USA > Missouri > Johnson County > Portrait and biographical record of Johnson and Pettis counties, Missouri ; containing portraits and biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens of the counties, together with biographies and portraits of all the presidents of the United States > Part 8
USA > Missouri > Pettis County > Portrait and biographical record of Johnson and Pettis counties, Missouri ; containing portraits and biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens of the counties, together with biographies and portraits of all the presidents of the United States > Part 8
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 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85
The silver question precipitated a controversy between those who were in favor of the continu- ance of silver coinage and those who were op- posed, Mr. Cleveland answering for the latter, even before his inauguration.
On June 2, 1886, President Cleveland married Frances, daughter of his deceased friend and part- ner, Oscar Folsom, of the Buffalo Bar. Their union has been blessed by the birth of two daugh- ters. In the campaign of 1888, President Cleve- land was renominated by his party, but the Republican candidate, Gen. Benjamin Harrison, was victorious. In the nominations of 1892 these two candidates for the highest position in the gift of the people were again pitted against each other, and in the ensuing election President Cleveland was victorious by an overwhelming majority.
٥
BENJAMIN HARRISON.
BENJAMIN HARRISON.
ENJAMIN HARRISON, the twenty-third President, is the descendant of one of the historical families of this country. The first known head of the family was Maj .- Gen. Harrison, one of Oliver Cromwell's trusted followers and fighters. In the zenith of Cromwell's power it be- came the duty of this Harrison to participate in the trial of Charles I., and afterward to sign the death warrant of the king. He subsequently paid for this with his life, being hung October 13, 1660. His descendants came to America, and the next of the family that appears in history is Benjamin Harrison, of Virginia, great-grandfa- ther of the subject of this sketch, and after whom he was named. Benjamin Harrison was a mem- ber of the Continental Congress during the years 1774, 1775 and 1776, and was one of the original signers of the Declaration of Independence. He was three times elected Governor of Virginia.
Gen. William Henry Harrison, the son of the distinguished patriot of the Revolution, after a successful career as a soldier during the War of 1812, and with a clean record as Governor of the Northwestern Territory, was elected President of the United States in 1840. His career was cut short by death within one month after his in- auguration.
President Harrison was born at North Bend,
Hamilton County, Ohio, August 20, 1833. His life up to the time of his graduation from Miami University, at Oxford, Ohio, was the uneventful one of a country lad of a family of small means. His father was able to give him a good education, and nothing more. He became engaged while at college to the daughter of Dr. Scott, Principal of a female school at Oxford. After graduating, he determined to enter upon the study of law. He went to Cincinnati and there read law for two years. At the expiration of that time young Har- rison received the only inheritance of his life-his aunt, dying, left him a lot valued at $800. He regarded this legacy as a fortune, and decided to get married at once, take this money and go to some Eastern town and begin the practice of law. He sold his lot, and, with the money in his pocket, he started out with his young wife to fight for a place in the world. He decided to go to Indian- apolis, which was even at that time a town of promise. He met with slight encouragement at first, making scarcely anything the first year. He worked diligently, applying himself closely to his calling, built up an extensive practice and took a leading rank in the legal profession.
In 1860, Mr. Harrison was nominated for the position of Supreme Court Reporter, and then be- gan his experience as a stump speaker. He can-
¥08
BENJAMIN HARRISON.
vassed the State thoroughly, and was elected by a handsome majority. In 1862 he raised the Seventeenth Indiana Infantry, and was chosen its Colonel. His regiment was composed of the raw- est material, but Col. Harrison employed all his time at first in mastering military tactics and drill- ing his men, and when he came to move toward the East with Sherman, his regiment was one of the best drilled and organized in the army. At Resaca he especially distinguished himself, and for his bravery at Peachtree Creek he was made a Brigadier-General, Gen. Hooker speaking of him in the most complimentary terms.
During the absence of Gen. Harrison in the field, the Supreme Court declared the office of Supreme Court Reporter vacant, and another person was elected to the position. From the time of leaving Indiana with his regiment until the fall of 1864 he had taken no leave of absence, but having been nominated that year for the same office, he got a thirty-day leave of absence, and during that time made a brilliant canvass of the State, and was elected for another term. He then started to rejoin Sherman, but on the way was stricken down with scarlet fever, and after a most trying attack made his way to the front in time to participate in the closing incidents of the war.
