History of Harrison County, Missouri, Part 71

Author: Wanamaker, George W., 1846-1921
Publication date: 1921
Publisher: Topeka : Historical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 914


USA > Missouri > Harrison County > History of Harrison County, Missouri > Part 71


Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).


Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71


He was in the Beaucouville Xavier trenches from August 8th until September 19th and afterwards on the Verdun front. Mr. Osmon was at the battle of Argonne Forest, the Meuse River engagement and St. Mihiel. When the Armistice was signed he was at Bueford, not far from Sedan. He then went to Germany with the American Army of Occupation. On the march into Germany the army traveled thirty-five miles per day. He was in a hospital from December 29, 1918, until Febru- ary 19, 1919. He then joined his old outfit and remained with the Army of Occupation until April 1, 1919, when he returned to France, and after taking a course in Agriculture in one of the Universities there, he went to Marseilles, France. He embarked at that port for the United States, sailing through the Mediterranean Sea, along the coast of Africa and


843


HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY


after a fourteen days' voyage landed in America. He then returned to his home in Harrison County, where he has since resided.


He is one of the progressive young men of Union Township, and has a wide acquaintance and many friends.


E. H. Frisby, a prominent lawyer of Bethany who has extensive in- terests here, is a native of Harrison County. He was born at Bethany, Missouri, October 17, 1862, and is a son of Jonathan C. and Sarah (Briggs) Frisby, both natives of Ohio who came from that state to Harrison County in 1858. They spent the remainder of their lives in this county after coming here.


E. H. Frisby was one of a family of eight children born to his par- ents. He was educated in the public schools of Harrison County and the University of Michigan where he was graduated in 1883. He then engaged in the practice of law at Bethany, and has practiced here since that time.


Mr. Frisby has various other interests besides his extensive law practice. He was one of the incorporators of the Harrison County Bank in 1888 and has been one of the directors of the bank since that time; he has also been secretary of the bank all these years. He is also a director of the Bethany Savings Bank, president of the Bethany Printing Company and president of the Harrison County Abstract Company. Dur- ing the course of his practice he has specialized in real estate law and dealt extensively in land, and is a large land owner in Harrison County ..


Mr. Frisby is a republican and has served as prosecuting attorney and state senator. He has taken an active part in the development of highways and was one of the promoters and organizers of the Jefferson Highway, having served as vice president of that organization for a number years and has been president since January, 1921.


Mr. Frisby was married April 20, 1885, to Miss Eva M. Tucker, a native of Harrison County and a member of a pioneer family here. To Mr. and Mrs. Frisby have ben born three children: Lane, who teaches music in St. Louis School for the Blind ; Frank M., an attorney at Bethany ; and Lottie, who died at the age of twenty.


Mr. Frisby is a Knights Templar Mason and a member of the Knights of Pythias lodge.


844


HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY


Genevieve Bazan, Red Cross Nurse of the Department of Public Health of Harrison County, is performing a service of vital importance to Harrison County, although a field that has long been neglected. Her work is more especially directed to the schools of the county, although not exclusively so, as more fully set forth in another chapter of this work.


Miss Bazan is a capable young woman and a thoroughly schooled and skilled professional nurse, with a thorough training and broad prac- tical experience in this field. She is a native of Missouri, born at St. Louis, the daughter of Dr. L. A. Bazan, a well known and successful physician who is now engaged in the practice of his profession at Moberly, Missouri.


Miss Bazan had the following brothers and sisters: Thomas, St. Joseph, Missouri ; Helen, died in childhood; Lieut. Theodore B., was killed in the Battle of Argonne Forest; L. Marion, married Robert Caldwell, Moberly, Missouri ; Francis A., Moberly, Missouri ; and Margie J., at home with her parents, Moberly, Missouri.


Regarding Miss Bazan's brother, Lieut. Theodore B. Bazan, the follow- ing is taken from Waller's History of Randolph County :


