USA > Missouri > History of southeast Missouri : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people and its principal interests, Volume II > Part 75
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or would drive it towards them. He knew well enough that he could catch it anywhere, and, doing so, he mounted and struck out through the woods and, eluding his pursuers, he rode to Malden, forty miles distant, his route taking him past the site of his present store in Dexter. He reported to Colonel Jeffreys and that commander sent a squad of eighty men with him to head off Leeper and his men as they returned from Bloom- field. Reaching his old home he learned that the Federals had just passed enroute to Greenville. So, taking a short cut through the woods, they came upon Leeper and his men, who had unsaddled their horses and were getting supper. The Rebel yell was raised and the attack was such a surprise that the Federals scattered, some of them not wait- ing to bridle their horses. Nine men were captured, as well as several horses, at the crossing of the Mingo river, its bottom being quicksand and the horses getting fast. Mr. MeCollum does not deny that this episode gave him great satisfaction, owing to the treatment he had received at the hands of Leeper.
The second capture of Mr. MeCollum was in company with forty-eight Confederates in Dunklin county. For a time he languished in jail at Bloomfield, was then taken to Cape Girardeau by government wagons and then put aboard a stock boat and sent towards St. Louis. Meantime a scheme was brewing to escape and each man had undressed and tied his clothes to a scantling, intending to throw it overboard, jump over himself and swim ashore. As this was about to be consum- mated, a storm came up and the boat put ashore. Guards were thrown out and from that time the prisoners were so watched that escape was out of the question. They were finally put into old MeDowell's college prison in St. Louis. A part were sent on to the Alton Penitentiary, Illinois, but Mr. MeCol- Jum soon observed that those who complained of their health were not sent to Alton, but were kept at MeDowells, and afterwards he was always sick when such calls were made. He was finally paroled and returned as far as Cape Girardeau, but there the Federal com- mander refused to honor his parole and in- sisted on his enlisting, or again going back to St. Louis a prisoner. He asked for a fur- lough to visit his family, then living north of Bloomfield. Stoddard county, and he and his brother-in-law agreed to report on a fixed date, ten days, the Federal colonel making
the passport or parole to read that if they did not report as agreed they would be shot where- ever found. They reported at once to Colonel Jeffries at Malden, who decided to try to capture these Federals whom they had learned were soon to be sent out to Bloomfield. The Confederates gathered quietly in the woods at the outskirts of Bloomfield. The Federals had planted cannon a quarter of a mile west of the court house on the Greenville road. Colonel Jefferies, who had eighty Fed- eral uniforms, had that many of his men don these, and they rode into town and, answering the questions of the sentries, were permitted to pass along. Coming to the Federal cannon they took possession of these, and, firing one as a signal, their companions came pellmell into the town, and with their own cannon used against them, the Federals could make but a short stand, being soon captured.
While Mr. McCollum was trying to visit his family at Four Mile, Colonel Daniel's Wiscon- sin Regiment came to the village and scoured the woods to locate him and his comrades. He rode a fine stallion, which one night slipped his halter and made for his former stable at Four Mile. He created quite a commotion in the Federal camp, but was finally taken in charge by a Mr. Walker, an old friend of the subject. Mr. MeCollum resolved to secure his horse and trailed it to within half a mile of the village, when he saw four soldiers' horses tied at a farm, where they often went to have cooking done. Slipping off spurs and revol- vers, he hid them in the grass and as one of the soldiers came out of the house, he asked if he had seen such a horse. The soldier re- counted "the trouble" in the camp and of Walker's taking the horse. J. W. who pre- tended to be working Walker's land, said that the horse was Walker's and that he needed it to work his corn, but that he was afraid that if he went to the village he might be detained. So he offered to hire the soldiers and his two comrades to secure the horse for him, and showed them four one dollar Missouri Bonds of Governor Cave Jackson's issue, which they gladly accepted, bringing his horse to him. His nerve won.
At another time as he was stopping at a friend's a squad of Federal cavalry came along and stopped to examine the brand on his pony. Catching the situation, he asked the friend's son for a hoe and both walked to the gate, he telling the soldier that he was a farmer, that he had come to borrow the hoe and that the young man was going with him
John R. Reddick,
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to plant his corn. Taking it all in all, few veterans can equal his experience in their variety and humor. He surrendered at Wits- burg, Arkansas, April 5, 1865.
