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 95

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 95
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 95

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HISTORY OF HOWARD AND COOPER COUNTIES.

JAMES H. RENNISON.

Joseph Rennison came to this country from England, and early in life located in Cooper county. Here he met and married Miss Leat, by whom he had four sons, James H., the subject of this sketch, being the only one of these now living. James II. Rennison was born in Pilot Grove township, May 4, 1845. His mother died when he was three years of age, and afterwards his father married Mrs. Keziah Cartner, a widow lady who died in July, 1861, leaving a daughter by her last marriage, Margaret J., wife of John Wyatt, of Henry county. The father is still alive and resides in this county. James H., after he grew up, was married January 18, 1863, to Miss Sarah C. Cartner, who has borne him eight children, five danghters and three sons, of whom there are seven living : Joseph E., born January 1, 1864 ; Alice, born April 20, 1865; Louisa, born October 28, 1869; James W., born September 24, 1871 ; Cordia C., born September 11, 1874 ; Florence, October 1, 1877 ; and John H., Jr., born November 19, 1879. Emily, a third child, born March 19, 1867, died October 4, 1875. Farming has constituted Mr. Rennison's life occupation, and his farm contains nearly a quarter section of good land. He is an industrious and in- telligent farmer, and is well respected as a citizen and a neighbor. He and his wife are members of the Mt. Hermon Baptist church.

THOMAS B. ROBERTSON,

farmer. In 1797 Mr. Robertson's father, Captain Andrew Robertson, came with his parents to this state, who immigrated from Louisville, Kentucky, that year, and settled at New Madrid on the Mississippi river. In the fall of 1816, they came on further west and settled in Boonville township this county. Here Andrew Robertson, having been born in Kentucky, January 1st, 1794, grew up to manhood and mar- ried Miss Catherine Sherley, who came with her parents from Ken- tucky in 1826. They reared a family of six children, Charles S., Andrew J., Thomas B., Cyrus J., Alvira M. and Susan F. Captain Robertson became a wealthy farmer and died July 9, 1861, leaving an estate of over 1,500 acres of land besides personal property. His wife preceded him in death about fifteen years, dying December 15, 1847. Thomas B., the subject of this sketch, was born September 18, 1834. Farming has constituted his life occupation and he has an ex- cellent farm of over 300 acres, on which he grows grain and raises stock in considerable quantities. He is a good farmer and a worthy and well respected citizen. May 8, 1856, he was married to Miss Bettie Potter, of this county, who still comforts and brightens his domestic life.

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HISTORY OF HOWARD AND COOPER COUNTIES.

LEONHARD SCHMIDT.

When Mr. Schmidt was but four years of age, in 1854, his parents, John A. and Margaret ( Harl) Schmidt, emigrated from Germany to this country, and settled in Clark's Fork township. His father was a successful farmer, and at his death left a good farm of over 300 acres, which Leonhard now owns and cultivates. His mother died the same year as her husband, in 1877, but three days intervening between their deaths. The father was born in Germany, in 1810, and died here January 4, 1877. The mother, born in the same country, in 1812, and died here, January 7, 1877. Of their family of children, but four of the twelve born to them are now living besides Leonhard, viz., John, Margaret, Nicholas and Margaret. Leonhard Schmidt was born in Baiern, Germany, April 20, 1849, but was principally reared in Clark's Fork township. Farming has con- stituted his life occupation. On the old homestead farm he raises about 150 acres of grain annually, principally grain. He also raises and fattens large numbers of hogs for the market each year. No- vember, 18, 1869, he was married to Josephine Klochner, of Moniteau county. They have had six children : Emma C., Nicholas M., Emma M., Mary F., Emma S. and Leonhard A. Mrs. Schmidt died Decem- ber 14, 1882, aged thirty-nine years, nine months and twenty days. Mr. S. is a member of the Lutheran church at Clark's Fork.

ALEXANDER SHANNON.

