USA > Missouri > Cass County > History of Cass County, Missouri > Part 62
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Mr. Houston has seen many changes and developments since he came to Cass County. As time has passed many of those who were active in the early days have disappeared from the scenes of activity, one after another, until comparatively few of the old timers are left to tell the story. When Mr. Houston came here, T. B. Hanna conducted a store at Raymore. His son, B. S. Hanna, is now cashier of the Bank of Raymore. Dr. L. F. Gray was the pioneer physician and Eli Wannamaker bought grain here. A. M. Neer built the first house in Raymore and Dr. Breck- enridge was the first preacher. He preached in the depot.
Mr. Houston is still active in general farming and stock raising and operates one hundred thirty acres of land which he owns. He has never aspired to hold political office, preferring to devote his time to private affairs. He is one of Cass County's substantial pioneer citizens.
B. S. Hanna, cashier of the Bank of Raymore, is a pioneer of that section of Cass County. He was born in Iowa in 1866 and is a son of Thomas B. and Sarah E. Hanna, natives of Ohio, who were early settlers in Iowa, locating in that state about 1865. The father enlisted in the army, in the Thirty-eighth Ohio Infantry, and became second lieutenant. Later he became a member of the One Hundred Forty-sixth Illinois Infantry, and served until the war was over, when he went to Iowa. In 1869 he came to Jackson County, Missouri. Thomas B. Hanna was en- gaged in the mercantile business at Greenwood a short time. In 1871 he came to Raymore and opened a general store. He was the first merchant at Raymore. When he located here there were only a few houses in the town.
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Thomas B. Hanna took a prominent part in the early settlement and development of Raymore township. He served as township trustee for a number of years and was the first postmaster at Raymore. He did an extensive business as a merchant and was well known, to the early settlers, over a broad scope of country. He was a jolly, good-natured man who had a great deal of confidence in his fellowman. In fact, he was too liberal and trusted too many customers during the course of his mercantile career. He died in 1894 and his wife departed this life in 1903. They were the parents of the following children: Edna B., Long Beach, California; Roy C., Long Beach, California; and B. S., the sub- ject of this sketch.
B. S. Hanna, the subject of this review, received his education in the public schools of Raymore. In his early educational career it was his fortune to come under the instruction of Mr. A. A. Wirt, who won the reputation of being one of the best educators in the early days of Cass County. This man Wirt was one of the pioneers of what is termed vocational training, in the vernacular of educators of today. He not only assisted and instructed his students, but studied them and aided them in selecting their life's work. Mr. Hanna says he owes to this man whatever success he has attained in an educational or business way.
Mr. Hanna remained with his father in connection with the Ray- more mercantile business until he was twenty-one years old, when he taught one term of school at District No. 100. He then went to Kansas City and entered the employ of the Midland National Bank, where he received his first practical training and experience in the banking busi- ness. In 1890 Mr. Hanna returned to Raymore and was shortly after- wards appointed postmaster, serving in that capacity about two years. He then served as collector and constable of Raymore township. In 1894 his father died and B. S. Hanna was appointed administrator of the estate. Later he bought the stock of goods from the other heirs. After disposing of the merchandise he assisted in promoting and organizing the Bank of Raymore and became its cashier. He has served in that capacity to the present time. W. S. Allen has been president of that institution since its organization. This bank opened its doors for busi- ness April 13, 1895. It is one of the substantial and conservatively man- aged banks of Cass County. Most of the stock is held by well-to-do farmers in Raymore and vicinity.
Mr. Hanna came to Cass County when a boy, about the time that
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the western frontier was disappearing. Even then the prairie was all open and great herds of cattle grazed over the plains. Although a young man, B. S. Hanna has seen many changes within the period of his obser- vation in Cass County.
Lee Glandon, better known as Major Glandon, a veteran of the Civil War, and a soldier in the United States service for a number of years afterwards, has been agent for the Kansas City, Clinton and Springfield Railway at Raymore for forty-five years. Mr. Glandon was born in Harrison County, Ohio, in 1844, and is a son of James M. and Agnes (Carnahan) Glandon. James M. Glandon, the father, came to Cass County in 1880 and died here. He was a son of Joseph Glandon, an Ohio pioneer, who was a tanner at Deersville, Ohio, for a number of years. Agnes Carnahan, his wife, was a daughter of John Carnahan, a native of Ireland.
