USA > Missouri > Johnson County > History of Johnson County, Missouri > Part 72
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For more than a half century, Mr. Stillwell has been a resident of Johnson county. He recalls the days prior to the Civil War, when people hauled bacon from Warsaw to Lexington, Missouri and sold it for one dollar a cut. He remembers a still in Georgetown. Missouri.
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where a man might have his bottle filled with most any sort of liquor for fifteen cents, the size of the bottle being no consideration.
Mr. Stillwell is affiliated with the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons and he is a Royal Arch Mason and a Knights Templar. He is also a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks of Warrensburg.
P. B. Collins, a successful and widely known farmer and stockman of Hazel Hill township, is a member of a prominent pioneer family of Johnson county. He is a son of Thomas and Elizabeth (Dowell) Collins, the former, a native of South Carolina and the latter, of North Carolina. P. B. Collins was born May 25, 1849 in Lafayette, Missouri. Thomas Collins left his native state in early manhood and located in Lafayette county near Higginsville, coming to Missouri in the spring of 1833, having sold his property interests in South Carolina. In 1850, Mr. Collins entered one thousand fifty acres of land in Hazel Hill town- ship and on that portion of the tract, which is now owned by his son, P. B., he built a cabin of three rooms and to this home the family moved from Lafayette, where they had been located. The father was engaged in the vocations of stock raising and grain growing and be- came very prosperous and influential in the new Western home, which he enjoyed but a few brief years, when his death occurred September 12, 1859. The mother, Elizabeth Collins, died February 18, 1886. Both parents were buried in the cemetery at Liberty, Missouri. Thomas and Elizabeth (Dowell) Collins were the parents of seven children: P. B., the subject of this review; Mrs. Sarah Russell, deceased; Mrs. Mary C. Elliott, now a widow, residing with her brother, P. B., on the home place; Golsia, deceased; Elizabeth, deceased; Emma, who resides with her brother. P. B., on the home place ; and George, deceased. By a former marriage with Elizabeth Dyer, Thomas Collins was the father of seven children: William, Kansas City. Missouri; Joseph, deceased; John A., Sedalia, Missouri; Noah, Lafayette county, Mis- souri: Richard, deceased: Mrs. Katharine Matlox, deceased; and Mrs. Nancy Jane Buchanan. Thomas Collins richly deserves to be num- bered with the brave, honored pioneers, who nobly did their part well in the upbuilding of the state and county. He and Mrs. Collins were splendid citizens of Johnson county, deeply interested in the welfare of the community and in all movements in behalf of progress and enterprise, genial, courteous, and kind, a family of many friends.
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P. B. Collins and his two sisters, Mary C. and Emma, attended school held in the Coleman school house, which was located on the Collins homestead. Thomas Collins, the father, donated the land to the district for the purpose of erecting a school building thereon, and he assisted in the building of the log house. Miss Golsia Martin taught the first school and, later. Mr. Mitspaugh and Mr. Windsor wielded the ferule of authority, in the years prior to the Civil War. After the war. Miss Mattie Dubaugh and Miss Mollie Martin were employed as teachers of the Coleman school.
When Mr. Collins was a lad. his father would frequently bring home from a hunting expedition deer, wild turkeys. and prairie chickens. Fishing was considered an occupation more than a sport in the early days and it was not difficult to catch many good fish in the small streams scattered over the entire county. Among the settlers, who resided in Johnson county previous to the war of the sixties, whom P. B. Collins recalls, were: Morgan Cockrell, Johnnie Atkin- son, "Billie" Browning, Nimrod Frost, John Gillilan, Edmond Coleman, John Smith, Samuel Grinstead, and Will Roberts. Mrs. Wooten lived just across the county line in Lafayette county.
