USA > Missouri > Nodaway County > Past and present of Nodaway County, Missouri Volume I > Part 26
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56
273
NODAWAY COUNTY, MISSOURI.
The pioneers raised flax and hemp, and the female portion spun thread and yarn, and wove it into cloth of which garments were made. There was no talk of "store clothes" in those days.
TOWN OF GRAHAM.
The only town within Hughes township is Graham, situated eighteen miles from Maryville, two miles east of the Nodaway river and upon Elk- horn creek. It was laid out in 1856 by Andrew Brown, and originally con- sisted of four blocks, but in 1858 Brown laid out an addition. About the same date Linville addition to Graham was platted by Abraham and Henry Linville. In 1858 there were but two stores, dealers in general merchandise, one kept by Burns & White and the other by McFadden & Daugherty. Brand & Welch conducted a drug store and Dr. W. H. Woodard ran a hotel. At that day, as well as for years before. there was a grist and saw-mill operated by Wilson & Brown. This mill first directed the public's notice toward Graham.
The town boasts of the first house for public worship within the county. the church, handsome for that date, was built in 1856 and was built jointly by various denominations. For further church history, the reader is re- ferred to the chapter on churches in this volume.
Graham was known as Jacksonville from the first until changed to Graham by law in 1859. A few years before the platting of the town, a postoffice was secured for the community. This office was kept a half mile north of present Graham. It was called Graham in honor of Col. Amos Graham, through whom it was established.
Graham was incorporated in 1871 and now has a population of about 400. It is beautifully surrounded by timber of native growth and is within one of the richest farming sections in northern Missouri. It is unfortunate in being an inland town ; the railroad running on the west side of the Nodaway at this point, has somewhat crippled the trade of the place.
The springs of the town are charming and valuable as a means of water supply. Brown's and Spencer are among the larger springs known from pioneer days.
At present the business of the town is composed of the following con- cerns :
Bank-The Citizens Bank.
General dealers-Main Line Mercantile Company, J. W. Dougherty, Blood-Swank Mercantile Company.
(18)
274
PAST AND PRESENT
Hardware-E. W. Geyer Hardware Company. O. D. Walker.
Drugs-G. D. Mowry, The "Corner Drug Store." The J. H. Poynter Stock.
Livery-J. E. Black.
Lumber and coal-P. L. Trapp & Son.
Flour and feed-Johnston. & Schmidt.
Meats-Jacob Eckles.
Restaurant-J. H. Schmidt.
Harness-Clyde Long.
Blacksmiths-J. Judy. King Weddle.
Shoemaker-Daniel McGrew.
Cream depots-Maryville Cream Company, David Cole, and Clarinda Company.
Justice of the Peace-J. H. Poynter.
Mayor-B. E. Eschelman. Phone-Farmers Mutual.
Millinery-"Main Line Store." Mrs. R. H. Swank.
Physicians-Drs. M. M. Rhoades, E. L. Morgan, W. J. Findley, H. S. Rowlett.
Lodges-Odd Fellows, Masonic, Woodmen of the World and Yeoman The school house at Graham is a six-room building erected in 1906.
The following have served as postmasters at Graham: The first post- master was Andy Russell, when the office was located two miles from town on what is now the Kemper farm, and the office called Brownville. During the Civil war the office was located two and a half miles from present Gra- ham on the George Vinsonhaler farm and he was its postmaster. Later the office was moved a mile and a half south of its present site, to what is now known as the J. E. Riley farm, and a man named Houcks was postmaster. After its removal to Graham proper, the first postmaster was Richard Bo- hart, in Bohart & Dunlevy's store. This was about 1866; then came John Bohart, Isaac Morton, 1873. Austin Dicken, O. M. Markham. 1883-84. Isaac Morton. Joseph Long, under Cleveland's first administration, Isaac Morton. under Harrison's administration until 1892, then the present postmistress. Miss Anna E. Freytag, she having held the office to the general satisfaction of all the patrons of the office for the last eighteen years. Two free delivery routes run from Graham. No. I was established August 31, 1901 : No. 2. in September, 1903. The former is twenty-five miles long and the latter. twenty-six miles. The office is a fourth-class.
275
NODAWAY COUNTY, MISSOURI.
The Moore Lightning Rod factory of Maryville had its origin and op- erated several years at Graham, but removed a few years ago.
In Hughes township there are today, the following church organizations : The Swan Chapel, Methodist. Baptist, Mt. Zion Methodist. New Hope Meth- odist, Centenary Methodist. Christian (Bethany), and at Graham, the Meth- odist. Presbyterian and Christian.
CHAPTER XXIV.
