USA > Missouri > Livingston County > Past and present of Livingston County, Missouri : a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Volume II > Part 5
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In Sampsell township, on the Ist of March, 1898, Mr. Cusick was united in marriage to Miss Elizabeth Grouse, a daughter of John and Christina Grouse, both of whom have passed away and are buried in the Mount Pleasant cemetery. Mr. and Mrs. Cusick have a son, Russell J., who holds the position of bookkeeper in the Mooresville Savings Bank, while he also still gives some time to his school work. Mr. Cusick is a stanch and loyal democrat, believing firmly in the principles and policies for which that party stands and cooperating actively in the affairs of the local organization. For twelve years he served ably as township trustee and for the last six years has been school director. All during his active life he has been recognized as an important factor in business circles of Mooresville and his pros- perity is well deserved. He is a public-spirited citizen, giving his sup- port to every movement which tends to promote the moral, intellectual and material welfare of the community.
G. M. FOREMAN.
G. M. Foreman, prominently connected with business interests of the city as manager of the local branch of the R. Lee Lumber Com- pany, was born in Whitley county, Indiana, April 10, 1874. His par- ents are Albert and Mary (Davis) Foreman, the former a well known farmer in Oklahoma, where the family make their home.
G. M. Foreman acquired his education in the district schools of Plymouth, Carroll county, Missouri, attending during the winter months and spending the summer seasons upon the home farm. He laid aside his books at the age of twenty-one and continued to aid in the operation of the homestead until 1898, when he became connected with the Farmer Lumber Company, gaining during his identification with this concern the practical experience and training upon which his
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY
present success in this line of work to a great extent rests. The win- ter of 1901-02 he spent as a student in the Chillicothe Normal School, taking a business course. After he became identified with the R. Lee Lumber Company he worked at Ludlow until 1904, when, in recogni- tion of his able and conscientious service, he was transferred to Mooresville as head of the local branch. He occupies a very re- sponsible and important position, for the concern with which he is connected is one of the largest of its kind in the state. It was organ- ized in 1893 with a capital stock of fifty thousand dollars and since then has made a steady and healthy growth. The branch at Moores- ville, under Mr. Foreman's able management, has kept pace with the development of the main business and is today a large and expanding enterprise. Mr. Foreman is a man of great business and executive ability and has utilized his advantages in an excellent manner, being recognized in business circles as one whose judgment is sound, whose sagacity is far reaching and whose energy is unremitting.
At Ludlow, on September 21, 1903, Mr. Foreman was united in marriage to Miss Ada Balkey, a daughter of W. N. and Corsine Balkey, residents of that city. Mr. and Mrs. Foreman have two chil- dren, George Gerald and Margaret Gertrude. Mr. Foreman is affil- iated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, of which he has been noble grand, and he belongs also to the Rebekahs. He is a republican in his political beliefs. His interests are varied but are always along lines of progress and improvement. He places a correct valuation on life and its opportunities and, while in his business affairs he has met with a gratifying measure of prosperity, he has at the same time wrought along lines of public service, his activity in political and private relations proving of benefit to the community.
JOHN MARION VORIS.
During the period of his residence in Chillicothe, covering thirty- five years, John Marion Voris was well known as a representative, prominent and valued business man and lawyer. In the practice of his profession he displayed notable power and ability which won for him a large clientage. As his financial resources increased he became interested in the banking business and in that connection was also well known. His carefully formed plans were promptly executed and his enterprise would allow him to brook no obstacles that could
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be overcome by persistent and earnest effort. Ohio numbered him among her native sons, his birth having occurred in Lancaster, Sep- tember 23, 1840. He was the youngest son of John and Rebecca (Price) Voris. The father died when the boy was but five days old and the mother afterward took him and his brother, who was two years his senior, to Somerset, Ohio. There he attended school and after his text-books were put aside he learned the cigarmaker's trade in Zanesville, Ohio. However, it was his desire to enter professional circles and with that end in view he studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1867. When the Civil war broke out he desired to join the army but his mother objected. On the day on which he attained his majority, however, he enlisted as a member of Company I, One Hundred and Twenty-second Ohio Infantry, with which he served valiantly until the Ist of July, 1864, when he was honorably dis- charged with the rank of first sergeant. While at the front he partic- ipated in the battle of Winchester under General Milroy, was on the flanks of the Union forces at Gettysburg, was in the battle of the Wilderness, and also in the engagements at Monacacy and at Cedar Creek. He was wounded when in front of Petersburg and twice at Monacacy and also sustained a slight wound at Winchester.