January 4, 1913, the Collins home was burned and in the same year the present residence, a cozy, pleasant cottage of five rooms, was built. P. B. Collins has placed all the improvements now on the farm. He is engaged in general farming, stock raising, and poultry raising on a farm of one hundred thirty-seven acres. Mrs. Elliott has forty acres in Henry county. There are, at the time of this writing in 1917, eighty-four pure-bred Bronze turkeys and two hundred Rhode Island Red chickens on the Collins place. This farm is located fifteen miles northwest of Warrensburg and twelve miles from Odessa and one- fourth mile from Robbins, thus the situation is all that could be desired for convenience in shipping stock and produce.
Mr. Collins is unmarried. He and his two sisters reside at the old homestead in Hazel Hill township, a farm which has been in the possession of the Collins family for nearly seventy years. He is an excellent citizen, a man of candid. straightforward manner and pleas- ing personality. Mr. Collins and his sisters are well known and esteemed in Johnson county.
David E. Heizer, proprietor of the "Oak Ridge Stock Farm" of Hazel Hill township, was born August 2, 1869 in Columbus township,
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Johnson county, Missouri. He is the first born of eight children born to William and Susanna (Jones) Heizer, who were united in marriage September 26. 1867, their children being, as follow: David E., of this review; Mrs. Bertie Parsons, Columbus township, Johnson county ; Mrs. Myrtle Warren, Warrensburg, Missouri; Mrs. Mary Bratton, Columbus township, Johnson county; W. A., Centerview township, Johnson county; C. C., Wasco, California; and two children died in infancy. William Heizer was born September 1, 1844 in Ross county, Ohio, where he was reared and educated. The same year in which he was married to Susanna Jones, the daughter of John and Mary (Can- man) Jones, Mr. Heizer came with his wife to Missouri to establish their new home in the West. With his uncle, Sylvanis Lockard, his brother, Stephen Heizer, and a neighbor, D. F. Braden, William Heizer drove through from Ohio to Missouri. They settled on a tract of splendid farm land in Columbus township, where Mr. Heizer was suc- cessfully engaged in farming and stock raising the remainder of his life. He bought and fed stock extensively and was widely known as one of the leading shippers of livestock in Johnson county. At the time of his death, October 31, 1905, Mr. Heizer was owner of two hundred eighty acres of choice land in this county. Mrs. Heizer joined her husband in death July 28. 1913 and both parents were laid to rest in the cemetery at Jacoby Chapel. Mr. and Mrs. Heizer were brave, noble pioneers and good, substantial, industrious citizens, whose loss has long been deeply felt in Johnson county.
Cyrus Heizer, the paternal grandfather of David E., the subject of this review, was born in Virginia in 1815 on the plantation owned by his father. When the child Cyrus was nearly seven years of age, his parents moved from Virginia to Ohio and settled on a farm in that state. Here. Cyrus Heizer was reared to manhood, his boyhood days spent in assisting with the work of the farm and learning many valuable lessons from the school of experience. In early maturity, he was married to Jane E. Cripps and they located first on a farm in Ross county, Ohio, where their son. William, was born, and then in 1867 came West to Missouri, where they settled on a farm in Columbus township, Johnson county. The closing years of their lives were spent at this country place. Jane E. (Cripps) Heizer died about three years prior to the death of Cyrus Heizer. which occurred April 11, 1891. Both are interred in the cemetery at Jacoby Chapel.
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David E. Heizer attended the city schools of Warrensburg and the Warrensburg State Normal School. He was a student at the latter institution in 1890 and 1891. Leaving school in 1892, Mr. Heizer returned to his father's farm and engaged in the pursuits of agricul- ture. In October, 1897, he purchased his present farm, located in Hazel Hill township, a place comprising one hundred twenty acres of land, formerly owned by Sammons brothers, from whom he obtained it. This tract of land was entered from the government by James Waldon. Mr. Heizer has since increased his holdings by purchasing fifty acres more land. located north and adjoining the Shackleford place. Sixty acres of "Oak Ridge Stock Farm" are fertile bottom land and the balance of the farm is upland. Mr. Heizer has never failed to produce annually a fine corn crop. He pays much attention to the raising of high grade Aberdeen Angus cattle, in which breed he first became interested in 1913. He has at the present time, in 1917, twenty head of cattle and a registered male heads the herd. He raises and feeds some cattle and hogs for the market each year. "Oak Ridge Stock Farm" is well located, plentifully supplied with water, and nicely improved. All the improve- ments on the place, David E. Heizer has himself put there and his country home is one of the most attractive in the county.
