USA > Missouri > Boone County > History of Boone County, Missouri. > Part 59
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JOHN ROCHFORD, DECEASED.
John Rochford was born at Armagh, Ireland, May 2, 1815. He received a thorough collegiate education. He came to America in early life, landing first at New York, where he received employment in connection with the United States Navy. From New York City he came to St. Louis in 1839, where he labored as an architect, planning and building some of the finest public buildings in that city. From St. Louis he came to Columbia, Missouri, where he lived until 1849, when he went to California, where he remained four years. While on the Pacific coast he engaged in the lumber business, which proved a very profitable venture. Returning to Boone county, he settled in Sturgeon and took a contract, in partnership with Col. Ruby, for building twenty miles of the North Missouri railroad. Mr. Rochford
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invested largely in land along the line of this road. When Sturgeon was laid off he owned most of the land included within the limits of the town, which he was mainly instrumental in locating. He gave the town its name, calling it Sturgeon, in honor of the first president of the road. It is said that he donated forty acres of land as an inducement to the railroad company to locate the depot at this point. Mr. Rochford was married in Ireland to Catherine Madden. They had four children, one son, Bernard, and three daughters. Only one of the children, Mrs. McComas, wife of Dr. J. M. McComas, is living in Boone county. Bedelier married a man named Sinclair, and Louisa R. married a Mr. Cowgill.
WILLIAM G. RIDGWAY.
William G. Ridgway, farmer and wagon-maker, was born two and a half miles west of Columbia, December 21, 1829. His father, Enoch Ridgway, was a farmer and a native of Rowan County, North Carolina, from which he emigrated to Kentucky, thence to Missouri, arriving in Old Franklin, Howard county, about the year 1817. He next went to New Mexico, where he remained about one year. Re- turning from New Mexico, he settled in what is facetiously called " Terrapin Neck," situated in Boone county, Missouri, and more particularly described elsewhere. Mr. Ridgway married Ailcy Barnes, a native of Frankfort, Kentucky. The subject of this sketch went to Pike county in 1848 and remained there four years, during which time he learned the wagon-maker's trade. He returned to Boone County in 1852 and has worked at his trade, and at farming, ever since, devoting most of his attention to agriculture. The elder Ridgway left his place in the river bottom on account of " milk sick- ness." He entered part of the land upon which William G. now resides, about the year 1834 or 1835. The subject of this sketch was married, January, 9, 1852, to Melissa, daughter of J. Fisher, of Pike county, Missouri. They have nine children living. There names are Nora, George W., James M., Martha Savannah, Eupha, William Edmund, Sophia, Bertha and Ora Glenn. Mrs. Ridgway is a mem- ber of the Christian church.
MAJ. JOHN F. RUCKER.
Maj. John F. Rucker, one of the most prominent and influential business men of Sturgeon, was born in Amherst county, Virginia, September 19th, 1838. He is the son of John D. and Lucy J.
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(nee Tinsley ) Rucker. Maj. Rucker came to Sturgeon in 1858, where he remained until the war. He joined Company C. which was raised in that place. He was afterwards made a lieutenant in a St. Louis regiment commanded by Col. Kelly. He entered the service in 1861, at Jefferson City. He was at Boonville and Lexington, went South with the army and participated in the battles of Carthage and Wilson Creek. He was also in the battle of Drywood, and a num- ber of other skirmishes and battles of less note. Came home after the surrender of Lexington, and was captured by the enemy and im- prisoned at Macon City. He was released on parole, but was soon afterwards re-arrested on a charge of treason and conspiracy, having been indicted by the United States Court. He was taken to St. Louis and put in jail. Giving bail he was released from prison. He at- tended several terms of the United States Court but his case was not called up. A compromise was at last agreed upon by which Maj. Rucker, was banished to Montana during the war. While in Mon- tana he was elected chief clerk of the legislature and also a member of the territorial constitutional convention. At the close of the war Maj. Rucker returned to Virginia, and after a short stay in the Old Dominion, he returned to Sturgeon, where he has lived ever since. . He was married, August 28th, 1867, to Miss Julia, daughter of Col. William Early Rucker, of Audrain County, Missouri. Four sons were born of this marriage. Their names are Booker H., Guy Lockridge, Early D., and Ray. The first wife dying, March 30th, 1879, he was married, May 18th, 1880, to Miss Frankie D., daughter of Carter Dingle, of Mexico, Audrain county, Missouri. Maj. and Mrs. Rucker are both members of the Methodist Church South. He has been superintendent of the Sunday school for fourteen years. Has always been a Democrat in politics. Has held the office of chairman of the Congressional Central Committee for five or six years past. In 1875 he was elected to the convention to form a new State consti- tution representing the Ninth Senatorial District. It was a free race and there were a number of candidates, including Col. Switzler, who was also elected. The Major is, practically speaking, a self-made man. He is a public-spirited citizen in the truest sense of the term, and has been an earnest laborer in the cause of immigration. He suggested the main points in the immigration bill. He is a director of the Sturgeon bank and has been for several years. He and Mr. Sherwood W. Turner own a controlling interest in the business. He is the leading man in the firm of Rucker & Turner, a store that
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is doing a large business. They also have an extensive trade in rail- road ties.
