USA > Missouri > Nodaway County > Past and present of Nodaway County, Missouri Volume II > Part 31
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agriculturists of the county, keeping his lands well improved and well kept in every respect and he has a beautiful, substantial and modern home.
Mr. Wright is deserving of a great deal of credit for what he has ac- complished, considering the fact that he had but sixteen hundred dollars, a team and some household effects. He had something to do with the building of the Wabash railroad, donating four hundred dollars and bought land where the station was to be located, and he donated what was needed for switching about the station, then called Kelley, now Bedison. He also donated the right of way. This proved to be a valuable station from which to ship local stock, produce and all kinds of material. On coming here Mr. Wright located in Washington township, ten miles southeast of the county seat, but this locality was later added to Polk township. It is interesting to hear Mr. Wright recall reminiscences of the early days in this county, when the first school in the neighborhood was taught in a small log house by Laurence Growney, uncle to the attorneys of this name in Maryville. George Wood was also one of the early teachers, but Mr. Growney was the first. Mr. Wright's nearest neighbor was John G. Allen, to the west; two miles south lived a Mr. Stevens and three miles north resided John Trusty. On the prairie there was not a house from here to the Iowa line. Toward St. Joseph ran only a prairie road, it being seven miles to the nearest house. Numerous bands of Indians would trail through the country both in the fall and in the spring for three or four years after he came here, going south in the fall and north in the spring. In those days there were many prairie wolves and occasionally a black wolf was met with, which would raid the sheep folds. There were plenty of deer until the railroad was built and prairie chickens by the mil- lions.
To Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Wright the following children were born : Mary married Reuben Young, a retired farmer living in Maryville; Isaac was a merchant, lived in Idaho, and he remained single: Alice married Frank Young, of Polk township: Alexander is farming in Nebraska ; Elizabeth mar- ried Ray Stewart and lives near Bedison Station, this county : George lives in Idaho : Clara married George Parsons and is now living in Texas ; Thomas died when nine years of age: Erastus lives on a part of his father's farm; Susan married Harry Coulter and lives in Vernon county, Missouri.
Mr. Wright gave each child the sum of five hundred dollars at their marriage, and has since given each one two thousand and one hundred dol- lars, making a total of twenty-six hundred dollars to each child, besides as- sisting them as needed in business matters, loans, etc. Mr. and Mrs. Wright have thirty-two grandchildren and ten great-grandchildren.
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Mr. Wright has been a loyal Republican since his youth and since the party was started ; he is not a church man, but is liberal in his views, a well- read man and one in whom the utmost confidence is reposed by all who know him, one who takes a delight in the general development of his community and has done as much if not more for its advancement than any other. He is well known and highly esteemed.
SAMUEL C. MCCLUSKEY.
The men who have pushed forward the wheels of progress have been those to whom satisfaction lies ever in the future, who have labored continu- ously, always finding in each transition stage an incentive to further effort. Samuel C. Mccluskey, now living in honorable retirement in Maryville, is one whose well-directed efforts have gained for him a position of desirable prominence in the industrial, social and civic life of Nodaway county, and it is with a feeling of satisfaction that the writer essays to touch briefly upon the salient facts in his career.
Mr. Mccluskey was born in Allegheny county, seven miles west of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, January 1, 1836, but he grew to maturity on a farm. His father, John McCluskey, was born in Ireland and was brought by his parents to Pennsylvania when a small lad, and here he married Eliz- abeth Hall, who was born in Allegheny county. Pennsylvania. They spent their lives on a farm in that state, Mr. Mccluskey dying at the age of eighty- six years. He served as a soldier in the war of 1812, in the eastern army. Samuel C. Mccluskey, when a young man, began teaching school, his first school being in West Virginia, at Leon. It was at the time of John Brown's raid at Harper's Ferry, and he was suspected of being an emissary of Brown, and he was watched by the authorities. Being fifteen miles from town, he went there to get his mail and was asked to give an explanation of his busi- ness, and for a time he was fearful of being seized. His pupils were mostly married men who desired to learn to read.
