History of Howard and Cooper counties, Missouri : written and compiled from the most authentic official and private sources, including a history of its townships, towns, and villages : together with a condensed history of Missouri, a reliable and detailed history of Howard and Cooper counties-- its pioneer record, resources, biographical sketches of prominent citizens, general and local statistics of great value, incidents and reminiscences, Part 111

Author: National Historical Company
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: St. Louis : National Historical Co.
Number of Pages: 1198

USA > Missouri > Cooper County > History of Howard and Cooper counties, Missouri : written and compiled from the most authentic official and private sources, including a history of its townships, towns, and villages : together with a condensed history of Missouri, a reliable and detailed history of Howard and Cooper counties-- its pioneer record, resources, biographical sketches of prominent citizens, general and local statistics of great value, incidents and reminiscences > Part 111
USA > Missouri > Howard County > History of Howard and Cooper counties, Missouri : written and compiled from the most authentic official and private sources, including a history of its townships, towns, and villages : together with a condensed history of Missouri, a reliable and detailed history of Howard and Cooper counties-- its pioneer record, resources, biographical sketches of prominent citizens, general and local statistics of great value, incidents and reminiscences > Part 111

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JOHN SMITH,

farmer and stock raiser. Mr. Smith came to this country in 1849 from Germany, where he was born and reared to his seventeenth year,

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HISTORY OF HOWARD AND COOPER COUNTIES.

landing at Baltimore without money and without friends, and for twelve years worked at the shoemaker's trade, which he had learned in the old country. He is now, and for years has been, one of the substantial and successful farmers and stock men of Cooper county. Such a career is an eloquent tribute to the character and personal worth of the man. He was born February 22, 1832, and was the eldest of eleven children, the family of Adam and Catharine (Hoiel) Smith of the Fatherland. After landing in this country he worked two years in Baltimore, Pittsburg, Cincinnati, Memphis and other cities, and in 1851 came to Howard county and followed his trade at Roanoke until 1861, when he engaged in farming. His homestead in this county contains 340 acres, and is a fine farm. He deals consider- ably in cattle, and raises grain and stock for the markets. In March, 1861, he was married to Miss Mary Kasley, a native of Baden, Ger- many. They have eight children : Joseph, Johnnie, Leonard, Rose, Annie, Berdie, Albert and Minnie. Mr. S. is a member of the Lutheran church.

A. N. SPENCER,

farmer. Mr. Spencer was born in England May 17, 1837, but when he was only four years of age, his parents emigrated from the " Mistress Island of the Seas " to this country, and after a two years' residence on the Atlantic coast crossed the Alleghanies and came on to Cooper county, where they made their permanent home and where A. N., the son, grew to manhood. His father, John B. Spencer, built the first stone house that was erected in this part of the country, and was a well-to-do and highly respected citizen of this county. His mother, formerly Miss Ann Harrison, of the " Motherland of Shake- speare," was a lady of great personal worth, and was esteemed by all who knew her for her many estimable qualities of mind and heart. Early in life the son, A. N., learned the plastering trade, and this he followed for years afterwards, alternated with farming. During the war, however, he went to St. Louis, where he utilized his time by clerking in a hotel, in which he was engaged about three years. After this he returned to Cooper county and devoted his attention to farm- ing, which he has since followed. His farm of over 100 acres is com- fortably improved, and he is an industrious, intelligent and well-to-do farmer. June 11, 1857, he was married to Miss Mary A. Bagwell of this section of the state. They have two children : Laura L., wife of S. W. Phillips, and John W. Death has taken from them three others. Mr. Spencer is a member of the Baptist church. For eight

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HISTORY OF HOWARD AND COOPER COUNTIES.

years he held the responsible office of justice of the peace of his town- ship.

