USA > Missouri > Greene County > Past and present of Greene County Missouri, early and recent history and genealogical records of many of the representative citizens, Volume I > Part 101
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In the spring of 1907 he was elected a member of the Springfield city council from the first ward. During his term he prepared and introduced an ordinance creating a public utilities commission for the city of Spring- field, and was made its first chairman. This commission was later super- ceded by the state utilities commission under an act of the Legislature. Dur-
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ing a memorable deadlock over police appointments in Mayor Ernst's ad- ministration, Mr. Hawkins introduced a bill to create a board of police com- missioners, the purpose of which was to take the Springfield police force out of politics and place it under civil service rules. He succeeded in passing the bill through the council, but it was vetoed by the mayor. Only one vote was lacking to pass it over his veto. In the fall of 1908 our subject was nomin- ated and elected a member of the Missouri house of representatives from the first district of Greene county, which comprised the city of Springfield. This was then a strongly Republican county, and his opponent on the Repub- lican ticket was a man of prominence who had been a member of the Legis- lature and of Congress. The majority given Mr. Hawkins was one hundred and fifty-seven. During his teri as representative he assisted in establishing the Springfield court of appeals, also the second division of the Greene county circuit court, the state bureau of immigration at Springfield. As a member of the committee on revision of the laws, he assisted in revising the state statutes, which according to the provision of the constitution, are rewritten and republished every ten years.
In the primary election of 1910, Mr. Hawkins became a candidate for the Democratic nomination for state senator for the Twentieth district, and received the nomination by a majority of over sixteen hundred votes. He carried all the counties in the district except Vernon, losing it by only eighty- six votes. In the general election he received a plurality of nine hundred and thirty-three votes. He was the youngest senator, both in the forty- sixth and forty-seventh general assemblies. In both branches of the legis- lature he proved himself one of the most faithful and most capable servants Greene county ever had. being ever ready to protect the interests of the people and he seldom failed in an undertaking. He proved that he was abundantly capable of filling the positions with credit to himself and to all the people. He has always been very fortunate in his committee assign- ments. During the forty-sixth general assembly he was appointed a mem- ber of the committee on arrangements, which had charge of Governor Major's inauguration. He was also made chairman on the committee of municipal corporations, and was a member of the following prominent committees : Judiciary, railroads and internal improvements, life, fire and other insurance, wills and probate law, labor and enrolled bills. He was also appointed chair- man of a special committee on the conservation of water power sites. A great many important hearings were had by the municipal corporation com- mittee, among others, the Springfield-Joplin charter ; also the home rule bills for St. Louis. As state senator he was author of the new state depository law, saving the taxpayers a fourth of a million dollars in interest, and caus- ing a half million dollars to be deposited in Greene county banks ; also author of the special road district law; author and supporter of many measures in
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behalf of organized labor; author of a law protecting fruit growers and shippers against unscrupulous commission merchants.
Several years ago our subject became vice-president of the Greene County Abstract and Loan Company, which success has been due in no small measure to his wise counsel.
Mr. Hawkins was married, October 4, 1905, to Nellie Nelson Viles, who was born. reared and educated in Bolivar, Missouri, her birth having os- curred in 1884. She is a daughter of R. B. Viles, a banker and merchant of Bolivar, and for many years one of the leading business men of Polk county. Her mother was Amanda Nichols before her marriage. The union of our subject and wife has been without issue. They have a pleasant home in Springfield.
Mr. Hawkins is a member of the Young Men's Business Club, and was the first chairman of the same; also belongs to the Country Club, the Beta Theta fraternity, the Blue lodge of the Masonic Order, the Knights of Pythias and the Modern Woodmen; also the Springfield Club and the Uni- versity Club. In all of the above social organizations he is popular, being a good mixer, a man of courteous and obliging address and exemplary habits.
FRANK E. HEADLEY.
Life is in the open country. Life is in the growing grass, the waving fields of wheat, the springing corn. Life is in the trees and birds, and in the developing animals of the farm. Any man who works with the land, who feeds a field and watches the result, gains a real fundamental knowledge of the underlying foundation on which rests all our civilization. It makes him a sober man, a thoughtful man, a reverent man, and, if he experiments wisely, a hopeful optimist. Life is where things are born and live and grow. On the farm is real life. It is not to be found in the city. Realizing these facts, Frank E. Headley, proprietor of "Spring Lawn Farm," of Franklin township, Greene county, is contented with his environment and is one of the most progressive of the younger generation of agriculturists in this section of the state.
