USA > Missouri > Linn County > The history of Linn county, Missouri. An encyclopedia of useful information > Part 79
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WILLIAM T. KIMBER
was born in Prairieville (now Waukeeshaw), April 21, 1840. He is the son of George and Mary Kimber, the father being a native of England and still living, and the mother (deceased) a native of Wales. The family moved to Illinois in 1844, and William resided there most of the time till 1865, when he came, in fall of that year, to Missouri, and located in Ben- ton township, and where he still resides. He owns a good farm of two
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HISTORY OF LINN COUNTY.
hundred and forty acres, nearly all under fence, and one hundred acres in pasture. His place is fairly improved, and he has some good stock-horses, cattle and swine-around him. Also has a fine peach orchard, and raises grapes and other fruit. Mr. Kimber was married in October, 1866, to Miss Susan Trader, daughter of Moses and Martha Trader, a lady who was born and raised in Linn county. Nine children have been born of this union, two of whom (unnamed infants) are deceased. Those living are: Mary Alice, Oscar Orestes, Martha Ann Ella, Edmund W., Frank P., Mar- garet Belle, and Libbie P. During the war, Mr. Kimber served in Com- pany F, Twenty-sixth Michigan Infantry, and was out a little less than a year, having enlisted in August, 1864, and serving till June. Mr. Kim- ber has served as justice of the peace for Benton township, being once ap- pointed and once elected. He belongs to the Methodist Church, and holds membership at Browning.
W. J. KENNEDY.
We wish to give here a brief history of a citizen who has spent the greater part of his life in Linn county, and who has been prominently identified with the commercial interests of the town in which he now lives, in various departments of business, from its origin to the present time. Mr. Kennedy was born March 19, 1836, in Anderson county, Kentucky. He is the son and oldest child of John G. and Sophia Kennedy, both of whom are still living, blessed with good health and are old and highly es- teemed residents of our county seat. His father was born in Madison county, Kentucky, on the twenty-fifth day of May, 1809. His mother's maiden name was Searcy. His parents had eleven children in all, three of whom are dead. A memorable coincidence exists in the dates of the birth of himself and a younger brother and sister. Himself, a brother, sixteen, and a sister twelve years younger; were all three born on the nineteenth day of March.
Mr. Kennedy lived with his father on his native farm till he was eleven years of age, when his father removed to Hancock county, Illinois. Here he lived with his father, assisting him upon the farm, for about six years, at the end of which time his father removed from Illinois to Linn county, and settled on a farm on Bear Branch, in the Gier district, ten miles east of Linneus. Here he lived with his father on the farm for about two years, when he left him and went to Brunswick, in Chariton county, this State, where he was for three years engaged in the Grand River City Mills. He. then moved to Linneus, where he continued for some time in the milling business, and afterward learned the brick mason's trade, at which he worked till 1873.
In April, 1873, he moved to Browning, went to merchandizing, and kept a general stock of goods for about a year. After selling out in the mer-
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cantile trade, he was proprietor of the hotel, and agent of the express company for about five years.
In the following October, after his arrival in Browning, he was appointed postmaster, a position which he has ever since retained, and the duties of which he has efficiently discharged, to the great satisfaction of the entire community. For the past two or three years, he has also been engaged in the jewelry business, which he is pursuing with his accustomed energy and success.
Mr. Kennedy was married at Linneus on the sixth day of January, 1859, to Miss Mary Ann Auberry, daughter of Joseph Auberry. They have had six children; three living, three dead.
He is a member of the Masonic order, president of the board of trus- tees of the public school, and one of the trustees of the township.
He served in the war three years, enlisting on the ninth day of August 1862, in the Twenty-third Missouri Infantry Volunteers, Company I, un- der Captain Marion Cave; mustered out June 10, 1865, at Washington City. He was at the siege of Atlanta, under General Sherman, and with him in his march to the sea, and through the Carolinas. He was appointed lieutenant a short time before he was mustered out of the service.
ยท We have given above a brief outline of the life of a man who has made his way by relying on his own exertions.
