USA > Missouri > Johnson County > History of Johnson County, Missouri > Part 69
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Mr. Warnick, whose name introduces this sketch. attended school at Warnick school house in Johnson county. He recalls among his teachers, Professor Matthews, B. G. Woodford, and James Warren. Mr. Warnick was well acquainted with Reverends J. H. Houx and Finis King, two of the most widely-known of the pioneer preachers. Religion came first of all things with the early settlers of Johnson
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county and the minister was usually the leading man of affairs and he did much to form public opinion in political as well as religious matters. The log cabin churches were very plain within and without and often not heated, even in the coldest weather, but everyone was expected to attend the services when held-and the entire community did attend, some coming a long distance in uncomfortable ox-wagons, others traveling on horseback. There was much open prairie and free pasture land in the old days and wild game of several different kinds abounded. Hunting and fishing were not wholly pastimes, sports to be indulged in on rare occasions, but occupations, often the sole means of obtaining meat for the family larder. Mr. Warnick has seen thousands of prairie chickens near his home in his boyhood days.
In 1877, S. F. Warnick was united in marriage with Mollie B. Wood- ford, daughter of Julius Woodford, Sr., and to this union have been born two children: Mrs. Gertrude Shock, Warrensburg, Missouri; and O. D., who is associated in partnership with Theodore Shock in the hardware business at Warrensburg. Mr. and Mrs. Warnick are worthy members of the Presbyterian church.
A small tract of land, comprising sixty acres, was given S. F. War- nick by his father and the year following his marriage the son built a house on it, a tiny structure scarcely large enough for two, and this was the Warnick home for several years, while Mr. Warnick was engaged in farming and stock raising on this place. In 1885, the War- nicks moved to Warrensburg, where S. F. Warnick and his brother, E. N., were associated in partnership in the hardware business. The firm continued to conduct a mercantile establishment in this city until 1911, when the elder brother moved to his present country home four miles from Warrensburg. Mr. Warnick built a modern, six-room resi- dence on this farm, a place embracing sixty acres of land, and in their pleasant, comfortable, suburban home Mr. and Mrs. Warnick are spend- ing the closing years of their lives, spent in useful labor, in quiet ease and contentment.
Sixty-one years ago, S. F. Warnick first saw the light of day in Johnson county. Countless changes have taken place in this section of the state during the past half century and all have been witnessed by Mr. Warnick. He has watched the growth of institutions, the devel- opment of woodland trails into splendid roads, and the building of cities, towns, and villages out on the wide, unfenced prairie land. As did his
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father before him, Mr. Warnick has always taken a deep interest in the advancement of his township and county and he has nobly aided materially in their growth and in placing them in the front rank with the best in the state. As was his father, he is an earnest supporter of the Democratic party. Surely the father's "mantle has fallen on worthy shoulders."
Nicholas Houx Fulkerson, a late prominent farmer and stockman of Johnson county, was one of the wealthiest land owners in this section of Missouri. He was a member of one of the oldest and best families in Johnson county, a representative of one of the leading colonial families of Virginia. Mr. Fulkerson was born April 8, 1842, on his father's farm in Johnson county, a son of Dr. J. M. and Elizabeth C. (Houx) Fulkerson. Dr. James Monroe Fulkerson was born in Vir- ginia, March 15, 1811. When he was still a babe in arms, his parents moved from Virginia to a plantation in Tennessee and then later to Missouri, locating in Lafayette county. Although born in Virginia and reared in Tennessee. Dr. James Monroe Fulkerson was always regarded as one of Missouri's own sons, for the greatest part of his life was spent in this state. He was one of the beloved pioneer physicians of Johnson county and an active man of civic affairs. Doctor Fulkerson began the practice of his profession in St. Charles county. Missouri. In 1834, he came to Johnson county and for several years made his home with Nicholas Houx. an honored pioneer of Johnson county, whose daughter he married. Dr. and Mrs. Fulkerson settled on the Houx homestead and within a few years after his coming to this county. Mr. Fulkerson manifested his gift for leadership and for three con- secutive terms represented his chosen county in the Missouri State Legislature, the first man in Johnson county to be honored with this important trust. Doctor Fulkerson had been a resident of the county but six years, when his versatile abilities were so well known that he was chosen director of the Lexington Bank of Missouri and assignee of the bankrupts of Johnson county. During the ensuing years, he prospered to a remarkable degree and at the time of his death in 1886 was the owner of twenty-four hundred acres of choice land in this and adjoining counties.
