USA > Missouri > Carroll County > Portrait and biographical record of Clay, Ray, Carroll, Chariton, and Linn Counties, Missouri, containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens > Part 92
USA > Missouri > Chariton County > Portrait and biographical record of Clay, Ray, Carroll, Chariton, and Linn Counties, Missouri, containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens > Part 92
USA > Missouri > Clay County > Portrait and biographical record of Clay, Ray, Carroll, Chariton, and Linn Counties, Missouri, containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens > Part 92
USA > Missouri > Linn County > Portrait and biographical record of Clay, Ray, Carroll, Chariton, and Linn Counties, Missouri, containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens > Part 92
USA > Missouri > Ray County > Portrait and biographical record of Clay, Ray, Carroll, Chariton, and Linn Counties, Missouri, containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens > Part 92
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HIE DEMOCRAT PRINTING COMPANY. The members of this company are Charles B. Oldham and J. E. Dismakes. The Den- crat was established in 1886, and the present firm in 1889. It is a Democratic journal of eight page". six columns, and is issued weekly in the interest of the party, the county and the people. In conner- tion there is a job office, where the work done ps of a superior quality and style.
Charles B. Oldham is a son of George R. ON. ham. Cashier of the People's Bank. Our subjet was born near Keste-ville, and in Der2 came to this city with his father. He acquired a practical
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education in the public schools, after which he aided his father in the store. In 1886, realiz- ing that his education was not sufficient for the demands of an active business life. he entered the Lincoln University, at Lincoln, Ill., where he re- mained for two years, and then attended Ozark College, of Missouri, which was managed by the same president. On his return home Mr. Oldham purchased an interest in the Democrat, which paper he has since continued in the capacity of business manager.
J. E. Dismukes, the senior member of the firm, was born and reared in the Blue Grass Region of Kentucky, and was partly educated in the publie schools of Lexington, in that State. He came to Howard County, Mo., in 1868, where he farmed and taught in the public schools for seven years. In the year 1876. he located in Salisbury and worked on the Press and Press-Spectator until 1883. when he purchased a half-interest in the paper, the firm being Dismukes & Gallemore. He sold his interest four years later to the present owner, and purchased a half-interest in the Democrat, the firm then being Dismukes & Brown, but afterward was changed to Dismukes, Oldham & Co. Ile later sold his interest to Ashley Dameron, and in 1892 again purchased a half-interest in the Democrat with his present partner. C. B. Oldham.
fork of the Yellow Creek, in Linn County. This one house was owned by the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad. The merchant who occupied it having failed, the house was rented by Father Hogan, and the services held there were attended by railroad laborers and backwoodsmen.
Father logan was invited to the house of a back- woodsman, who treated him to a supper of squashes and melons, which were eut by a broken bit of seythe blade. The man had neither table. cutlery nor utensils of any kind, the puncheon floor serv- ing for table and chairs. The house taken by Father Hogan stood two feet above the ground on posts and the space beneath was occupied by hog>, whose squealing compelled him to finally abandon it for sleeping purposes; for. like Cawdor. they banished sleep. The railroad laborers kindly built him a small shanty, and here he entertained the en- gineers and others who came his way. It was pos- sible for him to accommodate one or two persons in a measure of comfort, but when a crowd came he had to place them "side and side," heads and points. Centre Point was soon after abandoned and Brookfield was started. and about this time he purchased a horse called "John the Baptist." be- cause he had received it from an old Baptist preacher. The first church was built by Father Ilogan. then living at Chillicothe, who had charge of it till he was made Bishop.
Fathers Tucker, Brogan ( who was drowned in a creek near the town that summer), Dodge and Welch each, in turn, carried on the work inaugu- rated by Father Hogan. Subsequently Father Torney built the schoolhouse, where three Sisters of st. Joseph have charge and instruct from seventy to eighty-five pupils. The good priest in charge has erceted a new church edifice. with dimensions. on the outside. of 48x117 feet 10 inches, and which bears the name of the Church of the Immaculate Conception. The parish has increased from ninety to about one hundred and thirty familie- since Father Torney took charge, January 1, 1879. For a time he was engaged in mission work. but for the past several years has devoted himself exclu- sively to his charge at Brookfield.
