USA > Missouri > Cass County > History of Cass County, Missouri > Part 50
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Mr. Hayes received his education in the schools of eastern Tennessee and South Carolina. When he was twenty-one years old he left home in Kentucky and came to Cass County, Missouri. This was in 1868. He began life in this county by working by the month. In 1874 he bought twenty acres of land near Coleman which he traded for twenty acres of land in Camp Branch township in 1877. He still owns that place and has added to it and now owns in all three hundred ninety-five acres which constitutes the Walnut Valley Stock Farm. Mr. Hayes has a well im- proved place with a good residence and three substantial barns well arranged for conveniently handling stock. His barns Nos. 1, 2, and 3 are 40 x 72, 38 x 50, and 30 x 40 feet respectively. He carries on general farming and stock raising giving especial attention to this stock raising. He raises registered Shorthorn cattle, high grade hogs, and White Leg- horn chickens. For ten years he has successfully raised alfalfa and now has about five acres in that crop.
Mr. Hayes was united in marriage February 25, 1875, to Miss Lydia Elliott, daughter of Joel Elliott of Peculiar township. Mrs. Hayes' father was a pioneer of Peculiar township, having settled there in 1852. He and his wife are now both deceased and their remains are buried in the Pitts Chapel Cemetery. To Mr. and Mrs. Hayes have been born seven children as follows: Thomas J., Leader, Colorado; David M., resides on the
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farm: Rolla L., Oregon County, Missouri; James W., Ripley County, Missouri: Alma and Ira, twins, the former residing near Warrensburg, Missouri, and the latter at Pleasant Hill; and Luther C., Ripley County, Missouri.
Mr. and Mrs. Hayes have seen many changes since settling in Cass County in 1876. They have fully succeeded in keeping pace with the rapid development of the country and have measured fully up to the standards of their expectations. They are representative of the thrifty and successful citizens of Cass County, who have contributed their share towards placing Cass County in the front rank of the political subdivisions of the great state of Missouri.
A. J. Patterson, familiarly known as "Pete", is one of the leading farmers and stockmen of Cass County. He was born in Big Creek town- ship, on the place which he now owns, in 1868 and is a son of John and Agnes (Jeffrey) Patterson, the former a native of Scotland and the latter of Ashland, Ohio.
John Patterson, the father, emigrated from Scotland to America with his parents when he was about fourteen years old. He was a ship carpenter, learning his trade at Milan, Ohio, and worked at it in New York during the war and until they came west. They settled in Ohio about 1840, and in 1868 came to Missouri, settling in Cass County, four and a half miles southwest of Pleasant Hill. Here they bought one hundred and twenty-three acres of land at a cost of thirty dollars per acre. The father died in 1874 and his remains are buried in the Pleasant Hill ceme- tery.
A. J. Patterson, the subject of this sketch, was educated in the public schools of Big Creek township and has been active in the world of affairs since he was thirteen years old. He began his career as a farmer and when a boy began dealing in horses and hogs and since that time has been extensively interested in hogs. He has also raised a great many sheep but at present is not interested in the sheep business. He has on hand about five hundred head of red hogs, of which he makes a specialty. He raises a very high grade although none are registered stock. In fact he is the leading hog breeder of Cass County.
The Patterson farm is one of the well kept places of Cass County. The residence is modern in every particular, having been built in 1914. Mr. Patterson has his own lighting system and has also installed a water
A. J. PATTERSON AND SON, ROBERT J.
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system. The barn and other buildings about the place are spacious and well adapted to stock raising. Mr. Patterson also has a residence on his place which is occupied by a tenant. He was one of the original alfalfa raisers of Cass County and for sixteen years has been interested in that crop.
Mr. Patterson was married in 1906 to Miss Maud Rebecca Moore, a daughter of John Moore, who settled in Peculiar, Missouri, about 1885. He died in 1910 and his wife passed away in 1896 and their remains are buried in the Peculiar cemetery. To Mr. and Mrs. Patterson have been born two children as follows: Robert Jeffry and Anna Christine.
Mr. Patterson is a member of the Central Protective Association and is one of the substantial citizens of Cass County.
John A. Dunn, a representative farmer and stockman of Camp Branch township, is a native of Kentucky. He was born in 1854. He is a son of Absalom and Nancy (Powell) Dunn, natives of Kentucky. Absa- lom Dunn came to Cass County in 1856 and located in Pleasant Hill town- ship. Here he bought one hundred forty-six acres of land where he was following the peaceful pursuits of farming when the Civil war came on. Later when Order No. 11, that drastic military measure, was issued, he abandoned his home and went to Illinois. Three years later he returned to his farm in Pleasant Hill township. His wife died in 1869 and he sold his farm in Pleasant Hill township the same year and removed to Gunn City, where he bought a farm and remained there about fifteen years. He spent the latter part of his life with his children and for a few years prior to his death he had made his home with John A., the subject of this sketch. He died in 1902.
