USA > Missouri > Nodaway County > Past and present of Nodaway County, Missouri Volume I > Part 44
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Mr. Everhart was born in White Cloud township, this county, June 5. 1869, the son of Jacob and Christina (Norricks) Everhart, the father a native of Pennsylvania. He came to Nodaway county, Missouri, in 1867
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from Ohio. He devoted his life to farming and upon coming to this county he secured prairie land which he developed into a good farm, and remained on the same until he moved to Maryville in 1905 and he died in this city in 1907 at the age of seventy-six years. His wife followed him to the silent land in 1910, having reached the age of seventy-two years. They had hosts of friends wherever they lived. The latter's brother. Jacob Norricks, was killed on his farm in Polk township. Nodaway county, about 1875.
Nine children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Everhart, seven of whom are still living in this county. William, of this review, began working on the home farm when but a mere boy, and he received a common school education in the neighboring schools. He did not take kindly to the idea of spending his life on the farm and left the farm for the purpose of engag- ing in business. He was well fitted for a business career both by nature and education. He is a graduate of Maryville Commercial College.
Mr. Everhart married Anna L. Jones, on May 31. 1896, the daughter of A. T. and Mary L. Jones, of White Cloud, who lived but three miles from the Everhart home. where the family was long well established. To Mr. and Mrs. Everhart three children have been born, namely : Hazel, a high school student ; Albert Dean and Dale.
Mr. Everhart is a member of the Masonic fraternity and of the Modern Woodmen. He carries ten thousand dollars life insurance and five thousand dollars accident insurance. Personally he is a pleasant man to know, hos- pitable in his home, straightforward and courteous in his business and a man in whom all repose the utmost confidence who have occasion to know him well.
ANDREW J. JENSON.
It is a fact patent to all that the United States can boast of no better citi- zenship than the emigrants from Denmark or Norway and Sweden-the Scan- dinavian Peninsula. Although not so great a number of them have found homes within the borders of our Union as from several other foreign coun- tries, yet wherever they are found they have established good homes and quickly assimilated with our citizenship. Though holding dear and sacred the beloved northland from whence they came, they are none the less devoted to the fair country of their adoption, and should necessity require it, would be willing to go forth to battle for the maintenance of its institutions. Among this highly respected class is Andrew J. Jenson, one of the leading farmers of
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Polk township, Nodaway county. He was born in Denmark. December 25. 1852, the son of Soren and Johanna ( Larson) Jenson, both also natives of Denmark. They spent their early lives there, and were educated and married in their native land, coming to America in 1863, when their son, Andrew J., was eleven years old. They made their way to the interior and located near Fremont, Nebraska, afterward moving to Pottawattamie county, Iowa, where they lived until the fall of 1868, when the came to Nodaway county, Mis- souri, and settled near Guilford. They later settled in Polk township, where their deaths occurred. They succeeded fairly well in this country, and lived very comfortably.
Andrew J. Jenson received most of his education in this country. He remained with his parents, accompanying them from place to place, and assist- ing with the work about the home. In 1880 the family settled on the farm now owned by Andrew J., in Polk township, and here he has since resided: He has always followed farming and has proved to be very adept in all its diversified phases. Added to this, he has raised various kinds of livestock. no small part of his income having been derived from that source. He is the owner of one of the choice farms of this township, consisting of four hundred and fifty acres, most of which is well improved and under a good state of cultivation. Mr. Jenson has erected comfortable and substantial buildings on the place, and is well fixed from a material standpoint.
Mr. Jenson was married in this township on September 6, 1888, to Bena Mickelson, who was born in the state of Utah, February 19, 1867, the daugh- ter of Lars and Mary Mickelson, natives of Denmark. The mother died in Polk township, this county. To Mr. and Mrs. Jenson six children have been born, named as follows: Emma M .. Josephine, Nettie L., Sarenus, Violet and Luther.
Mr. and Mrs. Jenson are members of the Methodist Episcopal church. and they take an active interest in the religious and other movements that make for the betterment of their community.
JOHN B. NUNNELLEY.
John B. Nunnelley, farmer, of Polk township. Nodaway county, comes of a family the members of which are popular among their acquaintances, and the gentleman to whom these paragraphs are dedicated has builded wisely and well as the architect of his own fortunes, and the success that crowns his efforts is richly merited.
