History of Clay and Platte Counties, Missouri : written and compiled from the most authentic official and private sources, including a history of their townships, towns, and villages, together with a condensed history of Missouri; a reliable and detailed history of Clay and Platte Counties --their pioneer record, resources, biographical sketches of prominent citizens., Part 30

Author:
Publication date: 1885
Publisher: St. Louis : National Historical Co.
Number of Pages: 1156

USA > Missouri > Platte County > History of Clay and Platte Counties, Missouri : written and compiled from the most authentic official and private sources, including a history of their townships, towns, and villages, together with a condensed history of Missouri; a reliable and detailed history of Clay and Platte Counties --their pioneer record, resources, biographical sketches of prominent citizens. > Part 30
USA > Missouri > Clay County > History of Clay and Platte Counties, Missouri : written and compiled from the most authentic official and private sources, including a history of their townships, towns, and villages, together with a condensed history of Missouri; a reliable and detailed history of Clay and Platte Counties --their pioneer record, resources, biographical sketches of prominent citizens. > Part 30

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HON. DEWITT C. ALLEN

(Liberty).

DeWitt C. Allen was born November 11, 1835, in Clay county, Missouri, and with the exception of a few brief intervals has passed his life in that county. His family is of English-Welsh extraction, and has been settled in America more than a century and a half, and his parents were persons of education and refinement. His father Col. Shubael Allen, was a native of Orange county, New York, whence he emigrated to Kentucky in 1816, and thence to Missouri in 1817, and finally settled in Clay county in 1820. His mother, Miss Dinah Ayres Trigg, was a daughter of Gen. Stephen Trigg, of Bedford county, Virginia, who emigrated to Kentucky near the close of the last century, and thence to Howard county, Missouri, in 1818. She was born in Estill county, Kentucky.

When Mr. Allen was five years old his father died, and he passed entirely under the influence and training of his mother - a woman of excellent judgment, fine literary taste, cheerful disposition, the most delicate sentiments of honor and integrity, and in every way fitted for the discharge of the duties devolved upon her. In tempera- ment he is more like his father, but his character was molded by his mother. To her encouragement and advice he attributes mainly his achievements in life.

By mental constitution he was a student and lover of books, and

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HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY.

his taste for study was strengthened by example. His historical and miscellaneous reading began at eleven years of age, and has been pur- sued with system and regularity. Before the completion of his thir- teenth year, among other works, he had read all of Scott's novels.

In 1850, having previously received the benefit of excellent private schools, held, however, at irregular intervals, he entered William Jewell College, and was there graduated in 1855 with the first hon- ors in the classics and belles lettres. His grade in mathematics was somewhat lower. His taste originally at college was for the mathe- matics, but as his acquaintance with the classics increased his fondness for mathematics became less strong. Having completed his col- legiate course he accepted the position of principal of the preparatory department of the Masonic College at Lexington, Missouri, which he filled for a year to the entire satisfaction of the curators and patrons of that institution. He accounts the reminiscences of his stay at Lex- ington as among the most agreeable in his life. Society there was at the height of its brilliance and charm. The people, as ever, were hospitable and courteous, and he bears with him only memories of kindness and encouragement received from them. His previous life had been one of study and seclusion, and his experiences of society and the world were slight. Of the many persons there to whom he feels indebted for kind offices, he especially remembers his friends, Charles R. Morehead, Sr. (now deceased ), and Mrs. William H. Rus- sell. During the year succeeding his connection with the Masonic College he devoted himself to those historical and special studies (suggested to him by his friend, Col. Alexander W. Doniphan) which are considered by legal gentlemen as a proper introduction to the comprehensive study of the law, which he had chosen while at college as the profession of his life. From the summer of 1858 to May, 1860, he pursued his legal studies in the office of the late Rich- ard R. Rees, Esq., in Leavenworth, Kansas. Occasionally during that period he assisted Mr. Rees in the trial of cases in order to acquire familiarity with the procedure in the courts. He recognizes his obligations to the advice and suggestions of Mr. Rees as being very great, particularly in the specialities of pleading, conveyancing and the drafting of orders, judgments and decrees. In May, 1860, he returned to his home in Liberty, Missouri, and began the practice of law. Since then he has devoted himself exclusively to the work of his profession. In November, 1860, he was elected circuit attorney of the Fifth Judicial Circuit of Missouri, composed of the counties of Clay, Clinton, Caldwell, Ray and Carroll. He discharged the duties of that office with fidelity and promptness until December 17, 1861, when, under the operation of an ordinance of the convention of that year, prescribing an oath testing the loyalty of officers, it became va- cant in consequence of his refusal to take the oath. He was married May 18, 1864, to Miss Emily E. Settle, of Ray county, Missouri, daughter of Hiram P. Settle, Esq., of that county. She was born in Culpeper county, Virginia. They have three children.

