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 58
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 58
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J. R. DENNEY.
In the year 1826, there was born in Howard county, Missouri, to Charles and Jennie Denney, a son whom they called J. R. Deuney, and whose name heads this sketch. He has ever made this county his home, and has given his attention to farming and the raising of stock, in which occupation he has become very successful. He at present resides on section 32, where he owns a fine farm of 205 acres, with the necessary buildings upon it. He is unmarried.
W. E. DENTITH,
senior editor of the Autograph, at Armstrong. Mr. Dentith is a native of England, and was born in Manchester, August 22d, 1858. His father was a surgeon-major in the English army. When a lad ten years of age, young Dentith came to America, landing at Galves- ton, Texas, where he grew to manhood and lived until coming to Missouri, in 1882. He received a good practical education in the schools of Galveston, and after growing up entered the office of the Galveston News to learn the newspaper business. He continued in that office and the offices of other papers for seven years, thus acquir- ing a thorough practical knowledge of the business. Coming to this state in 1882, in January of the following year he established the Autograph at Armstrong. The ability and energy with which this paper has been conducted speaks in the highest terms of the qualifica- tions of Mr. Dentith, both as an editor and business man. On the 23d of November, 1880, he was married at Galveston, Texas, by Rev. Dr. Bird, of Trinity church, to Miss Lucy L. Mckown, daughter of Judge Mckown, of that city. They have one child, a son.
J. F. EVANS,
a member of the firm of Sullivan & Evans, dealers in general mer- chandise at Armstrong, is a native of this ( Howard ) county, and was
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HISTORY OF HOWARD AND COOPER COUNTIES.
born October 11, 1844. His parents, Thomas and Mary Evans, orig- inally from Madison county, Kentucky, came to Howard county, Mis- sonri, in 1818. J. F. Evans married Miss Katie M. Snavely, of this county. They have had four children, three of whom are living : Leonard L., Elmer E., and an infant. They are members of the M. E. church, and Mr. Evans belongs to lodge No. 270, A. O. U. W., of Armstrong. This firm are receiving a large share of patronage in their line of business, and are recognized as substantial business men.
C. R. EVANS,
general merchant. Just as Mr. Evans reached the age that young men usually start out in life on their own responsibility, the war broke ont, and for four or five years all sorts of business were so unsettled in this section of the state that no one could think of engaging in any line of industry, with any reasonable degree of safety. As the war progressed, practically every one qualified for military service became identified with one side or the other, and he with the rest. In 1864 he enlisted in company C, Elliott's regiment, Shelby's division, and served until the elose of the struggle. He was twenty-three years old when peace was declared, having been born in this county January 27, 1842. Reared on his father's farm and educated in the common schools, he was qualified to teach school, and, as no other equally ad- vantageous employment was open to him, he followed that calling for one year, after which he secured a position as clerk in a general store in Roanoke. In this he continued about six years, during which he not only thoroughly mastered the practical details and the general system of merchandising, but by economy and upright, gentlemanly conduct so fortified himself in the confidence and esteem of the public that he was not wanting for means and ample credit when, in 1876, he determined to begin business on his own account. The same quali- ties that made him a successful and popular elerk have made him a successful and popular merchant, and he now commands a lucrative and rapidly increasing trade throughout the surrounding country. May 18, 1881, he was married to Miss Mattie Prewitt, and one child, Fannie M., was born to them, but
"'Ere sin could blight or sorrow fade Death came with friendly care ; The opening bud to Heaven conveyed And bade it blossom there."
In 1876 Mr. Evans was appointed postmaster of Roanoke, since which he has continued to hold that office. His father, Thomas Evans, was a native of Kentucky, but came to this county in 1816, where he after- wards married Miss Mary A. Denny, and made his permanent home here. C. R. was one of the family of children resulting from this union.
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HISTORY OF HOWARD AND COOPER COUNTIES.
JOHN A. FERGUSON,
farmer and stock raiser. John A., a son of Isham and Julia ( Kinney ) Ferguson, was born in this county July 10, 1830. His father was a native of Virginia, but when a young man he removed to Kentucky, where he was married, and afterwards, in 1825, came to this county with his family and settled in Prairie township. He was a farmer by occupation, to which calling John A. was brought up, and this the son has since continued to follow. In youth John A. Ferguson had the advantages afforded by the schools of Roanoke, and succeeded in ac- quiring a good practical education. He was married July 17, 1853, to Miss Emeline Moore, of Scott county, Kentucky. Their only child, James, was taken from them by death. Mr. Ferguson has a good farm of 600 acres of fine land, and, besides the ordinary farm interests, makes a specialty of short-horn thoroughbred cattle, of which he has a herd of eighty head. He is a thorough-going, enterprising farmer and stock raiser, and is well respected as a citizen and a neighbor.
