History of Johnson County, Missouri, Part 48

Author: Cockrell, Ewing
Publication date: 1918
Publisher: Topeka, Kan. : Historical Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 1234

USA > Missouri > Johnson County > History of Johnson County, Missouri > Part 48

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

576

HISTORY OF JOHNSON COUNTY

nership with G. H. Scheidenberger and L. Hank in 1896. The mill was operated under the firm name of the Conner Milling & Elevator Company, a grain elevator being erected in 1891. The old mill struc- ture was burned in 1899 and the new enlarged building was then erected. The company was incorporated in 1900 with Mr. Conner, president; Mr. Hank, vice-president; and Mr. Scheidenberger, secre- tary and treasurer. In May of 1903, Mr. Conner disposed of his hold- ings in the company to H. F. Kirk and new incorporation papers and a change of name were made in 1906, the name being changed to Holden Milling & Elevator Company. Mr. Kirk served as presi- dent from 1903 to 1908 and was then succeeded by Mr. Hank, who has since filled that position. Mr. Halsey became secretary and treas- urer and remained in that capacity until 1910 when Mr. Bluhm pur- chased the Halsey interests. The daily capacity of the mill is two hundred barrels of flour and one hundred barrels of meal and the business is in a flourishing condition.

The present officers of the Holden Milling & Elevator Company are: L. Hank, president ; T. J. Halsey, secretary and treasurer; W. H. Hagenmeyer, vice-president ; all the foregoing being directors with H. L. Bluhm, who is the miller in charge of the plant.

John Granderson Senior, one of Johnson county's pioneers, was born in this county seventy-seven years ago. He is the son of Samuel and Susan A. (Matthews) Senior. Samuel Senior was the son of Samuel Senior, a highly respected farmer of Virginia, of French descent. Susan A. (Matthews) Senior was the daughter of William Matthews, a native of Tennessee. Samuel Senior, the father of the subject of this review, came to Missouri in 1817 and located in the Cooper Fort neighborhood, where he remained several years. In 1834 he moved to Johnson county and settled on a farm in Grover township, where six years later his son, J. G., was born. The Senior farm comprised two hundred forty acres of land, which Samuel Senior entered from the government. He was a successful and highly regarded farmer of Grover township and his death in 1859 was the source of universal regret in Johnson county. He was twice married. Susan A. (Matthews) Senior died in 1847. In 1849, Samuel Senior married Martha Holliday, a native of Boone county, a daughter of George Holliday, a prominent farmer. Mrs. Senior preceded her husband in death ten years. J. G. Senior is the only living member of the family of eight children born to Samuel and Susan A. Senior.

MRS. JOHN GRANDERSON SENIOR.

JOHN GRANDERSON SENIOR

577

HISTORY OF JOHNSON COUNTY

After his father's death, J. G. Senior assumed charge of the farm in Grover township and until the outbreak of the Civil War was there engaged in the pursuits of agriculture. In 1861 he enlisted in the Civil War with Company A, Fifth Missouri Infantry. Mr. Senior was in active service four years and took part in the battles of Pea Ridge, Arkansas; Corinth, Mississippi; Farmington, Mississippi; Fort Gibson; Baker's Creek; and in the siege of Vicksburg. After the siege of Vicks- burg, late in the summer of 1863, J. G. Senior was taken captive and in January, 1864 was exchanged and entered the service again with the Tenth Missouri Cavalry. He surrendered with his company at Shreve- port, Louisiana in 1865. He served under General Francis M. Cock- rell, whom he considers to have been one of Missouri's greatest sons, a famous warrior, statesman, and Christian gentleman and who held the record for continuous service in the United States Senate of thirty years, a record never before or later excelled.

Mr. Senior returned to Johnson county. Missouri when the war had ended, in July, 1865. He again engaged in farming and remained on the home place in Grover township until 1869, when he moved to Pettis county, Missouri and there engaged in agricultural pursuits until 1904, when he returned to Johnson county, locating in Knob Noster, where he has since resided. J. G. Senior is the owner of a farm in Pettis county, which comprises almost seven hundred acres in that county and sixty acres in Johnson, which place is known as the "Capital Hill Stock Farm." This is undoubtedly the best improved farm within a cir- cuit of ten miles. Mr. Senior's country home is a handsome residence. a large, modern structure of twelve rooms. He spends a large part of his time at "Capital Hill." He has also a pretty home in the city of Knob Noster.

