USA > Missouri > St Charles County > History of St. Charles, Montgomery, and Warren counties, Missouri, written and comp. from the most authentic official and private sources, including a history of their townships, towns and villages, together with a condensed history of Missouri > Part 116
USA > Missouri > Montgomery County > History of St. Charles, Montgomery, and Warren counties, Missouri, written and comp. from the most authentic official and private sources, including a history of their townships, towns and villages, together with a condensed history of Missouri > Part 116
USA > Missouri > Warren County > History of St. Charles, Montgomery, and Warren counties, Missouri, written and comp. from the most authentic official and private sources, including a history of their townships, towns and villages, together with a condensed history of Missouri > Part 116
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THOMAS J. FARISS
(Cashier of the Bank of Warren County, Warrenton, Mo.)
Mr. Fariss has been connected with the Bank of Warren county since the fall of 1883, and prior to that was engaged in mercantile business for over 30 years. A man of long business experience, with whom the people of Warren county are thoroughly acquainted and who stands well in public opinion wherever he is known, his selection for the position he now holds was unquestionably one of no ordinary advantage to the bank, as well as of marked credit to him. Mr. Far- iss' connection with the bank has fully justified the expectations of all his friends, in this branch of business. It is no empty compliment to say, but the statement of a plain fact, that he has made a most effici- ent and popular cashier, and has added very materially to the influence and prosperity of the institution. The bank is one of solid financial character, supported by ample capital and controlled by men who have each spent a lifetime of honest and successful business activity in this county, and whose names and high characters are the best guaranty that any business enterprise could give of ability and integ- rity. The capital stock of the institution is $10,000, and the average deposits amount to about $50,000. Mr. Fariss is a man of family. He was married December 31, 1863, when Miss Lizzie Kenmer, a daughter of Friederick Kenmer, of New Melle, became his wife. She lived to brighten his home for some 16 years, but was at last, and too soon, indeed, taken away by the inexorable hand of death. She left him three children : Willie, Charlie and Ella. To his present wife Mr. Fariss was married in 1881. She was a Miss Ida M. Lyons, a daughter of Hugh F. Lyons. They have an infant daughter, Addie F. Mr. F. is a native Missourian, born in St. Charles county, Decem- ber 11, 1840. His father, Charles M'Lee Fariss, came to St. Charles county from Culpeper county, Va., in 1826. He was married to Miss
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HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.
Susan Mason, a daughter of John Mason, of St. Charles county, but formerly of the vicinity of Nashville, Tenn. Mr. Fariss, Sr., was a school teacher by profession, which he followed for many years, and in which he enjoyed an enviable reputation. He was also justice of the peace, and held that office at the time of his death, in 1853. His wife is still living, now at the age of 77, and makes her home with her daughter, Mrs. Adolph Muench. There were six children in the family besides Thomas J., the subject of this sketch. Thomas J. Fariss received a good common-school education in youth, and at an early age began clerking in a store at Augusta. Eight years afterwards, in 1863, he bought out the proprietor for whom he had been clerking, and subse- quently continued the business in Wright City until 1881. He then engaged in the tobacco business, which he followed until he was elected cashier of the Bank of Warren county in the fall of 1883.
JOHN H. FAULCONER
(Dealer in General Merchandise, and Mayor, Warrenton).
Prominent among the well known and highly respected citizens of Warren county may very properly be mentioned the subject of the present sketch, Mr. Faulconer. Long a popular and successful busi- ness man of Warrenton, three times treasurer of the county, and also its representative in the Legislature, as well as present mayor of this place, he has thus in public and in business life been so identified with the county as to render at least a brief sketch of his career almost in- dispensable to the completeness of the biographical department of the present work. He was born in St. Charles county, August 24, 1824, and was a son of John N. Faulconer, originally of Orange county, Va., but who went to Kentucky early in life where he was shortly married to Miss Elizabeth Bainbridge. He and wife, together with her brother, Dr. Bainbridge and family, came to Missouri as early as 1822 and settled in St. Charles county. John H. Faulconer was therefore born but two years after the removal of his parents to this State. They reared a family of eleven children, in which John H. was the fourth. He was brought up to farm work and with primitive district school advan- tages. August 24, 1852, he was married to Miss Frances Pulliam, a daughter of John Pulliam, formerly of Kentucky. After his marriage he settled on a farm in Lincoln county, where he resided about four years. He then removed to Warrenton, and shortly engaged in mer- chandising. Mr. Faulconer has been in mercantile business at this place almost continuously since that time. He is still conducting a store and carries a good stock of about $2,500 value, with a trade cor- respondingly good. Mr. Faulconer was an unconditional Union man during the war, and was therefore a sturdy Republican from the time that Democracy became synonymous with treason. Since then he has continued to vote with and work with the great party of patriotism and loyalty that saved the Nation from rebel assassination, the grand party of liberty and Union, the Republican party. In 1861 he was ap- pointed treasurer of the county, and the following year was elected to
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HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.
