USA > Missouri > Bates County > History of Bates County, Missouri > Part 94
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Elliott F. Edwards obtained his education in the city schools of Butler. He began life for himself when he was twenty-one years of age, at first following the pursuits of agriculture. In 1914, Mr. Edwards entered the coal and transfer business at Butler, his office being located due north of the Missouri Pacific railway station, and from the beginning he has prospered. Mr. Edwards is as honest as the light and when he sells a ton of coal his customers know that they are receiving a ton of coal. He owns a nice farm of eighty acres of good land located north- west of Butler.
January 14, 1908, Elliott F. Edwards and Cleo Moore were united in marriage and to this union have been born two children: Elliott F., Jr. and Leomi. Mrs. Edwards is a daughter of J. M. and Naomi ( Brown- ing) Moore. J. M. Moore is a native of Pettis county and Mrs. Moore was born near Humboldt in Woodson county, Kansas. The Moores came to Bates county about thirteen years ago. J. M. and Naomi Moore are the parents of six children: Clara L., the wife of Clarence Harrison, Altona, Missouri; Cleo, the wife of Elliott F. Edwards, the subject of this review; Juanita, deceased; Ethel, deceased; John I., Butler, Mis- souri : and Roy V., Butler, Missouri. A strange affinity in dates occurs in the Moore and Edwards families, January 14, 1918, was the anniversary of the marriages of Mr. and Mrs. James P. Edwards, Mr. and Mrs. J. M. Moore, and Mr. and Mrs. Elliott F. Edwards. The oldest child in both the Moore and Edwards families was a daughter and both girls were born on the same day of the same month.
In all his business transactions, as well as in his social relations,
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Elliott F. Edwards manifests unquestioned integrity and the pleasing demeanor of a gentleman, gaining by his unassuming, quiet manners and kindly personal bearing countless friends in Butler and Bates county. William J. Bullock, an ex-sheriff of Bates county, is a native of Cass county, Missouri. He was born near Old Index, March 1, 1860, a son of H. N. and Margaret M. (Hereford) Bullock, the former, a native of Kentucky and the latter, of Mason county, West Virginia. H. N. Bul- lock was born September 24, 1832 and, when a child three years of age, came to Missouri with his father, William Bullock, who located first in Johnson county in 1835 and shortly afterward settled in Cass county. H. N. Bullock has been a resident of Cass county for eighty-two years and is now living, at the advanced age of eighty-five years, at Archie, Missouri. His father, William Bullock, died many years ago and his remains are interred in the cemetery at Index. H. N. Bullock is a Con- federate veteran and he was in active service throughout the Civil War, serving under Gen. Francis M. Cockrell. When Mr. Bullock enlisted, he left his wife in charge of their farm in Cass county and to care for their little ones. Order Number 11 was enforced and Mrs. Bullock moved with her children to Clinton in Henry county, Missouri, where her brother, Capt. W. P. Hereford, resided. During their absence, all the improvements on the Bullock farm were destroyed. The home was burned to the ground in 1862. Mr. and Mrs. H. N. Bul- lock were the parents of the following children: Mrs. Dora Adair. Archie, Missouri; Mrs. Minnie Keyes, Wellington, Kansas; Mrs. Nora Lee, Appleton City, Missouri: James Emmet, deceased, a prominent minister of the Methodist Episcopal church, South, who died at Bronson, Kansas in 1894 while engaged in ministerial work and his remains were interred in Crescent Hill cemetery ; and William J., the subject of this sketch.
The public schools of Index in Cass county and of Burdett in Bates county afforded William J. Bullock the means of obtaining an excellent common school education. At the age of twenty-one years, he began life for himself, engaged in the pursuits of agriculture in Cass county. Mr. Bullock moved to Bates county in 1878 and located in East Boone township, returning later to Cass county for two years, when he came back to Bates county and located in Deer Creek township. Mr. Bullock always took an important part in the public affairs of his township and in the autumn of 1908 was elected sheriff of Bates county and served from 1909 until 1913. Since that time, he has resided in Butler, where
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he has a handsome home at 201 Delaware street. Mr. Bullock is at the present time in the employ of the Red Arrow Oil & Gas Company of Oklahoma, having their main office in Kansas City, Missouri.