PROF. J. M. STITES,

educator and agriculturist, Pilot Grove. Prof. J. M. Stites was born in Wilson county, Tennessee, February 3, 1834. When he was four years of age his parents, Levi and Mary ( Adamson ) Stites, migrated to Illinois, where they lived until 1840 and then removed to Missouri, settling in Greene county, His father was originally of North Caro- lina, but his mother was a native of Tennessee. The son, J. M., grew up in Greene county, and although his advantages for securing an education were very indifferent, such was his ambition for learning and his stalwart force of character, that no difficulties seemed to him too great to be surmounted. An education he was determined to have. Accordingly he availed himself of all the instruction he conld get in the ordinary neighborhood schools, and assiduously applied him- self to study at home. The mastering one book led the way to an- other, and saving the money he worked for, in order to be able to get such books as he needed, he thus pursued his studies, steadily advanc- ing in the acquisition of knowledge until his superior acquirements becoming recognized, he was called upon to open a school, which he did, and which was largely patronized. He soon established a wide reputation as a thorough, able and successful teacher. Inasmuch as this calling afforded him better opportunities than any other for self- instruction and at the same time was more congenial to his tastes, it became his regular employment, and for over twenty-five years he has followed it, educating the young and preparing their minds for the activities of life. He tanght principally in Polk county until 1863, when he removed to Cooper county, where he has continued his life- work in different parts of the county up to the present time. Febru- ary 28, 1858, he was married to Miss Amanda Hall, originally of Tennessee. They have five children : Horace L., Fannie R., Mattie D., Charles A. and Bertha. When his family of children began to grow up around him, feeling the want of a settled home where they could be reared to habits of industry and removed from all the tempta- tions of town or city life, he decided to settle on a farm, and accord- ingly bought a neat homestead in the country which he has well improved and where he lives a generous, hospitable and blameless life. Although farming is not his life occupation, in this also he has achieved substantial success. But the acquisition of wealth has not been his ambition in life. To improve the mind, the immortal part of human nature, and to elevate those around him by the power of edu-

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cation are the great aims, for the accomplishment of which all his energies are devoted, and in which all his hopes are centred. He believes with Wendell Phillips that " education is the only interest worthy the deep, controlling anxiety of thoughtful men."

A. H. THRUSTON,

druggist and apothecary, Pilot Grove. It is the least of the plain truth always to say that Mr. Thruston has, at Pilot Grove, one of the finest drug stores, if, in fact, not the very finest, in Cooper county. His store building, thirty by seventy feet in dimensions, is a model of convenient arrangement for his business, and of neatness and good taste, and this he has filled with a heavy stock of drugs of every description, paints, oils, druggists' sundries and etceteras, almost ad infinitum, all of the best quality, and kept in the best condition. The fact that he has such a drug establishment speaks more for his popularity as a druggist and citizen, and for his business ability, than the modest dignity of this work will permit to be expressed. The facts, therefore, unadorned by the rhetorician's art, will have to suffice, and they are eloquent enough. Mr. Thruston is a native Missourian, having been born in Morgan county, this state, December 13th, 1842. The drug business has been his life occupation. In 1865 he en- gaged in the business on his own account at Versailles, in his native county, where he continued with excellent success for four years. In 1869 he changed his location to Otterville, where he established a large drug store and built up an extensive trade. Remaining at the latter place until 1874, he then came to Pilot Grove, where he has since lived. Here he has achieved the most gratifying success. Mr. Thruston is not only a thorough druggist and apothecary, but he has made a specialty of the study of chemistry, and is more than ordi- narily versed in that science. Hence he is proficient in the preparation of many articles that those less skilled have to depend upon the wholesale houses for, exclusively. He also manufactures at his own store the following extracts of various kinds : Baking powders, bluing, and so forth. September 6th, 1866, he was married to Miss Edith White, an accomplished young lady, formerly of Kentucky. They have one child, Mable Clark. Mr. Thrustou's parents were among the pioneer settlers of this section of the state. His father, William R. Thruston, was a native of South Carolina, and his mother, origi- nally Miss Mary A. Melton, was of Tennessee birth. They reared their family in this state. Mr. Thruston is a member of the I. O. O. F., and Knights of Pythias.

