USA > Missouri > Pettis County > History of Pettis County, Missouri > Part 46
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During the Civil War Mr. Lower was appointed a captain of militia, and served the Union faithfully during his term of service. Although reared in the Lutheran faith, he became a member of the Presbyterian Church, and was active in religious matters during his long residence in this county, where he was a prominent figure until his death, in 1887.
Captain Lower's first wife died in 1841, and he was again married, in 1842, to Margaret Host. This union was blessed with children as follows: George, living west of Longwood; Jacob, living on a farm in Longwood township; Charles Nicholas, living in Longwood township; John Louis, deceased; Richard Nathaniel, subject of this review; Mrs. Mary Callis, Hughesville township; William A., deceased; Jesse, deceased. The children of the first marriage were: Henry, died in Pettis County ; Mrs. Catherine Hieronymus, deceased; Mrs. Nancy Swope, Longwood township. Mrs. Margaret (Host) Lower died in 1865, and Captain Lower then married Mary Dice in 1866. One child was born to this union-Mrs. Louise Orear, Longwood.
R. N. Lower attended school in the little frame school house on his father's farm. His early schooling has been supplemented by reading, observation, and the influence of his travels in all parts of the country. He is a well-informed man, and a leader in his home community and county. Mr. Lower has accumulated a splendid estate of 1,009 acres of land, all lying in one body in Longwood township. Upon this large farm are three sets of farm improvements. The home residence is a beautiful, modern structure, equipped with every appointment and convenience to
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make living enjoyable and comfortable. He has given a farm of 156 acres to his daughter, Mrs. Taylor. Judge Lower located on his present home place in 1885, and purchased 220 acres on five years' time, giving his note for the indebtedness. He paid out on the land in two years, and has placed practically every improvement upon the farm, including the beautiful shade trees which surround the residence. His thoroughbred shorthorn cattle are the feature of the place, and Judge Lower has always been an extensive cattle man.
On March 20, 1877, R. N. Lower was married to Miss Margaret Godbey, born near Otterville, Missouri. She was a daughter of the late Rev. Josiah Godbey, and a sister of Doctor Godbey, of St. Louis. Rev. Godbey was a Kentuckian, who preached the gospel in Missouri, and reared four sons, who also became ministers. Mrs. Margaret (Godbey) Lower died in 1890, leaving children as follow: One son, died in infancy ; Mrs. Mamie Lenora Pottinger, living on part of the Lower land; Mrs. Caroline Corinne Taylor, living on a farm near Longwood; Jessie Helen, wife of Oliver Timperman, a stationery manufacturer, of Brooklyn, New York.
Judge Lower's second marriage was in 1891, to Anna J. McChesney, of Odessa, Missouri. Mrs. Anna J. Lower is a daughter of W. K. McChes- ney, a native of Virginia, who was born in 1840 and died in March, 1910. Mr. McChesney was married in Tennessee to Julia Frances Latham, born November 15, 1839, in Virginia, a daughter of James Latham. Soon after their marriage, in 1859, Mr. and Mrs. McChesney came to Lafayette County, Missouri, where Mr. McChesney engaged in the mercantile busi- ness at Mount Hope, Missouri, later locating in Odessa, where he died. There were nine children born to W. K. and Julia Frances McChesney, as follow: Lillian, William Yancey and Thomas Hugh, and Maude, deceased ; Mrs. Anna J. Lower, of this review; Mary Virginia, wife of T. L. Gant, Odessa, Missouri; Roger, formerly a newspaper man, former president of Odessa College, and now engaged in the real estate business at San Jose, California ; Fred, superintendent of the schools at Maryanna, Arkan- sas ; Samuel, deceased.
Judge Lower has been a leader of the Republican party in Pettis County for many years, and stands high in the councils of his party, and has a wide and favorable acquaintance with the national leaders of the party. He was elected county clerk of Pettis County in 1898, and served two terms of four years each. When last elected to the office of county
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clerk he received a plurality of 213 votes, and led the Republican ticket. When first elected he received a majority of 129 votes, in the face of a Democratic plurality of 500 votes in the county, and was the first Repub- lican county clerk elected since the Civil War period. Mr. Lower was elected presiding judge of the County Court by a majority of over 200 votes. In 1908 he was a delegate to the national convention of the Pro- gressive party, which nominated Theodore Roosevelt for President. He has served twice as a delegate to the conventions at St. Louis, and Mrs. Lower was a member of the committee which escorted Col. Theodore Roosevelt over the city. For some years he served as a member of the board in charge of the State Training School at Boonville, Missouri, and has been the instigator of some very marked and beneficial improvements in the management of the school during his tenure of this office. He has the honor of having been the instigator of the movement to establish one of the first rural mail routes in Missouri, Rural Mail Route No. 1, Hughes- ville, Missouri. Judge Lower is a Presbyterian. He is a good, loyal citizen, and is alive to the needs of his home community and county in a civic and governmental sense.