JOHN P. MC QUOWN
was born in Linn county, two miles south of where Browning is now situated, on the ninth day of February, 1856. He is the only son of Robert M. and Sue A. McQuown. He had two sisters, both of whom are dead. His father was of Irish extraction, but a Virginian by birth. He was a well known and highly esteemed citizen of the county, and was judge of the County Court many years ago. , He died in 1861. His mother is of English origin, and a native of St. Charles, Missouri. She married a second time Mr. A. M. Clarkson, an old and prominent citizen of the county seat. J. P. McQuown was five years old when his father died. In February, 1879, he formed a partnership with H. W. Crawley, moved to Browning and opened a drug store, in which business he has ever since been successfully engaged. His education was received mainly at the schools of Linneus, and at the normal school of Kirksville, where he spent four terms. He is a member of the Odd Fellow lodge at Browning, No. 373. When he and Mr. Craw- ley first opened their drug store in Browning they commenced on a capital of eight hundred dollars; but by close application to business they have in- creased their stock to a great deal more than double its original amount. In view of the fact that they have made such rapid progress in so short a time and that they are located in one of the most busy, go-ahead towns in this section of country, we feel assured that nothing but a course of prosperity a waits them in the near future.
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HISTORY OF LINN COUNTY.
JOHN A. MCKENZIE,
proprietor of the Browning House, Browning, Missouri, was born in Huron county, Canada, December 12, 1842. His father, Alexander McKenzie, was born in Scotland. Margaret Browning, his mother, was a native of Nova Scotia, whence she emigrated to Canada in 1852 ; her maiden name was Frazier. Mr. Mckenzie spent his youth and early manhood with his father in Canada working on a farm, where was laid the foundation of char- acter and was developed the physical manhood which constitute his dis- tinctive characteristics. In 1869 he removed to Linn county, Missouri, where he continued the same avocation under more genial skies. In 1880 he removed to the town of Pipestone, Pipestone county, Minnesota, and en- gaged in the hotel business, which he has constantly followed ever since. In January, 1882, he removed to his present place of business, Browning, Missouri. Mr. Mckenzie was married to Rachel G. Hutchinson, in April, 1872. She is the daughter of E. C. Hutchinson, of Grantville, Illinois, and was born in Hancock, county, Illinois, removing to Missouri when yet a child. Mr. Mckenzie and wife have had born to them four children, of which but one remains to cheer their home, the others having died while in infancy. While under the management of the present proprietor the Browning House has been much improved, and that well-known hotel has, not only in its exterior appearance but in the internal arrangement as well as in the manner of being conducted, fully kept pace with the enterprising town, to which it is an ornament, and the rapidly improving country which surrounds it.
JAMES ALONZO MAIRS,
born in Jackson county, West Virginia, June 27, 1855, son of Thomas and Louisa Mairs. Thomas Mairs was a native of the Emerald Isle, the paternal abode being near the historic city of Belfast, Ireland. Louisa Mairs was born in Virginia, her maiden name being Arnold. The subject of this sketch was born near the town of Sandyville, Jackson county, West Virginia, where his home was till 1865, when, with his father, his mother having previously died, he removed to Milan, Sullivan county, Missouri. After residing in Milan about one year the family removed to the vicinity of Browning, where the father, Thomas Mairs, died in 1879. Thus far the early career of Mr. Mairs was commonplace and differed but little from that of the average farmer boy of the nineteenth century, but from this time it is our business to speak of him as the ambitious boy at the best college of the State, then a diligent student at the metropolis of Kentucky, and finally a member of one of the most honored and useful of professions. After taking the degree of A. B. at Columbia University in 1876, he at- tended for one year the medical department of the same institution. He then entered the medical college of Louisville, where he took the degree
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HISTORY OF LINN COUNTY.
of M. D. in 1879. Few men have become eminently successful in any of the learned professions in so short a time; nevertheless, Dr. Mairs has great reasons to congratulate himself on the success which he has achieved in four years, much of which is due to his kind sympathetic disposition as well as to his thorough education and natural adaptability to the profession. Dr. Mairs was married August 4, 1879, to Miss Sallie A. Richardson of Santa Rosa, Missouri. To them have been born two children.
THOMAS J. MOFFETT
was born in Sangamon county, Illinois, four miles west of Springfield, February 28, 1830; is the son of William and Ella Moffett, natives of Ken- tucky, whence they removed to Illinois at an early day; both parents died some years since. Mr. Moffett emigrated to Missouri with his parents when ten years of age, first stopping on the farm belonging to General Sterling Price in Clinton county, and from there to their present place of residence on section six, township fifty-nine, range twenty, where he has since resided with the exception of two years, 1855-56, when he resided in Daviess county. Was for a number of years engaged in the milling business. Mr. Mof- fett received but a common school education, but he had the name of being a bright scholar. For a number of years he tended crops in summer and taught school in the winter. Was married the first time May 4, 1854, to Juland Jones, who was a native of Kentucky. By this marriage they had five children. Married second time February 15, 1866, to Miss Elizabeth Hooker. There were eight children by this marriage, three of whom are dead. Both himself and present wife are members of the Mount Olive Baptist Church, the latter having lived a consistent Christian life ever since she joined church, which was in her fifteenth year. Mr. Moffett is one of the leading farmers of Linn county, he having a well-improved farm of three hundred and twenty acres.