MAJOR JOSEPH H. FINKS.
Prominent among the citizens of Howard county who give char- acter to the community in which they live, and are a credit and an honor to the county, is Major Joseph H. Finks, of Prairie township. Descended from an ancestry of soldiers and excellent citizens of the Old Dominion, where he himself was born and partly raised, he in- herited undiminished the sterling qualities of his family, which have given him a standing in his adopted state not unworthy of his name nor of the old commonwealth that gave him birth. The founder of the family in this country came originally from Switzerland, that cradle of the republican institutions of modern times. Mark Finks, the major's ancestor of the third generation, was a captain in the revolu- tionary army and served under General Lafayette. He died in Vir- ginia at the advanced age of eighty. His wife was previously a Miss Fisher, whose family subsequently became prominent in Kentucky. He was a man of great personal worth, and of a more than ordinarily generous, kindly disposition, and quitted a long and useful life with- out a known enemy. This quality - kindness, generous, courteous bearing to all - is a marked characteristic of the family. Major Finks' grandfather, James Finks, was a soldier in the war of 1812 and served his country faithfully until the close of that struggle. He dis- tinguished himself in several important engagements by his resolute, unfaltering courage in the most trying circumstances. He was born in Madison county, Virginia, in 1776, and died in that state in 1846. He was married in his native county to Miss Mary Allen, and subse- quently removed to Orange county of the same state. Captain James Finks, the major's father, was born a short time before his parents left Madison county, September 1, 1808, but was reared in Orange county. He married his first wife in the last named county, Miss Mary
38
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IIISTORY OF HOWARD AND COOPER COUNTIES,
E. Dulany, but she survived her marriage only a short time, dying in 1835. The following year Captain Finks made a trip to Howard coun- ty, this state, where he met and married Miss Caroline, daughter of Joseph S. and Cassandra Hughes, old settlers of the county, but orig- inally of Kentucky. He then returned to Virginia with his wife, where he lived about fourteen years, but in 1851 came back to this county with his family and made it his permanent home. For many years he has been one of the most highly respected and substantial citizens of the county. Joseph H. Finks was born in Greene county, Virginia, August 7, 1838. He was, therefore, thirteen years of age when his parents settled in this county, Before he left Virginia he had at- tended the neighborhood schools a number of sessions, and had made a substantial start in the acquirement of an education. In this county he also had the advantages afforded by the ordinary local schools, and in 1857 was well qualified to enter college. He then returned to his native state and became a matriculate in Randolph-Macon college, where he studied diligently for two years, thus acquiring an excellent education. Reared on a farm, he early acquired a taste for the inde- pendent, honorable life of a farmer, which decided him to devote him- self mainly to agricultural pursuits. Accordingly, after his college course he located on a farm in this county, and went to work with a resolution and energy, united with a degree of intelligent management, that could have but one result - complete success - which he was not long in achieving. He has long been regarded as one of the best farmers of the county. However, coming of an ancestry he did, and in every sense a worthy son of the Old Dominion and of his adopted state, it was but natural to expect that when the bugle-call of the sonth was sounded in 1861 he would be among the first to rally to her de- fence. He enlisted under Governor Jackson's first call for troops, and was at once elected first lieutenant of his company. Shortly af- terwards he was commissioned lieutenant-colonel by the governor, and assigned to a position on the staff of General John B. Clark, Sr. In this service he continued until the expiration of his term, when, in 1862, he entered the regular Confederate army and followed the meteor-like flag of the south through three long years of privation and danger, and until, like the cross, defeat was made more glorious than victory. After his entrance into the Confederate service he was com- missioned major by President Davis, and successively occupied posi- tions on the staff's of Generals Frost, John B. Clark, Sr., and Parsons. He was a member of General Parsons' staff at the time of the surren- der. In 1870 he was elected circuit clerk for Howard county, and such was his efficiency and popularity in office that he was re-elected in 1874, thus holding that position eight years. Following this, in 1878, he was elected to the legislature from this county, and in that body took high rank as an able and conscientious legislator. Decem- ber 17, 1873, he was united in marriage to Miss Lizzie, daughter of William J. Harvey, of Chariton county. As a citizen and neighbor, and in every relation of life, Major Finks is without reproach.
