installed a new boiler, at an expense of one thousand dollars, two washing machines, and a shirt ironer, making the establishment thoroughly up-to-date. The build- ing occupied by the laundry. a structure 100 x 26 feet in dimensions, located on Dakota street was purchased by Mr. Council in October, 1917. Eight people are employed at the laundry in order to handle the immense amount of work as family washings as well as the washings of individuals are taken care of here. Mr. Council was connected with the Silver Laundry of Kansas City, Missouri prior to coming to. Butler.
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He had scores of years of experience in the laundry business when he began business at Butler and but little else except an invincible ambition to succeed. Practically without one dollar, Mr. Council has made a marked success in his line of work, for by honesty and straightforward business methods he has won the confidence of his patrons and has built up a splendid establishment from nothing in less than five years.
H. H. Council is an up-to-date laundryman, thoroughly familiar with every detail of the laundry work, and he knows full well how to take advantage of opportunities and to create opportunities when none exist. Joining the great army of wage earners in America at the age of nine years, Mr. Council has had a world of experience and after a lapse of years of hard toil he is now the possessor of a competence which in the dreamiest days of his youth he never hoped to realize.
J. T. Hathaway, a veteran of the Civil War, one of the oldest resi- dent farmers of Bates county, now living in comfortable retirement at his country place in West Boone township a few miles south of Drexel, was born in Shelby county, Ohio, December 31, 1834. He was a son of Eleazer and Sallie (Henry) Hathaway, natives of Miami county, Ohio. Eleazer Hathaway was the son of John Hathaway, a son of John Hathaway (I), a native of Wales, who accompanied by two of his brothers made a settlement on the Atlantic seaboard before the American Revolu- tion. John Hathaway, great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch, fought in the Army of Independence during the Revolutionary War. His grandfather, John Hathaway (II), fought in the War of 1812. John Hathaway, the first in line, was a scout for the American forces during the War for Independence of the colonies. Eleazer Hathaway settled in Illinois in 1867, two years after J. T. Hathaway had settled in Chris- tian county. Father and son resided on adjoining farms. The father died there in 1871. The mother of J. T. Hathaway died in 1874.
J. T. Hathaway enlisted in November of 1861 in Company F, Twen- tieth Ohio Regiment of Volunteer Infantry and served for nearly four years, receiving his honorable discharge in July, 1865. He took an active part in many battles and skirmishes, among them being the attack on Fort Donelson : the campaign around Vicksburg, Mississippi; Pittsburg Landing : Pea Ridge ; siege and capture of Atlanta ; Sherman's famous march to the sea and the subsequent capture of Savannah. From Savan- nah he was sent to Washington and participated in the Grand Review. He received his final discharge and was mustered out of the service at Cincinnati, Ohio. He then returned home to Shelby county, Ohio.
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After a short stay he went to Christian county, Illinois and engaged in farming until his return to Illinois in 1866 and married the sweetheart of his boyhood days, Hattie Blake, a native of Ohio, who died in 1871. leaving one daughter, Mrs. Clara New, living in Bates county, on a farm adjoining that of her father. Mr. Hathaway lived in Illinois until 1901 and then came to Bates county, where he invested his capital in two hundred thirty-three acres of land, part of which he has given to his daughter and now has one hundred fifty-five acres in the home place. Incidentally, it is worthy of mention that Mr. Hathaway went to Clay county, Kansas, in 1859, homesteaded a claim, proved up on it and then returned to Illinois.
His second marriage took place in 1881 with Margaret Ellen Wil- son, who was born in 1843 in Pike county, Illinois, a daughter of James Wilson. One son has been born of this marriage: Mark Wilson Hatha- way, born in 1882, an intelligent and industrious young farmer who has relieved his father from the burden of managing and cultivating the home place in West Boone township. Mr. Hathaway is a pronounced Prohibitionist and a member of the Methodist Episcopal church.