Mr. Fulkerson, the subject of this review, had enjoyed the advan- tages of association with highly intellectual and talented parents and of higher education. He was a student at Chapel Hill College two years,
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at Columbia University one year, and at St. Joe College one year. Nicholas Houx Fulkerson had pursued the medical course in college and was thoroughly fitted to begin the practice of medicine when finan- cial losses, caused by the Civil War, caused him to change his plans and to engage in farming and stock raising. During the Civil War, Mr. Fulkerson enlisted with Company E, Fifth Missouri Infantry and served under General Price throughout the long struggle of four years. Twice, he was wounded in battle. After the conflict had closed, Mr. Fulkerson returned to the farm and for four years was engaged in general farming in Johnson county. Following this, he was success- fully employed in the Texas cattle business for eight years and then he organized a stock company and operated a cattle ranch in Kansas, becoming later the manager of the same. When Mr. Fulkerson returned to Johnson county, he again engaged in general farming and was thus occupied until 1883, when he moved from the farm to War- rensburg in order that his children might have better educational advantages. He moved back to the farm in 1889, after the children had completed their work in the Warrensburg State Normal School, and one year afterward was again the leading man of his community. Apparently, Nicholas Houx Fulkerson had inherited a good share of his father's stock of brains and excellent business judgment, for he, too, became very prosperous and successful in a material way, owning at the time of his death in 1900 more than thirteen hundred acres of land. He was an influential Democrat and served as township assessor for many years.
December 25, 1866, Nicholas Houx Fulkerson and Martha A. F. Fulkerson, daughter of John and Henrietta (Ewing) Fulkerson, promi- nent pioneers of Lafayette county, were united in marriage and to them were born six children, five of whom are now living: Dr. F. M. Sedalia, Missouri; Dr. John H., Centerview, Missouri; Nicholas Houx, Jr., War- rensburg, Missouri; R. P., Tacoma, Washington; and Mrs. Elizabeth F. Greer, Centerview, Missouri. Henrietta O. Fulkerson died in 1884. Since the father's death in 1900, the widowed mother resides at the homestead with her two sons, John H. and Nicholas H., Jr., and her daughter, Mrs. Greer, who is the mother of one child, a daughter, Vivian Ewing.
Until the day of his death, Nicholas Houx Fulkerson was a tireless worker. He was widely known to be a man of high moral standing,
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oi pleasant and kindly manners, of sterling integrity, a gentleman. Like his father, Mr. Fulkerson possessed a marked talent for leadership, which clearly appeared during the war when he was one of the most respected and admired officers in the Southern camp, and again in civil life when he assumed offices of trust and responsibility within the gift of the people. His constant practice of square dealing and gentle kindness won for him a multitude of friends in Johnson county.
The Fulkerson brothers have charge of one thousand acres of valuable land and they are engaged in farming and stock raising on an extensive scale. The farm is well equipped with all needed con- veniences for handling stock and it is well watered. Two hundred fifty acres of the place were planted in wheat last autumn, of 1917. This past season, John H. and Nicholas H., Jr., harvested seventy-five tons of hay and five thousand bushels of wheat, in addition to having thirty- five acres of corn land. They are industrious and intelligent agricul- turists and young men of high standing in the community, well worthy of the unsullied name they bear.
At the time of this writing. in 1917, the Fulkersons were canning beans which were grown from the seed produced by beans planted by the great-grandmother Fulkerson more than a century ago. In the Fulker- son home they are known as "grandma beans."
Z. B. Hunter, a successful and prominent farmer and stockman of Centerview township. is a native of West Virginia. He was born in 1853, a son of J. C. and Ruth Hunter. J. C. Hunter was a son of Nath- aniel Hunter. a prosperous miller and farmer of West Virginia. In the same year in which his son was born, J. C. Hunter moved with his family to Ohio and in that state Z. B. Hunter was reared and educated. He remained in Ohio until 1878, when he moved to Missouri and set- tled in Johnson county. In 1884. he went to Kansas and remained three years. Mr. Hunter visited the old home in West Virginia about ten years ago and found the log cabin, in which he was born, still used as a residence and occupied.
For several years after he came to Johnson county, Mr. Hunter rented land and engaged in farming and stock raising. In 1882, lie purchased two hundred acres of good farm land in Centerview town- ship, which has been his home for the past thirty-five years, with the exception of three years spent in Kansas. Mr. Hunter has been con- stantly at work improving this place and he now has one of the fine
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country homes in Johnson county. He built a splendid residence and good farm buildings and has rotated his crops and "plowed deep," until now there is no better farm in the community. Mr. Hunter is espe- cially interested in farming and stock raising. He has, at the time of this writing in 1917, thirty-three head of high grade cattle and has har- vested thirty tons of hay, seven hundred ninety bushels of wheat and rye, and was preparing to plant seventy-five acres of his farm in wheat last autumn.
