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 53
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 53
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528
HISTORY OF HOWARD AND COOPER COUNTIES.
OSCAR R. WHITE
was born in Howard county, Missouri, January 31, 1823. His father, John R., was a native of Kentucky, but came to this county in 1819 and settled in Old Franklin, where he followed the saddler's trade, which he had learned. Having married after his immigration to this state, he subsequently settled in Fayette, and, after a well-spent life of fifty-four years in Howard county, died here November 23, 1873. His wife died six years afterwards, July 6, 1879. He, the father, was a soldier in the Black Hawk war, and greatly distinguished himself by his gallantry in that struggle with the Indians. Oscar R., the subject of this sketch, remained with his parents in Fayette until 1846, when he settled on the place where he now lives. He owns a fine tract of land, embracing 650 acres, including a fine orchard. Of a family of six brothers and sisters, of whom Oscar R. was the eldest, but two now survive - his sister, now the wife of J. C. Moore, of St. Louis, being the other. Mr. W. is a member of the Christian church, and a man whose character is upright and whose life is in every way ex- emplary.
F. WINN,
a prominent farmer of Howard county, was the sixth of a family of twelve children born to James Winn, of South Carolina, and his wife, Rebecca J., danghter of General James Parks, of North Carolina, a distinguished officer in the war of 1812. Mr. Winn, the father, was a cousin of General Wade Hampton, of Confederate fame, and was born in Charleston, South Carolina, August 6, 1793. He also was a soldier in the war of 1812, under the command of Dudley, and was captured in what is known as " Dudley's defeat, " and compelled to run the " gauntlet," by the Indians. In 1818, having emigrated to Kentucky in the meantime, he came from Madison county, of that state, to Missouri, and subsequently became one of the leading citizens and wealthy farmers of Chariton county. His wife was born August 12, 1805, and they were united in marriage April 30, 1823. Mr. Winn died April 6, 1864, but his wife survived him nearly twenty years, dying February 8, 1883. Mr. Winn, the subject of this sketch, was born in Chariton county, Missouri, March 26, 1839, and was reared on his father's farm iu that county, receiving his education in the common schools of the neighborhood. In 1861 he enlisted in the Missouri state guards, under the call of Governor Jackson, but his health failing him, he shortly afterwards went to Lexington, where he remained two years. He then went to St. Louis and stayed in that city a short time, but in 1864 enlisted in the Confederate service under Colonel Elliott, and continued in the southern army until the general surrender in 1865. He then returned to the home farm in Chariton county, where he remained for several years, his health having been seriously impaired by the exposures he underwent during the war. November 25, 1869, he was married to Miss Lizzie, daugh-
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HISTORY OF HOWARD AND COOPER COUNTIES.
ter of R. W. Boggs, of Howard county, and in 1870 he came to this county and engaged in farming near Fayette. In 1881 he located on the farm where he now resides, which includes 225 acres. He has an adopted son, Joseph Carr Boggs.
BOONE'S LICK TOWNSHIP.
OTHO ASHCRAFT,
farmer. Among the intelligent and well-to-do farmers of Howard county, who owe their success to their own industry and good manage- ment almost alone, may be singled out for special mention the subject of this sketch. He was a son of Amos and Nellie (Cole ) Ashcraft, both of whom were children of early settlers of Howard county. By reference to B. F. Gibson's sketch in the Cooper county division of this work, it will be seen that Mr. Cole, Mrs. Ashcraft's father, was the head of one of the first two families that settled in Howard county, and Amos Ashcraft is believed to have been one of the first white children born in the county. Otho Ashcraft was born in Boone's Lick township August 9, 1836, and of the family of four children, of which he was a member, there are now but two living - himself and a sister, Mrs. Jesse Burk. His father was a farmer, and, being brought up to that occupation, Otho, on reaching his majority, purchased a small tract of land, the nucleus of his present place, and went to work with an energy that could not fail of success. He now has a good farm of nearly 250 acres, and has it substantially and comfortably improved. On the 19th of November, 1857, he was married to Miss Lucy J., daughter of Wm. Grady, of this county, and of this union there were two children born, of whom one is now living, Bettie F., the wife of Andrew J. Furr, of Virginia. Mr. Ashcraft is a democrat, a member of the A. F. and A. M., and a Knight Templar in the order. He is also a member of the I. O. O. F. and of the Christian church.
