Bates County, Missouri - Biographical sketches, 1918 (part 12 of 19)

W. W. Perry was born in 1881 at the Perry homestead in Shawnee township. Bates county, and was reared on the farm of one hundred twenty acres of land, purchased by his father in 1879, one of the excellent stock farms of Shawnee township. Mr. Perry is a son of M. F. and Mary O. (Waldo) Perry. M. F. Perry was born in Henry county, Missouri, in 1847, a son of William T. and Mary (Cooper) Perry, the former, a native of Virginia and the latter, of Kentucky. William T. Perry came to Missouri in 1836 and settled on a tract of land, which he entered from the government, in Henry county, and on his farm in that county spent the remainder of his life. He died in 1888 and interment was made in the cemetery near his home place.

M. F. Perry obtained his education in the "subscription schools" of Henry county, as there were no public schools in this state until after the Civil War. He was reared on his father's farm in Henry county and practically all his life has been interested in agricultural pursuits. He came to Bates county, Missouri, in 1879 and purchased his present country home in Shawnee towmship, a farm comprising one hundred twenty acres of valuable land, nicely improved and conveniently located, fourteen miles from Butler and seven miles from Spruce. Mr. Perry is very much interested in horticulture and had a splendid little orchard on his place until the cyclone of 1916 destroyed it. He has since planted another orchard and hopes to be one of those who will enjoy the fruit from it in the days to come.

The marriage of M. F. Perry and Mary O. Waldo was solemnized in 1876. Mrs. Perry is a daughter of Col. Calvin and Mrs. Matilda (Odineal) Waldo, of St. Clair county, Missouri. To this union have been born three children: Mrs. C. A. Webb, at home with her parents; Mrs. Robert Powers, Butler, Missouri; and W. W., of whom mention has been made in this sketch. Mr. and Mrs. Perry are highly respected in Shawnee township, where their family has long been enrolled among the most valued and best families and Mr. Perry has at many different times been honored with offices of public trust in his township. He has served as justice of the peace in Shawnee township, as clerk, as assessor, and has just completed a very satisfactory term in the office of deputy collector. He is public-spirited and takes a deep and abiding interest in all matters relative to the upbuilding and betterment of his community. M. F. Perry is a most worthy representative of a noble, old, pioneer family of Henry county and Bates county, one of the first families of Missouri.

Herbert E. Page, proprietor of a fine farm of four hundred twenty acres in Hudson township, is a native son of Bates county who has "made good" in the county of his birth. The farm which he owns has been in possession of the Page family for over fifty years, Mr. Page first buying one hundred sixty acres of the old home place wdien he began his career in this county on his own account twenty-two years ag'O. Since that time he has accumulated one of the large and highly productive farms in this section of Missouri and has fitted up the place with splendid improvements. Mr. Page has a splendid barn 40 X 50 feet in dimensions, and a silo having a capacity of one hundred fifty tons of silage - a modern adjunct to the proper feeding of live stock which Mr. Page considers one of the best assets of his farm. He has eighty head of cattle and at the present writing (January, 1918) is feeding a carload for the markets. He usually keeps from seventylive to one hundred head of good hogs on the place, and adds to the income of his farm by feeding and raising a good variety of porkers. One of the best things on the place in Mr. Page's opinion is a drilled well, two hundred feet in depth, which supplies soft water for any and all purposes. The water from this well is piped to his modern eightroom residence and supplies an infallible flow for the livestock on the farm.

H. E. Page was born in Hudson township, April 9, 1869, and is the son of Ava and Mary (Robords) Page, pioneer settlers of Hudson township. Ava E. Page, his father, was born in Livingston county. New York, January 5, 1834. His parents were Albert and Jerusha (Tyler) Page, both of wdiom were natives of Connecticut. Albert Page was born March 31, 1800, and moved to New York with his parents when a youth and grew to manhood there and married. He was prominent in the affairs of Livingston county, and filled several county offices during his residence there. He died in August, 1876. When Ava E. Page was seventeen years old he taught a term of school and in the fall of 1850 he went to Tennessee, where he taught for two years. In January, 1857, he removed to Wisconsin and located at Milwaukee, where he served for two years as deputy sheriff of Milwaukee county. He came to Missouri in May, 1859, and made settlement in Bates county, buying land in Hudson township which he improved from raw, unbroken prairie land and created a fine farm. He bought the home place which is now owned by his son, Herbert E., in 1866, and became owner of two hundred seventy acres. He set out an orchard of over five hundred trees of all kinds of fruit, and created one of the best country estates in the county. Mr. Page was also heavily engaged in the live stock business. He resided on his farm until 1896 and then moved to Roswell, New Mexico and resided there until 1909, when he went to California, and died at Pomona on July 4, 1910. Mr. Page was married in Henry county, August 1, 1861, to Miss Mary E. Robords, of New York City, a daughter of Rev. Israel Robords of Scotch descent. Mrs. Page moved to Missouri with her parents when eight years of age, but was educated at Rochester, New York. The following children were born to Ava E. and Mary Page: Florence I., wife of J. B. Baker, Upper Lake, California; Clifford, Arcadia, Florida; Herbert E., subject of this review; and Minnie, wife of William Wilson, Roswell, New Mexico.