During the years 1866-67 he was general attorney of the Kansas

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HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY.

City and Cameron Railroad Company - now known as the Kansas City branch of the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad - and in that posi- tion labored assiduously with others to secure its early completion.

He was elected, without opposition, in January, 1875, to represent - in connection with Hon. E. H. Norton - the Third Senatorial District of Missouri, composed of the counties of Clay, Clinton and Platte, in the constitutional convention, called to meet May 5, 1875, and as- sisted in the framing of the present organic law of the State. In that body, composed of many of the ablest and most learned men in the State, he bore himself with ability and won the respect and confidence of its members. At its organization he was appointed a member of the committees on education and the legislative department, and was esteemed in them as an intelligent and indefatigable worker.

Mr. Allen has attained a high and honorable position at the bar. He deals with the law as a science, and sees the logical connection of its principles. He surveys the fields of legal lore with the clear, calm vision of a jurist. He is devoted to our system of jurisprudence be- cause it contains the crystallized thoughts of the best minds of all ages and countries. He is noted for the power of his faculty for analysis, the quickness of his perception of the most remote analogies, the fineness and delicacy of his distinctions, and the rapidity of his detection of inconsistencies in argument. In forensie conflicts he brings into requisition the best materials of law and fact. His posi- tions are always clear, logical and concise. His voice, though not strong, is distinct and penetrating, and his rhetoric faultless. When the occasion demands it, he ascends by easy gradations from the smooth, graceful and conversational style, suited to the courts, to a higher plane of oratory. His manner is earnest, and his ideas form in quick, unbroken succession. But his great power as a speaker is in the elevation of his sentiments, and his rich and sparkling thoughts. Ringing tones, electric fire and aptly chosen words merely form their drapery. He is a cultured, scholarly man. His style, both in speak- ing and writing, is peculiarly his own. He is an independent thinker and derives his information, when practicable, from original sources. He is systematic and exact in all things, and counts as worthless all knowledge that is not accurate. During the vacation of the courts he does not remain idle, but continues in his office engaged in work or investigation. He deals with his clients with the utmost candor. And one of his distinguishing characteristics is fidelity to his friends. He possesses a high sense of honor, and is bold and unyielding in defense of right.

Mr. Allen devotes his periods of leisure to literary reading - his- torical, philosophical, critical and poetical -- but never allows it to infringe upon his professional study or work. He fully recognizes the truth so often urged by the sages of the law, that, of all men, the reading and thought of a lawyer should be the most extended. Sys- tematic and careful study in the higher works of literature - historical, philosophical, critical and poetical - gives freshness, breadth and com- prehensive grasp to the mind, variety and richness of thought, and a

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clearer perception of the motives of men and the principles of things, indeed of the very spirit of laws. Nature has given us both reason and fancy, and they were meant for use. Hence, he argues that the mind should both reason and bloom. Besides, a cultured fancy, guided by severe taste, is a source of invention in argument. He occasionally writes, but only as a matter of amusement or for the gratification of friends. His style of writing is clear, logical, chaste and impassioned. His thoughts are expressed with force and sententiousness. 'His fancy is delicate and subtle, and usually pervades his writings.

Mr. Allen is a charming conversationalist. His wide range of read- ing, habits of analysis and observation, intuitive knowledge of the motives of men and women, his fine fancy, rapid play of thought, and quick apprehension, combine with his genial good humor and in- nate charity to make him a brilliant and most agreeable member of society, and to render his triumphs in the salon equal to those at the bar. He is, as the result both of thought and observation, a staunch and enthusiastic friend of popular education, and is keenly alive to the advantages to be derived from an increase of facilities for uni- versity and scientific training for the young. During 10 years, or more, prior to the summer of 1881, he was one of the trustees of William Jewell College, and earnestly co-operated with his asso- ciates in the promotion of the interests of that institution. Probably to no one in the State is it more indebted for its present high state of efficiency.

Mr. Allen is not a member of any church, but he entertains a high respect for religion, and he conceives that reverence for it among the people is the life and soul of healthful, well ordered society. He is highly public spirited, and ready at all times to aid and encourage those movements which tend to increase the material happiness and promote the culture of his community. His highest conception of the due execution of a man's life work is the faithful performance of duty. In politics he is a firm, consistent Jeffersonian Democrat.

JOHN M. ALLEN, M. D. (Physician and Surgeon, Liberty).