In 1870 J. G. Senior was united in marriage with Josephine Honey, the step-daughter of A. F. and Margaret Priscilla Scruggs. Jose- phine (Honey) Senior was born in 1851 in Bourbon county, Kentucky, a daughter of William and Margaret P. (Stephens) Honey. William Honey was a native of Kentucky and died in 1851. Margaret P. (Ste- phens) Honey was a third cousin of Alexander H. Stephens. Mrs. Honey married Rev. A. F. Scruggs, who came to Missouri in 1856. She was a native of Ohio. Reverend A. F. Scruggs was a pastor of the Methodist Episcopal church, South, who labored in the cause of

(19)

578

HISTORY OF JOHNSON COUNTY

Christianity for seventy-six years, his death occurring in his ninety- ninth year. To J. G. and Josephine (Honey) Senior have been born nine children : Mary Priscilla, deceased; Mrs. Minnie S. Gilham, Mont- serrat, Missouri (Minnie S. Gilham was first married to Dr. J. F. Robin- son in 1893, who died January 10, 1896); Joseph Elston, deceased; Mrs. Elizabeth S. Porter, wife of Dr. J. E. Porter, Knob Noster, Missouri; Mrs. Allena D. Ehlers, who resides in New Madrid; Franklin L., Center- ville, Iowa, married Bernice Campbell, October 19, 1904, and they have two sons, John Campbell and Collin Franklin; Samuel Prentice, John G., and Josephine, all deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Senior have six grand- children: Mrs. Minnie S. Gilham has two daughters: Margaret Finis Robinson, by the first marriage with Dr. J. F. Robinson; and Josephine Mayes Gilham; Mrs. Elizabeth Porter, married September 28, 1904, has one child: Ruth Elizabeth; Mrs. Allena D. Ehlers, wife of Dr. M. F. Ehlers, married February 14, 1909, has one child: John Frederick; and Mr. and Mrs. Franklin L. Senior have two sons: John Campbell and Collin Franklin.

For forty-two years, Mr. Senior has been a director of the Bank of Knob Noster, during which time he served as president and vice- president. He was elected judge of the Pettis county court on the Democratic ticket and served four years. Mr. Senior is one of the strongest supporters of the Democratic party in the county. He takes keen interest in religious matters as well as civil affairs and has been an elder of the Christian church for thirty-five years. He is affiliated with the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons. He served twenty-three consecutive years as president of the Pettis County Farmers Mutual Fire Insurance Company, since its organization, and upon his resigning in October, 1917, he recommended his successor, Mr. Williams. He was one of the organizers of this strong concern which has an assessed capital of about three million dollars. It was with reluctance and regret that his fellow directors accepted his resignation, which was tendered on account of defective hearing due to advanced age.

D. D. Corum, proprietor of the "Edgewood Stock Farm," is one of Johnson county's progressive, young citizens. He was born May 23, 1893, in Dunksburg, Grover township, the son of J. C. and Della B. (Smith) Corum, both of whom were born in Johnson county. J. C. Corum was born near Knob Noster on the farm where his father died. Della B. (Smith) Corum was born in 1872 on her father's farm near Sweetsprings, Missouri, the daughter of H. Strong and Mary (Dunk-

579

HISTORY OF JOHNSON COUNTY

ley) Smith, the former, a native of Ohio and the latter, the only child of Doctor Dunkley, a prosperous and prominent pioneer of Johnson county, in whose honor the city of Dunksburg was named. Dr. B. F. Dunkley was one of the very first settlers of Grover township, where he entered eight hundred eighty acres of land, which are now a splendid stock farm owned by his granddaughter, Myrtle Smith. J. C. Corum is now with the Texas State Militia, being commissioned as colonel. Mrs. Corum is making her home with her father and sister in Sweet- springs, Missouri. A more comprehensive biographical review of the Corum family appears in the sketch of Mrs. Della (Smith) Corum, which will be found in this volume.