To Absalom and Nancy (Powell) Dunn were born the following children: Mary, deceased; James L., Higgins, Texas; John A., the sub- ject of this sketch; Mrs. Nannie McDonald, Lipscomb, Texas; and George, Harrisonville. John A. Dunn was educated in the public schools of Cass County. After having reached the age of twenty-one he began life for himself as a farmer and stock raiser. He bought his present place of one hundred sixty-seven acres in Camp Branch township in 1899. When he purchased the place it was practically unimproved and he proceeded to make improvements, one after another, as rapidly as circumstances would permit, until he now has one of the best improved farms in Cass County.
(36)
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He has a good farm residence of the modern convenient and substantial type, which was built in 1900 and improved and remodeled in 1913, and a large well-built barn, 50 x 52 feet, especially adapted for hay and stock, built in 1906. Mr. Dunn is quite extensively engaged in stock raising and has met with uniform success in that line of endeavor. He raises high grade Hereford cattle and Poland China hogs, and is considered one of the successful stockmen of his section of the county.
Mr. Dunn was married in 1881 to Miss Virginia Burris, a daughter of F. M. and America (Shomake) Burris, of Camp Branch township. Both parents of Mrs. Dunn are now deceased and their remains are buried in the Pitts Chapel Cemetery. The Shomake family were early pioneer settlers of Camp Branch township. To Mr. and Mrs. Dunn have been born six children, as follows: Carvey, died in infancy; Marion, Nome, Alaska; Mrs. Dora McGee, died at the age of thirty-two; Clarence, re- sides in Warm Springs, Montana; Oscar, Kansas City, Missouri; and Virginia, resides at home.
Whatever success has come to Mr. Dunn is the result of industry coupled with capable management and it should also be added here that his success is in no small measure due to the co-operation and assistance of his wife, who at all times has been his advisor and business partner in all his undertakings.
Jacob F. Kircher, one of the Judges of the county court of Cass County, is a well-known and successful farmer and stockman of Camp Branch township. Mr. Kircher is a native son of Cass County, and was born in Grand River township. His parents were Jacob and Magdeline (Keller) Kircher. The father was born in Germany in 1837 and immi- grated to America when he was seventeen years old, settling in Logan County, Ohio. In 1866 he came to Cass County and settled three miles east of Harrisonville in Grand River township where he was successfully engaged in farming and stock raising until 1909. He owned a valuable farm of two hundred twenty acres which he sold and removed to Nampa, Idaho, where he now resides. His wife, Magdeline Keller, was born in Alsace, France, in 1840, and came to America with her parents in 1855, locating in Logan County, Ohio, where she and Mr. Kircher were married in 1860. She died December 31, 1905, and her remains are buried in the Clearfork Cemetery.
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Jacob and Magdeline (Keller) Kircher were the parents of nine children, as follows: Catherine, married Will Kirk, and is now deceased ; Mrs. Rosa Moore, Harrisonville, Missouri; Mrs. Lizzie Ullery, Nampa, Idaho; Charles, unmarried, and resides in Camp Branch township; Samuel, died at the age of three years; Jacob F., the subject of this sketch; Peter D., Camp Branch township; Mrs. Anna Donaldson, Nampa, Idaho; and Mrs. Ada Potter, Nampa, Idaho.
Jacob F. Kircher received a good common school education and after-) wards entered McPherson College, McPherson, Kansas, where he was graduated in the class of 1891. He remained on the home farm with his parents until he was twenty-two years old when he engaged in farming on his own account, on a part of his present place which he bought in 1893. At first he bought forty acres of land for forty dollars per acre. Later he bought more land at a considerable advance in price and now owns two hundred twenty acres, one of the best improved and most pro- ductive farms in Cass County. When Mr. Kircher bought this land the improvements were meager. In 1906 he built a large modern ten-room residence. His stock and grain barn is a convenient structure 30 x 96 feet and he has another barn which is used for implements, grain, and stock and is a still larger structure, its dimensions being 50 x 120 feet. Mr. Kircher is a progressive stockman and raises registered Poland China hogs and high grade Shorthorn cattle. He feeds cattle quite extensively and usually ships about a car load each year and two car loads of hogs.