At the close of the war Mr. McCollum opened a saloon at Kitchen's Mill in the northern part of Stoddard county, in what was later Carterville, now Leora, where from ten to fifty wagons stood almost constantly waiting for their milling. He knew almost every business man at Cape Girardeau where he bought his goods. There was but one man in the community who had any education-the constable-and J. W. got him at first to read his bills and add up his accounts. He soon so realized his own need of education that he learned of this man to read and cipher and through his own exertions he since has ac- quired a liberal education. Major Henry Bed- ford, who recently died, was the last survivor of those who were grown men when J. W. Mc- Collum was first in Bloomfield. In 1873 Mr. McCollum came to Dexter and started a saloon in the old town and he stands today one of its oldest business men. February 14, 1912, marked his fifty-ninth year of residence in Stoddard county. He has always been an ardent Democrat, but has had little taste for public life and when defeated by only four votes for county assessor he grew tired of politics.
Mr. McCollum was married in 1857 to Vil- etta Taylor, who was born north of Bloomfield, the daughter of Isaac Taylor, and they lived together until August, 1884. On April 5, 1885, he was married to Josie Thorne, a na- tive of Kentucky, who died May 14, 1910. There were no children in the first family, but two sons were born to the second. The elder, Harry J., is associated in the drug business with his father, and the younger, Frederick R., died in young manhood. Mr. McCollum has a host of friends and is one of the rep- resentative men of the county, his interesting personality and generous nature remaining undimmed with the passing of the years. He is a member of the Church of Christ.
JOHN R. REDDICK, of Bloomfield, Missouri, engaged in the real estate business, has, with- out doubt, fully as accurate knowledge of land values and titles in Southeastern Mis- souri as any person living, his business bring- ing him in constant contact with land buyers and sellers, and with titles thereof. A son of James D. and Polly A. (Groom) Reddick, he was born February 26, 1851, in Weakley
county, Tennessee. His grandfather, David Reddick, was a pioneer of Missouri, having located in Dent county in 1837, and there living until his death, at the age of sixty-five years. James D. Reddick joined his father in Dent county about 1854, and spent the later years of his life at Siloam Springs, Howell county, Missouri, passing away at the age of fifty-nine years.
But three years of age when his parents settled in section 6, township 24, range 6 west, Watkins township, Dent county, John R. Red- dick there grew to manhood on the home farm. He subsequently worked in the Court House at Salem, the county seat, being deputy for various county officials, and also served as tax collector, for two terms of two years each, during the sixteen years that he was em- ployed in the Court House becoming familiar with the work of each department and in ad- dition helping to make a set of abstract books. In 1892 Mr. Reddick was called to Bloom- field, Missouri, to assist in making a set of abstract books for Stoddard county, being employed by Buchhannan & Statts. He afterwards purchased the set of books that he had made, and kept them up to date, hav- ing a full record of everything pertaining to the title and ownership of lands in this part of the state.
As a land and loan agent Mr. Reddick has had several extensive transactions. In 1898 he sold to the Charter Oak Land Company of Lawrence, Kansas, a half township of land, the owners of which were scattered over the United States, it taking him eight months to secure the lands and deeds for the same. He has sold about twenty-five thousand acres of land in Stoddard county and has bought and sold other tracts, and in 1911 had on hand a deal involving a section of unimproved land in Stoddard county. There are but two sets of abstracts in Stoddard county, Mr. Reddick long owning one. In his loan agency he has handled a quarter of a million dollars with- in the past three years. He has good prop- erty of his own, and is interested in mining propositions in the lead and zinc fields of Phelps county, Missouri. Mr. John R. Red- dick on January 18, 1912, sold his abstract books to Emil Weber, of the firm of E. M. Weber, abstractor. Mr. Reddick now devotes his entire attention to his large real-estate trade and interests and to his extensive min- ing interests in Phelps county, Missouri. He has the honor of being a director of The New- burg Holding and Developing Company, a
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five million dollar mining corporation, with offices at 710 Central National Bank Build- ing. St. Louis, Missouri. This company's holdings are iu Phelps and other counties of Missouri.