Major Glandon was educated in the public schools of Ohio. When the Civil War broke out he enlisted in Company C, Ninety-eighth Ohio infantry, under Capt. John A. Norris, who had been his teacher the previous winter. Mr. Glandon participated in a number of important battles and campaigns and innumerable skirmishes. He was at the bat- tle of Perryville, Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge, Kenesaw Mountain and the Atlanta campaign, taking part in the march to the sea. He was wounded at the battle of Perryville. At the close of the war he took part in the grand review at Washington, D. C. He then enlisted in Company A, Thirty-sixth United States infantry. His command was assigned to the west and for a long time guarded the engineers, who were surveying for the Union Pacific Railroad. He was in this service from Cheyenne, Wyoming, to Ogden, Utah. Mr. Glandon was sergeant of his company and in that capacity a great deal of service and much responsibility came within the scope of his duties. He recalls having made a trip across the wild section of the country, which was infested with hostile Indians, to a telegraph station, with a small detail of men. It was agreed among the soldiers that in case they were surrounded by the Indians, that each man should save one bullet for himself rather than be captured by the Indians. Such was the hazardous nature of the service which the soldiers on the frontier confronted in the early days.
At the expiration of his term of enlistment in the army, Mr. Glandon entered the employ of the Union Pacific Railway as bridge watchman at Granger, Wyoming. In 1870 he returned east to visit his parents and
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remained there from June until October, when he came to Kansas City, Missouri, and entered the employ of the Missouri Pacific Railroad as yard man. While thus employed he met with an accident in June, 1871, by which he lost a part of his left foot. He began the study of teleg- raphy and in 1872 came to Raymore as station agent for the Missouri Pacific Railroad, which afterwards became the St. Louis, Lawrence and Western, and is now the Kansas City, Clinton and Springfield. Mr. Glan- don has held this position continuously until the present time. From 1872 to 1884, he took care of both the Raymore and Belton offices. When he came here, Raymore was just about in its initial stage. There was only one store, which was conducted by T. B. Hanna, and the surround- ing country was one broad expanse of unbroken prairie.
Mr. Glandon was married in 1878 to Miss Eliza Kanaga, a daughter of F. C. Kanaga, and to this union was born one son, Clyde Campbell, who is practicing law at 644 Minnesota street, Kansas City, Kansas. Mr. Glandon's wife died in 1881. In 1885 he was married to Josephine Hun- ter, daughter of Jacob S. and Rebecca Hunter, and the following children were born to this union: Roy Alfred, who is in the employ of the Federal Reserve Bank, Kansas City, Missouri; and R. H., now enlisted in signal service, Raymore, Missouri; and Ross Osborn, who was born June 22, 1900, and died April 29, 1904.
When Major Glandon came to Raymore, the depot was used as a sort of a community hall. During his first years here church services and Sunday school were held in the depot. Rev. W. C. Breckenridge was the first preacher. Elections, funerals, and frequently political meetings were held in the depot.
Mr. Glandon is a republican and at one time was his party's can- didate for county recorder. He has served two terms as collector of. Raymore township and has been a member of the school board for a number of terms. He is a member of Masonic lodge and has been secre- tary and master of the local lodge for a number of years. He is one of the substantial men of Cass County.
Wesley King, a Civil War veteran and pioneer of western Missouri, is a native of Ohio. He was born in Gallia County, Ohio, in 1840, and is a son of Newell and Clarisa (Durst) King. He was reared on a farm and educated in the public schools of his native state.
When the great Civil War broke out, he had almost reached the age of maturity. In 1862 he enlisted in Company B, Ninety-first Ohio
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infantry and served for three years. He was at the battle of Cedar Creek, Fisher's Hill, Stephens' Station, Cloyd Mountain and numerous other lesser battles and skirmishes. Notwithstanding the fact that his escapes were narrow and numerous, he went through three years of that great conflict without a scar.
When the war was over and Mr. King received his honorable dis- charge, he came to Missouri in 1865, and located in Cass County, where he bought one hundred sixty acres of land, east of Harrisonville. Here he tilled the soil for a number of years when he sold his farm and pur- chased one hundred acres near Greenwood, Missouri, where he made his home and was successfully engaged in farming and stock raising for thirty-four years. In 1893 Mr. King sold his farm and removed to Ray- more, where he bought a comfortable home. There he has since resided.
