History of Johnson County, Missouri, Part 54

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

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J. W. Adams was reared and educated in Cooper county, Missouri and taught school for several years prior to locating in Johnson county. Every member of the Adams family has taught school, forming one- sixteenth part of the entire teaching force of eighty teachers in Cooper

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county-a remarkable record for a family of "self-made" men and women.

Seventeen years ago, in 1901. J. W. Adams came to Holden, Mis- souri. During that period, he has made one of the most conspicuous business successes in the West. He began in the poultry and egg busi- ness on salary, but in 1909 he engaged in business for himself on an ordinary scale. For a period of twenty-three months he was in partner- ship with another man, and the firm was doing a business of about fifty thousand dollars annually. Since that time, the Adams establish- ment has made wonderful strides and its growth has been phenomenal. The concern handles poultry, butter, and eggs in carload and trainload lots, and the products are shipped to Chicago and New York, mainly. The produce is purchased from the local trade, and through branch houses at Paola and Harrisonville, the Paola branch having been estab- lished in 1915 and the Harrisonville branch being placed in operation in 1913, with local managers at each point. I. S. Oliver has charge of the Harrisonville business and Lysle Snow is in charge at Paola. This large establishment operates extensively in eastern Kansas and this section of Missouri. The goods are shipped in carload lots to Chicago and New York accompanied by a capable caretaker who goes with the shipment to its destination. Some idea of the magnitude of the Adams business can be obtained by the following figures:

From March 1, 1916 to March 1, 1917 there were shipped by this concern one million four hundred forty-four thousand five hundred forty-five pounds of poultry ; one million two hundred eighty-six thous- and one hundred and ninety dozen of eggs; and fifty-one thousand seven hundred sixty-two pounds of country butter; and twenty-four thousand six hundred and one pounds of green hides. The total amount paid for produce during that period was six hundred three thousand two hundred forty-five dollars and seventy cents. The payroll during the year amounted to twenty-five thousand forty-eight dollars and forty- three cents, for an average of seventy people employed in every depart- ment of the business. The feed bill for the poultry alone amounted to over fourteen thousand dollars. The Adams concern is unquestionably the largest of its kind in Johnson county and one of the largest and most successful in this section of Missouri. The packing houses and offices of the company in Johnson county are located on the corner of Main and McKisson streets convenient to the Missouri Pacific and

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Missouri Kansas & Texas railways. A cold storage plant is operated in connection with the business.

Mr. Adams was married July 15, 1903 to Miss Pearl Oliver, of Greencastle, Indiana, who was reared and educated in Warrensburg, Missouri. Three children have been born to J. W. and Pearl Adams, namely: Hiram M., William P., and Katherine Elizabeth.

Mr. Adams activities during his residence in Holden have not been exclusively confined to the development of his own business but he has taken a keen and influential interest in organizing and developing public utilities which have been of decided benefit to his home city. He organ- ized and placed in operation the Holden Ice and Fuel Company and is now president of the company. His primary object in the organiza- tion of this industry, was to enable him to get refrigeration for his own plant and he succeeded in raising the necessary capital for the building of the former plant in three weeks, and it has grown to be an important local enterprise, which benefits the entire city. Mr. Adams is also vice-president of the Home Telephone Company.

Mr. Adams is affiliated fraternally with the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. While residing in Cooper county, he served as clerk of the House of Repre- sentatives under Joseph Tall, at that time chief clerk of the House. In 1899, he was chief clerk of the Senate Journal. The success of the Adams Poultry and Egg Company is a striking illustration of what can be accomplished by an individual who has the power and initiative to develop a business to its greatest capacity. The history of this impor- tant industry is a history of the man himself. Its success is the direct outcome of the injection into it of the energy and virility of its creator whose ambition has known no bounds and who possesses an inherent ability to do things on a broad and ever-widening scale.

L. C. Merritt, of the L. C. & A. Merritt Furniture Company of Hol- den, Missouri, is one of the well-known and leading merchants of Johnson county. Mr. Merritt is a native of Indiana and the only child born to his parents, William C. and Sarah (Cullum) Merritt, of Lafayette, Indi- ana. He was born in 1852 in Lafayette, an old, historical place, the scene of the famous defeat of the renowned Indian chief, Tecumseh, by William Henry Harrison in 1811, and a college town since 1874, when Purdue Uni- versity was opened there. William C. Merritt was born in Pennsylvania. His parents both died when he was a little child and the orphan boy