THOMAS B. MORRIS
was born in Taylor county, Kentucky, June 14, 1852. His parents were of that fearless and enterprising stock which, crossing the Cumberland Moun- tains on the south or the Alleghanies on the east, came to people the "dark and bloody ground " ere the red-faced and bloody-handed denizen had quitted it for is home further west. While yet a youth the subject of this sketch removed with his parents to Buchanan county, Missouri, where he resided for a number of years. In 1860 he removed to Linn county, where he has since resided. Mr. Morris is a farmer, and has made this his exclu- sive business ever since arriving at the years of maturity. Has a very de- sirable, well improved farm and modern dwelling, located on the road leading from Linneus to Browning. He has been twice married. His first wife was Isabella Brown, to whom he was married August 19, 1875, and by
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HISTORY OF LINN COUNTY.
whom there were born two children. June 17, 1880, he was again married, his second wife being Lucinda Reeves. Mr. Morris is a conscientious man, of kind heart and blameless life. He is a member of the Methodist Church.
COLONEL BENJAMIN F. NORTHCOTT.
Colonel Northcott was born in Fleming county, Kentucky, May 29, 1817, and is the son of the Rev. Benjamin Northcott, who was born in Chowan county, North Carolina, January 16, 1770, and was for many years a prom- inent and active Methodist preacher of that State. The mother of the sub- ject of this sketch, Martha Odell Northcott, was the daughter of a Metho- dist preacher, who removed from the State of Virginia and settled ir. Kentucky in an early day. She was the second wife of the Rev. Benjamin Northcott, by whom she had five sons and seven daughters. By his first wife Benjamin had three daughters, making fifteen children in all. Many persons now in Linn county recollect Rev. Benjamin Northcott, of Kentucky, as a man of more than ordinary powers in the pulpit.
The subject of this sketch, Colonel Northcott, received a common school education in Kentucky, but subsequently his courses of study as a minister, and still later as a lawyer, gave him a good stock of knowledge as well as the mental discipline nsnally secured by a liberal education.
Colonel N. removed to Menard county, Illinois, in 1840, where he followed farming till the fall of 1850, when he, as a preacher in charge, went to Mount Sterling, Illinois, where he remained two years; thence to Barry, Illinois, for two years, where he preached; thence to Linn county, Missouri, in No- vember, 1854, where as presiding elder of the Hannibal district of the Methodist Episcopal Church, he traveled the northeast portion of the State until February, 1857. This district then extended from Hannibal west to Trenton. In 1857 he returned to Adams county, Illinois, where he trav- eled as a Methodist preacher until the summer of 1862, when in connec- tion with Col. J. F. Jacquess, then president of Quincy College, he organized the Seventy-third Illinois Volunteers, of which he was commis- sioned lieutenant-colonel. They traveled, inade recruiting speeches, author- ized men to raise companies for their regiment, and when the time came for mustering in their regiment, over twenty full companies were ready and sixteen of them were present at Camp Butler, near Springfield, Illinois. Six of them were turned over to Colonel (now General) J. H. Moore, who was another preacher-colonel.
Colonel N. served with the regiment in the fall campaign of 1862 in Kentucky and Tennessee, participating in the battles of Perryville and Murfreesboro, after which his health failed. He was attacked by a dropsi- cal affection of the feet and legs, accompanied by general debility, when he resigned his commission and returned to Linn county, Missouri, in April,
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1863. He cultivated his farm till the close of the war, when he removed to Linneus and engaged in the practice of law with Hon. W. H. Brownlee, as partner. Afterwards was in partnership in the law business with his son B. J. Northcott, who still resides and practices law in Linneus. He was one of the earliest advocates of the north and south railroad through Linn, Sullivan and Putnam counties, and in his capacity as managing director and president of the local company known as the North Missouri Central, he was perhaps, more than any other man, instrumental in securing its com- pletion. It was to his exertions and influence that the company was in- debted for securing the charter privileges of the St. Joseph & Iowa Railroad Company and the consolidation with the Burlington & South-
western. He was married, in 1840, in Botts county, Kentucky, to Miss Elizabeth Ann Christy, a sister of the Hon. A. D. Christy of Unionville, Missouri, who is still living and the mother of nine children, five of whom are still living: B. J. Northcott, lawyer, Linneus, Missouri; C. W. Northcott, teacher, Enterprise, Missouri; Mrs. D. W. Barclay, and Mrs. G. G. Alexander, of Enterprise; and Miss Nellie Northcott, teacher, Browning, Missouri. The only office of a political character held by Colonel Northcott which will be mentioned here is, that he was a member of the Constitutional Con- vention of Illinois of 1848, from Menard county, to which he was elected as a Whig, when the county had a Democratic majority. Honorable William Engle was spoken of as the opposing candidate but declined in favor of Colonel N. and refused to make the race. However, he received some votes. Colonel N. also served one term as mayor of Linneus, to which he was elected without opposition. He served as curator of the Missouri State University for several years during an eventful period for that insti- tution.