Lieut. Theodore B. Bazan, in whose honor the American Legion Post No. 6, of Moberly, Missouri, was named, will long be remembered as one who gave his life to his country and died a heoric and self sacrificing death. He was born at St. Joseph, Missouri, July 29, 1895, and attended the school there for five years. After the family removed to Saline County he also attended the school there and later at Salisbury, Missouri. He then attended the public schools of Clark and Moberly, graduating from the high school at Moberly. He then entered the State University at Columbia, Mo., where he took the medical course for two years and when the United States entered the World War he entered the Officer's Training School at Ft. Riley, Kansas, in May, 1917, and after a period of training he was commissioned a second lieutenant in August of the same year and assigned for the 138th Infantry, and on April 20, 1918, he was promoted to first lieutenant. In May, 1918, he went to France with his command and was stationed in Vosges Mountains, and also participated in the engagement at Verdun. He also participated in the great drive in the Argonne Forest, and as that great battle raged on September 27th, he was mortally wounded during the evening between six and ten o'clock. His death was due to the explosion of a high power shell, which tore away the right side of his abdoman. As he lay mortally wounded a detail of


845


HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY


soldiers came to care for him, and he, knowing that he was mortally wounded and that he could not live long, requested the detail to not give him any attention but ordered them to direct their attention to others less severly wounded, that their lives might be saved, and while waiting there he died and was buried on the field of honor. Lieutenant Bazan's re- mains were brought to America in 1921 and buried in the National Ceme- tery at Jefferson Barracks, near St. Louis.


Genevieve Bazan graduated from high school and received a good preparatory education. She then entered training as a nurse in Woodland Hospital at Moberly, Missouri. She was afterwards employed at that in- stitution as night supervisor for a time. She then engaged in private duty for awhile and then took a post graduate course of six months in the Cook County Hospital, Chicago, Illinois. From there she went to the Toledo Hospital, Toledo, Ohio, where she held an institutional position about a year. She then returned to her home at Moberly and was engaged in private duty until the United States entered the World War. Miss Bazan then entered the service as nurse and was stationed at Jefferson Barracks until after the close of the war when she was discharged. She then re- turned to Moberly and after being engaged in private work for a time, she took a post graduate course in Public Health in St. Louis. This course is given in connection with the University of Missouri.


In May, 1921, Miss Bazan accepted her present position as Red Cross Public Nurse of Harrison County. She is thorough, earnest and con- scientious in her work and is accomplishing good results. This is prac- tically a new field, and much of the work is of a constructive nature which requires energy as well as ability, and Miss Bazan possesses both of these requisite qualities.


Charles B. Adams, of Trail Creek Township, Harrison County, Mis- souri, is the famous baseball player known as "Babe" Adams, the noted pitcher with the Pittsburgh Pirates. He was born May 18, 1882, at Tipton, Indiana, and came to Mount Moriah, in Harrison County, Missouri, with his parents, March 1, 1898. On March 2, 1909, he was married to Blanche Wright, of Mt. Moriah, Missouri. They have two children: Mary Eliza- beth, born June 19, 1916, and Virginia Lee, born June 21, 1918.


Charles Adams is the son of Samuel Adams and his wife Nancy Jane (Tower) Adams. The father, Samuel Adams, was born in Switzer-


846


HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY


land County, Indiana, March 11, 1846, and was married to Nancy Jane Tower in 1870, who was born in Switzerland County, Indiana, April 9, 1852. Of this marriage thirteen children were born: Zella, Aaron, Eva, Delcina, Minerva, Carrie, Charles, India, Grace, James, Elbert, Alonzo and Edna.


Mrs. Blanche (Wright) Adams is the daughter of George W. Wright and his wife Emza Jane (Gray) Wright. He was born June 2, 1850, at Rockford, Illinois, and she was born January 13, 1847, at Morgantown, Virginia. He came to Mt. Moriah from Iowa in 1870. They were married November 25, 1875, and have four children: Joseph Wright, now de- ceased; Marie (Wright) Wanamaker, wife of Ernest Wanamaker; Eliza- beth Jane Gellispie, wife of Charles Gellispie; and Blanche Adams, wife of Charles B. Adams, the subject of this sketch.


George W. Wright, the father of Mrs. Charles Adams, was the son of Jesse Wright, who with his father, David Wright, in 1844, come from Kennebec County, Maine, to Boone County, Illinois. David Wright mar- ried Polly Briggs Pettingill and Jesse Wright married Elizabeth Remick. He was born February 14, 1821, and died January 7, 1894, at Glenwood, Iowa. Jesse's wife, Elizabeth Remick, was born in Maine, February 7, 1826, and died January 3, 1908, at Glenwood, Iowa.


The Wright family came from England to Massachusetts. An ances- tor of George named Josiah Wright was a Revolutionary soldier, and his son, Silas Wright, was a soldier in the War of 1812.