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was reared in Cincinnati, Ohio, by a neighbor, a well-to-do shipowner who operated a line of steamboats. The elder Merritt learned the brick- mason's trade and in later years became a very successful contractor. In early manhood, he moved from Ohio to Indiana and settled in Lafay- ette. Jane (Cullum) Merritt was a daughter of Harvey Cullum, a prominent pioneer of Cincinnati, Ohio. The Cullums moved from Ohio to Indiana in 1829 and settled on a farm in Tippecanoe county near Lafayette. The first year they failed to raise any crops and were obliged to rely upon the uncertain friendliness of the treacherous Indians of the vicinity to obtain food. William C. Merritt and Jane Cullum were united in marriage and to them was born one child, a son, L. C., the subject of this review. The father spent his mature life in Lafayette, Indiana. His death occurred in 1874. in the same year that Purdue University was founded at Lafayette.

In the public schools of Lafayette, Indiana, L. C. Merritt obtained his preliminary education. Early in life, Mr. Merritt received a most thorough course in business training in actual work in a mercantile estab- lishment in Lafayette. September 15, 1900, he came from Lafayette to Holden, Missouri, and entered at once the furniture business in this city engaged in business with Stephen Ball, a former Lafayette man, who had opened his furniture establishment at Holden in 1882. Mr. Ball was born and reared on a farm in Tippecanoe county, Indiana, and when a young man learned the work of a telegraph operator and was employed in that capacity at Fort Scott, Kansas, for several years prior to his coming to Holden. Missouri. L. C. Merritt and Stephen Ball were asso- ciated in business until 1903, when upon the death of Mr. Ball the busi- ness was left to Mr. and Mrs. Merritt. The firm was the first in the furniture business to be established in Holden. Recently, Mr. Merritt has renewed and increased the splendid line of stock carried by the company and in addition to furniture they are fully equipped with . a complete stock of supplies needed in the undertaker's work.

October 17, 1880. L. C. Merritt and Alice McNeal, of Lafayette, Indiana, were united in marriage. To this union has been born one child, a daughter, Mrs. Myrtle Eldredge, who resides on a farm located one and a half miles west of Holden, Missouri. Mr. Merritt's mother came with Mr. and Mrs. Merritt to Holden in 1900 and, in June of the following year, her death occurred here. Mrs. William C. Merritt's remains were taken back to Indiana for burial and she was laid to rest beside her husband in the burial ground at Lafayette.

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Politically, Mr. Merritt has always been a stanch Republican. For many years, he has been a member of the Odd Fellows, with which lodge he affiliated at Lafayette. Mr. Merritt is also a member of the Modern Woodmen of America. He is widely known and highly re- spected in the business circles of this part of Missouri and during their residence of seventeen years in Holden both he and Mrs. Merritt have made a host of friends, not solely in their immediate community but in all Johnson county.

Frank Behm, a prominent farmer and stockman of Chilhowee town- ship, is the owner of one of the beautiful country places in this section of Missouri. He is a native of Illinois, born in Chicago in 1858, a son of Henry and Lena Behm. Henry Behm was a skilled cabinet maker and for twenty-one years followed his trade in the city of Chicago. In 1870, he moved with his family to Nebraska, where he homesteaded one hundred sixty acres. Here the Behm family endured countless hardships and misfortunes. During the grasshopper visitation, 1874 and 1875, their entire crops were destroyed and the Behms were left in destitute circumstances. They wore tow sacks for clothing and the father made wooden shoes for each member of the family. Supplies could be obtained at a place thirty-six miles distant from their dugout, provided, of course, that one had the money, for no one sold on credit. The family, in consequence, really suffered from lack of food many, many times in the new Western home. The father and mother died there and later, their son, Frank, left Nebraska and moved to Iowa, where he engaged in farming for twenty-eight years.

In 1881, Frank Behm and Phoebe Schwertley, a native of Harrison county, Iowa, born in 1860, and a daughter of Fred and Mrs. Schwertley, of Iowa, were united in marriage. To this union have been born eleven children ; Fred, Modale, Iowa : Clara, at home, Denton, Missouri : Henry, Modale, Iowa; Louis, Los Angeles, California; Frank, Jr., Modale, Iowa; Leo, at home: Frances, at home: Salome. the wife of Mr. Laud- bender, Glencoe, Iowa; Paul, John B., and Marie, at home with their parents at Denton. Three of the Behm boys are engaged in farming in Harrison county, Iowa, on their father's farm of five hundred sixty acres.

In 1910. Mr. Behim moved to Missouri and purchased a farm in Johnson county at Denton, in Chilhowee township. This place com-

MR. AND MRS. FRANK BEHM.

