USA > Missouri > Nodaway County > Past and present of Nodaway County, Missouri Volume I > Part 45
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Mr. Sprague was married in Summit county, Ohio. December 25. 1867, to Jane A. Ewart, who was born in Springfield township. Summit county. Ohio, December 25, 1843. She was the daughter of Robert L. and Martlia (Lemmon) Ewart. Both her parents spent their lives in that vicinity and died there.
To Mr. and Mrs. Sprague has been born one son, living. Charles E ..
JONATHAN SPRAGUE AND FAMILY
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of Polk township. Three of their children are deceased. Ada was the wife of Dr. J. J. Monahan and she died in Chicago. Two of Mr. Sprague's chil- dren died in childhood.
Mr. Sprague has never taken a very active part in political matters, but has always been a Republican. During the Civil war he saw some service. but only for a short time. Most of his duty was in the defense of Washington City. as a member of Company D. One Hundred and Sixty-fourth Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry.
Mrs. Sprague is a member of the Presbyterian church.
HAMLIN C. BAILEY.
The record of Hamlin C. Bailey, the well-known cashier of the Farmers' Bank at Quitman. Nodaway county. is that of a man who, by practically unaided efforts, has worked his way from a comparatively modest beginning to a position of influence and comparative affluence in his community. His life has been one of unceasing industry and perseverance, and the systematic and honorable methods he has ever followed have won him the unbounded confidence of his fellow-citizens, having at all times, while advancing his own interests, labored to promote those of his county.
Mr. Bailey was born in Morgan county, Ohio, July 12, 1860, and is the son of John P. and Mary J. (Barr) Bailey, an old and highly esteemed family. who came to Grundy county, Missouri, when Hamlin C. was eight years old. They lived there about four years, then went to Henry county, Iowa, where they lived until their son was of legal age. He received a good common school education. His first start in life for himself was in a store in Wayland. Iowa, but in 1882 he went to Kansas City and spent five years in a furniture store, then was engaged as bookkeeper and salesman for Emmert & Neal at Tarkio for five years, then was with other firms for about eight years. In February, 1900, he came to Quitman and became cashier of the Farmers' Bank of this place, and he has filled this position with ability and credit.
Mr. Bailey was married in 1887 to Edith M. Bailey, daughter of Eli and Mary (McCollister) Bailey, a full sketch of whom appears elsewhere in this work. Five children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Hamlin C. Bailey. namely : Allison D., who is bookkeeper for a firm in St. Joseph ; Halbert L., Harry A., Mary E. and John W., all at home with their parents.
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Politically Mr. Bailey is a Republican, is influential in local party affairs, and for years he has been a member of the Republican county central com- mittee and is treasurer of the same. Personally, he is a persistent worker, industrious, obliging and public spirited. He has always looked very care- fully to details, has the foresight and discernment of the modern business man of affairs and exercises sound judgment in all his transactions and rela- tions with the world.
The Farmers' Bank of Quitman, mentioned above, is controlled by John S .. J. Edward and Russell I. Bilby, bankers, and was organized in 1885 as a private bank, and it was maintained as such until 1897. when it was sold out to Dr. Rufus H. Smith, who ran it two years, and then sold it to the present owners, the Bilbys. It has a capital stock of ten thousand dollars. with a surplus of two thousand and five hundred, and is regarded as a sound and safe institution. The following official statement, in part. issued January 31. 1910, is sufficient to show its solid condition : Loans and discounts, $22.521.71 ; loans, real estate, $1.150.00; overdrafts, $999.62; real estate (banking house ) . $1.500.00; furniture and fixtures. $750.00; due from other banks and bankers, subject to check. $22.178.76; cash items. $6.50; currency. $1,667.00 : specie. $630.84: total. $51.727.67. Liabilities: Capital stock paid in. $10.000.00; surplus fund. $2.500.00; undivided profits. net. $2.573.00; deposits. $36.654.67 ; total. $51.727.67.
JOHN G. COSTELLO.