In 1880, Z. B. Hunter and Sarah J. White, daughter of John White, of Ohio, were united in marriage and to this union have been born nine children: John, Centerview, Missouri; Forest, Warrensburg, Missouri; Roland, who is now in Wyoming; Lucian, Centerview, Missouri, a United States soldier stationed at Camp Funston; Wilber, Centerview, Missouri; Mrs. Bernice Renick, Odessa, Missouri; Eula, Margaretta, and Mary, at home with their parents. Mr. and Mrs. Hunter are excel- lent people, kind, hospitable, and enterprising and they are enrolled among the most valuable citizens of the county. Politically, Mr. Hunter is a Democrat.
William E. Caldwell, proprietor of the "Caldwell Valley Stock Farm," is a native of Illinois. He was born in Kendall county. July 28, 1863, and reared to maturity in Grundy county, Illinois. He is the son of Lewis and Julia Ann (Shepherd) Caldwell, the former, a native of West Virginia and the latter, of Ohio. They were the parents of the following children: Alex, who is a prosperous and well known farmer and stockman of Audubon, Iowa; Mary, the wife of Ara Dix, of Morris, Illinois; Frank, a prominent farmer and stockman of Morris, Illinois; Hortense Jane, who was the wife of John Woodward, and she is now deceased, her remains being laid to rest in the cemetery at Lisbon in Kendall county, Illinois; and William E., the subject of this review. Lewis Caldwell went from a farm near Wheeling, West Vir- ginia, where he was born, to Kendall county, Illinois, and with his fam- ily, moved from Kendall county to Grundy county, where his death occurred in 1904. Mrs. Caldwell survived her husband thirteen years, when she joined him in death in February, 1917. Their remains were interred in the cemetery at Morris, Illinois.
In the public schools of Grundy county, Illinois, William E. Cald- well received his education. He remained at home until he was twenty- six years of age and then he began life for himself, engaged in farming
MR. AND MRS. WILLIAM E. CALDWELL AND FAMILY.
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in Grundy county, Illinois. In 1907, Mr. Caldwell came to Johnson county, Missouri, where he purchased in partnership with Holderman Brothers the Smizer farm of two hundred ninety-five acres, paying fifty-three dollars an acre. In 1911, he increased his holdings by pur- chasing one hundred sixty acres from Charles Clark, for which he paid fifty-three dollars an acre. All told, Mr. Caldwell is farming four hundred fifty-five acres.
September 18, 1889, William E. Caldwell and Ettie M. Dix were united in marriage. She is the daughter of Oliver and Louisa S. (McKenzie) Dix, of Grundy county, Illinois. Oliver Dix was born in New York, January 5, 1822 and Louisa S. Dix was born April 5, 1838. They were the parents of the following children: Lydia B., who was born October 21, 1860; William O., who was born October 7, 1862; Ettie M., who was born February 13, 1868, the wife of the subject of this review; Susan, who was born October 3, 1872; and George R., who was born September 2, 1877. By a former marriage, Oliver Dix and Lydia (Wing) Dix were the parents of two sons: Ara W., who was born January 6, 1850; and Orville, who was born December 27, 1852. Lydia (Wing) Dix died in 1857. The death of Oliver Dix occurred February 16, 1900 and ten years later he was followed in death by his wife, Louisa S. Dix, whose death occurred August 30, 1910. Both father and mother were buried in the cemetery at Lisbon in Kendall county, Illinois. To William E. and Ettie M. (Dix) Caldwell have been born three children: William Earl, Jr., who was born March 19, 1892; George Dix, student in Warrensburg Normal and is now captain of the junior class in Wentworth Military Academy, Lexington, Missouri, and is assistant coach of the football and basket ball teams, who had charge of the Warrensburg Normal Training School and made a record as an athlete, who was born September 7, 1895; and Landy Lewis, who was born August 13, 1898.