RESIDENCE OF MR. AND MRS. FRANK BEIM.

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prises six hundred forty acres of land, well watered, splendidly equipped for handling a large number of stock, and conveniently located. Four hundred acres of the Behm farm are in grass and pasture land and last season Mr. Behm had forty acres in oats and forty acres in wheat. He annually harvests about one hundred fifty tons of hay. Mr. Behm is not a graduate of a school of agriculture, but he has learned much in the hard school of experience and there is no more capable, intelli- gent, progressive farmer in this state than he. He is a strong advocate of crop rotation and of the manure spreader. At the present time, Mr. Behm has one hundred fifty head of Red Polled cattle and the same number of Duroc Jersey hogs. He was milking thirteen cows at the time of this writing, in 1917. In 1911, Mr. Behm built a handsome resi- dence, a structure of nine rooms, which is generally considered to be the finest home in Johnson county. It is well constructed, conveniently arranged, and nicely lighted. The owner said, at the time the residence was in the process of construction, that after spending nine years of his life in a dugout in Nebraska, he believed he deserved a "real, sure- enough house" in which to live, and it is the concensus of opinion that for many other reasons Mr. Behm richly deserves his beautiful home.

Mr. and Mrs. Frank Behm are worthy and consistent members of the Catholic church. Politically, Mr. Behm is affiliated with the Democratic party. The Behms are numbered among Johnson county's most substantial citizens.

D. B. Swift, the widely-known and popular proprietor of the Tal- mage Hotel at Holden, Missouri, is one of the county's most successful and influential citizens. Mr. Swift is a native of Ohio, but for more than fifty years has been a resident of Missouri so that he seems to be one of this state's native sons. He was born in February, 1858. in Cleve- land, Ohio, a son of Dr. and Mrs. S. P. Swift. When he was a child, seven years of age, he came with his parents to Missouri and they set- tled in Shelbina. Shelby county, in December. 1865. Dr. S. P. Swift was a well-trained and skilled physician and in Cleveland, the metropolis of northern Ohio, he was one of the leading practitioners, a prominent lecturer in the Cleveland Homeopathic College. To Dr. S. P. Swift and Mrs. Swift were born three children: D. B., the subject of this review; Flora, deceased ; and Byron L., Shelbina, Missouri. Dr. Swift continued in the practice of his profession at Shelbina. He was a man

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of exceptional ability and intellectual powers and for eleven years, from 1898 until his death in 1909, was in charge of the Hospital for the Insane of northeastern Missouri. The mother died at Shelbina in 1886 and twenty-three years later the doctor joined her in death, April 27, 1909.

At the early age of sixteen years, D. B. Swift left school and began life for himself. His first vocation was that of teaching music and dancing. After his marriage in 1876, Mr. Swift located on the farm, one mile north of Shelbina, which is known as the "Oakland Stock Farm," and became interested in breeding and raising standard-bred trotting horses, pure-bred White Durham cattle, and I. O. C. Chester White hogs. Within a very short time, Mr. Swift's interest in standard- bred trotters developed into an enthusiasm for breeding fine roadsters and speed horses and for thirty years he was closely and prominently allied with the world of horsemen, owners of high-class racing animals. Among the best of the horses from the Swift stables were: "Spirah S," pacer, 2.121/4, by "Almont Wilkes" son, "Aspirant," 2.18, and "Dollie S.", 2.26, by "Bay Wilkes"; "Lou S.", trotter, 2.131/4, by "Rene Russell," 2.201/2, and "Dollie S.", daughter of "Bay Wilkes," 2.26; "Tommy S.", pacer, 2.061/4, by "Electrotype" and "Salina Medium," daughter of "Great Happy Medium," the best and most renowned damn of the Mediums and the son, "Tommy S.", the colt holding the record for the greatest speed ; and "Rena S.", 2.121/4, by "Rene Russell" and "Ona S.", dam of "Lord Brilliant," the highest priced horse ever bred in Missouri, valued at seventy thousand dollars, an international show horse. These and several other splendid animals bred by Mr. Swift have gained local fame and some of them a national reputation. "Tommy S." was sold by Mr. Swift for five thousand dollars and he was a bargain at that.

In 1913, D. B. Swift left Shelbina and moved to Garden City, Missouri. He there entered the hotel business and for two years and three months conducted the Commercial Hotel of that city. Mr. Swift then came to Holden and purchased the Talmage Hotel, of which he is still proprietor, at the time of this writing. In addition to the work of managing this hotel, he is the overseer of a large wheat farm in Oklahoma. His daughter, an only child, Mrs. D. E. Smock, is asso- ciated in the hotel business with her father. The Talmage Hotel is one of the best and most capably managed of the small hotels in Mis- souri.

