USA > Missouri > Johnson County > History of Johnson County, Missouri > Part 96
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HISTORY OF JOHNSON COUNTY
S. F. McNair was the first man in the southern part of Warrens- burg township to erect a silo. He built one of one hundred tons capacity in 1906 and after two years' trial found it an excellent paying proposi- tion, for in that time it had paid for itself, and he erected a second one. The first silo was constructed of yellow pine. Mr. McNair is now a strong advocate of the silo as a "money-maker." He is also a firm believer in the utility of the dairy cow on Johnson county farms and for soil builders enthusiastically recommends soy beans and sweet clover.
The Farm Laboratory of the Warrensburg State Normal School was purchased in 1910 for the use of the Department of Agriculture and it is managed by S. F. McNair under the supervision of Professor H. A. Phillips, the head of the Department of Agriculture. The farm is equipped with such conveniences as are found on the average country place. There is one large barn for the horses and dairy cattle, all fed under one roof. This barn is supplied with stanchions and litter carriers. The milk from the dairy is A grade and is sold in Kansas City. A silo of seventy tons capacity is on this farm. One of the attractive features of the Farm Laboratory is the modern poultry house, in which are kept several different varieties of pure-bred poultry, among them, namely: Barred Plymouth Rocks, Rhode Island Reds, White Leghorns, Silver Wyandottes, and Golden Wyandottes.
A herd of ten Jerseys, five registered, are kept on the place. At present, the O. I. C. hogs are being raised. In 1917, garden produce for the use of the domestic science students of the Normal School came from the Farm Laboratory, including tomatoes, green beans, and sweet corn, which the department used to demonstrate proper methods of canning. Last year, of 1916, experimental work was conducted with fifteen different varieties of wheat, eight varieties of oats, three varie- ties of barley, eight varieties of soy beans, four varieties of cowpeas, and six varieties of corn and at the same time experiments were made in the different times and methods of seeding. Practical work in growing alfalfa and clovers and in rotating crops was also done. A four-year rotation is used : oats, wheat, corn, and clover or soy beans. Mr. McNair is a worker and deeply interested in the Farm Laboratory. The Nor- mal School is indeed fortunate to have as competent, industrious, and progressive man as he as superintendent.
Edwin Jennings, a prosperous and prominent farmer and stockman
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of Columbus township, is a native of Virginia. He is a member of one of the best and most respected pioneer families that ever came to Mis- souri. Mr. Jennings was born July 19, 1866 near Hampshire, Virginia, a son of Reverend James H. and Elizabeth (Robinson) Jennings. Rev- erend Jennings, a well-known minister of the Presbyterian church, came to Missouri in 1868 and for many years was engaged in ministerial work in Lafayette county.
January 4, 1849, James H. Jennings and Elizabeth Robinson, daugh- ter of James Robinson, were married. The father of Elizabeth ( Robin- son) Jennings died February 9, 1859, at the age of seventy-one years. Her mother, Mary Robinson, preceded her husband in death twenty years, her death occurring January 13, 1839. " To James H. and Eliza- beth Jennings were born thirteen children, all of whom were reared to maturity and, with the exception of James R., who died unmarried, each reared a family : Mrs. Bettie Ann Siler, born November 26, 1849; James R., born September 7, 1851, and died March 30, 1912; Mrs. Mary J. Secrest, born April 5, 1853, and died January 23, 1882: Thomas, born January 18, 1855; Mrs. Martha Smith, born November 2. 1856, and died December 31, 1879; Sophrona, born January 24, 1859, now of Hig- ginsville, Missouri; William H., born February 24, 1861, now of May- view, Missouri; Ella, born February 28, 1863, and now resides in Kansas City, Missouri; Emma, born September 23, 1864, and is now deceased: Edwin B., the subject of this review; Sallie, now in Kansas, born April 27, 1869; Laura, born January 25, 1871, now of Odessa. Missouri; and Minnie, born December 30, 1872, now residing in Mayview, Missouri. Reverend Jennings died October 6, 1885, at the age of seventy-two years, seven months, and six days. September 14, 1905, Mrs. Jen- nings joined her husband in death. She was seventy-five years and twenty-nine days of age at the time of her death.
