USA > Missouri > Nodaway County > Past and present of Nodaway County, Missouri Volume I > Part 38
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The subject was born near Greencastle. Putnam county. Indiana. De- cember 5. 1833. the son of John G. and Sally (Cole) Allen. The father, who was born and reared in Indiana, was the son of James and Delilah (Wright ) Allen, who came to Indiana from North Carolina in an early day. settling near Greencastle when their son. John G., was about twelve years old. Prior to the Revolutionary war, or at least during that period. the Allen family lived in Virginia. John G. Allen was probably born in Washington county. In- diana, September 10. 18TI, and it was about 1823 that the family moved to Putnam county. Owing to the expected birth of John G., his father hired a substitute in the army of William Henry Harrison that fought at the battle of Tippecanoe. November 7. 1811. John G.'s father died in Greencastle and his mother in Iowa. having come West with her children. Sally Cole was born in the Hoosier state and reared there, receiving. like her husband. a limited education in the schools of the first settlers. In 1839 John G. Allen and family of three children came direct to Buchanan county, Missouri. locating fourteen miles south of St. Joseph, near the village of DeKalb, and
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there the family remained until 1851. Mr. Allen volunteered his services in the Mexican war, but the company having its required number he was not taken and he went out as a teamster, driving an ox team to Santa Fe, New Mexico, and was absent several months. When a young man he volunteered in the Black Hawk war, marching to Ft. Dearborn, now Chicago. For his services he received a land warrant from the government which he laid in Polk township. Nodaway county, Missouri, near the place where he settled in 1851. His first purchase of land is where the village of Bedison now stands, eight miles southeast of Maryville. At that time the country was wild and he had very few neighbors. Some of them were Allen and Silas Mosingo and their father, John Mosingo, Alexander Clelan. a Mrs. Cook. David Gaskill, John Kerliss. Allen Mosingo lived where Thomas Wright now lives : others lived three or four miles away, some living on One Hundred and Two river or Mosingo branch. The land was prairie at that time. John G. Allen had some money when he came here and he became one of the successful men of the county for those early times. On the place that he purchased was a hewn-log house. About 1875 he built the house that still stands. He at one time owned seven or eight hundred acres, securing most of it when it was cheap. He remained on that farm until 1884 or 1885, then moved to McDonald county, Missouri. After a residence of about thirty-four years in this state he died on his farm which he had successfully operated, on March 10, 1892. at the age of eighty years and six months. His wife Sally had died in Buchanan county. Their family consisted of five children, named as follows: Jehu C., of this review ; Eunice died when about twelve years of age: James died in December, 1909, in Oklahoma at the age of seventy-two years : he lived in Nodaway county, Missouri, up to 1872. after which he lived in Kansas and Oklahoma; John G. left Nodaway county about 1902 and went to Texas county, Missouri, and is now living at Mountain Grove, this state: William died in infancy, two weeks after his mother died.
John G. Allen. Sr., was twice married, his second wife being Nancy Graves. a native of Tennessee, whom he married in Buchanan county. Miss- ouri ; she survived him, dying in McDonald county at an advanced age. Eight of her children reached maturity, namely: Wright Allen, who died when twenty-six years of age, left a widow and one child: Elizabeth married Richard Burnett, who died in Arkansas, and his widow is now living in New- ton county. Missouri : Jacob, of McDonald county, Missouri ; George died in Joplin, Missouri, in 1907. where he had been engaged in mining : Marquis D.
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is a miner living at Joplin; Benjamin lives in Polk township. Nodaway county ; Delilah married George McConnell and lives near Joplin; Martha married John Cunningham and lives in McDonald county, Missouri. Thus the only members of this large family left in Nodaway county are Jehu C. and Benjamin.
