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 41
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 41
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"On and on it flows, Like the current of a gliding river."
He was born in Fayette, February 1, 1847, and was reared in this connty. Having received his education from Central college, in 1847 he went to Warsaw, Illinois, and there engaged in the drug business. But, returning subsequently to Howard county, he engaged as clerk in a drug store in Glasgow, in which he continued over two years, studying medicine during the same time under Dr. Willhite, a prom- inent physician of that place. The two years following, he attended the regular terms of the St. Louis medical college, from which insti- tution he was graduated in April, 1871. Immediately after his gradu- ation he came back to Fayette, and here he has since practised with satisfactory success. Dr. Wright is a member of the Baptist church, and a prominent member of the Masonic order. He was married September 24, 1873, to Miss Carrie Shafroth, a most excellent and accomplished lady. They have a family of four children : Uriel S. Jr., Anna L., Nannie L. and Katie L.
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HISTORY OF HOWARD AND COOPER COUNTIES.
CHARITON TOWNSHIP.
RECTOR BARTON,
farmer and dealer in stock and tobacco, Glasgow. About eighteen years of Mr. Barton's early life were devoted to mercantile pursuits, but in 1869 he located on the farm where he now lives, and where he has charge of a place of 1,100 acres devoted to grain and stock raising. He was born in Linn county, Missouri, March 20, 1837. His father, Wharton R. Barton, is an Ohioan by birth, having been born in that state in March, 1809. When he (the father) was a small boy his parents moved to Illinois, thence to St. Louis, and in that city he grew to manhood. In St. Louis he had the advantages offered by the schools of the city. Subsequently he came to this county, and in 1835 moved to Linn county, where he soon became one of the leading farmers and citizens of the county, as he was one of its first settlers. He was for a number of years sheriff, and, afterwards circuit clerk, and held various other positions of public trust. Wharton R. Barton has been twice married ; first to Miss Jane, daughter of Edward War- ren, one of the early settlers of Howard county. She died in Linn county in November, 1849, leaving six children, His second wife was formerly Mrs. Elizabeth Lockridge of this county. Her family name, before her first marriage, was Rooker. Mr. and Mrs. Barton have six children living. Rector Barton, the subject of this sketch, was born of his father's first marriage, and when his mother died in 1849, he was but twelve years of age. In his boyhood days, however, he had attended school regularly, and, being of studious, industrious habits, acquired the elements of an education, so that he was qualified to begin as clerk in the mercantile business. Accordingly, he came to Glasgow and obtained a position in a dry goods house, and con- tinned clerking, with but one year's interval, until 1862, a period of thirteen years. The following year, then being twenty-six years of age, he began business on his own account, establishing a dry goods store in Roanoke, in which, however, he continued but one year. In 1864 he went to New York, and in 1865 engaged in the tobacco and dry goods business in Mason county, Kentucky, but in the fall of the same year returned to Roanoke, this county, and resumed the dry goods business there, in which he continued four years, and until 1869, when he located on the farm where he now lives. On the 20th of May, 1860, he was married to Miss Sallie C. Savage, who was born in Mason county, Kentucky, January 21, 1838. They have three children, Oswald S., Maggie M. and Jennie W. Mr. and Mrs. B. are members of the M. E. church south, and he is a member of Liv- ingstone lodge No. 51, A. F. and A. M., and also of the A. O. U. W.
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HISTORY OF HOWARD AND COOPER COUNTIES.
JOHN V. BASTIN,
farmer. Mr. Bastin's parents, Richard and Mary ( formerly a Miss Roper ) Bastin, were originally from Virginia, where they grew up and married, but afterwards moved to Woodford county, Kentucky, and there reared a family of four children. However, Richard Bastin died in Kentucky before all the children were grown, in about the year 1816, and four years afterwards the widow and her family came to Missouri and settled in Howard county, where she subsequently died at the advanced age of eighty-one. The children of this family are, or were, as follows : Harriet, widow of the late Jackson Clark ; John V. ; Jessie, died in this county in 1851; Mary, a widow of the late Mr. Cash. John V. was born in Woodford county, Kentucky, March 6, 1808, and was a boy twelve years of age when the family came to this county. Two years afterwards he was apprenticed to Price Prewitt, near Old Franklin, the place then being known as Ft. Hempstead, to learn the tanner's trade, with whom he served six years, and then, being twenty years of age, went to work for himself. He worked for wages the first two years after completing his appren- ticeship and then engaged in the tanning business on his own account, in which he continued in this county twenty-three years. From the tanning business he turned his attention to farming, commencing his farm life in about 1841, which he has since continued. He now owns a good farm of 400 acres. On the 15th of January, 1833, he was mar- ried to Miss Ann A. Peery, daughter of Thomas Pecry, originally of Vir- ginia, but an early settler in this county from Kentucky. She was born near Hopkinsville, Kentucky, October 12, 1816, and was one of a family of twelve children. Her father also reared three children by his second marriage. Mr. and Mrs. Bastin have had eleven children, ten of whom lived to reach the age of maturity, but only four of them are now living : Richard, Mary F., wife of Wm. Wilhoit ; Henrietta and John E. Mrs. B., a venerable and motherly old lady, is still living.