that office. Two years later still he was elected a member of the Legislature from this county. In 1870 he was again elected treasurer and was once more re-elected to the same office. He is now serving as mayor of Warrenton. The fact that he has served so often as treasurer, and has invariably so faithfully discharged the duties of that office, handling from year to year all the public moneys of the county, amounting to large sums and without the loss of a single dollar to the people, is a monumental disproof of the scurvy lie of the ex-bush- whackers of the State now training under the soiled banner of Cleve- land and Hendricks, so often repeated, that in Missouri it is as im- possible for public funds to pass safely through the hands of a Repub- lican official as it is for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. Mr. Faulconer made a faithful official, and to-day commands the universal' confidence of the people of the county. Mr. and Mrs. Faulconer have three children : Eleanor, Mary E., and Emma A. Eleanor is the wife of W. A. Jones, and Emma is the wife of E. F. Kathan.
PROF. JOHN H. FRICK, A. M. (Of the Central Wesleyan College, Warrenton).
How uncommon it is for those of good mental and physical vigor and with a determination to succeed, to be kept back by the want of early advantages, is exemplified in almost every community by one or more instances of an individual who has risen to enviable standing in affairs from extremely unfavorable circumstances in youth. Though trite, it is so true that the individual, and not his circumstances, makes his own success that it bears repetition here. Unless one have the essential qualities of character for a successful career, all that favorable opportunities can do will not advance him to, and retain him in, any position of consideration. But these qualities given, his success is almost a foregone conclusion. These observations are drawn out by a glance over the career of the subject of the present sketch. Now holding, with honor to himself and with credit to the institution of whose faculty he is a member, a prominent professor- ship in the Central Wesleyan College, an institution of learning of established and enviable reputation, he has risen to this position al- most exclusively by his own exertions and personal worth, by his strength of mind and character, his own merits. In a word he is in no secondary sense a self-made man, but one who has, pre-eminently, himself to thank for what he has accomplished. Prof. Frick is of German-Welsh ancestry. He was born in Clay county, Mo., March 13, 1845. His father, William Frick, was from Rhenish Bavaria, and came to America in 1839. For a time he resided in Pennsylvania and then came to Missouri, purchasing land in Clay county where he improved a farm. In 1844 he was married to Miss Annie Hoblit, of Clinton county, a daughter of David Hoblit, who, on his father's side, was of a Pennsylvania-German family. The founder of the Hoblit family in this county settled in Pennsylvania in 1850. Mrs. Frick's mother was a Miss Martha Wilson, a daughter of Rev. Amos Wilson,
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HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.
a somewhat noted Baptist minister of Ohio, and a nephew of James Wilson of Pennsylvania, one of the signers of the Declaration of In- dependence. William Frick became a substantial farmer of Clav county and resided there, one of its highly respected citizens, until April, 1884, over 40 years, when he moved to Warren county, Mo. He and his good wife reared a family of five children, of whom Prof. Frick is the eldest, and one of the two sons in the family. All have taken enviable positions in life. Prof. Frick's early advantages for an education were limited to the desultory and by no means first-class district school of the neighborhood where he was reared. But hav- ing a natural thirst for knowledge, he applied himself to his books with untiring industry, and, after availing himself fully of the in- struction to be had at home, being determined to obtain an advanced education, he resolutely entered college at the Central Wesleyan, with nothing to support him in his prospective career but his ability and disposition to work, his determination to succeed, and the moral sup- port of friends. He worked his way through college supporting himself a part of the time by manual labor during vacation. Later along he obtained more suitable employment, and taught in the pre- paratory department of the college. In 1870 he realized one of the dearest ambitions of his life - he graduated with high honor from his Alma Mater. Previous to coming to the Central Wesleyan, he had taught school for a term or two in Clay county, and before his grad- uation had served as deputy sheriff of that county. Prof. Frick con- tinued teaching after his graduation, and in 1871 received the high honors of a unanimous election to the chair of Mathematics and Nat- ural Sciences in the Central Wesleyan, a position he has since contin- ued to fill with conspicuous success and ability. Prof. Frick is known among educators in this State and even beyond its limits as one of their ablest co-workers, particularly in the departments of his spec- ialities - Mathematics and Natural Sciences. In 1878 he was elected a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a distinction of high honor for one of his age and experience. A year ago he read before that Association, then assembled at Minneapo- lis, Minnesota, a paper on tornadoes, which attracted wide and highly complimentary notice from scientific men throughout the country. He has been appointed a special tornado reporter for this section by the U. S. Signal Service. The Professor has constructed a telescope of remarkable power, considering its size, and of singular perfection, which is successfully used at the Central Wesleyan. Without question he is a scholar of a high order of ability and attainments. Still com- paratively a young man, his future certainly seems one of more than ordinary promise. In 1872 Prof. Frick was married to Miss Kate Hartel, a refined and accomplished daughter of a highly respected citizen of Clay county, Frederick Hartel. The Professor and his ex- cellent wife have five children: F. William, John J., Edward L., Katie P. and Benj. F. Prof. Frick is the most conspicuous temper- ance worker in the county, and has been president of the Warren county Sunday-school Association for the past three years. He is a
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HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.