Mr. Headley was born July 7, 1885, in Springfield, Missouri, and is a scion of one of the prominent old families of Greene county, his father for many years having been a prominent business man of the Queen City. He is a son of Frank E., Sr., and Ida (McDaniel) Headley. The father was born at Groveport, near Columbus, Franklin county, Ohio, September 5, 1852. He was a son of Aaron C. and Hannah (Ebberly) Headley. He was educated in the public schools in Columbus, Ohio, and there resided until he
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was seventeen years of age, coming with his parents to Springfield, Missouri, in October, 1870, the family locating at 737 North Jefferson street, and our subject was born in the first house north of the old homestead. The father of our subject and his brothers were in the game and produce business for six months. June, 1871, found them penniless, and Frank E., Sr., then ac- cepted a clerkship in the grocery house of N. Kelley at a salary of twenty dollars per month. He worked there about three years and six months, then clerked for Sutter & Townsend for six months. He then bought out Mr. Townsend's interest, and the firm became Sutter & Headley for four years; then Oscar M. Headley bought out Sutter's interest, and the firm became Headley Brothers. Later the firm became the Headley Grocery Company. the father of our subject remaining active in this business until 1902, having carried on an extensive retail and wholesale trade over a wide territory; in fact, they did the largest retail grocery business in the Southwest. Frank E. Headley, Sr., sold out in 1902 and entered the hotel business at Aurora, Missouri, where he remained two years, then sold out and bought the farm on which his son, our subject, now resides, the "Spring Lawn Farm," con- taining two hundred and fifty acres. He was a successful breeder of fine live stock, especially registered Jersey cattle and Percheron horses, keeping several blooded imported Percheron stallions, one of them, "Carabas." being the first draft stallion ever brought to this country, and was exhibited at numerous fairs. "Emperor" was another noted horse which he imported and kept on his farm here, and several others also became famous, among them being "Spot Light," "Obsidian." "White Stockings" and "Colossus." Mr. Headley purchased his farm here from George H. McCann, who first started the handling of blooded Jersey cattle here, which he brought from the Hood farm of Jerseys, of Lowell, Massachusetts, In the herd was a pure St. Lam- bert bred bull, "Exile of Spring Lawn." General Holland owned this farm and improved it during the Civil war period, assisted by his neighbors. His corn crop was stolen by the soldiers who occupied the county at that time. General Holland built a dwelling house here of logs, and our subject has built a club house just east of the residence, using the same logs that the Gen- eral used in his house, the old Holland home. The club house is fitted up in a modern style and is an attractive place.
Frank E. Headley, Sr., was one of five children, four sons and one daughter. The sons all became successful business men. Their parents spent their last years in Springfield. Frank E., Sr., was a Democrat in his earlier years, and in 1879 was elected by this party to the city council from the sec- ond ward, and was re-elected in 1882. He was also a member of the school board of Springfield and helped elect Prof. J. Fairbanks as county superin- tendent of schools. Later in life he was councilman from the sixth ward for several terms. In later life, for personal reasons, he became a Repub-
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lican. He was a member of Calvary Presbyterian church at Springfield. His health failing, he went to California in the hopes of restoring same, and died in that state October 15, 1906, at the age of sixty-seven years, after a suc- cessful, useful and honorable life. His wife, Ida McDaniel, was a native of Carthage, Missouri, and was a daughter of Francis Marion McDaniel, of that city. Her death occurred when the subject of this sketch was two weeks old, July 21, 1885.