Daniel K. Walker, one of the most progressive and up-to-date merch- ants in this section of the state, the senior member of the business firm widely known as the Walker-Mckibben Mercantile Company, was born in 1870 near Otterville in Moniteau county, Missouri. Mr. Walker is a son of Rev. Alexander and Agnes (Hannah) Walker, who were the parents of ten children, eight of whom are now living, as follow: D. V., a successful merchant of Wichita, Kansas; A. B., a prominent real estate dealer of Columbus, Ohio; Mrs. Annie C. Pyle, Butler, Missouri ; Mary S., Butler, Missouri ; D. K., the subject of this sketch; C. M., who is engaged in the loan business at Kansas City, Missouri; Harry, a prosperous merchant of Enid, Oklahoma; and John S., who is engaged in the life insurance business at Butler, Missouri. Rev. Alexander Walker was born in Scotland. He and Mrs. Walker, who was of Scottish descent, came to Moniteau county, Missouri, in 1868, and located at Tipton in that county in 1870. Twelve years later, Reverend Walker moved with his family to Bates county, where the remainder of his life was spent in ministerial work. He was a gifted minister of the Presbyterian church and was well known and highly esteemed in Butler. in which city he was pastor of the Butler Presbyterian church for many years. In his latter years, he was appointed state synodical missionary of the Presbyterian church, which position he was most ably filling at the time
ELLIOTT PYLE WALKER.
The first Butler boy to give up his life in the world war.
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of his death, which occurred at Butler. Reverend Walker was interred in the cemetery at Butler.
In the public schools of Tipton, Missouri and in Butler Academy, Daniel K. Walker obtained his education. He received his first busi- ness experience at the age of fifteen years at Wichita, Kansas, where he was employed for one year by Larimer & Stinson. Mr. Walker then returned to Butler, Missouri, and entered the employ of James McKib- ben, who conducted a dry goods and clothing store where the Palace Hotel was once located on the northeast corner of the public square, and later became associated in business with James and Joseph McKib- ben, organizers of the Mckibben Mercantile Company of Butler, Mis- souri. James McKibben now resides in Kansas and Joseph Mckibben is living at Pasadena, California. Further mention of both Mckibbens will be made in this sketch in connection with the history of the Walker- Mckibben Mercantile Company.
In 1895, Daniel K. Walker was united in marriage with Ruby Pyle, daughter of Dr. Elliott Pyle, a prominent pioneer physician of Butler, Missouri, a surgeon of the Union army, who settled in this city a short time after the close of the Civil War. To Daniel K. and Ruby (Pyle) Walker have been born three children: Elliott Pyle, the eldest, gradu- ated from Butler High School and was attending the University of Illinois when, in the spring of 1917. he enlisted with a University ambulance unit for service in France, afterward transferring with his unit to the United States Army Ambulance Corps, which was immediately sent to the training camp at Allentown, Pennsylvania. He earned promotion to first sergeant of Casualty Company Number 9, but March 30, 1918, just at the time his company was to sail for France. he died of pneumonia. He was the first Butler boy to die in the service. He was buried at Butler, Missouri, April 4, 1918, with military honors. Kirkby A .. a gradu- ate of the Butler High School, who is now studying at the Missouri University ; and Agnes, who is a student in the Butler High School. The Walker family has long been prominent in Bates county and is still num- bered among the best families of this part of the state. Mr. and Mrs. Walker reside at 512 West Pine street in Butler.
The Walker-Mckibben Mercantile Company, of Butler, was organ- ized in 1892 by James McKibben, Joseph Mckibben, and D. K. Walker as the Mckibben Mercantile Company, succeeding James M. McKib- ben, who had succeeded M. S. Cowles & Company. M. S. Cowles opened a general store at Rich Hill about 1881 or 1882. after selling the general
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store in Butler to James Mckibben. The M. S. Cowles & Company's general store in Butler was opened about 1867 and was located where the Farmers Bank is now, on the northeast side of the public square. The stock of merchandise was moved by James McKibben to the former location of the old Palace Hotel, on the northeast corner of the square. Later, Joseph Mckibben, who had been with M. S. Cowles & Company at Rich Hill, with James McKibben and D. K. Walker organized the Mckibben Mercantile Company and the stock was again moved, this time to the north half of the Bennett-Wheeler block and afterward to one door east of the present location of the Walker-Mckibben Mer- cantile Company's establishment. Daniel K. Walker first entered the employ of James Mckibben in 1886 and he was associated in business with the McKibbens at the time of the organization of the Mckibben Mercantile Company. After a few years, James M. Mckibben sold his interest in the store to Joseph Mckibben and Mr. Walker and about eleven years ago Joseph McKibben retired from the business. In 1906, Daniel K. Walker purchased all the interests of the Mckibbens in the company, which has since been known as the Walker-Mckibben Mer- cantile Company, and the stock of goods moved to the present location on the north side of the public square. The building now occupied is a large, well-lighted, two-story structure, 30 x 100 feet in dimensions.