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HISTORY OF HOWARD AND COOPER COUNTIES.
REV. DAVID FISHER, DECEASED.
Rev. David Fisher and Jacob Fisher, of Fayette, whose sketch appears elsewhere in this volume, had the same paternal ancestor of the third generation,- David Fisher, of Angusta county, Virginia, their grandfather, an old Continental soldier. Jacob Fisher, the father of Rev. David, and uncle of Jacob Fisher, of Fayettte, was born and reared in Augusta county. He married Miss Mary Painter, of Rockingham county, of the same state, and of this union David, the subject of this sketch, was born. Towards the latter part of his life, Jacob, the father of our subject, with his wife and younger children removed to Highland county, Ohio, where both parents lived until their death. There he became a wealthy farmer and was a leading member of the Methodist Episcopal church. David Fisher was born in Augusta county, Virginia, March 1, 1805, and was reared in that county. He joined the Methodist Episcopal church south, when in his nineteenth year and entered the ministry of that church in his twenty-second year. He travelled in the Virginia conference about six years, and was then transferred to the Missouri conference, arriv- ing at the field of his labor in Boone county in 1838. Ten years after- wards he came to this county, and since that date up to his death, December 1, 1877, served his church either as itinerant or local preacher with but little intermission. However, he did not rely upon his ministerial work for means of support for himself and family. Having large farming interests, including three excellent farms, he was in a position to devote himself to his great life-work, which he did, " without money and without price " He was married July 8, 1834, to Miss Eliza A., daughter of Daniel Brown, of Essex county, Virginia. She, together with six children, survives her husband : Charles B., Susan M., wife of Richard Blakey, of Roanoke ; aud Misses Sallie C., Laura O., and Lou P., and James O., the fifth child. Mary E., the eldest, is now deceased. She was the wife of George W. Walker.
JAMES O. FISHER,
farmer. Mr. Fisher, the fifth of a family of seven, the children of Rev. David Fisher, deceased, whose sketch precedes this, was born in this county October 25, 1849. Reared on his father's homestead, after attending the neighborhood schools in early youth he entered Central college in Fayette, where he continued as a student until he had acquired a good practical education. At the age of twenty, in 1869, he went to Texas, but remained there only a short time, returning then to his native county. Here he followed farming until 1872, when he went back to Texas and engaged in the stock business, and for five years gave that interest his undivided attention. But in 1877 he was called home by business affairs, and in a short time settled on his present farm consisting of several hundred acres of fine land, well improved, where he has since lived. October 3, 1877. he was married to Miss Kate, daughter of Rice Patterson, an old citizen of this section of the state.
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HISTORY OF HOWARD AND COOPER COUNTIES.
STEPHEN T. GARNER,
section 20, a prominent farmer and stock raiser of this vicinity, and one of the oldest settlers of Howard county, owes his nativity to Clark county, Kentucky, where he was born August 30, 1815. In November, 1817, he was brought by his parents to this county, and has since continued to make his home within its boundaries. His present fine farm, embracing 320 acres, is well improved and under cultivation. March 20, 1829, Miss Nancy Snodderly, of Howard county, Missouri, became his wife. She was the daughter of Joseph W. Snodderly. They are members of the M. E. church sonth. Mr. G. has held the position of justice of the peace for many years. He is well known in this community, and. numbers his friends by the score.
F. H. GREENE,
farmer. Mercantile clerking in this county and mining in California occupied about twenty years of Mr. Greene's life after he started out on his own responsibility in early manhood. Since then be has been engaged in farming, and has long been marked as one of the substan- tial, well-respected farmers of the county. He was born in Howard county, Missouri, July 15, 1823, and was a son of Wesley S. and Elizabeth (Hawley ) Greene, both natives of Kentucky. His father removed from Madison county, that state, in 1819, and settled first at Old Franklin, but two years later pushed on out to Prairie township, where he made his permanent home and reared his family. After F. H. grew up he engaged in clerking, and continued in that occupation at Fayette, Glasgow and Prairieville successively until 1850, when, the gold excitement of California having broken out the year previous, he was attracted to the Pacific coast, as thousands of others were, by the hope of accumulating from the mines of that region a handsome fortune in a comparatively short time. He remained in California thirteen years, but in 1863 returned to his old home in Howard county and engaged in farming. He has a good farm of 200 acres, improved, and gives considerable attention to stock raising. Febrn- ary 17, 1869, he was married to Miss Martha Kendrick. They have two children - Leo and Lillian.