In 1868 Gen. Harrison declined a re-election as Reporter, and resumed the practice of law. In 1876 he was a candidate for Governor. Although defeated, the brilliant campaign he made won for him a national reputation, and he was much sought after, especially in the East, to make speeches. In 1880, as usual, he took an active part in the campaign, and was elected to the United States Senate. Here he served for six years, and was known as one of the ablest men, best lawyers and strongest debaters in that body. With the ex- piration of his senatorial term he returned to the practice of his profession, becoming the head of one of the strongest firms in the State.
The political campaign of 1888 was one of the most memorable in the history of our country. The convention which assembled in Chicago in June and named Mr. Harrison as the chief st.ind- ard-bearer of the Republican party was great in every particular, and on this account, and the at-
titude it assumed upon the vital questions of the day, chief among which was the tariff, awoke a deep interest in the campaign throughout the nation. Shortly after the nomination, delegations began to visit Mr. Harrison at Indianapolis, his home. This movement became popular, and from all sections of the country societies, clubs and delegations journeyed thither to pay their re- spects to the distinguished statesman.
Mr. Harrison spoke daily all through the sum- mer and autumn to these visiting delegations, and so varied, masterly, and eloquent were his speeches that they at once placed him in the fore- most rank of American orators and statesmen. Elected by a handsome majority, he served his country faithfully and well, and in 1892 was nom- inated for re-election; but the people demanded a change and he was defeated by his predecessor in office, Grover Cleveland.
On account of his eloquence as a speaker and his power as a debater, Gen. Harrison was called upon at an early age to take part in the dis- cussion of the great questions that then began to agitate the country. He was an uncompromising anti-slavery man, and was matched against some of the most eminent Democratic speakers of his State. No man who felt the touch of his blade desired to be pitted with him again. With all his eloquence as an orator he never spoke for ora- torical effect, but his words always went like bul- lets to the mark. He is purely American in his ideas, and is a splendid type of the American statesman. Gifted with quick perception, a logi- cal mind and a ready tongue, he is one of the most distinguished impromptu speakers in the nation. Many of these speeches sparkled with the rarest eloquence and contained arguments of great weight, and many of his terse statements have already become aphorisms. Original in thought, precise in logic, terse in statement, yet withal faultless in eloquence, he is recognized as the sound statesman and brilliant orator of the day. During the last days of his administration Presi- dent Harrison suffered an irreparable loss in the death of his devoted wife, Caroline (Scott) Har- rison, a lady of many womanly charms and vir- tues, They were the parents of two children,
b
JOHNSON AND PETTIS COUNTIES MISSOURI
١٥
INTRODUCTORY.
HE time has arrived when it becomes the duty of the people of this county to per- petuate the names of their pioneers, to furnish a record of their early settlement, and relate the story of their progress. The civilization of our day, the enlightenment of the age and the duty that men of the pres- ent time owe to their ancestors, to themselves and to their posterity, demand that a record of their lives and deeds should be made. In bio- graphical history is found a power to instruct man by precedent, to enliven the mental faculties, and to waft down the river of time a safe vessel in which the names and actions of the people who contributed to raise this country from its primitive state may be preserved. Surely and rapidly the great and aged men, who in their prime entered the wilderness and claimed the virgin soil as their heritage, are passing to their graves. The number re- maining who can relate the incidents of the first days of settlement is becoming small indeed, so that an actual necessity exists for the collection and preser- vation of events without delay, before all the early settlers are cut down by the scythe of Time.
To be forgotten has been the great dread of mankind from remotest ages. All will be forgotten soon enough, in spite of their best works and the most earnest efforts of their friends to perserve the memory of their lives. The means employed to prevent oblivion and to perpetuate their memory has been in propor- tion to the amount of intelligence they possessed. The pyramids of Egypt were built to perpetuate the names and deeds of their great rulers. The exhu- mations made by the archeologists of Egypt from buried Memphis indicate a desire of those people
to perpetuate the memory of their achievements. The erection of the great obelisks were for the same purpose. Coming down to a later period, we find the Greeks and Romans erecting mausoleums and monu- ments, and carving out statues to chronicle their great achievements and carry them down the ages. It is also evident that the Mound-builders, in piling up their great mounds of earth, had but this idea- to leave something to show that they had lived. All these works, though many of them costly in the ex- treme, give but a faint idea of the lives and charac- ters of those whose memory they were intended to perpetuate, and scarcely anything of the masses of the people that then lived. The great pyramids and some of the obelisks remain objects only of curiosity ; the mausoleums, monuments and statues are crum- bling into dust.