June 22, 1884, William J. Bullock and Mary A. DeJarnette were united in marriage. Mrs. Bullock was born in Boone township in Bates county, a daughter of W. H. and Mary A. DeJarnette. Mr. DeJarnette is now deceased and the widowed mother resides in Archie, Missouri. To Mr. and Mrs. William J. Bullock were born seven children, all of whom are now living: Georgia, the wife of Charles Hall, Floweree, Montana; Willa, the wife of Clarence Buillman, Oakgrove, Missouri; Aumer, at home with her father ; Minnie, at home with her father; Julia, who is with her sister, Mrs. Charles Hall, at Floweree, Montana; Emmet H., a student in the Butler High School; and Wallace, at home with his father. Mrs. Bullock died July 23, 1908 and her remains were laid to rest in the cemetery near Adrian, known as Crescent Hill cemetery. Nearly six years afterward, Mr. Bullock's mother died at Archie, Mis- souri and she, too, was taken to Crescent Hill cemetery for burial. Mrs. H. N. Bullock died April 15, 1914. Both women were beautiful and exemplary moral characters, mothers whom to know was to admire and love, and they have been sadly missed, not only in their home circles, but by a vast number of close personal friends.
In all the relations of life, William J. Bullock has manifested unques- tioned integrity.
John R. Weadon, prosperous farmer of New Home township, town- ship trustee, has resided in Bates county since 1878 and is justly classed among the old settlers of this county. He has created his fine farm from unbroken prairie land and has placed every stick and shrub thereon and erected every building on the place during the many years in which he has resided here. In 1883 Mr. Weadon made his first purchase of land in Bates county and is now the owner of one hundred forty-two and a half acres of well improved and productive land, located in the southwest corner of New Home township.
Mr. Weadon was born in Loudoun county, Virginia, October 17. 1857, a son of Samuel K. and Almira (Wines) Weadon, both of whom were born in Virginia. They removed to Missouri in December of 1870 and first settled in Greene county, where they resided until 1874 when they located in Lawrence county. Six years later Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Weadon made a settlement in the southwest part of New Home township in Bates county and resided here until death called them.
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Samuel Weadon was born in 1835 and died on June 1, 1887. Mrs. Almira Weadon died in March, 1890 at the age of fifty-five years. They were parents of the following children: Francis, a resident of Kansas City, Missouri; John R., subject of this review; Samuel, living in Kan- sas City; Turner, a citizen of Oregon.
John R. Weadon received his schooling in Virginia and in Mis- souri. He was reared to the life of a farmer. He came to Bates county from Lawrence county, Missouri in 1878. When Mr. Weadon came to this county, a young man twenty-one years of age, he had little or practically nothing in the way of capital or property. He began work- ing on the farms of the county with a willing heart and strong hands and was imbued with an ambition to some day own a farm of his own. Five years later in 1883 he was enabled to make his first purchase of land and is now ranked with the well-to-do and forehanded farmers of this prosperous county. He has created a farm of his own upon which he has reared his family with the assistance of a capable wife.
Mr. Weadon was very fortunate in his selection of his helpineet and took to wife a daughter of one of the first and most prominent of the Bates county pioneers. He was united in marriage with Miss Mattie C. Miller, who was born in New Home township, March 13, 1861, a daughter of O. H. P. Miller, one of the earliest of the Bates county pio- neers concerning whom extended mention is given in the history of the Miller family which will be found in connection with the biography of the late Jason Woodfin elsewhere in this volume. This marriage was con- summated on November 18, 1883, and has been a happy and prosperous one. Mr. and Mrs. John R. Weadon have one child, Mrs. Edna R. Birks, of Howard township, Bates county.
Mr. Weadon has been a life-long Democrat and is prominent in the councils of his party in the county. He is ably filling the office of trustee of his township and has filled many positions of trust and respon- sibility during his residence in the county. Mr. and Mrs. Weadon are members of the Methodist Episcopal church, South, and are worthy and respected citizens of Bates county.
Eli F. Kincaid, proprietor of a fertile farm of two hundred sixty- five acres in the northwest part of Howard township adjoining the Kansas-Missouri border, was born June 9, 1850 in Preble county, Ohio. He is the son of John and Sarah (Fair) Kincaid, both natives of Ohio. John Kincaid was the son of Samuel, a native of Kentucky, who moved to Ohio and resided with his family until 1866 in Preble county. In
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the fall of that year he came to the West and made a settlement near Lonejack in Jackson county, Missouri. Some years later he moved to Cass county, Missouri and there died in July, 1896. Eli F. Kincaid was one of eight children born to his parents, as follow: William, Cass county, Missouri; Eli F., subject of this review, and Ervin, living in Kansas, twins; Mrs. Rachel Griffith, Cass county, Missouri; Leander, living in Washington; Wesley, deceased; Joseph, living in Missouri; and Mrs. Mattie Akers, Cass county, Missouri.