Columbia not being in accord with the party in power, the removal of the University was agitated, but the Colonel cast his influence into the scale in favor of its remaining at Columbia. At this time he served on a com- mittee of the board of curators which located the School of Mines, which is a branch of the State University, at Rolla, Missouri. He has always been a zealous friend of popular education; as a school director, as well as by his individual efforts, has done his full share toward building up the schools and school-houses in Linn county where he has resided.
In politics he is a Republican. He is a Mason and Good Templar. He now resides at Browning, where he practices law and has an interestin a mercantile establishment. His early training as a pulpit orator has been of great as- sistance to him in the practice of the law, as there is no better school for advocacy teaching than the pulpit, and he is able to meet other lawyers be- fore the apostolic twelve in the jury box with signal success. In fact Col- onel Northcott is a speaker who is always listened to with pleasure by his acquaintances. Horticulture has always been a favorite pursuit with him.
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HISTORY OF LINN COUNTY.
He has urged the planting of large orchards in this county and set the ex- ample when farming by planting an apple orchard of 1,500 trees.
DAVID C. PIERCE.
The subject of this sketch belongs to the honest-hearted, hard-worked, and time-honored profession of farming. He is located in section thirty- six, township sixty, range twenty-one. He was born January 10, 1840, in the immediate vicinity of where he now resides. Mr. Pierce is a pioneer, and comes of a family of pioneers. His father, James M. Pierce, who died December 25, 1858, was a native of Alabama, and moved to Kentucky at a very early period of the settlement of that State. His mother, who is still living, was born in South Carolina, and when young moved to Tennessee. Mr. Pierce, himself, has experienced as much of the trials and hardships of frontier life as most of men now living, and has passed through all the suc- ceeding phases of farin operations, from the day of bull plows to that of reaping machines. He now has a farm of two hundred and ten acres, all of which is well fenced and one hundred acres improved. He was married to Miss Emily Anu Van Bebber, December 5, 1867. Has six children.
JOSEPH C. PRATHER
was born in Mason county, Kentucky, June 19, 1844. He is a son of Ross and Mary Prather, and continued to live in his native State till 1880, when he came to Linn county, Missouri. Mr. Prather is not a married man, and has never been. He is a member of the Presbyterian Church, and also of the Masonic order, a member of the lodge at Maysville, Kentucky. H resides at this writing with his half brother, Mr. Thomas Prather.
THOMAS PRATHER,
is a native of Mason county, Kentucky; born November 23, 1807. His parents were Ross and Nellie Prather, both natives of Virginia. Thomas lived in Kentucky till 1833, and then moved with his parents to Indiana, where he resided till 1836. In this year he came to Missouri, settling first in Monroe county, where he lived till 1840, when he moved to Linn county and located in Benton township, where he has ever since resided. Mr. Prather has always been a farmer, though he engaged in other occupations in California, where he went during the gold excitement of 1849. He returned in 1852, and since that time has given his undivided attention to farming. Mr. Prather was married in 1833 to Miss Lucinda Dawson, daughter of Abraham and Phoebe Dawson. They have had five children, only two of whom still survive. Their names are Sarah Jane (deceased), Ross (deceased), Wil- liam Thomas, Mary Ellen (deceased), and Abigail. His first wife died June 6, 1876, and he was again married October 23, 1877, to Maggie A. Linhart. Mr. Prather belongs to no church or organized society of any kind, though
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HISTORY OF LINN COUNTY.
his present wife is a member of the Methodist Church. He and wife are a thrifty couple and raise most of what they consume. He has a fine young orchard near his residence in section nine, of township sixty, range twenty.
