USA > Missouri > Nodaway County > Past and present of Nodaway County, Missouri Volume II > Part 17
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
747
NODAWAY COUNTY, MISSOURI.
and his wife were the parents of two sons and two daughters. Mr. Hawkins was a Democrat, but did not take a very active part in political affairs.
Emmit A. Hawkins was educated in the common schools of Warren county, Illinois, and when a young man he went to Montana with his uncle and there continued his schooling, and there he remained until he was twenty- one years of age, then returned to Warren county, Illinois, and there, in 1877, married and took up farming as a livelihood and remained there several years. He came to Missouri March 1, 1880, with his family, and he purchased eighty acres of land in Atchison township, Nodaway county. The land had been improved, and here he remained three years, then launched in the lumber busi- ness in Braddyville and Clarinda, Page county, Iowa, and for several years enjoyed a fair measure of success in this line. He finally returned to the com- munity where he first settled in Atchison township, and in 1894 he purchased one hundred and sixty-five acres where he now lives, having since that time added forty acres. He has an excellent farm, well improved and well tilled, on which he has erected new and substantial buildings, attractive in design and well suited to his needs.
Besides carrying on general farming, Mr. Hawkins is a breeder of Pol- and-China hogs, white-faced cattle, also draft and driving horses. His stock finds a ready market owing to their excellent quality. Mr. Hawkins is presi- dent of the Mutual Telephone Company of this place and its increasing suc- cess is due to his able management of its affairs. Politically he is a Republican and he is a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons.
To Mr. and Mrs. Hawkins the following children have been born : Rox- anna, of Fort Morgan, Colorado; Otis Leroy, of Aurora, Kansas; May and Claron Bradshaw are living at home.
JAMES E. ALEXANDER, SR.
As a result of his former years of industry and good management James Alexander is now living in honorable retirement at Pickering, Nodaway county, enjoying the comforts of life and the friendship of his many ac- quaintances who esteem him for his many years of activity in their midst, his public spirit and strict honesty. He was born near Belleville, St. Clair county, Illinois, February 13, 1834, the son of William and Parthena (Jones) Alexander, the former a native of Louisiana and the latter of Tennessee. The father died when James was six years old, in 1840, in Washington county, Illinois. His widow married a Mr. Shoemaker and went to Warren county, near Monmouth, Illinois, to reside, remaining there until James was
748
PAST AND PRESENT
sixteen years old, then, in 1849, moved to near Centerville, Iowa, and there James grew up in a new country. He hired out to do farm work when fourteen years old, receiving eight dollars per month, later for nine dollars. Until he was twenty-one years of age he turned his wages over to his mother. He had no opportunity to attend school. but had a start in life when twenty- one, owning two yoke of cattle. In 1855, when twenty-two years old, he married Maria Hendre, who was two years his senior, their wedding oc- curring five miles east of Centerville. Mrs. Alexander was born in Vigo county, Indiana, twelve miles northeast of Terre Haute. They first met in Appanoose county, Iowa. In 1856 he came to Nodaway county, with about three hundred dollars; he owed eighty dollars back in Iowa, which he sent to the man he owed. His brother John had located in Nodaway county. He and his brother came on horseback to the Platte river country and in the spring of 1856 he came with the rest of the family. locating on a farm near Sheridan ; the father-in-law, then advanced in years, came there also and spent the last twelve years of his life with James, dying June 21, 1886, at the ad- vanced age of ninety-seven years, having been born on September 2, 1789.
James Alexander got land on the Platte river in Independence township. It was county swamp land, which he purchased at one dollar and twenty- five cents per acre, buying one hundred and one acres. The county could not give good title, so when the war began he turned his attention to stock raising, paying two dollars and fifty cents per head for calves which he kept two years and sold for thirty dollars each, thus enabling him to repurchase his land at the same price and the following year he was enabled to pay it off. He kept stock on the place and made money. He remained on that farm unil 1875, nineteen years. He accumulated during that time three hundred and fifty-six acres, paying one dollar and twenty-five cents, four and five dollars per acre, and some at ten. He sold out in 1875. realizing ten thousand dollars, about six thousand being from the land. He moved to Maryville for the purpose of educating his daughter. He bought a farm two miles north of the depot of the Kansas City railroad, one hundred and sixty acres on the Pickering road, and moved thereto. Later he bought one hundred and twenty acres at thirty dollars per acre, and he retained this place six years. He ap- propriated the fine range about him and sold much stock "off the grass." About 1884 he sold the farm for ten thousand dollars and moved to White Cloud township. fourteen miles south of Maryville, buying two hundred and forty acres for five thousand and two hundred dollars. It was an improved farm but there was no "range." He farmed there six years, then sold his personal property, including considerable stock, but not the farm, realizing about six thousand dollars, and moved into Maryville, renting his farm at
749
NODAWAY COUNTY, MISSOURI.