HON. THOMAS E. BIRCH,
banker. Mr. Birch is now cashier of the Glasgow Savings bank, and is one of the oldest cashiers in the state, having held a position of this kind for the last twenty-seven years, and being now sixty-eight years of age. There is a volume of honorable worth implied in the foregoing sentence, but of the living it is not always meet to speak in words of praise ; hence we pass in silence by the character of the man. He was born in Montgomery county, Virginia, November 24, 1815. Four years afterwards his father emigrated from the Old Do- minion to Kentucky, and in 1830 Mr. Birch came to Howard county, Missouri, where he has since continued to live except for an intermis- sion of thirteen years - from 1843 to 1856 - during which he resided in Plattsburg, Clinton county, this state. While a resident of Clinton county he was register of the United States land office at Plattsburg,
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HISTORY OF HOWARD AND COOPER COUNTIES.
and represented that county in the legislature in 1848-49. He re- turned to Glasgow in May, 1856, since which he has been contin- uously engaged in banking in this city. He was, in the first place, cashier of the branch of the Western bank of Missouri, and so con- tinued until the expiration of its charter. Then, in association with John Harrison and Richard Earickson, he organized the banking house of Birch, Earickson & Co., and after this firm closed out in 1871, the Glasgow Savings bank was organized, of which he has since been cashier. In May, 1841, he was married to Miss Eliza, daughter of Colonel Morrow, and his companion still survives to brighten his home and life.
RICHARD THOMPSON BOND,
professor of mathematics in Pritchett Institute, was born in Hollidays- burg, Pennsylvania, September 25, 1838. His father, Rev. Richard Bond, M. D., was born in Baltimore county, Maryland, and his mother, Eliza Ann Thompson, in Westmoreland county, Virginia. His parents moved to Missouri in 1840, and in 1841 settled in Dan- ville, the county seat of Montgomery county. There he attended a select school, taught by Rev. C. W. Pritchett, during several years, and afterwards attended Central college, located at Fayette, Missouri. During the next ten years he was occupied in teaching, farming, merchandising, mining, freighting or travelling. He made three trips from New York city to San Francisco by water, two via Panama, and one via Nicaragua ; also numerous trips overland to Denver, Santa Fe, Boise City and Oregon, before there was any Pacific railroad. In February, 1867, he came here and settled down, married Miss Hannah Mellhany in Callaway county, and the next fall came to Glasgow to teach in Pritchett School Institute, where he has been ever since as teacher or president, save four years spent in St. Louis teaching mathematics in Washington university.
JUDGE JOHN BOTTS.
Judge Botts comes of an ancestry of brave-hearted pioneers and soldiers, who have shown the hearty manhood to help clear away the forests and build up states, and the moral courage to defend them. The founder of the family in this country came to America in the early days of the colonies. The judge's grandfather, Joshua Botts, was a soldier in the war of the revolution, and followed the meteor like flag of the infant Republic until it moved in triumph from north to south. He afterwards became a pioneer settler of Tennessee and reared a large family. He lived to the advanced age of 106 years and finally died in Liun county. The judge's father, Thomas Botts, who was a soldier in the war of 1812, tore himself away from her whom he had just made his wife, and volunteered for the defence of his country. When the storm of the war had passed he became the first settler in the northern part of the county, at a time when his only neighbors
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HISTORY OF HOWARD AND COOPER COUNTIES.