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HISTORY OF HOWARD AND COOPER COUNTIES.

P. R. WOOLDRIDGE,

liveryman and farmer. Nothing more conclusively attests the grow- ing importance of Pilot Grove than the fact that the livery business has become a necessity to the place. Recognizing the clearly felt want, Mr. Wooldridge, a year ago, established a large livery stable at this place, where he keeps an ample supply of horses and buggies of the best quality, to meet the demands of the travelling public, as well as of the citizens of the town, who have occasion to use them. He has an excellent stable, and everything is kept in the best of order and condition. Mr. Wooldridge was born in this county, October 17th, 1835, and was a son of Starlin R., and Ann (Roe) Wooldridge. His mother was from Maryland, and his grandfather, on his father's side, was one of the first settlers of Cooper county. Farming has been Mr. Wooldridge's life occupation up to the time he began the livery business, and he still owns an excellent farm near Pilot Grove. He was married May 2d, 1877, to Miss R. Warren, originally of Mary- land. They have two children, Rossie and Jesse K. Mr. W. is a member of the M. E. church south.

PRAIRIE HOME TOWNSHIP.

GEORGE T. AKERS,

farmer, section 32. Mr. Akers' father, Ishman Akers, although a native of Kentucky, came to this state from Tennessee, of which he had been a resident, in 1829, and made his home in Moniteau county. He was married, however, in this county, to Miss Sarah, daughter of James Shields, an early settler of Cooper county, but who subsequently removed to Moniteau. Her parents died several years ago in Henry county. George F. was born in Moniteau county, January 27th, 1839, and grew to manhood on his father's farm. At the age of twenty-five, February 10th, 1864, he was married to Miss Martha, danghter of Reuben and Judida ( Hall) Smith, who were among the pioneer settlers of Moniteau county. She was born May 20th, 1841. Her parents died, her father in 1850 and her mother in 1879. Mrs. A. has a brother and a half-brother, Blackburn and Huder Smith, and a sister, Harriett Howard, still in Moniteau county. Mr. Akers has a brother, James S., in Texas, and one William J., and a sister, Mary S. Dalton, in Henry county. After their marriage, Mr. and Mrs. A. lived in Moniteau county, engaged in farming, until 1878, when they came to their present farm in Prairie Home town-

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HISTORY OF HOWARD AND COOPER COUNTIES.

ship. It contains a quarter section of good land, and is devoted mainly to grain growing, principally wheat. They have a family of five children : Louisa Octavia, aged eighteen ; Ida A., aged nine ; Martha May, aged six ; Florence Ethel, aged three, and Julia T., aged one. Two are dead, Thomas Lee and Mary Ellen. They have also reared two nephews, Newton and Royal, sons of Mrs. Akers' brother, Royal Smith, aged respectively twenty-six and twenty-one, both of whom are still at home. Mrs. A. is a member of the Baptist church. Mr. A. belongs to the A. F. and A. M.

JOHN E. BLANK,

farmer, section 16. In 1852 when Nicholas and Catharine Blank came to America, from Bavaria, Germany, John E., their son, was a lad eleven years of age, he having been born in their native country, Sep- tember 22, 1843. They first stopped in Moniteau county, but the following spring settled near where John E. now lives. There the father died April 8, 1878, but the mother is still living and resides on their homestead. John, after he grew up, was married June 4, 1868, to Miss Margaret Cleckner, of this county, and engaged extensively in the life of a farmer. This he has since followed with excellent suc- cess. He has a good farm of 200 acres comfortably improved, and devotes his attention mainly to grain growing, and raises some stock. They have a family of six children, Emma, Bertha, John J., Nicholas H., Louisa L., and Oscar O. During the war, Mr. Blank served three months in the regularly enrolled militia. He was with the squad of eleven engaged in looking for a stray mare when Bill An- derson's command fell on them, and killed seven of the eleven. Mr. Blank is a member of the Evangelical church.