Edwin Jennings was educated in the schools of Lafayette county, Missouri. He remained at home with his parents until he was twenty- three years of age and then he traded for a farm, which he owned in addition to his share in the home place until 1901, when he sold his land interests in Lafayette county and moved to Johnson county, pur- chasing the Gillespie place, better known as the Payne farm upon which Payne school house is located. When Mr. Jennings bought the land, an old log cabin was standing on it, a relic of pioneer days. Since he acquired the ownership of the farm, Mr. Jennings has added prac-
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HISTORY OF JOHNSON COUNTY
tically all the improvements. He has a well, thirty feet in depth, which has never failed to supply both the residence and stock with an abundance of good water. A barn, 50 x 54 feet, was built in 1912 for stock, grain, and hay. The Jennings home was also built in 1912 a house of seven rooms, modern throughout and supplied with all the conveniences of the most up-to-date city residence. An acetylene plant has been installed for lighting purposes. The farm comprises one hundred sixty-nine acres of land located on the Odessa-Columbus road and it is an ideal stock farm. Mr. Jennings is devoting much time to raising cattle, hogs, and sheep and he has been very successful with his stock.
February 13, 1889, Edwin Jennings and Hattie Hedden, daughter of William and Nancy (Gordon) Hedden, of Madison county, Illinois, were united in marriage. Mrs. Jennings was born in Madison county. Both her parents are now deceased. To Edwin and Hattie Jennings have been born six children: Mrs. Leah Campbell, now at home with her parents; Mrs. Jessie Ramsey, Lafayette county, Missouri; Mrs. Alma Kohler, Deweese, Nebraska; Edwin, Jr., Ralph, and Forgood, all at home with their parents. Mr. and Mrs. Jennings are excellent, public-spirited citizens, one of the substantial families of Columbus township. During their residence in this county, which has covered but the brief span of sixteen years, they have made scores of friends and established a reputation which their children may well take pride in maintaining, a name their sons may strive to be worthy to bear.
Rev. Thomas Ryan, pastor of St. Patrick's church, Catholic, Hol- den, Missouri, was born at Bird Hill, County Tipperary, Ireland, New- port Parish, July 8, 1882. He received his primary education in the local National School of his native parish and obtained his classical education at a private school located in Killaloe, Ireland. After spend- ing two and one-half years in this preparatory school, he entered the Irish Foreign Missionary College where he was educated for the priest- hood and was ordained for his high religious calling by Bishop Grimes of Dublin in 1908. He left his native heath enroute for America soon thereafter and arrived in this country on September 25. 1908. For a period of one and a half years, Father Ryan was located at Conway, Missouri, and in June of 1910 went to Westport, Missouri, as assistant to Father Walsh. In November of this same year, he came to Holden and for the past seven years has been in charge of St. Patrick's church. In addition to the Holden charge, Father Ryan has charge of the Church
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HISTORY OF JOHNSON COUNTY
of St. John the Baptist on Blackwater, located eleven miles north of Holden.
A complete history of St. Patrick's church appears in the historical section of this work. In connection with this brief biography it is well to mention a predecessor of Father Ryan, who was widely known in this section as an excellent judge of race horses. It is a matter of his- tory that W. R. S. Rankin donated the Blackwater property for the purpose of establishing a mission church to serve as a place of worship for the Catholic residents in the neighborhood. Mr. Rankin made the donation in 1889 and in October of the following year the church was erected and services were conducted by Father Scarey, an Italian by birth. Father Scarey was a lover of horseflesh and kept a stable of racing animals, one of which carried him to his Blackwater charge almost as fast as the present-day automobile. He was frequently called upon to act as judge at racing meets and was very popular throughout the countryside in the days when horseracing was an annual and important event. Father Scarey died in 1910. Father James Ryan, a relative of the present pastor of St. Patrick's, was a relative of Father Scarey and died in Springfield in 1910.
Father Ryan is faithfully and conscientiously serving his people in the Holden and Blackwater parishes and is popular with all classes of people. He is leaving a marked impression upon both parishes as a builder and religious leader.
Col. S. M. Christian, real estate dealer, well and favorably known auctioneer, Holden, Missouri, is one of the native-born pioneer settlers of Johnson county. Colonel Christian was born on a farm in Madison township, August 30. 1860. He has, consequently, been a witness to and an active participant in the great and wonderful development which this region has undergone during the fifty-seven years of his residence in this vicinity. Since his boyhood days, he has been an auctioneer of considerable repute and has "cried" hundreds of public sales in this section of Missouri during a long period of over forty years of auction- eering. He has long been a familiar figure in Johnson county and this part of the country, having "cried sales" in this and neighboring counties in a manner which has rarely been excelled by his competitors. Colonel Christian is a son of J. H. and Nancy Christian, the former, a native of Virginia and the latter, a native of Kentucky.
