USA > Missouri > Cass County > History of Cass County, Missouri > Part 71
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that state in 1900. They were the parents of four children, as follows: Caroline Wellman, died at Cornish, New Hampshire, in September, 1913; Erastus Barton Powers, died at Malden, Massachusetts, in February, 1914; Alice V., the subject of this sketch; and Samuel L. Powers, of Newton, Massachusetts.
Mrs. Randell was educated at Kimball Union Academy and taught several terms of school at Cornish, New Hampshire. She first came to Cass County in 1870 and taught one term of school at Clearfork School House, Index township. George Clark, now deceased; William Summer- well, and John Walton, were directors of that district then. She was married May 29, 1872, to Nathaniel Randell, at Cornish, New Hamp- shire, and they came directly to Cass County.
Mr. Randell was born in Seneca County, Ohio, in 1837. His parents were William and Eunice (Crockett) Randell. He first came to Cooper County, Missouri, in 1865, and to Cass County in 1867, and first met Mrs. Randell when she was teaching school in 1870. The Randells set- tled on Mrs. Randell's present farm in 1872. Mr. Randell traded land in Cooper County for this place, and at the time of his death he owned two hundred eighty acres of valuable land, which are still owned by his widow and daughter. He was engaged in general farming during his entire life in Missouri. The farm is situated six miles northeast of Gar- den City.
Nathaniel Randell was a veteran of the Civil War and served in the One Hundred and Sixty-fourth Ohio Infantry. He was a guard at Wash- ington, D. C. He died May 9, 1916, and his remains are buried in Gar- den City Cemetery. Mr. and Mrs. Randell were the parents of two chil- dren, one of whom died in infancy. The other, Edith V., was born on the home place and resides with her mother.
Mrs. Randell is a member of the Baptist church at Garden City, as was also her husband. They were formerly members of that denomina- tion at Index. There were at that time three churches at Index-Bap- tist, Christian and Methodist. Both Mrs. Randell and her daughter are cultured women.
Mrs. Randell is a descendant of a prominent New England family. Erastus Barton Powers was, up to the time of his death, in 1914, one of the foremost lawyers of Boston, Massachusetts. He was a graduate of Kimball Union Academy, class of 1860, of Dartmouth College, class of 1865, and of Harvard Law School, class of 1867. He was admitted to the bar January 27, 1867.
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Samuel L. Powers, a brother of Mrs. Randell, of Newton, Massa- chusetts, represented the Eleventh Massachusetts District in Congress for two terms, declining a third nomination. He was a member of a spe- cial committee of five, appointed in 1903, to draw up the anti-trust law. In January, 1910, President Taft appointed him justice of the Customs Court of Appeals of the United States, which appointment he declined. In 1906 he was elected a life trustee of Dartmouth College, and he has always taken a deep interest in educational matters.
H. M. Dodd and wife are an honored pioneer couple who have lived in Cass County since 1868, and have reared a family of sons and daugh- ters of whom any parents should be proud. Both Mr. and Mrs. Dodd were born in Wayne County, Ohio, in 1833. Mr. Dodd was born Novem- ber fourth, of that year, and Mrs. Dodd on November 10th. Mr. Dodd's father was David Dodd, a native of Virginia, and his mother, who bore the maiden name of Mary Pyle, was a native of Pennsylvania. H. M. Dodd was one of a family of ten children, all of whom are dead but two. H. S., died in Arkansas; Marion died in Ohio; H. M., of whom this sketch is written; D. P., living in Caldwell, Idaho; Harry, died at Independence, Kansas; and John, Mary, Samuel, Thomas, and Anna, all of whom are deceased.
H. M. Dodd received his education in the district schools of Ohio and at Glenn Academy, Haynesville, Ohio. His occupation for a number of years was stock raising. He came to Cass County in 1868, purchasing two hundred acres of unimproved land, at a time when prairie land was selling from five to twelve dollars an acre, and rented a home until he built a small three-room house. At present his farm contains one hun- dred four acres, and is well improved. On it is a barn, 50x56 feet, built in 1896, and a nine-room house, built in 1894. The Dodd farm is situated five miles northeast of Garden City, in Index township, and is one of the valuable farms of that township.
Mr. Dodd was united in marriage with Miss Margaret Swart, in Wayne County, Ohio. She is a daughter of Henry and Mary (Langell) Swart, of Wayne County. Mr. and Mrs. Dodd are the parents of four children. They are Arthur Adrian, assistant principal of the Kansas City, Missouri, Manual Training School; Eugene Emmet, principal of the high school at Springfield, Missouri; Mrs. Ida L. Quick, living near Quick City, Johnson County, Missouri, and who was a teacher at Holden College
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prior to her marriage; and Dr. C. S. Dodd, a well-known physician, of Dayton, Missouri, a sketch of whom appears in this volume.