Mr. Shannon is a native of Maryland, and was born in Charles county of that state, February 10, 1823. He was a son of Zachariah and Priscilla ( Skinner ) Shannon, both also natives of Charles county, where they married, in 1818, and lived until their deaths ; the father having been born January 17, 1797, and died in 1865; and the mother, born in 1800, and died in 1859. Six children were born to them, five of whom are living: Catherine A., born in 1821, died in February, 1882 ; Alexander, the subject of this sketch, born February 10, 1823; Eliza J., born in 1827; Mary E., born in 1830; and Henrietta, born 1832. When Alexander Shannon was twenty-four years of age he came to Missouri, and located in Cooper county, and, November 17, 1849, was married to Miss Julia A., daughter of Clay- ton and Mary A. Hurt, of this county. Five children are the fruits of this union : George Wm., born March 15, 1851; Eliza B., born October 31, 1853 ; Fleming H., born December 19, 1860 ; James B., born July 26, 1867 ; and Nancy B., born April 19, 1870. In 1852 he bought a place of 110 acres, in sections 4 and 5, of this township,

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HISTORY OF HOWARD AND COOPER COUNTIES.

and, in 1863, eighty acres more, on which he lived for many years. That place is now owned by one of his sons. In 1872 he bought his present farm of nearly 300 acres, which he has comfortably im- proved. He raises both grain and stock for the markets. He is an industrious farmer and well respected citizen. Mr. S. and wife are both members of the Christian church at Walnut Grove.

NICHOLAS SMITH,

farmer and justice of the peace. Like so many of the successful farmers of Cooper county, Mr. Smith is a German by nativity, although he has lived in this county since he was sixteen years of age. He commenced for himself when a young man without any means of his own, and by intelligent industry and frugality has suc- ceeded in situating himself comfortably in life. His farm contains 300 acres of good land, and he has it improved with a commodious brick residence, an excellent barn, substantial fences, etc. He raises about 200 acres of grain, principally corn and wheat, and fattens for the market from thirty to thirty-five head of steers, and a large number of hogs. He came over with his parents to this country in 1853, having been born in Bavaria, Germany, November 2, 1837. They landed at New Orleans, and came thence by river to Boonville. His father, John A. Smith, a farmer by occupation, was born Septem- ber 14, 1808 ; and his mother, formerly Miss Catherine M. Hill, was born in 1810. Both are now deceased - died in this county. After growing up, Nicholas Smith, the subject of this sketch, was married October 13, 1860, to Miss Margaret Dornhauser, of Moniteau, who has borne him eleven children, five sons and six daughters, of whom six are now living, as follows : Christopher T., born April 13, 1862 ; Sophia, born December 25, 1863; Elizabeth, born July 5, 1867 ; John C., born May 20, 1873; Josie, born November 6, 1875; and Lizzie, born January 24, 1879. At the last township magisterial elec- tion, Mr. Smith was elected a justice of the peace, the duties of which office he is now discharging with entire satisfaction to the people of the community.

JOHN A. STEELE.

Mr. Steele's father, William Stecle, who has been married three times, came from Tennessee to this state, in 1844, three years after the death of his first wife, formerly Miss Mary A. Blackburn, and in 1847 settled in Cooper county, in which he still resides. Of his first marriage there are two sons, John A., the subject of this sketch, and Thomas L., now of Sedalia. John A. Steele was born in Jefferson

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HISTORY OF HOWARD AND COOPER COUNTIES.

county, Tennessee, August 20, 1835, and was therefore twelve years of age when his father came to this county. Here he grew up and adopted farming as his life occupation. December 2, 1858, he was married to Miss Eliza J., daughter of Ephraim and Mary M. Batton, of Howard county. She was born October 5, 1842. Nine children resulted from this union : John T., Mary M., Georgia A., wife of Hamilton Chrisholm, of Kentucky ; Francis A., William H., Charles E., Claude W., an infant, deceased ; Stanton L., deceased. Mr. Steele has a farm in Clark's Fork township, and he and his wife are members of the Mount Hermon Baptist church.

PETER WEHMEIER,

merchant and farmer. In October, 1881, Mr. Wehmeier engaged in the general mercantile business at Clark's Fork with Mr. Meyer as his partner, the firm being Meyer & Wehmeier. They carry a large and well selected stock of general merchandise, and have a lucrative aud rapidly increasing trade. They have a large new building, built expressly for the purpose, to which they have recently added another room the full length of the store, and, being business men of push and enterprise, they have determined to build up a trade and keep a store equal to the best, in the general line, in the county. Mr. Weh- meier was born in Westphalia, Germany, May 6th, 1824, and was one of six children of Herman Wehmeier and wife, both of whom are now deceased, never having left their native country. Mr. Peter Weh- meier came to this country in 1854, and, after working on a farm in St. Louis county about a year, came to this county, where he has since lived. He worked as a farm laborer here several years, and then " cropped " himself until' 1864, when he bought a tract of land of his own, and afterwards added to it until he built up a handsome farm of the 160 acres, which he still owns and now has leased out. May 15th, 1859, he was married to Miss Martha Feidley, of Baiem, Germany. Of this union there are six children living, of an original family of ten : Catherine, born February 25, 1860, married Henry Mercy ; Sophia, born March 21, 1862 ; Maggie, born April 30, 1866 ; Minnie, born August 16, 1870; Caroline, born August 11, 1872, and Lena L., born September 25, 1881. Parents and children are all members of the German Lutheran church of Clark's Fork.