were the knights of the torch and the tomahawk. He lived here many years and was a successful farmer and became very wealthy. His wife, formerly Miss Martha Wilson, daughter of Robert Wilson, was a woman worthy to be the wife of a soldier, pioneer and noble- hearted man. They had nine children, six of whom are now living : Joshua, Seth and Thomas, of Linn county ; Judge Botts, of this county ; Mrs. Susan Ryan, of Livingston county ; and Mrs. Ann Mul- lins, of Colorado. About 1834, the family moved to Linn county, where the father died abont 1852 and the mother about 1875. Judge Botts was little more than a year old when his parents settled in this county in 1816. He grew up here and was married in 1835, Miss Elizabeth, daughter of William Harvey, becoming his wife. They were both quite young, the groom being only twenty and the bride fourteen, but their married life has been a happy one, and has been blessed with ten children, seven of whom are living: Louisa A., the wife of Dr. J. R. Sands, of Salisbury ; William M., of Linn county ; John D., Fanny, the wife of Dr. Worthington Morehead, and Misses Ella, Mary E., Nora B. and Emma B., all of this county. A year after his marriage, Judge B., moved to Linn county, and there lived until sixteen years ago, when he returned to this county. The quali- ties in a family that make pioneers and soldiers in early and troublous times, in times of peace and in an advanced state of society, make pros- perous, progressive citizens, leaders and representative men in their respective localities. Judge Botts became one of the largest and wealthiest farmers of Linn county, his farm numbering over 1,300 acres, and he was one of the leading citizens of the county. For thirty years he was a member of the county court, and two years later he was an able and popular representative of the people in the state legislature. In 1867, he returned to Howard county to spend the golden evening of his life under the vine and fig tree he had plant- ed in the radiant morning. Here he has an elegant home supplied with every comfort.
" How blest is he who crowns in shades like these,
A youth of labor with an age of ease."
JOHN H. BOWEN,
of Bowen & Ruffel, editors and proprietors of the Central Missou- rian. Among the young members of the press of Missouri, who, by reason of their ability and personal worth, give every promise of a prominent and useful future, is the young gentleman whose name heads this sketch, now one of the editors and proprietors of the Cen- tral Missourian. He is a native of Indiana and was born in Madison, of that state, April 4, 1854. When a lad five years of age he was brought to this state by his parents, who immigrated to Missouri in 1859. In boyhood and early youth he had the advantages afforded by the local schools, and being of a quick, ready mind and of studi- ous habits he acquired at an early age the practical essentials of a good common school education. Quitting school while still a youth
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HISTORY OF HOWARD AND COOPER COUNTIES.
he entered the printing office of Colonel L. J. Easton, editor and pro- prietor of the Glasgow Journal, under whom he learned the art pre- servative of arts and also acquired a practical knowledge of the busi- ness management of a paper. Determined to get the full benefit of his opportunities in the Journal office, he occupied his spare time with writing for that paper, first for the local columns, and then when the wings of his Pegasus had become sufficiently enfledged he contrib- uted liberally to the editorial department. Thus when the year 1877 dawued upon the world he was well qualified to take charge of a paper, and strict economy in his expenditures had put him in a situa- tion to purchase an office as soon as a desirable one offered. Accord- ingly, when the Salisbury Press was offered for sale he became its pur- chaser and conducted it until 1878, when he sold ont to advantage and went to St. Louis. During the fall of the following year he bought a halfinterest in the Central Missourian at Glasgow, becoming an associate with Mr. Ruffel in editing and conducting the paper. Mr. Bowen is a terse, vigorous writer, independent and fearless in all he says and does, a bold defender of the right as he honestly sees it, and a bitter, merciless antagonist to wrong wherever it shows its head. He possesses to more than an ordinary degree the stronger and better qualities of a journalist. Several years ago Mr. Bowen was married to Miss Mary Ruffel, of Glasgow. They have two interesting children, Raymond and Irene. Mr. B.'s parents, Thomas H. and Martha Bowen, were married in Madison, Ohio, where his mother was born and reared. His father, however, is a native of Pennsylvania.
C. R. BROWN,
farmer and stock raiser. Although Mr. Brown is still comparatively a young man, he is one of the prominent farmers and stock raisers of the county. He has a fine farm of 380 acres, and has it well im- proved and well stocked. He raises stock, principally cattle and hogs, for the regular markets, and has been very successful in this line of business. His father, Samuel H. Brown, was a native of Mad- ison county, Kentucky, but was brought by his parents to this county when but four years of age. His parents, James and Anna B. Brown (formerly a Miss Clark ), came to Howard county in 1815, and made this their home until their deaths. Samuel H. grew up on his father's farm, and on reaching manhood was married to Miss Mary S. Givens, originally from Virginia. C. R. Brown, the subject of this sketch, was the third of a family of eight children resulting from this mar- riage, and was born on the 10th of September, 1845. He was edu- cated in the schools of this county, principally the schools of Fayette, and afterwards chose farming as his occupation for life. When Price's army returned to this state, in 1864, he was then nineteen years of age, and enlisted in the Confederate service, in which he continued until the close of the war. Returning home in 1865, he began farm- ing on his own account, and has since proved himself an enterprising, successful farmer and an intelligent, useful citizen. In 1871 he was
29
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HISTORY OF HOWARD AND COOPER COUNTIES.