Frank E. Headley, Jr., the only child of his parents, grew to manhood in Springfield, and was educated in the schools of this city. Later he took a short course in the agricultural department of the Missouri State Univer- sity, where he spent two years, 1903 and 1904. He then assisted his father in the operation of the home farm in Franklin township, and he now owns and operates "Spring Lawn Farm," being regarded as one of the most pro- gressive and scientific general farmers and stock raisers in Greene county. He has made many important modern improvements, spending over one thou- sand dollars on fences, built a cement silo and a cement chicken house. The farm contains a lake, fed by natural springs, and this our subject has kept well stocked with trout and catfish and other varieties of the finny tribe. He has a large and up-to-date barn for his horses and cattle, sanitary, fur- nishing every comfort, and is painted white. He has also built an attractive stone pump-house in the rear of his home. It is built of stone and arched over and has open sides. The water is forced to the stock barns by hydraulic pressure. Part of the place might well be called a park, for our subject has taken much pains in its rustic detail, and has two deer on a part of his land. The farm has excellent water in abundance, and is an attractive, valuable and desirable place in every respect, one of the choice farms of the South- west. In addition to raising thoroughbred registered Jersey cattle, Mr. Head- ley also raises White Leghorn chickens; also keeps some fine collies, Perch- eron horses and Berkshire hogs. At present he has forty-five head of pure Jerseys, twelve to twenty-one pounds butter test. He has shipped cattle all over the United States, especially to Arizona, Utah and Idaho and various places in the Southwest, and over Oklahoma and Missouri. He has a mod- ern and beautiful home, a bathhouse at the side of the lake, spring house, ice house and other improvements found only on the best American farms. In 1913 he built a substantial modern store and office building in Springfield, with a one-hundred-seventeen-and-a-half-foot front and one hundred feet deep. It is known as the Frank E. Headley block, and is well located at 214-222 West Walnut street. It was begun June 13, 1913, and finished in February, 1914.
Mr. Headley was married March 7, 1911, to Nellie B. Armstrong, of Hamilton, Missouri. She is a young lady of education and refinement, and is a representative of a highly esteemed family.
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To Mr. and Mrs. Headley one child has been born, Frank E. Headley, Jr., born June 12, 1913.
Politically, Mr. Headley is a Republican, but is not active in public af- fairs, being essentially a home man and preferring to give his attention to liis large farming interests and his live stock especially. He is a member of Calvary Presbyterian church of Springfield, and has been a deacon in the same for the past five years. He is a young man whom it is a pleasure to meet, being genial, sociable, obliging and hospitable, is well read and a genteel gentleman in all the relations of life.
GEORGE ALBERT ATWOOD.
Truly one of nature's noblemen was the late George Albert Atwood, one of the most prominent journalists and experts on horticultural and agri- cultural subjects that southern Missouri and eastern Kansas has ever known, and withal a citizen of high ideals and wholesome life. As to liis character one can truly say that he was a sturdy type of a true man, firm in resolution, strong in conviction, helpful to his fellowinen. Among the numerous com- mendable qualities which stood out in his character were business integrity, fidelity to trusts reposed in him, a deep love of nature in her various forms and family devotion. A thinker and philosopher he knew that difficulties confronted men in every occupation, that every man has his troubles and adversities, but he believed that these things were necessary to develop the best qualities in us ; that man's necessity was ever the incentive to prompt him to seek out a better way of doing things, a way to overcome, that cheerful- ness and optimism would help him find a way, when gloom and despair would only aid in sinking him under the load. So he tried to remain cheerful, and, also knowing that man cannot stand still, must either make progress or retrograde, he always looked toward the heights, keeping in mind the motto, "There is no excellence without great labor." His life was an open sesame with all the simple sincerity that belongs to great-souled men.
George Albert Atwood was born in Barnard, Vermont, January 15, 1840, the fourth in a family of ten children. He was the son of George Hammond and Mary N. (Culver) Atwood, the father a descendant of William Penn and the mother of Samuel Adams. George Hammond Atwood was the son of Ebenezer Atwood. His parents were honest, industrious New England people. and spent their lives on a farm in Vermont, on which their son George Albert Atwood was reared to manhood, and on which he worked during the summer months when he became of proper age. By dint of hard work under many disadvantages in the rural schools, by alternately attend-
GEORGE A. ATWOOD, DECEASED.
