USA > Missouri > Henry County > History of Henry County, Missouri > Part 30
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Mr. McKeaigg accompanied his parents to Henry County in 1884 and was first employed as farm hand by Mr. Hinkle. He married and resided upon the Hinkle place as tenant for a period of seven years. In 1891 he purchased forty acres near Independence school house. Three years later he sold this tract and then purchased his present farm, located in Davis township, west of La Due. This farm consists of seventy acres and is nicely improved. For the past twelve years Mr. McKeaigg has successfully farmed this tract and has splendid improvements thereon consisting of a handsome white cottage, modern in its appointments, good barns and fencing kept in excellent repair.
Mr. McKeaigg was married November 24, 1893, to Mrs. Mary Reed, a widow, who was born in Illinois and is a daughter of J. B. and Caroline (Fellahauer) Sherbourne, who came to Henry County from Illinois in 1880. By a former marriage with Edward Reed, deceased, Mrs. McKeaigg has two children: Mrs. Allie Hemperley, Flagstaff, Arizona, and Harry E. Reed, of Clinton, Missouri. One child has been born to Mr. and Mrs. McKeaigg, Everett Ray, who died at the age of two years.
The Democratic party has generally had the support and allegiance of Mr. McKeaigg, and he and Mrs. McKeaigg are members of the Metho- dist Episcopal Church. He is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows Lodge No. 772 of La Due.
R. H. Maddox, cashier of the Bank of La Due, was born in Callaway County, Missouri, March 17, 1866. He is the son of Dr. R. J. and Mary (Keithler) Maddox. R. J. Maddox was born in 1837, a son of Stephen Maddox, a native of Virginia who was a pioneer settler in Callaway County. He was educated for the medical profession and became a successful practicing physician, residing on the farm while ministering to the sick folks of the country neighborhood in which he made his honie. Doctor Maddox was married in Callaway County to Mary M. Keithler, who was born in St. Louis. In 1882 Doctor Maddox removed to Bates County, Missouri, and practiced medicine in that county in the rural sections until his death in 1887. Dr. R. J. and Mary Maddox were parents of six children: W. J., a resident of Callaway County; Mrs. Minta P. Farmer and Mrs. Fannie E. Davis, both residents of Callaway County ; S. J., liv-
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ing in Cedar County, Missouri; R. H., subject of this review, and E. M., a citizen of Cedar County.
There were no public schools in the Big Survey region of Callaway County where R. H. Maddox received his early upbringing and he had little opportunity to secure an education. His father had settled in this section of the county in order to practice his profession and the son grew to young manhood without the opportunity to even attain the rudiments of an education. His boyhood days were spent in tilling the soil of the family farm and cutting firewood until he was twenty years of age. He then went to Colorado and homesteaded a tract of Government land. Dur- ing a twenty months' sojourn in that State he proved up on a claim in Bent County and then returned to Missouri, locating in Bates County. He took charge of a star mail route which extended from Rockville to Papinville, Missouri, and operated it for two years. When he attained young manhood he realized the need of an education and he began a practice of self study which he has maintained to this day, and at the present time is a well informed, progressive citizen. After two years on the mail route he sold the route and then went to Cedar County and en- gaged in the mercantile business at Pleasant View in 1890. In 1906 he disposed of his mercatile business and came to La Due, in this county, where he established a mercantile business which he conducted until en- gaging in the banking business. Besides his banking business Mr. Mad- dox is interested in farm land.
On April 11, 1889, R. H. Maddox and Florence S. Bradley were united in marriage. Mrs. Maddox is a daughter of the late Judge Burton Brad- ley and a niece of Senator Bradley of Bates County. Mr. and Mrs. Maddox have children as follow: James N., manager of a grain elevator, at home with his parents; Mrs. Nellie Pearl Hull, Davis township; Edith, assistant cashier of the Bank of La Due; Claranett, deceased; Grace G. and Codie C., at home.
Mr. Maddox is aligned with the Democratic party and for the past six years has served as treasurer of Davis township. He is a member of the Baptist Church and is fraternally affiliated with the Woodmen of the World, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Modern Woodmen of America. It can truly be said of Mr. Maddox that he has made a success of his life work and is self made from every standpoint.