At the advanced age of eighty-three, both Mr. and Mrs. Dodd are able to do the regular work about the house and farm, and Mr. Dodd can perform the unusual task, for one of his years, of reading without glasses.
Mrs. Dodd owns an interesting family heirloom in the form of a Seth Thomas clock, which was bought in 1849 by her mother, Mary Swart, of Blatchleyville, Ohio, and cost thirteen dollars. After Mrs. Swart's death, the clock was sent to Mrs. Dodd, by whom it is highly valued. It still runs and keeps good time, despite its sixty-eight years of service. It is a one day clock with a metal weight.
Leonidas B. Pulliam, a native son of Cass County, and a member of one of the oldest pioneer families of this county, was born in the home where he now lives, March 19, 1880. He is a son of Augustin S. and Adeline (Priddy) Pulliam. The father was born in Kentucky, January 2, 1813, and came to Cass County in 1837, settling two miles east of Dayton. In 1839 he moved to the present home of Leonidas Pulliam, and the house in which the latter lives being built that year. The mother of Leonidas Pulliam was a native of Tennessee, and was born May 27, 1838. She was the second wife of Augustin Pulliam, and there were seven children by this marriage, four of whom are living, as follows: Benjamin F., at Porterly, New Mexico; B. P., a farmer of Austin town- ship; W. B., living on home farm; and Leonidas B., the subject of this sketch.
Augustin Pulliam's first wife was Parmelia Martin. There were fourteen children by that marriage and four of those are now living, as follows: Joseph, Bates County, Missouri; Margaret Woolery, Garden City, Missouri; Mrs. Catherine Porter, Nevada, Missouri, and Mrs. Mary Gloyd, Dayton, Missouri. Augustin Pulliam was a pioneer farmer and stock raiser of Cass County. He did his trading at Pleasant Hill before Dayton was started, and in those days carried wool to the carding mill on horseback. He died January 2, 1890, and was buried on the home farm. His widow now lives in Austin. The Pulliam house is probably the oldest house in the county. The farm at present contains two hun- dred and seventy-two acres, and is one of the valuable farms of Cass County.
On December 27, 1902, Leonidas Pulliam was united in marriage
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with Anna Lee Smiley, of Dayton township. She is a daughter of the late Isaac Newton and Lucy Alice (Woolery) Smiley. The Smileys were also early settlers in Cass County, coming here prior to the Civil War and located in Austin township. Mr. Smiley died in 1885, and is buried in Connelly Cemetery, and Mrs. Smiley now lives in Austin township with her daughter, Blanche Smiley.
Mr. and Mrs. Pulliam have four children now living, as follows: Ortha Lee, Lucy Opal, Leonidas B., Jr., and Anna May. Mr. Pulliam pursues the quiet, even tenor of a prosperous farmer's life. He is pro- gressive and public spirited and to such men as him, Cass County owes its leading rank among the political subdivisions of the great State of Missouri.
James P. Buckley, a leading farmer and stockman of Index township, of the firm of James P. Buckley & Sons, proprietors of "Sunny Valley Stock Farm", was born in Nicholas County, Kentucky, in 1865. His father was Edward Buckley, of Kentucky, born in 1833, and died in Cass County in March, 1889. His mother was Elizabeth Bishop before her marriage, and she was born in Kentucky in 1840 and died in August, 1910.
Edward Buckley and wife came to Missouri in 1867 and located five miles northeast of Garden City, in Index township. They then bought forty acres of land and later added eighty acres more. The last pur- chase forms part of the present farm of James P. Buckley.
In early life Edward Buckley was a cooper, but he followed farming as an occupation during his life in Missouri. He and his wife were the parents of five children, as follows: Sarah Jane, deceased; Cordelia Belle, married Alonzo Sterling, who is at present chaplain of the State Penitentiary, Jefferson City; William H., Sedalia, Missouri, solicitor for the Sedalia Sentinel; James P., the subject of this sketch; and Tura Alice, who died at the age of two years.
James Buckley attended school at Schuyler School House, Index township, and remained at his father's home until he was twenty-one. He then moved to his present home and engaged in farming and stock raising. Every tree and building on the place was placed there by him. The house was built in 1892, one barn in 1893, another in 1901, and a third in 1907. A silo, 14x28 feet, was built in 1913.
The Buckley farm is located two and a half miles northeast of Gar- den City. He has forty acres of English blue grass, which has been profitable both for seed and pasture.