When his military service was over Mr. Voris removed to Mis- souri and for two years thereafter engaged in the practice of law in Mercer and Grundy counties. During that period, or on the 20th of September, 1866, he was united in marriage to Miss Mary J. Neill, of Trenton, Missouri, and they became the parents of three children, Charles Walter, Ola Dell and Vernon Viola. The first two died in infancy. The younger daughter was married in December, 1895, to Fred H. Harris and now lives in Chillicothe.
It was in the spring of 1867 that the Voris family came to Chilli- cothe, where Mr. Voris entered upon the practice of law, soon win- ning a large and gratifying clientage. In argument his points were forcibly presented and he was ever logical, while the points of law applicable to his case were correctly presented. Throughout the period of his residence in Chillicothe he occupied a high position in public regard and was at various times active in the public affairs of his city. Aside from his law practice he figured prominently in financial circles, becoming one of the organizers of the First National Bank and of the Farmers Loan & Building Association of Chillicothe. He was an active member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows from the time of the organization of the local lodge in 1866 until his death. In politics he was an earnest republican for a number of
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years and President Grant appointed him postmaster in 1869. Later he became identified with the peoples party and was one of its recog- nized leaders in this state. Three times he was its nominee for su- preme court judge. Early in the green-back movement he espoused the cause of the reform party and stood true to its principles until his death. He believed it to be the duty as well as the privilege of every American citizen to advocate and support the political principles in which he believed and Mr. Voris' position was never an equivocal one. He was intensely earnest and loyal at all times and in all that he did. Men learned to know that what he promised he would do and they respected him for his fidelity to his honest convictions as well as for the ability which he displayed in professional and banking circles.
WILLIAM H. BOON.
William H. Boon is the owner of a well improved farm of ninety- two acres on section II, Sampsell township, Livingston county, to which he came in 1852 upon his removal with his parents from Boone county, Missouri, where he was born in 1848, a son of Jackson and Sarah (Miller) Boon, both of whom have passed away and are buried in Livingston county. The son received his education in the district school near his father's home, laying aside his text-books at the age of sixteen years and subsequent to that time assisting his mother in the work of the home farm for about ten years. He then decided to start out independently and acquired the farm which he now owns and where he engages in general farming. Since taking charge of this property he has made many important improvements and erected thereon a handsome residence and other buildings that have greatly enhanced the value of the property which by its neat appearance be- speaks the prosperity of its owner.
In 1868, in Livingston county, Mr. Boon married Miss Nancy J. Turner, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. James Turner, both of whom have passed away. Mrs. Boon also died in 1888, after twenty years of a happy domestic life, her interment taking place at Mount Pleas- ant cemetery. They were the parents of the following children: Leah, a resident of Chillicothe; Roy, a telephone operator of Spring Hill; Paschal, an agriculturist of Grundy county; Ettie, the wife of
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William Wood, a farmer of Daviess county; and Lenore, Mary, Elzora, William and Stella, all of whom have passed away.
Progressive in his methods of agriculture, Mr. Boon has also turned to the political organization which classifies itself by that name and gives thereto his unqualified support, believing that the principles embodied in the "bull moose" platform will bring about that freedom from bondage in corrupt practices that have so long held in thrall government affairs as administrated by the two older parties. His religious affiliation is that of the Baptist church of which he is a faithful member, giving his material and moral support to its work. Well and favorably known, he has made many friends in this locality and the success which he has attained none can begrudge him.
LEWIS A. CHAPMAN.