RODERIC D. RUCKER.
Roderic D. Rucker, chief salesman with Goin & Lockridge, Stur- geon, Missouri, was born in Amherst county, Virginia, May 7th, 1849. He is the son of John Dabney and Lucy Rucker. Since com- ing to Missouri, in 1868, Mr. Rucker has lived continuously in Boone and Audrain counties, spending the first two years on a farm about one mile west of town, on what is known as the old Marney place. He entered the store of Goin & Lockridge in the spring of 1882. He was married December 22d, 1874, to Miss Lulu, daughter of Judge Henry Dusenbury. They have three children, Edward Leslie, Francis Marion and Robert Milton. Mrs. Rucker is a member of the Methodist church. Mr. Rucker belongs to the order of A. O. U. W. He owns and cultivates a nice farm over the line, in Audrain county, where he resides. The farm is three miles north of Sturgeon Mr. Rucker is a quiet, affable gentleman, well known and highly appre- ciated in business circles. He is a brother to Maj. John Rucker, of Sturgeon.
ALFRED SIMS.
Alfred Sims, farmer and miller, was born in Madison county, Ken- tucky, February 4, 1832. He is the son of Abram and Gracie ( Ro- bards ) Sims, natives of Kentucky, who came to Boone county, Mis- souri, when the subject of this sketch was but two years old. He was raised on a farm and has followed farming ever since he was old enough to work, except seven or eight years spent in a saw mill. He owns a farm of 260 acres. Was married, March 16, 1855, to Miss Nancy Jane, daughter of J. W. and Polly Barnes. They have six children, named as follows : Abram L., Nancy Elizabeth, John Davis Beauregard, James Anderson, Sidney Daniels, and Polly Thomas. Mr. Sims has been a hard-working man and has accumulated all his property by his own individual exertions, having inherited nothing but a horse and saddle from his father. He has spent his life in Bour- bon township, and is well and favorably known in that section.
THOMAS G. SIMS.
Thomas G. Sims was born near New Castle, Henry county, Ken- tucky, July 20, 1823. He is the son of Thomas A. and Elizabeth (Morris) Sims, natives of Virginia. The subjectof this sketch came to Boone county in 1836, and has resided here ever since. He has
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devoted his time to farming and bricklaying. Was married, Decem- ber 17, 1853, to Miss Margaret A., daughter of James M. Hicks. They have eight children living, and one dead. Their names are Thomas A., Jeannette D., James M., Lizzie J., Lenora, Walter B., Flora T., Elmer T., and Betta. The last named is dead. Mr. Sims is a member of the Masonic order, also a member of the orders of United Workmen and Knights of Honor. He is an officer in the two first named lodges. Was imprisoned by the Union authorities during the war on account of his Southern politics. Mr. Sims is a self-edu- cated man, having never attended school but three months in his life. He was appointed a justice of the peace during the war. He is an excellent workman. He superintended the erection of Hardin Col- lege and the opera house at Mexico, Missouri, and assisted in building the addition to the Christian College, Columbia. He is a good- natured, jovial man, and is universally esteemed by all who know him. Mrs. Sims is a member of the Christian church.
WILLIAM ENOCH SMITH.