During the Civil War, Ava E. Page enlisted in the Sixth Missouri Cavalry and served as lieutenant of Company C in his regiment. He participated in many engagements and was in the battle of Marshall in Saline county. In 1864 he was appointed one of the county judge in Bates county, and served as presiding judge of the county co for two years. He was prominently identified with the Republican party and served as delegate to the state conventions of his party at various times. He was one of the leaders in the Grange movement and in every way was a leading citizen of the county, for some years serving as state lecturer of the Grange in Missouri.

Herbert E. Page was educated in the common schools of Bates county and studied in the State Normal at Warrensburg for one year. He then spent three years in the W^est and then returned to the home farm where he has since followed farming. He first purchased one hundred sixty acres of the home place and by thrift, good management and hard work - as he says - on the eight-hour system, which calls for "eight-hour forenoon" and "eight-hour afternoon," he has made good and is owner of four hundred twenty acres of farm lands which are among the most valuable in Bates county.

On October 24, 1895, Herbert E. Page and Miss Elfie Brown were united in marriage. This marriage has been blessed with children as follow : Harley H., one of his father's assistants on the farm, a graduate of the Appleton City High School; George Ava, a student in the district school. Mrs. Elfie (Brown) Page is a daughter of W. G. and Mary Brown of Hudson township. Her father is well known in Hudson township and her mother is deceased. See biography of William G. Brown.

Anthony Lindsay, pioneer and retired mail route manager, who after an eventful and busy life is living in comfortable retirement at his pleasant home, 509 West Fort Scott street, Butler, Missouri, was born in Nova Scotia, Dominion of Canada, September 23, 1849. He was a son of James and Mary (Stewart) Lindsay, the former of whom was a native of Nova Scotia and the latter a native of Scotland. James Lindsay removed from Nova Scotia to Canada in 1854 and to Illinois in 1857, and in the fall of 1868 he located on a farm in Linn county, Kansas, near the present site of the town of Prescott. He died there in 1873. Mrs. Mary Lindsay died at Prescott in April, 1901, and both are buried in the Prescott cemetery. They were parents of eight children, of whom three survive, namely: John, lives in Oklahoma; Mrs. Mima Bowers, Pasadena, California; Anthony Lindsay, subject of this sketch.

Mr. Lindsay was educated in the common schools of Canada and Illinois and accompanied his parents to Linn county, Kansas in 1868. Two years later, in 1870, he located in Bates county, and took charge of the contract for carrying the mails from Butler, Missouri, to La Cygne, Kansas. This route provided for a daily mail delivery with a stage coach in connection, the routes leading from Butler to Appleton City and thence to Osceola, and Butler to La Cygne and return. The trip involved a distance of sixty miles from Butler to La Cygne and return and was made daily. Mr. Lindsay operated three routes. In 1876 he and his brother, Albert S., built a stable at Appleton City, and did a livery business in addition to carrying the mails. The stage route stations where the horses were changed were located at Mulberry, east of La Cygne, then another station at Butler and on the Appleton City route there was a station at Lahi, on the farm now owned by Clark Wix and at that time known as the John Brown farm. The next station was located at Appleton City, and the last one was situated at Osceola. Mr. Lindsay recalls that Messrs. Barlow, Sanderson and Company had the contract for carrying the mails from Pleasant Hill, Missouri to Fort Scott, Kansas, and at the time Mr. Lindsay came here this firm was running a big stage coach via Harrisonville and Butler in 1870. Mr. Lindsay disposed of his mail routes in 1880 and a few years later they were discontinued as star routes. He also operated a tri-weekly route to Pleasant Gap, and another route to West Point which was tri-weekly. After leaving the mail carrying business, Mr. Lindsay and his brother engaged in livestock buying and his brother moved on the family farm in Linn county. He died in 1901 in Indian- .apolis, Indiana. Mr. Lindsay then settled up their business affairs and moved to Fort Scott where he resided until 1906. In that year he came to Butler, where he has a fine residence property in connection with a tract of four acres within the city limits.