October 4, 1893, David E. Heizer and Emma Jeannette Crutcher, the daughter of J. W. and Martha Leona ( McMahan) Crutcher, were married. J. W. Crutcher and Mrs. Crutcher came from Kentucky in 1860 by boat to Lexington, Missouri and thence by land to Hazel Hill township, where they settled on a farm. They were the parents of the following children: William Lewis, Girard, Kansas; Mrs. Mary Brown, Girard, Kansas; Mrs. Lenna Brown, Girard, Kansas; Frank, Washington, Missouri: Fred, Providence, Rhode Island, who was a member of the Coast Artillery but is now with the Baird North Com- pany ; and Mrs. David E. Heizer, the wife of the subject of this review. The mother died in March, 1901 and the father is now residing in Warrensburg. To Mr. and Mrs. Heizer have been born four children : Jennie Leona, William Elden, Marcus, and Adrian. Mr. Heizer is one of the county's most successful and enterprising farmers and stockmen and he and Mrs. Heizer, who is the great-granddaughter of William Stockton, one of the first and most honored pioneers of Johnson county, are held in the greatest respect and esteem in this community, where their families have long been considered among the very best.
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Eli Blacksten, proprietor of "Busy Bee Farm," a place named for the activity of the bees which for the past eight years have been making honey in the walls of the Blacksten residence, is, at the age of seventy- five years, one of the best-informed, most intelligent, most active horti- culturists in Missouri. He was born in 1842 in Wayne county, Ohio. Mr. Blacksten is one of three sons now living born to Daniel and Harriet (Griffith) Blacksten, the former, a native of Pennsylvania and the lat- ter of Ohio. When a lad eleven years of age. Daniel Blacksten came to Ohio and in that state grew to manhood and was married to Harriet Griffith. To them were born: Dr. H. E., a prominent physician of Excelsior, Missouri ; H. M., a well-known horticulturist of Dalton, Ohio; and Eli, the subject of this review. The father was deeply interested in horticulture and planted two fine orchards on his country place in Ohio, in the care of which he took great pride. Both father and mother have long since been deceased.
In 1866, Eli Blacksten moved from Wayne county, Ohio, to Moni- teau county, Missouri, and there resided until 1895, when he came to Hazel Hill township, Johnson county, and purchased his present home from Jerry Shores, a place originally owned by Judge Harrison, the father of Wesley Harrison, one of the first settlers of Hazel Hill town- ship, to which he came in the early thirties. The farm is well watered by a well, three hundred fifteen feet in depth to strata water, and a fine spring. There is a large, splendid stock and hay barn, of two stories and a basement, on the place. The residence, a house of nine rooms, well-constructed and conveniently arranged, was built by Mr. Shores and remodeled by Mr. Blacksten. A stray swarm of bees has taken possession of a nook under the weather-boarding of the residence, gaining entrance through an opening made by the birds, and now when- ever Mr. Blacksten wishes honey for his dinner, a board or two will be removed, all the honey he desires taken out, and the boards replaced to the entire satisfaction of all concerned. Every year, Mr. Blacksten secures about one hundred pounds of honey, which is of the very best quality. At the present time, in 1917, there are four different swarms in the wall. Besides honey, the "Busy Bee Farm" produces fruit, grain, and stock. The place comprises two hundred sixty acres of land, one mile from Fayetteville on the county seat road. This farm is one of the most attractive, delightful country places in Johnson county. Forty acres of the farm are in orchard. all, with the exception of four acres.