The Bank of La Due was organized in 1912 by R. H. Maddox, H. B. Hollopeter and others. The bank was capitalized and chartered for $10,-
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000. The past year has been the most prosperous that this bank has ever known as the statement of the increase of bank deposits will show. On March 17, 1917, the bank deposits were $24,612.15; on June 20, 1917, the total deposits were $28,451.91; on November 20, 1917, they were $58,487.12; on March 4, 1918, the deposits had reached the figure of $76,- 050.26. This substantial condition is evidence of the growing prosperity of the neighborhood served by the bank. The bank has a surplus of $1,- 279.30 and undivided profits of $600. The present officers are: B. F. McKeaigg, president; Robert D. Ming, vice-president; R. H. Maddox, cashier; H. B. Hollopeter and E. Maddox, assistant cashiers. The bank's directors are J. A. Vansant, R. D. Ming, H. B. Hollopeter, B. F. McKeaigg and R. H. Maddox. The stock of this bank is all held by thirty-one indi- viduals who are engaged in farming. The institution is housed on its own new brick building erected in 1912 and fitted up with modern bank- ing fixtures.
Otto Volkmann, manager and treasurer of the La Due Grain and Supply Company, La Due, Missouri, is a native son of Henry County, and was born on a farm in Clinton township, January 22, 1884. He is the son of C. H. and Catherine Volkmann, natives of Germany, who im- migrated to America in 1862, first locating in Indiana. C. H. Volkmann later came to St. Louis and thence to Henry County in 1875, where he purchased a tract of prairie land and improved it, residing on his farm until his death in November of 1906 at the age of seventy-six years. Mrs. Catherine Volkmann died in August of 1906 at the age of sixty-nine years. They were parents of eight children: Louis and William, living at Wallace, Idaho; Henry, Lincoln, Missouri; Otto, subject of this sketch; Mrs. Louise Beckmeyer, Fayette County, Missouri; Mrs. Emma Seifried, Clinton; Mrs. Mary Quest, deceased; and Bertha, living in Lafayette County.
Otto Volkmann attended the Independence district school and resided on the home place of his parents until the farm was sold in 1906. He was then employed as a farm hand until 1910 at which time he began farming on his own account. He followed farming pursuits until Febru- ary 10, 1916, when he took charge of the La Due Grain and Supply Com- pany as its manager and treasurer. Mr. Volkmann is a Democrat in politics and a member of the Lutheran Church. He is affiliated with the Travelers' Protective Association and the Modern Business Brotherhood of America.
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The La Due Grain and Supply Company, of which Mr. Volkmann is manager and treasurer, was organized in the spring of 1915 and is a co-operative concern, the stock of which is held by the farmers of the surrounding country tributary to La Due. The capital stock was $6,000 at the time of organization. The company erected all of the buildings, the elevator having a capacity of 12,000 bushels of grain. During 1917 there was handled by this elevator 24,000 bushels of corn, 30,300 bushels of oats and 16,500 bushels of wheat. In addition to handling grain the concern retails seeds, flour, feeds, cement and building material, the vol- ume of business transacted during 1917 exceeding $100,000. The officers of the company are as follow: President, Claud Cordry; secretary, Clyde A. Rice; treasurer and manager, Otto Volkmann. The directors are as follow: William Lobaugh, F. K. Miller, George Mayes, Frank White, M. A. Harrison, C. H. Hartsock, George N. Angle, John Layman, John Wol- fert, J. W. Brown, C. A. Rice, Claud Cordry, C. C. Collins, T. D. Vansant and William Mida.
Albert Dunning .- The oldest pioneer in Fairview township and prob- ably the oldest settler in the southern part of Henry County is Albert Dunning, one of the largest land owners in Henry County, who began his career as a plain farmer after his war service ended, with just three dollars in money. He made his first purchase of land in 1883 when he bought one hundred twenty acres. Mr. Dunning formerly owned 2,100 acres of rich farm land but has been giving land to his children until his ownership now claims but 1,700 acres. Almost in the exact center of his large tract (the home place) he erected a splendid country home of im- posing appearance to which he added two rooms in 1893 and again re- modeled in 1916. Mr. Dunning leases some of his land, but the greater part of it is cultivated by his sons.