Eli F. Kincaid received his schooling in Ohio, and accompanied his parents to Missouri when sixteen years old. He stayed at home and assisted his father on the farm until 1873, when he began his own career. He went first to Henry county, Missouri and during the first year in that county, he was employed at farm labor. He then rented land for several years and eventually made a purchase of eighty acres in Henry county to which he added forty acres. He sold this tract and bought a farm of one hundred twenty-seven acres which he cultivated for four years. He sold this tract and invested the proceeds in another farm of one hundred forty-eight acres at Montrose, Missouri, which he later sold at a profit and then bought a farm of one hundred forty acres located ten miles east of Butler in Bates county. He again sold out in 1907 and bought one hundred twenty acres south of Hume in Vernon county, which he retained until the spring of 1911 when he sold out and bought a farm in Cass county which he soon traded for his present place in Howard township. Mr. Kincaid has one of the best farms in Bates county, twenty-five acres of which are heavily timbered.
Mr. Kincaid was married on December 20, 1890 in Bates county, to Miss Eva Fowler, who was born April 29, 1869 in Illinois, a daughter of Isaac and Martha ( Breedlove) Fowler, natives of North Carolina, who moved to Illinois after the Civil War period. Isaac Fowler served in the Confederate army with a North Carolina regiment throughout the Civil War. He left Illinois and came to Henry county, Missouri in 1871, and made a permanent location in that county, dying there in 1893. His widow died in 1914 at the age of seventy-three years. Of the eight children born to Isaac and Martha Fowler. seven are living, as follow : Harvey, Schell City, Missouri : Herman, died in infancy : Mrs. Della Ford. lives near Butler: Cora, resides at Eldorado Springs, Missouri: Mrs. Eva Kincaid and Ira Fowler, of La Harpe, Kansas, are twins; Ezra, lives at Dallas, Texas; Carrie, makes her home at Eldorado Springs. The following children have been born to Eli F. and Eva Kincaid: Earl,
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died in infancy; Roy, died at the age of seventeen years: Emmons, a student in Missouri University, Columbia, Missouri; Marl, Herbert, and Nore, are at home with their parents.
Both Mr. and Mrs. Kincaid are members of the Methodist Episcopal church and are substantial and worthy citizens of Bates county. Mr. Kincaid is a Democrat politically and his fraternal affiliations are with the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons.
James McCulloch, member of one of the old pioneer families in Bates county, farmer of New Home township, was born in Cooper county, Missouri, August 20, 1866. He is a son of Joseph Richardson and Isabella America (Brown) McCulloch, natives of Virginia. His father was born in old Virginia and his mother was born in what is now West Virginia. The Brown family of which Mrs. J. R. McCulloch was a mem- ber was one of the early pioneer families of Missouri. W. O. Atkeson, author of this "History of Bates County" is related to the McCullochs through the mother's family. Joseph R. McCulloch was born in March, 1826 and died in September, 1893. He was a son of Robert McCulloch, who settled in Cooper county, Missouri in 1834. Isabella A. McCulloch was born in October, 1836 and died in July, 1915. She was a daughter of Matthew Brown, who emigrated from Virginia to Missouri in 1850 and was married in Saline county.
J. R. McCulloch came to Bates county on October 11, 1866, and settled in New Home township. Prior to this time he had served for three years with the Confederate forces under Generals Price and Mar- maduke. Upon taking up his residence in Bates county, he built a one- room log cabin and in this cabin reared a family of five children: Robert M., a farmer in New Home township; Mrs. Adeline Brown Caton, How- ard township; James, subject of this sketch; Mrs. Mattie Clark, Rich Hill: Joseph, Rich Hill, Missouri. J. R. McCulloch became owner of one hundred acres of land in New Home township, and the home place of the family is now owned by James McCulloch, the tract having been deeded to him by his mother. Mr. and Mrs. J. R. McCulloch were mem- bers of the Methodist Episcopal church and were sturdy, God fearing, industrious people who courageously withstood the poverty and hard- ships of their earlier days in this county and their names are honored ones in the history of Bates county.
James McCulloch was reared to young manhood upon the McCul- loch home farm and has always lived in this vicinity. He received eighty acres of land from his mother upon which he is now making his home.