INDEPENDENCE TOWNSHIP.
The extreme northeast township in Nodaway county is known as Inde- pendence. It contains sixty-three square miles ; is bounded on the north by Iowa and Worth county, Missouri; on the east by Worth county; on the south by Jackson township and on the west by Union and Hopkins townships.
The county records show that on a certain day in May, 1856, that the county court defined the original boundaries of Independence township as follows: "Ordered that Jackson township be divided by a line dividing township 65, in the center thereof east and west, and that all that portion north of said line, and formerly in Jackson township, be called and known by the name of Independence township."
An act of the same court in June, 1866, fixed the present limits of the township, there having been, in 1863, some lands on the east part of the township taken off and attached to Worth county.
NATURAL FEATURES.
The land in this part of Nodaway county slopes gently to the south, being quite level in the central and southwestern portion, but rolling in the southeastern part of the township. Platte river flows through the south- eastern corner of the territory. Tributaries of the Platte are Brushy creek, Honey creek, with numerous branches, and Long branch. In the western part of the township are found the waters of the Mazingo and Mowery branches, which flow southward into the One Hundred and Two river. One- tenth of the land was originally timber. There is quite an amount of good limestone. Some parts of the territory possess the finest of soil, while all is valuable for general farm purposes. At places the Platte valley is more than a mile in width. All timbers known to this latitude are found on the banks of the Platte, or at least were found here at an early day. These include the best varieties of hard and soft wood. The principal part of the town- ship is a fertile prairie land, with a soil unsurpassed.
277
NODAWAY COUNTY, MISSOURI.
PIONEER SETTLERS.
The settlement of Independence township dates back to 1845, sixty- five years ago. It was effected by Samuel Russell, who emigrated from Indiana, remained a few years in Andrew county, Missouri, then came to Nodaway. He took a claim on what is now known as section 16. township 65. range 33. He built a log house a quarter of a mile east of the Platte river near the edge of the timber. He sold out in 1847 to Elisha Brown and went with others to Oregon. Brown sold in 1849 to A. J. Anderson and also went to Oregon. While hunting in that faraway territory, he was killed by a grizzly bear.
The second to come to Independence township to make a permanent home was Raphael Dixon. who came from Tennessee. remained a few years in Andrew county, but in 1846 came to Independence township, settling on the east side of Honey creek, on section 32. township 67, range 33. He claimed and at once developed a half section of prairie land. His hospitality attracted people from far and near to his ever brightly glowing fireside. Saturday and Sunday were great days at this man's humble home. Here the frolics and games common to those days were practiced. Friends from great dis- tances and in large numbers would assemble at this place and engage in shoot- ing matches. cards, and generally all would imbibe to some extent in liquors. Dixon owned a horse mill, with which grain was ground for his neighbors, and this made his place a sort of headquarters for the men of the community. In 1863 Dixon went to Nebraska. but his son remained on Honey creek.
In 1847 carre Isaac Guill. of Kentucky. settling a half mile east of Honey creek. He sold and moved to Nebraska in 1863 and died in late seventies. John Hull came from Iowa, in 1847, settling near the Platte river, on section 8. township 65. range 33. He sold to Isaac Lanning in 1852 and joined the emigration train for Oregon, where he died about 1876.
Pioneer Andrew Jackson Anderson was from Kentucky, born in 1823. In March. 1844. he located on land a mile east of Sweet Home in Jackson- ville township. Nodaway county. In 1848 he removed to Independence town- ship. When he settled here the Pottawatomie Indians. although having signed the removal treaty and living in Kansas, frequently returned to their old hunting grounds. Sometimes as many as three hundred would come and camp in the township at one time. A favorite place was in the timber south of pioneer Anderson's house. In December. 1849. two hundred Indians, in- cluding squaws and papooses, came in and constructed their rude wigwams.
278
PAST AND PRESENT
A white man who had married a squaw was sent to St. Joseph where he bought a full barrel of whiskey, known in the Pottawatomie tongue as "Good- netoss." After its arrival, the Indian women hid the knives and guns and axes, for fear of bloodshed, as whites to the number of three joined with them on Christmas eve for a genuine pow-wow. Whites and Indians enjoyed the liquor alike and danced weird dances together. and no bad blood was engendered. A chief who wanted more than was given to him agreed to give over to one of the white men his beautiful (?) daughter, aged eighteen years, for a gallon more "fire-water," but it was not granted him. Half of the whiskey was saved for another frolic.