Mr. King was united in marriage in 1866 to Miss Margaret Cough- enour, a daughter of Jacob and Anna Coughenour, of Ohio. She has been his faithful wife and companion all these years, never complaining about the crude conditions of pioneer life which she found upon coming to the frontier. She adjusted herself to conditions and uncomplainingly made the best of life. She died in 1890. In 1892 Wesley King was married to Elizabeth Rawlson.
When Mr. King was a young man in Ohio, before the war, he and his brother, Newell, purchased a farm, which was the beginning of his independent career. He was the first settler in Cass County from Ohio. Soon afterwards Joseph and John Lasley came and took up their resi- dence in this county. He says that the people were always kind to him here, that they were good neighbors and their kindly interest in him pre- vented him from getting homesick. When he came here, northwestern Cass County was one broad, unfenced plain, used for grazing purposes, but he has lived to see all this changed. Mr. King is proud of the pro- gress which his adopted county has made within the last fifty years.
John M. Graybeal, a prominent pioneer of Cass County and vet- eran of the Civil War, is a native of Ohio. He was born in Logan County, that state, in 1845, and is a son of Andrew and Mary Graybeal, natives of Virginia, who removed from their native state and settled in Ohio about 1832. The family is of German descent. John M. Graybeal was one of a family of seven children born to his parents, three sons and four daugh- ters, and the daughters are all deceased. The sons are: William, now
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deceased ; James, Carthage, Missouri; and John M., the subject of this sketch.
When the Civil War broke out John M. Graybeal enlisted in Com- pany D, Forty-fifth Regiment, Ohio Infantry, August 5, 1862 and was mustered in August 19th. He received his baptism of fire at Cynthiana, Kentucky, September 1st. He participated in over fifty engagements with his company and was in the pursuit and capture of Morgan and with Sherman until the fall of Atlanta. He took part in all the battles con- nected with Hood's advance and the siege of Nashville, Tennessee, includ- ing his defeat, December 15th and 16th, 1864, and was in pursuit of Hood's forces as far as Huntsville, Ala. He never was wounded, but had some very narrow escapes and on one occasion a shell burst so close to him that his face was severely powder burnt and his wife says that it took her years to pick all the powder marks out of his face. He was captured on October 20, 1863, at New Philadelphia, East Tennessee, by Longstreet's men, and after spending six months at Belle Island and other prisons around Richmond, he was exchanged April 16, 1864, at City Point.
At the close of the war he was at Bull's Gap, Virginia, and after he was honorably discharged and mustered out of the service, he returned to his Ohio home and attended school for a time. He says the first money which he earned was as a farm hand at $8.00 per month. In 1878, he came to Missouri and settled on a farm in Raymore township, Cass County, where he now resides. He has been engaged in farming and stock raising and has been successful.
When Mr. Graybeal came to Raymore there was scarcely any town there and the country was sparsely settled and was one great limitless stretch of prairie, and in going to Pleasant Hill or other places there were no laid-out roads but merely a main traveled trail, without any regard to section lines. There were no fences around the homes of the early settlers nor elsewhere and the cattle grazed right up to the very doors and children had to be watched to keep the cattle from trampling upon them. The first night that the Graybeals spent in their Raymore home a rain storm came up and as the roof was not completed, they had to resort to the protection of umbrellas. Their first winter here was one of the real old fashioned early day winters that we sometimes hear about. The snow was thirty inches deep at one time. Timber was scarce in the early days and Mr. Graybeal hauled his wood from Big creek, a distance of several miles.
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Mr. Graybeal was married in 1867 to Miss Isabella Collins, a daugh- ter of Burrell S. and Margaret Collins. Mrs. Graybeal has one sister, Mrs. Mary C. Brown of Bellefontaine, Ohio. To Mr. and Mrs. Gray- beal have been born the following children: Wilbert Owen, Kansas City, Missouri; Mrs. Mary L. Craig, Kansas City, Missouri; Mrs. Mar- garet E. Shipley, Raymore, Missouri; John B., Montesano, Washington ; Mrs. Ella B. Lawson, Raymore, Missouri; C. Ernest, deceased; Curtis C., Bellingham, Washington; Orville L., Aurora, Missouri; and Mrs. Lola M. Peck, Chambers, Washington. C. Ernest Graybeal was one of Cass County's boys who enlisted in Company E, Fifth Missouri Infantry, dur- ing the Spanish-American War. He was taken sick at Chickamauga, and came home with his regiment. He had a relapse November 5, 1898 and died December 14, 1898.
