USA > Missouri > Harrison County > History of Harrison County, Missouri > Part 69
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Mr. Perkins was married March 12, 1868, to Margaret Henry, and to this union has been born the following children: Emma I., married Rufus
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Hopkins and they live in Montana; Albert, a Spanish-American War vet- eran, who is now engaged in the real estate business at Akron, Ohio; Josephine married Dr. W. E. Merrihew, D. D., and they now live in Nebraska; William L., a civil engineer and architect, of Chariton, Iowa, married Jessie Yeater.
Mr. Perkins is a member of the Masonic Lodge and has been clerk of the Ridgeway Lodge for twelve years. He is a Republican and served as township collector for ten years and was census taker of Grant Township in 1900. Mrs. Perkins is a Democrat. They are members of the Meth- odist Church.
Wesley Bowman, a prominent farmer and stockman of Marion Town- ship, and a former county judge of Harrison County, is a native of Illi- nois. He was born in Logan County, Illinois, December 28, 1867, and is the son of Isaac and Mildred (Kampmann) Bowman. Isaac Bowman came to Harrison County in 1869 and here followed farming and stock raising during the remainder of his life.
Judge Wesley Bowman was reared in Harrison County and educated in the Round Grove district school and the subscription schools of three months taught by Prof. H. S. Birgon, of Ridgeway, Missouri. He engaged in farming and stock raising in early life and has met with success. He was elected a member of the county court of Harrison County in 1912, and held that office until 1917. He made a good record as a public official and always gave the closest attention to the duties of his office and per- formed the public business in the same careful and conscientious manner which has always characterized his attention to his own private affairs. He gave the people of Harrison County a good administration as county judge.
Judge Bowman was married in 1898 to Miss Lillian M. Pittman, a native of Ohio, and to this union were born the following children: Cecil, married S. F. Booth and they live in Trail Creek Township; Nada R., mar- ried Earl Chapman and they live in Marion Township; Audry, died in infancy ; Faye, died when nine years old; and Marion A., died in infancy.
Judge Bowman is a member of the Christian Church and holds mem- bership in the Modern Woodmen of America and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He is a Democrat and has been an active worker in the ranks of the local organization for many years. He has always taken
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an active interest in local affairs and has served as township trustee of Marion Township and has been justice of the peace for twelve years. He is a public spirited man and has an extensive acquaintance in Harrison County.
Noah Snell, a well known and highly respected citizen of Ridgeway, who is now living retired after a successful career as a farmer and stock raiser in Harrison County, is a native of Missouri, and a member of a pioneer family of this state. He was born at Snell's Mills, December 16, 1852, and is a son of Noah and Mary A. (Jobe) Snell.
Noah Snell, the father, was born in Greenbriar County, now West Virginia, in 1805, and his wife was a native of Daviess County, Missouri. Noah Snell, Sr. came from Virginia to Missouri and settled near Liberty, Clay County, in 1840. He was a trapper in early life and later operated a saw mill and conducted a general store. He died in 1854 and his widow departed this life in 1902.
Noah Snell was first married in 1874 to Anne Bonner, a native of St. Louis, Missouri. She died in 1910, leaving one daughter, Claudia M., who married Charles Buzzard and they now reside at Long Beach, Cali- fornia. Mr. Snell was married the second time to Mary B. Cook, a native of Andrew County, Missouri. No children have been born to this mar- riage.
Mr. Snell has an extensive acquaintance in Harrison County, and is a highly respected and substantial citizen.
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Henry A. Rinehart, a prominent farmer of Marion Township, is a member of a pioneer family, of Harrison County. He is the son of Peter and Eliza (Johnson) Rinehart.
Peter Rinehart settled in Marion Township in 1856 and engaged in farming and stock raising and has had a successful career and he and his wife now reside in that township. They are the parents of the follow- ing children: Harvey, who died at the age of twenty-five years; Frank, lives in Marion Township; Elmer, who also lives in Marion Township; and Henry, the subject of this sketch.
Henry A. Rinehart was reared to manhood on the home place in Marion Township and began his independent career as a farmer and stock- man at an early age. He first started with fifty acres of land and has
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increased his acreage from time to time and is now the owner of 190 acres of well improved and valuable land. He carries on general farming and stock raising and is one of the successful men in his line in Harrison County.
Mr. Rinehart was married in 1895 to Miss Mary E. Taylor, of Ridge- way, Missouri, where her parents now reside. To Mr. and Mrs. Rinehart have been born the following children: Letha, married Carl E. Bone and they reside in Ridgeway, Missouri, and Garland A., who resides on the home place with his parents.