Albert Dunning was born in Trigg County, Kentucky, January 15, 1838, and is the son of Shadrach and Ada (Morris) Dunning, the former of whom was a native of Kentucky and the latter of Virginia. Shadrach and Ada Dunning were married in Kentucky and made their home in the Blue Grass State until 1840, when they left Kentucky and moved to Mis- souri. Leaving his family at Springfield, Greene County, Missouri, Shad- rach Dunning came to Henry County, entered land and then returned for his family, who came here the following year. He died at his home in this county at the age of fifty years. The following children were born to Shadrach and Ada Dunning: Freeman, deceased; Mrs. Martha
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ALBERT DUNNING AND FAMILY
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Glass and Mrs. Eliza Nichols, deceased; Mrs. Malinda Arnold, aged eighty-eight years, lives in Texas; Mrs. Amanda Reed, aged eighty-six years, lives in North Dakota; John Henry, aged eighty-four years, lives near Carthage, Missouri; Albert, subject of this review; Mrs. Sarah Eliza- beth McFarland, lives at Porterville, California, aged seventy-six years.
The original Dunning home was located in Fairview township, just four miles east of Albert Dunning's home place. Shadrach Dunning built a double log cabin, southern style, with two rooms below divided by a passage way, and a sleeping loft above. A big fireplace at the end of each room cheered and comforted the family in the winter time. Shad- rach Dunning brought his slaves with him from Kentucky, and one old darkey, "Uncle Ben," was especially favored each Christmas. It was a custom in the family to give the old darkey a holiday as long as the Christ- mas back log would burn. The old fellow would range the timber and cut the biggest and toughest log he could possibly handle and would be resting easy for days as a consequence of the log burning for a long time. Deer were plentiful in those faraway days and fish swarmed in the streams. When a boy Albert Dunning had no difficulty in catching one hundred pounds of fish in a day's fishing with hook and line. He has shot deer and wolves without number and frequently caught young wolves and deer and trained them. He recalls that a panther was killed down on the Osage after the brute had terrorized the neighborhood for days. Indians were numerous and they frequently came to the Dunning home on begging expeditions but gave little trouble to the white folks.
When the Southern States rebelled against the Federal Government Albert Dunning enlisted in the Southern Army and fought for the cause which he believed with all of his soul to be just and right. He enlisted in 1861 in Company K, 16th Regiment Missouri Infantry and fought at the battles of Lone Jack, Carthage, Oak Hill, near Springfield, Missouri, where he was dismounted. He served in General Price's army and was in the engagements of Cane Hill, Arkansas, and took part in the defeat of General Banks on the Red River. His service extended in all parts of the Southern States and he was severely wounded in the upper left cheek by a shell at the battle of Helena, Arkansas. He was laid up in a hospital for several weeks and during the period of his illness Uncle Joe Davis came to the camp and took him home, where he could get better treatment. After the close of the war he came to St. Louis and thence home by railroad to Sedalia, Missouri, walking to his home in Henry
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County from that city, almost destitute and with exactly three dollars in his pockets.
After returning from the war Mr. Dunning lived on the home place of the family until he began for himself. He saved his first money by buying calves, growing them and selling them for good money. In this way he managed to save enough to buy a piece of land. Since his first purchase he has continued to buy land and more land and has always been an extensive feeder of live stock.
Mr. Dunning was married October 10, 1880, to Miss Ellen Ann Fudge, who was born July 22, 1863, in Illinois, the daughter of Adam and Martha Fudge, who came to Henry County not many years after the close of the Civil War. The children born to Albert and Ellen Ann Dunning are as follows: Mrs. Martha Strickland, Fairview township, has two children, Albert, aged thirteen years, and Donald, aged five years; John, Fairview township; Albert, a farmer in Fairview township; Shadrach, at home with his father; Lillian, a high school teacher at Arcola, Missouri, who was educated in the Warrensburg Normal School; Robert L., Earl and Archie, eleven years, all at home. Robert L. was born January 26, 1895, and is now a private in the National Army, drafted July 22, 1918.
This section of the State was called Rives County during the younger days of Albert Dunning, and it was very thinly settled. Cattle had free range and few people had any idea that the land would ever be valuable and that the country would become so thickly settled. Between the Dun- ning home and Clinton the only house was one built by Colonel Tutt, a noted old pioneer. Albert Dunning has seen this entire section of Mis- souri settled up and where once the deer, wild turkey and other wild game ranged at will there are now fertile farms and prosperous cities and towns. On the State line of Kansas and Missouri there were herds of buffalo and elk, and each season some of the settlers would journey to Kansas and kill a winter's supply of meat. Albert Dunning is a Demo- crat and is a member of the Pleasant Valley Baptist Church.