Dr. Allen was a son of the late Col. Shubael Allen, for many years a prominent and influential citizen of Clay county, but originally from Orange county, N. Y. Col. Allen is elsewhere referred to in this volume. Dr. Allen was born in Clay county, July 23, 1833. He was reared in this county, and educated at the common schools and in William Jewell College. At that institution he took a course of two years, immediately preceding 1852, and entered the college at its first opening, in January, 1850. His taste in study inclined to mathe- matics, and, after that, to history, natural philosophy and astronomy. Young Allen became a proficient mathematician, and he advanced in Latin as far as the Sophomore class. Early in 1852 he began the study of medicine under the tutorage of Dr. Joseph M. Wood, now of Kansas City, but then a resident physician of Liberty. In due

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HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY.

time young Allen matriculated at the St. Louis Medical College, and he continued a student there until he was graduated with credit in the class of '54. He was a severe and unremitting student while at med- ical college, as he had previously been when taking his general college course ; and the thoroughness he showed in his studies, and the progress made by him, attracted the favorable attention of his pre- ceptors. Immediately after his graduation at St. Louis he was solicited by Dr. Pope, the dean of the St. Louis Medical College, to apply for the position of physician to the St. Louis City Hospital, an evidence of the high estimate Dr. Pope placed upon his attainments and ability as a physician. Dr. Allen, however, declined to make the application, preferring to enter at once upon the general practice of medicine. Returning home from St. Louis after his graduation, Dr. Allen located at Claysville, in the northeastern part of this county, and began the practice of his profession. When he arrived there he had but $6 in the world, and was $400 in debt. Stopping with Capt. William Cummons, a man whose largeness of heart was only equaled by his great purity of character and his almost religious veneration for North Carolina, his native State, young Dr. Allen frankly told him his financial condition, and that his assets consisted of a limited wardrobe, " Russell's Modern Europe," the Lord's Prayer and a small medical library. Capt. Cummons, who was evidently touched by reference to the Lord's Prayer, in the generosity of his great good nature, readily and graciously assured young Allen that he would gladly board him on trust, and would supply him with such reason- able sums of money as he might need. For this noble and generous act of kindness, and for the courtesy and consideration which was ever afterwards shown him in the family of Capt. Cummons as long as he remained with them, Dr. Allen cherishes a profound and lasting feeling of gratitude. The kindness of other friends, including that of those good men, Edward M. Samuel and Col. A. W. Doniphan, he holds in like remembrance. Declining, however, all loans, he re- mained at Claysville for about seven years, and built up an excellent practice, becoming one of the leading physicians of the northeastern part of the county.

When Mr. Lincoln fulminated his first proclamation against the South in 1861, Dr. Allen was temporarily absent from Claysville at- tending a post-graduate course of lectures at the St. Louis Medical College, in order to review his college course in medicine and surgery, and to acquaint himself with all the later and newer principles and theories of practice developed since his graduation in 1854. But be- lieving that war was now imminent, and being determined to espouse the cause of the South, which he believed to be his duty as a loyal and patriotic citizen of Missouri, he at once returned home and pro- ceeded to the enlistment of a company for the Southern service. On the organization of the company he was elected captain, and it became a part of Col. Benjamin A. Rives' regiment - who was killed at the head of his regiment in the battle of Elk Horn. But in May, 1861, Dr. Allen accepted the office of surgeon of Rives' regiment, which

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HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY.

