USA > Missouri > Grundy County > The History of Grundy County, Missouri : an encyclopedia of useful information, and a compendium of actual facts > Part 49
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HISTORY OF GRUNDY COUNTY.
1877 assisted in surveying and mapping the county. In the fall he was elected principal and superintendent of the high school, Princeton, where he met with most flattering success. In the fall of. 1878 he was induced to return to Edinburg and take charge of the public school again. During this time he had been an active worker in the "Teachers' Institute " of which he was president, and here as well as in the school-room, had distinguished himself as an able and efficient educator. And in 1879, the time for the election of county commissioner of public schools, he was largely petitioned by teachers and others to run for the office, and although not in the race one week was elected by a handsome majority. In the fall he was elected assistant superintendent and first assistant teacher in the schools where he graduated. In the summer of 1880 he retired from the teacher's profession and embarked in the mercantile business in which he is at the time of this writing engaged. It is justly due to say that in his retiring from teaching the profession lost one of its most faithful, efficient and worthy members, who has done much for the cause of education in this part of the State. He still held the office of county commissioner, and in 1881 was again urged to make the race. He had two very worthy opponents. The race grew warm and exciting- more than usual, but he was again elected by an overwhelming majority- receiving more than double the number of votes of the other two. Mr. Pratt, is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and a faithful worker in the Sunday-school. His uniform kindness and pleasantness render him very popular.
COL. W. B. ROGERS.
William B. Rogers was born in Fayette county, Ohio, February 8, 1835, where he remained with his father until his eighteenth year, his mother dying before he was six years of age, and accompanied him in his removal to Noble county, Indiana. He received a common school education in Fayette and Noble counties, which was afterward supplemented by one year's attendance at Grand River College, at Edinburg, this county. Leav- ing Indiana, Mr. Rogers settled near Ravenna, Mercer county, Missouri, in 1856, and secured a position as school-teacher, and was subsequently en- gaged in the same work in Andrew county, Missouri, and Wayne county, Iowa, and also officiated as assistant instructor while pursuing his studies at the Grand River College. His last work in this capacity was at Prince- tion, Mercer county, where he taught school for fifteen months. This brought him up to the year 1861, when the country was thrilled by the prospeet of war, and in August he enlisted in the State service, serving six months under Lieutenant-colonel Jonas J. Clark. Returning home, he was elected sheriff and collector of Mercer county, in the fall of 1862, and while acting in that capacity was commissioned colonel of the enrolled militia of that county, by Gov. H. R. Gamble. Before the expiration of his term as sheriff, he raised a company for the United States service, which became
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company D of the Forty-fourth regiment of Missouri volunteers, of which he was elected captain, Col. R. C. Bradshaw (now of St. Joseph) command- ing. He received his commission from Gov. W. P. Hall, and served un- . til the close of the war, participating in the battles of Franklin, Spring Hill and Nashville, in Tennessee, and the capture of Mobile, Alabama. He was mustered out of service in 1865, and returned to Mercer county and en- gaged in the mercantile business at Ravenna until 1868, when he was elected to the State senate, from the Fifth senatorial district, composed of the counties of Livingston, Grundy, Mercer and Carroll, and honorably ac- quitted himself of the duties of the position during his term of four years. In September, 1869, he moved to Trenton and purchased the Grand River Republican, which name he changed to Trenton Republican, July 25th, 1872, under which title he has continued its publication with eminent suc- cess up to the present date. Col. Rogers early took an interest in the growth and development of the section in which he lived, and was elected one of the directors of the Chillicothe & Des Moines City Railroad Com- pany, in 1868, and much of the success of Trenton in securing the building of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad (which was the successor of the first named company) from Princeton, and the location of the machine- shops at Trenton, are due to his well directed efforts and influence. He is still a director of the last named company.
Col. Rogers married Miss Cynthia A. Buren, of Daviess county, Missouri, April 14th, 1863, by whom he has three children: Carrie, William B., and Noble G. Col. and Mrs. Rogers are members of the Baptist Church of Tren- ton. He has been a member of the church since 1863, and has held the position of church clerk for nine years. Mrs. Rogers, prior to her marriage, was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, from which she with- drew and joined the Baptist Church in 1870.
HIENRY REED.