In 1876, D. B. Swift and Ella Swen were united in marriage at

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Shelbina, Missouri, and to this union was born one child, Mrs. D. E. Smock, of whom mention has been made. Mrs. Smock is the mother of one child, a daughter, Luella. Mr. Swift is a member of the Knights of Pythias. Politically, he is independent. Much like his father before him, Mr. Swift is distinctively one of the leading men of his county, a man of versatile abilities, who has "made good" at everything he has undertaken, whether it be teaching, farming, stock raising, horse racing, or hotel keeping, a citizen of more than local repute. The Swift name has long been synonymous with all that constitutes rectitude and honor and today no man in this part of the state of Missouri can boast more or stronger ties of close personal friendship than D. B. Swift.

Joseph M. Miller, a prominent citizen of Madison township, is one of Johnson county's most valued and public-spirited men. He was born September 29, 1855, in Macon county, Missouri, a son of John D. Miller, who was a native of Kentucky and one of the early settlers of Missouri. John D. Miller was born August 6, 1828. in Cumberland county, Ken- tucky, son of Hezekiah Miller, a native of Virginia. The paternal great- grandfather was a native Englishman and he emigrated from Great Britain in his youth and came to Virginia among the early colonists. Later, he moved to Kentucky, probably about 1800, with his family and in that state spent the remainder of his life. Hezekiah Miller. grand- father of Joseph M. Miller, the subject of this review, was a young man when he moved with his parents from Virginia to Kentucky, and he remained in that state until sometime early in 1840, when he came with his wife and children to Missouri and settled on a farm located northeast of Huntsville in Randolph county. On this place, he and Mrs. Miller lived the remainder of their lives. Their son. John D., left Macon county, where he had located first after leaving the homestead in Randolph county, and moved with his family to Putnam county, Mis- souri, and thence to Colorado, in the year which marked the close of the Civil War, 1865, and two years later came to Johnson county, locating on a farm near Pittsville, where he resided until 1883. He moved then to Holden and in this city spent the close of his life in quiet retirement. To Mr. and Mrs. John D. Miller were born the follow- ing children: Joseph M., the subject of this review : S. P., a well-known dentist of Macon, Missouri; Dr. W. H., a leading physician of Macon, Missouri; Mrs. Mary Martin, who resides in Oklahoma; Mrs. Julia Whitsett, wife of Archie Whitsett, Holden, Missouri; and John, who

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is postmaster at Boulder, Colorado. John D. Miller was one of the substantial farmers of his township and well merited the reputation he bore of a good man and enterprising citizen. He died in December, 1907. Mrs. Miller died in March, 1897. The wife of John D. Miller was Margaret Ann Scrutchfield, born in Macon county, Missouri, a daughter of Samuel Scrutchfield, an early Missouri pioneer.

In the public schools of Johnson county, Missouri, Joseph M. Miller obtained a good education. He entered the teaching profession and taught school for several terms in the meantime attended the Warrens- burg State Normal School, after which he continued to teach school in addition to farming near Pittsville, Missouri. At the age of twenty-one years, Mr. Miller began to be self-supporting. September 17, 1915, he came to Holden, Missouri, and is now residing in a handsome, mod- ern country home located a short distance from this city.

In 1879, Joseph M. Miller and Laura Alice Lundy, daughter of Hezekiah Lundy, one of the well-known, early pioneers of Johnson county, were united in marriage and to this union have been born nine children, three of whom are living: Fred, a successful farmer residing near Pittsville, Missouri; Elsie May, wife of Arch Henderson; and Edwin Lundy, who is at home with his parents and a student in Holden High School. Mr. and Mrs. Miller are worthy and consistent members of the Methodist Episcopal church, South. Mr. Miller is affiliated with the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He has erected a beautiful mausoleum to be occupied in the years to come by his immediate family and their descendants. This tomb is well constructed of cement and stone, perfectly reinforced with three or four tons of steel, and it is surrounded by a park. This tomb and sur- roundings will be perpetually endowed by Mr. Miller with a substan- tial fund. This endowment will provide for the perpetual maintenance of the mausoleum and park and assist in the upkeep of any similar building which in the future might be erected on the Miller tract set aside for mausoleum purposes.