Jesse Swope .- At the time of his death, on March 18, 1918, at his home in Longwood township, the late Jesse Swope was the oldest living native-born pioneer in his section of Pettis County, and probably the oldest in Pettis County. Born October 12, 1837, within one mile of his home farm, he lived all of his long life of over four score years within sight and sound of his birthplace, and was one of the best known of the Pettis County pioneers. He was a son of Jesse and Mary (Hedrick) Swope, whose advent into Missouri dates backward over a long, long period of one hundred years.
Jesse Swope, the elder, came to Missouri from Kentucky in 1819, and settled first in Howard County, Missouri. Three years later, in 1822, he came to Pettis County and entered government land, created a farm, and resided thereon until his death, in 1874. He was a famous hunter, whose skill was remarkable and whose exploits have been handed down by tradition to this day. At one time Jesse Swope wounded a large bear some miles distant from his home. Not caring to carry the carcass of the bear a distance of several miles to his home, he managed to drive the wounded animal within sight of his doorstep, then finished it. He killed many deer, and during one year he had the record of killing eleven panthers. At that remote period there were but five families between
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Boonville and the Swope home, and Boonville was the nearest trading point. Jesse Swope and his family had few wants which could not be supplied in the neighborhood, and he spent the greater part of his time in hunting and fishing. His wife, who was known to the countryside as Grandma Swope, in her old age, at one time set a pole for fish in the nearby stream, and caught a fish weighing forty pounds, so heavy and strong that its mere weight pulled her into the water waist deep before she could land it. Another story goes that Aunt Becky Cunningham, wife of Uncle Joe Cunningham, while doing family washing one day, went down to the spring to get water and found two buck deer fighting, with their horns locked together. She went back home, got a large butcher knife and killed both deer with the knife. The early pioneer women, like their husbands, were brave and hardy, and were unafraid of the hardships of the pioneer life on the frontier of civilization.
Jesse Swope, the first, was married to Mary Hedrick, of Kentucky, who bore him eleven children, as follow: Mrs. Sallie Newbill, the first white woman married in Pettis County, wife of Matt Newbill, and died at the age of ninety-four years, her marriage being the first to be recorded in Pettis County ; Meredith, died in 1878; Hiram, died in Pettis County ; Joseph, deceased; Mrs. Rebecca Cunningham (Aunt Becky), deceased ; Milton, deceased; Orpha, wife of David Greer, died at the age of eighty- four years; Mrs. Tina Hansbrough, deceased : Mrs. Mary Finley, deceased ; Jesse Swope, subject of this review.
Jesse Swope, of this review, served in the Civil War in the State militia for a period of seven months, and was honorably discharged because of defective hearing. He was married on October 4, 1859, to Miss Nancy Lower, a daughter of Capt. George and Mary Augustus (Host) Lower, late deceased, resident of Pettis County, a sketch of whom appears in this volume in connection with the biography of Judge R. N. Lower. Mrs. Nancy (Lower) Swope was born April 18, 1841, in Ken- tucky, and was the youngest child born to her father and his first wife, Mary Augustus Host, who died in May, 1841. Immediately after their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Swope settled upon their farm and erected a comfortable farm residence, which is still standing. They moved to their present place in the spring of 1867, and here erected a home which, with various remodeling and enlarging, affords a comfortable and impos- ing farm residence. The Swope homstead consists of 200 acres of well- improved farm lands, with a large barn, 50x32 feet, in dimension. This
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farm is devoted to raising and feeding live stock, and none but high- grade stock is produced on the place. A private road, three-fourths of a mile in length, crosses the farm and is kept in an excellent state of repair, being used freely by the public.
Ten children were born to Jesse and Nancy Swope, as follow: Wil- liam, and George W., deceased; Mary M., died in Oregon; Elizabeth Cath- erine, is the wife of Frank Williams, and lives in Kansas City; Mrs. Alice Wheeler, lives in Hughesville township; Mrs. Emma Wheeler, lives near LaMonte, Missouri; Sallie, is deceased; Edmonia, at home; Jesse Alonzo, or Lon Swope, lives at home; one child died in infancy.