When Mr. Anderson first settled in Independence township, wheat flour was not used, and even meal was a luxury at times. Milling was done at Hughes' mills, on One Hundred and Two river. Money was very scarce. Anderson and Jacob Grindstaff. in 1845, assisted the government surveyors a short time, and in this way earned four dollars apiece for carrying chain and flag. With the money they both made a trip to St. Joseph, where each purchased a sack of corn meal, which they brought home on horseback. On their return they swam the Platte and One Hundred and Two rivers. Usually they produced corn meal by hollowing out the top of a stump like a mortar. They placed the corn in, and with an iron wedge inserted in a sweep, or beam fastened to a pivot, they pounded kernels of corn into meal.
In 1846 prairie chickens, quails, deer and turkeys were everywhere to be found. The pioneers of the forties enjoyed life, were healthy and really comfortable, yet knew but few luxuries. Little attention was paid to agriculture as it is now known, most of their time being devoted to sports and hunting game and furs. Otter skins were worth from four to six dollars and mink from seventy-five cents to one dollar each. while muskrats were only valued at five cents.
OLD SETTLERS.
About 1880 the following list of pioneers of this township was care- fully compiled, giving dates of settlement : Samuel Russell. 1845: Raphael Dixon, 1846; Elisha Brown, 1847: John Hall. 1847: A. J. Anderson, 1849; Isaac Guill, 1847: Samuel Maiden. 1851 : John Scofield, 1851 ; Isaac Dowis. 1851 ; - Smith, 1851: Campbell Ingalls, 1853: Henry Foster. 18=3: Allen Stephens, 1853: William Kinder. 1855: Robert Jones, 1855 : Benjamin Kinder, 1855: Christopher Horn. 1855: William Stingle. 1855: Ellis Rig-
279
NODAWAY COUNTY, MISSOURI.
ley, 1855; James Gartsides, 1855; David Kinder, 1855; John York; 1855; Thomas Lucas. 1855: Alexander Wilson. 1856: John Ham, 1856; John Stonebaugh, 1856; H. N. Pool, 1856: James Alexander, 1856; Harrison Davis, 1856: John Wilson, 1856: Michael Shuck. 1856; Josiah Shuck, 1856; John Hill. 1856.
TOWNS AND VILLAGES. .
While Independence township comprises a large scope of territory and is within one of the best parts of the county, it has but one town, that of Parnell City. in the extreme southeastern corner. It was platted July 5, 1887, by the Parnell City Improvement Company, it being a station point on the Chicago Great Western railroad. Its population is about seven hundred. Its exact location is the northwest quarter of section 16. township 65, range 33. Its present business and social interests are as follows :
Banks-Parnell State Bank and Farmers Bank of Parnell.
Lodges-Odd Fellows, Masonic, Modern Woodmen, Yeoman.
Churches-Methodist Episcopal. Protestant Methodist, and Roman Catholic.
Mill-A feed mill of good capacity.
Millinery-Leda Thompson.
Hotels-New Arlington and Farmers' Home.
General dealers-A. F. Hall, R. F. Goff, J. A. Kaufman, Charles Sim- mons. C. C. Hall.
Grocer-E. J. Klaas.
Hardware-Roof & LaFavor.
Farm implements-Roof & LaFavor.
Drugs-F. L. Hart.
Grain Dealer-L. M. Kibler.
Lumber-J. S. Stewart.
Newspaper-Sentinel, L. C. Gooden. proprietor.
Stock dealers-Swain & Sexton, Dinsmore & Son.
Livery barn-E. G. Haines.
Meat market-E. F. Klaas.
Telephone Company-The Worth Mutual.
Bakery-Mrs. L. Klaas. Dentistry-P. E. Hood. Poultry and eggs-J. N. Norris, Swift & Company.
280
PAST AND PRESENT
Photographs-E. Lamonyon.
Jewelry-C. S. Blake.
Physicians-Drs. H. Day, D. J. Hunerson.
Cement blocks-Jerry Batty.
Restaurants-D. Kaufman, Herndon & Erickson.
Parnell Gas Company.
Painters-H. E. Gooden, W. F. Findley. J. E. Baublits.
It is believed that the freight division of the Chicago Great Western railroad will be located here the present season.
The town was incorporated in 1888, and is lighted by a gasoline plant. The mayors have been J. C. Rumsey, J. A. Stewart. C. Cobb, Henry Klaas, D. J. Hunterson. C. P. Anderson, W. H. Foland, E. F. Klass, J. H. Wilson. J. H. Cooper. L. C. Gooden. The following have served as postmasters : Fred Orr. J. F. LaFavor. C. P. Anderson and T. A. Brashear.