Republican in politics and was for four years a member of the Repub- lican State Central Committee.
JUDGE AUGUST HOLLMANN (Farmer, Post-office, Warrenton).
Judge Hollmann was six years of age when his parents, Frank and Louisa (Linnert ) Hollmann, came to this country from Prussia, in 1846. They settled in Warren county, where the father engaged in farming and where they reared a family of six children, namely : Frank, Jr., now deceased ; Henry C., of Washington, in Franklin county ; William, Fred, August and Hermann. . All the last-named are in this county. August Hollmann was the fifth of his parents' family of children, and was born in Prussia on the 2d of February, 1840. Principally reared in Warren county, he was brought up a farmer and was married here in 1865 to Miss Carrie Vogt, a daughter of Herman and Catharine Vogt, who had previously settled in this country from Germany. Of her brothers and sisters, but one brother is living, Henry Vogt. Judge Hollmann has had substantial success as a farmer and now owns two good farms, one five miles north of Warrenton, where he has re- sided ever since his marriage, another of 120 acres only a short dis- tance from this one. His homestead is well improved and has all the conveniences and comforts of life. For two years Judge Hollmann was a judge of the county court, and made a thorough, upright and efficient guardian of the people's interests on the bench. The Judge and Mrs. Hollman have seven children : Henry H., Minnie, Hermann, August, Edward, Caroline and Alwina.
JOHN A. HOWARD (Deputy Sheriff and ex-Sheriff, Warrenton).
Mr. Howard's parents, David and Margaret (Fort ) Howard, settled in what is now Warren county away back in the territorial days of the country when the Indian, the wolf and slow-paced bear were still in the land. They were from Kentucky, and settled 10 miles south of Warrenton, on Charrette creek, where the father died in 1849. He was a farmer by occupation and one of the old and respected citizens of the county. He was twice married, his second wife having been pre- viously widow M'Cutchen. There were six children by his first mar- riage : James, Peter, Mary, Thomas, John A. and Emsely J., all of whom are living except Mary, who died the wife of Joseph Tice. He reared three children by his last wife, but one of whom is living, George, in Boone county. John A. Howard, the subject of this sketch, was married in 1850 to Miss Frances Bryan, who is still liv- ing. After his marriage Mr. Howard engaged in farming, and in 1874 he was elected sheriff of Warren county, being re-elected two years later. In 1878 his son-in-law, S. B. Cook, succeeded him in office, when he became Mr. C.'s deputy, in which capacity he is still serving in the sheriff's office, Mr. Cook having 'been re-elected in
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HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.
1882. Mr. and Mrs. Howard have reared two children : Ella M., the wife of Sheriff Cook, and Hattie L., femme libre, is still at home. Mr. Howard resides in Warrenton.
JAMES HUTCHERSON
(Farmer and Stock-raiser, Post-office, Warrenton).