R EV. WALTER TORNEY. The first mass ever held in Brookfield was celebrated De- cember 20, 1859. by Rev. Father John J. Hogan. now Bishop of Kansas City, at the residence of Patrick Londrigan. After this mass services were held regularly once a month at the houses of James Tooey and Michael MeGowan. Father Hogan first came to Centre Point by stage from Brunswick, Mo., by river from Jefferson City, and on the Missouri Pacific from St. Louis, where he then lived. He left the latter place September 8, 1859, for Centre Point, which then contained but one house, used for a store and a dwelling. It was one of the characteristic towns on paper, so Father Torney was born in County Cavan. by frequent in those days, and was located on the east | the side of Lough Sheelin, in the same region of
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country that Dean Swift lived when he wrote his famous works. He came to the United States when eighteen years old and was educated at Bonaventure College, a Franciscan institution lo- cated at Allegany, N. Y., where he received a full theological course, having completed a classical training at Dublin before leaving his native land Ile was adopted by this dioce-e, and came to St. Joseph, where he was ordained in Anguss, 1871, by Bishop Hogan and assigned to the missions north of St. Joseph as far as Hamburg, Iowa. He devoted himself to this duty and to cathedral work at St. Joseph's for four years, when, by appointment of Bishop Hogan, he took charge of the Brookfield parish.
Right-Rev. John Joseph Ilogan, Bishop of Kan- sas City, in a book entitled "On the Missions in Missouri from 1857 to 1868." says, that in June of the former year he turned his face toward North Missouri and took the North Missouri, now Wabash, Railroad as far as Warrenton, its terminus. It was his desire to go into the interior, where there were no priests, and build a chapel or two as a mueleus for future congregations. Near Warren- ton men were busy grading the road, and a con- tractor with whom he was acquainted lent him a horse taken from a cart, a rather poor saddle an- imal, which bore him through Montgomery, Au- drain, Randolph and Macon Counties. At Macon City he turned Westward toward Linn County and while crossing the Chariton swamp was ac- costed by a young man, who was riding a finely caparisoned steed. When he was told what the purpose of Father Hogan was, he said. "There are no Catholics here; why do you wish to erect a church?" and reply was made that he and the priest might live to see the day when there were Catholics on every hill around that place. Ile re- sponded, "Yes. when the Chariton runs upstream. Good-bye."
The missionary passed through Linn and Liv- ingston Counties, and learning the needs of the people returned to Brunswick, going thence to St. Louis. In the following September he returned to Brunswick, and proceeded thence to Centre Point, a "paper" town in Linn County. After a brief residence there he learned, as he naively puts it, I
that "Centre Point was anything but a centre point." so borrowed a horse and rode to Chilli- cothe, where there was at that time but a single Catholic, a lady who was the wife of an attorney. The good priest accepted an invitation to hold mass in her house and the entire audience con-isted of himself and the family of his hostess. Mass was said for the first time, as previously stated. at Brookfield December 20, 1859. Besides Mr. Londrigan, James and Patrick Tooey, railroad contractors and residents of Brookfield, were val- uabile belpers in the building of the church, which was begun in 1860, and dedicated in August of that. year.
R OBERISON MOORE is to-day one of the oldest living carly settlers in the coun- ties of Chariton and Howard, in the latter of which he makes his home. Ile is like- wise one of its prominent men, having held many offices in these counties, and having been a wit- ness of the early pioneer days. When only a lad of ten years, he commeneed to carry the mail -. and did so for four years following, through the wilderness to old Franklin. Fayette and Liberty. The journeys between these towns were fraught with danger, as the country was full of wild ani- mals and Indians.
Mr. Moore was born in Kentucky, in the year 1812, his parents being John and Rebecca ( Rich- ardson) Moore, natives of North Carolina and Tennessee respectively, the latter's birth having occurred within one mile of the old Andrew Jack- son place. The father served in the War of Is12. and his ancestors, who were of Irish descent. were Revolutionary soldiers. The subject of this sketch is one of ten children, only four of whom are lis- ing. lle was married in ISAI to the daughter of Samuel Maddox, of Kentucky, and to them was born one child in 1818. The latter, J. S., who married a Miss Hurt, was engaged in the liv- ery business until his death in 1887. His wife died in 1865.