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Mr. Nunnelley was born in Clay county, Missouri, November 29, 1855, the son of Washington and Sarah ( Scearce) Nunnelley, both natives of Ken- tucky, from which state they came to Clay county, Missouri, and settled on a farm where they remained for several years, and then removed to Platte county, this state, where they both died. Eight children constituted their family, of whom John B., of this review, was the sixth in order of birth. He was quite young when his parents moved to Platte county, in which he grew to maturity and where he was educated in the public schools. He remained at home until he was twenty-one years of age when he began life in his home neighborhood on a farm belonging to his father, where he remained for two years, and then came to Nodaway county, Missouri. After farming here for one year he returned to Platte county and launched in the mercantile business at Linkville, which he continued for three years, during which time he had a fairly satisfactory trade with the community. Selling out, he moved to Avalon. Livingston county, Missouri, and here engaged as a merchant for a year and a half. His next move was to Liberty. this state, where he remained one year, when he retired from the mercantile business and then came to Nodaway county, in February. 1892, and has since remained here.
Mr. Nunnelley purchased a farm near Skidmore where he lived until the spring of 1901, when he settled on the farm where he now lives in Polk town- ship, and where he has since been a resident. He has prospered by good management and close application to whatever he has had in hand, attending strictly to his own affairs at all times. He is the owner of four hundred and sixty-five acres in Nodaway county and one hundred and sixty acres in Okla- homa. His land is, for the most part, well improved and valuable from every point of view. He has a beautiful home and excellent outbuildings, and everything about his place shows thrift and prosperity and that a gentleman of good taste and good management has its affairs in hand. For eight years. in connection with farming. Mr. Nunnelley has been engaged in buying and shipping livestock from Maryville and for several years he has been engaged in the mercantile business at Wilcox. this county, and in all his diversified lines of business he has been very successful. being a man who observes things as they are and exercises such a keen discernment that he makes few mis- takes in his transactions.
Mr. Nunnelley was married at St. Joseph, Missouri. September 10, 1885. to Flora B. Tarpley, who was born in Green township, Nodaway county. February 15. 1864. her family being well known and influential in that com- munity. She is the daughter of William and Sarah Anthony Tarpley. both
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natives of North Carolina ; they were among the early settlers of Green town- ship, the father dying at Skidmore, March 18. 1908. at seventy-nine years of age : his widow is still living. They were the parents of seven children, of whom Mrs. Nunnelley was the third in order of birth. She was reared and educated in this county.
To Mr. and Mrs. Nunnelley one child, Byron W., has been born. They are the foster parents of Nellie Conditt, a native of Clay county. Missouri. and she was reared and educated by them: for some time she has been a teacher in Nodaway county.
Mr. Nunnelley is a man whose word is regarded as good as a bond, his dealings with his fellow-men being always straightforward, and his con- duct has always been that of a man whose aim has been correct and whose integrity has never been questioned.
ELI W. BAILEY
When the Bailey family first came to Atchison county, Missouri, there were no roads or bridges, and their nearest neighbors, who were ten miles distant, were the brother and brother-in-law of Eli W. Bailey. There was only one store in the county, the one at Fugate's Mill. a mile above Rockport. and in order to reach that store and mill the Baileys were compelled to go ten miles across an unbroken prairie, customers being compelled sometimes to stay over night waiting their turn. Such conditions prevailed here when Eli W. Bailey, the immediate subject of this review. was a boy. He was born in Ray county. Missouri. August 21. 1834. and is the son of James and Nancy ( Wilson) Bailey, who came to Missouri about 1830 from Nashville. Tennessee, and bought forty acres of land, which was later added to. On April 14. 1845. the family arrived in Atchison county, locating near Tarkio. Indians were still here, who kept the game killed off, but after they left, the country being sparsely settled. game again became plentiful. Mr. Bailey has seen large droves of wild deer. and kil: d many himself. His parents bought a claim for government land from a stranger, and after it was surveyed by the government, went to Plattsburg to the land office and bought it from the government at one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre. entering one hun- dred and sixty acres at first. then eighty acres more. taking timbered land. believing that the prairie land would never be settled ; indeed, this remained the case until the railroads came through the county.