The "Caldwell Valley Stock Farm" is pleasantly and conveniently situated. It is an ideal stock farm, well watered and improved. Mr. Caldwell handles Durham and Shorthorn cattle of good grade and at the present time, in 1917, has one hundred ten head on the farm. He has not fed for beef purposes for many years, but he is contemplating doing so within a short time. Mr. Caldwell also raises mules. There is no better watered farm in this section of the country. Devil's branch, a tributary of Blackwater, runs through the place and there
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are three splendid wells on the farm, one of which is three hundred forty-two feet deep and is pumped by an engine. An excellent pond is also on the "Caldwell Valley Stock Farm." Two hundred acres are in bluegrass, twenty acres in wheat, and thirty acres in corn. Mr. Cald- well is one of the best agriculturists in this part of the state and he and Mrs. Caldwell have made scores of friends in Johnson county, since their coming here but a few years ago. No family in the county is more highly esteemed and respected than the Caldwell family.
B. F. Mitchell, an enterprising and prosperous farmer and stock- man of Centerview township, is a son of one of Johnson county's noble pioneers, T. H. Mitchell. The son was born in Kentucky in 1854 and when a child came to Warrensburg, Missouri in 1869 with his parents, T. H. and Clementina Mitchell, who settled on a farm of three hundred twenty acres of virgin soil in Centerview township in 1870. The father built a small, rude, box-like structure, which was the Mitchell residence many years. Mr. Mitchell, Sr. engaged in stock raising extensively and in corn growing. Crops were good in those early days before the fer- tility of the soil was exhausted and for a few years after the Mitchells came West prices were high but in time there came the inevitable fall of prices and a period when it was extremely difficult to get hold of any money at all. Then came the financial crash of 1873, brought on by rash speculations in Western railroads and followed by ruin of hun- dreds of business firms and want and suffering in thousands of homes- and the Mitchell family did not escape. B. F. Mitchell knows from hard, bitter experience what real "hard times" are. At that time, ninety- five per cent. of the land in Johnson county was open prairie.
In Kentucky, Mr. Mitchell received the beginning of his education and after the family came West he attended school at Warrensburg one year. B. F. Mitchell was born and reared on a farm and in choosing his vocation for life he followed in the footsteps of his father. The elder Mitchell prospered materially in the years following the panic of 1873 and at one time owned four hundred acres of choice land in Johnson county. He was a man of invincible spirit and possessed excellent busi- ness judgment, an inheritance from his father, Shedwick Mitchell, who was a prosperous hotel proprietor practically all his life.
B. F. Mitchell is one of five children born to T. H. and Clementina Mitchell, who were united in marriage in 1841. The children were, as follow: Mrs. Sarah Ann Banfield, deceased: Mrs. Georgia A. Whitsett,
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Lamar, Missouri: Pleasant, who resides in Washington ; Mrs. Lucy Ann Simes, Ogden, Utah; B. F., the subject of this review; and one de- ceased. The mother died in 1856 and in 1857 Mr. Mitchell remarried. His second wife was Georgia Ann Stallcup, a sister of his first wife, and to this union were born two children, who are now living: Henry F., Richmond, Colorado; and Charles B., Kansas City, Missouri. T. H. Mitchell was gifted with the happy faculty of making true friends and no enemies and he was for years a leading man of his community.
B. F. Mitchell owns a splendid farm in Centerview township, a place comprising two hundred forty acres of land, which is well improved and nicely kept. In 1895, he built a pleasant and comfortable home, a residence of two stories. He has a good tenant house of six rooms on the farm, in which his son-in-law resides. There are six large. well-constructed barns on the place, all in excellent repair. B. F. Mitchell harvested, this past season, nine hundred bushels of wheat, seven hundred bushels of oats, and twenty-five tons of hay, besides having seventy acres of his farm in corn. He had on the place, at the time of this writing, one hundred fifty head of hogs and sixty-five head of cattle. in addition to a large herd of horses and mules. Mr. Mitchell planted forty-five acres of his farm in wheat last autumn, of 1917.
B. F. Mitchell and Rosella Fitch were united in marriage in October, 1884. Mrs. Mitchell is a daughter of Crawford Fitch, who settled in Johnson county in 1874. She is one of ten children born to her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Crawford Fitch, all of whom were reared to maturity and are now living: James M., Centerview, Missouri: Mrs. Lavica A. Snyder, Deepwater, Missouri: George A., Eldorado Springs. Kansas; Mrs. Eliza McCord, Cincinnati, Ohio: Mrs. Nancy A. Stout. Warrensburg, Missouri; Mrs. Marietta Plummer. Vanceburg, Ken- tucky; Mrs. Rachel D. Brown, Warrensburg. Missouri : Charles H .. who resides in Canada: Mrs. B. F. Mitchell, the wife of the subject of this review: and Mrs. Roberta Simmerman. Columbus township. To Mr. and Mrs. Mitchell have been born two children: Laura, who is engaged in teaching school: and Mrs. Ida Spicer. Centerview township, the wife of V. E. Spicer, who has rented the Mitchell farm and resides there. He and Mr. Mitchell are interested in stock raising and are associated in partnership in this business.