Mr. Rinehart has always been identified with the Republican party and has served as township trustee of Marion Township for four years. He is a member of the Christian Church and holds membership in the Masonic Lodge, Modern Woodmen of America and the American Brother- hood of Yeomen. He is a stockholder in the Commercial State Bank of Ridgeway and a member of the board of directors of that institution. He is a progressive and enterprising citizen and is known for his integrity.
J. T. Jefferies, popular manager of the Farmers Produce Company, at Ridgeway, Missouri, was born in Union Township, Harrison County, Missouri, December 23, 1866, the son of G. B. and Mary (Lindsay) Jefferies.
G. B. Jefferies came to Harrison County from Kentucky in 1862. His wife was a native of Henry County, Kentucky. Their children were: Herbert L., now married to Clara Hefener and living in Marion Town- ship; L. D., died of heart failure; and J. T., the subject of this sketch.
J. T. Jefferies was educated at Lorraine in Jefferson Township. After he completed his schooling he'rented a farm. He continued to rent for fifteen years when he bought the sixty acres known as the old Bain place. He farmed this place for twenty years then moved to Ridgeway and worked for O. P. Bennett for ten years. At the end of that time, he bought the Bridges grocery store and ran it for a year, when he sold the store and took charge of the Farmers Produce Company, which position he has filled capably and efficiently. Mr. Jefferies owns a ten acre tract of ground on which he has a nice home.
J. T. Jefferies was married in 1866 to Anna Briggs, a native of Iowa, in which state her parents lived. To J. T. and Anna (Briggs) Jefferies the following children were born: Bertha, now married to Homer E.
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Gutridge and living in St. Joseph, Missouri; Clarence, who died at the age of ten; and Truman D. Leo, thirteen years of age and now in the seventh grade of the Ridgeway public school.
Mr. Jefferies is a member of the Yeoman Lodge and the Modern Woodmen of America. He is also a member of the Methodist Church and is a Democrat in politics. Mr. Jefferies is one of the men who by pluck and energy, succeeded in the days when Harrison County was being built up.
Mark L. Belden, an enterprising business man, of Ridgeway, who is engaged in the grain business there and conducts the Ridgeway Elevator, is a native of Michigan. He was born March 24, 1868 and is the son of Francis J. and Helen (Mabie) Belden.
Francis J. Belden was a native of Vermont and his wife was born in the state of New York. Early in life they removed to Michigan and in 1884, when Mark L. Belden was sixteen years old, the family came to Missouri and settled in Lincoln Township, Harrison County, and here the parents spent the remainder of their lives.
To Francis J. and Helen (Mabie) Belden were born the following children: John S., who married Effie Graybill, and she is now deceased, and he was married again and now lives at Anthony, Kansas; Frank, mar- ried Lizzie Clouse and lives at Cambridge, Kansas; Ella, married O. J. Nelson and is now deceased; Clara, married G. A. Lloyd, of Hillsdale, Kansas; Kate, married A. C. Nelson, Ford City, Missouri; and Mark L., the subject of this sketch.
Mark L. Belden received his education in the public schools of Mich- igan and early in life engaged in farming. He owns 150 acres of land and followed farming and stock raising for a few years. He then engaged in business at Eagleville, where he remained seven years and was after- wards located in business at Hatfield for five years. In 1917, he took charge of the Ridgeway elevator and has conducted the grain business there to the present time. This elevator affords a good market for the farmers in the vicinity of Ridgeway and Mr. Belden does an extensive business.
Mr. Belden was married in 1892 to Miss Lillie Armstrong and the following children have been born to them: George married Gertrude Adair and lives in Bethany, Missouri; Lois, lives with her father; Lee,
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who served in the aviation section of the navy during the World War, and at the time of his death in 1920, he was connected with the Donelson Motor Company, of Ridgeway, Missouri.
Mr. Belden is a Republican and has always taken an active interest in local affairs. He served as collector of Lincoln Township for three terms and served in the same capacity for two terms in Grant Township. He is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Modern Wood- men of America and the Brotherhood of America Yeomen and holds membership in the United Brethren Church.
John Alfred Lilly-The country home of John Alfred Lilly, now deceased, is located four and one-half miles southeast of Ridgeway in Harrison County and still the home of his widow, Emma B. Lilly. It has always been a home which once visited is not soon forgotten. The name was identified with this section before the war. It has been associated with some of the most progressive features of farming enterprise and as home makers and people of intrinsic value, culture and morality and high ideals few families in northwest Missouri have a better record, if any.