Mrs. Elizabeth Williams has three children: Mrs. Myrtle Shoemaker, who has one child, Jane Etta Lee; Lorene, and Ruby.
Mrs .. Alice Wheeler has six children: Jesse Raymond, who married Ella Waldecker, and has one child; William, Geneva, Marion, Gwendolyn, and Cecil.
Mrs. Emma Wheeler has nine children: May, Stanley, Dwight, Mrs. Bertha Holland, who has three children; Mrs. Winona Patterson, Donald, Clifford, Virginia, and Lloyd.
Jesse Alonzo Swope was married to Miss Eula Rice in September, 1906. He is managing the home place since his father's death, and for sev- eral years prior to his father's death he was in active charge of the farm- ing operations.
Mrs. Swope has nine great grandchildren, and is a well-preserved lady, despite her age. She remembers conditions in the early days, and says that the old families had good times and enjoyed life. Most people were kind and sociable, and generous with all they had. In her girlhood days everybody in the neighborhood attended divine worship at Priest's Chapel. Schools were held mostly in the homes of the settlers. There being few physicians, the women of the households did the local doctoring by the use of home-brewed medicines, brewed from herbs gathered from the fields and woods.
Jesse Swope was a Republican in his political affiliations. He was a member of the Presbyterian Church, and was a good, whole-souled Chris- tian in his daily life. He was a hard worker, industrious, a good business man, kind and indulgent to his family, for whose interest and welfare his whole matured life was spent. He never left his fireside to be away from home for any length of time but he was accompanied by his beloved and faithful wife. He was kind to all, and like and respected by the people
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of the neighborhood. Pettis County was the gainer for his useful and diligent existence on her soil.
Raphael Valentine Denny has been prominently identified with the agricultural interests of Pettis County for a number of years. He was born in Washington township, this county, June 1, 1873, and is a son of Raphael and Maria Ellen (Ashby) Denny. Three children were born to them, of whom Raphael Valentine, the subject of this sketch, is the only one living. By a former marriage to Elizabeth G. Brass there were born to Raphael Denny three children, of whom Charles William, who now resides on the same place in Washington township, Pettis County, is the only one living.
Raphael Denny, Sr., was born in St. Peters, St. Charles County, Missouri, December 19, 1821, and died March 31, 1898. He came to Pettis County in 1868 and settled in Washington township, where he was successfully engaged in farming and stock raising for many years. At the time of his death he was the owner of 652 acres. He was one of Pettis County's substantial citizens. Raphael Denny, Sr., was a son of Charles Denny, a native of Jarduff, France. He was educated in his native land for the profession of medicine. He immigrated to America and settled at St. Peters, St. Charles County, Missouri.
Raphael Valentine Denny, the subject of this sketch, was reared on a farm in Pettis County, and received a good public school education. He has made farming and stock raising his life's occupation, and is one of the successful men of affairs of Pettis County. He owns two valuable farms, aggregating 581 acres, located in Prairie and Washington town- ships. His home place is known as "Cedar Grove Farm," and the other place, which is located just north of the above-mentioned farm, is known as "South Look Farm." These are two well improved, nicely located and productive farms, which compare favorably in value with the best land in Pettis County. In 1918 Mr. Denny rented his farm and moved to Sedalia, where he has a pleasant home at 1009 West Third street.
April 29, 1896, Mr. Denny was united in marriage with Miss Mary E. English, a native of Prairie township, Pettis County. She is a daugh- ter of James and Mary (Sullivan) English, both now deceased. They came to Pettis County at a very early date with their parents, and were among the early settlers of this section. To Mr. and Mrs. Denny have been born three children, as follow: Raphael, James Theodore, and Vivian Ellen.
R. V. DENNY.
RESIDENCE OF R. V. DENNY, SEDALIA, MO.
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Mr. Denny is a member of the Catholic Church, and his fraternal affiliations are with the Modern Woodmen of America and the Benevo- lent and Protective Order of Elks. Politically, he is a Democrat. Mr. Denny is the present secretary of the Farmers Mutual Fire Insurance Company of Pettis County.