Rev. Jehu C. Allen remained at home, assisted with the work on the farm and attended the local schools, until his marriage, on July 10, 1856. to Mary Best, daughter of Silas and Susan (Harrington) Best. She was born in Andrew county, Missouri, being nineteen years old at her marriage. Mr. Allen's father gave him forty acres of wild land where Noah T. Thompson now lives. Here Mr. and Mrs. Allen lived for a period of over fifty years or until 1907. They began here with one horse but no capital. Their first residence was a small cabin built of round logs, containing one room, suitable only for a summer house, but they set to work with a will and soon had a start : in due course of time a frame house was built on the site of the present home. This was later rebuilt, and still later a second house was built to replace the first, which burned with all its contents, none of which was insured, this disaster being a severe blow to them. Mr. Allen added land until he owned one hundred and sixty acres, receiving one forty- acre tract from the government at one dollar per acre, on which he built his present house. Later he secured eighty acres at twelve and one-half dol- lars per acre. selling his first holdings at seventy-five dollars per acre, which at that time was the top of the market, but in three years was worth one hundred dollars per acre. He has carried on general farming very success- fully. He has confined his attention pretty closely to his farm, never aspir- ing to political offices. He was a school director for many years. Politically. he is a Republican but not a politician. He has a cozy home on East Third street in Maryville, where he now resides. Mrs. Allen was called to her rest on September 21, 1886. Four children were born to this union, namely : Belle married William Thompson, son of Logan Thompson, of Oklahoma. his father having been a pioneer of Nodaway county: Ulysses Grant is min- ing in British Columbia : Mary A. married George Wright, son of Thomas Wright. of this county, and she is living in Idaho: John G. is living in the state of Washington.
Mr. Allen was twice married, his last union being to Mrs. Letitia (Graves) Donaldson, on April 30. 1890: she was born in Nodaway county, the daughter of Anthony and Margaret (Lower) Graves : one son was born to this union, Paul. now a student in the public schools.
Early in life Jehu C. Allen became a member of the United Brethren church at Maitland, Holt county, Missouri, some twenty miles from where
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he lived. He formed a church of this denomination near his old home m Polk township. He is an ordained minister in that church. He has been active in church work since 1863 and he has become well known as a local preacher, having been an ordained minister for thirty years. For twenty years he has preached constantly, but recent failing health has interfered with his work, and for the past ten years he has not taken a very active par! in ministerial affairs: but when possible he does what he can in furthering church work and in doing what good he can.
ROLAND E. THOMAS.
A highly respected and public-spirited citizen of Maryville is Roland E. Thomas, an active and successful farmer and stock man. He was born near Galesburg. Knox county, Illinois, April 26, 1867. the son of Milam and Eliza ( McMurtry ) Thomas. the father a native of Ohio and the mother of Indiana. They were married in Illinois, both having come to that state with their parents when young, during the days of the early settlers. Capt. William McMurtry raised a company there for the Black Hawk war and served for sixty days. He was a brother of John McMurtry, the father of Mrs. Thomas. It was in 1883 that Milam Thomas came to Nodaway county .. Missouri, and bought of William Garrett a fifty-acre farm where his son Roland E. now lives, in the southeast part of Maryville, also two hundred and forty acres nine miles northeast of the city in Polk township. He was even then a retired farmer, and he put his daughter. Sarah A. Jordan, on this farm. He had a farm of six hundred and forty acres in Knox county. Illinois, including his wife's old home, the John McMurtry homestead. He there entered land at one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre. In 1883 he sold out at forty-five dollars per acre, and this same land is now worth one hundred and twenty-five dollars or more per acre. He paid one hundred and ten dollars for the fifty acres and thirty dollars for the farm. which is now worth eighty dollars or more per acre. He finally gave one of the farms to his daughter and his eighty-acre place to his son. Roland E. The house was built by William Garrett. Milam Thomas died August 14. 1895. having reached an advanced age. his birth occurring on July 22, 1817. He was a man of splendid characteristics and was admired by all who knew him. Mrs. Milam Thomas was born March 3. 1830, married November 1. 1849, and
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died October 12. 1889. They were the parents of four children, Elias E., who is living with Roland E., of this review; John W. is living retired at Skidmore, Missouri, being interested in a hardware store with his son: Sarah A. married Thomas D. Jordan, living at Hydro, Oklahoma.
Roland E. Thomas was sixteen years old when he came to Maryville. He attended the public schools and graduated from the Normal Business Col- lege in St. Joseph, Missouri, in 1884. On August 14, 1887, he married Alice Thompson, daughter of Lewis and Mary Alice ( Arnett ) Thompson. Mrs. Thomas was born in Sullivan county, Indiana, in which state her mother died : soon after this event Alice came to Polk township, Nodaway county, Missouri, accompanying her father, who purchased a farm here on which he lived until his death. He died in Maryville in August, 1903, at the age of seventy-two years. His second wife was Josephine Gaskill, daughter of David Gaskill.