The backbone of this country is made up of families which have made their own homes, who are alive to the best interests of the community in which they reside, who are so honest that there is no trouble for their neighbors to know it, who attend to their own business and are too busy to attend to that of others, who work steadily on from day to day, taking the sunshine with the storm, and who rear a fine family to an honest name and a comfortable home. Such people are always welcome in any community. The late John G. Cos -. tello, long one of Nodaway county's highly honored citizens, who has passed to another sphere of action, was such a man, having come to our shores from a foreign port, and here became well established. He was born in Ireland in 1834. and there spent his early youth and received his first business discipline. and when seventeen years old he boarded an old-fashioned sailing vessel. which brought him into New York harbor on March 17. 1851. He sought
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employment in a lumber camp in Pennsylvania, and there saved his earnings and sent to the old country for his sister and her husband and his half-brother. He took out naturalization papers at Wilkesbarre. Pennsylvania, in October, 1856, just before the election of that year, in which he cast his vote for James Buchanan. He finally came to Nodaway county, Missouri, and lived to an advanced age, dying at Quitman, November 16, 1900. One week before he died he cast his last vote, having been carried in an arm chair upstairs to the voting booth. While he took a great deal of interest in public affairs, he never sought office.
John G. Costello first bought one hundred and sixty acres of land of his employer at Wilkesbarre. Pennsylvania, for which he paid one dollar and sixty cents per acre without seeing it. The land was located in Nodaway county, Missouri, west of Quitman. in Green township. He paid for it in labor. Probably in the fall of 1856 he came here. He met Samuel Kennedy in Maryville, who located his land for him. He found a fine spring on the land, which proved a source of much satisfaction to him. The country was all a wilderness, no one lived near there, and his land was then of practically no value, and he went to St. Joseph and took a job to drive an ox team to Pike's Peak. On the way he met a man returning from there who was half starved, and this caused him to give up the trip and start to California, riding one horse and leading others. He fell asleep and became separated from the rest of the band, and, meeting Indians, he was frightened, but they did not molest him, merely saluting, "How, how!" Then, observing smoke in the distance, which came from the camp, he made his way back in safety. After reaching the gold fields in California, he took to prospecting, and discovered a man "salting" a mine by shooting gold-dust from a musket into a hillside. intending to sell it. This disgusted Mr. Costello, and he secured work at the stage station in the mountains, and remained there for a considerable length of time, saving his money, for there was little opportunity to spend it. He had but one pair of trousers and a "jumper." Those he washed on Sun- day and lay in the shade while they were drying. He kept his money, which was in gold, hid. His employer induced him to invest in wheat in a store- house, at ninety cents per hundred. While he was absent in the mountains, vessels were loaded, and all the wheat available was taken except what he owned in one storehouse. The cargo in one of the vessels was locked. and its owner hunted up Mr. Costello, fifty miles distant in the mountains, with the result that it was sold at a profit. He went back to work in the stage barn. Later his employer, who was in the city, sent for him, and Mr. Costello
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went, expecting to be discharged, but was given a six-horse team to drive on the stage, and there he remained until 1866, when he returned to Missouri. By that time others had begun to locate here, and Mr. Costello began improv- ing his land. He did a great deal of teaming, hauling goods from St. Joseph and Savannah, the latter town sixty miles distant, and brought material from those places for his building. From this time on he engaged in farming and cattle feeding, and he bought and sold land, disposing of his holdings as soon as he could realize a profit. His name appears frequently on the records of lands in the vicinity where he lived. He prospered, and at his death was the owner of fifteen hundred acres of good land. He built a large, fine residence on his place in 1893 and 1894. costing five thousand dollars. This was struck by lightning and burned in 1898, after which he moved to Quitman. Besides general farming and trading on a large scale, he was a cattle feeder and horse dealer, and he loaned money on farm property. He was a very able business man, and was successful at whatever he turned his attention to, a man of rare business acumen. keen foresight and soundness of judgment ; he left an estate valued at about one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars. He was purely a self-made man, his education being very limited in point of actual text-book training, having attended school but two weeks, but he was a close observer. and kept well posted on current topics. He did more for the upbuilding of his community than any other man has done, and for years was known as one of the most substantial and influential men in the county. He was an excellent judge of stock and land values : in fact, his judgment was seldom at fault on any business proposition.