Politically Mr. Reddick is affiliated with the Democratic party, but has never been an aspirant for official honors since coming to Bloomfield. Fraternally he is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and has passed all the chairs of his lodge, which he represented at the Grand Lodge in 1885.
Mr. Reddick married, in Dent county, Mis- souri, America L. Hedrick, and to them four children have been born, namely: J. Lee, who has been engaged in business with his father and is now associated with his succes- sors; Edith, wife of Roy D. Jones, of Saint Louis; and Abigail and Ora F., the daugh- ters and younger son being at home.
SILAS YOUNG BARNETT. It is a pleasurable task to record the history of one who by resolute will, industry and good management has won success and standing in the world of business. Such a man is Silas Young Barnett, owner of much agricultural land in Stoddard county and one of the leading grocers of the community. Mr. Barnett is a native of the state of Tennessee, his birth having occurred December 8, 1862, on a farm. He attended school in that state and when a young man, having heard good reports of the opportunity in this part of Missouri, he made a change of residence. That was in 1882, when he was about twenty years of age, and his ambition to improve his fortunes was gratified. He located first at Malden, Missouri, where he remained for three years, working for the Cot- ton Belt Railway Company, in a clerical capa- city. While there he was married and went to Arkansas for the same company, continuing with them for three years longer. He then removed to East Prairie, in Mississippi county, Missouri, where he resided for a short time. He returned to the state of Tennessee and there engaged in the liquor business for five years and subsequently came to Bernie, where he was in the same line until 1900. In that year he embarked in his present field, the grocery business, and he has prospered from the first. His business has increased rapidly and he has invested the money he has made to excellent advantage in farm land in the sur- rounding country. He has three farms of three hundred and eighty acres, all near Bernie, and he has tenants upon these valuable
properties with the exception of that situated nearest to town, upon which he makes his own home.
Mr. Barnett was married in the year 1890, to Miss Annie McGee, who was born and reared by her grandfather in Mississippi, her father having died when she was a child. When about fifteen years of age she removed with her grandfather, James Stewart, to Malden, Dunklin county, and there she and Mr. Barnett met and were united in matri- mony. They have one son, Cecil, born in Obion county, Tennessee, December 8, 1892. Mr. and Mrs. Barnett also reared a niece of the former, Mabel Picket, who came to live with them when nine years of age. Both she and Mr. Barnett's son attended the Nor- mal school at Cape Girardeau, Missouri, and the niece taught several years previous to her marriage to Lee Mitchell. Mr. and Mrs. Mitchell became the parents of two children, one of whom is now deceased.
Mr. Barnett is member and trustee of the Methodist church, South. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Modern Woodmen of America and the Royal Neighbors of America, of which latter he has been an official for several years, being at the present time head oracle.
The Barnett store is housed in a commodi- ous building twenty by fifty feet, made of brick, and an excellent line of groceries is carried, the most fastidious tastes being catered to. The greater part of his farming land, as previously mentioned, is in the hands of renters.
Mr. Barnett's father, Lexy Barnett, was born in Madison county, Tennessee; the grandfather was a native of North Carolina and the great grandfather was born in Scot- land, the origin of the family having been in the "land o' cakes." The maiden name of the mother was Eveline Timms. Lexy Bar- nett, who answered to the double calling of farmer and school teacher, enlisted in the Southern army in 1862, the very year of the son's birth. He was one of the martyrs of that great conflict, falling in battle, and his death left fatherless a family of seven children six of whom were boys, and the eldest being only about twelve at the time of this sad event. The grandfather assisted in their maintenance until the boys were old enough to work out their own destinies, each of them, it is scarcely necessary to state, be- ginning the battle at a very early age. The children of Lexy Barnett are herewith enum-
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erated. J. H., of Dexter, Missouri, is in the grocery business, and married Sophia Mat- thews. J. W. died in 1909. E. H., an em- ploy of the Frisco Railway, is married and has one daughter. J. B., a railroad man, died in the early '90s. Mollie, the only sister, died at the age of eleven years. Will died when about five years of age, and Silas Y., of this sketch, is the youngest in order of birth. The parents were devout members of the Meth- odist Episcopal church. Mr. and Mrs. Bar- nett are generally recognized as useful men- bers of society and enjoy the possession of hosts of friends.