William Ellis Taylor .- Earning his own way from boyhood, William Ellis Taylor, Longwood, Missouri, has risen to become one of the substan- tial and influential citizens of Pettis County. Mr. Taylor had few oppor- tunities when a boy except to find work in order to support himself. In his younger days he did all kinds of hard work in order to earn an honest dollar, cutting cord wood, making hedge, assisting in the operation of a threshing outfit, and working as farm laborer. The Taylor farm, adjacent to Longwood, consists of 275 acres, splendidly equipped and improved for stock raising on an extensive scale. Of late Mr. Taylor has turned over the tilling of much of his acreage to his son-in-law, and uses much of the land for grazing purposes. He feeds several car loads of cattle annually, besides many hogs. Mr. Taylor owns a large tract of 535 acres, six miles northeast of Longwood, 455 acres of which lies in Saline County, and eighty acres in Pettis County. This farm is managed by his son-in-law. A pretty brick residence, large barns and commodious feeding sheds make the home farm an attractive and busy place.
Mr. Taylor was born in Cooper County, Missouri, in 1854. He is a son of Henry Clay and Sallie (Ellis) Taylor. Henry Clay Taylor was born in Kentucky in 1832 and died in 1916. His father was an early pioneer settler in Cooper County and emigrated to that county from his home State of Kentucky. Sallie Ellis Taylor was born in 1834 and died in 1864. Five children were born to Henry C. and Sallie Taylor, three of whom are living: James L., living in Kansas; Mrs. Mary Nichols residing in northwestern Missouri; and William Ellis, subject of this re- view. Henry C. Taylor was again married to Celia Ellis, a sister of the first Mrs. Taylor and the following children were born of this marriage: Harry, a citizen of Texas; Dr. John Taylor lives in Washington; Carlisle, Sedalia, Missouri; Mrs. Sylvia McCully, living near Chicago, Illinois; Mrs. Sallie Swartzel, Texarkana, Arkansas; Virgie, wife of Dr. Huff, near Texarkana, Arkansas; Mrs. Constant Pemberton, Sedalia, Missouri; Mrs. Maude Staples, living near Nelson, Saline County, Missouri.
During the Civil War period, Henry Taylor went to Kansas with an expedition and returned to St. Louis County, Missouri, some months
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later. He had previously moved to Pettis County in the fifties and owned considerable land southwest of Sedalia. Reverses came to him and he lost much of his fortune on account of the war, and upon his re- turn to Pettis County when the Civil War was over he clerked in a Sedalia general store for several years. In his old age he made his home with a daughter in Texarkana, Arkansas, where his death occurred.
William E. Taylor lived at home with his parents until after his marriage in 1876. He then rented land near Hughesville, for two years, after which he tilled a rented farm south of Dresden for two years. For the next five years he resided on a farm in Heath's Creek township. In 1885 he bought his fine farm near Longwood on which he placed all of the present fine improvements, rebuilding the residence, erecting a large concrete silo, and rebuilt all of the fences. The entire tract is fenced with four-foot woven wire fencing with steel posts set in concrete emplace- ments. Mr. Taylor bought his large farm northwest of Longwood in partnership with William Powell but later purchased Mr. Powell's inter- est in the tract. All of his accumulations have been made within a period of thirty years.
Mr. Taylor was married in 1876 to Willia Grinstead, of Pettis County, a daughter of William Grinstead, a former old settler of Pettis County. Three children have blessed this union: Roy E., married Carrie Lower, daughter of Judge R. N. Lower, and resides on a farm south of Longwood; Mrs. Sallie Valonia Hurt, whose husband is operating a large farm near Houstonia; Ollie Bess, wife of Rev. Arthur Downs, formerly a minister of the Christian Church but now engaged in the insurance and real estate business in Marshall, Missouri.
Politically, Mr. Taylor is a Democrat. He is a director of the Bank of Longwood and is the second largest stockholder of this thriving in- stitution. He is a member of the Longwood Methodist Episcopal Church and was a liberal giver towards the erection of the present handsome church in his home town.
Das Winston McClure .- A citizen's place in the history of his home community and county is measured by his accomplishments during his lifetime. These accomplishments include his success as an individual, his usefulness to society and the part taken in behalf of the development of the community. Likewise we must take into account the standing of those who bear his name and the part played by them in the general ' scheme of continuous development. All of these stipulations were met
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in the main by the late Das Winston McClure, of Hughesville, who was a successful citizen in every way that the term success can be applied to an agriculturist. Mr. McClure not only succeeded as a farmer and business man far above the average of men of his day, but he did well his part as a citizen, as a father, as a friend. and in every way measured up to the qualification of good citizens. Das Winston McClure was born in Montgomery County, Missouri, in 1849 and died at his home in Hughesville township, January 3, 1902. His sons are now carrying on the great work which he began and tilling the hundreds of acres which he owned at the time of his death. Mr. McClure was a son of Winston McClure, a native of Virginia, a pioneer in Montgomery County, Mis- souri, later settling in Saline County, where he became one of the most widely known stockmen in western Missouri. More details concerning his life are given elsewhere in this volume.