Mr. Costello was married at Middletown, Ohio, on January 14, 1869, at the residence of his sister. He selected as a life companion Mary Corliss. who was also born in Ireland, from which country she came to America when sixteen years old. the trip requiring nine weeks, the vessel on which she sailed being given up for lost. She came to her uncle, Nicholas Mullen, whose wife was the sister of John Costello, and the one to whom Mr. Costello had sent money with which he paid her passage to America. Mr. Costello first met his wife upon his return from California. She survives, and makes her home in Maryville. She is a member of the Catholic church, of which her husband was also a member: they were reared in this faith in Ireland and never de- parted from it. Mr. Costello was a man whom everybody trusted and re- spected. He hated a hypocrite, and all his business transactions were fair and straightforward. Thus he won the high esteem of all who knew him.
To Mr. and Mrs. John G. Costello three children were born, named as
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follows: John Edward, whose sketch appears on another page of this work; Katie is the wife of Dr. F. M. Ryan, of Quitman ; Mamie is the wife of R. G. Sanders, of the Bee Hive store at Maryville.
No family in Nodaway county ranks higher than the Costellos, in both business and social circles.
JOSEPH B. MORRISON, M. D.
The name of Dr. Joseph B. Morrison needs no introduction to the people of Nodaway county where he has long labored in behalf of suffering humanity in one of the most trying of professions and where his name has long been a household word, consequently any laudation of his attributes on the part of the biographer would be incongruous at this time. He is now living in honorable retirement in Maryville. He was born at Coleraine, Lancaster county. Pennsylvania. January 18. 1835. He spent his boyhood on the home farm. remaining there until he was twenty-one years old. He received a good common school education. also went to Newark Academy, Newark, Delaware, Unionville Academy, Unionville, Pennsylvania, and at Coatsville Academy. Coatsville, Pennsylvania, teaching awhile in the latter institution. When twenty-three years old, in 1858. he took up the study of medicine in his native county. He took a course in the Jefferson Medical College at Phil- adelphia, from which he was graduated on March 9. 1861, and he began practice in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania. He entered the army through the medical board at Philadelphia, consisting of Samuel D. Gross, S. Weir Mitchell. D Hayes Agnew. John Neil and Henry Hartshorn, and he was ap- pointed as acting assistant surgeon in the United States army and sent to Washington City where he spent fifteen months in the general hospital. In January, 1863, he went before the board there and was examined for assist- ant surgeon in the volunteer army and received a commission as assistant surgeon with the rank of first lieutenant. and in June, 1863. he was appointed full surgeon but remained on duty in the hospital until August, when he was sent to Charleston, South Carolina, where he remained with the Union army about the forts there until the following April, being surgeon for a division until April. 1864, when he was sent to Florida and was at the battle of Olustee. On April 23. 1864, he came back to Virginia with the Tenth Corps and was stationed at Gloucester Point, and on May 5th he went with the army up the James river to meet Beauregard. The latter part of May he was at Cold Harbor and went with the Eighteenth Army Corps to join
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Grant, his division suffering heavily in that battle, he being division surgeon and having charge of the surgeons in the hospital. He was at Petersburg, Virginia, all that summer and winter, being at the battle of Fort Harrison on September 29th, where heavy losses were again sustained by his division. On February 10, 1865, he was made medical director, with the rank of lieutenant- colonel, of the Twenty-fourth Army Corps, commanded by General John Gib- bon. This corps was left at Appomattox to carry out the details of surrender, Doctor Morrison having charge of the Rebel medical stores that were turned over to the Union army. In March. 1865. he was sent with his corps to take the place of the Second Corps, which saw almost continuous fighting and fol- lowed Lee to his surrender, the Doctor being present at that time and during all the last fighting. The corps then camped at Richmond and was disbanded July 31st, and Doctor Morrison was put in charge of the district of South- west Virginia at Lynchburg, where he remained until February, 1866, his district including twenty-six counties, Doctor Morrison being surgeon-in-chief of that district. He was discharged in February. 1866, after a most faithful and commendable record.