Elizabeth Remick was the daughter of Phillip and Abigail Remick, and was born in Maine. She was a descendant of Christian Remick, born in 1631, who emigrated from Holland to Old Kittery, Maine. The Rem- icks for four generations were shipbuilders, and they built the "Ranger and Kearsarge."


Emza Jane Gray, who became the wife of George W. Wright, was the daughter of Joseph Gray and Jane (Lindsay) Gray. Joseph Gray was born at Morgantown, Virginia, January 15, 1785 and was married July, 1822, to Jane Lindsay, who was born in 1803. They came to Harrison County, Missouri, in 1855 where they resided until their death. He died in 1890 at the age of 105 and she in 1894. He was commissioned a lieutenant in the War of 1812, but peace was declared before he reached the field of action. His father William Gray was a Revolutionary soldier and was buried at Morgantown, Virginia. His wife was Ann Austin.


847


HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY


Charles Adams began playing professional baseball in 1904 with Parsons, Kansas. In 1906 he was given a trial with St. Louis Nationals and sent by them the latter part of 1906 to Louisville, Kentucky, in the American Association. In 1909 he was sent to Denver, Colorado, in the Western League. In 1908 Pittsburgh Nationals bought him and later farmed him out to Louisville, Kentucky. He was recalled and on April 27, 1909, began his National League career. He played with Pittsburgh for twelve years, with the exceptions of 1917-1918, when he was re- leased from Pittsburgh and played in the Western League and the Amer- ican Association, when Pittsburgh again bought him in 1918, and he has been with them since.


The following is from the Philadelphia Press:


Last season this remarkable athlete stood second in the pitching averages of the National League and he fairly won the honor. With con- trol that was marvelous, perhaps the like has never been seen on big league diamonds, for of the 1035 batsmen who faced him last season only 18 were permitted to walk to first base and in the last two seasons, or since he staged his comeback, some 2052 faced Adams and only 41 were granted free passes.


Adams always possessed good control, during his entire career in the big leagues he issued but 328 passes in 2476 innings, or equal to 275 full games that he pitched. In his full career in the National League. "Babe" pitched 256 games that counted in the won and lost columns and his percentage in games won stands .600.


A colorful and an exceedingly brilliant career on the diamond has been his allotment.


Adams gained fame in 1909 when he beat Detroit in the World's Series and his pitching during the season of 1921 was equally marvelous. Harri- son County is justly proud of "Babe" Adams.


A. F. Woodruff, now a resident of Colorado Springs, Colorado, was for forty-one years a citizen of Harrison and Mercer counties, Mis- souri; twenty-six of which were spent in Bethany. He removed to Colorado Springs May 31, 1899. He was born in Scioto County, Ohio, December 11, 1848; his father was A S. Woodruff, and his mother Martha (McCall) Woodruff. On the date of his birth his parents were living on the north bank of Ohio River, about nine miles below Ports-


848


HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY


mouth, Ohio. He is of Scotch-English descent. His Woodruff fore- bears came to the United States several generations back from some place in England and settled on Long Island, New York, near South- hampton. From that place some of the family removed to Camden, New Jersey, among them being his grandfather, Benjamin Woodruff. While Benjamin Woodruff was living in Camden, and on March 24, 1793, he married Jane Shepherd, who lived at the time of the marriage in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. From Camden, New Jersey, Benjamin Woodruff migrated about the year 1810, to the southern part of Ohio, and settled in Adams County in a neighborhood called the Irish Bottoms, near the town of Buena Vista. Here he lived until his death, which oc- curred about twenty years later. He is buried in the Sandy Springs burying ground, near Buena Vista, Ohio.


A. F. Woodruff's maternal grandfather, Solomon McCall, migrated from Argyleshier, Scotland about the year 1773. His father was op- posed to his sons going to America, and refused to give them aid in the way of passage money. On account of this refusal Solomon McCall apprenticed himself to a ship captain to pay for his passage, and after reaching America he worked for a considerable time for this captain, a man named Barton, whose daughter, Sarah, he married on March 18, 1789. His descendants have always spoken of this apprenticship as his having "sold himself" to the captain for his passage. He landed at some point on the eastern coast of the United States, and gradually worked his way West to Scioto County, Ohio.