SAMUEL CARPENTER,

farmer, section 24. In 1819, Samuel Carpenter, the father of the subject of this sketch, then under twenty-one years of age, came to Cooper county from Kentucky, and the following year was married at Clark's Fork, to Miss Sarah Longley. This union proved a long and happy one, and was blessed with twelve children, of whom Samuel, Jr., was the eighth. They were as follows : Andrew M., Henry, Susan, Calvin, William, Mary J., James T., Samuel, Gabriel, Sarah, George and Ellen. Nearly all of these grew to maturity and become heads of families, but now only four are living, Andrew M., Samuel, Gabriel and George. The parents after their marriage settled in what is now Prairie Home, but two years afterward went to the prairie near Pisgah, and lived there, except one year, in Benton county, un- til their deaths. The mother died May 5, 1862, in her fifty-seventh

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HISTORY OF HOWARD AND COOPER COUNTIES.

year ; the father, April 30, 1868, in his sixty-eighth year. In 1849 he went to California, and was satisfactorily successful there, return- ing in less than two years afterwards. He was also a successful farmer, and at his death had a landed estate of about 500 acres. Samuel, the son, was born near Pisgah, August 5, 1835, and was reared on his father's farm. October 22, 1856, he was married to Miss Lucy Dooley, of Miller county. She was born December 2, 1838. Samuel accompanied his father to Benton county, where he

entered land and lived about two years. He then returned to Cooper county, and has since resided here. In February, 1855, he bought his present farm, containing 520 acres of fine land, which is well im- proved. Besides this, he also owned 600 acres, which he has divided among his sons. On his homestead he grows about 300 acres of grain annually, about two-thirds of which is wheat. The balance is in blue grass and meadow. Mr. Carpenter raises considerable stock, having over a hundred head of cattle, and some of them of a very fine quality. He has a family of three sons and a daughter, William Henry, George Andrew, Mason Rice and Martha Ellen. Another, Uriah G., died in infancy. All his children have been educated at the Prairie Home In- stitute. His wife, himself and family are members of the Baptist church at Pisgah. His children were born as follows : William H., September 4, 1857 ; George A., March 16, 1860 ; M. C., October 28, 1863, and Miss Martha E., July 28, 1868. Mr. Carpenter is one of the most successful and enterprising agriculturalists of the county.

CALVIN M. CAREY, DECEASED,

late proprietor of Maple Grove farm. A man who led a useful and blameless life, and of whom it might with truth be said that -

" Nothing in his life Became him like the leaving it,"

was Calvin M. Carey, the subject of this memoir - a public-spirited citizen, a valued neighbor, and a kind and affectionate husband and father. Having had but little to begin life with for himself, by his own honest exertions and personal worth he accumulated a comforta- ble estate as a staff for old age, and reared a family that reflects credit upon his name, and cherishes and venerates his memory. He was born October 20, 1825, in the township where his whole life was spent, and in whose bosom his remains are now sleeping to wake no more

" "Till joy shall overtake His perfect calm."

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HISTORY OF HOWARD AND COOPER COUNTIES.