D. D. Corum attended the public schools of Johnson county and Central College at Fayette, Missouri. Until he was twenty years of age, he remained at home with his parents. He then began life for himself, engaged in farming on the place he now owns. In April. 1916. he began the dairy business on the "Edgewood Stock Farm" and from the beginning has met with splendid success.

The "Edgewood Stock Farm" comprises two hundred forty acres of land northwest of Warrensburg, which formerly belonged to the Colberns and was purchased from them by H. Strong Smith, the grand- father of D. D. Corum, about twenty-five years ago. Mr. Corum has at present forty-five head of Holstein and Jersey cows and calves, milk- ing thirty cows at this season. Each cow has her individual stanchion and knows her place. Once each month, every cow is tested to ascer- tain the cost of her feed, the amount of milk given in return, and the percentage of butterfat. The milk is shipped twice daily to Kansas City, Missouri, the cows being milked at 5:30 a. m. and at 5:30 p. m. and the trip made twice to the station as the product from this dairy is A grade and must arrive in Kansas City in first-class condition. The milk is shipped in ten-gallon cans. The main dairy barn is 40 x 50 feet in dimensions with a fourteen-foot shed, built in 1914, and has a concrete floor and excellent drainage. Everything about the dairy is kept perfectly clean and sanitary. The milk is cooled immediately after it has been obtained, by placing it in cans in a concrete vat filled with cold water, which is iced in summer. Water is supplied both the dairy and residence from a well. three hundred feet deep. which was drilled in 1914. The water, which is soft, stands within fifteen feet of the top and is pumped by a gasoline engine. Mr. Corum has an ice storage house in connection with his dairy, which has a capacity of forty

580

HISTORY OF JOHNSON COUNTY

tons of ice and is filled each winter with pond ice. To operate a good dairy, up to the standard of the requirements of the Kansas City Board of Health, means much hard work and that all things and persons con- nected with the dairy must be strictly clean and sanitary, that every- thing from cows to cars, from the washing of vessels to the washing of the dairy barn, must come up to the required standard. The cows, as well as the men employed in the dairy, must be tested for tuber- culosis. Mr. Corum employs one assistant all the time and at times has a number of helpers at work on the farm.

One hundred eighty acres of the "Edgewood Stock Fram" are in bluegrass and pasture and the remaining sixty acres are usually planted in corn for silage. The silo now on the farm has a capacity of one hun- dred tons. It was erected in 1915 and is made of wood. Mr. Corum contemplates erecting another silo this year, 1917, which will have the same capacity as the one he now has. He feeds alfalfa and silage in the winter time, modifying the feed with cottonseed meal, beet meal, oil meal, bran, and hay.

September 21, 1914, D. D. Corum and May Foster were united in marriage. To this marriage has been born a son, H. Smith, born October 5, 1917. Mrs. Corum is the daughter of Fred and Flora (Day) Foster, of Warrensburg. Fred Foster is a well-known barber of Warrensburg. The Corum residence is a beautiful home, a structure of one and a half stories and containing seven rooms. An attractive feature about this home, which is modern in every respect, is the fine sleeping porch. Both Mr. and Mrs. Corum have a host of friends in Johnson county.

Mrs. Della B. (Smith) Corum, one of Johnson county's highly esteemed daughters, is a member of one of the prominent families in this section of Missouri. She was born in 1872 in Johnson county, the daughter of H. Strong and Mary (Dunkley) Smith. H. Strong Smith was born in Ohio in 1837, the son of A. Smith, with whom he came to Missouri in the early forties and they settled near Palmyra. A. Smith died in 1901 at Sweetsprings, Missouri, having attained the age of ninety-nine years and ten months. In 1867, H. Strong Smith came to Brownville, which later became known as Sweetsprings, and there engaged in farming, in which vocation he has been employed all his life. Mr. Smith is now residing at Sweetsprings. Mary (Dunkley) Smith was the only child of Dr. B. F. Dunkley, in whose honor the city of Dunksburg was named.