Mr. Mitchell is deeply interested in drainage and he speaks in an interesting manner of the advantages he, himself. has derived from til-
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ing his farm, much of which is rich bottom land. From his own experi- ence, he states emphatically that tiling is a paying investment and he should know for he has used five carloads of tiles on his place and has, in all, one hundred thirty-seven acres of his place drained by this method. The creek, which flows through his farm, was becoming more and more crooked and filled with soil. Since he has tiled his land, Mr. Mitchell has not lost one crop by an overflow from the creek. He places the tile in trenches not more than eighteen inches in depth, for he does not wish to remove the underground water, just the superfluous sur- face water.
Nearly a half century ago, B. F. Mitchell came to Johnson county. He recalls the day when there were but two roads in the western part of the county, namely: the old State road and the Lexington-Clinton road. The early settlers traveled along trails and went from place to place more by their sense of direction. As has been previously stated in this sketch, most of the land was open prairie and Mr. Mitchell and his brother-in-law once split rails enough to fence three hundred twenty acres of land. Wild game abounded and this subject has often in the old days killed hundreds of prairie chickens, and many wild turkeys, besides a few deer. He remembers the kindly hospitality of the pio- neers and the countless happy times they experienced at social gather- ings. Mr. and Mrs. Mitchell are excellent citizens and worthy people and they are numbered among the county's best families.
W. A. Robey, one of the foremost agriculturists of Johnson county and most successful citizens of Jackson township, is a Johnson county boy. He was born in this county in 1872, a son of B. F. and Ellen Robey, prominent pioneers of Johnson county who came to Missouri from Kentucky just after the close of the Civil War and settled on a farm of one hundred twenty acres in Jackson township. To B. F. and Ellen Robey were born seven children: W. A., the subject of this sketch; E. H., Holden, Missouri; Eunice, Los Angeles, California; R. E., Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Victoria Katherine, Los Angeles, Cali- fornia; B. F., deceased; and Mrs. Imogene Murray, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. B. F. Robey was engaged in farming and stock raising for many years on his country place in Jackson township. In the latter part of his life, he retired from the active labors of the farm and moved to Warrensburg, but Mr. Robey was never contented with the life of an onlooker in the city and within a short time the family returned to
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their homestead, and it was there the father died in 1902. He was a citizen well known for his uprightness of character and business integ- rity. B. F. Robey was guided by the highest moral principles in all the affairs of life. He invariably followed the Golden Rule and as a result he received that which he richly merited-the respect and esteem of all who knew him.
D. T. Boisseau was the instructor of the school held at Douglass schoolhouse in Johnson county who helped W. A. Robey make his first efforts in obtaining a good common school education. Mr. Boisseau Warrensburg, was later followed by Mr. Cook, as teacher of the Doug- lass school. Mr. Robey recalls Reverend Frank Russell, who was one of the leading preachers when the subject of this review was a lad. He also remembers how proud he was of the first money he ever earned, for he had truly earned every cent of it, cutting cord wood for the use of the Douglass school. He invested the money in a calf and a pig and of them took exceptionally good care. Those two animals meant far more to the boy than a herd of one hundred registered Shorthorns or pure-bred Poland Chinas mean to the present-day stockman. They represented his total capital and there was probably not an hour in the days which followed that he was not thinking about them and planning. The calf and pig throve remarkably and in time were sold at a good profit. Henceforth, W. A. Robey was an avowed stockman-to-be and not many years passed until he was one of the most enterprising stock- dealers in Johnson county. Thus was laid the foundation for his inter- ests later in life, but Mr. Robey is of the opinion that his school work suffered thereby. When he was twenty-one years of age, his first tract of land was given him by his father. To the gift of forty acres Mr. Robey has added forty acres more land and on this place in Jackson township he is engaged in stock raising and general farming. He has at the present time, in 1917, sixty head of high grade cattle and fifty head of hogs, of the Poland China breed. He harvested, this past autumn, four hundred fifty bushels of wheat, nine hundred bushels of oats, and sixty tons of hay and he had forty-five acres of his farm in corn. Mr. Robey enlists all his energies in his work and with persistent concentration pushes to a successful issue everything he undertakes. He is a firm advocate of crop rotation and of the constant use of the manure spreader. In 1910, he built the residence, an attractive country home of eight large rooms. The Robey place is well improved and an
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