To Mr. and Mrs. Roland E. Thomas three children were born: Robert Raymond was born January 17, 1890. and died September 9. 1890: Mary Ann, who graduated from the conservatory of music in 1910, is the possessor of rare talent in music and both she and her sister, Vernie Irene, who is a high school student, live at home, being young ladies of refinement and favor- ites in the younger social set of the city.
Mr. Thomas bought the old Adam Terhune farm, containing two hun- dred and sixty acres, three miles southeast of Maryville, and there farmed successfully for several years, but finally sold this. He owns eighty acres in Polk township which he rents. He was formerly well known as a breeder of Poland-China hogs, and is a member of the Poland-China Breed- ers' Association. He is a member of the Maryville Commercial Club, tak- ing an active interest in the welfare of the vicinity in every way. He is the owner of twelve and one-half acres of valuable land within the city limits. which has been laid out into lots, being a part of Chamberlain's first addi- tion. His place is largely in fruit of choice varieties.
Mr. Thomas served as a member of the city council from 1907 to 1909. having been elected on the People's ticket, but in national affairs and local issues as well he is a Democrat and active in the affairs of his party. Fraternally, he is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Rebekahs : also the Modern Woodmen and the Royal Neighbors. He en- joys outside sports, and often takes a pleasant outing with rod and gun. He has a very pleasant and attractive home, and personally he is a very pleasant gentleman to meet. hospitable. genial and straightforward in his relations with his fellow-men.
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ABRAHAM LUTZ.
In looking over the list of eligible citizens in Union township for a work of this nature one does not carry his investigations far until the name of Abraham Lutz is encountered, and that his career has been a worthy one is seen by a glance at his very active record, which is here briefly set forth. He was born in Knox county, Ohio, March 8, 1845, but nearly all his life has been spent in this state, having come to Missouri in 1857 with his parents, Jacob and Sarah (Bulyar) Lutz, both natives of the state of Pennsylvania. Upon coming to Nodaway county, the parents located on the farm adjoining the one on which Abraham Lutz now resides, paying eight dollars an acre for one hundred and sixty acres and even as low as five dollars an acre for some : only a very small portion of this was cleared and broke. Their nearest neigh- bors were three miles to the northwest and there was but one house where the town of Maryville now stands : so this was the first family to locate on this prairie, but, being of the true pioneer type, they soon had a comfortable home and a good farm. Four families accompanied them from Ohio, but the others stopped in Iowa, the Lutz family being the only one to locate in Missouri, and it was two or three years before other families settled close around them. There were open stock ranges in this section up to 1860. Jacob Lutz lived on the place he first settled here until his death, in 1872, at the age of sixty-five years. He became the owner of a large body of land, about one hundred and sixty acres of which he placed under cultivation. He was born August 27, 1815. His wife was born June 15. 1819. and died February 20, 1906, hav- ing reached the advanced age of eighty-six years, having survived her husband nearly thirty-five years.
The following children were born to them: Samuel lives in Pickering : John died in the army hospital, in the sixties, at the age of twenty years ; Abraham, of this review : Eliza married George McGinnis ; she is now the wife of George M. Ulmer, of Hopkins township: Sarah married John Taylor. of Hopkins township; William died when seventeen years of age.
Abraham Lutz was thirteen years of age when he came to Missouri. He served in the state militia early in the war for a period of six months, having marched with a local company to Lexington. He remained at home until February 19, 1863, when, lacking one month of eighteen years of age, he wedded Melissa Thornton, daughter of Richard and Charlotte Thornton, of Ohio. She came to Missouri when a child with an aunt, Mrs. Edwin Wray. living near Pickering. Mrs. Lutz was about seventeen years old when she married. On March 5. 1865, just two years after her marriage, her death
MR. AND MRS. ABRAHAM LUTZ
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occurred. She left two children, one dying when young; the other, Edwin Grant, grew to maturity and is now living in Atchison township, having spent most of his life on a farm near his father. He married Cyntha Moon, and they are the parents of three children, Henry, Walter and Edith.