Dr. B. F. Dunkley was one of Senator Francis M. Cockrell's most

581

HISTORY OF JOHNSON COUNTY

highly prized and respected friends. He was born in England, February 26, 1809, of the best lineage, and educated in Washington, D. C., and came to Warrensburg in 1848. Doctor Dunkley settled on section 1, township 47. He was engaged in the practice of medicine in Johnson county for more than forty years. Malarial fever was the scourge in July and August and September, and the doctor used oxen on his farm that he might have his horses to ride to see his patients. He had two horses and each day he rode one, visiting his patients on one side of the creek one day and the patients on the other side the next day. Doc- tor Dunkley was known as a very wealthy man in his day, being the owner of one thousand acres of valuable land in Johnson county. He was united in marriage with Mrs. Jane Porter in 1845 and to them was born one child, a daughter, Mary, who was reared to maturity in Johnson county and became the wife of H. Strong Smith and the mother of Della B. (Smith) Corum, the subject of this review. Doctor Dunkley's death occurred in Warrensburg in 1890 and his loss was long and keenly felt in Johnson county. The Dunkley home was one of the first in that part of the county surrounding Dunksburg.

Della B. (Smith) Corum attended Central College and after leav- ing college was united in marriage with Jack Corum, of Knob Noster, Missouri. To Mr. and Mrs. Jack Corum was born one child, a son, Dallas D., who is the proprietor of the "Edgewood Stock Farm," which is located three and a half miles northwest of Warrensburg. Mrs. Corum is at present residing with her father, H. Strong Smith, and her sister, Myrtle, in Sweetsprings, Missouri. The Cockrell family has long esteemed and admired Mrs. Corum and she was their guest for one winter, about five years past. She is a lady of countless admirable qualities.

William R. Cockefair, proprietor of the "Lakeview Dairy," is one of Johnson county's finest young men and most progressive citizens. He was born June 4, 1882, in Knox county, Missouri, the son of E. A. Cockefair, Sr., and Maria L. (Taylor) Cockefair. E. A. Cockefair, Sr., was born in New Jersey and in 1909. with his family. came to Johnson county, Missouri, where he located in Warrensburg for two years and then went to Moulton, Iowa, where his death occurred in 1916. His widow, Maria L. Cockefair, is at present residing in Albert Lea, Min- nesota. E. A., Sr., and Maria L. Cockefair were the parents of the following children : E. A .. Jr., who is the farm adviser in Greene county, Missouri ; William R., the subject of this review : Laura, who is the wife

582

HISTORY OF JOHNSON COUNTY

of L. L. Moore, of Albert Lea, Minnesota; and L. I., who is associated with L. L. Moore in the management of a large estate of twenty-five hundred acres of land at Albert Lea, Minnesota.

Willianı R. Cockefair attended school at Unionville, Missouri. He is a graduate of the Unionville High School and of the Missouri State University, at Columbia, where he specialized in the study of agricul- ture. He was a member of the class of 1908. After completing his work in the State University, Mr. Cockefair assumed charge of the land owned by Blackwater Farm Company, a tract of two thousand acres in Johnson county, which the company was endeavoring to reclaim for cultivation by irrigation. For six years, Mr. Cockefair was in the employ of this company and during that time assisted in developing, improving, and selling several farms in the district in which he now resides. In 1914, William R. Cockefair resigned his position with the Blackwater Farm Company to engage in farming and later, in the dairy business. At the time of this writing, in 1917, Mr. Cokefair has the lease of the J. C. Christopher place, comprising one hundred forty acres of land in Johnson county, which farm he is developing into a first-class dairy and truck farm.