Mr. Carey was the third of a family of eight children of Evan and Sallie ( Burger) Carey, six of whom, two brothers and four sisters, are now living : George and Alfred, and Ann, Sarah, Mary and Bettie. The father died many years ago, but his mother is still living at the age of seventy-eight. Reared on his father's farm in youth, he attended such neighborhood schools as they had in those days, and occupied much of his leisure time in study at home, thus acquiring a good practical education. Farming, not unnaturally, be- came his occupation for life, and in this he was abundantly successful, leaving a splendid farm of some 500 acres at his death, on which his family still resides. He also dealt, to a considerable extent, in mules and other live stock. Mr. Carey was twice married. His first wife, formerly Miss Mary Bruce, to whom he was married in early man- hood, died in 1854. December 2, 1862, he was married to Miss Ma- tilda T. Miller, a most estimable and amiable lady, originally of Madison county, Kentucky, born June 6, 1840. She was a daughter of James E. and Harriet F. (Tevis) Miller, of Moniteau. Her father died in 1846 and her mother in 1867. She has a brother at Sedalia, Doctor Robert T. Miller. Mrs. Carey still survives her lamented husband. They were blessed with a family of seven children : Estelle E., Hattie M., Anna M., Mand T., Sallie B., Robert A. and George C., the last of whom, however, died in childhood. All are at home, and were educated at the Prairie Home institute. Their father was an active, zealous friend to education, and was mainly instrumental in building up the institution at which his children were educated. He was for twenty years an earnest, sincere member of the Methodist church, and on the 11th day of February, 1879, breathed his last, triumphant in death in the faith which his life had so long and so beautifully illustrated.

MAJOR DRURY DAVIS.

Major Drury Davis was one of the early settlers of Howard county, Missouri. He emigrated from Wayne county, Kentucky, and settled in Howard county, Missouri, in the fall of 1817, about three miles southeast of where Fayette is now. He was one of the first justices of the pence of Howard county. He was a great hunter. He killed a great many deer, found a great many bees, and manufactured a considerable amount of gunpowder. After about four years' resi- dence in Howard county he emigrated to Cole county, Missouri, and settled at a very noted spring about sixteen miles southwest of Jeffer- son City, when that country was a wilderness. Soon after he settled

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in Cole county, and he built a powder mill and manufactured a large quantity of gunpowder. He was justice of the peace, major of the state militia, and represented Cole county in the state legislature when Cole included nearly all of what is now Moniteau and Miller counties. In 1832 he removed to Cooper county, where he lived until 1843, en- gaged mainly in farming. In 1843 he removed to Macon county, Missouri, and engaged in farming and merchandising. He removed back to Cooper county in 1856, where he remained until he died, in the eighty-fifth year of his age, on the 10th of October, 1872.

O. P. DAVIS.

O. P. Davis, son of Major Drury Davis, was born in Wayne county, Kentucky, on the 16th day of September, 1816. He was the eldest of a family of sixteen children - twelve sons and four daugh- ters. His mother's maiden name was East, daughter of Captain North East, of Wayne county, Kentucky. She was in many respects a very remarkable woman. She carried the subject of this sketch in her lap on a horse from Wayne county, Kentucky, to Howard county, Mis- souri, when a boy one year old, expecting to bury him at almost every encampment on the way, he being sick when they started, and sick all the way. She raised all her children to be grown without calling a doctor to see one of them. She was a woman of fine, practical sense, and great resolution. She was for many years a devoted member of the Baptist church, and for several of the last years of her life a worthy member of the Christian church. The subject of this sketch grew up in Missouri, when school facilities were very poor ; but being passion- ately fond of books from a child, and a close student during the early years of his life, he managed to acquire a fair English education. He became a member of the Baptist church at Pisgah, Cooper county, Missouri, in 1837. He removed to Macon county, Missouri, in 1839, with his youngest brother, Jeremiah Davis, when that part of the country was almost a wilderness, undergoing the privations and hard- ships incident to a frontier life. He was licensed to preach the gospel by the Baptist church in the spring of 1842, and was regularly or- dained in the spring or summer of 1843. He preached for the Baptist church in that country with great acceptance until the spring of 1846, when they accused him of preaching what they called Campbellism, and decided that he should preach no longer for them. He preached but little from that time until the fall of 1848, when he identified him- self with the Christian church, and has been engaged in the work of the ministry ever since. His labors were confined chiefly to Macon

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HISTORY OF HOWARD AND COOPER COUNTIES.

county until the spring of 1857, when he removed to Cooper county, Missouri, and was for several years the only Christian preacher in Cooper county. He has been instrumental, in a large measure, in establishing and building up the Christian church in Cooper county since 1857, and also in Moniteau and Miller counties. He was married on the 12th day of September, 1843, to Miss Sally L. Robinson, daughter of Samuel E. Robinson, of Mercer county, Kentucky. They have raised eight children - four sons and four daughters - one now dead and seven living, all members of the Christian church. He is still farming and preaching, though, owing to feeble health, is preach- ing but little at this time.