The subject of this sketch was left an orphan at the age of five years by the death of his mother, his father having died three years before. In 1858, at the age of ten years, he removed to Harrison County, Missouri, in company with his brother of the halfblood, A. J. Tucker, in whose family he grew to womanhood. He was without an estate, and the relatives with whom he lived were not forehanded, hence were unable to give him good educational advantages, but he managed to get some education in the common schools of his neighborhood, and on arriving at the age of twenty-one years he went to Leon, Iowa, where he took a course of three years in the Leon High School. The course of study in that school was neither broad nor deep, but is served as an excellent foun- dation upon which to build in after years. Having completed this course, he taught school in the country districts for three years, but disliking this business very much he abandoned it, and in the spring of 1872


.


849


HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY


secured work in a lumber yard in Princeton, Missouri, and never after attempted school teaching.


In the year 1872 he began the study of law at home, and after- wards continued the study to better purpose, first in the office of Hyde & Orton, and subsequently with C. M. Wright, attorneys at Princeton, Mercer County, Missouri, where on September 14, 1878, he was admitted to the Mercer County Bar in the Circuit Court, presided over at the time by Judge G. D. Burgess, who later became Judge of the Supreme Court of Missouri. The firm of Hyde & Orton was composed of Ira B. Hyde and Hobart G. Orton. The last named is now deceased, but Mr. Hyde is still living, and is father of the present Governor of Missouri, Arthur M. Hyde.


Mr. Woodruff was married on October 7, 1878, to Alice E. Lewis, a native of Bethany, Missouri, a daughter of Wm. G. Lewis, deceased, formerly an attorney of that place, who had at one time held the office of probate judge of Harrison County. He commenced the practice of law in Mercer County in partnership with Millard F. Robinson, under the firm name of Woodruff & Robinson. This partnership was continued until November, 1879, when he removed to Bethany, Missouri, and there formed a law partnership with D. S. Alvord, then one of the prominent attorneys in that section of the state; the firm name was Alvord & Woodruff.


On February 24, 1890 his wife, Alice E., died, and on July 12, 1893, he was married to Isola Lee Buckles, his present wife, who was then a teacher in the public schools in Bethany. She is a native of Illinois, and had fitted herself to teach by attending the State Normal School of Illinois, the Normal School at Valparaiso, Indiana, and Shurtleff College at Upped Alton, Illinois. Prior to her marriage she had taught for a period of eight years.


In 1890, the partnership of Alvord & Woodruff was dissolved by mutual consent, and in 1897 Mr. Woodruff formed a partnership for the practice of law with A. S. Cumming, who is now one of the leading practitioners in Harrison County. This partnership was dissolved in May, 1899.


Mr. Woodruff, while a Republican of the old school, has never been a partisan, nor has he been given to office seeking or office holding, al- though he has held some minor offices. He was deputy assessor of Har- rison County in 1872, under the then assessor, Jos. Bt Dill, deputy


850


HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY


sheriff in 1873, under Sheriff George S. Graham, and deputy collector under James C. Baker in 1874-75. In the spring of 1886, he was elected one of the councilmen of Bethany, Missouri, and held that office one term. He was also city attorney in Bethany for several terms. In April, 1890, he was elected a member of the Bethany School Board, and re-elected from time to time until 1899, when he left the state on May 31st of that year. While a member of the school board he did much to improve the Bethany schools by making a search all over the state to secure the very best teachers that could be had for the salaries his district was able to pay. This action greatly improved the corps of teachers and added much to the success and reputation of the Bethany schools. As a school director he attended some of the state meetings of school directors, which was inauguarated and carried out by John R. Kirk, then state Superintendent of schools, and wrote some papers which were read before these meetings. Some of these papers were pub- lished in the American School Board Journal of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and also in the Missouri School Journal.


While not a politician in the narrow sense of that term he has always been interested in public affairs, and has shown this by attend- ing elections, both primary and regular, and voting. He was a pro- hibitionist many years before prohibition became popular, and in 1866, in connection with J. H. Burrows, John Woodward, J. Q. Chambers and others, protested successfully to the County Court of Harrison County, against the granting of saloon license in Cainsville, where he then lived. He also took an active part in connection with D. J. Heaston, G. W. Wanamaker, D. S. Alvord and others in securing the adoption, by the people of Harrison County, of the first local option law passed by the Missouri Legislature.


Mr. Woodruff's rating as a business man for promtness, integrity and fair-dealing has always been high. He has never taken pride in this rating, and in the further facts that he is almost entirely self- made; that he has by industry, energy and the careful handling of his resources placed himself in the well-to-do middle class. He has at all times enjoyed the confidence of his clients in respect to their financial affairs, and a large part of his business since his admission to the bar has been that of assisting clients in the matter of making investments.