Mr. Kircher was marired August 1, 1893, to Miss Henrietta Plank, a daughter of D. H. and Leah (King) Plank, of Camp Branch township. The Plank family came to Cass County from McLean County, Illinois, in 1883, and settled about five miles south of East Lynne, and now resides about five miles southwest of East Lynne. To Mr. and Mrs. Kircher have been born eleven children as follows, all of whom are at home with their parents : Dora, Raymond, Leah, Fred, Henrietta, Katherine, Mildred, Leonard, Robert Theodore, Woodrow, and Dorothy.
Mr. Kircher is a life-long democrat and since his boyhood has taken a keen interest in politics. He was elected trustee of Camp Branch town- ship in 1903, and at the expiration of his term was re-elected to that office. In November, 1916, he was elected county judge for the south district of Cass County, and is now serving in that capacity. He is a man of good judgment, a careful business man, and well qualified in every particular for the important trust which the people have reposed in him.
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He has served as president of the school board for a number of years. In addition to his other interests he is a stockholder in the Bank of Harrisonville and is now vice-president of that institution.
Thomas J. George, owner and proprietor of the Maple Hill Stock Farm, near Gunn City, is one of the successful stockmen of Cass County. Mr. George was born in Cooper County, Missouri, in 1852, and is a son of W. J. and Mary A. (Douglas) George, both natives of Missouri. The father was born in Cooper County, in 1828, and died February 4, 1915, and the mother was born in Franklin, Howard County, in 1829, and died December 25, 1916. The George family settled in Index township in 1866, where the father was a successful farmer and stockman for a num- ber of years, but spent the latter part of his life in retirement.
Thomas J. George was one of a family of four children born to his parents as follows: J. T., New Hope, Arkansas; Mrs. Mollie J. Akin, Fredonia, New York; Henry, deceased; and Thomas J., the subject of this sketch. Mr. George was educated in the public schools, Missouri University, Columbia; and Spaldings Business College, Kansas City. In 1872 he began farming and stock raising with his father near Gunn City, and shortly afterwards bought one hundred twenty acres west of his present place which he sold a short time afterwards and bought two hundred acres to which he has added from time to time. He now owns seven hundred seventy acres in Index township, besides seven hundred fifty acres in Bourbon County Kansas, and one hundred sixty acres in Morton County, Kansas. Mr. George is essentially a stockman and has fed cattle on a large scale for years, averaging about two hundred head a year. About eleven years ago he began raising pure bred Herefords and now has about two hundred head of registered Herefords which includes about one hundred cows. In his herd are to be found some of the best registered Hereford cows in the country. He owns "Dorothy Perkins," a full sister of "Scottish Lassie," for two years the champion Hereford cow of the United States, taking the first premiums at both the International and Royal Stock Shows. "Maple Hill Stock Farm" has all modern equipments for conveniently carrying on the stock raising on an extensive scale. The place is well watered and an ideal stock farm.
Mr. George was first married in 1876 to Miss Belle Hester, who died in 1877. In 1881 he was married to Miss Maggie Taliaferro of Moniteau County, Missouri, and to this union were born the following children:
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Mrs. Jessie C. Sallee, Kansas City, Missouri; Mrs. Beth Bohon, Newton, Kansas; Ralph, mechanical engineer, Kansas City, Missouri; Ray, on the home place with his father; Ned, on a cattle ranch near Daniel, Wyoming; and Eugene, a student in the Harrisonville High School. The wife and mother of these children died in 1901. June 20, 1905, Mr. George was married to Miss Elizabeth Hammons, a daughter of Samuel Hammons, a pioneer settler of Polk township. Samuel Hammons died in 1874, in Polk township. Mrs. George was a teacher for seventeen years prior to her marriage, having been successfully engaged in that profes- sion at Carthage, Missouri, and Ft. Smith, Arkansas.
The George family, like many others, met with considerable property loss during the Civil war. The father, W. J. George, entered the Con- federate service during the early part of the war and served under General Shelby until the close of the war. He died at the age of eighty- seven years. He was a friend of all the children as well as the older people and was universally respected and admired.
Thomas J. George is of the progressive type who looks on the sunny side of life. He is an optimist and believes that the opportunities for success in most any field of endeavor are greater today than ever before, and he ought to know what he is talking about for success in a business way is not a theory with him. He has had a successful career which is the best exemplification of his view.