Mr. Hutcherson, well known as one of the prominent farmers and highly respected citizens of Warren county, is a native of Virginia, born in Pittsylvania county, July 9, 1830. He was a son of Benjamin and Betsey (David) Hutcherson, who were also born and reared in that county, where they were married and resided until 1831 when they removed to Missouri and settled in Warren county, where the parents lived until their deaths. The father was a successful farmer of this county and died in 1872. The mother died in 1839. James Hutch- erson was the youngest of eight children in his parents' family, but one besides himself of whom is now living, Wilson, the fifth one of the family. The others were William, Allen, Lewis, John, Henry and Mary. The father married a second time, Miss Polly Gordon becoming his wife. There were four children by this union. James Hutcherson was reared on his father's farm in this county and No- vember 4, 1852, was married to Miss Sallie J. Riddle, a daughter of Ephraim and Judith ( Gravelley ) Riddle, also originally from Pittsyl- vania county, Va. After his marriage Mr. Hutcherson became one of the householders of the county, and began his career as one of its successful farmers. Not to go into the details of his record as a farmer, it may be stated as the result of his experience, that he has a fine farm of 560 acres, all under fence and otherwise well improved, one of the valuable farms of his part of the county. Mr. and Mrs. Hutcherson have had nine children, three of whom died in infancy : Henry H., Levy, who died January 20, 1884 ; John, Fayette, Ben- jamin, who died January 27, 1883, and Guy. During the war Mr. Hutcherson served for about eight months in the Southern army. He was a member of the State guard and participated in the battles of Lexington and Wilson's Creek. Mr. H. is a member of the A. F. and A. M.
WILLIAM A. JONES (Druggist and Pharmacist, Warrenton).
It is a characteristic of some men to excel in whatever they under- take, to go to the front in anything in which they engage. The slightest observation in Warrenton will convince any one that to class the subject of the present sketch with these would be no empty, un- meaning compliment, but only the statement of a plain, actual fact. Mr. Jones is in the drug business at Warrenton, and, as every one knows who knows anything about the place, he has the largest and best drug store, the neatest and most popular house in this line not only in Warrenton but throughout the county ; and, indeed, one of
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HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.
the best conducted and tastily kept retail drug stores in the State. His house, or business, has been built up almost exclusively by his own enterprise and good management. He entered the store in 1866 in partnership with Dr. Farrow. In 1869 he bought out his partner, Dr. Farrow, and has ever since been carrying on the business alone. He carries a stock of about $3,500, and has a trade far in excess of what would be expected in a town the size of Warrenton, or considering the general business of the place. In arrangement and general appearance the interior of his store, or presentment of his stock of goods, as the French would say, is a perfect triumph of art, refined and in good taste. He is a Mr. Jones comes of an old family in this part of the State. grandson of an early settler of Montgomery county, the founder of Jonesburg, James Jones, a sketch of whose life is given in the pres- ent volume, in the biographical department of the Montgomery county division. Mr. Jones' father, Thomas Jones, was in boyhood when the family came to Missouri, and after he grew up was married in Montgomery county to Miss Julia A. Camp, formerly of Kentucky. He settled on a farm near Jonesburg, where he reared a family and lived until his death, which occurred about two years ago. There were eight children, three of whom are married and comfortably set- tled in life, worthy and respected members of society. William A., the subject of this sketch, was born on the family homestead, near Jonesburg, November 5, 1847. He received a common-school edu- cation, and at the age of 19 came to Warrenton to learn the drug business, where he has ever since resided. May 31, 1880, he was married to Miss Ella A. Faulconer, a daughter of John H. Faulconer, of this county. Mr. and Mrs. J. have three children : Edna, May, William Carl and Josie Mabel. Mr. Jones is a Democrat in politics, and expects to vote the regular Democratic ticket through all the coming years of his sublunary career or until senile ablepsia or the blindess of old age overtakes him so that he can not read the title clear on his ticket, and that will probably be a long time, many years after the Republican party, like all former antagonists of the Democ- racy, is dead and buried, for his grandmother, Mrs. Camp, is still living, bright of mind, at the advanced age of 91, and unquestionably longevity is hereditary.
MICHAEL KELLY
(Railroad Contractor, Post-office, Warrenton).
Mr. Kelly, a worthy and respected citizen of Truesdale, a suburb of Warrenton, is a native of the Emerald Isle, born at Roscommon, famed in song and story and legend and history as one of the most interesting localities of the Ever Faithful Isle. Reared at his birth- place, at the age of 23 he came to America, believing that he could more easily establish himself comfortably in life here than in his na- tive country, notwithstanding his fond affection for the motherland that gave him birth. In the New World he located first at Cleve- land, O., but came thence to Warrenton, Mo, in 1858. Here, or in
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HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.
the vicinity of this place, he has ever since resided. A life of industry has rewarded him with a comfortable home and a neat, small farm. He is engaged in buying and supplying ties, pile timber, etc., to the Wabash Railway, and meets with good success in this line of busi- ness. In 1867 Mr. Kelly was married to Miss Eliza Doyle, and seven children are the fruits of this union, aged from 14 to 3 years, namely : Mary, James, Martin, Maggie, Nora, Eddie and Nellie. Mr. and Mrs. Kelly are members of the Catholic Church, and in politics he is a Dem- ocrat, without any Ben Butler greenback nonsense about him.