John Alfred Lilly was born in Livingston County, Missouri, April the 15, 1860, but lived in Harrison County since 1861, and the present farm contains land that was entered by his grandfather as early as 1856. The family came to Missouri about 1850 and located in Livingston County. Grandfather John Lilly had lived in several states before he came to Mis- souri. He was born in Maryland in 1796, was reared in Virginia, and when a young man moved to Park County, Indiana, where he married Rebecca Storms, moving later to Ross County, Ohio, and thence to Han- cock County where his wife died. In that state he married for his second wife Rebecca Mathews and in moving out to Missouri, they came with teams and wagons, the only mode of travel in that day and attended with many dangers. They located at what was known as Muddy Lane in Liv- ingston County .. The grandfather died there in 1863 and his wife died later at the home of her son, P. H. Lilly, at Jamesport. The old Lilly Church still stands by the cemetery, near Jamesport.
The children of the first union were Joseph M., who died in Livingston County and with his wife sleeps in the home burial ground; Allie Rose, left a large family ; Elizabeth, married John T. Carnes and died in Jasper County, Missouri; Mary A., married John Browning and died in Hancock
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County, Illinois; their only child, John Polk Browning, departed this life about a year ago at the Browning homestead.
One of the venerable and highly respected citizens of Harrison County was John Lilly, son of the above John and father of John Alfred. He was born December 14, 1833, in Ross County, Ohio, and died in Ridge- way, Missouri, August the 4, 1916. Most of his youth was spent in Han- cock County, Illinois, where he attended the country schools. He was one of the best informed men in the county. In early life he became a farmer and followed it all through his vigorous career. He grew to manhood in northwest Missouri and in 1861 enlisted in the army at Bethany, in Capt. John A. Page's company of the Sixth Missouri Infantry, under Col. E. C. Catherwood. His command saw service in Arkansas, Missouri and Indian Territory, was at Fort Smith when it was captured from the enemy, and was in the fight at Newtonia, Arkansas. He was mustered out at the close of the war with an honorable discharge and escaped wounds or capture. Although he spent the last twenty years of his life in Ridge- way, living a life of quiet and retired from the farm, yet he achieved many things to his credit. He had a knack of succeeding often where others failed, and came to own and control 600 acres of land and at one time was the largest fruit grower in Harrison County. He planted ex- tensive orchards of apples, pears, peaches, plums and cherries and also derived revenues from stock raising which at that time was a very re- munerative business, as the country was all free range. His father before him was of Whig affiliations and he regularly gave his own support to the Republican party.
John Lilly married Artimissa Westfall, who was born at Quincy, Illi- nois, and daughter of Alfred Westfall. She died at the old Lilly home- stead in Harrison County, October 21, 1892. The children born of this union were Angeline, who is now the wife of Lycurgus Edwards, of Howell County, Missouri. She was first married to Newton Beeson, who was the father of her children; Jane, married Joel Harrold, of Blythedale, Mis- souri ; Elizabeth is the wife of Alfred C. Sellers, of Ridgeway ; John Alfred, the subject of this sketch; Joseph Milton died at Ridgeway, leaving a widow and children; Clara R., married Caleb Young, of Ridgeway; Cath- erine, married Woodson Baber, of Jamesport; Rose, married Norman Johnson, of Ridgeway and lives on the old homestead, and Charles died in childhood. At the death of their son, Charles, they platted and deeded to the public a portion of ground at the northwest corner of the home-
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stead and he was the first to be buried there at the Lilly Cemetery in Har- rison County. For his second wife John Lilly married Alice Burwell, who is the mother of one child, Mrs. Vesper Ann Dodd, of St. Louis, Missouri.
John Alfred Lilly grew up on the farm he bought from three genera- tions of heirs and spent the thirty-seven years of his married life there. He was educated in the district schools. The home quarter section where the buildings are, being a part of the original Lilly homestead but when passing into his possession became known as "Lillyhurst Hereford Farms." Mr. Lilly lived with his parents until of age and the day after his mar- riage at Ridgeway, moved to the place which was to be the scene of his successes and failures, with which all the memories and associations of his mature life were identified. The land when first occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Lilly was a piece of wild prairie. It had never produced a crop under cultivation, and the house they lived in for several years was a single room 14 x 15 feet. All their children were born while they lived there except one.