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Eli W. Bailey grew to maturity on the farm, and on January 6, 1860. he married Mary McCollister, daughter of Andrew and Maria ( Kirkpatrick) McCollister. Mrs. Bailey was born at Chillicothe, Ohio, in which locality her mother was also born. but her father was a native of Maryland. The Kirkpatricks, Mrs. Bailey's maternal grandparents, came from Ireland. Mrs. Bailey came to Missouri in 1858 with her parents, who located about three miles northwest of Tarkio, where she lived until her marriage. Eli W. Bailey's paternal grandparents were Ezekiel and Elizabeth ( Turner) Bailey, and his maternal grandparents were Eli and Sarah Wilson, Sarah Wilson having come from Halifax. Nova Scotia.
After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Bailey went to farming on his farm adjoining that of his father, also joining that of her father. They lived there until about 1885. then moved to Tarkio for the purpose of placing their children in college. Their children are: Edith, who married Hamlin C. Bailey, cashier of the Farmers Bank at Quitman, whose sketch appears else- where in this work, and Anna, who married A. A. Watts and lives in St. Joseph, Missouri, where Mr. Watts is employed as train dispatcher for the Grand Island railway.
The Bailey family lived at Tarkio until 1900. when they moved to Quit- man. where their daughter, Edith, lived, and they have resided here ever since. Mr. Bailey sold his farm and is now living in retirement enjoying the fruits of his former years of industry. About a year after moving to Tarkio he went into the mercantile business in which he remained a greater part of the time for seven years, and enjoyed a very liberal patronage from the town and surrounding country.
Mr. Bailey is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church South and Mrs. Bailey is a Presbyterian. He is a man who is well thought of by all who know him, owing to his past life of honor and usefulness, his kindness and courtesy.
JACOB E. MELVIN.
To such men as Jacob E. Melvin, long one of the substantial farmers of Nodaway county, who is now living retired in his pleasant home in Mary- ville, life is so real that they find no time to plot either mischief or vice. Their lives are bound up in their duties, they feel the weight of their citizen- ship, and take pleasure in sowing the seeds of uprightness.
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Mr. Melvin was born in McDonough county, Illinois, November 16, 1856. the son of Thomas and Jemima Melvin, the father a native of White county, Tennessee, and the mother of Kentucky. They came to Illinois when young and there met and married. Mr. Melvin came to Illinois as early as 1836 and spent his life on a farm, being a hardworking, honest pioneer whom his neighbors highly respected.
Jacob E. lived at home and assisted in developing the farm, attending the neighboring schools in the winter time until he became of legal age. In 1878 he started for the West, visiting his cousins, Henry and Jack Anderson. who had come to Nodaway county, Missouri, and located in Hughes town- ship. Mr. Melvin liked the country and he purchased land twelve miles southwest of Maryville in Hughes township, buying forty acres at twenty- five dollars per acre, later purchasing eighty acres more at eighteen dollars per acre. He sold his first purchase and built on his eighty-acre tract and remained on the same for a period of twenty-five years. This he added to as he prospered until he owned four hundred acres in one farm, paying fifty dollars per acre for the last he bought. but paid thirty-five and forty-two dol- lars and fifty cents per acre for most of it, the last he bought being improved. He has one of the model farms of the county, well improved and well culti- vated. He built an attractive residence in 1895. After selling one hundred and sixty acres of the homestead. he came to Maryville in 1902, and in 1908 bought a farm of one hundred and sixty acres two miles south of Maryville. paving one hundred and seventeen dollars and fifty cents per acre for the land, which is a very desirable property. It was long considered one of the best farms in Nodaway county, and is now_worth one hundred and seventy-five to two hundred dollars per acre. He finally sold all his original land for sixty and eighty-five dollars per acre. He continued to operate the place south of Maryville with hired help, grows and feeds cattle and hogs, keeping a fine herd on hand from time to time. He has also bought and sold large numbers of horses.