Kindly disposed, at peace with the world and satisfied with his ac- complishments as a pioneer of Henry County and the great state of Mis- souri he is spending his declining years in comfort and east with the knowledge that his work on this earth is done. The verdict of the Re- cording Angel will undoubtedly be: "Well done, thou good and faithful servant."
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R. C. Grigsby .- The La Due Hardware Company, operated by R. C. Grigsby, La Due, Missouri, and owned by Mr. Grigsby and H. Welling, is one of the flourishing business concerns of Henry County. The store was established February 17, 1912, when Mr. Grigsby took active charge of it. During the past six years the business has increased and broad- ened. A general stock of hardware, oils, paints, agricultural implements, harness, buggies, wagons, etc., is carried and sold to the people of the surrounding country. The firm has the agency of the Buick automobiles. The business is housed in a large business room and two implement rooms which are filled with high grade stock of the best makes.
R. C. Grigsby was born in Licking County, Ohio, November 24, 1869, and is the son of Alfred and Sarah (White) Grigsby, both of whom were natives of Licking County, Ohio. Alfred Grigsby was a son of Harry Grigsby, a native of England. Sarah Grigsby was the daughter of John White, also a native of England. The Grigsby family migrated from Ohio to Missouri in 1870 and located on a farm situated three miles south- west of La Due, in Henry County. Mr. Grigsby hauled the first ties used in the building of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas railway in the neighbor- hood of La Due. His farm was located in Bear Creek township. He suc- cessfully tilled his acreage until old age came upon him and he then re- moved to California in 1911. His death occurred at the home of his son in that State in 1913. Mrs. Grigsby died in Henry County in 1908. They were parents of the following children: Mrs. Ella Stricker, deceased ; Henry, living in California; Mrs. Lizzie Stricker, residing in California; George, deceased; Nelson, living in California; Mattie, deceased, and R. C., the subject of this sketch.
R. C. Grigsby was ten months old when he came with his parents to Henry County and here he was reared and educated. He attended the Willow Branch school and the Franklin school in his youthful days and received his higher education in the academy at Warsaw, Missouri. Mr. Grigsby qualified for the teaching profession, but took up farming and followed this vocation until 1910. For a period of two and a half years he was located in California, going to that State in 1906, and being em- ployed in the orchard district as manager and also was engaged in the real estate business for a time. After returning to Henry County he farmed for one year and then took charge of the hardware business in La Due. Mr. Grigsby disposed of his farm in 1915.
On April 14, 1897, R. C. Grigsby and Miss Nannie E. Reavis of Bear
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Creek township were united in marriage. Mrs. Grigsby is the daughter of Mrs. Marian (Hunt) Reavis, widow of Edwin Reavis, a pioneer of Bear Creek township. Mr. and Mrs. Grigsby have a son, Cecil, born December 12, 1902.
Mr. Grigsby is aligned with the Democratic party and is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He is affiliated, fraternally, with the Woodmen of the World.
Samuel A. Vansant .- For fifty years Samuel A. Vansant has resided upon his splendid form of 160 acres in Davis township and has prospered as the years have passed. He has reared a fine family of children and he and his faithful wife have lived to celebrate their golden wedding an- niversary surrounded by their children and grandchildren. No man is more universally respected and admired for his sterling qualities than this old settler whose first home, when he came to Henry County in Sep- tember of 1868, was a tent in which he lived until his modest frame house, 16x24 feet in dimension, could be erected. In the year 1883 he erected a nice home of six rooms which is surrounded by cedar and de- ciduous trees, which have grown during the time of his residence on the place.
Samuel A. Vansant was born in Madison County, Illinois, April 8, 1841. He is a son of Abner B. and Susan (Christ) Vansant, natives of Pennsylvania and Ohio, respectively. Abner B. Vansant was born in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, removed to Zanesville, or Muskingum County, Ohio, and was there married to Susan Christ, who was born in that county. During the early thirties he removed to Madison County, Illinois, and purchased a farm near Collinsville, which he developed into a fine prop- erty. He died in 1856. There were four sons and two daughters in the Vansant family, as follow: Mary Ellen and Elizabeth Ann, deceased; Samuel A, subject of this review; George, deceased; Joel, Cedar County, Missouri ; William, Pittsburg, Kansas.