The subject of this sketch first saw the light of other days in Brattleboro, Vermont, on the 10th day of February, 1842. He is the son of Henry and Mary Reed (nee Liscond). His father was a native of the Green Mountain State, and his mother was of New Hampshire birth, and "Harry," as he is familiarly called, was reared a farmer's lad, amid the invigorating atmos- phere and mountain breezes of his native State. Pages might be filled with a graphie recital of the sunny hours of his childhood, " but enough is given to show the respectability of his birth and his claim upon life." At the youthful age of sixteen, Harry left his home to bravely battle with the world, and "earn his own living." In 1861 we find him in the employ of the New York & New Haven Railroad Company, and thus early he became attached to a life on the iron rail, which has been his principal occupation ever since. He remained with this company until 1863, when we find him following the "star of empire" in its westward course until he reached
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HISTORY OF GRUNDY COUNTY.
Ohio, where he found employment with the Lake Erie & Louisville Rail- road, afterward the Cleveland & Toledo, now the well-known Lake Shore · road. From the Buckeye State he returned eastward to New York, where he was engaged with his brother on the wood work of the Fisk opera house, corner of Fourth Avenue and Twenty-third Street. His stay here was short, and through the kindness of Col. "Jim " Fisk, who gave him a letter, he secured a position of conductor on the Erie Railroad. Later we find him " punching tickets " on the New Jersey Midland road, the third conductor in the service of that company, and he had the honor of running the first train into Jersey City. He worthily filled his position with this company until 1877, when the western fever again attacked him, and April of the same year finds him a resident of Trenton, Missouri, and wearing a passenger conduc- tor's cap, in the service of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad. He still runs over this line, and is known for his genial qualities and for the prompt and efficient discharge of his duties.
Mr. Reed was married on the 22d of September, 1869, to Miss Helen S. Hafford, an amiable and accomplished young lady, at her home in Fremont, Sandusky county, Ohio. She is the daughter of James H. Hafford and Florilla Hafford, nee Williams. Mrs. Reed has proved a loving helpmeet to her husband, and their home has been blessed with the sunshiny pres- ence of three children, two boys and a girl; Frank H., born April 2, 1870, Sidney, born June 18, 1878, and Julia E., born March 14, 1880, the joys of their parents' hearts.
N. II. ROGERS.
N. Harvey Rogers was born near Greenfield, Highland county, Ohio, May 25, 1836, where he lived with his parents until he was nineteen. He received his education by attending the common schools of his town and the Greenfield Academy. On leaving home he worked as a farm hand in the vicinity of his old home until the fall of 1857, when he came to Mis- souri and taught school in Mercer and adjoining counties. In the fall of 1861 he enlisted in company E, Second Missouri volunteer cavalry and served four years. He went out as a private and was promoted to corporal, and from that to first lieutenant, and assigned to the command of company H of his regiment. He participated in a number of important battles; was dangerously wounded at the battle of Mooresville, Missouri; and was mustered out of the service at St. Louis in the fall of 1865. Returning to Mercer county he engaged in the mercantile business at Ravenna with his brother, W. B. Rogers, doing business one year. In the fall of 1866 he be- gan to study law in the office of Hyde & Norton, of Princeton, was admit- ted to the bar in the fall of 1867, and began practice at Princeton, and con- tinned until 1872, during three years of which time he also edited the Princeton Advance. During the session of the legislature of 1868 and '69 he was elected, by the State senate, sergeant-at-arms of that body, and
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TIN NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
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HISTORY OF GRUNDY COUNTY.
· served the whole term of two years. In 1872 lie removed from Princeton and returned to Ravenna and engaged in merchandizing, also practicing law with F. M. Evans and W. W. Holmes, of the law firm of Rogers, Evans & Co. In 1876 he removed to Mill Grove, Missouri, where he continued in the mercantile business, associating with him R. M. Decker, and did busi- ness there one year, when he returned to Princeton and discontinued the practice of law and engaged in the grain and agricultural business. In the spring of 1879 he came to Grundy county and engaged in the lumber busi- ness at Trenton with his brother, W. B. Rogers, under the firm name of N. H. Rogers & Co., he managing the business. In 1865, July 20, he married Miss Susan D. Reed, of Huntsville, Missouri. They have three children: John Lincoln, aged fifteen; Otis J., thirteen; and Rosa, cleven. Mr. and Mrs. Rogers and daughter are members of the Baptist Church of Trenton.
COL. JOIIN II. SHANKLIN.