WILLIAM C. CALDWELL, M. D. The world instinctively pays deference to the man whose success has been worthily achieved and whose prominence is not the less the result of an irreproachable life than of natural talents and acquired ability in the field of his chosen labor. Dr. Caldwell occupies a position of distinction as a representative of the medical profession at Essex, Missouri, and the best evidence of his capability in the line of his chosen work is the large patronage which is accorded him. It is a well known fact that a great percentage of those who enter business life meet with failure or only a limited meas- ure of success. This is usually due to one or more of several causes-superficial prepara- tion, lack of elose application or an unwise choice in selecting a vocation for which one is not fitted. The reverse of all this has entered into the success and prominence which Dr. Caldwell has gained. His equipment for the profession has been unusually good and he has continually extended the scope of his labors through the added efficiency that comes through keeping in touch with the marked advancement that has been made by the mem- bers of the medical fraternity during the last decade.
Dr. Caldwell was born in Warwick county, Indiana, on the 14th of October, 1871, and he is a son of Amos K. and Sarah L. (Dial) Cald- well, the former deceased and the latter still living, at the age of sixty-three years. Reared to the invigorating discipline of the home farm in the old Hoosier state of the Union, the early educational discipline of Dr. Cald- well consisted of such advantages as were af- forded in the neighboring district schools. As a youth he attended and was graduated in the Evansville, Indiana, Commercial College and after that event was engaged in keeping books for a concern in his native state for a number
of years. Eventually becoming interested in the medical profession, he decided upon it as his vocation and with that object in view he pursued a course of study in the IIom- eopathie College of Missouri, at St. Louis, in which excellent institution he was graduated as a member of the class of 1901, duly receiv- ing the degree of Doctor of Medicine. Im- mediately after graduation he located in Stod- dard county, opening up offices at Essex. where he has since resided and where he has gained distinctive prestige as one of the ablest homeopathists in this section of the state. Prior to taking up the study of medicine he had served in the United States Marine Hos- pital at Cairo, Illinois, and in the Southern Indiana Insane Asylum at Evansville. He had one brother who was engaged in teaching school in Stoddard county, Missouri, for a number of years and who died in 1900.
Dr. Caldwell has succeeded in building up a large and representative patronage in Essex and the surrounding territory and in con- nection with his life work he is a valued and appreciative member of the Stoddard County Medical Society, the Missouri State Medical Society and the American Medical Associa- tion. Ile has given most efficient and satis- factory service as vice-president of the Stod- dard County Medical Society and is medical examiner for a number of insurance com- panies. In 1909 he was appointed by the state board of health as local registrar of birth and deaths. In his political convictions he a stanch advocate of the principles and pol- icies for which the Republican party stands sponsor and is at present the township's com- mitteeman, in which connection he comes in close touch with all local campaigns. He is deeply interested in educational matters and has served for the past three years as a mem- ber of the local school board. He is an ad- vocate of the good-roads movement and con- tributes in generous measure to all matters projected for the good of the general welfare.
On the 27th of December, 1903, was solem- nized the marriage of Dr. Caldwell to Miss Carrie P. Wilson, who is a daughter of the Rev. Virgil Wilson, a Baptist minister who officiated in the church of that denomination at Essex for a period of three years and who is now in charge of a church at Patton, Mis- souri. Dr. and Mrs. Caldwell are the fond parents of three children, whose names are here entered in respective order of birth .- Russell D., Reginald C. and Wilma W. In religious faith Mrs. Caldwell is a consistent
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member of the Methodist Episcopal church. They are prominent and popular factors in connection with the best social activities of the community. In fraternal channels the Doctor is connected with the time-honored Masonic order and with the local lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. By his close observance of the unwritten code of professional ethics Dr. Caldwell commands the admiration and esteem of his fellow prac- titioners and of his numerous friends and associates at Essex.