HAMILTON CARSON,
farmer and stock raiser. Mr. Carson was the second of a family of six children reared by Lindsey Carson and wife, previously Miss Rebecca Roberson, and was born in Madison county, Kentucky, January 18th, 1808. His mother was a native of the same state, but his father was originally from South Carolina. The names of the children are as follows : Robert, Hamilton, Christopher, Lindsey, Elizabeth, Matilda, Nancy and Mary. The family was among the earliest settlers in
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HISTORY OF HOWARD AND COOPER COUNTIES.
Howard county, having come here as early as 1811. They spent three years in Fort Cooper, as most of the settlers of that early day had to " fort" themselves, as it was then expressed, for protection and se- curity from the possible outbreaks of Indians. Seven years after their arrival in this county the father was killed by a falling limb from a tree, and four years later the mother married again, Mr. Joseph Martin becoming her second husband. One son, who lives in California, is the only living representative of this marriage. Mr. Carson, the subject of this sketch, was brought up in the pioneer days of the country and is one of the oldest residents, if not the oldest, in the county, having lived here continuously seventy-two years. In 1846 he was married to Miss Ann Smith, the date of their marriage being the 23d of January, and three children followed : Stephen, Dudley and Charles William, but one of whom, however, Dudley, is now living, and is a resident of Howard county. The mother of these died, February 17, 1856, and Mrs. Rachel Cook, a widow lady, be- came Mr. Carson's second wife in 1859. By the last marriage four children have been born, all of whom are now living: Joseph, born December 13, 1861 ; Evaline, born January 15, 1865; Fanny, born May 5, 1866, and Hamilton, born December 6, 1867. Mr. C. is a member of the Christian church and a well respected citizen.
STEPHEN COOPER
is a representative of one of the pioneer families of Missouri. His father, Joseph Cooper, born in Madison county, Kentucky, October 30, 1796, came to this state as far back as 1808. In 1810 he settled in Howard county where he lived until the day of his death, October 27, 1875. He was, therefore, one of the oldest, in point of continu- uous residence, as well as earliest settlers of this county. After his removal to this state he married Elizabeth Enstis, whose father, with his family, emigrated from Virginia at an early day. Joseph Cooper was a man of great force of character and of untiring industry, and was one of the most successful farmers of Howard county. He be- longed to that class of strong-willed, brave-hearted men who found this country a wilderness and left it to their children and to their chil- dren's children one of the fairest and most prosperous counties of a great state. His wife, Elizabeth Eustis Cooper, was a woman de- voted to her family, and at the same time possessed of great spirit and fortitude, the typical wife of such a husband. She died in 1837. Of this union there were born seven children, of whom Stephen Cooper was the youngest. He was born in 1835, by coincidence on the same day, of the same month of his father's birth, namely, Octo- ber 30. He was reared on his father's farm, on which he still lives and now owns, and in common with the youth of his own neighbor- hood and age, he acquired at the local schools of that time the elements of an ordinary, English education. The strong points of his father's character, courage, industry and indomitable enterprise were trans- mitted to the son. Possessed of these qualities it was but natural to
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HISTORY OF HOWARD AND COOPER COUNTIES.
expect that he would become one of the early pioneers to California, during the gold excitement of that far-off country, as it was then re- garded. Accordingly, in 1852, when but seventeen years of age, he made a trip across the plains and over the rocky ribs of the Cordil- leras to the Pacific. In January, 1854, he returned to Missouri, but only to remain until the spring of the same year, when he made his second trip to California. In 1856 he returned again to Missouri and remained here until 1857, making a trip that year to Pike's Peak, Colorado, but came back to his native state one year afterwards, to remain this time permanently, or at least until the tocsin of war called him to the front in 1861, to do battle for a cause he believed to be just. In April, of 1861, under the call of Governor Jackson for six-months' volunteers, he enlisted in Captain Tucker's company of General Clark's regiment. At the expiration of his term under Cap- tain Tucker he organized company C, 6th Missouri regiment, and was made captain of that company. In 1862 he was promoted to the position of major, and after the battle of Vicksburg he had command of the 6th regiment until the close of the war, when he surrendered at Fort Blakely, Louisiana, in April, 1865. In July, following, he returned to his home in Howard county where he still lives. In 1879 he was elected by the people of the county to the office of county collector. As is seen from the above his life has been an energetic and active one, and whether as pioneer treading his way across the continent, or as soldier, citizen or civil officer, he has never failed to stamp the impress of his character upon the work he had to do, or win the approval his sterling worth deserves.