John H. Shanklin was born in Monroe county, Virginia (now West Vir- ginia), on the 2d day of November, 1824. His father, Absalom Shanklin, was a native of Botetourt county, Virginia, and his mother, whose maiden name was Nancy Luster, was a native of Campbell county in the same State. He was the eighth child in a family of ten-six sons and four daughters, all of whom attained their majority, and six of whom are still living. From the age of ten until he was sixteen, he attended school in the rough log school-houses of the county, and afterward taught one term. The summer after he was twenty he "cropped on shares " with his brother- in-law in Mercer county, Virginia, and from this realized his first ready money. Returning to Monroe county he taught another term of school the following fall, and on the 2d day of the next March, 1846, with a meager wardrobe and less than one hundred dollars in money, he bid farewell to relatives in his good old mountain home, and in company with a young friend as poor in purse and as rich in hope as himself, started for the "great west." Taking passage on a steamer at Charleston, on the Kanawha, and changing boats at Cincinnati and St. Louis, they reached Weston, Missouri. Remaining there and in Buchanan county but a short time, he came to Grundy county, arriving at Trenton April 10, 1846. His first employment was the teaching of two terms of school in the "Schooler neighborhood," near Spickardsville, and a third term about three miles north of Trenton. In the summer of 1847, he enlisted as a private for "during the war with Mexico," in Capt. John C. Griffin's company, Lieut .- Col. William Gilpin's battalion, for service on the Santa Fé trail, in the Indian country between Missouri and Santa Fé, New Mexico. The company was mustered into service early in September, 1847, and participated in the march through Kansas, up the Arkansas River to near Bent's Fort, in Colorado, thence across the mountains to Moro, in New Mexico, and down the Canadian
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HISTORY OF GRUNDY COUNTY.
River into the Camanche country. In the spring of 1848 he was promoted from the ranks to quartermaster and commissary-sergeant, under Lieut. Ashley Gulley. The summer following a severe attack of inflammatory rheumatism compelled him to use crutches until after his return home, mustering out of the service at Independence, Missouri, in the fall of 1848. The winter of 1848-49 found him engaged in settling up the accounts of Lieut. Gulley, with the department at Washington, after which he resumed teaching near Trenton the following spring.
On the 22d of January, 1850, he married Miss Kitty Ann Collier, with whom he has lived happily. Their union has been blessed with five chil- dren, three of whom-Orville M., Walter II. and Carrie-are still living. The sons have grown to manhood while the daughter is an amiable young lady of seventeen. Soon after his marriage he was appointed judge of the Probate Court, vice Judge Renfro, resigned. He had never read law, but in conning the statutes of the State pertaining to the duties of his new position, he became deeply interested, and consulting his friend, Jacob T. Tindall, then a young attorney, he received so much encouragement that he at once entered upon the study of law. At the spring term, 1851, of the Grundy Circuit Court, he was licensed as an attorney and counselor at law, and practiced with the usual indifferent success until the fall of 1852, when he embarked in a small mercantile business until the winter of 1854- 55, when he entered into partnership with Jacob T. Tindall, then in active law practice, and continued until the death of the latter at the battle of Shiloh in 1862. In 1858, James Austin became associated with them, and until 1862 the firm was Tindall, Shanklin & Austin.
In politics Mr. Shanklin was a Whig, and supported the men and meas- ures of that party until its dissolution. In 1860 he voted for Stephen A. Douglas. Since the war he has adhered to the principles of the Demo- cratic party.
In the fall of 1861 he was commissioned by Gov. Gamble as division inspector, with rank of colonel, and enlisted most of the six months' mil- itia from Grundy, Sullivan, Mercer and Harrison counties, who were sta- tioned at Chillicothe and Utica. During the winter of 1861-62 he was authorized, with Col. Walter King, to recruit a regiment of M. S. M., and in the spring of 1862, the Third regiment of Missouri State militia was raised, of which he was commissioned lieutenant-colonel. In the mean- time, owing to the absence of Col. Tindall and himself, the business of the firm had been mainly without attention, and as the family of Col. Tindall, on that officer's death, were dependent upon his interest in the business, Col. Shanklin resigned his commission to look after their interests. About this time he was elected a member of the Missouri State Convention, to fill the vacancy occasioned by Col. Tindall's death, and served in that body in two short sessions-June, 1862 and June, 1863.