seven hundred dollars per year. Four years later he sold the farm for ten thousand dollars. In the meantime he had bought his present home in Pick- ering and one hundred and forty acres adjoining the town, paying thirty- seven and one-half dollars per acre. He later added one hundred and twenty acres at sixty dollars per acre, making a farm of two hundred and sixty acres in a body, which is all now worth one hundred and fifty dollars per acre. Later the village expanded and took two blocks off his land. Soon after buying here he built his present attractive and substantial home, one of the most desirable in this part of the county, and moved to it in 1892, and he has since lived retired. His son-in-law, James L. Neal, is operating his farm, which is highly improved, and on which stands an orchard of about fifty acres, which alone has paid him four thousand and four hundred dol- lars in one season. Mr. Alexander also owns a very valuable place of one hundred and twenty acres in the bottoms of the One Hundred and Two river, also owns two business houses in Pickering, the drug store occupying one brick and harness shop in the other. He has made a great success in whatever he has undertaken since coming to Nodaway county, being a good manager and a keen observer, his relations with his fellow-men having ever been such as to inspire their confidence and good-will.
Mr. Alexander has been a Democrat all his life and a Union man, but he has never found time to devote much attention to public affairs or seek office ; however, he is always on the right side of all local questions and supports whatever tends to make for the general good. He has been a member of the Christian church for forty years.
The following children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Alexander: Mary Ann, wife of James L. Neal, who operates the home place, is the mother of three children living; Gertie Mae is a graduate of the high school and normal school. Maryville. Missouri, and taught for some time in this county ; she married Daniel S. Robinson, of Union township: Chloe Ervin : James Neal.
HENRY DIEM.
A man of marked individuality, the subject of this review is a typical representative of that large and enterprising class of agriculturists to whom the great commonwealth of Missouri owes much of its prosperity and development, and his record shows him to have been faithful in the performance of his duty in the community, to his neighbors and to himself.
Mr. Diem was born in Venango county, Pennsylvania, on March 30. 1858. He was reared on the home farm until the age of twenty-one years,
750
PAST AND PRESENT
and during the years of his boyhood he secured a good practical education in the public schools of the Keystone state. In 1879 he started for Kansas, but soon afterwards came to Nodaway county, engaging in farm work for Rev. D. C. Gann. On February 18, 1890, Mr. Diem married, in Rhode Island, Ada Rhodes, the daughter of Samuel and Ellen Rhodes, who came to Nodaway county when she was nine years old, buying the farm now owned by Mr. Diem. They lived there until about 1889, when they returned to their former home in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, where the father had formerly been engaged in the manufacturing business. He subsequently died at Providence, Rhode Island. On leaving Nodaway county they sold the farm which they had owned here, and which was close to where Mr. Diem had lived. After his marriage he was employed about two years at farm work, and during the following two years he operated rented land, at the end of which time he bought the farm now owned by Mr. Cottrell, on which he erected a good set of farm buildings and developed it into a good farm. In August, 1907, he sold this place; afterwards bought the splendid farm on which he now resides and which was formerly the home of Mrs. Diem, though he bought it of John Lieber. The place, which is located one and a half miles south of Maryville, is highly improved and the land is practically all in cultivation and yielding bountiful crops in return for the labor be- stowed, it being considered the equal of any eighty-acre tract in the township. Mr. Diem, through his progressive methods, indomitable energy, wise man- agement and sensible economy has been prosperous in all his undertakings and is numbered among the successful men of the community. All he has is the result solely of his own earnest efforts, he having started life here on the magnificent salary of five dollars per month and board, soon afterwards given a promotion to thirteen dollars, and from that time on he has steadily risen step by step to his present comfortable position. In addition to a line of general farming, Mr. Diem also gives some attention to the raising of livestock, principally cattle and hogs, in which he has been successful.
Mr. and Mrs. Diem are the parents of a daughter, Jennie, who remains at home and who is popular in the social circles in which she moves, being a young lady of pleasing personality and kindly manners. Mr. Diem is per- sonally popular with all who know him, because of his sterling qualities and genuine worth.