Mr. and Mrs. Graybeal have a pleasant home and rank among the representative and substantial citizens of Cass County.
Samuel Lavelock, a prosperous farmer and stockman of Mt. Pleasant township, was born in Texas in 1857. He is a son of T. N. and Dorcus (Shoup) Lavelock, the former a native of Ireland and the latter was born in Ohio. T. N. Lavelock and Dorcus Shoup were married in San- gamon County, Illinois. Dorcus Shoup was a daughter of Jacob Shoup, of German and English lineage. T. N. and Dorcus Lavelock were the parents of the following children. Joseph, Richmond, Missouri; Alex- ander, deceased; T. N., Richmond, Missouri; Samuel, the subject of this sketch; G. W., Richmond, Missouri; and Mrs. Mary Stapp, Richmond, Missouri. The parents are both now deceased.
Samuel Lavelock came from Texas with his parents when a mere child. The family settled in Ray County, Missouri, where the father was engaged in farming until the time of his death. Samuel remained on the home farm until he was twenty-three years old, when he went to Wilson County, Kansas, where he engaged in the cattle business. He pastured large numbers of cattle, which he sold direct from the pasture. He soon found that the winters were too severe to conduct the cattle business on that plan, and returned to Ray County, Missouri, and bought one hundred and sixty acres of land. In 1904 he returned to Missouri, settling near Peculiar, Cass County. Here Mr. Lavelock was engaged in general farming and stock raising until 1909, when he bought eighty acres of land, one-half mile south of Belton, where he has since been
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engaged in general farming and stock raising. He makes a specialty of grade Shorthorn calves, which he sells when they are about six months old. Mr. Lavelock finds this to be a very profitable and interesting branch of the stock business. He also keeps about twenty head of cows. His place is well adapted for the stock business, being well watered and much of it kept in condition for grazing land.
Mr. Lavelock was married in 1877 to Miss Cora T. Yates, a daughter of Capt. J. T. Yates, of St. Joseph, Missouri, who died in 1863. Mrs. Lavelock is the only surviving member of the Yates family. Her father, Captain Yates, was a Kentuckian and belonged to a prominent pioneer family of that state, of German and Irish descent, and was a minister. Captain Yates was a captain in the Confederate army and served through- out the Civil War. He was a brave soldier, a capable and resourceful officer, and won distinction on many a field of battle. Captain Yates was wounded thirteen times during his military career. He was a loyal friend, a good neighbor, and had many friends.
Mr. and Mrs. Lavelock have one child, Ralph, who is engaged in farming and stock raising, near Harrisonville. The Lavelocks are well known and highly respected in the community.
F. R. Twente, a substantial farmer and stockman of Raymore town- ship, is a native of Missouri. He was born in St. Charles County in 1859 and is a son of Henry and Elizabeth (Hinnah) Twente, natives of Germany, who immigrated to America in the early fifties, making the voy- age in one of the old-time sailing vessels of that day. The family first located in St. Louis, Missouri, where the father worked at his trade, which was that of a tailor, for about twenty-five years. He then removed to LaFayette County, Missouri and bought a farm, which he later sold. He went to Jackson County and bought another farm consisting of two hundred forty acres, where he spent the remainder of his life. Henry Twente died in 1887. He was a successful farmer and stockman and at the time of his death was in comfortable circumstances. He was a man who stood for a square deal. He loved his home and family. His great- est pleasure was in making his family happy. He was a life-long mem- ber of the German Evangelical church. His wife, the mother of the subject of this sketch, was a daughter of Henry Hinnah, of a highly respectable German family, who for generations have been tillers of the soil.
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F. R. Twente is one of the following children born to his parents : Mrs. Mary Schemmer, Bone Hill, Missouri; F. R., the subject of this sketch; Herman, deceased ; Mrs. Eliza Schemmer, who lives in Oklahoma; William, who resides in Missouri; and Mrs. Minnie Welter, who resides in Missouri.
Mr. Twente began his career as a farmer in LaFayette County, where he bought a farm in 1885. There he made his home for twenty- five years and met with success. When he came to Cass County he located in Raymore township, where he has since been engaged in farming and stock raising. He makes a specialty of white-faced cattle and keeps about fifteen cows of that breed. He is also quite an extensive breeder of full blood Duroc-Jersey hogs. Since boyhood Mr. Twente has been of an industrial and thrifty turn. He made his first money by investing in hogs, for which he received one hundred and fifty dollars. This was the beginning of his successful career. The Twente farm in Raymore township is one of the fertile and productive farms in that section. It is well watered and in all its appointments is well fitted for profitable stock raising. The place is well improved with general farm buildings and fences, Mr. Twente having built a nine-room modern house in 1910.