JAMES E. HARVEY,
farmer. James E. Harvey, born in this county April 25, 1819, was the eldest of a family of thirteen children born to John and Elizabeth (Walkup) Harvey, both natives of Madison county, Kentucky. They came to Howard county in 1817 and settled in what is now known as Prairie township. John Harvey was a farmer by occupation, and also followed merchandising, and James E., as he grew up, became familiar with the requirements and practical duties of both of these lines of industry. To the former, however, he has given his whole
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HISTORY OF HOWARD AND COOPER COUNTIES.
attention, except while he was merchandising in Glasgow two years, between 1864 and 1867, and clerking five years in his father's store in Fayette, from 1837 to 1842, inclusive. He now has several hun- dred acres of land in this and Chariton counties, and is a successful, enterprising farmer. Mr. H. has been twice married. His first wife, previously Miss Frances Tolson, to whom he was married in 1843, died in August, 1847, leaving one child, John B., still living. March 28, 1848, he was married to Miss Sallie A. Hern, formerly of Madi- son county, Kentucky. Of this union there are seven children liv- ing - William O., James E., Jr., Anna E., Alexander C., Susie A., Henry C. and Sallie B. Mr. H. is a member of the Christian church, of the I. O. O. F., and has been justice of the peace. His father was a soldier in the Black Hawk war.
W. C. HARVEY, M. D.,
physician and merchant. Dr. Harvey, a native of this county, and a thoroughly educated physician, has been practising his profession in Roanoke for nearly thirty-five years, and has long enjoyed a reputa- tion, both as a physician and a citizen, second to that of no one in the contiguous sections of Howard and Randolph counties. He was born Angust 8, 1825, and was educated in the common schools of his neighborhood. When quite a young man he taught school two years, and then, in 1846, began the study of medicine. He studied under Dr. L. C. Thomas two years and attended the Transylvania Medical college of Lexington, Kentucky, during the terms of 1846-47 and 1847-48, graduating at the close of the last named term with marked honor. After his graduation he returned to Missouri, and for a short time practised his profession in Linn county, but in the winter of 1848-49 located in Roanoke, where from that time to this he has con- tinued the practice. September 16, 1852, he was married to Miss Leah A. Blakey. They have two children living - Gussie S. and Zallie A. The doctor's father, John Harvey, was a native of Vir- ginia, but was reared in Kentucky, where he married Miss Elizabeth Walkup. In 1817 he came to this county with his family and settled in what is now Prairie township, where the doctor was born and reared. In 1880 Dr. Harvey established a dry goods and grocery store in Roanoke, which commands an excellent trade.
G. G. HARVEY,
section 33, a leading agriculturist and raiser of stock of this vicinity, was also born in Howard county, Missouri, November 18, 1834, within one mile of where he now lives. His father, William Harvey, a native of Madison county, Kentucky, came to this county in 1818. G. G. Harvey was united in marriage December 27, 1865, to Miss Narcissa Snoddy, of Howard county. They have six children - Georgie, Thomas J., Annie, Narcissa, William W. and Eva. Mrs. H. is a member of the M. E. church south. Mr. Harvey is the pos- sessor of 350 acres of land, under good cultivation, and improved with a substantial dwelling and fine orchard.
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HISTORY OF HOWARD AND COOPER COUNTIES.
J. Y. HUME, M. D.,
physician and surgeon, and of Fugate & Hume, druggists, at Arm- strong. Dr. Hume is a son of Reuben Y., and grandson of Joel Hume, both of whom came to this county in 1844; the former, then a youth, coming out with his father's family, who emigrated from Madison county, Kentucky, that year. [A sketch of the Hume fam- ily is given elsewhere in this volume. ] Reuben Y. was married, after he grew up to manhood, in this county, to Miss Frances Payton, mention of whose family is made in the notice of Joel Hume's life. Of this union J. Y., now Dr. Hume, was born November 13, 1851. He was educated at Central college, in Fayette, and in 1874 began the study of medicine under Dr. F. M. Scroggin, of this county. He prosecuted his studies with diligence for two years under that excel- lent physician, and then entered the St. Louis Medical college, from which he was graduated with honor in March, 1879. Locating at Armstrong, he is rapidly establishing a wide reputation as a skilful and successful physician. He has also for some time past been a member of the drug firm of Fugate & Hume. This firm has a lucra- tive and increasing trade throughout the surrounding county. No- vember 13, 1879, the doctor was married to Miss Fannie P., daughter of Dr. J. A. Walker. They have one child, an infant. Dr. Hume is a member of the Masonic fraternity and of the A. O. U. W.