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so planted by Eli Blacksten. The trees are well cared for and, in season, thoroughly sprayed. There are in the Blacksten orchard four hundred pear trees, fifteen hundred apple trees, a large number of peach trees, and many cherry trees. In the spring time, when the trees are in bloom, the air for a long distance is weighted with perfume and "Busy Bee Farm" is a most picturesque spot, looking as if the trees were covered with snow which the warmth of May can not melt. Mr. Blacksten makes a specialty of the York Imperial, as a winter apple, and he also has in season the Missouri Pippin, Mammoth Blacktwig, Winesap, and numerous other varieties. His largest crop came about six years ago, when the orchard produced ten thousand bushels, a part of which were shipped to North Dakota in two cars and the rest to Illinois. The best year for pears, there were six hundred fifty bushels of the Improved Keifer, Lincoln, and Gerber varieties. As a stockman, Mr. Blacksten is equally successful. He keeps about fifty head of cattle, raising registered Holsteins, Jerseys, and some of the Aberdeen Angus breed. He has several mules and a large number of high grade hogs, the latter being registered stock. Nearly one hundred thirty acres of the farm are in pasture and, this past season of 1917, forty acres were in corn. Mr. Blacksten annually alternates corn and oats and every other year raises wheat. He is one of the most thorough, pro- gressive, capable farmers and stockmen in this section of the state.
In 1871. Eli Blacksten and Lydia K. Mowrey were united in mar- riage. Mrs. Blacksten was formerly of Wayne county, Ohio. To Eli and Mrs. Blacksten were born five children: Mrs. Lucy L. Hoover, who is the mother of one child, a daughter, and resides near Pierce City, Missouri; C. E., who married Eva J. Gist and they now reside on a farm near Menlo, Kansas, where he is engaged in wheat growing, and to them have been born four children ; F. W .. of Texhoma, Oklahoma. who married Etta Nichols, of Warrensburg and to them have been born eight sons; Mrs. Bertha M. McPhail. the wife of a leading physi- cian of St. Joseph, Missouri; and V. G., who married Cora Harding, of Warrensburg, and they live at home with his father. V. G. Blacksten has charge of the orchard, devoting his entire attention to that part of the farm, as he is a thoroughly informed horticulturist. understanding all the multitudinous details of this line of work. Eli Blacksten is very proud and fond of his thirteen grandchildren. Mrs. Blacksten, one of Johnson county's noblest women and an ideal mother, died in 1910 and her remains were laid to rest in Liberty cemetery.
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Judge B. F. Summers, ex-mayor of Knob Noster and president of the Bank of Knob Noster, was born in 1862 in Benton county, Mis- souri, the son of Benjamin and Angeline ( Chandler) Summers. Benja- min Summers was the son of John Summers, a prominent farmer of Tennessee. In 1835, Benjamin Summers came to Missouri from Ten- nessee. He located in Nodaway county and there was united in mar- riage with Angeline Chandler, the daughter of John Chandler, a native of Kentucky. In 1864, Benjamin and Angeline (Chandler) Summers moved from Nodaway county to Johnson county and settled on a farm in Grover township, where they spent the remainder of their lives. To Benjamin and Angeline Summers were born six children: Mrs. Louisa Jane Couch, Knob Noster, Missouri; Mrs. Susan Wampler, Knob Noster, Missouri; T. J., who is deceased; J. M., who is deceased; S. H., who resides in Seattle, Washington; and B. F., the subject of this review.
Judge Summers received his education in the public schools of Johnson county and the Warrensburg State Normal School. After leaving school, Mr. Summers engaged in farming on his father's place in Grover township and for fifteen years was employed in the pur- suits of agriculture. He left the farm in 1902 and moved to Knob Noster, where he opened a lumber yard. Mr. Summers' lumber yard and the improvements connected with it are valued at twenty-five thou- sand dollars. Within the last few years, lumber has advanced from twenty to fifty per cent. and oils and paints one hundred per cent. Judge Summers is the owner of the lumber yard, and of one of the best farms in Johnson county, comprising two hundred sixty-two acres of well improved land. He has a handsome residence in the city of Knob Noster, but his country home is the most beautiful place in this section of the state.