ROBERT LYLE.
Among the enterprising and successful farmers of Polk township, Nod- away county, Missouri, none stands higher in the esteem of his fellow-
75I
NODAWAY COUNTY, MISSOURI.
citizens than the gentleman whose name heads this sketch. Persistent indus- try, well-directed effort and sound business judgment have been the con- comitants which have contributed to the success which has crowned his labors, and his sterling integrity and upright life have gained for him uni- versal respect.
Robert Lyle was born at Quincy. Illinois, on March 1, 1851, and he is one of eight children, seven sons and one daughter, born to Hugh and Nancy H. (Hutchison) Lyle. These parents were natives of Ireland, born in county Derry, though of Scotch-Irish ancestry. They emigrated to the United States soon after their marriage and located in Pennsylvania, where he was employed as an iron worker. In 1865 he had bought a tract of wild prairie land in Hughes township, four and a half miles east of Graham, for which he paid from two and a half to five dollars an acre, and in 1867 the family located on this land, where the father remained until after his second marriage. His wife died in the fall of 1889 and in 1893 he married again at Allegheny, Pennsylvania, and thereafter made his home in Washington, D. C., though he frequently made visits to his children in Missouri. He died suddenly on October 13, 1897, at the home of his son, adjoining the old home farm, while on one of his annual visits here, and during the days just preceding his death he had been enjoying himself apparently to an unusual degree. His second wife, who had borne the name of Amelia J. Roland, had been, prior to her marriage to Mr. Lyle, a clerk in the pension depart- ment at Washington, having succeeded her first husband in this position. She now resides in Maryville, though spending much time with her hus- band's children elsewhere in Missouri. The children born to Hugh and Nancy Lyle were as follows: James, retired, who is now living on the farm at Graham; William John died in Hughes township at the age of forty- eight years; Robert, the immediate subject of this sketch; Humphrey, a farmer in Hughes township: Rankin is a retired farmer and now lives in Maryville: Hugh Hutchison is a farmer in White Cloud township, this county ; Alexander Payne lives in Hughes township; Sarah, deceased, was the wife of James B. Robertson, of Hughes township.
Robert Lyle remained at home with his parents until he had attained his majority and received a good practical education in the public schools. He then bought eighty acres of land. to the operation of which he devoted his attention and in which he was eminently successful, being enabled to add other tracts by purchase. until he became the owner of two hundred and thirty-eight and a half acres, for which he had paid from thirty to forty-five dollars an acre. He erected good buildings and operated the farm continuously until 1903, when he sold or exchanged that land at a valuation
752
PAST AND PRESENT
of sixty-eight and a quarter dollars an acre, his present farm being acquired at a valuation of eighty dollars an acre. He now owns the George Moffatt farm of three hundred and twenty acres, lying three miles southeast of the court house, comprising as fine a body of land as can be found in the county and on which are a fine set of buildings, everything about the place being modern and up-to-date, he having spent considerable money in improve- ments since acquiring the place. It is widely known as the "Elwood Stock and Poultry Farm," and Mr. Lyle has gained a wide reputation as a raiser of thoroughbred Percheron horses, Red Polled cattle, and Barred Plymouth Rock chickens. the latter department being in the hands of Mrs. Lyle, who has shown a particular aptitude for this special work. The product of their efforts commands good prices, the superior quality being rec- ognized generally by good judges.
On May 29, 1883, Mr. Lyle was married to Mary C. Roelofson, who was born in McLean county, Illinois, and is a sister of former public admin- istrator, J. F. Roelofson. She came to Nodaway county prior to her mar- riage, and was engaged in teaching school, having formerly taught in Illinois. Mr. and Mrs. Lyle are the parents of seven children, namely: Harry, who is engaged in the real estate business at Maryville; Lester, a telegraph operator at Orr, Nebraska; Floy graduated from the Maryville high school with the class of 1910: Virgil is a freshman in the same school; Aubrey, Omer and Vivian are at home.
Politically. Mr. Lyle is an ardent Republican and takes an intelligent interest in public affairs, being at the present time a member of the school board. He took an active part in the organization of the local telephone lines, and is the present treasurer of the company. Mrs. Lyle and the chil- dren are members of the Christian church, to which they give an earnest and liberal support. Mr. Lyle is widely recognized as a man of superior business ability, and his influence has always been exerted in behalf of the best interests of the community along all lines. Genial and courteous to all, he is deservedly popular throughout the locality where he lives.
ALFRED CHARLES BARBER.
