USA > Missouri > Pettis County > The History of Pettis County, Missouri, including an authentic history of Sedalia, other towns and townships, together with biographical sketches > Part 37
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WILLIAM F. BOYER was born in Forsythe county, North Carolina, in 1840. Came to Crawford county, Missouri, in 1855, and began the study of medicine in 1860, and graduated from the Eclectic Medical Institute of Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1864. Came to Sedalia in 1864, as contract surgeon in the United States Army, and has been in active practice here since.
ROSCOE L. HALE is a native of Vermont, born in Bransdon, in 1830. He was educated at the schools of Morris, Illinois, where his father moved at an early day, and at Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio. He graduated from Rush Medical College, Chicago, in 1853, and began practicing in Morris, Illinois, and continued until 1872. In that year he came to Se- dalia, purchasing an interest in the drug store of J. H. Mertz, where he now is in business, having retired from active practice.
ASA H. HEATON is a native of Indianapolis, Indiana, and was educated in the schools of that city. In 1876 he began the study of medicine, at- tending lectures at Chicago, Cincinnati and Indianapolis, graduating from the latter place in 1881. In the latter part of the same year he came to Sedalia, where he is in practice.
D. T. ABELL is a native of Brookfield county, Pennsylvania. Was educated at Susquehanna Collegiate Institute, and received his medical education at Homeopathy Medical College, Philadelphia, graduating in 1860, commenced his practice in Athens, Pennsylvania, going from thence to Darlington, Wisconsin, where he was appointed examining surgeon for pensions, a position he now holds in Sedalia.
JACOB B. JONES, born May 23, 1841, in North Carolina. Graduated at St. Louis Medical College, in 1868, and the same year came to this city, engaging in the practice of his profession. Was president of Pettis' County
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Medical Association about 1872, vice-president State Medical Association in 1874; county coroner in 1878, and for the past ten years county phy- sician.
J. A. C. BROWN, born in North Carolina, March 21, 1834. Graduated at the University of North Carolina, in the class of 1857, and at Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia. Came to Pettis county, in 1865. Dr. Brown has been president of Pettis County Medical Association from 1876 to 1880.
WALTER C. OVERSTREET, JR., born in Monmouth, Illinois, February 17, 1827. Graduated at Missouri Medical College in 1878, and Bellevue Hospital Medical College, New York, in 1882. Came to Pettis county with parents in 1864.
J. M. OVERSTREET, born in Kentucky, February 4, 1830. Graduated at the University of Louisville in 1854. Practiced in Monmouth, Ill., from 1854 to 1860. Located permanently at Smithton, Pettis county, in 1860, and came to Sedalia in 1879.
W. C. OVERSTREET, Smithton, born October 16, 1824, in Kentucky. Graduated at Transylvania Medical College, Lexington, Kentucky. Came to Pettis county in 1847, the next spring went to Knox county, Ill., where he remained until 1864, since which time he has been located at Smith- ton, Pettis county, Mo.
WILLIAM BROCKSCHMIDT is a native of Langelage-Antes Wittlage, Province of Hanover, Europe, born in 1827; graduated from Gottinggen Medical College in 1848. In 1852 came to America, located in New Orleans, practiced there for a short time, after which he came to St. Louis, where he practiced two years, going from there to Jefferson City, where he practiced some time. In 1862 he came to Sedalia and has since been in active practice here.
LOGAN CLARK was born September 30, 1820, in Christian county, Ky. Came with his parents to Missouri in 1824. He studied medicine in Lex- ington, Kentucky, in 1844-45, after which he practiced for fifteen years. At one time he represented Johnson county in the state legislature. He came to Sedalia in 1861 and entered the Federal service as surgeon of the 27th Missiouri, serving one year. In 1877, Dr. Clark was elected mayor of the city of Sedalia.
WILLIAM O. DUNLAP, born in Pennsylvania June 7, 1845; graduated at Monmouth College in 1870, at St. Louis Medical College in 1875, and then graduated at the Bellevue Hospital Medical College. He came to Sedalia in March, 1880.
JOHN HAUSAN was born in Bavaria in 1821, where he was partially
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educated, finishing in St. Louis. He has been a resident of this State forty-five years, most of the time in St. Charles county. He came to Pettis county in 1877 and to Sedalia in 1881.