In 1897. Judge B. F. Summers was united in marriage with Mattie T. Hull, the daughter of Frank Hull, a highly esteemed pioneer of John- son county, who came to Missouri from Virginia in the early days. To B. F. and Mattie T. (Hull) Summers have been born two sons: John H. and Benjamin F., Jr.
For two terms, B. F. Summers served as judge of Johnson county from the eastern district. He has also served two terms as mayor of the city of Knob Noster. Judge Summers is now president of the Bank of Knob Noster. Politically, he is affiliated with the Democratic party. B. F. Summers has ever been an enthusiastic advocate of "community
JUDGE B. F. SUMMERS.
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development," firmly upholding any principle which meant the better- ment and advancement of community life and giving his heartiest sup- port and encouragement to all movements for better roads, better schools, and better churches. Judge Summers takes active interest in the moral uplift of humanity and is a highly regarded member and deacon of the Presbyterian church. He is also a member of the Knights of Pythias and the Odd Fellows. Mr. Summers has, in addition to his many other activities, been engaged in journalistic work, contributing many valuable and widely read articles on various subjects to the "American Lumberman." Judge Summers is numbered among John- son county's most valued citizens, worthy of the highest respect and esteem. It has been such men as he, who have pushed this county to the front commercially and brought it to the present high state of prosperity.
Warrick P. Burriss, an industrious, energetic, young farmer and stockman of Hazel Hill township, was born in 1870 in Ohio, the son of Zadok and Jennie ( Reed) Burriss, the former, a native of Virginia and the latter, of Ohio. Zadok Burriss moved with his parents to Ohio in 1833 and in that state was reared to maturity, and married. He and Jennie Burriss were the parents of the following children, who are now living: Benjamin, Jefferson county, Ohio; R. M., Jefferson county, Ohio; Mrs. Ina Cole, Gary, Indiana; W. P., the subject of this review ; Lomond, Gary, Indiana; and Elwood R., Gary, Indiana. Both father and mother are now deceased.
W. P. Burriss was born, reared, and educated in Jefferson county, Ohio. He attended the public schools of Jefferson county and after he had obtained a good common-school education, he began life for himself, engaged in the pursuits of agriculture in the state of Ohio until 1893, when he came to Missouri and settled in Johnson county. Mr. Burriss first located on the farm owned by his uncle, Mitchell Burriss, a place located in Hazel Hill township, where he resided for several years, when he purchased his present home in 1898. The Burriss farm originally comprised just forty acres of land, a part of the Cleveland tract, but Mr. Burriss lias twice increased his holdings by purchasing land, forty acres in 1908 and forty acres in 1913, and at the present time his farm embraces one hundred twenty acres of choice farm land, well located, and on this place, Mr. Burriss is engaged in general farming and stock raising, keeping cattle, mules, and sheep. He is also renting
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the Doak place of one hundred sixty acres. At the present time, he has twenty head of sheep of the Oxford breed.