Mr. Mccluskey finally turned his attention to dentistry, leaving his office to enlist in Battery G, Pennsylvania Light Artillery, under Captain Young, early in 1862, serving through the war and receiving an honorable discharge at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. He served with much credit in the famous Army of the Potomac. He was sent to City Point, and on an armed transport conducted prisoners to Dry Tortagus Island. He also
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guarded prisoners at Ft. Delaware and became sergeant, and was detached and sent to headquarters for special service. He received an honorable dis- charge at the close of the war, having served over three years.
Mr. Mccluskey came to Maryville in the fall of 1866. He had finished learning his profession and opened a dental office here, being a pioneer in this line. He also took up teaching in Maryville in 1867 in a school house on the site of the present high school building. a two-roomed, unplastered brick. Professor John Owens being principal and Emma Cannon Mr. Mc- Cluskey's assistant. He was teaching at the time he was elected county superintendent in the fall of 1868, and he continued to teach that year out. Prof. John Edwards was principal that year. He was a man of scholarly attainments and an attorney.
As superintendent, Mr. Mccluskey was compelled to examine teach- ers, there being about sixty teachers in the county at that time, but no visi- tation of the schools was required, except at Maryville. He performed his duties so faithfully that he was re-elected to this position for a period of fourteen years consecutively, during which time the school laws were changed three or four times, he finally being urged to visit the schools each year. During all that time he continued very successfully his dental practice. In 1866 he visited the communities between Council Bluffs and St. Joseph, pro- fessionally, but the people did not understand the need of dentistry, and it took a long time to educate them in this department of science. to prove to them the necessity of having dental work done. He continued his office for twenty years.
In the days when Mr. Mccluskey was connected with the schools of Nodaway county conditions were decidedly primitive. There was no system in the schools and teachers were poorly paid. as a rule : regular examinations were held, fifty per cent. correct answers being demanded. All failed once when about twelve made the trial, and at a second effort only three passed out of nine. Districts were small and the country had few schools owing to lack of teachers. But it was soon seen that something was needed : more and better teachers, and a higher per cent. was demanded on examinations and each teacher was compelled to work to hold a place. In 1868 the teacher who failed in Iowa could secure employment in Missouri with ease; but the system was finally reversed, and fourteen years later the teacher who failed in Missouri could get a position in Iowa.
Mr. Mccluskey engaged in the drug business for several years, selling out in 1886, then took a pre-emption claim in Colorado, where he spent two years and finally passed it up, but he enjoyed his experiences of western
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life. He also spent some time in Texas and Arkansas. Upon returning to Maryville he assisted in incorporating the town, served in its council and finally as mayor for one term. As a Republican he was a delegate to the Chicago national convention that nominated Garfield for President. He has long been influential in the councils of his party in Missouri.
Mr. Mccluskey retired from the drug trade about 1909 and is now living retired. Fraternally, he is a Mason, a member of the Union Veteran League, assisting to organize the local lodge when there were but two such lodges in Missouri, and he was elected its colonel. He is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic and was charter member of the first post organ- ized at Maryville.
Mr. Mccluskey was married at Maryville on May 5, 1869, to Anna M. Kemper, who was born in Ross county, Ohio, October 29, 1851. She came to Missouri with her sister, Mrs. J. P. Coover, the latter's husband having been formerly an attorney at Maryville. Mrs. McCluskey died on October 15, 1879, being less than twenty-eight years old. One daughter was born to this union, Maude Ethel, who is keeping house for her father.
WASHINGTON F. MERCER.
Many of the best citizens of Polk township, Nodaway county, came here from the old Blue Brass state, and, although they have found conditions entirely different from those they left behind, they have been pleased, in the main, with their new homes and have lived the balance of their days here. becoming, most of them, well fixed and comfortably located. Among these may be mentioned Washington F. Mercer, living four and one-half miles east of Maryville. He was born in Wayne county, Kentucky, August 24, 1838, the son of Richard and Lorena (Weaver) Mercer, both born in Ken- tucky. The grandfather, Nicholas Mercer, was a soldier in the war of 1812, and it was during that war that he came to Kentucky, later moving his family thither. In 1855 the family came to Savannah, Andrew county, Missouri, from which place they moved to Nodaway county, and six miles northeast of Maryville Richard Mercer entered land and there lived many years. His neighbors were the Cravenses and a Mr. Moffitt. The land roundabout was prairie, and the farm first settled by Richard Mercer is now owned by Christopher Bookman. The father of the subject lived to be ninety-three years of age, his death occurring in Ray county. Missouri.