"Gaynor City" was established as a postoffice and hamlet of a few res- idences and business houses in the seventies. Edward Gaynor built a black- smith shop there in 1876, near the section corners 25 and 36, on the high prairie land two and a half miles west of Honey creek. The land was orig- inally owned by John Hill and is in township 66, range 34. Mr. Hill cul- tivated the land until he sold it in 1878 to John Dyer. After the blacksmith shop was erected Wilson McLain put up a store building, and opened a gener -- 1 . stock of merchandise. and later built another store on the opposite side of the street. In 1882 the hamlet contained about twenty-five inhabitants. At that date the following constituted the business interests: Stephen Cowin. blacksmith. Dr. B. F. Goodson, druggist and physician, and Wilson Mclain. general merchandise.
CHAPTER XXV.
JACKSON TOWNSHIP.
Jackson is the central township, north and south, on the eastern line of Nodaway county, bounded on the north by Union and Independence townships, east by Worth and Gentry counties, Missouri, south by Jefferson township and on the west by Polk township. It was named in honor of the seventh President of the United States, Andrew Jackson.
The county records show the following order organizing and defining the boundary of Jackson township:
"Ordered that the territory within the following bounds be erected into a new township, to be known by the name of and style of Jackson, to-wit : Beginning at a point where the line between Polk and Washington townships crosses the long branch of the Platte, thence on the line eastward to the western boundary of Gentry county, thence northward on the line dividing Nodaway and Gentry counties, to a point directly east of the Mowry House, thence from the point last aforesaid directly west to where the long branch of the Platte would thereby be crossed, thence with said branch to the be- ginning."
On June 14. 1866, the county court saw fit to change the boundary of this township to conform to its present limits, as above bounded. The same now contains about seventy square miles. It is nine miles from north to south and one mile less from east to west.
NATURAL FEATURES.
The Platte river divides this township a little to the east of the center. flowing about south, receiving the waters of Honey creek, flowing from the north. nearly to the center of the township. A watershed divides the land along the east side of the Platte river, in close distance to the stream, that precludes any streams entering from the east. Long Branch flows in a southerly direction in the southwestern portion of the township. The eastern part is watered by two branches of the Grand river. Along Long Branch. the
.
282
PAST AND PRESENT
land is quite rolling, as is the case along the Platte and Honey creek in the central portions of the territory. In the central and eastern parts, after leaving the vicinity of the water courses, the land is but gently rolling and exceedingly fertile. About one-tenth of the township is timber land. Stone quarries afford plenty of good building stone.
EARLY SETTLEMENT.
In this township there has, for several decades, been some question as to who should have the honor of being counted the "first settler." It is cer- tain, however, that here, as elsewhere in Nodaway county, the first pioneers set their claim stakes near the streams and close to, or within, heavy timbered sections, as they needed the native forest kings for both fuel and fencing. Beyond doubt, David Spoonemare and Moses Stingley were about the first white men to effect settlement here. Spoonemare located, in 1844, in the grove two miles north and a little to the east of the site of Sweet Home. There he took a claim and opened up a farm on the northwest quarter of section 8, township 64, range 33. He made an excellent farm and was for many years an honored citizen of the county, well known to all the early pioneers.
Soon after came William Campbell, who located a mile and a quarter east of Sweet Home. His family still resided there in the eighties.
Of Moses Stingley, it should be said, that he was born in Virginia, September 4, 1810, and left that state September 1, 1832, moving to Tippe- canoe county, Indiana, where he remained twelve years, lacking twelve days. In 1844 he removed to Missouri, locating in Andrew county, where he rented land and raised one crop. April 23, 1846, he settled in Jackson township, this county. The township was then as first formed and embraced much more territory than at present. Pioneer Stingley related that at his coming he found but few settlers in that portion of the county, among whom he men- tioned David Spoonemare, Jesse Harper, Elisha Brown, Caliborne Hughes, Jacob Grindstaff. Jack Clifton and John Clifton. The year of Mr. Stingley's making his advent into Jackson township there were only seven voters in the township. Thirty years later the county contained almost thirty thousand population and the original Jackson township had a voting population of be- tween five and six hundred. Moses Stingley was one of the few pioneers who lived to see this great transformation. He was ever known as "Uncle Mose" and he saw the township in all of its native beauty, just as it had
283
NODAWAY COUNTY, MISSOURI.