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ing school and teaching school, he obtained a good foundation for the fine education which he finally obtained by persistent home study and contact with the world. He studied at Kimball Union Academy at Meriden, New Hampshire, and Oswego Business College of Oswego, New York. When the war between the states came on he proved his patriotism and courage by enlisting in the Union army in 1862, in Company B, Twelfth Vermont Vol- unteer Militia, receiving honorable discharge after nine months' service. He then left the home farm to carve out his own career in the world, and was. appointed to a clerkship in the United States treasury department, which position he held for two years in a highly acceptable manner, and was in Washington when President Lincoln was assassinated and shared in the intense excitement that tragedy occasioned. Being ambitious to do some- thing and to be something, he resigned his position as clerk, seeing that there was no chance for advancement, and returned to Vermont in 1866, where he farmed a year and in 1867 started out West, where he thought to. find larger opportunities, and the remainder of life was spent, the major part of it at least, west of the Father of Waters, with only occasional visits to his New England home, to which he was always devotedly attached. He first located in Adel, Iowa, and there his long editorial career began, publishing the Adel Gazette, and served a term as postmaster at that place. Leaving there he went to Kansas, where he spent seventeen years in news- paper business. He published successively the Ellsworth Reporter, the Western Magasine of Lawrence, the Manhattan Republic, and the Daily Evening Press of Leavenworth. In all of these ventures he was successful, being a man of keen foresight. executive and editorial ability, and he did much through his publications for the upbuilding of Kansas in her earlier history, and was recognized as one of the leading journalists of that state, was widely known and his opinions and advice were constantly sought by the leading public men of the Sunflower State in those days. During these years he- served a term in the Kansas state legislature with satisfaction to his con- stituents. This was in 1875-76. At that time he was also in charge of Fort Harker, an abandoned military post, now known as Kanopolis, having received this appointment in 1875. He held this position two years when the reservation was opened up for settlement. Here it was that he dis- tributed by appointment, government clothing to the sufferers from the memorable grasshopper scourge in that dreadful season of 1875-76. And in 1880 he was appointed a member of the commission to appraise the United States military reservation of Fort Harker.
Subsequently being somewhat broken in health, under the advice of physicians he moved to Grand Forks, North Dakota, where he bought an interest in the Grand Forks Plaindcaler. The rigor of the climate proving too severe, he disposed of his interests there and went to Florida, intending
GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI.
to make that state lis permanent home. But after repeated freezes of the orange groves he had planted, and but little success with his vineyards, he returned to Grand Forks and established an agricultural paper, the Northern Farmer. This he sold as soon as it was placed on a good footing. And when a warmer climate lured him again he came to southwest Missouri. He had owned a farm near Neosho for several years. This may have had some intluence in his decision. He was captivated by the country and its wonderful possibilities. In this faith he came to Springfield in 1893, where the rest of his life was spent, and started a horticultural journal, the South- west, later known as the Practical Fruit Grower. In the interest of this publication he traveled extensively over the Ozark region, and met and interviewed more fruit men, probably, than any other man in southern Mis- souri, acquiring a knowledge of facts and conditions that made him an authority in matters horticultural. He bought an eighty-acre farm in Arkansas and set practically all of it out in peaches, and at Garber, Taney county, Missouri, he planted a pear orchard. He superintended the planting of the extensive orchard and vineyard on the grounds belonging to the Maine Fishing and Hunting Club, near Branson, in Taney county. Under his expert direction all these orchards and vineyards proved highly success- ful. His candid opinion was constantly sought by growers and orchardists for advice and it was always freely and gladly given and was in- variably followed with gratifying results. He was prime mover in the organization of the Ozark Fruit Growers' AAssociation, which is one of the largest organizations of its kind in the Southwest, and has done much to better general conditions of the horticulturists of this section of the country. He also assisted in forming many local societies. He was one of the most active and prominent members of the Greene County Horticultural Society, of which he was at one time president. In addition to being directly con- nected with these associations, Mr. Atwood took an active part in every movement where the farmer and the fruit growers were interested, his opinions on all subjects being accepted as coming from an authority. He was for some time editor of the farm page of the weekly edition of the Springfield Leader. By reason of his experience he was appointed super- intendent of the Missouri fruit exhibit at the Trans-Mississippi Exposition at Omaha, Nebraska. In this capacity he also served at the annual state fairs held at Sedalia, Missouri, and he was appointed by Governor Folk as a delegate from this state to the seventeenth National Irrigation Congress held at Spokane. Washington, in August, 1909.