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His family was composed of thirteen children, seven of whom were sons and six were daughters, namely: Allen R. lives in Kansas; C. Perry lives in Ray county, Missouri; Washington F., of this review; James M. lives in Ray county ; Archie H. lives in Nodaway county; John B. lives in Okla- homa : Barton Stone lives in Gentry county ; Linus Boyd died in St. Joseph ; Elizabeth married and died in Linn county, Missouri; Sarah is the wife of L. S. Wilson, of Nodaway county; Amanda married David Stewart, who is living retired in Maryville; Hannah Ann married George Williams, who is living retired in Maryville; Mary married George Anderson and died in Nodaway county about 1885 : the youngest child died at the age of four years.
Washington F. Mercer remained at home until he was past twenty- one years of age. He bought his present land, which was all uncultivated, at ten dollars per acre, consisting of one hundred and thirty acres, five miles east of the court house, and on this place he made his home for a period of thirty-five years and developed one of the best farms in the town- ship. He donated one acre to the Mt. Ayre Methodist church : he also helped build the church, but he is not a member of the same. His farm is now all in cultivation and is well improved in every respect. He carries on general farming and stock raising, growing a great deal of grain. Although going in debt for his land and rearing a large family, he has succeeded in laying by a competency and paid his land out, improved it and has a very neat and comfortable home. He began farming with few tools, had no harrow, but used a brush and a drag with which he put in his grain. The country was overrun with lots of wild game when he came here and he frequently took extensive hunts, sometimes bagging a deer and wild turkeys.
Politically, Mr. Mercer is a Democrat, but has been an independent voter. During the Civil war his sympathies were with the South, but he sent a substitute to the front in the Union army and went to Virginia City, Montana, later to Idaho City, remaining until the close of the war, having been there during the days of the vigilance committee. He has recently visited that country, and where he formerly camped in the wilds land is now worth two hundred and fifty dollars per acre. He also visited his native Kentucky home and found hundreds of his relatives. He found conditions greatly improved in that country also.
Mr. Mercer was married, on October 13, 1867, to Clarinda Wilson, daughter of Reason and Sarah (Clapp) Wilson. She was born March 20, 1848, in Clark county, Illinois. He came to Nodaway county, Missouri, in the spring of 1865 and settled in the bottoms just east of Maryville,
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where he died at the age of seventy-one years. The following children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Mercer: Rosetta married Columbus Moss and died wlien twenty-five years old, leaving two children, Roland and Alma Idella, both of whom were reared by Mr. Mercer; Andrew is a ranchman in Montana; Lucinda married P. J. Alexander, of Nodaway county, and is now living in Montana; Levi is a ranchman in Wyoming; Benjamin F. is with his brother in Montana; Dabie died at the age of eighteen; Albert is a farmer in Nodaway county; Catherine is living at home; Leona married Louie Whited, of Lincoln township, Nodaway county; Fisher is living at home.
JOHN G. THORNHILL.
Among the citizens of Nodaway county whose lives have been such as to gain for them success and at the same time contributed to the welfare of the community in general, the name of John G. Thornhill should be in- cluded, for such are the men who are eminently entitled to representation in a publication of this nature, and we are glad to incorporate a review of his life history herein.
Mr. Thornhill, after an active and well-directed life, is living retired in his cozy Maryville home. He is a native of the Sunflower state, having been born in Ft. Scott, Kansas, July 22, 1858, the son of Achilles and Nancy (Groves) Thornhill, both natives of Grant county, Kentucky, from which they moved to Illinois. They then went to Kansas in 1857 and in 1861 came to Nodaway county, Missouri. The father devoted his life to farming and was successful wherever he plied his vocation ; also engaged in stock raising. He settled in Lincoln township in the northeast corner, within one mile of Bradyville, Iowa, which is on the state line. He bought wild prairie land and traded his Kansas land, developed a good farm in Lincoln township and lived there until 1870, when he moved to the north part of Atchison county. In 1875 he went to Texas, locating in Grayson county on a farm where he spent the remainder of his life, dying on November 22, 1878, at the age of fifty-eight years. Two years later his widow moved to Iowa with her five children, of which number John G. was the youngest. He and his brother, Thomas A., came to Nodaway county and began working on a farm seven miles northwest of Maryville, in Polk township. Their sister Josie came here and married A. C. Cadwell: Thomas A. now lives in Chau- tauqua county, Kansas. One sister married Lafe Dawson and had re-
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mained in Nodaway county. The mother came here and died at her home on August 2. 1882. She had kept the farm, which Thomas A. finally bought and on which he lived until he went to Chautauqua county, Kansas, about 1900; Mrs. Dawson now lives in Maryville.