Samuel A. Vansant was reared to young manhood in Madison County, Illinois, and was there married to Elizabeth Boyles on October 16, 1862. Mrs. Elizabeth (Boyles) Vansant was born on July 11, 1842, and is a daughter of Henry and Sarah (Funderburg) Boyles, who were early set- tlers of Madison County, Illinois. Mr. Vansant was engaged in farming in Illinois until 1868, and during that year he disposed of his Illinois farm with the intention of coming to Missouri, where land was much cheaper and just as productive as the high priced land of his native county.
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When he came to Henry County he was possessed of the snug sum of $3,000, quite a fortune in those days. This amount enabled him to pay half cash for his quarter section at a cost of $8.50 an acre, and erect a comfortable residence on his prairie land. One year later he succeeded in paying the balance of the money due on the land, and as the years have passed he has grown prosperous and well contented with his lot in Henry County.
To Mr. and Mrs. Samuel A. Vansant have been born nine children, all of whom have been reared to maturity and useful citizenship: George Franklin, a farmer on Bear Creek township; Mrs. Emma Isabel Barr, died in 1884, leaving two children, one of whom, Howard, is living; Joel Henry, a carpenter and contractor in La Due, Missouri; James A., born August 11, 1869, is operating the home farm and is a director of the Bank of La Due, and is fraternally affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows; Mrs. Bertie Gale Grider, living at Pontiac, Livingston County, Illinois ; Thomas, a farmer in Davis township; Arthur, a farmer living in Bear Creek township; Mrs. Mattie Fellhauer, La Due, Missouri; Mrs. Ida Lawson, Clinton, Missouri.
Politically Mr. Vansant is aligned with the Democratic party. He and his family are members of the Christian Church. Fifty-five years have passed since Samuel A. and Sarah Vansant were united in marriage and time has served to mold them into comfortable and respected old age, admired and valued as friends by all who know them. Hospitable to the core, they are ever ready to share with their friends and acquain- tances that which they have. This splendid Henry County pioneer couple have twenty-six grandchildren and three great-grandchildren who were gathered at the old home on the occasion of the golden wedding anni- versary. May the years to come deal kindly with them and bring them continued prosperity and well being.
Judge James M. Harrison, of Davis township, has resided in Henry County for over sixty-two years and is probably the oldest pioneer in the western part of the county, not only in age but in years of residence in the county. Few people who settled in his vicinity sixty years ago are now living, and practically none of the old pioneers are now living in this neighborhood. Judge Harrison has outlived them all and has resided on his farm since he first entered the land from the Government in 1857. Times have changed greatly in that long period and Judge Harrison has lived to see the vast unbroken prairies thickly populated with a thriving
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population. His first home on the prairie was a pole cabin roofed with boards, the spaces between the poles being filled with mud. A stick and clay chimney, leading upward from an old fashioned fireplace, sufficed for heat and cooking purposes. The cooking and baking for the family were all done over the open fire. Judge Harrison recalls that he had a very happy time in the old days and there was always plenty to eat. Game was easily killed and he shot many wild turkeys and prairie chick- ens for the table. Local hunters made a business of killing deer for the settlers and the larder was always supplied with wild deer meat. Fish- ing was excellent and altogether everybody enjoyed life. This primitive and carefree condition of living was common among the pioneers until the border troubles and the ensuing Civil War engulfed the neighbor- hood. Mr. Harrison enlisted in the Confederate forces under General Price in 1861 and served for about eight months, taking part in the bat- tles of Drywood and Lexington and was at Sedalia when the city was invested by the Federal forces. Sickness incapacitated him for continued duty and he was discharged from the service. During the course of years spent in farming activities and stock raising, Judge Harrison became prosperous and accumulated several hundred acres of land, all of which he has given outright to his children excepting 160 acres. Judge Har- rison now makes his home, in his old age, with his son, Mordecai A. Harrison.
James M. Harrison was born in Mason County, West Virginia, May 24, 1832, and is the son of William Henry Harrison, a native of Rocking- ham County, Virginia (born August 22, 1809, died March, 1897). His mother was Esther Allen, a native of Mason County, West Virginia (born December, 1809, died 1862). William H. Harrison lived all of his days in Mason County, West Virginia, although he made trips to visit his children in Missouri, but the climate not being agreeable to him he did not remain for long at a time. He was father of eleven children, only two of whom are living: Josiah, a resident of Jackson County, West Vir- ginia; and James M., subject of this review. Another son, Jeremiah, fought as a Union soldier during the Civil War and died at Salt Lake City in 1915. William H. Harrison, the youngest son, died in September, 1917. He served in the Confederate army.
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