Lewis A. Chapman, for forty-three years a member of the Chillicothe bar, has throughout that period maintained a credit- able and enviable position as a practitioner of law, being recog- nized as one conversant with the salient principles of juris- prudence, and who in conducting his practice thoroughly prepares his cases and presents them with clearness and force. While his professional duties have been extensive and at times onerous, he has yet found opportunity to cooperate in the work of advanc- ing public progress along political, social and moral lines, and Chillicothe therefore numbers him among her valued and repre- sentative citizens. His birth occurred in Rappahannock county, Virginia, October 1, 1852, about fifty miles southwest of Wash- ington, D. C. His father, John Chapman, was a native of New Market, Virginia, and was there reared. In Rappahannock county he was married and in 1856 removed westward to Livingston coun- ty, Missouri, where his wife's parents had settled the previous year. Following the death of his wife in 1858, he removed to Pike county, where he again married. He was a cabinet-maker by trade and followed that pursuit for a long period. He died in 1867 of cholera contracted while on a trip to St. Louis. His first wife bore the maiden name of Jemima Nolen and was a native of Rappahannock county, Virginia. Her father, Gustavus A. Nolen, who came to Livingston county in 1855, was a man of consider- able means. He here engaged in farming and also conducted a
LEWIS A. CHAPMAN
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY
store in the town now called Utica. Unto John and Jemima Chapman were born four children: Gustavus A., who is prac- ticing law at Bentonville, Arkansas; Lewis A., of this review; Oliver J., a lawyer of Kansas City, Missouri ; and a daughter, who died at the age of two years. By the father's second marriage there were two children who are still living: Elizabeth, the wife of Professor J. B. Wharey, of the University of Texas ; and Louie, the wife of J. B. Abrams, an attorney of Bellingham, Washington.
When the mother of Lewis A. Chapman died her children went to make their home with their maternal grandparents, and pursued their education in the then somewhat primitive schools of Livingston county. The educational opportunities of Lewis A. Chapman were therefore somewhat limited in his early youth, for when but ten years of age he was obliged to start out in the world on his own account, and from that period to the present has been entirely dependent upon his own resources. Anxious to obviate his lack of early school advantages, he afterward spent two years as a student in an academy at Chillicothe. Later he took up the study of law and was admitted to the bar in 1870, just after he had reached the age of seventeen years. Being too young to practice, he took up the profession of teaching, which he fol- lowed for five or six years and then opened a law office in Chilli- cothe in 1876. For a time he practiced in partnership with the Hon. H. M. Pollard, but for many years has been alone. He has proven his worth and ability in the conduct of many notable and important cases, correctly solving intricate problems of law and so presenting his cause as to win the verdict desired. The pro- · fession as well as the consensus of public opinion places him in the leading position at the Chillicothe bar. He has also figured in connection with financial interests of the city, having been one of the organizers and the first vice president of the Citizens National Bank, of which he served for many years as a director. He is still a stockholder and attorney for the institution.
On the 15th of March, 1877, Mr. Chapman was married to Miss Luella F. Benson, a native of Livingston county and a daughter of Ira and Sarah (Munroe) Benson, both of whom were natives of Maryland. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Chapman were born eleven children, of whom eight are living, as follows: Lewis A., residing in Liberty, Missouri; Charles H., a resident of Cheyenne, Wyoming; John B., Nolen M. and Donaldson, all of whom are Vol. II-4
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY
attending the University of Missouri; and Vanderbilt, Thomas H. and Marion, all at home.
From the age of fifteen years Mr. Chapman has been a mem- ber of the Baptist church and his religious faith has been the per- meating influence in his life. For many years he has been a teacher of the Bible class, for several years has been treasurer of the Sun- day school, and takes an active and helpful interest in all depart- ments of the church work, doing everything in his power to pro- mote its growth and extend its influence. His political allegiance is given to the republican party and he has been called to fill a num- ber of positions of honor and trust, the duties of which he has discharged with promptness, capability and fidelity. He has sev- eral times served on the city council and has exercised his official prerogatives in support of various measures for the general good. For three terms he filled the office of city attorney and for fifteen years was a member of the school board, acting as its president for eleven years of that time. He has been actuated in all that he does by a devotion to the general welfare; his labors have been a tangible asset in public progress, and he is one of Chillicothe's best representatives of sterling manhood and citizenship.