The subject of this sketch is the son of Benjamin F. and Polly A. (nee Wilson) Smith, and was born in Bourbon county, Kentucky, September, 6th, 1835. He lived in Kentucky until he was twenty-two years old, when he removed to Boone county, Missouri, in 1857. He landed at Providence on the Missouri river, April 16th, and remained in that vicinity for two years, when he moved north of Columbia, near Middleton, ten miles south of Sturgeon, where he remained for eight years. Leaving that neighborhood, he removed to a place six miles northwest of Columbia, where he remained for thirteen or fourteen years. His next move was to Sturgeon. His occupation, up to this time, had been farming, shipping of stock and trading. Coming to Sturgeon, he bought the Commercial hotel, opening house October 15th, 1880. Mr. Smith was educated in Kentucky, partly at common schools and partly by private tutors. He took no part in the war. He was never married. Is a member of the Christian church, but belongs to none of the lodges. He never held an office and has no political aspirations whatever. His paternal grandfather was a native of Virginia, but one among the first to emigrate to Kentucky. He was a surveyor. He settled where Mt. Sterling now stands, but before there was a white settler within sixty miles of his place. At one time he donated one hundred acres of land to a preacher as an inducement to the minister to settle in his locality and preach for the
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settlement. He had previously located one thousand acres for himself, for in those days, according to a special law of Virginia, the surveyor was " monarch of all he surveyed"-almost. Kentucky was then a portion of the Old Dominion, and to induce surveyors to go to the wilderness and run off the lands, large grants were allowed them, with the privilege of locating their lands wherever they liked best. This law induced a large number of young men to learn surveying, and a practical knowledge of the art enabled many of them to lay the foun- dation of a princely fortune in the wilds of Kentucky.
CHARLES HENRY TAYLOR.
Charles Henry Taylor was born in Maryland, August 4th, 1850. He is the son of Levi and Adeliza ( nee Bell) Taylor. He left his native State when he was twenty years of age, coming to St. Charles, Missouri, where he remained one year, removing from there to Stur- geon, where he has remained ever since. He was depot agent and telegraph operator for ten years. In the fall of 1878 was married to Miss Kate, daughter of Christian Miller, of Audrain county. They have one child, Lloyd Stanley. Mrs. Taylor is a member of the Christian church. Mr. Taylor belongs to the order of A. O. U. W. He is a member of the city council. Has a half-interest in the prop- erty known as the Middleton & Taylor mill. A large lot of new machinery has lately been added to this mill, and the property greatly improved throughout. The estimated value of the mill, in its present improved condition, is $6,000. Mr. Taylor is a very clever, obliging young man, and stands very high in business and social circles.
F. M. TRUBY.
F. M. Truby, machinist and miller, was born in Armstrong county, Pennsylvania, April 27th, 1829. He is the son of Jacob and Catherine (nee Mechling) Truby. He lived in Pennsylvania until he came to Missouri, sometime about the year 1874. He first settled in Middle Grove, Monroe county, where he lived four years. He came to Stur- geon in 1879. He has a good education, having received special in- structions in his line of business. He is a practical machinist, and has applied his knowledge and skill principally to milling purposes. He is proprietor of the Sturgeon Mills. Mr. Truby was married in 1852, to Rebecca Cooper, daughter of Ustacy and Mary Ann Cooper, of Waynesville, Ohio. They have ten living children. Their names
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are Katie, Celesta, Ustacy, Romeo, William, Annie, Osa, Lillie, Wilber and Franklin. Their fourth child, Isbin, is dead.
B. F. TUCKER.
B. F. Tucker was born in Boone county, Missouri, September 23d, 1834. He is the son of W. W. Tucker, a native of Virginia. His mother was a native of Kentucky. Her maiden name was Woodruff. W. W. Tucker is the father of sixteen children, all of whom are living. They are all the children of one mother. B. F. Tucker grew up to manhood on his father's farm, in Rocky Fork township, removing to Bourbon when twenty-one years of age, where he has continuously resided ever since. He was educated at the common schools of the county. His father was a farmer, and the son was brought up in that line of business, and has followed agricultural pursuits all his life. He was married December 12th, 1855, to Miss Jeannette H., daughter of Joseph and Hannah Fountain, of Bourbon township. They had two children by this marriage, William Warren and Joseph D. The first wife dying, Mr. Tucker was again married, June 12th, 1873, to Lucinda E., daughter of James and Tabitha Davenport, natives of Kentucky. Mr. and Mrs. Tucker are both members of the Christian church. He took no part in the war. His farm is pleasantly situated and quite productive. By industry, prudence and economy, Mr. Tucker has accumulated considerable property, nearly all of which is the result of his own individual labor.