ROBERT TEVIS MILLER was born in Richmond, Kentucky, November 30, 1831; was educated at the State University of Missouri; graduated at St. Louis Medical College in the spring of 1860, and attended lectures in the same college in 1863. Commenced practice at Tipton, and came to Sedalia and opened a drug store March 1, 1861. He is the first physician that located in Sedalia, and is now a member of the firm of Bard & Miller.
J. P. THATCHER, Sedalia township, was born in Jacksborough, Tenn., in 1830; moved to Missouri in an early day; when the Mexican war broke out he enlisted as a private in the Third Regiment Kentucky Volunteers, infantry, but was promoted to lieutenant, and afterwards to the command of the company. He graduated at Jefferson Medical College, Philadel- phia, Penn .; settled in Pettis county in 1854. In 1874 he was elected to the legislature of Missouri as the democratic candidate by a large majority. July 8, 1880, at his residence three miles south of Sedalia, his long and useful life terminated, and he died universally respected by all who knew him.
ANDREW V. SMALL is a native of the Province of Lorraine, France, where he was reared and educated. He studied medicine in the Univer- sity of Paris, where he graduated in 1839. He entered the French army as surgeon, spending part of his time in Africa; came to America in 1848, locating at New Orleans where he remained until 1853, coming to Jeffer- son City in that year. From Jefferson City he moved to Springfield in 1858. At the beginning of the war he entered the Confederate army and was appointed chief surgeon of General McBride's division. In 1863 he was appointed medical inspector of General Bragg's command at Cor- inth, Miss., and was assigned the presidency of the examining board of district of Texas with headquarters at San Antonio, where he remained until the close of the war. He then went to Lexington, Mo., and remained until 1878, when he came to Sedalia, where he has since practiced. His son, Edwin N. Small, a graduate of Bellevue Medical College, N. Y., is associated with him.
JOHN P. WALKER, Lamonte, is a native of Granville Co., North Caro- lina, born February 11, 1840. He graduated at the St. Louis Medical College in 1873. Practiced in Johnson county for a time, and settled in Lamonte in 1879, where he now resides.
SAMUEL CONWAY, Lamonte, is a native of St. Louis county, Missouri, born in 1843. Graduated at St. Louis Medical College in 1867, and the same year he settled in Pettis county, where he has since resided.
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BENJAMIN E. VAN BURKLEO, Beaman, was born in St. Charles county, Missouri, February 23, 1847. Attended the schools of his own county, and commenced the study of medicine with Dr. J. P. McIlhany, and graduated from the St. Louis Medical College. He located at Beaman, this county, in 1873, where he still practices his profession. He is a member of the Pettis County Medical Society.
HUGH C. SPEARS, Longwood, Mo., is a native of Fayette county, Kentucky, born February 14, 1828. He is a graduate of Transylvania University, of Lexington, Ky., receiving his degree March 1, 1850. Prac- ticed medicine in Mercer county, Ky., Cass county, Mo., Lawrence county, Tenn., and came to Pettis county in 1868.
WELLINGTON V WALKER, of Longwood, was born at Pleasant House, Owen county, Kentucky, December 9, 1854. He graduated at the med- ical university at Louisville, Ky., in February, 1880. Was elected by competitive examination one of the resident physicians and surgeons in Louisville City Hospital, where he served one year. He located in Sedalia, Pettis county, Mo., in April, 1881, and in a short time was elected medical examiner of Equity Lodge, No. 16, A. O. U. W., of Sedalia. Located in Longwood, Pettis county, in May, 1882.
J. C. CULP, of Ionia City, is a native of West Virginia. In 1866 he moved to Missouri. Received his literary education at State Normal School, at Kirksville, and his medical education at Missouri Medical Col- lege, St. Louis, Mo., College of Physicians and Surgeons, Keokuk, Iowa, and College of Physicans and Surgeons, Joplin, Mo. He settled in Ionia, Pettis county, in March, 1882.
T. P. McCLUNEY, of Dresden, is a native of West Virginia, born in Brook Co., January 25, 1836. In 1843 he came with his parents to Mis- souri, settling in Johnson Co. Dr. McCluney received his medical educa- tion at St. Louis Medical College, graduating in 1860 .He then settled in Pettis county, where he still resides. During the war he was assistant surgeon in the U. S. army, and was stationed at Jefferson Barracks, Jefferson City, and St. Louis. He has held the office of secretary, vice- president and president of the Pettis County Medical Association.