GILBERT HUDGINS.
Gilbert Hudgins, senior member of the firm of Hudgins & Com- · stalk, dealers in groceries, flour, feed and produce in Mooresville, is a native of Livingston county, born January 8, 1869, a son of J. W. and Minerva (Woolsey) Hudgins, the former a pioneer farmer in this section of Missouri. He went to California at the time of the gold rush of 1849 and spent a few years in the mines of that state, returning in 1852 by way of the Isthmus of Panama. When he again arrived in Livingston county he resumed his agricultural pursuits, continuing to develop his farm until the outbreak of the Civil war, when he enlisted in the Confederate army under General Slack and served until the close of hostilities. After his discharge he returned to the farm and there died in 1908. His three children are: T. W., who resides upon the home farm; Gilbert, of this review; and Angie, the wife of D. M. McCabrian, of Lawrence, Kansas. The mother of our subject died in 1910 and was laid to rest beside her husband in the family burial ground at Mooresville. On both sides this fam-
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY
ily is of Scotch-Irish origin and members of the paternal line have been for generations in America, having settled first in Virginia.
Gilbert Hudgins acquired his education in the public schools of Livingston county and laid aside his books at the age of eighteen in order to assist his father with the work of the farm. He remained upon the homestead until April, 1905, at which time he formed a partnership with Mr. Comstalk in the grocery, flour, feed and produce business, an enterprise in which he still retains his connection. He has worked earnestly and persistently in building up the business to its present volume.
On October 3, 1894, Mr. Hudgins was united in marriage to Miss Kate Comstalk, a daughter of F. W. and Mary Comstalk and a sister of Mr. Hudgins' partner. They have three children : Gladys A., who is a graduate of the Mooresville high school and a student in St. Joseph's Academy at Chillicothe; Ray C., who is attending school; and Keith G., aged five. Mr. Hudgins is a democrat and is now in the sixth year of his service as tax collector. He is a charter member of Mooresville lodge, I. O. O. F.
JAMES C. RANEY.
Among the most prominent representatives of agricultural inter- ests in Medicine township, Livingston county, is James C. Raney, who owns a valuable farm of three hundred and sixty acres on section 18. He was born February 16, 1860, in Macon county, Missouri, a son of John and Margaret (Mannion) Raney, the former of whom passed away in November, 1911, and the latter in 1908. Both were buried in Wheeling township, this county.
James C. Raney received his education in the public schools of Macon and Livingston counties but came to this section in 1871 with his parents. He laid aside his school-books at the age of ninteen years, when he began assisting his father in the operation of the home farm. He was thus engaged for two years, at the end of which time he removed to Colorado, where for the same space of time he engaged as a mine operator, and upon his return to Missouri he bought the farm which he now owns and of which three hundred acres are under cultivation. Following progressive methods he has by industry and energy developed his holdings into one of the most prosperous farms in this section and has made thereon a number
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of improvements, erecting barns and outbuildings and also a com- fortable residence, largely enhancing thereby the value of the prop- erty. He engages in mixed farming, paying particular attention to stock-raising, and keeps about eighteen horses, eighty head of cattle and one hundred head of hogs, deriving a gratifying income from his stock-raising interests.
On October 30, 1883, Mr. Raney was united in marriage to Miss Fannie Turner, a daughter of Thomas M. and Henrietta (Dennis) Turner, both of whom have passed away and are buried in Kansas City, Missouri. The mother died in 1870 and the father in 1888. Mr. and Mrs. Raney are the parents of seven children: Richard, a resident of Chula, Missouri; Margaret, the wife of Frank Stephen- son, a farmer of Medicine township; and Tessie, Edwin, Joseph, Emmet and Harold, all yet at home.