That Daniel K. Walker is exceptionally well qualified as a business man and merchant and that he has prospered is evidenced by the fact that he carries a stock of merchandise valued at many thousand dollars and employs a corps of assistants. The stock is clean, neatly arranged, and up to date, including a general line of dry goods, notions, ladies' ready-to-wear clothing, shoes, men's furnishings, ladies', misses', and children's furnishings, rugs and lace curtains. The clerks employed are unusually attentive to customers and lend their hearty and cheerful support in the pull for success. This store is undoubtedly one of the finest to be seen in any city, in places even twice the size of Butler. Mr. Walker is a gentleman of pleasing personality and his earnest pur- pose, humanitarian principles, and upright life richly merit the splendid success, which has attended his efforts, and his present high commercial and social standing.
Elliott F. Edwards, an enterprising business man of Butler, is a representative of a pioneer family of Missouri. He was born in 1886 in Bates county on his father's farm near Butler, a son of James P. and Leanna (Hines) Edwards. James P. Edwards was born June 12, 1838
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in Nashville, Tennessee. He came West and located at Brunswick, Mis- souri in 1864. Mr. Edwards was a teamster by trade and a man of excep- tional intelligence and initiative. He crossed the plains from Atchison, Kansas in 1865, and, in the same year, built the fourth residence in Pueblo, Colorado, hauled the first bell to Denver, Colorado, and one year later sold the first merchandise ever sold in Trinidad, Colorado. At Fort Garland, Colorado, Mr. Edwards was engaged in selling mer- chandise to the Indians, with the permission of Kit Carson. Wlien James P. Edwards started in business at Fort Garland, he had but eighty dollars of his own and was in debt five thousand dollars. He had bor- rowed the latter sum of money in order to get a start in business and was paying five per cent. interest monthly. Most men would have fallen beneath the weight of the burden and have given up the fight in despair, but it was not characteristic of James P. Edwards to shirk heavy respon- sibilities, to give up the fight. He worked hard. In four months time, he had earned thirty-two hundred dollars-and that was during the "hard times" of 1865. He hauled the boiler and set it up, which furnished the steam to run the mill where the lumber was sawed which was used to build Fort Lyon, Colorado. He received thirty-five hundred dollars freight at that time. Provisions were exceedingly high-priced at Fort Garland. Four pounds of bacon were worth five dollars, butter sold for one dollar and fifty cents a pound, and coffee commanded a price of one dollar and fifty cents. After a short sojourn in Brunswick, Mis- souri, Mr. Edwards came to Butler in February, 1870. He hauled thie first rock used in foundation work in Salisbury, Missouri. He engaged in farming and stock raising in Bates county and became closely identi- fied with the business interests of Butler. Mr. Edwards erected a num- ber of the business buildings in Bates county. He was one of the direc- tors of the Bates County National Bank and was `connected with the Light, Water & Power Company. James P. Edwards was progressive and public-spirited and a "booster" for all enterprises having for their object the betterment and development of Butler and Bates county. His death on July 16, 1913 was universally lamented and mourned in this part of the state. Interment was made in the cemetery at Butler. Leanna (Hines) Edwards is a native of Brunswick, Missouri, a daugh- ter of Jolin S. and Nannie (Pollard) Hines. John S. Hines was a native of Keyesville, Virginia and of English descent. His father was a wealthy plantation owner, the proprietor of a vast tract of land in Prince Edward and Charlotte counties. He was the master of a large number
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HISTORY OF BATES COUNTY
of slaves. Nannie ( Pollard) Hines was a native of Marysville, Virginia. To John S. and Nannie Ilines were born six children : Edward, deceased; Richard, deceased; Thomas J., deceased; Sue, who was educated in an academy at Goldsboro, North Carolina, now resid- ing at Butler, Missouri; Emily F., the wife of J. C. Congor, Macon, Georgia; Leanna, the widow of James P. Edwards, Butler, Missouri, the three daughters being the sole survivors of the family. The Pollards, as well as the Hines family, were wealthy plantation owners of Virginia. James P. and Leanna (Hines) Edwards were the parents of seven chil- dren: Lola, deceased; Lela, the wife of C. H. Conger, Washington, D. C .; Lula, the wife of M. S. Horn, Butler, Missouri; Lon L., a prosperous farmer, Butler, Missouri; Claude, a successful merchant, Oakland, Cali- fornia; Elmer, deceased ; and Elliott F., the subject of this review. Mrs. Edwards, the widowed mother, resides at the present time in Butler.
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