N. B. COOPER,
collector and former sheriff of Howard county, is now forty-six years of age, and in the very meridian of vigorous manhood. He comes of Kentucky pioneer stock- of that stalwart race of men, whose mission it seems to have been to blaze the way for civiliza- tion through unknown wilds, and to lay deep and secure the foun- dations of great and prosperous states. His grandfather was one of the pioneer settlers of Kentucky, and in Madison county, of that state, his father, Hendley Cooper, was born December 4, 1800. In 1808 the family removed to Missouri, and a short time afterwards settled in Howard county, where the surviving members and their de- scendants still live. Hendley Cooper was twice married - first to Adeline Carson, whose father was also from Kentucky, and after her death, which occurred April 14, 1854, to Nancy Hoy, November 4, 1855. He died December 19, 1873, having been a resident of this county sixty-three years. Of his first marriage eleven children were born, of whom Nester B., the subject of this sketch, was the fourth. He was born in Howard county December 18, 1837, and like his father, who was a successful farmer, on arriving at the age when it became necessary for him to devote himself to some calling, adopted that of farming, which he has since continued to follow. In April, 1861,
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HISTORY OF HOWARD AND COOPER COUNTIES.
however, he enlisted in Captain Turner's company, of General Clark's regiment, serving until the disbandment of the state guards six months afterwards. He then returned to his farm, six miles southwest of Fayette, where he has a valuable and handsomely improved home- stead of 110 acres. In March, 1863, he was married to Nannie Wil- kerson, daughter of William Wilkerson, one of the pioneer settlers of the county. Six children have been born to them and are now liv- ing - Minnie G., Romeo V., Laura, John M., Fannie S. and Harry L. He is a prominent member of the A. O. U. W., and a Knight Templar in the Masonic order. In 1878 he was elected to the office of sheriff, which he held until 1882, when he was elected county col- leetor, the position he now holds. To know the descent of Nester B. Cooper is a sufficient assurance of the character of man he is. But to know him personally - to know him in his family, as a citizen, and as a public officer - is to know a man with as many virtues and as few faults as is seldom found in publie or private life.
ROBERT COOPER,
farmer and stock raiser. The biographie annals of Howard county, and, indeed, of central Missouri, without mention of the Cooper fam- ily, would be like the play of " Hamlet " with Hamlet left out. With the Boones, they were among the first to blaze the way for civilization into this part of the state, and it is more than questionable whether any other family has contributed so much to the material development and progress of this county as have they. In the annals of the past, Fort Cooper bears witness to their enterprise, valor and pioneer services, and Cooper county will hand down their name through the ages - until
" The moon is old, And the sun grows cold,
And the leaves of the judgment book unfold."
In every part of Howard county their great farms and spacious man- sion houses testify to the hereditary worth and enterprise of the fam- ily, and the roster of county officials would hardly seem complete without their name. Robert Cooper, the subject of this sketch, main- tains the traditional reputation of the family. His farm is one of the best in the county, and his elegant brick residence, standing near the site where his forefathers built the historic old fort that bore their name, would make a striking and happy contrast, as a picture, set op- posite that of the fort, illustrating the progress of civilization in the west. He was born where he now lives, February 5, 1835, and was a son of Colonel Benjamin Cooper, born March 1, 1790, who came to this county with his father's family in 1808. They lived in the fort until they brought the Indians to peaceable terms, after which they subdued the forest and made themselves a home. Mr. Cooper's mother, the wife of Colonel Cooper, was formerly a Miss Phele H. Sloan, of the well-known Sloan family, of Kentucky, and lived to her seventy-eighth year, and until 1880, surviving her husband nearly
533
HISTORY OF HOWARD AND COOPER COUNTIES.
forty years. During the later years of her widowhood she was the recipient of a pension from the government, granted on account of her husband's services in the war of 1812. Robert grew up to the occupation of a farmer, which he has continued to follow, and with great success. As a citizen and neighbor he has the respect and confi- dence of the whole community, and of all who know him.