Robertson Moore received a common-school
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education, his studies being completed by his if. teenth year, when he went in as a clerk in a store in old Chariton, remaining there for some time, and in 1811 engaged in farming. After following the life of a steamboat clerk for a short time, be purchased a piece of land in Chariton County, consisting of three hundred aeres, for which he paid $10 an aere. This he greatly improved, put. ting up a good house. the old one having been burned, together with four barns. by the Federal soldiers. The same day they also confiscated fif- teen head of horses. Mr. Moore has bought and sold large tracts of land, and at one time was the owner of about one thousand acres of farm land. which was principally sitnated in Chariton County. In addition to his industry as an agricuiturist, he dealt largely in merchandise after the war, which business he carried on for three years and then sold out. Two of his improved faris for which he received 830 an aere are to-day worth $50 per acre.
Politically, our subject is a Democrat. and on that ticket was elected to the office of Sheriff of Chariton County, which position he held for eight years, it being the same otlice his father had held in the Territory from 1819 to 1820, In 1856 Mr. Moore was elceted to represent the county in the Legislature, to which he was sent for two sessions. All the members of that body suffered severely during the war, as their property was confiscated and many of them imprisoned. For many years Mr. Moore has been a member of the Baptist Church and an active worker in the same.
OL. CHARLES II. WOODSON is a veteran of the late war, having risen to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in the Confederate army. lle is.one of the honored early settlers of Chariton County, of which he is now Deputy- Sheriff, and is also engaged in contract and build- ing work, with his headquarters at Salisbury.
The Colonel was born in Howard County. Mo., December 20, 1811, and is a son of John Woodson.
a native of Cumberland County, Va. His grand- father. Richard Woodson, was a planter in the Okl Dominion and of English descent. Our subject's father was a farmer by occupation and came to Missouri in a very early day, taking up land which be improved near the village of Roanoke, Howard County, where he resided until his death in 1841. He participated in the War of 1812. and was an old-line Whig. Ihs wife, who was born in Cum- berland County, Va., was in her maidenhood Miss Mary Webster; she was called from this life in 1849. Of her eleven children who grew to mature years only five are now living. One son. Archer. went to Colorado in 1852. where he was success- fully engaged in mining. and he enlisted from that State in the Federal army. He was sent to Vir- ginin, and in the battle of Martinsburgh our subject captured him and as he was in command of the regiment he fell into his hands in regard to his disposal. He was paroled and given the limit of the camp until his exchange, which was afterward effected, and he is now, as formerly, a resident of Colorado.
The Colonel was reared in Howard County, and was left an orphan when quite young. He was taken by Mrs. Ruth Loekridge, who adopted him and gave him common-school advantages. He re- mained with that lady until he was old enough to learn a trade, when he commenced at carpenter work at Roanoke. On April 16, 1861, at the first tap of the drum, he volunteered in the State mil- itia for six months under Jackson, in Price's regi- ment. Ile took part in the battles of Carthage. Wilson Creek. Dry Wood. and Lexington, and after the engagement at Saux River was discharged and returned home. Ile was captured in Ran- dolph County and sent to St. Louis, then to Alton Military Prison, where he remained for two months. Ile managed to sceure a buteher knife and tunneled a distance of many feet under the walls, and by this means made his escape to Baltimore, Md. .Ile enlisted in the Seventh Virginia Cavalry, Company D. of the Confederate service, in the spring of 1862, as a private soldier under col. T. Ashby. In that campaign he took part in the bat- tles of Winchester. Harper's Ferry, Martinsburgh. Bunker Hill, Ruder Hill and New Market. From
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the fall of 186t the Colonel took command of the Sixty-second Virginia Regiment and went on a raid from Lynchburg through the Kanawha Valley and thence to Winchester. He was commander of the regiment till the close of the war and was commissioned Lieutenant-Colonel of the same. He was present at the siege of Richmond and when that stronghold was evacuated he went with the army to Appomattox Court House, leaving the same morning with the regiment for Blue Ridge. At the end of ten days he received notice from the General that the army of north- ern Virginia had surrendered and that it was the duty of all commanding officers to do likewise. Accordingly he surrendered in April. 1865. to . Gen. Hancock, and at once returned home. Hle was once, while in command of the regiment at New Market, struck by a piece of shell. and at an- other time, while cheering the soldiers on to the capture of a battery, he was cut across the breast, knocked twenty feet and was taken to the hospi- tal while insensible, but at the end of ten days he was able to rejoin his regiment. though he still suffers from the effects of the bleeding from the lungs. At the battle of Charleston, while charging the earthworks, his horse fell, pitching him forward, and he received a sabre wound in the forehead. Ile made his escape, as his regiment held the place and he went right on with them. At Cumberland, Md., our subjeet was in command of two compan- ies, capturing Gen. George B. Crook and twenty- one other staff officers. The former was ex- changed for the son of Gen. Lee, but during the time Gen. Crook was held a captive he became very friendly with Col. Woodson and the friend- ship was kept up in later years, and some time afterward our subject gave Crook the sword which he had surrendered.