A. ROBINSON.
This gentleman is the son of Dr. William and Annie E. Robinson, and was. born in Cincinnati, Ohio, October 27, 1836. When about three years old he moved with his parents to Manchester, Ohio, where he lived for ten or twelve years. From there he moved to Mason county, Illinois, and remained there about nine years, and then came to Linn county, this State. This was. in 1857, and he has been a citizen of this county ever since, except when temporarily absent. He taught school for some time in Linn county, before' going to Brookfield. He was for some time engaged in the printing office of the Brookfield Gazette. The last year he spent in Brookfield, he pub- lished a paper called the Western Citizen. On leaving Brookfield, Mr. Rob- inson went to Kansas City and spent three years, publishing while there a journal called the Western Cultivator. , He then returned to Linn county, and engaged in publishing the Browning Reporter, which paper he has been editing since June, 1881. Mr. Robinson served in three different companies on the Union side during the war. He first enlisted in Company A, of the Twenty-eighth Illinois Regiment; subsequently he was in Com- pany K, Eighty-fifth Illinois, and lastly in Company L, of the Twelfth Mis- souri Cavalry, in which he was sergeant, and served two and a half years. He was in the battles of White Station, Tennessee, Murfreesboro, Nashville, and the battle below Louisville. He was never wounded or captured. Mr. Robinson was married January 17, 1858, to Miss Margaret J. Oxley, a daughter of Eli and Mary Oxley. They have eight children living and one deceased. Mrs. Robinson is a member of the Methodist Church, but Mr. Robinson is not now in communion with any denomination.
WILLIAM R. ROBINSON.
Among the old settlers who came here at an early day and who had to endure the hardships of a frontier life among the beasts of the forest and sav- age Indians, was Dr. William R. Robinson, who has for many years been recognized as a prominent physician in the vicinity where he has so long resided. The Doctor was born near Urbana, in Champaign county, Ohio. His father's name was Joseph H. Robinson, and his mother's, before her marriage, was Eve Runner. He lived with his father on the farm till he was twenty-three years of age. He commenced reading medicine at the early age of seventeen. While reading he was examined two or three times a week by Dr. Dunlap, who practiced in the neighborhood. This he did for two or three years, after which he moved to town, Urbana, and read under Drs. Carter and Musgrove till twenty-one or twenty-two years of age.
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HISTORY OF LINN COUNTY.
His literary education was acquired at the district schools in the country and at Urbana. His medical course was received at the Ohio Medical College, Cincinnati, one of the foremost medical schools in the country. Before at- . tending lectures he went to La Salle county, Illinois, near Peru, and prac- ticed two years. From Cincinnati he went in the spring of 1837 to Brown county, Ohio, where he practiced for about two years, after which he moved to Manchester, in the adjoining county of Adams. He practiced in Adams county about twelve years. The Doctor was first married in La Salle county, Illinois, in May, 1835, to Miss Amanda Shepherd, daughter of Abraham Shepherd, who was several years before speaker of the House of Represen- tatives. She died about one year after he moved to Adams county. By his first marriage he had two children, one of whom is dead. Shortly after his wife's death the doctor went to his parents in La Salle county, Illinois, taking his children with him. After a short visit with his parents he went to Livingston county, in same State, in 1840, where he remained three or four months and left on account of sickness, and went back to Manchester, Ohio, where he was again married on the tenth day of November, 1840, to Misss Dorcas Coppell, who is still living. The Doctor and his present wife have had eleven children, eight of whom are still living; over fifty grand- children, forty-five of whom are living, and two great-grandchildren, both alive. After his second marriage he lived in Manchester till about 1850. Then moved from Manchester to Madison county, Illinois, and purchased a farm in the neighborhood of where Topeka is now. Here he resided upon his farm and did a very lucrative practice. When he was ready to leave for the West he sold out in 1855 to Dr. Reynolds. He then moved to Mis- souri and settled in Linn county on four hundred acres of land in sections seven and eight (a portion in Sullivan county), township sixty, range twenty, where he has ever since lived. In March, 1861, himself and wife, with their children, went to Havana, Illinois, and remained fifteen months. They went for the purpose of educating their children. They expected to remain two years, but finding things going to destruction at home, returned sooner than he had intended. He and his wife are both members of the Methodist Church in Browning. He is a member of the Masonic lodge, at West Union, Ohio, No. 43, and a Master Mason. In politics he was an old line Whig before the war and since a liberal Republican. The doctor continued his practice till within the past few years, when failing health did not justify his longer pursuing it. At present he practices only among his connections and a few intimate friends.
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