SAMUEL WINDERS.

Mr. Winders' parents, Edward and Nancy ( Wooldridge ) Winders, settled in this county in 1829, and were from Todd county, Kentucky,

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HISTORY OF HOWARD AND COOPER COUNTIES.

of which they were both natives, and in which they were reared and married. The father died here in March, 1855, aged sixty, and the mother ten years afterwards, aged sixty-two. Six of their family of twelve children survive, Samuel, the subject of this sketch, being their sixth born. The father was a well-to-do farmer of this county, and left a good farm at his death of nearly four hundred acres. Samuel Winders was born here September 7th, 1836, and grew up to the occupation of a farmer, which he has since followed. He bought his present farm in 1880-1, and now has a neat place of nearly a hundred acres, which he is busily improving. September 15th, 1868, he was married to Miss Dorinda, daughter of Robert and Mary Scott, of this county. She was born February 27th, 1839. They have two sons, Paul C., born December 4, 1875, and Lilburn S., born February 22d, 1876. Mrs. Winders' father was a soldier in the war of 1812, and was in the battle of New Orleans, under General Jack- son, During his service in the city, and while standing guard, he captured a British soldier and delivered his prisoner to the command- ing officer in person. He was a man of great bravery and unfaltering patriotism.

CLEAR CREEK TOWNSHIP.

WILLIAM H. C. BURGER,

proprietor Burger Hotel and liveryman, Pleasant Green. Mr. Burger's father, Henry Burger, was one of the early settlers of Cooper county, becoming a resident of this county as early as 1814. He was originally from Tennessee, but his wife, the mother of William H. C., formerly Miss May T. Titsworth, was a Kentuckian by birth. They had a family of seven children, of whom the subject of this sketch was the fourth. William H. C. Burger was born in Cooper county, July 31, 1841, and on attaining his majority engaged in farming for himself, which he continued to follow up to the time of opening his hotel in Pleasant Green. While on the farm he also dealt in live stock to a consider- able extent, and both as a farmer and a stock dealer achieved substantial success. In 1882, however, he became the owner of his present hotel property, and at once opened the Burger hotel, and also engaged in the livery business. He keeps a good hotel, which has acquired a wide reputation as a comfortable, agreeable stopping place, and his livery stable is supplied with an ample stock of horses,

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HISTORY OF HOWARD AND COOPER COUNTIES.

buggies, etc., to accommodate the travelling public. Mr. Burger was married October 25, 1865, to Miss Sallie Wooldridge, of this county. They have four children, Harvey, William, John and Preston ; having lost two.

COLONEL CHARLES A. EVERETT,

general merchant, Pleasant Green. Colonel Everett is a native of New Orleans, Louisiana, and was born December 29, 1833. His father was a prominent citizen of that city, and the son was educated in the east at Bridgeport, Connecticut. However, while he was still a youth he lost both his parents, and was therefore compelled to make his own way in the world from a comparatively early age. In about 1848 he engaged as clerk in the leading hardware store of his native city, and held that position with great satisfaction to his employers until the outbreak of the civil war. When the conflict opened, like the other representatives of the warm-blooded young chivalry of the south, he rallied to uphold -

" The three-barred ensign; which, full high advanced, Shone like a meteor streaming to the wind."

For four long years he fought under the banner of the new-born re- public, until it fell to rise no more, amid -

" The tramp, the shout, the fearful thunder-roar Of red-breathed cannon, and the wailing cry Of myriad victims -"

Hle was in most of the principal battles of the war, and now carries five scars to attest the heroic part he took in that terrible struggle. He enlisted in the first company raised in New Orleans, the Washing- ton artillery, of which he was lientenant. Shortly afterwards he was promoted to the captaincy of the company, and then, by regular pro- motions, became colonel of his regiment. After the war, in 1867, he went to New York City and engaged as travelling salesman for a wholesale house, in which he continued three years. He then came to St. Louis and followed the same business for a house there a num- ber of years, and until he located at Smithton, in Pettis county, in the general mercantile business. From Smithton he came to Pleasant Green in 1879, where he has since continued. Here he has an excel- lent store in the general mercantile line, and has built up an extensive and profitable trade. He is a gentleman of popular manners, good business qualifications, and is highly esteemed in and around Pleasant Green, and wherever known.