L'pon coming to Nodaway county Mr. Melvin had but about five hundred dollars, but, being a man of natural business endowments of a high order and persistent in his efforts, he has accumulated a handsome competency, and is one of the county's substantial and progressive citizens. In 1902 he built his present fine home in Maryville, located in the south part of the city, which is one of the most attractive and desirable homes in this county. He is a stock- holder in the Arkoe Bank, at Arkoe, this county, of which his son-in-law. J. T. Goff. is cashier. He has never aspired to offices of political trust, but has always been a Democrat and interested in the progress of his county.
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Mr. Melvin was married on Valentine day. February 14. 1878, while living in McDonough county, Illinois, to Elizabeth Dirks, who was born in that county, the daughter of an influential family there. To this union two children were born: Ora, who married J. T. Goff. a banker at Arkoe, this county ; they have no children. Ruby is living at home : both she and her sister are highly educated, and taught very successfully in the Nodaway county schools.
Mr. Melvin is a member of the Modern Woodmen of the World. a Ma- son, belonging to the blue lodge and chapter, and one would judge from his daily life that he believes in carrying its sublime precepts into his business and social affairs, for he is known to be exemplary in his habits, honest, gen- erous, kind and at all times a genteel gentleman. Members of this family are loyal in their support of the Christian church, in which they hold member- ships.
JOHN EDWARD COSTELLO.
One of the best known and most enterprising of the younger agricul- turists of Nodaway county is John Edward Costello, now in the very prime of life and usefulness, and his influence as an honorable, upright citizen is productive of much good upon all with whom he comes in contact. His past success gives assurance of something yet to come. and he is evidently destined to continue a potent factor for substantial good for many years to come. He is the owner of fine farming lands in Nodaway county, which he conducts in a manner that stamps him as fully abreast of the times. He is the worthy son of a worthy sire. His father. John G. Costello, of whom a full sketch appears elsewhere in the work, was long one of the leading citizens of this county. He comes of an excellent Irish family on both sides of the house. his parents having been born in the Emerald Isle, from which country they came to America when young. His mother, who was known in her maidenhood as Mary Corliss, now a woman advanced in years, is living at Maryville, where she enjoys the friendship of a wide circle of acquaintances, the father having passed to his reward on November 16. 1900.
J. E. Costello was born on February 7. 1870. on the old homestead in this county : there he grew to maturity and worked on the farm when he be- came of proper age, and he received his education in this county, remaining at home until the death of his father. the latter insisting that he remain the
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head of the family and placing all responsibility upon the shoulders of his son. J. E. This was good experience for him, and he was well drilled in the line which he has essayed to follow.
The lands left by. the father have since been mutually divided and the widow retains the old home farm. The son has added to his share, so that he now owns a very choice place, consisting of five hundred acres, two hun- dred and eighty acres in one body, one hundred acres in another body, one mile away : the rest of the land lies in the bottoms. It is all well improved. well cultivated and neatly kept ; he oversees it all, operating the same with hired help, and he is very successful as a general farmer and stock raiser.
On July 6. 1898, the home place was struck by lightning and destroyed, during the heaviest fall of rain ever known here, thirteen inches having fallen in the course of twelve hours. Disaster followed disaster, by the fire-fiend. and in the course of three years four other fires occurred, two houses and two barns being burned.
On February 17, 1896, Mr. Costello married Mamie Roney, daughter of Henry and Julia .( Byrnes ) Roney, who came to Nodaway county in 1882. Mrs. Costello being reared and educated in this county. Two sons have been born to this union. Byron Edward and John Henly.
Mr. Costello is a Democrat politically, but he has never aspired to politi- cal offices.
CORNELIUS L. PHIPPS.
A venerable and highly respected citizen of Nodaway county whose life record has much in it to be admired is Cornelius L. Phipps, who was born in Washington county, Indiana, February 19, 1831. He is the son of Jesse and Rhoda ( Crotts) Phipps, the former born in Floyd county. Indiana, and the mother in Tennessee. The paternal grandfather of Cornelius L. Phipps was killed in the battle of Tippecanoe, having fought against the Indians in the fall of 1811. The Crotts family is of German origin.