A. J. TURNER.
A. J. Turner was born in Warren county, Kentucky, September 2, 1831. He is the son of Andrew and Mary (nee Harris ) Turner. He came to Missouri when seven years old. He was raised in Saling township, Audrain county, three miles north of Sturgeon. When eighteen years old he went overland to California. He did not re- main in the mines but a few months, returning by way of Panama. He was four months at sea and suffered severely from sea-sickness. He was married July 8, 1852, to Miss Catherine, daughter of Jesse and Georgia Vance, natives of Kentucky. They have four children. Their names are P. H., Dora, Mary, and Katie. Dora is the wife of Dr. J. Keith, of Sturgeon. Mr. Turner improved and sold several farms in Audrain county previous to coming to Sturgeon in 1870. Since removing to town, he has followed no particular occupation. He came to Sturgeon for the purpose of educating his children. He
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is an earnest advocate of popular education. He says the only time he was ever beaten for an office was when he offered for school direc- tor. It was when the law required but one director, and he was known to be in favor of an increased levy for school purposes. He has been a member of the city council for about ten years. Mr. and Mrs. Turner are both members of the Christian church. He is also a Mason. Mr. Turner is a kind-hearted, quiet, genial man. He is in comfortable circumstances and takes the world very easy.
SHERROD W. TURNER.
Sherrod W. Turner, cashier of the Sturgeon bank, and member of the firm of Rucker & Turner, was born and reared in Boone county, Missouri. He is the son of John and Virenda H. (Tucker) Turner, His early education was limited. He attended the common schools of the county, and afterwards went to the State University, at Colum- bia, Mo. He taught in the public schools for about five years, his first attempt at teaching being in the capacity of assistant in the Sturgeon high school. He went to the Mound City Commercial College, St. Louis, where he took a thorough course, including commercial law. He graduated from this institution in 1869. In 1870 he went to Texas and was engaged in a dry goods house as book-keeper for one year. Returned to Sturgeon in 1871, and was employed as book- keeper and salesman by Maj. G. F. Rucker until 1876, when he be- came a partner in the firm. December, 1879, he became cashier of the Sturgeon bank. He was married, November 12, 1871, to Miss Katie, daughter of Nathaniel Roberts, of Boone county. They have no children. Mr. and Mrs. Turner are both members of the Christian church. He is a Knight Templar and a member of the Order of A. O. U. W. and Knights of Honor. Mr. Turner is a live business man, and has been very successful in all his undertakings.
W. I. WEBSTER.
W. I. Webster, compositor in the Leader office, Sturgeon, Mis- souri, was born in Randolph county, May 13, 1857. He is the son of W. P. and Elizabeth (Coulter) Webster. He was born and reared on the farm, and remained on the homestead until he was eighteen years old, when he removed to Macon county, Missouri, and from there to Sturgeon, where he entered the Leader office as a compositor. Has worked at the trade about eight years. He was married, Feb- ruary 12, 1882, to Maggie, daughter of William J. McLoney. Mr.
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Webster is a good workman and a competent newspaper man. He contemplates starting a paper of his own in the near future.
WILLIAM H. WELCH.
David B. Welch, father of the subject of this sketch, was born. near Harper's Ferry, Virginia. He came to Monroe county, Missouri, where he was married, afterwards removing to Boone county about the year 1835. He settled at Old Petersburg, where he was em- ployed for several years as a teacher. Was also a shoemaker. He lived at Petersburg about seven years. The subject of this sketch was born in Boone county, October 1, 1840. His mother's maiden name was Kituria Brink. Mr. Welch has been a citizen of Boone all his life, except while absent in the Confederate army and in Califor- nia. He has been engaged in the mercantile business for about eighteen years. He spent four years in California. Was married, August 19, 1869, to Laura, daughter of H. H. Jamison, of Pettis county, Missouri. They have four children living and four dead. The living are Scott, Annie, Daniel W., and Serepta Evellen. Mr. Welch enlisted in the Confederate army under Capt. Ab. Hicks, of Clark's Division. He was in the battles of Boonville, Lone Jack, Car- thage, Wilson's Creek, Drywood, Lexington and Pea Ridge. He also participated in the fatal assault upon Helena, Arkansas, and was in Price's raid in 1864. Mr. Welch is a member of the city council, also of the Sturgeon Masonic lodge. He is of Irish and German origin. Was left an orphan at the age of seven, and from early boyhood sup- ported and educated himself. He has also built up a good business by his own individual, unaided exertions.
JAMES T. WHITE.