It was left to modern ages to establish an intelli- gent, undecaying, immutable method of perpetuating a full history-immutable in that it is almost un- limited in extent and perpetual in its action; and this is through the art of printing.
To the present generation, however, we are in- debted for the introduction of the admirable system of local biography. By this system every man, though he has not achieved what the world calls greatness, has the means to perpetuate his life, his history, through the coming ages.
The scythe of Time cuts down all ; nothing of the physical man is left. The monument which his chil- dren or friends may erect to his memory in the ceme. tery will crumble into dust and pass away; but his life, his achievements, the work he has accomplished, which otherwise would be forgotten, is perpetuated by a record of this kind.
To preserve the lineaments of our companions we engrave their portraits, for the same reason we col- lect the actainable facts of their history. Nor do we think it necessary, as we speak only truth of them, to wait until they are dead, or until those who know them are gone: to do this we are ashamed only to publish to the world the history of those whose lives are unworthy of public record.
HON. J. H. BOTHWELL ..
BIOGRAPHICAL.
ON. JOHN H. BOTHWELL, B. S., LL. B., an able and leading attorney of Sedalia, Mo., has done more for this place than almost any other man. He is now serving as Vice-Pres- ident of the Sedalia National Bank and as Presi- dent of the Board of Trade. He was a member of both the Thirty-fifth and Thirty-eighth Gen- eral Assemblies of the Missouri Legislature, serv- ing with distinction in that body.
Mr. Bothwell was born in Maysville, Clay Coun- ty, Ill., in November, 1848, and is a son of James K. Bothwell, a native of Athens County, Ohio. The grandfather of our subject, whose name was also James Bothwell, was born in the North of Ireland, of Scotch parentage, and came with his parents to the New World when a child, they locating in Virginia, where James was reared. He later went to Geneva, Pa., where he was mar- ried, and removed to Athens County, Ohio, set- tling in the portion which is now comprised in Vinton County. There he engaged in agricult- ural pursuits, meeting with excellent success, and reared a large family of children.
The father of our subject located in Clay Coun- ty, Ill., over a half-century ago, and there, in con- nection with farming, also dealt in merchandise in Clay City. He married Marian Brissenden, who was born in Edwards County, Ill., and is a daugh- ter of John Brissenden. Her parents came from England, and were pioneers of the Prairie State, where they arrived in the early part of this cen-
tury, and made a location in Edwards County. Of the seven children born to Mr. and Mrs. Both- well, five grew to maturity, while four are still living: H. C., who is County Treasurer of Clay County, Ill .; Hon. John H .; James, a resident of Seattle, Wash .; and Florence, who resides on the old home. The father is still living at the ripe old age of seventy-six years, and is a stanch Re- publican in politics.
The primary education of John H. Bothwell was begun in an old log schoolhouse with punch- eon floor, after which he attended school in a frame building in Maysville, and still later in one of brick in Clay City. He remained at home un- til he had reached the age of seventeen, when he entered the State University at Bloomington, Ind., completing the scientific course in the Class of '69, when he received the degree of B. S. He then traveled a few months, after which he began the study of law in Edwards County, Ill., with A. B. Matthews; subsequently he went to Spring- field, Ill., studying with the firm of Stewart, Ed- wards & Brown. Major Stewart was at one time preceptor and partner of Abraham Lincoln, of whom he was ever a warm personal friend. Our subject later went to Albany, N. Y., and gradu- ated from the law school there in the Class of ' 71, receiving the degree of LL. B., at which time he was also admitted to the Bar, being licensed to practice in both the New York and United States courts.