Abraham Lutz married a second time, on September 23, 1866, to Lucetta Thornton, a younger sister of his first wife. She was reared in Ohio, and came to Missouri to visit her sister ; however, she did not get to see her. Until her marriage she made her home with Mr. and Mrs. Wray. Her death oc- curred on October 20, 1903. She became the mother of the following children : Rosa married Frank Lock, of Union township, and they are the parents of five children, Millie, Nora, Katie, Mary and George: Malissa, the wife of George McElray, and they have five children. Johnnie, Bessie. Abraham, Glen and Bernice.
The third marriage of Abraham Lutz was to Mrs. Maggie E. Proctor. of Maryville, on March 2, 1905. She was born in Delaware county, Ohio. and when ten years of age, in 1866, accompanied her parents to Missouri. she being the daughter of William and Catherine ( Ingles) Hinton. They settled two miles south of Pickering, in Polk township: there her father re- mained until his death, in 1886, at the age of seventy-seven years, his widow then moving to Maryville, where her death occurred at the age of seventy- four years. When seventeen years of age Maggie Hinton married Newton Proctor, the latter being twenty years old. After living on a farm fifteen years, they moved to Maryville, living together over thirty years and becom- ing the parents of six children, two of whom reached maturity, Grace, who married Richard Broyles, of Clearmont, and Edward, of St. Joseph, who mar- ried Bertha Miller in March, 1908. Mr. Lutz took Leslie Taylor, when three years old, to rear, he being seventeen now, and he is working on the home farm. having the same advantages as if he was the child of Mr. Lutz.
Abraham Lutz began his married life on his father's farm, which he started to rent, but the father gave him eighty acres on which he still lives. but he continued to rent. He finally came to his own land and lived in a log house until 1872, when he built a better house and in 1880 he built his pres- ent home. He has prospered and has added one hundred acres to his original holdings, paying fifty-two dollars and fifty cents per acre for land that could have been purchased at one time for five dollars per acre. He has a splendid hay barn, built in 1891. He has also a hay barn on the last land he purchased. About the place is to be seen a beautiful grove of maples. He has had a good income from his hay for years, also has raised a great deal of grain. At one
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time he had one hundred and seventy acres in hay. Unfortunately that year hay declined in price, selling at two dollars and fifty cents per ton. After that he gave more attention to grain.
Mr. Lutz has been a loyal Republican. He is a worker in the Methodist Episcopal church and his wife is a member of the Baptist church at Maryville.
THEODORE BLATTER.
The United States can boast of no better or law-abiding class of citizens than the great number of German people who have found homes within her borders. Though holding dear and sacred the beloved mother country. they are none the less devoted to the fair land of their adoption. Among this class is Theodore Blatter, now living in retirement in Maryville, who for a number of years has been one of the leading German citizens of Nodaway county, where he has labored not only for his own advancement, but also for the good of the community. his efforts having been amply repaid with abun- dant financial success and the esteem of his fellow-men.
Mr. Blatter was born in Baden, Germany. March 23. 1849. and there he grew to maturity and was educated. In 1869 he came to the United States, locating in Morgan county, Illinois, where an uncle had located and there engaged in the butcher business. He spent three years with his uncle, in the meantime sending for his brother, who was in Germany. In the fall of 1872 he came to Maryville in company with an old Englishman whom he met in Illinois. After locating here Mr. Blatter worked in the butcher shop of William Yehle for one year, and the next year he and Lambert Yehle opened a shop and continued as partners for a period of twelve years, during which time they built up a very thriving business. After Mr. Yehle retired, Mr. Blatter continued the operation of the shop alone until about 1895. He was centrally located and enjoyed an excellent trade. In 1873 he started in with a capital of only five hundred dollars, but by good management and economy he became one of the substantial business men of the town. He erected a large and substantial block on North Main street which he rented for a period of twenty years. He built his attractive home in 1879 at the southwest corner of the town, where he owns twenty-two acres. He also bought a platted block several years ago at the intersection of Grant and Walnut streets. He also owns other desirable property, two residences on Dewey street and four lots in town.
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Fred Blatter, brother of Theodore, was in Maryville for some time, but is now engaged in business in Denver, Colorado.
Mr. Blatter was married while living in Morgan county, Illinois. in 1875, to Elizabeth Wittauer, who was born in Germany. This union resulted in the birth of four children, namely : Anna is living at home ; B. F. is con- ducting a meat shop in Maryville: Willie is a student in the college at Con- ception, graduating with the class of 1910: Anthony also is in college at Con- ception.