G. H. SCOTT, is a native of Scotland, born November 16, 1829. In 1831, his parents moved to America, and located in Newburyport, Mass. In 1843, they came to Bloomington, Ill., where Dr. Scott was educated in the Wesleyan University, He read medicine with E. K. Crothers, of Bloomington, and attended lectures at Jefferson Medical College, Phila- delphia, where he graduated in 1857. Began practicing the same year at Peoria, Ill., but moved to Kewanee, that state, in 1859, and remained until 1867, when he went from there to Oswego, N. Y., and remained until
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1872. In 1874, he came to Sedalia, where he has since been engaged in practice.
W. H. FLESHER, Greenridge, Pettis county, Mo., is a native of Vir- ginia; born in Jackson county, that state, in 1829; his literary education was obtained in the schools of his native county, and his medical at Louis- ville Medical College, where he graduated in 1850; in 1854 and 1855 he attended lectures at the Cincinnati Eclectic Medical College, receiving the benefit of lectures from the celebrated Dr. John King; he practiced medicine for several years in Virginia and Ohio; at the breaking out of the war he enlisted in the United States army as assistant surgeon of the 11th Virginia Volunteer Infantry. His connection with this, however, was brief, as he was detached for recruiting services and was rapidly promoted from the rank of first lieutenant to captain, and in a short time to major; he was with Gen. Avery's command at first and afterwards with Generals Custer and Sheridan. At the close of the war he went to Olney, Ills., where he practiced thirteen years; in 1878 he came to Sedalia and located, and April 10, 1879, he moved to Greenridge, where he has built up an extensive practice.
C. W. LEBOA, Greenridge, Pettis county, Mo., was born at Brazil, Clay county, Indiana, in 1853; he was educated in the schools of that place and Tipton, Monticello county, Ind .; he studied medicine with his father, Dr. I. S. Leboa, a graduate of the old Cincinnati Medical College, and afterwards attended the Missouri Medical College, at St. Louis, in 1874, 1875 and 1876, graduating the last named year; he also attended a course of lectures at St. Louis in 1880; began practice at Cole Camp, Linn county, this State, in 1876, and moved to Greenridge in August, 1877.
W. D. SNODDY, Lamonte, Pettis county, Mo., is a Virginian, born March 20, 1822, came to Missouri in 1839; he commenced the study of medicine in Franklin county, this state; he took his first course of lectures at the Medical College of Tennessee, and his second at the Eclectic Medi- cal College of Cincinnati, and graduated in the spring of 1850; he then located in Georgetown, this county, and practiced his profession until 1856, when he moved to his present farm near Lamonte, where he has since resided, and kept up his practice.
A. P. SNODDY, Lamonte, was born in Franklin county, Mo., March 24, 1847; he commenced the study of medicine in 1868, entering the Eclectic Medical Institute, of Cincinnati, from which place he graduated in 1870; in August of that year he began the practice of his profession in Lamonte, where he has since resided.
DAVID F. BROWN, Dresden, is a native of North Carolina, born in
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Davidson county, October 22, 1845; he attended medical lectures at St. Louis, graduating in 1873, and commenced the practice of his profession at Dresden, where he is now engaged, having built up a large practice.
JOHN M. ELLIOTT, Dresden, was born September 25, 1830, in Wash- ington county, Pennsylvania; received his education at the schools of his native county, and from private teachers. He commenced the study of medicine before the war, but when that broke out he enlisted and served through over three years, when his health failing, he returned home and resumed his studies with Dr. D. W. Braden, of Waynesburg, Pa .; he attended lectures at Cleveland Medical College, Cleveland, Ohio; in 1866 he began practicing his profession in Marshall county, West Virginia, continuing there for six years, when he returned to his native county and continued his practice until September, 1881, when he came to Missouri, purchased a farm adjoining Dresden, where he now resides.
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CHAPTER XI .- AGRICULTURE AND AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES.
Early Steps-Small Fields-Implements Used-Kinds of Soils-Most Profitable Crops- First Crops-Prairie and Timber-Present Size of Farms and Value of Lands-Pres- ent Modes of Farming-First Agricultural Societies and Men Promoting them-The Benefits of Societies-Sedalia Exposition Association.