Taylor Perry, of Gunn City, is a native of Ohio, and saw much of the west over fifty years ago. He was born in Adams County in 1849, and is a son of Needham and Elizabeth (McGavney) Perry, both natives of Adams County, Ohio. They were the parents of six children of whom Taylor Perry, the subject of this sketch, is the only surviving member.
Taylor Perry made his own way in the world from the time he was thirteen years old. He received such education as the country schools in those days afford and in early life began working for farmers by the month and at first received thirteen dollars a month for his services. In 1869, when he was about twenty years of age, he came west and located near Ft. Scott, Kansas. After remaining there about a year he came to Cass County, remaining in the vicinity of Harrisonville for a little over a year, when he went to Lafayette County, Missouri. In 1881 he went from there to Vernon County where he remained until 1883, when he returned to Cass County and bought a farm in Index township. In 1912
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he traded this farm for one near Latour. In May, 1916, he bought a small place near Gunn City where he now resides.
Mr. Perry was married April 4, 1877, to Miss Addie Mccullough of Lafayette County, Missouri. She is a daughter of Spottswood and Mar- garet (George) McCullough, and a niece of Colonel Robert Mccullough. To Mr. and Mrs. Perry have been born the following children: Mrs. Margaret Deatley, Latour, Missouri; Mrs. Estella Lenck, Sheridan, Wyoming; Mrs. Edna Schriver, Sheridan, Wyoming; Mrs. Edith Barnes, Windsor, Missouri; and Marie, who is now teaching her first term of school. All of the Perry children have been given good educational ad- vantages and attended the State Normal School at Warrensburg. All except Estella were teachers. In addition to rearing their own family of five children, Mr. and Mrs. Perry reared and educated two orphan children of her sister. They are Henry O. Smith and Ada Smith. The former is now a railway mail clerk with headquarters at St. Louis, Missouri, and the latter is a stenographer for Judge Bradley at Warrensburg, Missouri. The Perry family are well known and have many friends in the com- munity.
Jesse E. Richardson, a progressive merchant of Gunn City, is also postmaster at that place, is a native son of Cass County. He was born two and a half miles north of Gunn City in 1882, a son of David and Amanda (Smith) Richardson, both natives of Ohio. The father was born in 1831 and died in Gunn City, January 7, 1906. The mother was born in 1840, and now resides with her son Jesse E. Richardson, the subject of this sketch, in Gunn City.
Jesse E. Richardson was the only child born to David and Amanda - (Smith) Richardson. By a former marriage of David Richardson the following children were born: Edward, deceased; J. T., Collinsville, Oklahoma; A. J., Big Cabin, Oklahoma; L. H., La Harpe, Kansas; Mrs. Lizzie Sides, Sayer, Oklahoma.
Jesse E. Richardson was educated in the public schools of Gunn City and in 1906 when his father died, he succeeded to his father's mercantile business in Gunn City, buying out the interests of the other heirs of the estate. David Richardson the father came to Cass County about 1867, and settled on a farm north of Gunn City, in Index township. Here he bought a hundred sixty acres of land and was successfully engaged in farming and stock raising for a number of years. In 1892 the father
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engaged in the general mercantile business at Gunn City, and successfully conducted that business until the time of his death when he was succeeded by his son Jesse E. Richardson. Mr. Richardson carries a large stock of goods and he has an extensive trade, covering a large territory. He is a wide-awake business man and has won the confidence of the public by honest business methods.
Mr. Richardson was married December 17, 1915, to Miss Nellie Mickelson, daughter of M. Mickelson. Her mother died when Mrs. Richardson was about four years of age. Mr. and Mrs. Richardson have one child, a son, Jesse Nelson. Mr. Richardson has an extensive acquaint- ance in the business world and is properly entitled to classification among the successful merchants of Cass County.
Henry Ross Wagner and Sargent Willis Wagner, known through- out Cass County as the "Wagner brothers," reside on the home place in Dayton township. They are sons of Henry Willis and Lucy Marilla (Rog- ers) Wagner. Henry Willis Wagner was born April 2, 1843, in Steuben County, New York, son of Henry James Wagner, who was born in 1816. Lucy Marilla Rogers was born March 12, 1849, in New Hampton, New Hampshire, daughter of Francis and Esther Ann (George) Rogers, the former a native of Vermont and the latter of New Hampshire. Lucy Marilla Rogers was a direct descendant of Hughie Rogers, one of the one hundred two Pilgrims who set sail from Plymouth, England in the May- flower, September 6, 1620. Francis Rogers, father of Lucy Marilla, migrated to Missouri in 1867 and located in Dayton township. He was born in Vermont in 1804 and died in Iowa in 1877. His last resting place is in Fort Atkinson, Winneshiek County, Iowa. To Henry Willis and Lucy Marilla (Rogers) Wagner were born eight children: Elizabeth Shaw, who died in infancy; Mrs. Clara Smith, born February 11, 1877, residing in Cleburne, Texas; Mrs. Amy Dodd, born August 24, 1879, Dayton, Mis- souri; George Willis, born December 30, 1882, deceased; Charles Dana, born January 20, 1884, deceased; Lucy Mabel, an attractive, intelligent young lady and splendid housekeeper, who is the home-maker for her brothers, born February 5, 1888; Sergeant Willis, born April 4, 1891; and Henry Ross, born October 17, 1873. All the children were born in Day- ton township, Missouri. The mother, one of the best-known women in this locality, a lady of culture whose kindness of heart gained many warm friendships, died October 17, 1915.