The three sons of Winston McClure, named John Wesley, Das Wins- ton and Benjamin F. McClure, came to Pettis County in 1876 and engaged in stock raising on a large scale. They continued in this operation for several years, until each brother began farming on his own account on land which they purchased, individually, in Hughesville township and vicinity. Das Winston McClure moved to what is now the homestead east of Hughesville in 1883. This farm is one of the finest improved places in Pettis County. The place was already improved by a splendid mansion which had been erected by a former owner in ante-bellum days, and Mr. McClure equipped the tract for live stock production on a large scale. The home farm comprised 1,400 acres, besides which Mr. McClure owned a tract of 400 acres west of Hughesville. Mr. McClure fed and marketed over two hundred head of cattle each year.
Das W. McClure was married May 22, 1884, to Miss Luella Ricks, who was born in Hughesville township, and is a daughter of William and Mary Jane (Harvey) Ricks; the former was born in Kentucky and the latter in Cooper County, Missouri. Mr. and Mrs. Ricks came to Pettis County in 1854, and built up a fine farm near Hughesville. William Ricks was born in 1829 and died in May, 1917. Mary Jane (Harvey) Ricks was born in Cooper County, Missouri, in 1837 and died in 1911. William and Mary Jane Ricks were parents of a large family of thirteen children, eleven of whom are living: Marion, Goodland, Texas; William lives in St. Louis ; Dee, living in Arizona; Mrs. Luella McClure, widow of the subject of this review; Ernest, a resident of Oregon; Mrs. May Hart-
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man, died in Nebraska; James, Sapulpa, Oklahoma; Elizabeth, lives in Sedalia; Mrs. Clara Forrest, lives in Hughesville township; Vernon, Hughesville township; Margaret lives in California; Joseph, Hudson, Kansas.
The children born to Das Winston and Luella McClure are as fol- lows: William Winston, a successful live stock dealer, Hughesville, Mis- souri; D. Weston, the soldier of the family, born in 1887, enlisted as private in the National Army, July, 1918, trained at Waco, Texas, and was in camp at Camp McArthur, a member of Company 21, A. R. D., now with the American Army in France; Leonard Page McClure, born in 1889, is in charge of the adjoining farm; Benjamin, born in 1891, farmer and stockman, at home; Mrs. Theresa Sprecher, Sedalia, Missouri; Eunice, at home with her mother; Lester Hut, born in 1896, and Das, born in 1902, both at home. The McClure estate has been divided among the children, each of whom received a substantial acreage from the division.
The late Das McClure was a Democrat and during his lifetime he used his personal influence in behalf of his friends who sought political preferment. He worshipped at the Methodist Episcopal Church South.
John Robert Field, proprietor of a nicely improved farm of 189 acres in Longwood township, has lived his entire life in the vicinity in which he was born and reared. He was born November 11, 1865, on the old Field homestead in Longwood township. He is a son of Henry Young Field, who was born June 21, 1937, and died July 6, 1898. His mother was Mary (Baker) Field, who was born May 1, 1838, in Kentucky on a farm within four miles of Danville.
Henry Young Field was a son of Col. William Hill Field, a native of Virginia, who was educated for the practice of law in Kentucky, where his parents had removed when he was but a child. Col. William H. Field came to Pettis County in 1853 and purchased a large tract of land from Ransom Wells. This land embraced over 2,000 acres and Mr. Field brought a retinue of slaves with him to till the land. He erected a splen- did mansion at a cost of over $25,000 and conducted farming and live stock operations on a large scale. He had previously practiced law in Louisville, Ketucky, and he followed his profession to some extent in Pettis County after coming here. In 1862, when feeling ran high in western Missouri between the Union adherents and the advocates of slavery and many crimes were committed in the name of war, Colonel Field
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fell a victim to war's cruelty. He endeavored to maintain a neutral atti- tude and had really taken no part in war's activities, but he was marked by those of the opposition and, supposedly because of his high standing in the community and his influence, he was taken from his front porch to a nearby wood and shot by men masquerading as Union soldiers. He died bravely. He left a widow and seven sons and three daughters. His widow died in Louisville, in 1880. She was Mary Young prior to her mar- riage.
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