RICHARD W. LEE
is a son of Richard and Nancy Lee, natives of Madison county, Ken- tucky, and was born November 11, 1834, within one-half a mile of where he now resides. He has ever made agricultural pursuits and the raising of stock his occupation during life, and is now the pos- sessor of 361 acres of farming land, on section 21, under good im- provement. Mr. Lee is a brother of Judge Lee, well known in this community. He is a member of the I. O. O. F. fraternity of Roanoke.
JACOB MORTENSON,
a prominent dealer in hardware and lumber at Armstrong, was born in Denmark in July, 1857. Emigrating to the United States, he settled in Howard county, Missouri, in 1873, subsequently locating in Arm- strong. Here he is enjoying a good trade, and having a complete stock in his line, receives a liberal patronage. September 26, 1882, Mr. Mor- tenson was married to Miss Ella Quinn, of this county. They are members of the Christian church, and Mr. M. belongs to lodge No. 270, A. O. U. W., of Armstrong.
JAMES H. PATTERSON,
farmer. Mr. Patterson is of Irish descent. Littlebury Patterson, his ancestor of the fourth generation, lived and died in Virginia, where he
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HISTORY OF HOWARD AND COOPER COUNTIES.
reared a family of eight children. Thomas Patterson, a son of Little- bury, and grandfather of James H., settled in Madison county, Ken- tucky, in about 1800, and there married Mary, a daughter of William Harvey, who afterwards became an early settler of Prairie township, this county. In 1817 Thomas Patterson removed to this county with his family, where he lived until his death. He reared a large family of children, and of these, Rice, the father of James H., was born be -. fore the parents left Kentucky, February 25, 1811, in Madison county. He was married in this county in the spring of 1838 to Miss Cordelia G., daughter of David Martin, an early settler of the county. He died here June 15, 1877, his wife following him to the grave January 5, 1881. He was a man of great industry, enterprise, and of a high order of intelligence. Beginning life for himself without anything, he became one of the foremost men of the county in wealth and char- acter. Esteemed by all who knew him as an upright, progressive citizen and a good neighbor, he died possessed of a large estate con- sisting of over 1,300 acres of fine land, and large personal property interests besides. Flat-boating, teaming across the plains, clerking, merchandising, farming, and the stock business, mark his successive steps from youth and penury to honored old age and wealth. For over twenty years he and his wife were exemplary members of the Bap- tist church. James H. Pattersou was born in this county August 4, 1850, and was the fifth of a family of seven children. He was edu- cated in the common schools, and in William Jewell college, of Liberty, Missouri. He began the activities of life at his majority by engaging in merchandising in Roanoke. He followed this until 1881, when he turned his whole attention to farming. In the meantime, in 1879, he had commenced farming, and since then he has continued in that oc- cupation with excellent success. He has a good farm, substantially and comfortably improved. March 19, 1874, he was married to Miss Bettie Eddins, of this county. They have two children, James C. and Nadine G. Mr. P. is a member of the Baptist church.
JAMES R. PHELPS.
William P. Phelps, the father of James R., though a native of Madison county, Kentucky, having been born there in 1823, was reared in Chariton county, this state, where he was brought by his pa- rents when only a year old. After growing up he was married to Miss Elizabeth Finnell, of this section of the state, and of the family of children born of this union, eight are now living : Mary E., James R., John L., Lillie D., Genero F., Kate, Robert and Stonewall. James R. was born October 12, 1849, and in 1850 the family moved to Roanoke, where he was reared and has since continued to live. January 8, 1876, the father died, leaving an estate consisting of an excellent farm and a considerable amount of personal property. Wil- liam P. Phelps was an industrious, intelligent farmer, and an upright, good citizen, and was highly respected by all who knew him.
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