J. H. Christian migrated from Kentucky to Johnson county, Mis-
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souri, in the early thirties and entered government land at a cost of thirty cents an acre. He was one of the very first pioneer settlers in the western part of Johnson county at a time when settlers were few and far between and it was a hazardous proposition to brave the terrors of an unbroken wilderness and found a home in this part of the country. His ancestors had been pioneers in Kentucky and the spirit of adven- ture and the desire to push westward the frontiers of civilization were inherent instincts, and, endowed with a dauntless spirit, he succeeded and became one of the real founders of this county. For many years she was a successful farmer and stockman, progressive in his views, enter- prising to a high degree, he did his part well and nobly in building up the country. He was a life-long Democrat, a good, honest citizen. He was a Baptist in his religious persuasion and was a leading factor in the establishment of the Holden Baptist church. The death of this pioneer occurred in the early eighties. His widow survived him for many years, dying in 1909. They were parents of seven children who grew to matur- ity, namely: Judith, deceased wife of William Phillips of Columbus township; Annie, who married Milton Davidson and is now deceased; Mrs. Lizzie Kendall; Nannie, wife of Samuel Grover, of Kansas; Mrs. Louise Hall, residing in Oklahoma; Alice, deceased wife of Herbert Meadows; and William resides in Arkansas.
S. M. Christian spent his boyhood days on his father's farm in Madison township, where he remained until he had attained the age of sixteen years. At this early age, he began carving a career for himself by becoming an auctioneer. While his education was limited to such as was afforded by the district schools of his day, he was apt, endowed with considerable native ability and a gift of speech, which admirably fitted him for the business of "crying sales" as a life work. He has successfully followed this exacting and difficult profession during many years. In addition to his profession he has also been engaged in the real estate business and has handled many deals in Holden and the contiguous territory.
Colonel Christian was married to Mary B. Lawrence of Warrens- burg and to this union have been born six children as follow: Anna, wife of F. A. Hancock, farmer, Chilhowee township; Bessie, wife of C. E. Atchison, of Chilhowee; Martha, wife of P. E. Rogers, of Chil- howee; Lawrence, at home with his parents; Robert, Linwood, Kansas; and Jessie, at home.
Colonel Christian has been a life-long Democrat and a firm believer
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in Democratic principles. He takes a keen interest in his party's wel- fare although he has never been a seeker after public preferment. He is religiously affiliated with the Bpatist church. His geniality, conversa- tional powers, together with a vigorous and warm personality, have made him many warm friends during his long and active career.
L. H. Carter, a progressive and successful farmer and stockman of Madison township, is one of Johnson county's most substantial citi- zens. Mr. Carter is a native of this state. He was born in Lincoln : county, Missouri, a son of William and Agnes (Farney) Carter, of Scotch and Irish descent. When L. H. Carter was a child two years of age, his parents moved from Lincoln county to Warren county, Mis- souri, and settled on a farm near Wright City, where the son, L. H., was reared to manhood. Mr. and Mrs. William Carter were both natives of Virginia and among the first families to leave that state in the early pioneer days and make their permanent home in the thinly populated West. They spent their lives bravely toiling for the upbuilding and betterment of their chosen county and state, Warren county and Mis- souri. On the farm in Warren county, both the father and mother died many years ago.
On a Missouri farm, L. H. Carter was born and reared. His boy- hood days and early youth were spent in assisting his father with the farm work and in attending the country school near his home. Mr. Carter has been interested in farming since childhood and after attain- ing maturity he began life for himself engaged in the pursuits of agri- culture. Until he was thirty-five years of age, he devoted his attention almost exclusively to tobacco growing in Warren county. About 1880, Mr. Carter moved from Warren to Jackson county and engaged in gen- eral farming for a few years, when he located on a farm in Polk town- ship, Cass county, and there remained ten years, coming thence to John- son county to reside on the Dick Jackson country place for two years. From the Jackson farm, he moved two years after locating there to the Corney place and two years later, in September, 1916. purchased his present country home in the northern part of Madiosn township, a farm comprising five hundred fifty-eight acres of valuable land. Mr. Carter raises both stock and grain and at the present time, in 1917, has forty acres of his farm in oats and is feeding a large number of fine cattle and hogs. The Carter place is conveniently located four miles north of Holden.