In 1911, William R. Cockefair was united in marriage with Caroline B. Benton, the daughter of R. H. and Alice (Johnson) Benton, both of whom are natives of Kentucky. Mr. and Mrs. Benton are honored pioneers of Lafayette county, Missouri. The farm, which R. H. Benton now owns, located near Higginsville, was entered from the government by his father. R. H. Benton is a Confederate veteran and for many years was superintendent of the Confederate Soldiers' Home at Hig- ginsville. Mr. and Mrs. Benton are the parents of five children: C. R., of Kansas City, Missouri, who is superintendent of the passenger department of the C. & R. Railway Company; Mrs. Harriet B. Stan- wood, who resides in Kansas City, Missouri; Mrs. William R. Cockefair, the wife of the subject of this review; Mrs. E. L. Lusk, of Roswell, New Mexico; and R. H., Jr., who is the specialist in beef cattle employed by the Louisiana State Agricultural College. To William R. and Caro- line B. (Benton) Cockefair have been born two children, one son and one daughter, William R., Jr. and Harriet Benton. Mrs. William R. Cockefair is a highly intellectual and splendidly educated lady of winning personality and excellent attainments. She is a graduate of University of Missouri, Columbia, from which institution she has three degrees, the Bachelor of Arts, the Bachelor of Science, and the Master's. Mrs.

583

HISTORY OF JOHNSON COUNTY

Cokefair was president of the Homemaker's Club, a county organi- zation, for two years, until 1916 and at the present time she is a member of the Ladies' Council of Defense of Johnson county.

The "Lakeview Dairy" is one of the best and most sanitary in the State of Missouri. Mr. Cockefair has at the present time twenty-one Jersey cows, nineteen of which he is milking. The milk is retailed in the city of Warrensburg. delivered in paraffine paper individual con- tainers and on ice. One delivery is made each day, starting at 7:30 A. M. The product of the "Lakeview Dairy" is emphatically A grade and the milk will keep sweet, under ordinary conditions, two days, because of the perfect. sanitary methods employed in obtaining and caring for the milk. Within five minutes after the milking, the milk is reduced in temperature to fifty degrees and twenty-five minutes later it is forty-five degrees. The milkroom is constructed of concrete and over it is a large water tank, kept filled with cold water pumped by a gasoline engine from a spring. The milk barn is 22 x 44 feet in dimen- sions, with an individual stanchion for each cow, concrete floor, which is thoroughly cleansed daily by the use of hose attached to a water pipe, and all the interior walls are whitewashed. The room is kept scrupulously clean and at milking time is an attractive place. Milk is not the only product of the "Lakeview Dairy," as sixty pounds of cottage cheese have been sold weekly besides gallons of excellent butter- milk.

Sixty acres of the farm Mr. Cockefair has in bluegrass and sixty acres in meadow. with the remaining twenty acres devoted to corn raising and truck gardening. In the garden, are grown tomatoes, beets. carrots, salsify, and corn, besides the berries grown on the place, one acre being given to strawberries and a half acre to blackberries. Mr. Cokefair produces on the farm almost all the feed he uses in the dairy, feeding the stock clover hay and alfalfa in the summer time and the same in winter, except that the feed is modified with cottonseed meal, silage, and bran. He is planning the erection of a silo this season. 1917.

William R. Cockefair began life for himself without any capital except a splendid mind and a strong will. He made his own way through the State University and is now getting a splendid start in the business world, solely through his own energetic efforts and with the noble assistance of his wife, who has always willingly and cheerfully given her support and encouragement in all that Mr. Cockefair has attempted

584

HISTORY OF JOHNSON COUNTY

to do. He firmly believes that there are just as great opportunities for the young man of today as there ever were and that all one needs to make a success in life are a willingness to take advantage of the oppor- tunities offered and a strong determination not to fail-and he is cer- tainly proving the truth of his hopeful theory. There is no more worthy, better, upright, young men in Missouri than William R. Coke- fair and he deserves every bit of success which in the future will undoubtedly attend his efforts as it has in the past.