U. E. & D. L. DAVIS,

general merchants, Prairie Home. The business of the above named firm was established by the senior partner, Mr. Urban E. Davis, in February, 1881, and in January, 1882, his elder brother, Drury L., became his partner, since which it has been conducted under the name of U. E. & D. L. Davis. Drury L. was the second and Urban E. the fifth of a family of eight children, the former born March 29, 1849, and the latter July 20, 1852, both in Macon county, Missouri. Both had the advantages afforded by the common schools, and Drury L. attended the state normal school at Kirksville three years. He entered the normal school in 1869 and concluded his studies there in 1873, having taught a three months' school at Newburg and an eight months' school at Salisbury in the meantime. After his normal course he taught two terms at New Salem, followed by four years' teaching at Prairie Home. He then taught two years at Pisgah and another year at Prairie Home, after which he became a partner with his brother in their present mercantile business. While teaching he also conducted a farm of eighty acres near Pisgah. He was married August 1, 1878, to Miss Florence M., daughter of Charles B. Frank- lin, of Prairie Home. She was born September 10, 1860. They have two children : Mand, born August 9, 1879, and Ida May, born Feb- ruary 24, 1881.

Urban E. Davis, after quitting the farm at the age of twenty, went to Texas in 1872 and engaged in school teaching there, but rc- turned the following year and farmed until 1880. He then went back to Texas and established a mercantile business at Mill Sap that state, with his cousin, Drury Davis. Returning to Missouri in a couple of months after this, he thereupon, in February, 1881, estab- lished the store at Prairie Home, in which he is now a partner, His

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HISTORY OF HOWARD AND COOPER COUNTIES.

cousin subsequently died in Texas, leaving their business there with- out a manager, and on account of that event he went to Mill Sap and closed it out, since which he has devoted his whole attention to his Prairie Home interests. They carry a large stock of general mer- chandise, and have an extensive and rapidly increasing trade. Both are thoroughly qualified business men and are justly popular as neigh- bors and citizens. They are members of the Christian church, and Drury L. is a member of the A. F. and A. M.

FRANK M. DAVIS.

Frank M., son of Major Drury and Nancy P. (East ) Davis, was born in Cooper county, Missouri, April 4th, 1836. When he was nine years of age his parents removed to Macon county, where Frank M. grew up to his nineteenth year. He then returned to Cooper county and was engaged in farm labor at the time of the outbreak of the war. He thereupon enlisted in the Confederate service, in the 2d Missouri cavalry, under Colonel McCulloch, and remained with his regiment until its final surrender in 1865, participating in all the battles in which it was engaged. At the close of the war he returned to Cooper county and was married November 16, 1865, to Miss Emeline, daughter of William Hurt. He then bought a part of the Logan farın, on which he lived seven years, after which he removed to the old Davis homestead near Jewett's mill. He remained on this place until 1881, when he removed to his present farm, which contains 240 aeres of excellent land in a good state of improvement. Mr. Davis is an industrious intelligent farmer and a good neighbor and citizen. Three children have blessed his married life -- Katie, Albert S. L., and Addie. Mrs. Davis is a member of the Christian church, and her husband is overseer of the P. of H. at Fairview.

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Author: National Historical Company Publication date: 1883 Publisher: St. Louis : National Historical Co. Number of Pages: 1198

Author: National Historical Company
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: St. Louis : National Historical Co.
Number of Pages: 1198