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HISTORY OF JOHNSON COUNTY
In 1880, L. H. Carter and Virginia Dyer, a niece of Judge Dyer, the United States district judge for Missouri, were united in marriage. Mrs. Carter's parents were native Virginians. To this union have been born six children: Mrs. Agnes Wright, Muskogee, Oklahoma; Harry, of Oklahoma; Parks, who is associated with his father in farming the home place; Minnie, the wife of Roy Davis, the assistant cashier of the Bank of Strasburg, Missouri; George, who is engaged in farming and stock raising on the home place, associated in business with his father and elder brother; and Bessie, the wife of Homer Carter, of Johnson county, Missouri.
Politically, Mr. Carter has always been an active Democrat. He is a member of a family that have ever been intensely alive to mat- ters of public interest and enthusiastic participants in important strug- gles for the right as each saw the right. Three cousins of L. H. Carter served in the Confederate army during the Civil War. Mr. Carter is one of the leading citizens of this county and he is widely known as a prosperous and enterprising agriculturist. The seventy-two years of experience in the world have given him a broad perspective and it is a pleasure and privilege to converse with L. H. Carter. He and Mrs. Carter are highly respected in their community.
W. H. Zion, an efficient carpenter residing at Holden, Missouri, is one of the best known and most capable workmen in Johnson county. Mr. Zion is a native Virginian but practically all of his long life of seventy- three years has been spent in this part of the country so that he seems more to be one of Missouri's own sons. He is a member of one of the leading pioneer families of Cass county, Missouri. Mr. Zion was born September 11, 1844, in Lee county, Virginia, and in 1851 came with his parents and brothers and sisters to Missouri. The Zions settled in the western part of Cass county, where most of the earliest pioneers located. The children born to the parents of W. H. Zion were as fol- low: W. H., the eldest, the subject of this review; George; Mrs. Martha Stark, who is residing on a farm located in Cass county, two miles south of Freeman, Missouri; Harvey, who is interested in the oil business in Oklahoma; and Mrs. Mollie Parker, who died in July, 1917. The family and an uncle came through from Virginia to Missouri in emi- grant wagons and after seven weeks on the way came to the land upon which they built their permanent home. The elder Zion, father of W.
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HISTORY OF JOHNSON COUNTY
H., owned a tract of land in Cass county, comprising two hundred eighty acres, a part of which he purchased and a part entered from the government. For the prairie soil, he paid seven dollars and for the timbered land five dollars an acre and now this same tract is worth at the lowest figure ninety dollars an acre. The father died in 1859, just a short time before the outbreak of the Civil War, which was destined to play an important and disastrous part in the lives of his loved ones. When "Order Number II" was issued, the mother moved with her children to Boone county, Missouri, and there they remained nearly three years. After the war had ended, they returned to the old homestead in Cass county to find their home burned to the ground, everything on the place destroyed, and all the stock stolen. One who has passed through such an experience knows the meaning full well of truly "hard times."
In the autumn of 1873, W. H. Zion and Carolina Virginia Reeves, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Reeves, of North Carolina, were united in marriage and to this union have been born five children: John A., a prominent merchant of Holden, Missouri; Lulu, who is now married and resides in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Mrs. Mary Gray, Kansas City, Missouri: George. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; and Ione, who died in infancy.
Immediately after their marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Zion came to John- son county and located on a farm, which is located a short distance due north of Kingsville, a place that Mr. Zion owned for five years. When he sold this tract of land, he purchased a place southeast of Kingsville and resided on it for three years and then disposed of the farm and moved to Kingsville, where he worked at his trade as carpenter and for several years was employed in construction work at that place. After about ten years of residence in Kingsville. Mr. Zion came to Holden, where he now lives, and continued to follow his vocation of carpentering. He succeeded well in farming and stock raising, but enjoys more the work of his trade.
Mr. and Mrs. Zion are members of the Baptist church. Mr. Zion is affiliated with the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons and the Eastern Star. He has always been keenly interested in politics and he has never missed once casting his vote. In spite of his age of seventy-three years, W. H. Zion is still an execllent workman, as active and skilled at car-
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pentering as he ever was and no one enjoys his work more than he. He has ever taken much pride in his trade, a vocation that was digni- fied above all others more than nineteen hundred years ago.