JOHN T. GARVIN,
farmer. Mr. Garvin was one of a family of thirteen children born to James and Caroline (Thomas ) Garvin, who emigrated from Lincoln county, Kentucky, to Missouri, in 1836, and after living a short time in Randolph county came to Howard county and settled in Boone's Lick township with their family, where the parents lived to their death. Of their family of children but five are now living, three daughters and the subject of this sketch. John T. Garvin was born in Lincoln county, Kentucky, October 29, 1829, and was reared in Howard county, Missouri, being left an orphan by the death of both parents when he was eight years old. Farming became his permanent occupation, which he has followed thus far through life, or rather, until his retirement from all active labors, a short time ago. When he arrived at the age of majority, his eldest brother, George T. Garvin, now deceased, who had been more than abundantly successful, gave him a neat farm on which he lived some years, but desiring to change his location he sold it and bought another place in the same township ( Boone's Lick ) where he continued farming until his retire- ment as stated above. On the 2d of September, 1851, he was mar- ried to Miss Louisa M., daughter of Wm. Tippett, of this county, but formerly of Virginia. She died June 26th, 1870, leaving three children, now living, George T., of Barton county ; John W. and James W. Mr. Garvin was remarried March 27th, 1872, his second wife, Rachel E., being a daughter of Wm. Bobbitt, of this county. Three children of this union are living: Lou Emma, John T. and Walter K. Mr. Garvin is a member of the I. O. O. F., and of the P. of H. Politically he is a member of the greenback party.
THOMAS B. HARRIS,
merchant at Lisbon. Mr. Harris' parents were among the earliest settlers of Jackson county, this state. His father, Reuben Harris, was born in Patrick county, Virginia, in 1805, and his mother, formerly Miss Laura M. Fistoe, in Tennessee, in 1811. They were married in Jackson county, in 1832, and of the family of eight chil- dren born to them six are still living. Both parents lived in Jackson county until their death - the mother dying in 1876, and the father in 1882. Thomas B. Harris was born October 12th, 1839, and was reared on his father's farm in Jackson county. After attaining his majority, he learned the carpenter's trade, which he followed until 1880, when he engaged in merchandising. Ou the 6th of September,
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HISTORY OF HOWARD AND COOPER COUNTIES.
1866, he was married to Miss Eliza A. Grady, of Howard county, but she died in February, 1870, leaving him two children, only one of whom is now living, Mobrey L., born August 16th, 1867. April 7th, 1872, Mr. Harris was again married, Miss Ellen Beverly, of this county, becoming his second wife. They have three children living : Ella, Bethsheba E. and Thomas W. In 1870, he bought property in Lisbon, this county, and continued working at his trade there for the succeeding ten years ; but in August, 1880, having shown himself to be a man of good business qualification and of unquestioned integ- rity, he was called upon to take charge of the co-operative store in Lisbon, belonging to the Patrons of Husbandry, of Boone's Lick township and the surrounding country, of which organization he is a member, and since then he has been conducting this business in which he has achieved marked success as a thoroughgoing, capable merchant. Mr. Harris is a member of the I. O. O. F., and he and his wife are mem- bers of the Christian church.
DR. J. C. HEBERLING AND HIS MULE.
Dr. Heberling, for over thirty years a prominent and successful physician of Howard county, and one of the most highly respected citizens of the county, was born in Berkley county, Virginia, March 26th, 1816, and was one of a family of ten children, seven sons and three daughters, all of whom are still living except a daughter, and are residents of the western states. In 1836, Dr. Heberling, then a young man twenty-one years of age, came to Howard county, this state, and two years afterwards was united in marriage to Miss Christine Amick, of this county. Before coming to this state, young Heberling had devoted considerable study to medicine with a view of preparing himself for the medical profession, and after his arrival here that purpose was strengthened by the great need of physicians in his new home, especially after the remarkable floods of 1844. Ac- cordingly, he persevered in his studies, and subsequently attended the medical institute, of Cincinnati, from which he was graduated with distinction in 1847. Returning then to Howard county, he has since practised his profession here, with the exception of four years spent in St. Louis and California, and & short absence during the late war. While in California, he was a delegate to the first state nominating convention that ever assembled on the Pacific coast, representing Edwards county, entitled to twenty votes, in the convention. He was also treasurer of his county, in 1851, and the following year was a judge of the court of sessions. While there he was tendered a nomi- nation for the office of representative in the state legislature which, however, he declined. Returning then to Missouri, he resumed his practice and continued it without interruption until 1862, when he, with six other prominent citizens of the county, was banished to the northeast for suspected sympathy with the seceding states. On his return home after the war, he found that all his live stock had also been " banished " during his absence, and he was therefore without a
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HISTORY OF HOWARD AND COOPER COUNTIES.