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Mr. McCulloch was married on June 15, 1893 to Florence Salina Ben- son, who was born October 5, 1875 in Illinois, a daughter of Thomas and Florence Benson, who died in St. Clair county, Illinois when Mrs. McCulloch was an infant. She and her brother, Louis, were adopted by William Allenson, an Englishman, who came to Missouri and settled in New Home township, Bates county, in 1883. Mr. Allenson was an old friend of Mr. Benson and accompanied the Bensons to America from their native England. During his last years, Mr. Allenson made his home with Mr. and Mrs. McCulloch. Four children have been born to James and Florence McCulloch: Mrs. Salina Donaldson, New Home township, mother of two children-Joseph Elmer, and Lucille; Lois Ada, living in Tulsa, Oklahoma; James B., aged nineteen, and Benjamin Lee, aged fifteen years, at home with their parents. Mr. McCulloch is a Democrat.
Alfred Norbury, successful farmer and stockman, Walnut township, owner of four hundred twenty-five acres of rich, prairie farm lands in the western part of Bates county, is a native of England, born in Ramshire, August 7, 1849. He was a son of John and Tabitha (Besant) Norbury, who lived all of their lives on an English farmstead in Ram- shire. Alfred Norbury was reared and educated in his native England and immigrated to America in 1871. When he landed at New York he had his savings with him, and traveled to Olathe, Kansas, where he was employed at market gardening, during his first year. He farmed land in Johnson county during his second year and in 1873 he located in Bourbon county, Kansas, moving to a farm located five miles south of Fort Scott. Some time later he removed to Crawford county, Kan- sas and purchased one hundred twenty acres of farm land which he occupied until 1901, and then traded the tract for two hundred twenty acres in Bates county. He moved to his farm in Walnut township dur- ing the fall of the "dry year" as it will always be known in the history of Missouri and Kansas. He prospered thereafter and added to his acre- age until he owned six hundred ten acres, a portion of which he has ceeded to his sons.
Mr. Norbury was married in England, in the year 1871, to Sarah Rowe, born in Essex county, England, in 1852. To them have been born children as follow: Daniel, a farmer in Walnut township, married and has seven children-Emma, Grace, Sarah, Agnes, Margaret, Alpha. and Fred: Edward, a farmer, Walnut township, has six children-Edna, Mary, Lanita, Anna May, Edith, Edward, and Leonard; Sydney, is mar-
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ried and has six children-Alfred, Naomi, Leroy, Vint, Ellis, and Lillie; Walter, is a farmer and has two children-Freda, and Harold. Mr. Nor- bury is fortunate in having all of his sons residing in the neighborhood of the home place and all are doing well as tillers of the soil. In politics, Mr. Norbury is a Socialist, and belongs to the Episcopal church.
J. J. Mudd is one of the young, hustling and progressive young farmers of East Boone township. Mr. Mudd was born in 1882 in Bates county, a son of Joseph D. and Nancy Jane Mudd, who are among the oldest residents of the township.
Joseph David Mudd was born in April, 1842, in Bullitt county, Ken- tucky, and was a son of Joseph and Nancy (Brown) Mudd, natives of Kentucky who immigrated to Missouri in 1866, and settled upon the farm where Joseph D. now resides. Joseph Mudd was father of thir- teen children, of whom four are yet living: J. D .; Mrs. Jane Hall, Pasco, Kansas; Henry, Adrian, Missouri; Mrs. Julia Bunton, Nelson county, Kentucky. Joseph D. Mudd came to Bates county with his parents and has lived for over fifty years in the vicinity of his present home. He was married in 1868 and began his career with twenty acres of ground upon which he built a log cabin which was the first home of Mr. and Mrs. Mudd when they began housekeeping, but the years that have passed since that time have been prosperous ones, Mr. Mudd now being owner of four hundred fifty-five acres of well improved farm land in the western part of East Boone township. Mr. Mudd was married to Nancy Jane Deacon, born in Nelson county, Kentucky, a daugh- ter of Andrid and Eliza (Shockame) Deacon, who lived and died in Kentucky. To this union have been born children as follow: Joseph E., deceased: Mrs. Eliza Ann Ormsbee, Cass county, Missouri; Mrs. Sidonia McDaniels, Canon City, Colorado; Ruffee, Stephen, Nancy Lec, and Edgar, deceased; Mrs. Fannie Louise Hughes, deceased: J. J., subject of this review ; Ernest Arnold, who is managing the home farm ; Honest Arthur, farmer near Adrian, Missouri : Sarah Margaret, deceased ; Ruth V., deceased. For the past thirty years, Mr. Mudd has been a member of the Adrian lodge of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons. He has always been a Democrat in politics.