Among the prominent and successful citizens of Nodaway county, Mis- souri, who have attained success through their own well-directed efforts, stands Alfred C. Barber, of Monroe township. He was born in Adams county, Illinois, on May 5, 1848, and is a son of William and Eliza (Hammond) Bar- ber. William Barber was born in England, the son of John Barber. He was
Mus, a. C. Barber
Q @ Barton
753
NODAWAY COUNTY, MISSOURI.
reared in his native land, where he received a fair education, and then learned the trade of a carpenter. About the time he attained his majority he came to America, locating first in Canada, but eventually he came to "the States," locating in Ohio, probably at Cleveland. While a resident of Ohio he married Eliza Hammond, who also was a native of England and the daughter of Thomas Hammond, who brought his family to the United States, locating in Ohio. For a time after their marriage William Barber and wife lived in Vermont, but later they went to Illinois locating at Mendon, near Quincy, where their eight children were born, namely: Two that died in infancy ; Mary, the wife of Joseph Burk: Newton H .; Alfred C .; Maria Ann, who died after her marriage to John K. Hicks : William H., Frederick C. In 1873 the family came to Nodaway county, locating four miles west and three miles north of Skidmore, in the southwestern part of Green township, where A. C. and Newton H. had settled in 1871, where they had two hundred and forty acres of land. There William Barber bought a farm of one hundred and sixty acres of new land, and at once set himself to the task of breaking the land and improving the farm. They lived there twelve or fifteen years and then moved to Skidmore, where they spent the remainder of their days, the mother dying there in 1891 and her husband about two years later. Both par- ents were earnest Christians, the father being a member of the church of Eng- land and the mother of the Methodist Episcopal church.
Alfred C. Barber was reared on the Illinois homestead and in the com- mon schools of that locality he secured a fair education. He came to Nod- away county in 1871 and bought a farm in the same neighborhood as that in which his parents afterwards located. About two years later he sold that farm and bought another one in the north edge of Burr Oak Grove, west of Skidmore, and there made his home until about 1892, when he sold out and moved to Colorado, but about two years later he returned to Nodaway county and bought his present farm of one hundred and twenty acres, located three and a half miles west of Skidmore. It was the first land in that neighborhood to bring as high a price as fifty dollars an acre, being now worth more than three times that figure. On this place the family have resided since and the place has been developed by Mr. Barber into one of the choice farms of that section of the county. Neat and attractive buildings, well kept fences and fertile and well cultivated fields give the place an air of prosperity that reflects great credit on its owner, who has given an intelligent and practical direction to his efforts.
In 1877 Mr. Barber married Ann M. Coston, the daughter of Alonzo M. and Ann (Hays) Coston. She was born in McDonough county, Illinois.
(48)
754
PAST AND PRESENT
but when a baby she was left an orphan by the death of her mother. She was brought to Nodaway county by her father and she was reared in the fam- ily of Capt. John Grigsby, whose wife was her mother's sister. To Mr. and Mrs. Barber have been born nine children, namely: John F., who is men- tioned elsewhere in this work; Lillian C., wife of Clinton C. Knepper, of Atchison county, six miles west of Skidmore; they have two sons, Guy and Neal; Lucy E. is the wife of Halford Botkin, of Atchison county, and they have one daughter, Mary Rebecca; Vera R., who is a graduate of the Tarkio Musical School, is now teaching music in Creston; Maria Ann, a teacher, is at present attending the normal school at Maryville; Alonzo, who is a graduate of the commercial department of Tarkio College, is farming for himself and makes his home with his parents; Viola, Glo and Frank R. are at home with their parents.
Politically, Mr. Barber was a Republican by "inheritance," and in early life was an active worker in the ranks of that party, but he found sound rea- sons for changing his position and he voted for Peter Cooper for President. and he has ever since that time voted for the men whom he considered best qualified for the offices they sought, regardless of political lines. He was twice elected justice of the peace in Monroe township on the Democratic ticket. Fraternally, he is a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, belonging to the blue lodge at Skidmore and the chapter of Royal Arch Masons at Maryville. Religiously, he and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal church, to which they give a generous support. In every avenue of life's activities in which he has engaged, Mr. Barber has been true to every trust and because of his ability and upright life he com- mands the unqualified esteem of the people with whom he has lived for so many years.
ARCHIBALD R. HARPER.