About twenty years ago John G. Thornhill bought his present farm on which he lived until recently. He has two hundred and eighty acres of choice land, well improved and very productive. He gave his close attention to his place until he retired in 1898, since which time he has lived in Mary- ville; however, he still operates the farm, carrying on general agricultural pursuits, giving considerable attention to stock raising. For this land he paid thirty, forty and forty-five dollars per acre. Land near his farm is now selling for about one hundred and twenty-five dollars per acre. Mr. Thornhill's place is one of the best and one of the most desirable in the township, being in one of the very best sections of the county. In the fall of 1909 Mr. Thornhill built a modern, attractive and substantial home in Maryville at the corner of Market and Sixth streets.
Mr. Thornhill is a Democrat, but no politician. He has served in the city council twice, but has resigned from this position.
On May 21, 1882, Mr. Thornhill married Sarah E. Workman, daughter of William and Margaret (Weaver) Workman, whose sketch appears on another page of this work. Her family has long been well established and influential in their community, and she has proved to be a fit companion for a man of Mr. Thornhill's characteristics, which are such as to stamp him as a worthy, energetic, reliable and genteel gentleman. This union has been blessed by the birth of the following children: Nellie E. married J. D. Newlon and lives in South St. Joseph, Missouri; Ola married Lon Lyle, a farmer in Hughes township, Nodaway county, Missouri; William A. is living at home. Both daughters graduated from the Maryville high school, and Nellie taught very successfully in Nodaway county for five years.
Mr. and Mrs. Thornhill are members of the Christian church of Mary- ville. Mr. Thornhill is a member of Nodaway Lodge. No. 470, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons.
JAMES M. JOHNSON.
Nodaway county has been the home and the scene of the successful labors of many able, broad-minded and public-spirited citizens, and stand- ing as a worthy representative of this class is the gentleman whose name appears above. He has long enjoyed an enviable record as one of the
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progressive farmers and stock growers of Nodaway county, where he has long maintained his home and devoted his attention to the development of a fine farm which is situated in Polk township and so well managed that it yields its owner from year to year a comfortable income, he being now able to live comfortably in the attractive city of Maryville, enjoying that rest which his former labors so richly entitle him to.
James M. Johnson was born in Anderson county, eastern Tennessee, on July 31. 1841, and was there reared to manhood, receiving a fair education in the common schools of the neighborhood. During the Civil war he went to Kentucky as a refugee to avoid conscription in the Confederate army. At the close of hostilities he returned to his home, but in 1867, believing that better land and opportunities lay further to the northwest, he started for Kansas. On the way he stopped with relatives in Illinois, who persuaded him to go to Nodaway county, Missouri. He followed their advice and after remaining here several years he, in 1872, bought eighty acres of land in Polk township. this county, lying six miles northwest of Maryville. His total cash capital at that time was two thousand dollars, but he at once went to work with a will, improved his property and by diligent efforts and good management he was enabled to purchase adjoining land until eventu- ally his holdings amounted to two hundred and fifty acres, for which he paid from eighteen to fifty dollars an acre. He erected good farm buildings and all the improvements he made were permanent and substantial in nature. He here carried on general farming operations, but gave particular atten- tion to the breeding and raising of good livestock, which he found to be a very profitable source of income. He exercised sound judgment and wise discrimination in all his operations, and consequently justly merited the success which rewarded his efforts. Having reached a condition of compar- ative independence, Mr. Johnson, in 1904, retired from the active labor of the farm and came to Maryville to reside, having acquired here a very attractive and comfortable residence property. He still owns the farm and in a measure keeps in touch with its operation, though he leaves its actual operation to other hands.