Mr. Raney is a democrat in his political affiliations and gives to the measures and candidates of that organization his unfailing sup- port. Public-spirited and interested in the development and growth of this section, he has been honored with public office and served for one term in the legislature as a representative of his district to the forty-fourth Missouri assembly, doing active work on the floor of the house and in committees that has been of constructive value. The family are members of the Catholic church to which they give their moral and material support. There have been no spectacular phases in the life record of James C. Raney but his history is one which may well inspire and encourage others, showing what may be accom- plished when energy and ambition lead the way. The prosperity which he has attained is well merited and the confidence and high regard which he inspires everywhere are proof of his worth and the high qualities of his character.
JOSEPH J. HINNEN.
Joseph J. Hinnen, who resides on a farm of eighty acres on sec- tion 9, Medicine township, Livingston county, which is the property of his mother, is engaged in the building and contracting business, specializing in the erection of farm residences and barns. He was born in Chillicothe, Missouri, November 27, 1884, and is a son of Louis and Bertha (Gau) Hinnen, the former, who emigrated from Germany to the United States in 1879, being an early settler in Chil-
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licothe. Subsequently he bought the farm on which the family is now residing. Until his death in 1898, when he was forty-nine years of age, he had devoted his labors to the improvement of his property and when he passed away left to his widow and his family of seven children a valuable farm. He is buried in Leopolis cemetery, Wheel- ing township. In his family were the following children: Joseph J., of this review; Elizabeth, the wife of Christian Eckert, a farmer of Medicine township; Harry, who follows farming and is also a carpenter by trade; Louis, who operates the home farm; Fred, a car- penter assisting our subject in his business; Cora, attending Chilli- cothe Academy; and Mary, who is a pupil of the district school.
Joseph J. Hinnen attended the Chillicothe common school in the acquirement of his education but at the age of fourteen years was forced to give up his studies on account of the death of his father, which necessitated his continuous presence on the farm. He assisted his mother in the cultivation of the property until 1904, and in 1905 engaged in the carpentering and contracting business, specializing in farm residences and barns. Although only twenty-one years of age he was successful from the first and has made satisfactory progress along this line of business which is increasing from year to year. In his political views he is a democrat and his religious faith is that of the Catholic church.
JOHN A. McMILLEN.
John A. McMillen, who has important financial interests in Mooresville, is living retired after a period of close identification with the agricultural development of Livingston county. He has been a resident of this part of Missouri since 1859 but is a native of Kentucky, born in Bracken county, June 27, 1839. His parents were George W. and Cornelia A. (Field) McMillen, the former a carpenter by trade and a representative of an old American family of Scotch origin. This line was founded in America by the grand- father of the subject of this review, James McMillen, who fought in the continental army during the entire period of the Revolutionary war. The father of our subject died April 21, 1878, at the age of seventy-six, having survived his wife since 1859. He was laid to rest in Alton, Illinois, while his wife's grave is at Bishop Point, in the same state.
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY
John A. McMillen acquired his education in the public schools of his native section and laid aside his books in order to accept a position as clerk in a grocery store. After four years he moved to Missouri and worked as a clerk and also engaged in the drug business, severing his connection with both lines of occupation in order to turn his attention to agricultural pursuits. He bought a farm of seventy acres and from that time until his retirement steadily carried forward the work of development along progressive lines, making many sub- stantial improvements in buildings. He erected fine barns, granaries and outbuildings and installed all the needed farm machinery, provid- ing the place with the accessories of a model agricultural establish- ment. He still owns this tract and has formed a partnership with his son in the breeding and raising of high-grade hogs. Mr. Mc- Millen also owned at one time another tract of one hundred and sixty acres, upon which he built a levee and which he further im- proved during the twenty years he held possession of it by planting with his own hands one thousand trees, making a twenty-acre or- chard. This property he later sold and of late years has resided in Mooresville, where he is well known in business circles. He was one of the founders and organizers of the Mooresville Savings Bank and served as first president of that institution, doing able work during the seven years he held office in directing the policy of the bank and in establishing its standards. He is still connected with the concern as a member of the board of directors.
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