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There are four good springs on the place, the water from which is piped into cement troughs, thus furnishing a good drinking supply for the stock. One pool is ten feet deep, fourteen feet wide, and twenty- seven feet long. It is built with cement walls and a slate bottom. It has never been dry but once. This pool is in the east eighty acres. A cement trough outside, connected by a pipe, makes an excellent drinking place. The Buckleys have always been "boosters" for fine live stock, as their neighbors will testify.
Mr. Buckley first handled saddle and harness horses, jacks, jennets, and mules. He took premiums at the Sedalia State Fair in 1910 and 1911 on saddle mares, mules and jacks. He continues to raise the same kinds of stock, and in addition now raises registered Hereford cattle. His present herd consists of fifty head. The herd is headed by "Adver- tiser XIII", purchased at the Hancock dispersion sale at Kansas City, Missouri, December 21, 1915. Mr. Buckley has also been a breeder of thoroughbred Poland China hogs for the past twenty-five years. He considers twenty-five dollars paid for a Poland China sow the best in- vestment he ever made.
In addition to two hundred and ten acres in Cass County, Mr. Buck- ley's farm includes one hundred twenty acres in Vernon County, one mile east of Howard, on the State Road. The Vernon County land was bought in 1914.
James P. Buckley was married February 16, 1887, to Miss Cora L. Kirtley, a native of Pike County, born in 1865, but living at the time of the marriage in Johnson County, Kansas. She is a daughter of La- fayette and Mary Ann (Dugan) Kirtley. They were natives of Ken- tucky. The mother died in 1870, and Mr. Kirtley in 1890.
To Mr. and Mrs. Buckley have been born three children, all of whom are living, and all were born in Index township. The eldest, Drucy Eliz- abeth, was born December 21, 1887, graduated from Garden City High School, and taught school one year, and is now a music teacher. She married Joseph A. Smith, and lives in Kansas City, Missouri. The sec- ond child, Burney H., was born May 11, 1893, graduated from Garden City High School, in 1909, and is also a graduate of the Central Business College, Sedalia, Missouri. He lives at home and is a business partner of his father. The youngest child is Walter Ovid, born May 7, 1896. He is a student in the public schools and is much interested in music and athletic sports.
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In addition to his farm cares, Mr. Buckley has been an auctioneer for the past eighteen years and is one of the successful auctioneers of this section of the state. During some years he has found this business very profitable.
Dr. Casper Swart Dodd, a prominent physician and surgeon of Day- ton, Missouri, was born at Index, Missouri, on November 10, 1869. He is the son of H. M. and Margaret Swart Dodd of Index township, a sketch of whom appears in this volume, and is the youngest of their four chil- dren. The others are Arthur A., Eugene E., and Mrs. Ida L. Quick.
Dr. Casper S. Dodd received his early education in the public schools of Cass County, and then attended the State Normal School at Warrens- burg, Missouri. After graduating from that institution he entered the Missouri State University at Columbia, Missouri. He pursued his studies there for two years, when he entered the University Medical College of Kansas City, Missouri, where he was graduated in 1901, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. Later he took a post-graduate course at the Cook County Medical College, at Chicago, Illinois.
After receiving his degree, Dr. Dodd practiced his profession for a time in Johnson County, Missouri. In 1907 he located at Dayton, Mis- souri, where he has built up a satisfactory practice in that thriving town and vicinity.
Dr. Dodd was married February 15, 1905, to Miss Amy Wagner, daughter of Henry W. and Lucy (Rogers) Wagner, of Dayton township, and three children have been born to this union, as follows: Henry Mor- gan, Rose Elizabeth, and Lucy Margaret.
Dr. Dodd is a very capable physician and has an excellent practice. He is progressive, public spirited and ranks as one of Cass County's rep- resentative members of the great medical profession.
Richard G. Payne, a native son of Cass County, was born in what is now Index township, April 27, 1845. He is a son of E. S. and Harriet (Boatright) Payne. The father is a native of Kentucky and the mother of Virginia. Mr. Payne's father, well known as "Squire Payne", was born in Kentucky in 1809. He came to Boone County, Missouri, in 1837, and to Cass County in the spring of 1839. He located where afterwards stood the town of Index, and he laid out the town site in 1856-57. Rich- ard G. was with the surveying party and recalls that there were about
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seven and one-half acres in the town site. The town at one time had two stores, a blacksmith shop, and three churches. The old timers used to attend the church services and came with ox teams and on mules for miles around. Index never had a saloon, owing to the sentiment of the pioneers who, although they generally kept liquor in their houses for medicinal purposes, opposed its use even in the early days as a beverage.