In March, 1897, W. P. Burriss was united in marriage with Eliza Doak, daughter of William and Alice (Hinson) Doak, the former, a native of Missouri and the latter, of Virginia. William Doak, Jr., was a son of William Doak, Sr., who came to Missouri in the thirties and settled in Lafayette county, on a tract of land near Dover. Mr. and Mrs. William Doak, Sr., drove through with emigrant wagons from the South and they were among the first settlers of Lafayette county. In that county, William Doak, Jr., was reared and educated. He came to Warrensburg in 1882 and in 1892 to the farm in Hazel Hill town- ship, where he purchased the place known as the John Cleveland farm. He is now residing in Post Oak township. William Doak is a veteran of the Civil War, enlisting under "Fighting Joe" Shelby, with whom he served throughout the conflict. To William and Alice Doak have been born nine children: Bettie, deceased: Eliza, the wife of Mr. Bur- riss, the subject of this review: Henry, Ft. Collins, Colorado; Mrs. Lulu Stockton, Hazel Hill township, Johnson county; Charles, Nevada, Missouri; Mrs. Emma Marker, Warrensburg, Missouri; Mrs. Eva Bur- gard, Henry county, Missouri; Clarence, of Arizona; and Myra, Henry county, Missouri. Both Mr. and Mrs. William Doak, Sr., the grand- parents of Mrs. Burriss are deceased and their remains are buried in Dover cemetery. Alice (Hinson) Doak is the daughter of Bushrod Hinson, who was killed in 1865 in Boone county, Missouri, an innocent victim of the bushwhackers. To W. P. and Eliza Burriss have been born five children: Stanton Scott, Kenneth, Leopold, Myron, and Ina. Mr. and Mrs. Burriss are workers, enterprising, capable, and highly respected. Their families have long been held in the highest esteem in this section of the state and there is no more honorable name in Johnson county than that of Burriss.
William G. Pollock, a most highly respected and well-known citi- zen of Johnson county, son of a prominent pioneer family of Hazel Hill township, is quietly spending the closing years of his life at his pretty country place twelve miles from Warrensburg. He was born in 1846 in Kentucky, son of W. A. and Margaret (Dawes) Pollock, both of whom were natives of Kentucky. W. A. Pollock was born February 25, 1815, and was reared to maturity in Kentucky and in that state was married to Margaret Dawes, to whom were born twelve children: Mrs.
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Kate Bridgewater, deceased; Samuel, deceased; W. G., the subject of this review; Mrs. Susie Warren, deceased; George, of New Mexico; Mary Ellen, deceased ; Mrs. Maggie Young, deceased; John, Hazel Hill township. Johnson county : James, Hazel Hill township, Johnson county ; Mrs. Mattie Moyer, Kansas City, Missouri; Thomas, Kansas City, Mis- souri; and Jesse, Lafayette county, Missouri. All the children were reared to maturity and, with the exception of the youngest, all were born in Kentucky. In 1867, the Pollocks came to Missouri and located in Hazel Hill township, when in the spring of 1868. W. A. Pollock pur- chased the John Neff place, a farm comprising two hundred acres in Simpson township, for which he paid twenty dollars an acre, the land having been entered from the government for one dollar and twenty- five cents by Jacob L. Neff. who homesteaded a tract of four hundred acres of land in Johnson county. For thirteen years, this place was the Pollock home and then it was sold by Mr. Pollock, who rented a large farm in Post Oak township, where his death occurred. in April, 1891, at the age of seventy-six years. Interment was made at Oak Grove cemetery.
W. G. Pollock obtained his education in the district schools of Kentucky. Until he was thirty-two years of age, he remained at home with his parents. When Mr. Pollock began life for himself. he rented land for a few years and then purchased a tract in Simpson township. sixty-five acres of which he still owns. In 1896, he purchased his pres- ent home farm. one hundred twenty acres of land. from Jacob L. Neff, who entered it from the government. Mr. Pollock is engaged in gen- eral farming and raising high grade Hereford cattle. This place is well adapted for stock raising. being supplied with an abundance of water from a well. one hundred twelve feet in depth, soft water coming from sandrock. Mr. Pollock has himself improved this farm. There are two well-constructed and roomy barns on the place and the residence is a comfortable house of seven rooms, built in 1882. Sixty acres of the farm are in pasture. forty-five in bluegrass, and the remainder in small grain. this season of 1917. Mr. Pollock resides on the farm, but for the past few years has not been employed in the actual work of farming but of supervising. annually leasing the land.
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