Doctor Morrison then went to New York city and opened an office, and remained there until 1873, when he selected Maryville, Missouri, as his field of practice, and in October of that year he opened an office here, there being only one man in practice at the county seat now who was here then, Doctor Dean. Doctor Morrison had an excellent practice from the first. one of his first cases being that of old Dr. B. G. Ford, whose fingers had been bitten by a parrot, Doctor Morrison amputating the finger and saving his life. This gave him a standing here as a surgeon. In October. 1874. he had an opera- tion for strangulated umbilical hernia, he being called in as consulting surgeon with Doctor Maning of Quitman, and he operated and saved the patient's life, and he performed many similar operations, some of them truly marvel- ous for that day and age, which gave him a high standing with medical men. His army experience stood him well in hand and he had many cases of surgery in his general practice, all of which further heightened his reputation as an unusually well informed and adroit surgeon. The local medical society was organized in 1872. Doctor Morrison was its secretary several years or until it was discontinued. He continued in active and successful practice up to the latter part of 1909, doing office practice during the past several years He frequently lectured among students on the eye and ear. his lectures be- fore classes in the old seminary being highly spoken of. Of recent years he lias been an honorary member of the local medical society. He has also been a member of the State Medical Society for several years, and he was a
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member of the pension board, serving as local pension board examiner since Garfield became president. being at present secretary of the board, and he was president of the same under Garfield. He has confined himself almost ex- clusively to his practice, having contributed, from time to time, valuable articles to medical journals. His report of the Appomattox campaign is published in the "Medical and Surgical History of the War," medical volume. page 222, appendix.
The Doctor takes an active part in politics, and he was chairman of the Republican county committee in 1900-1902. He was made a Mason in New York City, in 1867. and assisted in organizing the local chapter of the Royal Arch Masons. He belonged to St. Joseph Commandery and helped organize the local commandery at Maryville, he being the first eminent commander and he has since served again in this capacity. He has been a member of the Presbyterian church since 1854. joining the same when in school at Newark. Delaware. He was elder in the church for several years. His father was an elder of the church for forty years. Doctor Morrison is a charter member of the local Sedgwick Post. Grand Army of the Republic. He was president of the Maryville school board several years.
The Morrison family is of Scotch-Irish descent, the Doctor's father's great-grandfather. Gabriel Morrison, having come to America in 1735. locat- ing in Lancaster county. Pennsylvania.
Doctor Morrison was married on July 25. 1876, at Maryville. to Belle Pankey, daughter of Col. Thomas A. Pankey, of Howard county, Missouri. and to this union three children were born : Grace L. is a graduate of Colum- bia University, of New York and is now a teacher in Miss Porter's school at Farmington, Connecticut : Paul lives at Prairieburg. Iowa : Mildred is soprano soloist at the First Methodist Episcopal church South in Little Rock. Arkansas.
HUMPHREY LYLE.
One of the best and most progressive farmers of Hughes township. Nodaway county, is Humphrey Lyle, who has utilized every convenience and utensil known to the modern agriculturist and is thereby one of the thriving and up-to-date husbandmen of this locality. for he has made the newest labor-saving devices add both to his wealth and his comfort.
Mr. Lyle, like a great number of the enterprising citizens of this county, came from the Prairie state. having been born in Adams county, Illinois.
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January 19. 1853. He is the son of Hugh and Nancy ( Hutchinson ) Lyle. both natives of Ireland, who came to America when young, finally locating in Hughes township, this county, where they died. Ten children were born to them. of whom Humphrey, of this review, was the fourth in order of birth. He was about sixteen years old when he came with his parents to Nodaway county, making the trip from Illinois in September. 1869, and he has been a resident of the county since that date. Farming, on a general plan, and stock raising and trading has always been his business, and he has been very successful in his operations here, now owning one of the best farms in the county, containing four hundred and eighty acres, all under excellent improvements and neatly kept. He has a large, comfortable dwelling and good barns and other buildings, an orchard. garden and everything that makes a rural home a pleasant place to reside in.
Mr. Lyle was married in Hughes township. January 27, 1883, to Clara Cryder, a daughter of Jonathan Cryder, one of the earliest settlers of Hughes township who lived here until his death, becoming well established. Mr. and Mrs. Lyle are the parents of four children, named as follows: Cecil ( deceased). Otis, Lon and Chester.
Mr. Lyle, while always busy with his large farm and its varied interests. finds time to lend a helping hand in all movements looking to the general advancement of his community and county. He is a Republican in politics and he and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal church.