E. S. Payne died in 1875 and his wife departed this life in 1877. They were the parents of seven children, as follows: Mary Catherine, married George Vinson, and they are both now deceased; William H., deceased ; Jane Elizabeth Holcombe, Mrs. Sythe Armstrong, Garden City, Missouri ; Richard G., the subject of this sketch; Sallie P., married Dr. York, and resides in St. Petersburg, Florida; and Jacob, living in Los Angeles, Cali- fornia.
Richard G. Payne is a representative of that sturdy type of plainsman that is fast passing into history. Born and reared amongst the crudities and hardships of pioneer life, he grew to manhood amidst the bloody tur- moil of the Civil War, and seeking fame, fortune and adventure in an over- land journey to the Pacific Coast, when the prairie schooner was the only means of transportation and the Indian was the traveller's deadly enemy, he made the trip.
He received his education in an old log school house with a puncheon floor, and split logs for seats. The Civil War ended his education insofar as schooling was concerned, but he has always been a student of men and affairs. During that war he served six months in Colonel Cockerell's reg- iment, and participated in the battles of Lonejack, Missouri, and Prairie Grove, Arkansas.
The Paynes went to Boone county in 1863 on account of Order No. 11, and in 1864 Richard G. crossed the plains to California. The party he was with went by way of Omaha and North Platte, Nebraska. Indians were bad then, but their wagon train was not molested, although they had some narrow escapes. A train of one hundred wagons travelling one day ahead of them, was attacked and a number of its horses were taken.
Mr. Payne was gone from Missouri about six years, part of which time he spent in Utah, Wyoming, and Idaho. He returned to Cass County in 1870, and was married to Mary Arnold, then of Benton County. She was a native of Summit County, Ohio, and came to Benton County with her parents in 1866. She is the daughter of Jeremiah and Harriet (Sick- ly) Arnold, both of whom are now deceased.
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Mrs. Payne had seven brothers and sisters, six of whom are now living: Samuel Arnold, Sedalia, Missouri; Ella, deceased; Augustus, Se- dalia, Missouri; Jerry, Kansas City, Missouri; Mrs. Nannie O'Bannon, Holden, Missouri; Minta, Warsaw, Missouri; and Charles, Sedalia.
To Mr. and Mrs. Payne have been born seven children, as follows: Mrs. Media Guinn, Warrensburg, Missouri; Mrs. Alta Winslow, Canadian, Texas; Mrs. Taney Cuddy, Kansas City, Missouri; Dick, Garden City, Missouri; Mrs. Mildred Boggers, Garden City, Missouri; Mrs. Mary Goode, Garden City; and John, living on the home place.
Every tree, house and building on the prairies surrounding Index has been placed there during Mr. Payne's lifetime. He has set out five different orchards himself. The first trading points of the Paynes in the early days, were Lexington and Independence. They travelled back and forth with ox teams, carrying bacon to trade. Mr. Payne is truly one of the pioneers of Cass County who has contributed his share to making "Old Cass" one of Missouri's greatest political subdivisions.
S. J. Hartzler, a prosperous farmer and stockman of Camp Branch township, is a native of Indiana. He was born in LaGrange County, April 23, 1868, and is a son of Benjamin and Nancy (Nopsinger) Hartz- ler, both natives of Wayne County, Ohio. The father was born in 1835, and in early life removed to Indiana. In 1881 he migrated from that state with his family to Missouri, settling near East Lynne, Cass County. Here he rented a farm two and one-half miles north of town, and later bought a farm four miles south of Pleasant Hill, where he was success- fully engaged in farming and stock raising until his death, in 1903. His remains are buried in Clearfork Cemetery, and his widow now resides at East Lynne. They were the parents of the following children: Simon P., East Lynne; Lizzie Hartzler, East Lynne; Levi F., died September 11, 1913, and his remains are buried in the Oakland Cemetery, Harrison- ville; Christian V., deceased, and his remains are buried in the Clear- fork Cemetery; Samuel J., the subject of this sketch; Noah D., Harri- sonville, Missouri; William H., Pleasant Hill; Mrs. Mattie Myers, Milton, Kansas; Harvey B., Peculiar, Missouri; and Carrie, died in Indiana at the age of two years.
Samuel J. Hartzler received his education in the public schools of Cass County, and began life for himself at the age of twenty-one. He clerked in a store at Harrisonville for one year, and for seven years
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he was in a general store at East Lynne, and clerked in a store at Pe- culiar for about three years. In 1907 he bought his present farm in Camp Branch township. He owns a valuable farm of one hundred twenty acres, three miles west and one mile north of Garden City, which was formerly the Norman Shepp farm. Mr. Hartzler has improved his place considerably within the last ten years. He has remodeled his residence, and in 1913 built a large barn, and the following year erected a silo, and now has one of the well-improved places of Camp Branch township. His soil is rich and productive and under a very good state of cultivation. He is a successful stockman and gives special attention to raising pure- blood Poland China hogs.