118
PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
In the same year Mr. Bothwell located in Se- dalia, where he opened a law office, and after en- gaging in practice for one year, formed a partner- ship with F. Houston, the firm being known as Houston & Bothwell. This connection continued for twelve years, when it was dissolved by mutual consent, after which Mr. Bothwell joined his brother-in-law, William V. Jaynes, and the firmn became Bothwell & Jaynes. This continued until his partner's death, in July, 1891, since which time he has practiced alone. He is connected with various business interests, having served as Vice-President of the Sedalia National Bank for two years, and is a very successful loan agent. He owns a farm of three hundred acres ten miles west of Sedalia, besides much valuable real es- tate in the city, including both business and resi- dence property, and has erected several brick blocks. He also laid out the Bothwell & Weed Addition to Sedalia, and organized the Midland Saving & Loan Company, of which he was sec- retary and manager, but resigned on account of not having sufficient time to devote to the duties of the same.
In 1884, in this city, Mr. Bothwell married Miss Hattie E. Jaynes, the eldest daughter of Col. A. D. Jaynes, who is now deceased. She was born in Athens County, Ohio, and was educated in the Wesleyan Female Seminary of that state. She was called to her final rest in 1887.
In politics Mr. Bothwell takes a prominent part, and was elected in 1888, on the Republican ticket, to the Thirty-fifth General Assembly, represent- ing the eastern half of the county, which was then divided into two districts. He served on the Judiciary Committee, as well as the one on peniten- tiaries, and during the term introduced several important bills. At the close of that session he was appointed on the committee which revised, compiled, annotated and published the revised statutes of Missouri of 1889. In1 1892, while on a two-months trip to Europe, he was made Chair- man of the Republican State Central Committee, serving from April, 1892, until August, 1894. when his successor was elected. In 1894 he was elected to represent Pettis County in the Leg- islature, receiving a majority of four hundred over
his opponent, and he was a candidate in the Re- publican caucus for Speaker of the House.
Mr. Bothwell introduced the resolution which was passed to remove the capitol to Sedalia, which had frequently been attempted during the preceding eighteen years. It was a master stroke on his part. After he had secured its passage through the House, Senator Yeater, also of Se- dalia, managed and supported it in the Senate. He served on a number of important committees, including the Judiciary, which was the leading committee of the House; the one on Criminal Fees and Costs; the one on the permanent Seat of Government, and on Rules.
Besides his many other business interests, Mr. Bothwell is now serving as President of the Seda- lia Board of Trade. He has not only visited Europe, but has traveled very extensively in his own country; having visited three-fourths of the states of the Union, going from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from the Lakes to the Gulf. He is one of the most brilliant attorneys of Sedalia, and ranks high among his professional breth- ren in the state. He has met with excellent suc- cess in almost everything he undertakes, and as a public man has a record of which he may well be proud.
- -
ON. JOHN H. HEWES, the efficient and popular Mayor of Holden, has been seven times elected to this responsible position, first in April, 1885, and the last time in April, 1895. In the first-mentioned year he also qualified as a Justice of the Peace, and by continuous re-elec- tions has held the office ever since. Though he has rendered decisions on numerous cases, very few have been reversed on being appealed. An active Republican, he has often served his party as a delegate to county and district conventions.
David Hewes, father of the above gentleman, was born in Maine, as was also his wife, who be- fore her marriage bore the name of Mary Sawyer. . The father was a blacksmith by trade, and was
119
PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
also a successful farmer. About 1851 he moved to Beaver Dam, Wis., where he purchased an eighty-acre farm, on which he made his home for a short time. Later, however, he moved to the town just mentioned, and worked at black- smithing.
John H. Hewes was born in Hampden, Me., July 13, 1838, and was thirteen years of age when the family moved West. He attended school in his native state, and for three years was a student in the high school of Beaver Dam, Wis. When in his seventeenth year he returned to Maine, and there spent two or three years. While still a youth, he was made Deputy Re- corder of Buffalo County, Wis., and also Clerk in the postoffice at Montello. In 1861 he enlisted in Company H, Sixteenth Wisconsin Infantry, and took part in the battles of Shiloh, Corinth and Iuka. During this time he was in Grant's command, and subsequently participated in the siege of Vicksburg and in the engagement at Milliken's Bend. At first he was a musician in the band, and did not carry a musket until after the battle of Shiloh, when, the members of the band being scattered (only three being left), he volunteered to enter the regular service. He was elected Orderly-Sergeant, serving as such until he resigned. Returning to the band, he con- tinted in that department until he was discharged, in the fall of 1864.