On returning from the war Col. Wood-on eame to Salisbury and in the fall of 1865 engaged in his former work as a carpenter, which he followed steadily for two years. In 1867 he wedded Mrs. Julia Doxey, who was born in St. Louis and is a daughter of Philander Salisbury. of that eity. Soon after his marriage Col. Woodson located on a farm of three hundred aeres, which he engaged in cultivating for three years, when. on account of
his wife's health, he returned to Salisbury and has since rented his homestead. He has contracted and built many wooden and iron bridge- in this vieinity. Our subject has been honored with a number of local positions; in 1865 he was made Deputy Constable and in the fall of that year was Deputy Sheriff under Sheriff Kinzie Beach and has served in that capacity up to the present time. For several terms he was Deputy-Marshal and was Marshal for nearly two years. Ile is a mem- ber of the State Confederate Association and has been a member of the County Democratie Commi- tee. having been also sent as a delegate frequently to county and State conventions. His one son, Clarence. is a clerk in the Salisbury Lumber Com- pany.
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8 AMUEL JOHNSON, a well-known and suc- cessful agriculturist of Chariton County, Mo .. is the subject of the present sketch. Ile is pleasantly located on section 25, town- ship 53, range 18, in this line old county. where he still retains one hundred and sixty acres of land, and upon which he has erected a modern two-story residence, containing seven rooms, at a cost of $3,000, and has surrounded the home with convenient and attractive outbuildings suitable for comfort. Our subject was born in Howard County, Mo., in 1820, and is the son of Samuel and Matilda Johnson, natives of Madison County. Va., where the grandparents were also born. Our subjeet is one of a family of four children. as fol- lows: Polly, who was born in Virginia in 1s12. married William Jones, and they resided in Chari- ton County until she died, in 1861; Elizabeth, who was born in 1815, married Nelson Freeman and resided in Chariton County until her death, in March, 1888; Sallie. born in 1817, married Grandville Botty, and they also resided in Chari- ton County, where she died in 1882.
The mother of our subject married a second time, Thomas Cravens becoming her husband, and by this marriage there were born six children. ail of whom are now deceased. Our subject was edu- cated in the common school of Howard County,
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Mo., the schoolhouses being built of logs, where the children received their instruction under many difficulties. He married Barbara Hershey, a na- tive of Montgomery County. Md., January 2, 1815. She was born in 1823, a daughter of David and Magdalene Hershey. The following children were born to our subject and wife: Evaline, born in Fayette, Howard County, Mo., March 3i, 1847, married William T. Spence. and they have a for- ily of three children and live in Kansas, where Mr. Spence is a farmer: David, born in Chariton County in 1849, married Miss Betty Nickerson, who died in 1880, and he then married Miss Han- ilton, and they have a family of four children. The next member of the family was George T., born in 1851, and married to a Miss Lamb. They reside in Chariton County and have one child: William, a farmer, born in 1853. married Miss Blakey, resides in Chariton County and has a family of six children: Christian. a farmer, born in this county, May 22. 1856, married Ethel Hayes and has five children; and Mary E., born September 29, 1861, married .I. I. Mason, and they had one child, who died in 1887. Mr. Mason is a farmer and teacher.
In 1848 our subject located in Chariton County, renting a place for two years, but at the expira- tion of that time he purchased from Henry Mar- shall a traet of one hundred and twenty acres, for which he paid 8700, very little of this being eni- tivated. At the time of purchase there were two log cabins on the place, and in one of these he settled with his wife and baby. and went to work clearing the land. After the first purchase was well enttivated, our subject soon saw another tract which suited his taste. and this sixty acres soon became his own. he paying therefor $21 per acre; then he bought another tract of one hundred and twenty acres, for which he paid $35 per acre; and still another traet, for which he paid $10 per acre. All of this land was onee his and was well cultivated, but half of it he has given to his chil- dren, and hence has but one hundred and sixty to look after at present. This land he values at $15 per acre, and upon it he raises principally wheat, corn and cattle, his gross receipts per annum being something like $2,000, which income has often
enabled bim to place money to his credit in the bank ile has a fine orchard, containing one hun- dred and fifty trees.