As a farmer, Mr. Lilly was both a grain and stockman. By purchase and additions his farm came to contain 460 acres; he also owned town property. Like his father before him, he planted large orchards. One plat, containing twenty-five acres, had all varieties of fruit that would grow in this locality, and in one respect was the most interesting feature of the homestead. The family always made a specialty of flowers, both annuals and perennials, and their home was always a place of delight to flower lovers. Shrubs and trees also grew in profusion. The lawn is shaded with maple, elm, box elder and the beautiful redbud, while in the garden are found the chestnut and white walnut, the latter a disappoint- ment as far as fruiting is concerned.
As a stockman, Mr. Lilly bred Herefords for over twenty years; his cattle were all registered stock and he held a membership in the Here- ford Association. The old "Defender" blood headed his herd in the be- ginning and in later years he bought the prize winning blood for the sires of his herd. The poultry yards of the farm at one time, not only con- tained geese, turkeys, guineas and ducks, but nine different varieties of chickens which were kept in separate yards and sold for breeding pur- poses. They were among the first people in Harrison County to have a revenue of from five to six hundred dollars from their poultry in a single year, while at the present time that amount would be a common average over the country, Harrison County being first in the state in poultry.
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Mr. Lilly was always a Republican, though voting for Roosevelt in 1912. He declined the nomination for representative in the legislature, believing his work at home worth more to the people and his home than elsewhere. He was an elder in the Christian Church for many years and for many years was janitor, chorister and superintendent of the work at the Midway Church, close to his home. Some years he paid three-fourths of the minister's salary.
Mr. and Mrs. Lilly were married at Ridgeway, Missouri, November 25, 1883. In addition to the cares of a home and a family Mrs. Lilly has shown her ability in acquiring a more than local reputation as a journalist. Money was not plentiful in those days and she took to writing for those periodicals which they so much wished for but had not the money to pay. From that she became ambitious to have the checks mean more than the price of the papers and began contributing to such magazines as Mc- Clures, The Century, McCalls, the Brown Book, the Christian Evangelist, Standard and many others. Mrs. Lilly was formerly a school teacher and for many years a deaconess in the church. She is a graduate of the White Cross School of Nursing at Jamestown, New York, of the military sisterhood and like every other mother during the war, worked incessantly to alleviate in any way the suffering here or abroad. She wrote hun- dreds of letters to those who were without mothers, the homey letters that make a boy wish he could live a better life and go home to those he loved with a clean record and as a reward, the home legion boys, Com- pany G, and especially the old National Guard honored her by asking her to dedicate a war song of which she is the author to them. Their major (Maj. Randal Wilson) wrote the words which dedicated the song to the home boys. The title of the song is to "My Sweetheart Sue" and is full of the heart throbs of a soldier boy on Flander field, written by Mrs. Lilly because a buddie was afraid his sweetheart would forget him while he was away.
Both Mr. and Mrs. Lilly belonged to all temperance movements and Mrs. Lilly has been in the secret service for that organization for many years. Mrs. Lilly was born December 25, 1862 at LaFayette, Wisconsin, her maiden name being Emma Burwell. Her parents were Jediah Bur- well and Lucinda Wilcox Denton Burwell. The former was born in West- moreland County, Pennsylvania, September 1, 1826; in 1850 went to LaFayette County, Wisconsin, where he married and ten years later moved to Missouri, locating in Daviess County at old Civil Bend. In 1872,
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he moved to Harrison County. A cooper by trade, he followed farming in Missouri. He was an ordained exhorter in the Free Will Baptist Church, but finding none of the organization in his locality, he joined the close communion order but never lived up to that tenet of their church, claiming for himself the right to commune with all Christian orders and work with all churches for the welfare of mankind. He never amassed wealth but left to his children a far greater inheritance; he schooled all so they were able to take their place among the teachers and scholars and left them a memory of a life filled with good works. He died January 25, 1891 and is buried in Cedar Hill Cemetery at Blythedale, Missouri. His first wife was a Miss Haver, of Pennsylvania and their children were Sarah, who married John Ethridge, of Monroe, Wisconsin; Anna, who married Edmond Opdyke, of Ridgeway, Missouri ; Henry C., of Little Rock, Arkansas; Ella, who married J. T. Travis and lives at Lincoln, Nebraska ; James H., who married Ida McCoy, of Lincoln, Nebraska and where they make their home. Lucinda Wilcox Denton, a widow with one son, Jason Denton, was his second wife and was born at Pittston, Pennsylvania, September 12, 1832. Mrs. Burwell died at the home of her daughter, Mrs. J. A. Lilly, December 22, 1912, near Ridgeway and sleeps beside her husband in Cedar Hill Cemetery at Blythedale. By her marriage to Jediah Burwell there were the following children: John, who died in infancy ; Mrs. J. A. Lilly, of Ridgeway ; A. G., of Lane, Kansas, who married Emma Brown, of Kansas; Melissa, who married George Jones of May, Okla- home; Ira B., who married Minnie Roper of Civil Bend, Missouri, and whose home is at Excelsior Springs, Missouri; Lewis, who died in infancy and Charles H., who married Sarah Jones of Ridgeway and whose home is Laverne, Oklahoma; the youngest child, a son, died at birth.