CHARLES J. ECKERT.
That person is fortunate who has an able and clean father and a mother whose nature is pervaded with a beautiful Christian spirit, and many whose parents have been such have not fully appreciated this fact, but the destinies of most are determined by the training of parents and their example. Charles J. Eckert, one of the young farmers of Polk township, who is succeeding admirably at his vocation, was taught from the start the duties of life-not ordinary instruction. but the higher duties which all owe to each other and to society in general, and his record would indicate that he has lived up to his training.
Mr. Eckert was born in Polk township, this county, on January 20. 1877. the son of Henry and Dora (Conard) Eckert, the former a native of Penn- sylvania and the latter of Maryland. They came to Missouri when young and
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married in Nodaway county, after which they located in Polk township. where they established a comfortable home. They were the parents of three children, two of whom died in early life, Charles J., of this review, being the only surviving child. He was reared in Polk township and educated in the Maryville schools and later took a course in a business college here. Having been reared to agricultural pursuits, he has made this his life work, in connec- tion with which he has engaged, rather extensively, in stock raising and feeding. He has been very successful in whatever he has undertaken and is now the owner of a very desirable and nicely kept farm of two hundred and forty acres, and he operates five hundred and sixty acres, three hundred and twenty acres of which is owned by his father. He understands well all the diversified phases of farming and, having accomplished much so early in life. the future must necessarily have far greater rewards in store for him. He has a neat and well furnished home and plenty of good outbuildings.
Mr. Eckert was married in this township on October 3. 1900, selecting as a life partner Anna Chamberlain, who was born in Hughes township, this county, June 20, 1881. She is the daughter of Thomas W. and Eliza J. (Hall) Chamberlain, a well-known family of the southern part of the county. Mrs. Eckert was reared in Hughes township and at Maryville, and she re- ceived a very good common school education here. Four children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Eckert, named as follows: Mildred D., Pauline A., Thomas H. and Forest C.
Mr. Eckert has always taken a great deal of interest in the affairs of his county, especially in assisting to place the right men in the offices of Polk town- ship. He is loyal to the Republican principles. He and his wife are regular attendants of the Christian church, of which Mrs. Eckert is an active member. Mr. Eckert belongs to the local lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fel- lows. They are both popular in all circles of their community.
WILLIAM W. ANDREWS.
From a sterling Pennsylvania ancestry that goes back to the early days when our country and history alike were new. comes William W. Andrews, a Polk township farmer, who has tried to live up to the high standard of ex- cellency set by his progenitors, and as a result he is known to be a man of correct modes of living and has the friendship of all who know him. He was born on a farm in Chester county, Pennsylvania, September 17, 1855.
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and he has made farming his principal life work. He is the son of David and Esther (Wilson) Andrews, both natives of Pennsylvania, where they grew to maturity, receiving such education as the times afforded in the common schools, and there they were married. They became the parents of eight children, of whom William W., of this review, was the second in order of birth, and was the oldest son. He was reared in his native state, and received his educational training there. He worked at various occupations until he came West in the spring of 1877. locating in Nodaway county. Here he rented a farm and worked the same until 1880, getting a good start. In that year he came to the place where he still resides. He leased the place until 1892, when he purchased it. The farm which he now owns and successfully conducts consists of one hundred and twenty acres. He has, among his vari- ous extensive improvements, erected excellent buildings. Mr. Andrews is a breeder of fine Aberdeen-Angus stock, of which he has made a specialty since 1893, they finding a very ready market.
Mr. Andrews was married the first time, September 24. 1884. to Laura M. Russell. who was born in Marion county, Ohio, and they had one child, Fleet W., a son, born December 18, 1887. Mrs. Andrews died December 6, 1891. and Mr. Andrews was married at Pickering, Missouri, February 21. 1894, to Nellie M. Wilkinson, who was born in Nebraska, January 24, 1877 She is the daughter of Nathaniel E. and Lydia A. (Phelps) Wilkinson. The father was a native of Platte county. Missouri, and the mother a native of Illinois. They finally settled in Nodaway county, in 1891, and Mr. Wilkin- son died near Maryville, in 1901. His widow survives. Two children were born to them, of whom Mrs. Andrews was the oldest.
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