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Henry Willis Wagner, father of the "Wagner brothers," was a federal soldier, enlisting in New York in Company I, Eighty-sixth New York Infantry and served as captain the year prior to the closing of the war. He was twice wounded in battle, at the battle of Chancellorsville in May, 1863, and at Spottsylvania Court House in May, 1864. At Chancellors- ville, where General Jackson met his untimely death at the hands of one of his own awe-stricken sentinels, Henry Wagner was shot through the right lung. It was at Spottsylvania, where Mr. Wagner was wounded in the right arm, that General Grant, facing a loss of thirty-four thousand men, wrote the immortal dispatch: "I propose to fight it out on this line, if it takes all summer."
In 1870 Henry Willis Wagner came to Cass County, Missouri, and located in Dayton township. His father, Henry James Wagner, had pre- ceded him west three years before, coming to Dayton, Missouri, in 1867. Henry James Wagner built the Dayton hotel, the town having been liter- ally burned during the war. At that time Dayton was on the stage route from Butler to Pleasant Hill and passengers stopped in Dayton for dinner. During the war Henry James Wagner was a drum major in Company I, Eighty-sixth New York Infantry. He was a son of Joseph A. and Cath- erine (Digert) Wagner. Joseph A. Wagner, a native of New York, was a soldier of the war of 1812. Catherine Digert was a daughter of Syl- vanus Digert, a Revolutionary soldier. Sylvanus Digert and General Herkimer married sisters by the name of Sweet. In addition to operating the Dayton hotel, Henry James Wagner was postmaster for eight years.
For a number of years after the death of his father, Henry Willis Wagner conducted the hotel. In 1888 he moved to his farm, now man- aged by the Wagner brothers, where he died October 9, 1893. He farmed on an extensive scale and was interested in keeping high-grade stock, having many registered Norman Percheron horses. Henry Willis Wagner was one of the first men in this part of the state to become interested in the bettering of stock.
The Wagner brothers have added many improvements to the fine old home place, among which are a silo, sixty-one feet from the ground and fourteen feet in diameter, built in 1913, and a splendid stock barn 40x60 feet. They have also remodeled the house, making a comfortable, modern residence of it. In 1897 a large pond was constructed near the barn, which has always held water. It is fed by springs.
In the spring of 1915 the Wagner brothers bought a sawmill and
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have been engaged since then in sawing many trees which grew on the bottom land that is now being cleared for farming. The Grand River drainage ditch passes through the farm and will drain two hundred thirty- five acres of the place.
The two Wagner brothers are fine, progressive young men. Both are able business men and their success has been largely due to strict atten- tion to the details of their vocation and an inherent ability which has come down to them from a long line of soldier ancestors, fighters who recognized no obstacles. These young men are doing their part to build up Cass County, and in the years to come, living in quiet retirement, they will be able to look back over useful, well-spent lives, content in the knowledge that their efforts have not been in vain and that no stain or blemish mars an honorable record of accomplishment.
William A. Stevens, proprietor of "Valley View Farm," Dayton township, was born in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, January 30, 1856. He is the son of Alfred and Amelia C. (Smith) Stevens. Mr. Stevens is of old Colonial stock, and is directly descended from William Stevens who, with his brother John and their widowed mother, came over from Oxfordshire on the ship "Confidence" in 1638, and settled at Newbury, Massachusetts. William Stevens had a son John, born in 1650. John's son was Otho Stevens, born in 1702, Otho's son was Jesse Stevens, born in 1757, Jesse's son was Asa Stevens, born in New Hampshire in 1794, and Asa's son was Alfred Stevens, born in New Hampshire, December 30, 1825. Alfred's son is the subject of this sketch.
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