The children of Mr. and Mrs. Lilly are John Ralph Lilly, a farmer near the old home, married Ida J. Reeder and their children are Clarence Leroy and Ernest Raymond (the first time in six generations that the first son in every generation had not been named John); Nellie is the wife of C. M. Reeder, of Ridgeway, a Baptist minister and their children are Esther Charlotta, Esta Claire, Charles Washington, John Wilbur, Wil- liam Paul and James Lawrence; Charles Burwell, married Lelie Henry, of Ridgeway and their child is Elizabeth Merlin, Flag, Arkansas; Jeanne is the wife of G. W. Newell, of Richlea, Saskatchewan, Canada, and their children are Helen Emily, Georgia Ann, and William John; Joseph West- fall, married Hazel Arvin, of Blythedale and their daughter's name is
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Kathalene Irene; and an infant son died at birth; they too are farmers and live near the old home. The daughter, Mrs. Reeder, was educated in the Bethany High School and was a teacher until her marriage. Mrs. Newell finished the four year course at Ridgeway and the Warrensburg Normal and was also a teacher until she married and moved to Canada. The sons' schooling quit with the Ridgeway school, as they all returned to the farm and all have good homes.
Mr. Lilly's health was failing at the beginning of the war and his health failed so rapidly that death came to him unexpectedly in a stroke of paralysis and he departed this life September 6, 1920, just one week after the stroke came, but never was at any time able to make known a single want or wish in any way. He was buried September 9, 1920, in the home cemetery beneath the pines he loved.
E. G. Kemp, an enterprising farmer of Grant Township, was born in Henry County, Kentucky, March 14, 1853, the son of John and Fannie (Hutchinson) Kemp, both natives of Kentucky. They were mar- ried in Kentucky and came to Harrison County with their two children in 1857. Mr. and Mrs. Kemp drove overland from Kentucky along with four or five other families and the grandfather of the present subject. They settled on the Old Trail and John Kemp preempted forty acres of land southwest of Lorraine. He later bought other land and carried on farming and stockraising most successfully. He died in 1910 and his wife died in 1918. They are buried in Morris Chapel Cemetery.
E. G. Kemp was one of twelve children. The others now living are: Eliza, now Mrs. Ramey, living near Lorraine; James Taylor, deceased ; William, living in western Kansas; Jefferson, of Harrison County ; Perry, deceased; Henry, living in this county ; Thomas, a resident of Oklahoma ; Lestie, now Mrs. McDougal, of Jefferson Township; and Rose, living in this county.
E. G. Kemp grew to manhood in Harrison County. He attended the old McCollum school, one of the pioneer schools of the state with the old slab benches and desks around the outer walls. He began to plough at the age of eight years, doing a man's work driving four yoke of oxen and breaking the prairie land. When he was twelve years old, he worked in the harvest field along with the men. His father reached Missouri with only seventy-five dollars as his cash asset, and his family experienced all the hardships that were the heritage of the sturdy pioneers who built
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up homes in Missouri in the early days. The family lived in Missouri during the Civil War and experienced all the vicissitudes of that trying period. In 1880, E. G. Kemp went out to the mountains. As a young man he had gone to Kansas, but did not remain long. In 1883, he went to Kingman County, Kansas, and took up a homestead which he farmed for five years when he returned to Harrison County after selling his Kansas land. He was at Lorraine, Harrison County, for a year and then bought eighty acres of his present place, later adding to it until he now owns 1521/2 acres. He has improved his farm, remodeling the house and add- ing to the farm buildings. He carries on general farming and stock raising, keeping mostly black Poll-Angus cattle.
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