saddle-animal on which to resume the practice of his profession. To supply this indispensable desideratum, the only resort left him was a drove of a hundred mules from which he selected, and purchased, a trim-built, but unbridle-wise two-year-old, afterwards known in two continents as the famous Light-foot. "This was on the 15th day of September, 1865, and from that day until the 15th of September, 1877," to use the Doctor's own language, "the lives of the two [himself and the mule] are so intimately interwoven with each other that the biography of the one unavoidably includes that of the other." Together, they travelled in the practice of medicine, the mule doing the locomotion and the Doctor attending to the patients, 32,000 miles, a matter so noteworthy, that it was generally published by the papers throughout the state. But they continued in their mission of visiting the sick and ministering to the suffering until they had scored 50,000 miles, when this result was also published, and was copied by the London papers and other European journals. Still they kept on in the even tenor of their way, the Doctor and his mule, indifferent to their widening form, until September 15th, 1877, time was called on faithful old Lightfoot, and he was found to have travelled 15,000 ad- ditional miles or 65,000 miles from the beginning, twelve years be- fore, a distance equal to more than two and a half circuits of the earth. But exhausted nature demanded a rest for the honest old pedestrian, and he was retired on full pay - corn and hay, with a carte blanche to all the meadows and pastures. At the age of twenty, Lightfoot, is still active and chirp, and occasionally puts a shoulder to the wheel to help the world along. The facts for his biography have been written for by a gentleman in Vermont, and a volume will shortly appear in his honor. The Doctor himself, is still engaged in the practice of his profession, and in his sixty-eighth year is hale and hardy, and as he expresses it, comparatively happy. In 1880, he was nominated for congress, in his district, on the Weaver ticket, and the result of the election shows that while General Weaver received but 514 votes in Howard county, for President, Dr. Heberling received 1,432, or nearly three times as many as the head of his ticket re- ceived. Over 7,000 votes were cast for him in the entire district. More generous to others than just to himself, he has collected but a mere pittance of what he has made, and is therefore not rich in this world's goods, although he has a competence to keep the gaunt wolf from his door. Never profane nor intemperate, of a literary turn of mind and of a domestic disposition, he finds unalloyed pleasure in the leisure of old age with his books and his grand-children, of whom he has no less than twenty. In the language of Orlando, he can truth- fully say : -
" Though I look old, yet I am strong and lusty ; For in my youth I never did apply Hot and rebellious liquors in my blood ; Nor did not with unbashful forehead woo The means of weakness and debility; Therefore my age is as a lusty winter, Frosty but kindly."
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HISTORY OF HOWARD AND COOPER COUNTIES.
THOMAS G. MILLER,
farmer and stock raiser. Mr. Miller is now thirty years of age, and has a good farm of 218 acres, well improved. He was born in the town- ship where he now lives, on the 27th of September, 1853, and was the first son but third child of Henry B. Miller and wife Permelia, formerly a Miss Brown, who were married in December, 1846. His father, Henry B., is a native of Rappahannock county, Virginia, and came from there to Howard county, with his family in 1838, first set- tling in Franklin township, but nine years afterwards settled in Boone's Lick township, where he now lives. His family of children consists of Fannie, Rosila, Thomas G., Henry B., Andrew N. McG., Lillie and Effie G. Thomas G. was brought up on his father's farm, and in youth received such an education as could be had in the ordinary country schools - sufficient for all practical purposes. He has made farming his life occupation and is meeting with satisfactory and sub- stantial success. On the 18th of December, 1873, he was married to Miss Elizabeth Peacher, of this county, daughter of Win. J. Peacher, and of this union three children have been born, two of whom are now living : Claiborne, born August 1, 1876; Maud, born March 3, 1879, and Roma, horn October 15, 1881, died January 4, 1882. Mr. Miller and his wife are both connected with the Mission- ary Baptist church, of Mount Moriah, Richmond township, this county.
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