As a lawyer he possesses the faculty of eliminating unnecessary elements, and of grasping salient, governing principles. He is a coun-


851


HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY


selor and office lawyer, not a trial lawyer. His briefs are made with much care and after painstaking examination and analysis of the author- ities, and they have always been given the careful consideration of the courts before whom he practices. His specialties in practice are real estate, probate and commercial law. He readily admits that he is not an all-round lawyer, such a lawyer as is able to try a murder case one week, and an ejectment suit the next, and handle each with equal skill. In his dealings with other attorneys he is trustworthy and de- pendable. His parole agreements are sacredly kept. He never resorts to underhanded measures or tricks to win cases, preferring honorable defeat to dubious victory. He has a detestation of over-reaching in the matter of fees, and it is his boast that he has done more work for less pay than any of his contemporary lawyers.


Although he has never had a large appellate practice, he has been employed in some important cases in the Supreme Courts of Missouri and Colorado. One such case was Allen vs. White, 98 Missouri, 55; 10 S. W. 881. This was a suit in which the validity of a statutory tax deed issued under the Missouri Revenue Law of 1872, was an issue. The deed was sustained by the Court, it being the first, or among the first cases, where a statutory tax deed was sustained by the Supreme Court of Missouri. Another case was Russie vs. Brazzell, reported in 128 Mo. 92; 30 S. W. 526; 49 Am. St. Rep. 542. This case involved primarily the title to a house and lot in Eagleville, Missouri, used by the church as a parsonage, but finally it involved he title and disposition of all the property of the United Brethern Church in the State of Missouri. The case was a contest between factions in the church growing out of a change in the rules of the church; the faction favoring the change caled themselves "Liberals" and the faction opposed called themselves "Radicals". The Liberals won. In Callahan vs. Whitehead, 44 Colo- rado 396; 99 Pacific 57 ( he was employed by the plaintiff. This was an ejectment suit to recover possession of twenty-eight hundred acres of land held by the defendant under a tax deed. The Court held the tax deed void. He represented the defendant in the case of Turner vs. McKen- zie, 31 Colorado 274; 72 Pacific 1075. This suit involved the construc- tion of a contract for the sale of a mine in Cripple Creek. The decision of the Court was in favor of the defendant.


He is an Odd Fellow, and pays his dues, but he lacks enthusiasm; as he expresses it, he is as lukewarm as the church at Laodicea. His


852


HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY


membership is in Pikes Peak Lodge No. 38, Colorado Springs, Colorado. He has never been a member of any church. In the clash and confusion of creed and dogma he has chosen to remain neutral.


Gen. Benjamin M. Prentiss .- For many years one of the most dis- tinguished citizens of Missouri as well as of the nation was the late Gen. Benjamin M. Prentiss, who for twenty years lived at Bethany, where his death occurred on February 8, 1901. General Prentiss was a soldier of two wars, rose to the rank of major-general U. S. Volunteers during the Civil War and was the hero of the great battle of Shiloh. In his political career he was an associate of Lincoln and other distinguished leaders of Illinois, and in the later years of his life was one of the most admired orators and leaders in the Republican party of Missouri.


Benjamin M. Prentiss was born at Belleville, Virginia, November 23, 1819. He was a direct descendant from Valentine Prentiss who came to America from England in 1620. Another direct ancestor was the noted Elder Brewster of the Mayflower colony.


General Prentiss spent his early childhood in Virginia and from there his parents moved to Quincy, Illinois. His education came from the country schools of Virginia and afterwards from a private military school. Migrating west in 1836, he located in Marion County, Missouri, and engaged in the manufacture of cordage. In the spring of 1841 he went to Quincy and established himself in the same business with his father. During the Mormon excitement at Nauvoo, Illinois, he was in the service of the state and at the opening of the Mexican War he was appointed adjutant of the First Illinois Infantry. With this regiment he served through the entire war, first as first lieutenant and afterwards as captain of Company I, which he commanded under General Taylor at the battle of Buena Vista.