PARRISH GREEN WILSON. Prominent among the more respected and influential citizens of Bloomfield is Parrish Green Wil- son, who for many years has been actively identified with the promotion of the mercan- tile and agricultural interests of Stoddard county, and is now living retired, enjoying a well-earned leisure. A son of the late Ben- jamin Wilson, he was born October 8, 1833, in the northern part of Cape Girardeau county, twenty-four miles from the Cape.
Born in 1791, in Virginia, Benjamin Wil- son was taken by his parents to Kentucky when three years old. In 1810 the parents came to Missouri, and settled first on the Saint Francois river, near Indian Ford, about five miles west of the present site of Puxico, later improving a farm near Jackson, Cape Girardeau county, where both his father and mother spent their last years. Growing to man's estate in Cape Girardeau county, Ben- jamin Wilson there married for his first wife a Miss Johnson, and settled in Perryville, Perry county, where he kept a hotel for a number of years. There his wife died, leav- ing three daughters and one son, John, who is now living in Texas, a venerable man of eighty-five years. On March 12, 1912, he inarried for his second wife, in Perry county, in 1828, Virginia Bull, who was born in North Carolina in 1794, and died in Cape Girardeau county, Missouri, in 1845, leaving two children, William B. Wilson, M. D., who was actively engaged in the practice of med- icine at Cape Girardeau until his death, and Parrish Green, the special subject of this brief sketch. Benjamin Wilson was an active member of the Missionary Baptist church. In his earlier life he was a Whig, and in later years was a stanch Democrat. During the Civil war he sympathized with the South. He had formerly been a slave owner, but had given his slaves to his older children prior to the war, later giving his two younger sons
their equivalent in money. He lived to a ripe old age, passing away in 1870, aged seventy-nine years. His second wife, who was a widow when he married her, had two chil- dren by her first husband, and came with them and her brother and sister to Missouri.
Parrish Green Wilson lived on the home farm until fifteen years old, when he came to Bloomfield to live with an uncle, John M. Johnson, and for a year clerked in his store, receiving no definite pay. Returning then to the old home farm, he attended the Arcadia High school two terms, being under the in- struction of Professor Farnham. Going then to Cape Girardeau, Mr. Wilson clerked for a year in his brother's general store, receiving twenty dollars a month wages. He subse- quently read law in Jackson, with Greer W. Davis, an eminent lawyer, and although ad- mitted to the bar never practiced his profes- sion. Forming a partnership, instead, with his brother, William B. Wilson, he opened a mercantile establishment at the Cape, and for four years dealt in drugs and books, mak- ing some money. During that period, which was at the time of the Civil war, he was for a few months a member of the Jackson Militia. At the close of the conflict Mr. Wilson estab- lished a general store at Leora, in the north- western part of Stoddard county, in a farm- ing community, and there carried on a pros- perous business until 1880. Coming from there to Bloomfield, he conducted a drug store in this city until 1895, when he sold out, hav- ing been engaged in mercantile pursuits in Stoddard county for thirty consecutive years.
In the meantime Mr. Wlison had bought land near the village, owning at one time three hundred and forty acres, but subsequently selling about one hundred acres, and devoting the two hundred and forty acres which he re- tained to general farming. He has now rented his valuable farm for a period of five years, and is living retired at his pleasant home in Bloomfield.
Politically Mr. Wilson has ever been a lead- ing member of the Democratic party, and has filled various public positions. For six years he was a member of the county court, serving for four years when there was but one county judge. He was subsequently elected county judge of probate, and served faithfully and ably for sixteen years, retiring from the office in 1892. He is an old and valued member of the Baptist church, the Missionary Baptist, and for many years was a member of the An- cient Free and Accepted Order of Masons, al-
J. P. LaRue
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though he has allowed his membership to lapse.
Mr. Wilson has been four times married. He married, in 1868, Mary Louisa Yeargin, who died in Bloomfield, Missouri, in 1888, leaving six children, namely: Ben, cashier of the Farmers' Bank at Essex; Will, of Leba- non, Oregon; John, a graduate in medicine at Washington University, in Saint Louis, and now practicing at Bloomfield; Maggie, living with her father; and Bettie and Nannie, both of whom died in early womanhood.
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