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HISTORY OF HOWARD AND COOPER COUNTIES.

JAMES W. LONG,

farmer. Among the substantial and prosperous farmers of Cooper county, James W. Long may be singled out as worthy of special mention. He commenced in life for himself practically without any- thing, and by his industry and intelligence has placed himself in the front rank of the successful farmers of the county. His home- stead contains nearly 300 acres of fine land, and is exceedingly well improved. It has good buildings, good fencing, etc., and is well grassed, well watered, and in every respect is an excellent grain and stock farm. He was born in Londoun county, Virginia, Octo- ber 24, 1846, and was a son of Conrad and Nancy (Crooks) Long, of that county. He remained in his native state until 1856, en- gaged in farming, and then removed to Missouri, settling in this county, where he has since lived. For a number of years Mr. Long has given considerable attention to raising and dealing in stock, in which he has had satisfactory success. He married Miss Sarah Cornine, of Virginia. They have eleven children living : Anna E., Sarah V., Lucinda, Mary, William, Samuel E., John E., Edward L., Robert, Daisy and Frederick. Besides these Mr. Long reared eight orphan children. Certainly he has kept the first command- ment of God, given in the garden of Eden, and, like the Master, as sung by David, has " relieved the orphan." Mr. Long is a mem- ber of the Masonic order.

JOHN D. MCCUTCHEN,

farmer. John D. is a son of Judge Mccutchen, whose sketch appears in the Pilot Grove division of these biographies. The son was brought up on his father's farm, and Judge Mccutchen, being a man of ample means, and of advanced and liberal ideas in regard to education, gave his children excellent school advantages. After mastering the cur- riculum of studies taught in the ordinary schools, John D. became a matriculate in McGee college, where he remained until he acquired a superior education. Returning home at the conclusion of his college course, he engaged in school teaching in the vicinity, and followed that until 1873, when, being of an enterprising mind, and believing from what he had heard and read of the Pacific coast that that country offered superior advantages to young men who have the energy and ambition to accomplish something in life, he went to California, but his expectations of the " land of gold and the vine " were not entirely fulfilled, and, accordingly, he remained on the gem-decked shores of

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HISTORY OF HOWARD AND COOPER COUNTIES.

the American Hesperides but one year. On his trip, however, with an eye open to all opportunities, he saw that there was more gold to be made in the stock business in Colorado, than in searching for it among the rocks of the Pacific coast. In 1874, therefore, he entered largely into this business in the centennial state, and followed it with excellent success for six years. He then returned to his old home in Cooper county, and in January of the following year (1882) became a member of the mercantile firm of J. T. Ellis & Co., at Pilot Grove, but one year afterwards sold out his interest in the business and set- tled down to the honorable and independent life of a farmer, on his present farm. Mr. Mccutchen is now thirty-four years of age, having been born in this county September 20, 1849, and, possessed of the energy and business qualifications he is, he has every promise of be- coming one of the prominent citizens and successful men of Cooper county. He is a worthy and active member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. In farming Mr. Mccutchen is associated with Mr. H. L. Tutt. Together they own about 300 acres of splendid land, all under fence and well improved, and, besides growing large quantities of grain of the various kinds, they make a specialty of raising fine, high-grade cattle.

WILLIAM RISLER,

farmer. Although Mr. Risler settled in this county from Virginia only ten years ago, he has long since become thoroughly and some- what prominently identified with the agricultural interests of the county. A man of untiring industry and energy, he was a successful farmer in the Old Dominion before he made Missouri the state of his adoption, and, buying a farm of nearly 400 acres of good land on coming to Cooper county, he went to work improving it and stocking it with good breeds of stock in a manner that soon placed him among our most progressive and enterprising farmers. He was born in Jef- ferson county, Virginia, June 22, 1820. His father, George Risler, was a native of Pennsylvania, but his mother, formerly Miss Mary Roland, was a Virginian. William was the second of their family of six children. In 1849 he was one of the vast army of enterprising and adventurous spirits who braved the dangers and hardships of a journey across the continent to the gold fields of California. He re- mained on the Pacific coast six years, and then returned to his old Virginia home not altogether disappointed in the hopes with which he set out with the " old forty-niners." He resumed farming in his na- tive state and continued it there until his emigration to Missouri in

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HISTORY OF HOWARD AND COOPER COUNTIES.