J. J. Mudd was educated in the Liberty High School, and began farming on his own account on the farm owned by his cousin, E. C. Mudd, in February, 1912. This farm is a splendid property, well improved and highly productive and Mr. Mudd is keeping up the farm to its fullest productive capacity.
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He was married in 1908 to Miss Ethel Buchanan, of Burdett, Mis- souri. The have one child, Gleeta, aged four months. Mr. Mudd is an independent Democrat who votes for the man regardless of his party label if by so doing he can assist the cause of good government. He is a member of the Baptist church and is fraternally affiliated with the Fraternal Aid Union and the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons of Adrian.
Horace Perry Edwards .- The life story of H. P. Edwards, of East Boone township, is that of a self-made man, who when he had achieved a sufficient competence, invested in land whereon he could always be certain of a comfortable and independent living and be free from want in his later years. Mr. Edwards has one of the most attractive and well kept farm plants in Bates county upon which he has resided since 1907. Since coming into possession of this farm of one hundred and sixty acres he has remodeled the home, adding substantial verandas, etc., and has built a modern barn, thirty-six feet square and ten feet to the square in addition to a barn which had been previously erected by other owners. He has expended five hundred dollars for wire fencing and generally enhanced the appearance and value of the place during the past ten years. During 1917 there were harvested on the place thirty-five acres of corn which yielded thirty bushels to the acre. Part of the Edwards land is rented out because his crippled condition will not permit of active. heavy farm labor on his part. At the present time he has fifteen head of cattle, six horses and a fine drove of forty-six head of sheep which are considered the best flock of Shropshire sheep in Bates county. His success in sheep breeding has been such as to determine him to engage in the breeding of thoroughbred Shropshires for the discerning trade.
H. P. Edwards was born in the city of Indianapolis in 1860 and is a son of Nathan and Cynthia (Swearingen) Edwards, natives of North Carolina. Nathan Edwards removed with his family to Indiana in 1833 and engaged in the contracting and building business which he followed for several years with signal success. It was he who erected the first union railroad depot in Indianapolis, and the building of this structure was followed by the erection of many other public buildings throughout the state under his supervision. Nathan Edwards employed upward of three hundred men in his building operations and had the reputation of being an honest, reliable and painstaking contractor who could be trusted to meet his obligations and perform his duties to the letter of his contracts. For a period of about five years he was engaged
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in the mercantile business. In 1862 he removed with his family to a small farm in Morgan county, Indiana which he purchased for a home. Nathan Edwards was born in 1812 and died in 1881. His wife was born in 1818 and died in 1885. They were the parents of three daughters and two sons, of whom but two are now living: Horace Perry, sub- ject of this review; and Henry Tyson Edwards, born in 1856 and now residing in Harrisonville, Missouri.
H. P. Edwards came to Missouri with his mother in 1882 and the family located on a farm in Cass county. For the first two years he rented land in Cass county and in 1884 he came to Adrian, Bates county. From July, 1885 until the spring of 1887 he followed laboring in Adrian, and then entered the employ of Bryant & McDaniel as grain buyer. remaining in the employ of this firm for seven years. In 1892 he estab- lished a draying and transfer business in Adrian which was very suc- cessful. He conducted this business until 1898 and then bought a small farm of sixty-four acres adjoining Adrian on the south and turned over the draying business to his sons. He cultivated his Adrian farm until 1907 and then traded for a farm in East Boone township.
Mr. Edwards was married in 1881 to Anna E. Whitlem, who was born in Iowa and came to Cass county, Missouri, when a child with her parents, Robert and Sarah Whitlem, both of whom died in Bates county at the Edwards home. Both parents of Mrs. Edwards were born in England. Mr. and Mrs. Edwards have four children: Fred Richard, El Paso, Texas, a railroad conductor, who has had some exciting experi- ences in operating trains in Old Mexico during late years, and who was arrested by the Mexicans and held in jail for twelve hours on a trivial charge at one time: Arthur R., owner of two newspaper delivery routes in Kansas City, Missouri; Claude B., a rancher near Steamboat Springs, Colorado; Clarence W., attending the Adrian public schools.
Mr. Edwards is a Republican in politics and while a resident of Adrian held office as city councilman. He is a member of the Christian church, as is Mrs. Edwards. He is fraternally affiliated with the Mod- ern Woodmen of America, and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. During the session of the Sovereign Grand Lodge of the Odd Fellows in 1911, Mr. Edwards was an interested visitor and took great pleasure in going over old home scenes of his boyhood days. Mr. and Mrs. Ed- wards are among Bates county's best and most patriotic citizens.
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