James T. White, farmer, is the son of William C. White, who was born in 1812, and came to Missouri about the year 1822 and settled in Howard county, where he remained one year, finally removing to Boone county and settling on a farm near where James T. White now lives. The subject of this sketch was born in Boone county, March 29th, 1838. His mother, Luvicy Lawrence, was a native of Ken- tucky. Mr. White was reared on the farm, and has always followed the occupation of a farmer. Was a soldier in the Confederate army, being first a member of Capt. John Bole's company, afterwards with Wat Stone. Was at Prairie Grove, Milliken's Bend, Gaines' Landing, and a number of smaller engagements. He served three years. He
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and his brother-in-law have in partnership three hundred and seventy- six acres of land and devote their attention to farming and stock- raising. When Mr. White returned home from the war fifty dollars comprised all that he possessed in the world. He now owns, in addi- tion to his Boone county property, a stock farm in Vernon county, Missouri, which he manages in connection with his lands in Boone county.
SAMUEL NEWTON WOODS.
Samuel Newton Woods was born in Boone county, February 26th, 1844. He is the son of Barnabas S. and Martha C. (Copher ) Woods. Was raised on the farm upon which he now resides, and which has always been his home except while absent in the army, or while cross- ing the plains. Was absent in the army eighteen months, and in crossing the plains fifteen months. Was sworn into the Confederate service by Col. Poindexter, and served under Col. Dorsey. Was in several engagements in Northern Arkansas. Was only seventeen years old when he joined the army. Mr. Woods was married, Feb- ruary 8th, 1870, to Caroline Boyd, daughter of William and Elizabeth (Seymour) Boyd. They have five children, Patrick Seymour, Wil- ford Watson, Lafayette Gomer, Ober Kyle and Samuel Boyd. Mr. and Mrs. Woods are members of the Baptist church.
CHAPTER XVI.
CEDAR TOWNSHIP.
Position and Description - Organization - Remarkable Natural Features - Caves, Mounds, etc. - Rockbridge Mills - Minerals, "Gold ! Gold !" - Early Settlers and Settlements - Incidents, Peter Ellis and the Indians, Joker Jones -Tragedies of the Civil War - Kill- ing of James Harrington and others - Skirmish at Stonesport - Miscellaneous Matters of Interest-Country Churches - The Town of Ashland - Its General History - Stock Sales- The "Bugle" - Riot -Secret Orders - Churches - The Town of Providence - Nashville - Stonesport - Biographies of Old Settlers and Prominent Citizens of Cedar Township.
POSITION AND DESCRIPTION - ORGANIZATION.
Cedar, which is by far the largest municipal township in the county, embraces all that portion of the county lying south of Columbia township and east of the Roche Perche. Its northern boundary is
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the same as the line north of congressional township 47, while it is bounded on the east by Cedar creek (the Callaway county line ) as far down as the southeastern corner of section 12, of congressional town- ship 45, range 12, from which point south to the Missouri river the boundary is the range line on the east of said congressional township. The Missouri river forms the southern and southwestern boundary, flowing in an almost regular outward curve from the mouth of the Roche Perche to the Callaway line. Cedar may be properly said to embrace almost a little kingdom within itself, with the capital at Ash- land, so great is its area and so independent the character of its citi- zens. The township as now bounded is the same original township established by order of the county court at the May session of 1821. The record as quoted from Book A. of the first county court, gives the following : " The court then proceeded to lay off the county into townships, and to establish the following as the several and respective boundaries thereof, viz. : 1st Township, beginning at the mouth of the Perche creek, thence up to where it crosses township line between township 47 and 48, thence east with the township line to the eastern boundary of the county, thence southward with the said boundary line to the Missouri river, thence up said river to the place of begin- ning, which said township is denominated Cedar township." The court held its session at Smithton, and was presided over by Peter Wright, Lazarus Wilcox and Anderson Woods as justices. The same court at the same session established four other townships, and appointed constables for each, Thomas S. Tuttle being appointed the first constable of Cedar township.
Cedar contains two entire, and six fractional congressional town- ships, and has about 182 whole sections and 40 fractional sections of land. Estimating the 40 fractional sections at an average of 20 whole ones, gives 202 square miles of 640 acres each. This gives an entire area of about 129,280 acres.
TOPOGRAPHY, NATURAL FEATURES, ETC.
Along the eastern side of Cedar township, the Two-mile Prairie extends for some distance, entering it from the north and running parallel with Cedar creek and extending down nearly opposite Ashland on the east. Most of the country around Ashland is rolling, with sufficient drainage to carry off all surplus water. Farther to the east along Cedar creek, the country is rough and broken, and in some places affords magnificent scenery. At Duly's mill, on Cedar creek,
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HISTORY OF BOONE COUNTY.
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