married to Miss Belle, daughter of Colonel James Richardson, of Randolph county, Missouri. They have four children -James, Anna, Charles and Mary. Mr. B. is a member of the Masonic order.
COL. GEORGE W. CASON
was born in Howard county, Missouri, May 2, 1841, and was reared and educated in this county. Farming has always been his pursuit in life, and he now has a landed estate of 400 acres, all in a good state of im- provement. In May, 1861, he became a member of the state militia, or state guards, under General Price, and remained in service for about three years, leaving the army at Memphis, Tennessee, on account of disability, resulting from sickness and wounds. Entering as sergeant, he was promoted to major, and then, in the spring of 1863, to colonel of the 1st regiment of the 3d division, Missouri state troops. After returning home he was married, March 26, 1865, to Miss Elizabeth, daughter of James Howell, also originally from Tennessee, who came to this state by way of Kentucky, settling in Howard county in 1816. At that time the country was inhabited mostly by wild beasts, and Mr. Howell, being an excellent marksman, was de- tailed to procure meat for a colony of twelve families, in return for which his crops would secure attention and be raised. This was long before a tree was cut down upon the present site of Fayette. During the visit of the first steamboat up the Missouri river, Mr. H., with others, took 500 pounds of bear meat to the landing at Old Franklin and exchanged it for hog bacon - the first they had had for over three years. Mr. and Mrs. Cason now have two children - Vinnie and Willie - having buried seven children since their marriage. George Cason, the father of the subject of this sketch, was born in Spottsylvania county, Virginia, March 2, 1793. He was married in 1820 or 1821 to Miss Maria E. Partlow, and in the fall of 1831 re- moved to Missouri. Here they resided until his death - December 23, 1877. They had a family of thirteen children, twelve of whom reached maturity, but only three survive him. George Cason was a soldier in the war of 1812, and served through the entire struggle. He was a large property-holder in this county, at one time owning 1,000 acres of land, which he deeded to his children as they became of age. He owned one of the first flour and corn mills in the county, this being utilized by people ten to twelve miles around. By trade he was a millwright. For forty-four years he lived on one place. He was a zealous member of the Baptist church, and was beloved by all. His widow, who was born February 11, 1806, lives at the old home- stead, and though seven years past three-score years and ten, is still sound in mind and body.
THOMAS A. CASON,
farmer, is the son of George and Maria Cason, who came to Howard county from Virginia in 1836. The father died in 1877, but Mrs.
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HISTORY OF HOWARD AND COOPER COUNTIES.
Cason, whose maiden name was Partlow, still lives in this county. Thomas A. was born seven years after his parents came to Missouri, September 15, 1843, and was reared on his father's farm. In 1864 he entered the Confederate army under General Price, during the raid into this state, and served until about six months previous to the close of the war, when he was captured and remained in prison for some time. Two years after the war, in 1867, he was married to Miss Lavinia F., daughter of Captain William E. Warden, of this county. They have four children - William E., Ben Carr, Iva H. and Oren W., the baby. They are hoth members of the Christian church. Mr. Cason owns a large farm, upon which he and his father-in-law are en- gaged in farming.
JUDGE H. CLAY COCKERILL.
H. Clay Cockerill was born in Richmond, Ray county, Missouri, December 5, 1831. His father, Dr. T. N. Cockerill, being one of the original proprietors of the city of Glasgow, the family moved to this county in 1836. He was sent by his father to Howard high school, in Fayette, Missouri, in 1845, and from there he went, in 1848, to Mis- souri university, where he graduated in 1852. He then graduated from Harvard college law department in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and in 1853 moved to Platte City, Missouri. There he held succes- sively the offices of police justice, school commissioner, deputy county clerk, probate clerk and probate judge. He was married, May 3, 1855, to Lalla E., daughter of Judge William B. Almond. He was all through the Kansas troubles, taking part on the pro- slavery side of the so-called " border ruffian " war. He moved with his family to Glasgow in the fall of 1861, where he has since lived. After the death of his first wife he married her sister, in 1866. In the fall of that year he was elected representative from Howard county, and served two winters as a democrat in the leg- islature. From 1861 till the close of the war he was major and adjutant-general under General Thomas J. Bartholow, who command- ed this district of Missouri during the rebellion. He has, of late vears, retired from active pursuits, and is at present living upon his farm, near Glasgow.