Mr. Blatter is a Democrat politically. He was reared in the Catholic church, and he and his family are members of St. Mary's and very faithful in their attendance and support of the same.
Mr. Blatter is a man whom it is a pleasure to meet. whole-hearted. jovial. genial, always hospitable in his home and he has led such a life of activity and scrupulous honesty that his friends are legion wherever he is known. for they have been able to trust him in all the relations of life, and his large success in a business way has been due to his desire to deal fairly with his patrons at all times.
SAMUEL SCOWDEN.
One of Nodaway county's substantial citizens who has led an active and eminently useful life. not entirely void of the exciting, is Samuel Scowden. the more prominent facts of whose life have been so identified with the use- ful and practical that it is to them almost entirely that the writer refers in the following lines.
Mr. Scowden is a native of Adams county, Ohio, where he was born July 12. 1849. He grew up principally in Pike county, Ohio. In 1874 he came to Nodaway county, Missouri, and here he so directed his efforts as to accumulate a very satisfactory competency for his old age and is now liv- ing in retirement in Maryville. He is the son of John and Susan Scowden. both born and reared in Ohio. Upon coming to Missouri in 1874, Samuel Scowden located near Gaynor City, in Independence township. Nodaway county, twenty miles northeast of Maryville and eight miles northwest of Parnell. on the Great Western railroad, ten miles southeast of Hopkins. The parents both died on that farm. Forty acres were at first purchased, Mr. Scowden having very little means, but the place was added to until the farm consisted of one hundred and sixty acres, the father dying here in 1889, at
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the age of sixty-five years, the widow surviving until 1899, dying at the age of seventy-nine years, having been four years his senior. William Scowden, brother of John, had been living in Independence township before the family located here, having come the year before. He later moved to Atchison county. this state, and after an absence of fifteen years returned to Independence, bought a farm and lived here until his death,
Samuel Scowden, the paternal grandfather of the subject, was a de- scendant of sterling Pennsylvania Dutch stock. The maternal grandparents. the Holtons, were also of the same stock.
Of the children born to Mr. and Mrs. John Scowden, five reached ma- turity : Margaret Elizabeth married E. T. Gaynor and lived near Parnell. where her death occurred; Samuel, of this review: Jacob, who remained in Ohio, is a shoe dealer in Columbus ; Angeline married Lewis Nigh, and lives on a farm in Independence township: James P. is farming in that township.
Samuel Scowden remained with his father and was in partnership with him. At the death of the elder Scowden, Samuel built a home on the old place. He received the entire farm, and he cared for his mother during her lifetime. He was very successful in the management of the same, which he finally sold and came to Maryville in 1904. soon after his wife's death. He owns a neat and comfortable little place in the west part of town. He carried on farming in all its phases and fed a great deal of stock.
Politically, he is a Democrat. In political affairs his father had been more active, serving as county commissioner in Pike county, Ohio, and as justice of the peace for years, both in Ohio and Missouri, serving here until his death. He was a worker in the party's conventions. During the drafting period of the Civil war he was the only available man in the township to escape being drafted. Samuel has never cared for political offices.
When thirty years of age Samuel Scowden married Elizabeth Barks, a native of Missouri. She died on the old homestead after a residence there of three years, dying without issue. Samuel married a second time, taking his last wife after his father's death. She was known in her maidenhood as Phoebe Jane Lowery, who was reared in California. Her father died when she was a child, meeting his death by drowning. Her mother's next marriage was with W. W. Wells, and in 1874 they settled in Independence township. Phoebe Jane then being a young woman. She was thirty years old at her marriage. Her death occurred on August 9. 1904, while living on the farm, leaving two children, ages twelve and nine. Bertha May is a student in the junior class at the Maryville high school, and John Jacob is now a school boy.
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Samuel Scowden takes a great deal of interest in the education of his children. He and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal church at Gaynor, where he formerly took a very active interest, having been trustee and class leader and held other minor offices in the congregation. He was made a Mason in Gaynor City lodge twenty-seven years ago, the lodge then being at Gaynor but now at Parnell. In earlier years he was active in its affairs, being past master, etc., and his life has been led in accordance with the high and noble principles of this order and the Methodist church.
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