Mr. Hartzler was married March 1, 1893, to Miss Aldula Lummis, a daughter of William and Sarah (Powell) Lummis, of Polk township. The Lummis family came to Cass County from Illinois in 1877, and first settled in Grand River township, south of Harrisonville. Later they bought a place in Polk township, where the father died in 1901, and is buried in Staley Mound Cemetery. The mother now lives at East Lynne. Mrs. Hartzler is the fourth in order of birth of six children born to her parents, the others being as follows: Mrs. Anna Leatherman, Pleasant Hill, Missouri; Mrs. Rosa Belle McMichael, deceased; Joseph P. Lummis, Harrisonville; William R. Lummis, Akron, Colorado; Mrs. Maude Sloan, Waldo, Kansas.
To Mr. and Mrs. Hartzler have been born the following children: Mrs. Mabel Cowger, Peculiar, Missouri; Mrs. Gladys Maude Starks, Gar- den City ; Clarence Samuel, Lena Nancy, and Velma Berneta, all of whom reside at home.
Mr. Hartzler takes a keen interest in the local affairs in his town and county, and the Hartzler family is well known and rank among the substantial representative people of Cass County.
D. M. Gregg, of Peculiar township, near Harrisonville, is not only a leading Cass County breeder of pure blood Shorthorn cattle and Poland China hogs, but ranks as one of the prominent breeders of the west. Mr. Gregg is a capable business man and knows the breeding business. The story of his progress is best told in the "Farmer and Stockman" under date of November 16, 1916, which gives a very good idea of the scope, extent, and marvelous development of Mr. Gregg's breeding business:
Mr. Gregg is a young man who was born in Joplin, Missouri. While
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his father owned land south of Joplin, as well as elsewhere in the state, Mr. Gregg never lived on the farm until after he had finished high school and college courses. Then, because of his natural love for the farm, he moved onto his father's ranch near Joplin and began raising registered Poland China hogs. Here he also raised grade cattle and fed steers for the market. He was very successful in the hog raising business and in the course of a number of years accumulated some money.
In 1909 he traded some mining property for a 520-acre farm in Cass County-the farm on which he now lives-and to which he added one hundred sixty acres more in 1914, so that his holdings now amount to six hundred eighty acres in all. Mr. Gregg built a strictly modern home on the farm and moved his family there. Having already estab- lished a reputation as a breeder of first-class Poland Chinas, he continued in the hog raising business, raised corn, wheat, oats and clover, and a good many grade cattle. Always having been a believer in clover, a large acreage of this was grown from year to year with a view of getting the farm in a high state of cultivation and in this he has succeeded remark- ably well. The hog business grew and was reasonably profitable. After Mr. Gregg realized that he fully understood how to produce as well as sell registered hogs and saw how much more profitable they were than common stock, he began to figure on substituting registered cattle for his grade cattle, reasoning that if pure bred hogs were more profitable than common hogs, pure bred cattle must also be more profitable than grade cattle: If that were the case, then why not expend his efforts along the lines of greatest profit?
Shorthorns were his favorite cattle, but how was he to get a start? He understood Poland China pedigree perfectly and know the value of the different blood lines of that breed, but of Shorthorn pedigree he knew little or nothing. He could tell a good animal from a poor one; in fact, he always had been a good judge of animal form, but in a business where blood lines-pedigree-mean so much he was afraid to risk his own judg- ment on the start. After giving the matter of buying foundation stock a good deal of consideration a plan gradually unfolded itself, that of seeing a large number of Shorthorn herds and of visiting with the older breeders for the double purpose of getting clearly in mind what type of cattle he wanted and to learn as much as possible about handling a pure bred herd from those who were in position to give information from experience. Nor was this all. Mr. Gregg, considering himself a
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competent judge to pick the kind of cattle he thought he wanted, per- suaded a friend of his, who is a well-posted man on Shorthorn pedigrees as well as a good judge of individual Shorthorn cattle, to accompany him on his tour of investigation. Thus many herds were visited and critically examined and notes taken of the sale stock in each, but not an animal was purchased until after a certain number of farms had been visited and a sort of inventory had been taken of the good cattle in a great many herds. In other words, over fifteen hundred head of registered Short- horns were carefully examined before a single individual was bought.
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