Ezekiel Blevins, one of Johnson county's progressive citizens, is a native of Johnson county and a son of one of its earliest settlers. Mr. Blevins was born April 7, 1847, in Simpson township, a son of Stephen and Mahala (Young) Blevins, the former, a native of Virginia and the latter, of Indiana. Stephen Blevins, Jr., was a son of Stephen Blevins, Sr., who came to Missouri from Kentucky in a very early day, probably as early as 1820. The Blevins family drove through from the South with yokes of oxen. The land to which they came was still the hunting grounds of the Indians and it has been the family tradition that many were the visits of the friendly red men of the forest to the little cabin home built by Stephen Blevins, Jr., who entered from the government the land now owned by Mrs. Bessie S. Foster. The site of the Blevins' homestead is at this time occupied by Edward Houts. The spring of living water discovered on this tract of land was the attractive feature of the place which induced the family to settle there. The story is told that when the immigrants came upon the spring, Stephen Blevins, Jr., exclaimed, "Here is where we stop!" Lexington was the nearest trading point, for Warrensburg had then only one or two small stores. Frequently, the cattle and hogs raised on the Blevins' farm were driven on foot to the St. Louis market. At one time, Stephen Blevins, Jr., was the owner of twelve hundred acres of land, practically in one tract. To Stephen and Mahala (Young) Blevins were born twelve children. two of whom died in infancy : Lucinda, the wife of Frank Carlton; Chris- tina, the wife of O. Carlton; William Riley, who married Caroline Ayler ; Pollie, the wife of Taylor Sivils; Ezekiel, the subject of this review; Robert L., who married Georgia Shaw; Andrew J., of Eldorado Springs, Missouri, who married Nancy Houton; Rebecca, who married G. M. Duncan and died July 4, 1888; Macdonald, of Belt, Montana, who mar- ried Mollie Blevins; and Lydia, the second wife of G. M. Duncan, who was formerly the husband of her sister, Rebecca. Stephen Blevins, Jr., was a true pioneer, a man of no little enterprise and fortitude as well as countless sterling qualities of mind and heart. He hesitated at no obstacle, he was appalled by no misfortunes, and discouragement was a thing unknown to him. He lived and prospered many years in Johnson county and became one of the leading men of his commuity. '
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In 1867, the marriage of Ezekiel Blevins and Missouri Josephine Blevins was solemnized and to this union were born five children, three of whom died in youth and two are now living: Franklin S., born October 30, 1869, married Mrs. Dora Cooper, who died March 6, 1902, and he was united in marriage with Lettie Brown in August, 1912. and they are now residing in Simpson township; and William R., born August 5, 1871, and married Minnie V. Cruse in December, 1894. Mrs. Blevins, the mother of the above named children, has been deceased many years. In 1887, Mr. Blevins and Mrs. Susie (Corder) Miller were united in marriage and they are now residing on the farm which has been the home of the former for more than fifty years. Mr. Blevins has lived in the same neighborhood all his life.
The Blevins farm comprises one hundred twenty acres of valuable land in Jackson township. In addition to this place, Mr. Blevins owns a tract of eighty acres of land located one mile southeast of his home. land he purchased about 1890 for ten dollars an acre.
The religious views of Mr. Blevins are in accord with the belief of the Mount Zion Baptist church. Politically, he has been a life-long Democrat. In many respects, Ezekiel Blevins has been much more than the ordinary citizen. He began life with little material wealth, but by industry, good judgment, and close attention to the details of his chosen vocation, he has succeeded in digging from the soil a small fortune. His methods in business have always been honorable, his deal- ings just, and his integrity has never once been questioned. He has seen the open prairie and the forests supplanted by a domain of civi- lization and to the best of his ability he has assisted in bringing about present-day conditions. Mr. Blevins is one of the link characters of Johnson county connecting the past with the present, a man who has figured prominently in both periods.
Mrs. Bettie (Logan) Shaneyfelt, wife of Nathan Shaneyfelt, a promi- nent citizen of Johnson county residing one-half mile north of Warrens- burg is one of the most beloved and respected women of this county, a descendant of an old colonial family, and a worthy representative of one of the first families of Missouri. Mrs. Shaneyfelt was born February 29, 1848, at the Logan homestead in Warren county, Missouri, on her father's farm located fifty miles west of St. Louis in the "Daniel Boone neighborhood." The Logans are an ancient and honorable family. More than once have entries been made in the historical annals of our
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