HON. H. W. COCKERILL,
editor and proprietor of the Glasgow Journal. Harry W. Cockerill, son of Judge H. Clay Cockerill, was born in Platte City, Missouri, March 10, 1856. He moved to Glasgow in the fall of 1861, receiving the greater part of his early education at Pritchett school institute. He graduated at Jones' commercial college in St. Louis in 1872. He left Pritchett school institute in 1874 before completing the collegiate course, and matriculated at Hamilton college, Clinton, New York, entering the sophomore class. He received his diploma from this in- stitution in 1877, and returned to Glasgow, Missouri, where he en-
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HISTORY OF HOWARD AND COOPER COUNTIES.
gaged in the drug business as a member of the firm of Cockerill & Swinney. Selling out in 1879, and moving to Arkansas, he became principal of the Powhatan high school. Returning to Glasgow he was examined before the circuit court and licensed as an attorney at law at the December term of the court, 1880. He married April 24, 1881, Rebecca, danghter of William F. Dunnica. He was nominated by the democratic party, and duly elected representative from Howard county in 1882, which office he now holds. He is at present editor and proprietor of the Glasgow Journal.
DR. M. B. COLLINS.
Dr. Collins was born in Howard county in 1836 ; has been prac- tising medicine in Glasgow over twenty-two years, and is one of the leading physicians in the western part of the county. His parents, James and Mildred Collins, his mother being formerly a Miss Johnson, were originally from Virginia, but settled in this county at an early day. Dr. Collins, whose mother died when he was an infant, lived with his uncle, Jack Collins, till five years of age, when he went to Virginia to live with his grandfather, Colonel Valentine Johnson, of Orange county. In 1851 he returned to Missouri, where he lived with his uncle, M. B. Collins, and continued the prosecution of his studies at Elm Ridge academy. In 1855, when nineteen years of age, he resumed the study of medicine nuder Dr. Rucker, continuing it afterward under I. P. Vaughan, and in 1860 graduated from the Jef- ferson medical college, of Philadelphia, which he also attended after his graduation. In 1861 he began the practice of medicine in Glas- gow, which he has since continued. In his professional career he has been successful, both as a physician and in situating himself comfort- ably in life, notwithstanding that as to the latter particular he has done a great deal of practice for which he never asked or expected anything except the gratitude of those whom he benefited, which he has not always received, and the consciousness of having done his duty to suffering humanity. From the beginning he possessed the four leading qualifications for a successful physician, industry, the love of medicine as a science, a natural liking for its practice, and a determination to go to the front in his profession. With these qual- ifications he could hardly have failed to win the success he has. June 16, 1862, he was married to Miss J. D. Finks, an excellent and ac- complished lady of this county. They have a family of three inter- esting children, Mildred, May B. and Bruce B. The doctor and his wife are both members of the Baptist church.
F. M. COLVIN,
farmer and stock raiser. Benjamin Colvin, the father of F. M., came to this state from Virginia in early youth, and after reaching manhood was married in Boone county, where he lived, to Miss Nancy J. Smith, originally of Kentucky, but partly reared in this state. Mr. Colvin
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HISTORY OF HOWARD AND COOPER COUNTIES.
died in 1845, leaving one child, F. M., who was born in Boone county, Missouri, February 19, 1844. F. M. Colvin was educated in the common schools, and on reaching the age when it became necessary for him to adopt a calling, chose that of farming, to which he was brought up and which he has since followed, including, in late years, stock raising also. In 1864 he enlisted in company B, Elliott's battalion, under General Shelby, in which he served until the close of the war. Since the war he has made Howard county his home, and his farm in this county numbers 380 acres of good land and is im- proved in a substantial, serviceable manner. On the 15th of March, 1868, he was married to Mrs. Susan J. Hays, formerly a Miss Hnme, originally from Madison county, Kentucky. They have three children living : Ludie, Cordell and Edgar, and one dead, Rebecca. Mr. and Mrs. C. are members of the Christian church, and Mr. C., is also a member of the I. O. O. F.
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