The names of those men who have distinguished themselves through the possession of those qualities which daily contribute to the success of private life and to the public stability and who have enjoyed the respect and confidence of those about them, should not be permitted to perish. Such a one is the subject of this review, one of the leading agriculturists of Polk township, Nodaway county.
Archibald R. Harper was born in Dekalb county, Illinois, on March 10. 1878, and the early years of his life were spent on the paternal farmstead,
755
NODAWAY COUNTY, MISSOURI.
his education being received in the public schools of the neighborhood. In 1903 Mr. Harper came to Nodaway county and bought a fine farm of three hundred and twenty acres on One Hundred and Two river, it being splendid bottom land, for which he paid sixty-five dollars an acre, the place being eligibly located about six miles northeast of Maryville. Mr. Harper erected a full set of substantial farm buildings and in other ways made many splendid improvements on the farm, which is numbered among the best pieces of agricultural property in the township. Mr. Harper has followed the most advanced methods in his work, not the least of which was the laying of a vast amount of drain tile, at a cost of approximately two thou- sand five hundred dollars. Though bottom land, the situation is so favor- able that but a very small part of the land is ever overflowed, therefore Mr. Harper is almost sure of his crops. Because of his wife's health, Mr. Harper removed to Maryville in 1909. but is now back on the home farm. Mrs. Harper, whose maiden name was Mary Bartlett, a native of Dekalb county, Illinois, died on April 2, 1909. at the age of twenty-nine years, her death being due to consumption. In June, 1908, Mr. Harper went to Colo- rado Springs, Colorado, with the hope that his wife would recover her health. They were there one year and a half, but Mrs. Harper did not improve and died while there. They became the parents of four children, one of whom died one week after her mother. The three living children are Gladys E., Earl B. and A. R., Jr. Mr. Harper gives his active attention to the operation of the home farm, raising all the crops common to this sec- tion of the county, and also gives considerable attention to the raising and feeding of livestock, in which he has met with a gratifying measure of success, his special attention being given to cattle and hogs. He is devoted to his work and is achieving a distinctive success of it, being numbered among the enterprising and up-to-date farmers of his community.
CHARLES E. CARR.
Among the men of influence in Nodaway county, Missouri, who during their active lives had the interests of their locality at heart and who led con- sistent lives, thereby gaining definite success along their chosen lines, was the gentleman whose name appears at the head of this sketch. he having been regarded as one of the leading farmers of the county, owning a valu- able and highly-productive landed estate, which he managed with that care
756
PAST AND PRESENT
and discretion that stamped him as an agriculturist and business man of the highest order. He was a man among men, stood "four square to every wind that blew," and enjoyed to a remarkable degree the confidence and esteem of his fellow-men.
Charles E. Carr was born in Onondaga county, New York, on August 31. 1833, and was a son of Daniel and Rhoda (Watson) Carr, the former a native of Rhode Island and the latter of New York. The subject was reared under the parental roof, and when two and a half years old the family re- moved to Cattaraugus county, New York, fifty miles from Buffalo, and in that community he received his education in the common schools. At the early age of sixteen years he began teaching school, continuing his peda- gogical labors there for three years. Then for the same length of time he was employed as clerk in a store in New York city, where he gained valuable experience. Going then to Lasalle county, Illinois, he again engaged in teaching, but a few months later he turned his face westward with the inten- tion of locating in California. On the way he passed through southwestern Iowa, and was attracted by the fine land there, and at once decided to secure some, acquiring a tract near Braddyville, on the state line, where he lived until 1867, with the exception of one and a half years which he spent in Idaho, going there in 1863. In March, 1874, Mr. Carr located on the fine second bottom lands of the One Hundred and Two river, five miles southeast of Maryville, where he secured fully a thousand acres. Here he developed a fine farm and became one of the most extensive as well as one of the most successful farmers and stockmen of Nodaway county. His start in life for himself was in a very modest way. His first team was a yoke of two-year- old unbroken steers which he secured in payment for forty days' labor. He was keenly alive to his opportunities, however, and by dint of strenuous and persistent labor, rigid economy and good financial management, he was soon on his feet and on the road to prosperity. He never forgot the days of his early struggles, and after he had acquired means he gave financial assistance to many less fortunate men endeavoring to get a start, by loan- ing them money, for the use of which he asked but a nominal interest, never taking advantage of the urgent need or misfortune of others. His sterling integrity and high . personal character gained for him the universal esteem of all who knew him, and he enjoyed a large circle of warm personal friends. He died on February 5, 1907, at College View, Nebraska, his death being deeply regretted by all who knew him.
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.