On September 2, 1869, Mr. Johnson was united in marriage to Lucy Archer. of Campbell county, Tennessee, and they became the parents of the following children: Florence, who is the wife of W. T. Gray, a commer- cial salesman residing at Maryville: Henrietta, who was a successful teacher in Nodaway county, became the wife of Samuel K. Clark, and she died in Colorado at the age of thirty-six years: Flossie, who was formerly a music teacher, is now the wife of R. T. Jones, of White Cloud township, this
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county ; Walter E., who also was a teacher in the Nodaway county schools, is a mechanic residing in Pickering; Leonard Luster is a traveling sales- man for a St. Louis carpet house; Ernest Archer is employed as a stenog- rapher in a railroad office at Little Rock, Arkansas; Floyd O. died at the age of twenty-one years; Bonnie Myrl is a teacher in the schools at Elmo, this county; Lois is a student in the Maryville high school with the class of IgII.
Politically, Mr. Johnson is an ardent Republican, and, though never an office seeker, he was elected a justice of the peace and served in that capacity eight years, to the entire satisfaction of all. Religiously he and his wife are members of the Missionary Baptist church, to which they are generous givers of their time and means. He is a man of sterling qualities of character and enjoys in a marked degree the respect of all who know him.
WILLIAM WOODS.
No farmer in Nodaway county carries on his work in all its diversified lines with more careful discrimination and foresight that tends to definite success, than the gentleman whose name appears above, who has developed a fine farm in Green township. Mr. Woods is a native of the old Buckeye state, having been born at Newark, Ohio, on the 3d day of June. 1841. He is a son of Jesse and Martha (Spencer) Woods, both of whom also were natives of Ohio, where for many years the father successfully carried on agricultural pursuits. In 1855 he brought his family to Illinois, where he followed similar lines until 1874, when he came to Nodaway county, Missouri. and located on a farm west of Burlington Junction. He there carried on farming operations for a number of years and then retired. his death occur- ring at Burlington Junction. He was a stanch Democrat in his political faith and an earnest and consistent member of the Cumberland Presbyterian church. He possessed many splendid qualities of character and commanded universal respect in the several communities where he had lived. To him and his wife were born ten children, of which number seven grew to years of maturity.
The subject's maternal grandfather. Gen. John Spencer. of Scotch-Irish ancestry, was born in Huntington county. Pennsylvania, and served in the war of 1812, attaining the rank of general. Mr. Woods has in his possession a letter written by General Spencer to his brother William, dated April 23. 1815. General Spencer married Elizabeth Moore. of Pennsylvania. and they
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had the following children: William, John, David, Charles, Mary Eliza- beth, and Martha and Catherine (twins), Martha having been the mother of Mrs. Woods. On April 30, 1827, General Spencer was drowned three miles north of Newark, Ohio, having settled in 1805 on a farm north of that city and residing there at the time of his death, his remains now resting there. His wife died on February 19, 1830, and her remains were laid beside those of her husband. Religiously, they were both members of the Presbyterian church.
William Woods was reared on the paternal farmstead and is indebted to the public schools for his educational discipline, this having been liberally supplemented during the subsequent years by extensive reading and habits of close observation. He accompanied the family on their removal from Ohio to Illinois, and in the latter state he devoted himself to the tilling of the soil until 1871, when he came to Nodaway county, Missouri, locating in Green township, where, the year before. he had bought eighty acres of land, all of which was practically unimproved. He at once put up the necessary farm buildings and when he had things in presentable shape sent back to Illinois for his wife, whom he had recently married. They resided on this farm until 1908, and in the meantime brought the place up to the highest standard of excellence. Other lands were added to the original farm from time to time. the farm eventually comprising about five hundred acres and ranking with the best farms in Nodaway county. Mr. Woods erected a comfortable and attractive residence in Burlington Junction, in the midst of a twenty-acre tract and there he is now living, having in some measure relinquished the active toil which characterized his years on the farm. He gave his attention to a general line of farming, including the raising of livestock, principally hogs and cattle, and in all his operations he met with a gratifying measure of suc- cess. He has other business interests aside from farming and is a director in the County Mutual Insurance Company.
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