became a part of the Fourth Missouri division, State Guard. His term of service in the State Guard lasted for several months, after the expiration of which he and a number of other prominent gentle- man in the Southern service from Missouri, organized the Third Mis- souri, of the First Brigade, in the regular Confederate service, he be- . coming regimental surgeon. He continued surgeon of that regiment until the fall of 1863, when, by order of Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, he was promoted to the office of chief surgeon of the district of Mis- sissippi and East Louisiana, and attached to the staff of Gen. Wirt Adams, with whom he continued until the close of the war. - Through- out the war Dr. Allen studiously avoided the exercise of his privilege as a surgeon of not participating in the various engagements in which his command took part, but invariably went to the front, when not occupied with his duties to the wounded. He took part in many of the great battles of the war, including, in Missouri, those of Car- thage, Wilson's Creek, Dry Wood and the siege of Lexington ; and be- yond this State, those of Elk Horn, Corinth, Iuka, Grand Gulf, Fort Gibson and a number of engagements of less importance. After the war Dr. Allen returned home to Clay county, and located at Lib- erty, where he has ever since resided and been engaged in the active practice of his profession. He has been very successful as a physician and has taken a leading place among the prominent physicians of the State. He has always taken a pardonable pride in the good name and high character.of the medical profession, and has diligently exerted himself on all proper occasions for its advancement. As early as 1856 he took an active part in the organization of the Clay County Medi- cal Society, and from time to time after that was its president. In 1858 he became a member of the National Medical Association, and has ever since continued to be honorably identified with that organiza- tion. Later along he assisted to organize the Kansas City District Medical Society, and in recognition of his high standing in the profes- sion and of the great value of his services in the organization of the society, he was made its first president. Dr. Allen, being a man of culture and decided literary tastes, takes a marked interest in the cause of education and literary matters. For many years he has been an active member of the Liberty Literary Club, a society of gentlemen at this place organized nearly 30 years ago, for the promotion of literature and social culture, and which contains among its members the profes- sional men and literati of the place. He is also a strong advocate of temperance and has been connected with all the temperance move- ments in this county since 1848. Dr. Allen never signed a petition for a dram-shop license in his life, but by his individual efforts and numerous addresses and lectures has contributed in no small degree to the present advanced position of the people of Clay county on the temperance question. A man of good business habits and qualifica- tions, he has been satisfactorily successful in accumulating the sub- stantial evidences of material comfort and independence. At the be- ginning of his practice, over thirty years ago, he made it a rule to close up his books, either by cash settlements or requiring promissory

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notes, at the end of each year ; and whilst he has earnestly avoided pressing the poor, he has been hardly less careful to make those pay who were able to, especially that class described in the couplet : -

"When the devil got sick, the devil a saint would be;

But when the devil got well, the devil a saint was he."

On the 15th of November, 1866, Dr. Allen was married to Miss Agnes McAlpine at Port Gibson, Miss. Mrs. Allen was a daughter of the late William R. McAlpine, Esq., of that place, and is a lady of marked culture and refinement.

As a citizen, Dr. Allen is public spirited, and readily appreciates those crises when the union of the intellect and energy of a commun- ity for action becomes necessary to secure results beneficial to all, and is at all times willing to bear his proportions of the burden of labor and expenditure needed to attain them.

GEORGE A. BALDWIN

(Superintendent of the Eleemosenary Farm, Post Office, Liberty).

Mr. Baldwin took charge of the county farm under contract of the county court in 1878, and has continued in charge of it ever since. The fact that he has been retained in this responsible position for so many years speaks well for his management of the place, his character in the service of the county, and the confidence in which he is held by the court and the people at large. There is an average of from ten to twelve poor persons on the farm all the time. In his treatment of them he is kind but firm, and so governs them that while they know they must respect and obey him, they nevertheless regard him with entire friendship, and show that they feel it a pleasure to have his good opinion. The county could probably not get a more suitable man for the position he holds than it now has. Mr. Baldwin is a na- tive of Clay county, born in 1842. His father was Andrew B. Bald- win, distantly related to Maj. Roderick Baldwin, of the Warrensburg Standard, in this State. Mr. Baldwin's mother came of a good fam- ily. She was a Miss Harriet Moberly, a daughter of B. M. Moberly, formerly of Kentucky. They have four children : George T., Edna B., Ninety B. and Clyde A. One is deceased, Charles R. Mr. Baldwin and wife are members of the Christian Church, and he is a member of the I. O. O. F.

JOHN A. BEAUCHAMP (Dealer in Groceries, Liberty).

Maj. Robbinson P. Beauchamp, the father of the subject of this sketch and a prominent lawyer in Western Missouri in an early day, came here from Southern Kentucky in 1825, and for a number of years resided at Liberty. He assisted to organize the first court ever held in Jackson county, and being a man of collegiate education, he understood surveying thoroughly and was induced to assist in 1825 in

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HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY.

establishing the State boundary line of Western Missouri, from Iowa to Arkansas. Under John Quincy Adams' administration he was ap- pointed Indian agent by President Adams, with headquarters at Ft. Leavenworth, in which position he continued until his death, in 1833. He died of cholera during the epidemic of that year, while on his way up the Missouri river on the boat Yellowstone, and was buried at Belleview, near Council Bluffs. He was married in Kentucky before coming to Missouri, his wife having been a Miss Dolly Winn, a daugh- ter of Jesse Winn, Sr., of that State. She died at Paris, Tenn., in 1863. A family of five children were the fruits of their married life, including the subject of the present sketch.