Our subject isa member of the Christian Church at Shannondale, Mo., which church edifice he helped to build. and in which he has been an Elder for twenty years, his wife and children joining him in membership. For the past twenty years he ha- been a member of the order of Ancient Free & Accepted Masons. Politically, he is a Democrat. and while not an aspirant for office, he takes a deep interest in the affairs of his party. During the late war he was a sympathizer with the South- ern cause and suffered many hardships. Our sub- ject suffered from a sad affliction February 3. 1889, as at that date his good and faithful wife' was removed by death. Many were the expres- sions of regret for the loss of so kind and lov- able a woman.
S. CONLEY is the owner of a desirable farm in Clay County, on section 15. town- ship 52, three miles from the village of Prathersville. He was born in Kentucky in the year 1833, and is a son of John S. Conley. al-o a native Kentuckian. who believed in rearing his boys to work, and did not deem an education necessary to the future welfare and success of his children. Ile therefore gave them no chance to learn anything but the hard work of the farm, though he loved his children in his way with as much affection and desire for their success as any father. Owing to this our subject was reared without educational advantages, but being keen-witted and quick to learn, he has succeeded nevertheless in acquiring a fair general and business knowledge of men and affairs, which almost equally answers the purposes of every-day life.
In 1851 Mr. Conley was married to Miss Sallie Boone, a descendant of the Daniel Boone family. who was born in Virginia in 1832. They have four children. three sons and a daughter, and it is the father's main object in life to give them the benefits of a good publicschool education, of
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which he was himself unfortunately deprived. Our subject is of Irish descent, his grandfather having emigrated from the Emerald Isle when but a young man. Mr. Conley is a man of sterling worth and integrity, one who has seen much of the "ups and downs" of life. but who has never been discouraged, nor has relinquished the faith he has always held, that he was ultimately des- tined to succeed.
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Our subject is the owner of two hundred and forty acres of line arable land. well adapted to general farming and stock-raising. Good and substantial buildings are upon this desirable farm, and the place bears the marks of thrift and neat- ness to a marked degree. In his religious views he is a Catholic, as is also his family, and though he has been a lifelong Democrat, he has lately be- come a believer in the principles of the People's party.
R ICHARD F. ASBURY owns a well-improved famn of one hundred and forty acres on seetion 29, township 54, range 29, Ray County. and is considered one of the lead- ing agriculturists of this region. His birth oe- curred May 26. 1836. in Christian County, Ky. His father, S. W. Asbury, was a native of Virginia, where he resided until reaching his twentieth year, when he removed to Kentucky, where he was married. In 1811 he removed to Missouri, settling in the southwestern part of the State, in Dade County, where he followed blacksmithing and farming for some years.
Our subject's mother bore the maiden name of Netta Scott, and was born and reared to woman- hood in Kentucky. In 1846 our subject's parents removed to Ray County, settling in Richmond. where Mr. Asbury turned his attention mainly to blacksmithing until the year 1852, when he re- , moved to Lexington, and after living there about four years returned to Richmond. In 1878 he settled in Lawson, and after remaining there for some years finally went to Colorado, where he is still making his home and is now in his eighty-
third year. During the Mexican War he raised a company for service, but hostilities had terminated before they were called into action. For years he has been a loyal worker in the Christian Church, Ilis wife has been dead many years.
Richard F. Asbury has four brothers and two sisters living. He was reared and educated in Missouri, and attended the public schools of Ray County. At the age of twenty-six years he wa- married to Miss Lizzie Anderson, formerly of Ken- tucky. Three children were born to them, two of whom are living. Ida and Mattie. They have both been given good educations and are still at home. After his marriage our subject engaged in business in Richmond, where he was located for about fifteen years, after which he went to Colorado, where he lived for about a year. Re- turning to Richmond, he made that city his home until 1882, when he engaged in the grocery busi- ness at Lawson, Mo.
Our subject's first wife died in the year 1870, and some time after he married Miss Ella Medows, whose father is a resident of this county. Five children have been born of this union, as follows: Verna, Maude, Halleck. Sybil and Harry. Mr. As- bury was brought up in the Christian Church. to which he now belongs. In pohties he is a Demo- erat, and fraternally belongs to Bee Hive Lodge, A. F. & A. M. In 1879 he purchased a farm. on which he is now living. The place is well im- proved and in a good state of cultivation. The owner oversees the work and gives his special at- tention to raising crops of grain.
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