"Give fools their gold, and knaves their power; Let fortune's bubbles rise and fall ; Who sows a field or trains a flower, Or plants a tree, is more than all."
Agriculture, in its restricted meaning, is the cultivation of a field; from the Latin word ager, a field, and cultura, cultivation; and implies the art of cultivating the ground for the purpose of obtaining vegetable produc- tions. In the more general sense, as we shall use it in this article, it includes the whole business of the farmer, comprehending, in addition to the raising of corn, wheat and other crops, the proper management of stock.
Farming is the most independent of the avocations. The "lords of the soil," as farmers are often termed, hold in their hands the destiny of nations. All are common sufferers when farming interests suffer, and no country may expect to flourish when she neglects her agricultural inter- ests. When the farmer rises above the common daily drudgery, so long practiced by the ignorant tillers of the soil, then there will be intelligent, thinking, paying labor on the farm, which will add much to the farmer's happiness, and grace the proudest and most independent avocation man can follow.
Agriculture is the great interest of both the county and the state. It is the foundation upon which all other enterprises are dependent. It is the fundamental element that produces the happiness, prosperity and wealth of a country. Upon its success rests the welfare of the nation. There- fore, its great importance to all, whether engaged in holding the plow, the scales of justice, or any other avocation. Agronomy furnishes the support of all others, and when in a prosperous condition, shares its bless- ings with them all-the laborer has work, the printer better support, the professionals better patronage, the mechanics more employment, the merchant sells more goods, the manufacturer a better market, railroads more freight, and commerce greater tonnage. In this manner the products of the soil are distributed liberally to others.
It is from the rural haunts that the majority of our most able men and women come to the stage of action to perform an important part in the public affairs of our nation. A Webster and a Clay were among farmers' sons. A Martha Washington and Elizabeth Cady Stanton were blessed
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as farmers' daughters. These names, with half a million others, more or less worthy, coming from the agricultural districts, should stimulate the sons and daughters of farmers to stick to the farm and possess the land.
The women of this country have done much to make farm-homes attractive, creating a taste for the culture of fruits, flowers and orna- mental grounds. The state took steps in the right direction when she opened the doors of her university, agricultural and horticultural schools to her sons and daughters alike. The state will be more than paid for this noble work in her future statesmen and citizens.
Pettis county possesses many advantages for the development of her natural resources. The value of land has gradually advanced until now it is more than thirty-fold its original price. The abundance of water and good drainage enhanced the value of land along the streams in the estimation of the early settlers. If the New Englander, or the man of the older states, was aware of the productive properties of Pettis county lands, he undoubtedly would leave his narrow acres of sterile soil, diligent toil and close habits, and come to this county where he would find broader fields and more generous soil. One glance over these fertile prairies, and the enjoyment of wholesome air and good society, would convince the man most deeply wedded to the sterile, unproductive soil of the older states. These beautiful, rich, rolling prairies, nature's own pastures, dotted with springs and checked with perpetual rivulets, exposing soils half a fathom deep, can be made, by a small outlay, a perfect garden, producing a bountiful supply of all sorts of fruits, besides the immense yields of corn, wheat, and other cereals.
In this thesis we give a comprehensive view of agronomy from its early steps to the present time. Once having lived on the farm the writer has found but little difficulty in presenting the early modes of farming and the implements used.
In 1818, when the first settlers set foot on this soil, they found a vast wilderness of grasses on the prairies, and in the woodlands thick clusters of all sorts of vines and underbrush. Annually the mighty flames of fire would sweep over the prairies, leaving behind them a blackened plain; nor did the rushing fires stop with the fertile glades, but often caught from tree top to tree top, wrapping miles of timber in one vast conflagration. On account of these forest fires, the timber was kept closely confined to the creeks, lakes and places where the fire fiend had no sway. No record can tell when these prairies received the first fire, for hundreds of years no doubt have elapsed since.
A class of human beings tilled the soil to some extent long before the white man came to the west. The implements of the early tillers of the soil are occasionally found in some parts of this, as well as in many parts
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of the state, often imbedded in the soil over which trees of many centuries have grown. The only implements left are those of stone. These are supposed to have been fastened to a piece of wood and used as a sort of hoe. The wooden implements of a later day used among some tribes of the American Indians, were forked sticks, sharpened by stone axes. No animals were domesticated and utilized in cultivating the patches of the aborigines. The squaws were the operators, and acted the double part of team and driver. The agricultural habits of the Indians have been gradually superseded by those of his pale-faced brethren, so that now the most savage tribes are laying aside the tomahawk and bow for improved agricultural implements.