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After arranging his business affairs, he was commissioned by the gov- ernor, in August, 1862, colonel of the Thirtieth E. M. M., and assigned to duty, with part of the regiment, at Chillicothe, Missouri, where he remained in command of the post and adjacent country until March, 1863, when, at his own request, he was relieved. From that time he was actively engaged in the practice of law, until August, 1864, when he was again ordered into mil- itary service, and assigned to the command of a district of eight counties, with headquarters at Chillicothe, and continued through Gen. Price's last raid into Missouri, until about March 1, 1865. He again engaged in the practice of law until 1868, when, as president of the Chillicothe & Des Moines City Railroad Company, he undertook to obtain for the people of Grundy and Mercer counties, access by rail to the outer world, and in 1871 finally succeeded in obtaining a transfer of the road-bed between Trenton and Princeton to the Chicago & Southwestern Railway Company (now the C., R. I. & P. Railroad), and its completion through Grundy and Mercer counties. In 1871, as division solicitor for the C., R. I. & P. Railroad, he attended to all the business of that company in the State of Missouri.
He was elected a delegate to the Constitutional Convention in 1875, from the district composed of Grundy, Mercer, Livingston and Carroll counties, and during the ninety days' session of that body, which formed the present constitution of Missouri, was conspicuous for his industry, zeal and knowl- edge of constitutional law.
Shanklin & Austin continued with marked success the business of the old firm, Col. Shanklin giving his attention to the law practice, while Mr. Austin takes charge of the banking business, which the firm have been engaged in for a number of years. In January, 1876, Col. Shanklin desir- ing to divide the labor of his large practice, and avail himself of joint counsel in important causes, formed a copartnership with Marcus A. Low and Henry C. McDougal, of Gallatin, Missouri, under the firm name of Shanklin, Low. & McDougal, practicing in the courts of northwest Missouri.
In the winter of 1880-S1, Col. Shanklin became interested in a group of silver and copper mines in the Gallinas Mountains, New Mexico, and spent the spring and summer of 1881 in that Territory, looking after the property and developing the mines. The Gallinas Mining and Smelting Company was incorporated, with a capital stock of one million dollars, of which Col. S. was elected president and general manager.
Standing full six feet one inch in height, with an average weight of two hundred pounds, and blessed with splendid physical and mental vigor, Col. Shanklin bears lightly his age at fifty-seven. A careful, patient, diligent student, a conscientious lawyer, an honest man, he has attained a proud position among the many able lawyers of this State. Combining those qualities which have rendered him an eminent jurist and advocate, his kind- ness to the younger members of the bar, and courtesy to the court and
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HISTORY OF GRUNDY COUNTY.
opposing counsel, have for years been proverbial. That generous hospital- ity and unaffected simplicity which characterizes the people of his early home in the "Old Dominion," is well exemplified in his daily life.
JUDGE P. C. STEPP.
Paris C. Stepp was born near the city of Bloomington, in Monroe county, Indiana, on the 17th of May, 1845, and there lived upon a farm until 1853, when his parents removed to Missouri and settled upon a farm in Grundy county. Paris went through the usual routine of the country lad, perform- ing his share of the farm work during the season and attending district school in the winter. This round was continued without much variance until his nineteenth year, when, in June of 1864, he enlisted in the United States service as a private in company E of the Twelfth regiment of Mis- souri volunteer cavalry, served until the close of hostilities, and was pro- moted corporal, and then acting sergeant. He was with the detachment un- der General Hatch which received the attack of the Confederate General Forrest, and participated in the ensuing fierce conflict at Eastport. Was also with the army that met Hood in his daring but disastrous campaign in Tennessee, and took part in the battles of Franklin and Nashville in that State. After being mustered out of the service on the 13th of April, 1866, he returned to Grundy county, completed the course of study under Prof. R. C. Norton, Trenton schools, said county, attended the University at Bloom- ington, Indiana, during the years 1868 and '69, and then engaged in teach- ing, which he continued until 1870, when he entered the office of Col. John H. Shanklin and began the study of law, and in January, 1874, was admit- ted to practice at the bar. His engaging qualities of head and heart gave him a popularity all over Grundy county, and in the fall of 1876 he was elected to represent his district in the lower house of the legislature, in which position he efficiently served until 1878. At the expiration of his term he received the nomination of the Republican party for probate judge, and was elected for the term of four years. Judge Stepp, though still a young man, stands deservedly high among the prominent citizens of Grundy county.