John Adams, one of Johnson county's pioneers, is a successful and prosperous farmer and stockman of Montserrat township. He is the sixth child born to his parents, Thomas and Sarah Ann Adams, his birth occurring on the old homestead belonging to his father, February 8, 1856, which place is now owned by his brother, George. Thomas Adams was born in 1820 in North Carolina. When he was fourteen years of age, he came with his parents to Missouri. The Adams family settled in Johnson county the year the county was organized, in 1834. They resided on the farm now owned by Mr. Sproat and on this place John Adams, the father of Thomas Adams, died in 1867. Thomas Adams was an industrious, intelligent agriculturist. He was chiefly engaged in raising cattle and sheep on his splendid farm of four hun- dred acres of land, one hundred sixty acres of which he had entered from the government, but he also kept a few horses and mules. The Adams farm was at that time heavily timbered and in the first years following the Civil War there were no fences in the county worthy of the name, practically all the land being open prairie. Thomas Adams enlisted in the Civil War with the Union army and served throughout the struggle of four years, serving at first with the home guards. He had married many years prior to the war, in 1846, and to him and Sarah Ann Adams were born the following children : Jane, the wife of George Roberts, Knob Noster, Missouri: Martha, who died in Oregon: Mary, the wife of Tom Clare. Jefferson township. Johnson county; Amanda. the wife of Timothy George, of Montana; Bettie, the wife of J. W. Dawson: John, of this review: James, Warrensburg, Missouri: Annie, the wife of James Ivy, Columbus, Kansas: George, on the old home- stead. Montserrat township; Sallie, the wife of John Dillingham ; Julia. the wife of Walter Hay. Walla Walla, Washington; and Thomas B., Miami, Oklahoma. The barn, which Thomas Adams erected many years ago. is still standing on the homestead, now owned by George

SUSAN E. (MARSHALL) ADAMS.

JOHN ADAMS.

585

HISTORY OF JOHNSON COUNTY

Adams. This barn is exceptionally worthy of mention, having been built of black walnut. An immense walnut tree, which was at least six feet in diameter and sixty feet to the first limb, had been blown down and from it were sawed the boards of genuine black walnut, now so very valuable and scarce, and they were used in the construction of this barn. At least sixteen-foot lumber was obtained from the limb. The father's death occurred January 4, 1888 and in August, 1910 the mother joined him in death. Both Mr. and Mrs. Adams were fine, estimable, worthy citizens, who nobly did their part in the work of upbuilding the county and state.

At the age of twenty-four years, on March 2, 1880, John Adams began farming for himself. He is now owner of five hundred twenty- six acres of valuable farm land in Johnson county, practically all of which tract is under cultivation or in meadow. Two hundred acres of the place are annually farmed. Mr. Adams gives much time and atten- tion to raising Hereford cattle, having at present one hundred two head on his farm, with a high-priced, registered male, "San Pedro, I," at the head of the herd. He usually keeps from five to six hundred dollars worth of hogs each year and a few sheep.

John Adams and Elizabeth Marshall were united in marriage March 2, 1880 and to them were born eight children: Lillie F., born Decem- ber 10, 1880, the wife of S. V. Dudley, of California; Everett E., who is farming on a place south of the home place: Almon, a member of Company B, Sixty-first Infantry, National Army; Myrtle, the wife of Mr. Hildebrand, residing on a farm one mile from the home place; Lulu May, the wife of Frank Judd, Bertsville. Johnson county; Ora, the wife of Mr. Lee McGraw, residing with her father. for whom she is keeping house; Charles, at home; and Estelle, the wife of Mr. John W. Sullivan, Warrensburg, Missouri. Mrs. Adams departed this life February 22, 1917 at the age of sixty-one years. She was a brave, noble, highly estimable woman, one whose gentle, kindly, pureminded spirit exerted a marked influence for good in her community and in her home, one who has been sadly and deeply missed by her scores of friends. She was, and Mr. Adams is, a worthy and consistent Christian, a member of the Baptist church. Mr. Adams is at present the school director in his home district.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Johnson County, Missouri, Part 48

Author: Cockrell, Ewing Publication date: 1918 Publisher: Topeka, Kan. : Historical Publishing Co. Number of Pages: 1234

Author: Cockrell, Ewing
Publication date: 1918
Publisher: Topeka, Kan. : Historical Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 1234