THOMAS KEY
(Farmer and Stock-raiser, Post-office, Warrenton).
The record of Mr. Key's career is one of continued industry, rewarded through steady progress with abundant success. Starting out for himself with little or nothing to begin on but his own ability and disposition to work, and good sound business judgment to manage his affairs, by the exercise of these qualities he has accumulated a large property, and is now one of the leading farmers and land-holders of the community where he resides. His place contains about 1,300 acres, and his farm is one of the best and most valuable stock farms in the county. Mr. Key is a native of England, born in Cornwall March 18, 1825. Both his parents, Thomas Kee and wife, nee Mary Cowlen, were of ancient English families. The father died there in 1853. His mother crossed the ocean in 1867 at the age of 74 years, and lived just three months after she arrived at St. Louis. Both were members of the Episcopal Church. Mr. Key was reared in Cornwall, and was the third of his parents' family of five children. He received a good ordinary education at the parish school of St. Irvin, in Corn- wall. In 1844, then 20 years of age, he immigrated to Canada, and the following year to St. Louis, but shortly afterwards located at Alton, Ill., where he was in the butcher business for 20 years. He then removed to St. Louis, and after following the butcher business there for three years he came to Warren county. Here he has since made his home, and been engaged in farming and handling stock with the result above indicated. August 23, 1849, Mr. Key was married at Alton, Ill., to Miss Mary Browning, a daughter of John and Jane (Welch) Browning, formerly of Somersetshire, England, where Mrs. Key was reared and educated. Mr. and Mrs. Key have nine children, namely : Nicholas S., Mary A., Sarah J., Elizabeth, Ellen M., Thomas F., Fannie, Alice C. and Chester S. The first four are married and reside in Warren county. Mrs. Key is a member of the Christian Church, and Mr. Key of the Episcopal Church. He is also a member of the Patrons of Husbandry.
HERMAN A. KOCH, A. M., M. D.
(President of the Central Wesleyan College, Warrenton) .
Dr. H. A. Koch, for the last 20 years at the head of the above named institution, and to whose able management of its affairs is pre-
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HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.
eminently due the credit for the unqualified success which it has achieved, is by nativity and education of German antecedents, and is a worthy representative of that large and better class of Germans whose fortunes were cast with this country by the events of the Revo- lution of '48 in their native country. He came of one of the better untitled families of Prussia, a family of intelligence and culture and high respectability, in well-to-do circumstances and of enlightened, liberal views in regard to popular rights and responsibility of govern- ment to the people for impartial and just laws, and for the impartial and just administration of the law. Fully sensible, therefore, of the irresponsible tyranny and merciless oppression which characterized the administration of affairs in that country prior to the revolution, it is not surprising that this family, with thousands of others of their class, became identified with the movement on the part of the body of the people for a reform of government. The result of the revolution is matter of history and 'needs no comment here. Hundreds and thousands of the brightest men of Germany, men identified with the revolution, and whose gallantry and patriotism have never been sur- passed, were compelled to expatriate themselves and seek new homes in foreign lands. Many of them came to America ; such men as Carl Schurz, Daniel Siegel, William Rosecrans, Arnold Krekel, and others too numerous to admit of mention, have rendered services of the highest value to their adopted country, and have become citizens of dis- tinguished consideration and usefulness. The sympathies of Dr. Koch, then a young man preparing himself for the medical profession, and who had recently completed an advanced and thorough course at college, became warmly enlisted for the cause of the revolution, and he, too, became an object of proscription and threatened government prosecution. With others of his countrymen, therefore, he also came to America. Thus broken off from his purpose to prepare himself for the practice of medicine, in this country he engaged in teaching, as being the most congenial employment in which he could at once engage. He first taught a private school in St. Louis. A man of naturally earnest and sincere character, with great reverence for truth and justice, and believing in the divine order and government of the world, he became warmly enlisted in the cause of religion. He united himself with the M. E. Church, and soon decided to devote himself to the ministry. Accordingly, after an exhaustive prepara- tory course of study, he was duly ordained a minister in that denomin- ation. In 1857 Rev. Koch was appointed principal of the German department in the Methodist College at Quincy, Ill. There his thorough scholarship, his zeal in the cause of education, and his marked natural qualities for a successful teacher soon became recognized, and his reputation as an educator rapidly advanced. While his methods of instruction were warmly commended, he at the same time evinced exceptional ability for school government and successful management in the general affairs of a school. When, therefore, in 1864 a competent educator and teacher of executive ability was needed at the head of the Central Wesleyan College in Warrenton, attention was at once drawn to him as best
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