When the early pioneers came to Pettis county, they settled along the small streams for the double purpose of building log cabins, making rails, improving a farm, which was most practical and congenial to their taste, since many of them had come from timbered states. With them it was impossible to break the turf of the prairie land with the plows of that age. Nothing more was contemplated the first few years, than fencing a few acres, raising some corn and spending the balance of the time in hunting. Indeed this was enough, for the land must be grubbed, planted and culti- vated, and the only implements in use were the bull-tongue and colter plows and the grubbing hoe. The plows were drawn by oxen, steady, slow, and sure. Each succeeding year more land was opened up, and so by the time a farmer owned twenty-five acres of cultivated land, he had more than he could manage. In those days but few employed help, except in making rails. Some of the best and most influential old citizens of to-day can rehearse the manner in which they made rails. However, railsplit- ting was an avocation in which large numbers of hardy young men of poor parentage often engaged, and were paid on the average one dollar and their board for a hundred rails. From this business some have grown up wealthy. In early days there was no need of fenced pastures, except to confine an animal for special use, and stock of all kinds ran loose on the prairies at all seasons of the year. During farming season the plow animals were looked up every morning and driven from the prairies of high grass, and the pioneer farmer often commenced his work, wet to the waist from the dewy grass.
The first agricultural implements used here were the bull-tongue, colter, wooden mold-board and the single shovel plows. A rudely constructed wooden harrow and the top of a tree for a brush, were used to level and pulverize the ground. These implements, with the addition of the hoe, continued to be the pioneer's only reliance for farming utensils the first few years. A brief description of some of these implements will not be amiss. The bull-tongue plow, so named on account of its strength, hav- ing a steel share shaped somewhat like a bull's tongue, is the outgrowth
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of the most ancient plows. The share of this plow is twelve to twenty inches in length, three to six in width, about an inch in thickness, and tap- ering to the apex, being well adapted to the service of tearing up huge roots and stirring the ground among stumps. This is bolted to an upright piece, mortised and braced in a beam. A strong iron clevis is fastened at the end of the beam by a pin, attaching a heavy chain, passing between the two oxen and fastened in the ring and staple of the ox-yoke. The handles were made of tough wood, fastened to the beam and braced by cross-bars. The wooden mold-board plow is better imagined than described. The present turning plows are improvements on the old cary and wooden mold-board plows. The share of this plow was steel. The farmer of to-day can imagine the inconvenience of tilling the soil with this plow, stopping every few minutes to use a paddle to clear the dirt from the wooden mold-board. The old single shovel plow was constructed somewhat on the plan of the bull-tongue and colter plows, which was kept in use longer on account of its adaptability to stir the soil where the ground was cleared of roots and stumps, checking the ground for plant- ing, and wherever light plowing was demanded.
The share of the shovel ranged from six to eight inches in breadth and was about the same in length with the addition of the point. This plow was usually drawn by a single horse or an ox. The work was slow, and many farmers, in order to prevent their teams from nipping too much of the growing grain, kept muzzles made of splints and bark on the plow- animals.
The first crops were principally corn. Oats, wheat, hemp, flax and rye were raised. The tame grasses were not cultivated. The wild grass was considered good for all stock and hundreds of tons of prairie hay were annually mown by hand and stacked for the winter feed. At an early day spring and fall wheat were both tried. The smut and the accumulation of chintz bugs on spring wheat early convinced the farmers of this section that it was an unprofitable crop. Fall wheat, although not extensively raised, has generally done well.
With the early farmers, corn was the staple product, and became the staff of life for man and beast, and the failure of the corn crop brought almost a famine. On corn, the hardy settlers depended for Johnny cake, hominy, hasty pudding, and succotash. Corn was the principal feed for horses, swine, cattle, and sheep. In the early autumn, just as soon as the ears had sufficiently ripened, the farmer with his wife and family entered the corn field, and stripped the blades from the ear down, after which they were cured, bound into bundles, and stacked as provender for winter use. The tops of the stalks were cut above the ear, bound into bundles and shocked for the cattle. After the era of saving corn fodder in this way, it became a prevailing custom to cut the corn from the ground, and
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