Paris C. Stepp and Miss Mary E. Fleming were united in the marriage covenant on November 24, 1872. Mrs. Stepp is a native of the State of Indiana. By this union they have one child, W. Dale, born in Trenton, September 12, 1873. Mr. and Mrs. Stepp are members of the Christian Church of Trenton.
R. T. SHORT, M. D.
R. T. Short was born near Washington, the county seat of Fayette county, Ohio, November 29, 1829, where he lived with his parents, receiving a good common school education at home and completing it at the high school in
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HISTORY OF GRUNDY COUNTY.
Greenfield, Highland county, Ohio, in his seventeenth year. In 1846 he began the study of medicine under Dr. Eleazer Martin, and studied with him until 1849. During the winters of 1849, '50, '51 and '52, he attended lectures at the Starling Medical College. He first began to practice in Wilmington, Clinton county, Ohio, where he remained until 1855, and while there, on the 2d of December, 1852, married Miss R. M. Fowler, of Wilmington. In 1855 he removed to Springfield, Illinois, and there prac- tieed until 1865, when he came to Grundy county. Settling at Edinburg, he practiced until 1876, and acquired an extensive business, extending over the western portion of Grundy county, giving him long and laborious rides. He came to Trenton in 1878, where he still has a large practice. Dr. and Mrs. Short have five children: Rolla E., Mollie, Kittie G., Lorena and Erlin V.
G. D. SMITHI.
Gilbert D. Smith, of Trenton, was born near Wellington, Lorain county, Ohio, January 15, 1833. His father was a farmer, and Gilbert was reared amid the sturdy, wholesome influences of rural life. He attended the neigh- borhood schools in winter and bent his energies to the harvest work in sum- mer, and when he reached his twenty-first year was ready to battle with the world, the possessor of a good common school education and a vigorous con- stitution. In 1854 he rented a farm and started out to make his living by the cultivation of the soil; his success was such the first year that he continned three years longer in his native State, and in 1858, at the expira- tion of four years of toil for himself, he migrated to Missouri, and purchased a farm in Grundy county, ten miles north of Trenton. Upon this farm he lived until 1871, when he removed to Trenton and began his successful bus- iness career by accepting a clerkship with Smith & Jacobs, dealers in agri- cultural implements, grain, etc., a new house which had just been estab- lished by J. W. Smith and W. A. Jacobs. He remained in the employment of the firm until 1875, when Mr. Jacobs withdrew, and continued another year with Mr. Smith, when in 1876, in connection with Dr. E. F. Horton, he purchased the business interests of his former employer, and under the firm name of Smith & Horton conducted the business until 1878, when Dr. Horton retired. Mr. Smith carried on the business alone for eighteen months, when he sold an interest to E. T. Connor, and the firm of Smith & Connor was one of the reliable establishments of Trenton until January 1, 1881, when Mr. Smith again became sole proprietor. The house continues to deal largely in grain, and the annual shipments to Chicago and Peoria, Illinois, are largely increased each succeeding harvest.
Mr. Smith was united in the bonds of matrimony to Miss Caroline A. Powers, of Huntington, Ohio, on the 25th of April, 1854. One daughter, Mildred F., is the issue of this marriage, which has been a happy one. Miss Mildred is now Mrs. E. T. Connor, of Trenton.
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HISTORY OF GRUNDY COUNTY.
A. K. SYKES
Was born in East Rupert, Vermont, March 2, 1832, and was there reared and lived until 1858. He obtained his education in the district schools of his town and the academies of Randolph, Northfield, and Milton, Vermont. In the winter of 1850 he began teaching and tanght during the winter months until 1858. During 1856 and '57 he studied law with Fayette Pot- ter, of Rutland county, Vermont, and was admitted to the bar at Fonta- nelle, Iowa, in the fall of 1858. In the spring of 1859 he came to Grundy county and settled at Trenton and established himself in the practice of law, and in the winter of 1860 became associated in the law practice with Stephen Peery. They remained together until the breaking out of the late war, when they, by mutual consent, dissolved. During the long struggle when business was depressed and nnsettled he did little or no practice. In 1864 he went East, and on the 22d of December, of that year, married Miss Helen Cranston, of Woodstock, Ohio, and soon after returned to Trenton and resumed the law practice. In 1867 he was elected circuit clerk and re- corder of Grundy county and reelected in 1871, holding that office eight years. Since then he has devoted his time to looking after his farms and private business and keeping himself informed as to the news of the day. His wife is a member of the Universalist Church, and he is liberal in his religious views, and Republican in politics.
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