After his return to Quincy and also after the war, General Prentiss was engaged in business as a commission merchant and also as a manu- facturer of cordage. With the outbreak of hostilities between the North and South he was one of the first to respond with the offer of his services. At the first call for troops he sent a telegram to the governor of Illinois, tendering two companies and has the distinction of having been the first officer commissioned by the state. Beginning as a captain he was pro-


853


HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY


moted to major, from that to colonel, and then to the rank of brigadier- general before reaching the actual scene of hostilities. General Prentiss was placed in command at Cairo at the beginning of the war and estab- lished a blockade of the Mississippi River. While there he was waited upon by a delegation of Kentuckians, who protested against the landing of troops on Kentucky soil. This delegation reminded him that Kentucky was a sovereign state, the peer of Illinois, but to this General Prentiss replied that when the President called for troops to defend the Union, Illinois promptly furnished her quota, while Kentucky had failed to re- spond and consequently her wishes were not entitled to the same con- sideration.


After leaving Cairo, General Prentiss was ordered by General Fre- mont to Jefferson City, Missouri, to take command of all North and Cen- tral Missouri. He fought at Mount Zion and a number of other minor engagements in the state. Subsequently being ordered to the field by General Halleck, he proceeded to Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee, where he arrived April 1st and organized and took command of the Sixth Divi- sion, Army of the Tennessee. It was there that his reputation as a military leader was secured beyond all peradventure. The historians of that great battle have all united in giving General Prentiss' command credit for maintaining the integrity of the Union position during the first day, and thus insuring what amounted to a virtual victory for the Union arms. It will be recalled that the other Federal generals in council doubted that the Confederates were massed in force at Shiloh, and at his own request General Prentiss was permitted to send a small force forward to ascertain whether the enemy was not there in force. Five companies from General Prentiss' division were selected for that task and these troops while reconnoitering received the first onslaughts of the enemy, arrested their charge and thus gave the Union army time to form the line of battle. The Confederates attacked in such force and with such energy that General Sherman's corps and all the other com- mands were compelled to give ground and General Prentiss himself had to retire to a better position. At his command his troops finally took posi- tion in the old Sunken Road and there their resistance was so deadly that the Confederates called the place the "Hornet's Nest", and there the most sanguinary struggle of the day was centered. It was while General Pren- tiss was holding this line that General Grant came up and requested him


854


HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY


to hold the road until sundown at all hazards. General Prentiss gave his promise and he afterwards stated that again and again he looked for the setting sun and was almost convinced from the slowness with which that luminary moved toward the western horizon, that it had surely caught upon a snag. No reinforcements were sent to his hard pressed troops and at 5:30 in the evening General Prentiss and his 2,200 soldiers were captured. For the following seven months he endured the rigors of Confederate prisons.


After being exchanged, General Prentiss was commissioned a major- general of volunteers for his gallantry at the battle of Shiloh. He served on the court martial in the case of Gen. Fitz John Porter, and he was the last member of that court to pass away. At the close of this trial he was ordered to report to General Grant at Milliken's Bend, by whom he was assigned the command of the eastern district of Arkansas, with headquarters at Helena. Here on the 4th of July, 1863, he commanded the Union forces in the battle of Helena, gaining a decided victory over the enemy, whose forces were equal to four times his number.


During his residence at Quincy, General Prentiss was appointed United States pension agent by General Grant, and filled the office eight years. In 1878 he moved to Missouri, spent a short time in Sullivan County and then engaged in the practice of law at Kirksville. After moving to Bethany in 1881 he continued the practice of law, and in 1888, after the election of President Harrison, was appointed postmaster and received the same honor from President Mckinley. In 1880 General Prentiss served as a delegate-at-large to the Republican national conven- tion which nominated General Garfield and was a delegate to the national convention of 1884 which placed Blaine and Logan in the field as the national Republican candidates and seconded the nomination of John A. Logan for president. He frequently attended the Missouri conventions of his party and was one of the most influential and popular leaders in the state.


The first wife of General Prentiss was Margaret Sowdosky. Their children were: Harrison Tyler; Guy Champlain, who marched with Sher- man to the sea and died in Quincy ; Jacob Henry, who spent his last years in Bethany, where his family survive him; Ella, who married Doctor Blackburn and still lives in Bethany ; Benjamin M., Jr., of Colorado; Clay, of Bethany. The oldest of these children, Harrison Tyler, known better as "Tip", was a drummer boy at Shiloh under General Sherman.


855


HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY


General Prentiss' second wife was Mary Worthington Whitney, a daughter of Joseph Ingram Whitney, who came from Maine. Mrs. Pren- tiss was born in Pennsylvania, December 16, 1836, and died in Bethany July 28, 1894. Her children were: Joseph W., of Bethany ; Arthur Ogles- by, who died in California; Edgar Worthington; and Mrs. Mary Cover, of Harrison County.


LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 0 008 941 361 8




Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.