For a year Mr. Hewes carried on a hotel in Beaver Dam, and then went to Jefferson, Iowa. Soon afterward he was employed in the Re- corder's office as Deputy Clerk of the Circuit Court, holding the same office for about a year. Later, going to Washington County, Neb., he made a set of abstract books, and was soon ap- pointed Clerk of the Circuit Court, under Judge Crounce, which office he held until resigning, in 1869, when he came to Holden. During the next ten years he was employed as a clerk in a dry-goods store, but, becoming interested in the insurance business, he opened the office which he has since conducted for the transaction of that branch of work.
February 25, 1868, Mr. Hewes was married, at Jefferson, Iowa, to Frances L. Little, who died
in February, 1883. She was on her way home from prayer-meeting, but before she reached it died suddenly from heart disease. She was the mother of five children, all of whom survive, and . are as follows: Cora F., wife of R. L. James, of Kansas City; Fred B., Bessie F., Louie B. and May A. August 19, 1885, Mr. Hughes married Hattie B. McClelan, of Holden, but whose birth occurred in Springfield, Ohio.
Socially Mr. Hewes was for years a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, but the lodge to which he belonged surrendered its char- ter, and he has not joined any other lodge since. In the latter order he filled a number of positions in the local lodge, and has served as an official in the blue lodge and chapter of the Masonic fra- ternity, which he joined at Ft. Calhoun, Neb. While a resident of Jefferson, Iowa, he helped to organize the Grand Army post there, of which he was one of the charter members, and is now a member of Winfield Scott Post, G. A. R., of Holden. Several times he has served as Adju- tant, and at present is Post Commander. He and his wife are members of the First Presbyterian Church of Holden, and are active workers in the congregation.
HOMAS WARD, whose name is familiar as a successful farmer of Johnson County, now makes his home in township 47, range 27. The Buckeye State has furnished many of the leading citizens of this county, and not least among them is Mr. Ward, who was born in Pains- ville, Ashtabula County, Ohio, on the 22d of November, 1836. He is the third in a family of seven children born to James and Mary (McCar- ty) Ward, but has only one brother now living, Timothy.
James Ward was a native of New York, where his boyhood days were spent, and there he ac- quired his education in the common schools. He learned the trade of a stone-mason, which occupa-
120
PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
tion he made his life work. On reaching man- hood he was married, and shortly after emigrated to Ohio. He did not remain in that state very long, however, but on securing work on the peni- tentiary at Jackson, Mich., in 1838, he removed to that city. There he followed his trade for some four years, at the end of which time he lo- cated on a farm which he had purchased and de- voted his time to agricultural pursuits. For over fifteen years lie made that place his home, when, his sons all leaving him, he returned to the city, where he spent the remainder of his life, dying about 1867.
Thomas Ward, whose name heads this record, was but eleven months old when taken by his parents to Michigan, most of his boyhood days being passed upon the home farm. He there grew to manhood, in the mean time acquiring a fair education in the common schools. After he had attained his majority he left the parental roof, embarking on the rough voyage of life for himself. For three years he was employed in a mill during the winter, while in the summer months he worked in a brick-yard, which was very profitable. On the expiration of that time, being a young man full of ambition, he was taken with the "gold fever," and, shouldering his pick, started for Pike's Peak. Crossing the plains from St. Joe, Mo., with a wagon train in 1860, he arrived at his destination about the Ist of June, and went to work with a will. Being un- skilled in mining, his funds were soon exhausted and he then worked for wages. During the first winter he experienced many hardships and priva- tions, but the following spring he and his part- ner began again, being undaunted by their previ. ous failure, and now success crowned their ef- forts. In the fall, however, Mr. Ward announced his intention of returning to St. Joe for the winter. His partner tried to dissuade him, telling him that his patriotic spirit would cause him to en- list in the service, as the Civil War was then in progress, but our subject thought not, and prom- ised to return the following spring.
But shortly after his arrival at St. Joe, Mr. Ward joined the Fremont Light Guards, the com- manding officer being Colonel Catherwood. There
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.