A product of a long line of ancestors, whose livelihood and wealth were derived from the soil. Joseph M. Miller early decided to choose the ancient and honorable vocation of farming as his life work. He has attained an enviable standing in agricultural circles and his sound- ess of judgment and clearness of foresight have won for him the high- est regard of the leading business men of this county. Mr. Miller

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takes a broad and comprehensive view of affairs and keeps himself well posted relative to business, public, and political matters. He is num- bered among the representative citizens of Johnson county.

James C. Long, a prominent citizen of Simpson township, is dis- tinctively one of the leading farmers and stockmen of Johnson county. Mr. Long was born June 29, 1852, in Platte county, Missouri, a member of a well-known and highly respected pioneer family. He is a son of Dr. Benjamin S. and Louisa ( Basey) Long, both of whom were natives of Kentucky. Doctor Long came to Missouri in 1830. James C. Long, the subject of this review, is now the oldest surviving male member of his father's family of eight children.

September 28, 1881, the marriage of James C. Long and Fannie Barnes, daughter of Doctor Barnes, of Virginia, was solemnized and to this union have been born five children, all of whom are now living: Dr. Frank B., who was born July 18, 1882. and is now engaged in the practice of medicine at Sedalia, Missouri; Cliff C., who was born Sep- tember 22, 1883; James R., who was born March 26, 1886; W. Hatcher, who was born June 27, 1889; and Lutie V. Four children, Cliff C., James R., W. Hatcher, and Lutie V., are at home with their parents.

In the autumn of 1902, James C. Long purchased a tract of land comprising four hundred forty acres, located in Simpson township and for this farm paid ten thousand dollars. The Longs moved to Johnson county in 1903. Mr. Long had spent about thirty-four years of his life engaged in farming on bottom land of the Missouri river valley in Car- roll county. He managed to raise one good crop in about every three or four years in Carroll county. Mr. Long disposed of his land there before coming to Johnson county and for his farm obtained fifty-five dollars an acre, which netted him a good profit, and the place has since been sold for more than one hundred dollars an acre. Probably two hundred eighty acres of his Simpson township farm were in timber and brush when he bought it and the only improvements on it were an old log cabin and a shack, unworthy the name of barn. Mr. Long has built a handsome residence, a ten-room structure, which is com- fortably and conveniently arranged and modern throughout ; a horse and hay barn 34 x 50 feet; cow stable. 30 x 30 feet ; and an implement shed, in addition to several other needed farm buildings. The Long place is well fenced and four hundred acres are in grass and under cultivation. Mr. Long is interested both in general farming and stock

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raising, his farm being admirably adapted for both pursuits. He has followed the rule of feeding all the hay and grain he harvests to his stock and he annually plants nearly one hundred acres of the place in corn, thirty acres in oats, and twenty-five acres in wheat.

Since he was a young man, eighteen years of age, and his father gave him a small farm of eighty acres, Mr. Long has followed the ancient and dignified vocation of farming. He is perhaps as widely known as any man in this county and, though a comparatively recent comer, he has in the past fourteen years established an enviable repu- tation in financial and social circles. His extensive business interests bring him in contact with a large number of the county's best citizens and their unanimous opinion of James C. Long is that he is a valuable citizen, a man of rare business ability, keen foresight, unerring judg. ment, and the possessor of a liberal endowment of good, common sense.

Though not a professional partisan, Mr. Long is a firm Democrat and he does all in his power to win success for his party. He earnestly believes in the creed of the Christian church, of which he has been a worthy and consistent member for the past forty years. He is also affiliated with the Modern Woodmen of America. He and Mrs. Long have attained a high standing in Simpson township and because of their eminent worth are accorded the respect and esteem of the entire com- munity.

A. M. Craig, public administrator of Johnson county and manager of the Johnson County Home Telephone Company of Knob Noster, Mis- souri, was born in 1858 in Jefferson county, Kentucky, the son of Reuben and Mary Jane (Guthrie) Craig, both members of prominent Colonial families. Reuben Craig was the son of Twyman Craig, a pros- perous and influential farmer, who was a native of Kentucky and of Scotch descent. The Craig family has long been a distinguished and lead- ing one in the historical annals of this country. Several different mem- bers of the family served in the Revolutionary War. The history, which at the present time is being used as a text in the public schools of Missouri, contains an illustration of early colonial life, a picture of Bryant Station, showing a stockade during a siege. The men were obliged to remain inside and the women are carrying the water. There are twenty-one women pictured and it is said that eighteen of these were Craigs. The governor of Virginia granted the Craig family vast tracts of land near Lexington, Kentucky, where they were one of the first and

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History of Johnson County, Missouri, Part 54

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