In 1885 Mr. Twente was united in marriage with Miss Mary Woeste- meyer, a daughter of H. H. Woestemeyer of LaFayette, Missouri. The following children were born to this union: John, Baxter Springs, Kan- sas ; Mrs. Ella Meinershagen, Belton, Missouri; Milton, Belton, Missouri ; Laura, Belton, Missouri; and Vera, Belton, Missouri. The Twente family have an extensive acquaintance in northwestern Cass County, where they have many friends. Mr. Twente is one of Cass County's representative citizens.
William Downing, a Cass County pioneer who has spent a half cen- tury of his life in Missouri, is a native of Lake County, Ohio, and is a son of William and Eliza (Simmons) Downing. William Downing was a resi- dent of Vermont and settled in northern Ohio at an early day.
In 1867 William Downing, the subject of this sketch, came to Mis- souri, locating in Jackson County near Lees Summit on a quarter section of land. Later he added eighty acres which he purchased from Senator Johnson. This was a new country at that time, the broad limitless prairie was in its native state and wild cattle roamed over the plains. Mr. Down- ing broke prairie and proceeded to improve his place and gradually get
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into the stock business giving special attention to raising hogs. His first investment in the stock business was in a sow and twelve pigs and this family of pigs and their descendants netted him over a thousand dollars within a few years. He bought and fed cattle extensively which he sold at a considerable increase in price as well as in weight when they were prepared for the market. He bought cattle as low as two dollars and fifteen cents per hundred and in a short time sold them for four dollars.
Mr. Downing has a distinct recollection of the devastation wrought by the grasshoppers in 1874, and during that season, after the grass- hoppers had vanished, he raised one hundred and twenty acres of corn and that year sold nineteen hundred bushels for twenty-one cents a bushel. He has bought corn for twelve and one-half cents a bushel. In the early days his nearest market place was a general store at High Blue. When he came to Missouri there was not a single free school in the State, and his wife's sister, Mary Campbell, taught a subscription school at his home.
Mr. Downing remembers when the present site of Belton was a broad stretch of prairie with not a house within the limits of the horizon, and when Kansas City was a mere village. He knew the Dalton boys well and they frequently visited at his place, and he says they were about like other boys, and apparently, not destined to become notorious characters in years to come. Later circumstances and events, perhaps, had something to do with shaping their destiny.
In 1861 Mr. Downing was married to Miss Abbie Campbell, a native of Ohio, and the following children were born to this union: Clifford, Belton; Mrs. Sarah Harrison, Belton; Mrs. Lida Burns and Mrs. Cora Jones, the former residing in Oklahoma and the latter in California. Mr. Downing is one of the interesting pioneers of western Missouri. He has been a close observer all his life and possesses a valuable knowledge of the early history of this section and has a keen insight into the affairs of the world.
George J. Evans, one of the leading farmers and stockmen of Cass County, belongs to a prominent pioneer family of this County. He was born in Raymore township in 1870 and is a son of William N. and Eliza- beth (Yost) Evans. William N. Evans was of Scotch Irish descent and a very early settler in Missouri, coming to this State in 1843. He came to Cass County and settled on a farm of one hundred sixty acres in Ray-
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more township in 1868, where he was successfully engaged in farming and stock raising during the remainder of his life. Mr. Evans added more land to his original purchase until he owned two hundred eighty acres. He was not only successful in his private affairs but was prominent in the organization of Raymore township and an influential factor in the early development of Cass County. During the course of his career he held practically every office in Raymore township at one time or another. He was one of the prime movers in cleaning up the old bonded indebted- ness of the township at a considerable saving. He died in 1909 at the close of a successful career and not only his immediate family but hun- dreds of friends and acquaintances in the county mourned his death. They appreciated how much his death was their loss and, as a testimonial of the esteem in which he was held, his funeral was the largest attended of any ever held in Cass County. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Elizabeth Yost, was a daughter of George and Mary Yost, Kentuckians, who were pioneer settlers in Missouri, coming to this State in 1852.
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