come from the hand of a wise Creator's hand. He had killed two deer on more than one occasion while out in the early evening hour driving up his cows, and might easily have brought down another, but did not care to have so much meat on hand at once in his house. Once he remarked, "When I came here we had neither the law, gospel or the itch-as to the latter there were not enough persons here to communicate it to each other, and as for the other two there was no society for either." While the Indians did not live in the county then, yet they frequently came in on hunting expeditions and camped for days and even weeks at a time. Milling was done at St. Joseph and at Hughes' mill, in Andrew county, southeast of Savannah. It usually took a week to make the milling trip and on one occasion he was absent with a four-horse team nine days. Within a few days after his arrival in the county he quarried a large number of grindstones from out the bluff along Honey creek and hauled them to St. Joseph and there traded them for coffee, sugar, whiskey, etc. On those early marches to mill, the ordinary settler carried a liberal supply of "spirits" along with him. Mr. Stingley remarked once, in after years, that "whiskey came handy in case of snake bites. We had to have some kind of medicine for chills and ague and this seemed the best cure for this as well as most other ills of the pioneer's flesh."
In his time the old wooden mould-board plows were in use and he fre- quently manufactured them for his neighbors. He brought an iron plow from Andrew county with him and this was a great curiosity to many of the early settlers, and men came as far as twenty miles to view its wonders. Farmers all made their own clothing from the raw material, unaided by the loom or sewing machine of today. If the family were shoeless they went barefoot and were thought none the less of by their more fortunate neighbors. So few and far between were "Uncle Mose's" neighbors that he related that one day a Yankee chanced to be going by his place and exclaimed to him: "You have a beautiful country here, but where are your neighbors ?" "Mose" told him he didn't have but one neighbor and that he was a "d-d Yankee, who lived about twenty miles away," and that if another attempted to settle about him that he would shoot him. He was just joking, but the fellow thought he was a tough man-at any rate he never settled in the county.
Soon after Mr. Stingley came to Jackson township, Isaac A. Lanning came in from Ohio, locating three miles and a half northwest of Sweet Home on the southeast quarter of section 36, township 65, range 34. His farm was on the west bank of the Platte river, on which stream he built a mill and cul- tivated his farm.
284
PAST AND PRESENT
In 1853 George Connor came from Illinois and claimed land two and a half miles north of Sweet Home settlement, on section 6. Next came Rich- ard Ashworth, an Englishman by birth, who purchased a claim on section 7. Mrs. Minerva Smith emigrated from Bartholomew county, Indiana, and set- tled two miles and a half north of present New Conception. Adelma Sting- ley, son-in-law of Moses Stingley, emigrated from Indiana in 1856, settling a mile and a half west of present Sweet Home. George son of Moses Stingley, came about the same date. Moses Spear came in from New York state about 1856 or 1857. Mrs. Dorcas Yarnel emigrated from Illinois and settled in the same neighborhood. In 1857 came Samuel Beeks from Iowa and located three miles north of present New Conception, on the Platte river. The same year Judge M. D. Nobles came in from Illinois, settling on the west side of the Platte. Reading Bowling came about that date from Illinois. The above constituted the greater part of the first set- tlers of Jackson township.
TOWNS AND HAMLETS.
Sweet Home is a little hamlet, pleasantly situated twelve miles east of Maryville and two and a half miles east of the Platte river. The land was entered and owned by Abraham Bonty, who sold to Leonard Stingley in 1857. Samuel Mason bought an acre from Stingley and on the same erected a hotel in 1859. In 1860 Robert Shaffer put up a store building and opened a general stock of merchandise. This store was burned in 1867. During the Civil war period no building operations were carried on at this point. In 1866 John Ham built a store and engaged in general merchandising. Later Basford & Roisten bought him out. Henry McMullin also engaged in a retail store business and in 1870 S. P. Joy embarked in general merchandising. In 1876 James Bentley erected a building in the hamlet and started a store.
The name Sweet Home dates from 1865, and was so called from the farm on which it was located, which was known as "Sweet Home Farm." The postoffice at this point was established in 1864, Henry Reed being the first postmaster. Seef Clutter built a residence in 1865, and J. S. Basford in 1877 converted it into a hotel. In 1882 there was in the hamlet. in addition to the businesses already named. E. W. Bishop, physician : David Flynn, blacksmith : Leroy Harry, postmaster.
With the movement of railroad building and the establishing of Raven- wood. the old pioneer hamlet of "Sweet Home" went to decay.
Ravenwood. the present center of trade for Jackson township. was the direct result of the construction of the Great Western railroad, which line
285
NODAWAY COUNTY, MISSOURI.
runs through the township from the northeast to the southern central line, enroute from DesMoines, Iowa, to Kansas City, Missouri. It was built in 1887. Ravenwood is situated on section 13, township 64, range 34. The date of its platting was August 20, 1887. Its present population is about four hundred, and the business of today is carried on as follows :
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.