John A. Beauchamp, who was the eldest son in their family of children, was born at Glasgow, in Barren county, Kentucky, Decem- ber 19, 1817, and was still quite young when the family removed to Missouri. Partly reared at Liberty, at the age of thirteen he accom- panied his parents to Ft. Leavenworth and remained there until 1832, after his father's death. His mother then went to Tennessee, but John A. obtained employment as salesman in a wholesale and retail house in St. Louis. He continued there for about five years and then returned to Liberty. But in 1838, in connection with a partner, he established a dry goods and grocery house at Richmond, in Ray county, and also a similar house at Camden, he, himself taking charge of the Camden store. He continued in that business for about nine years, at the expiration of which time he retired from merchandising and settled on a farm he owned just outside the suburbs of Liberty.

Mr. Beauchamp was actively engaged in farming on his place near Liberty for a period of over thirty years, or until 1880 ; and for nearly twenty years of that time he was extensively occupied in dealing in stock, trading, buying, selling, etc. However, for five years follow- ing 1865, he resided in town and carried on a clothing store, besides running his farm and stock-dealing. Three years ago he sold the farm and is still remaining in town, where he established a grocery store, which he has ever since been conducting. He has a full stock of groceries, provisions, queens' and glassware, etc., etc.

Mr. Beauchamp has been married twice. . His first wife was a Miss Ann T. Lincoln, a daughter of George and Julia Ann (Gatewood) Lincoln, early settlers of this county from Kentucky. Her grand- father, Thomas Lincoln, originally of Rockingham county, Virginia, was a brother to Abraham Lincoln, the grandfather of President Lincoln.

Mr. Beauchamp's first wife died in 1853, leaving two sons, Robbinson P. and John S., both of whom are now themselves the heads of families and residents of Nebraska.

To his second wife Mr. Beauchamp was married in 1862. She was a Miss Sidney N. Owens, a daughter of Margaret M. and Samuel Owens, of Mason county, Kentucky. Five children are the fruits of this union : Lee, who clerks for his father in the store and is a graduate of the Liberty high school ; Maggie, Marietta, Fanny and Nellie.

Mr. Beauchamp has held a number of local official positions and is

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a man as highly esteemed as any citizen of the county. He is a mem- ber of the Christian Church. His wife is a member of the Presbyte- rian Church.

WILLIAM E. BRASFIELD

(Farmer, Stock-raiser and Stock-dealer, Post-office, Liberty).

For many years Mr. Brasfield has devoted his time and attention principally to stock. He is one of those men of energy and natural business tact who generally succeed in whatever they engage. The . qualities for successful business men are, to a large extent, natural, inherited, the result of a union, the conditions which tend to transmit to offsprings those characteristics and attributes in a large measure which afterwards go to make the successful man. It is said that the poet is born - not afterwards made by education. This is very largely true of many other spheres of activity, both mental and industrial. Unless one have the natural attributes for a particular calling, his career in that calling will always be an uphill struggle, and, at the best, only comparative success is possible. Mr. Brasfield came of a line of ancestors remarked for their energy and enterprise as business farmers ; not only personally industrious themselves, but with a tact for making work around them move along, and for direct- ing their affairs in a business-like way to the best advantage. What- ever they saw to be the most profitable as farmers they followed, whether at one time it was raising grain, at another fattening stock for the markets, or, again, breeding fine stock for the general trade. Being men of sterling intelligence and business acumen, they were generally able to perceive what branch of farm life was the most remunerative, and that they invariably pursued. So with Mr. Bras- field, the subject of this sketch. He has long seen that grain growing can not continue a profitable industry, and his sagacity in this respect has already been verified. Wheat in the Northwest is now being produced for a market that has reached as low a point as 35 cents per bushel, and the general average of prices will continue to go down. He, therefore, turned his attention to stock, and has profited by his good judgment. But ordinary, common stock is rapidly reaching the point where there is no profit for a Missouri farmer, on account of the cheap stock of Texas and the territories. Therefore, he is gradually converting his place into a fine stock farm. Mr. Brasfield has been very successful as a stock-raiser and dealer, and is one of the leading stockmen in the county. He has a fine stock farm of 434 acres, with 280 acres additional near by. His place is run nearly altogether in blue grass, reserving only enough for grain for stock feed in winter and for fattening purposes. He has an excellent grade of cattle on his place, and makes a business of raising and fattening beef cattle and hogs for the markets. He ships annually a large number of each. His specialty in the stock line, however, is breeding and raising fine saddle and harness stallions and fine jacks. For these purposes he has provided himself with some of the best stock in the country. He

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Author: Publication date: 1885 Publisher: St. Louis : National Historical Co. Number of Pages: 1156

Author:
Publication date: 1885
Publisher: St. Louis : National Historical Co.
Number of Pages: 1156