Mr. Atwood was a personal friend of a number of the leading men of the nation, including Gen. Nelson .A. Miles and Senators Plum and John J. Ingalls. From these celebrities and many others he received numerous let- ters while engaged in newspaper work in Kansas. He also carried letters of
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recommendation from Governors Burke of North Dakota; Humphrey of Kansas and Governor Morrill, of Iowa. Among the many interesting letters he received was one which Mrs. Atwood justly prizes more than all. It is a letter and an original poem from Alice Cary, America's most famous poetess. The poem is entitled "My Native Hills," and contains six verses in the usual fine swing and imagery of that gifted writer. It was purchased by Mr. Atwood and published in the Gazette in Adel, Iowa. The letter and poem were written in the bold, legible handwriting of Alice Cary, and in the letter which was written from New York City, she tells Mr. Atwood that she usually received from twenty-five dollars to fifty dollars for such verses, but in view of the fact that he was starting a new publication, she asked only ten dollars for them. This was in 1867.
Mr. Atwood was married in 1865 to Rosa Ward, of Montpelier, Ver- mont. where she grew to womanhood and received a good education. She is the daughter of Hezekiah and Adeline ( Walbridge) Ward. Mrs. Atwood is a direct descendant of Gen. Artemas Ward, of Revolutionary war fame, and is a woman of many estimable characteristics. They began married life in Washington City. To this union three children were born, Birdie, who lives at home. She has a studio in the Masonic Temple and is an accom- plished piano and pipeorgan teacher and is the organist at St. Paul Methodist Episcopal church, South. Linnie, who died in infancy, and Ward, who is a linotypist at the Inland Printing Company and also is a photographer of no mean ability.
Politically Mr. Atwood was a Republican. When a young man he was an active member of the Masonic Order, but when he came to Springfield he never took up lodge work. He also held membership in the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and a number of other fraternal organizations, in- cluding the Grand Army of the Republic, in none of which he took an especially active interest during the last few years of his life.
The death of George Albert Atwood occurred in Springfield on May 2. I9II, at the age of seventy-one years, after an illness of three months. AAt a regular meeting of the Greene County Horticultural Society, a few days after the death of our subject, the following resolutions were adopted :
"Whereas, In the course of Divine Providence, one of our most useful members, Brother George Albert Atwood, has been removed by death from our midst. We shall miss his presence and wise counsel in the advocacy of a purer and better horticulture. Therefore, be it
"Resolved, That we express our deep sorrow and loss, and extend to the bereaved family and friends, our sympathy and condolence, and recom- mend that this resolution be spread upon the minutes of the society and that a copy be sent to the bereaved family and published in the Springfield papers."
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Horticulturists could ill afford to lose such men as Mr. Atwood from their ranks. The passing of such a man always leaves sadness and sorrow not only in his immediate family, but among those who know him best. He was an ardent lover of nature and took delight in being among his trees and watching them grow. He was an optimist. He liked to help people. He was pure minded and ambitious. He had the friendship of men of light official rank, and of literary people as well. Genial in character and disposi- tion lie made many friends, and was a promoter of peace in every organiza- tion with which he was connected. He was devoted to his home and family, and was a kind and affectionate husband and father. He loved life, but when the end came he met it nobly, sweetly-almost his last words being, "Beautiful Life!"
GEORGE W. SPENCER.
The life record of George W. Spencer, the present efficient and popular sheriff of Greene county, is one which might be studied with profit by the youth who stands discouraged and hesitating at the parting of the ways, for it shows what grit, determination and an unconquerable will can accomplish despite an unfavorable early environment and numerous obstacles, for our subject has by his own unaided efforts forged his way from the bottom rung of the ladder to a position of importance in the body politic. He has evi- dently inherited many of the traits that win in the battle of life from his sterling ancestors of old Kentucky, from which far-famed country he hails, but has spent the past quarter of a century in Greene county, and in the growth and development of which he has been an interested spectator, hav- ing had its interests at heart all the while. He has always been a persistent worker, idleness never for a moment appealing to him, and while he has tried to keep busy he has never neglected his duties as a broad-minded citi- zen. Among his friends, neighbors and acquaintances, wherever he is known, his word is considered as good as his bond, and it is a fact worthy of note that he has never been sued at law on his individual paper, nor had business in the courts except as a public official. For many years he was one of our enterprising agriculturists, and in all that goes to make up true citizenship he occupies a prominent position in the community.
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