1873. November 22, 1870, he was married to Miss Elizabeth Taven- ner, of Virginia. One child has blessed their married life, an inter- esting little daughter, Bessie.

J. G. ROBERTS,

farmer and stock dealer. The life of Mr. Roberts has been more than an ordinary one, and his energy and enterprise have not been with- out substantial results. Mining, military service and agricultural pursuits have principally occupied his time. Since the close of the war he has been engaged in farming and the stock business in this county. He has a splendid farm of over half a section of land, and has it well improved and well stocked. His herd of short-horn cattle contains some of the best representatives of that breed of high grades in the county. The mules and sheep, which he also makes a specialty of raising, are of the best class of stock in those lines, As a farmer and stock raiser he justly ranks among the most enterprising and successful in the county. Mr. Roberts is a native of Tennessee, and was born in Roane county December 6, 1826. His parents, L. B. and Susan (Davis ) Roberts, were both South Carolinians by birth, but emigrated to Tennessee in early life, where they reared their fam- ily. On arriving at the age of twenty-one, J. G. Roberts, the subject of this sketch, came to Missouri and engaged in mercantile business at Linn ereek, then an important wholesale centre in southwest Mis- souri. Three years later he was attracted to the far west by the mining excitement of Colorado, and crossed the plains to the now Centennial state hy a prairie schooner transport drawn by an ox team. He followed mining there in the rocky ribs of the Cordilleras until 1852, when he braved the perils of a voyage across the Pacific and into the treacherous and then little known waters of the Antarctic ocean to Australia. Arrived on the far-off continent, where the " east and the west meet," he bravely went to work at mining in that dis- tant and little known country, and followed it for two long years amid the greatest hardships and dangers. But in 1854 he directed his course homeward again, recrossing the ocean, and after an absence of over seven years of adventures of the most trying and perilous kind, arrived at Linn creek, which he had left in 1847. There he resumed his former business in the mercantile line, in which he continued with- out material interruption until 1861, when he removed to Vernon county, this state, and turned his attention to farming. But the civil war soon broke out in all its fury, and it had not long been in pro- gress before he enlisted in company I, Burbrige's regiment, of General

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HISTORY OF HOWARD AND COOPER COUNTIES.

J. S. Marmaduke's division, and while in this command was taken prisoner and kept at Fort Leavenworth and other points. He after- wards, however, succeeded in rejoining the Confederate army, with which he continued until the general surrender in 1865. He then came back to Cooper county and settled on his present farm. In March, 1856, Mr. Roberts was married to Miss Alsia S. Walker, of this county. They have one child, S. W., and have lost three : Robert W., an infant and Rebecca J. He is a member of the Methodist Epis- copal church south, and of the Masonic fraternity.

ISAAC T. TAVENNER,

farmer. Mr. Tavenner, the subject of this sketch, was the fourth of a family of five children of Jesse and Celia ( Morris ) Tavenner, origin- ally of Virginia, but later of this county, and was born in Jefferson county, of the Old Dominion, June 23, 1840. The grandfather of Isaac T., on the mother's side, was a gallant soldier of the country in the war of the revolution, and followed the flag of the new-born republic until it floated in triumph at Yorktown. In 1855 Jesse Tav- enner emigrated from Virginia with his family and settled in this county, where Isaac T., then fifteen years of age, grew to manhood. Reared on a farm the son, on attaining his majority, adopted farming as his life occupation, and this he has since followed without interrup- tion, except about one year during the late war. He now has a neat farm, containing three forty acre tracts and upwards, of good land, all under fence and in a good state of improvement. In 1864 he enlisted in the Confederate service under General Shelby, and continued in his command until the close of the war. November 11, 1869, he was married to Miss Susan Ferrell, originally of Virginia. They have four children : Isaac N., Engenia, Richard and Anna. One is dead - Willie.

H. L. TUTT,

farmer. Mr. Tutt was born in Cooper county December, 26, 1847, and was a son of Dr. Samuel Tutt, for many years a prominent phy- sician and leading citizen of the county, but a Virginian by birth. Mrs. Tutt, the mother of H. L., formerly a Miss Elizabeth Hutchi- son, was from Kentucky. H. L., the son, was reared in Boonville, and in youth had the advantages afforded by the preparatory schools of this city. In due time he was sent to William Jewell college, of Liberty, Missouri, where he pursued a more advanced course of studies and acquired an excellent education. After his college course he engaged in farming near Bell Air in this county, and followed that

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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