When the gentleman of whom this biography is written was ten years old his parents moved to Abbott county, Illinois, and there he grew to man- hood on a farm. On December 22. 1854, he married Cecilia Cecil, daughter of Wilford and Mary ( Martin) Cecil. Mrs. Phipps was born in Kentucky, near the old home of Henry Clay in the blue grass region of that state. She was about five years old when her parents came to Illinois and there she
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grew to maturity and married Mr. Phipps. The latter went to farming for himself in Hancock county, Illinois, and lived there until the fall of 1869. He had a farm of eighty acres in that county. Before the year 1869 he had sold part of it, and in that year disposed of the remainder and bought a farm in the southeast part of Monroe township. Nodaway county, Missouri, where he still resides, having lived here ever since, with the exception of about six years when he rented out his farm and went to live on a larger one near Clyde. He has ninety acres of well improved land here.
Ten children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Phipps, of whom five are deceased ; the five living are : Laurence married Mary Todd, of Lorraine, Illinois ; they now live at Caldwell, Kansas; they have no children, but are rearing an adopted child, Stella. Margaret Phipps married James M. Mann. lives in Holt county, west of Maitland, Missouri, and has four children, Elmer G. and Everett S. (twins) and Alta and Russell. Winfield Phipps is unmar- ried and lives at home with his father. Owen married Ella Hughes and lives two miles west of his father, has three children, Cecil Glen, Lynn Elwood and Claude Owen. Millie C. Phipps is at home with her father. The mother of these children died on July 2, 1908. She was a member of the Christian church at Palestine, Hughes township.
Mrs. Cecilia (Cecil) Phipps was born near Frankfort, Kentucky, on January 6, 1829, and when six years old her parents moved to Knox county, Illinois. She was one of a family of fourteen children. all but two of whom lived to maturity and reared families. Her five children who died in infancy were Helen, Laura, Edgar. Lewis and Jessie. She was reared a Catholic. but when a young woman she left that church and united with the Congrega- tional church at Bowen, Illinois. In 1894 she was induced to change her creed in regard to baptism and became a believer in the doctrines of the Christian church. She had been a sufferer from an annoying physical ailment for twenty years, and the last three weeks of her life were weeks of agony, but she was very patient and praised those who waited on her for being so kind to her. She said she was not afraid to die as she had always tried to live right and was ready and willing to go when the Master called. She always defended the right and denounced the wrong. She was a loving wife, an indulgent mother and a good, kind neighbor. She was never better pleased than when her children and grandchildren and neighbors were gathered at her home.
Miss Millie Phipps was educated both in the public schools and in the Maryville Seminary. Cornelius L. Phipps attended the old pioneer schools. and only one term of his schooling was made comfortable by having backs
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to the seats, having used slab benches for seats. Miss Millie has taught school in Nodaway county nine years, having begun in the fall of 1891. She has been a correspondent for various newspapers for about twenty-two years and is a very able and versatile writer.
JONATHAN SPRAGUE.
Many of the most enterprising citizens of Nodaway county are natives of the old Buckeye state, and they have, almost without exception, prospered since coming to this new prairie country, establishing excellent homes and taking a leading part in the affairs of the county, doing whatever devolved upon them as citizens to further the general welfare of the locality. Among this number is Jonathan Sprague, who has a good farm in Polk township. He was born in Summit county, Ohio, April 1, 1840, the son of Ira and Emma (Salter) Sprague. The father was a farmer, a native of Summit county, dying on the same farm on which he was born, his death occurring in 1855. Mrs. Emma Sprague came to Nodaway county, Missouri, in the spring ot 1870 and died in Polk township in 1888. They were the parents of four children, all of whom lived to maturity, Jonathan, of this review. being the second in order of birth.
Jonathan Sprague grew to maturity on the home farm in Summit coun- ty, Ohio, where he was put to work in the field when very young ; he worked during the crop seasons and attended the common schools in the winter time. He remained there until the spring of 1870, when he turned his face toward the West and sought a new home in Nodaway county, Missouri. He began life here by buying the farm where he now lives. He soon got a foothold and bought an additional eighty acres, mostly unimproved. His son, Charles E .. also owns eighty acres. Being a hard worker and anxious to succeed, he has been very successful as a general farmer. He not only placed his farm under a high state of cultivation, but also erected good buildings on the same and has a very comfortable home. He has added to his original purchase until he now owns one hundred and seventy acres.
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