Mr. Lindsay was married on January 21, 1880 to Alice Wyatt, a daughter of F. M. and Emeline (Sever) Wyatt, of Butler, Missouri. The Wyatts located in Butler in April of 1870, where Mrs. Wyatt died February 8, 1886, Mr. Wyatt dying on October 7, 1917 at the age of eighty-four years. In October, 1902, Mr. Wyatt was stricken with paralysis and for fifteen years he was helpless and neither spoke nor walked. Two other children born to Mr. and Mrs. Wyatt besides Mrs. Lindsay are living: James O. Wyatt, Maroa, Illinois; and Mrs. Anna T. Johnson, Portland, Oregon. To Mr. and Mrs. A. Lindsay the following children have been born : Harry W., and Edith. - Harry W. Lindsay is now engaged in the loan business at Kenton, Ohio. Prior to locating in Kenton, he was in the employ of a bank at Pasadena, California, for seven years and was also cashier of a bank at Central Point, Oregon before his removal to Kenton, Ohio. He married Ruth Andrews, a daughter of J. F. Andrews, a well known capitalist of Kenton. Edith is the wife of Wesley Denton, president of the Peoples Bank of Butler, to whose biography the reader is referred in another part of this volume. Mr. and Mrs. Lindsay have a beautiful, modern home on West Fort Scott street, all buildings being kept in a good state of repair and painted. He is well informed concerning every

(lay matters and recalls the pioneer times in Bates county when he carried the mails for the government, his memory of the conditions of things in those early days being excellent.

William Benjamin Tyler, retired farmer, Butler, Missouri, was born on September 7, 1844 in Kentucky, the son of Charles (born March 10, 1818, died September 2, 1912) and Susan (Brown) Tyler (born 1825), died September 3, 1879). Charles and Susan Tyler were both natives of Kentucky, Henry county. They came to Missouri in 1853 and settled in Johnson county, near Knob Noster, where Mr. Tyler entered government land, his first quarter section costing him twelve and onehalf cents per acre and he also secured another tract of one hundred and sixty acres southeast of Knob Noster at a cost of one dollar and twenty-five cents an acre. He sold his Johnson county land in 1860 and bought land in Pettis county, where he resided until the close of the Civil War. He then came to Bates county on March 1, 1866 and settled in Spruce township, south of Ballard. He bought a farm here and sold it after some years, and then bought a farm in Deepwater township which he* later sold. He died at West Plains, Howell county, Missouri.

In 1864, W. B. Tyler enlisted in Johnson county, Missouri for service with the Confederate forces under Capt. Palm Smith and his company was attached to Fighting Joe Shelby's brigade. He served for one year and was with General Price's army when the general made his last raid into Kansas. Mr. Tyler was stationed at Corsicana, Texas when the war closed. He went to Shreveport and there surrendered with Shelby's forces on June 14, 1865. He returned home and on March 1, 1866 he came to Bates county. He rented land for ten years in Spruce and Deepwater townships and resided in Spruce township until 1892. He then moved to Summit township and bought the Winsett farm which he sold to the Scully interests in 1894. He next bought the farm now owned by B. P. Powell and later sold it to Mr. Powell. His next venture was the improvement of a forty-acre farm located three miles east of Butler which he sold in the fall of 1915. Mr. Tyler now resides in a modern bungalow in North W^ater street just outside of the city limits of Butler and one of the most attractive suburban places in the vicinity of Butler. During his residence in Summit township he served four years as township trustee and treasurer.

(Coates) Moore. Mr. and Mrs. Tyler have the following children: Fannie, wife of W. R. Hall, Nevada, Missouri; Mrs. Alice Iloskins, wdio has a daughter, Mildred; Jessie, wife of Ouintus Kaune, Everett, Washington; Susan, married Everett Grant, and lives near Butler, Missouri; Percy E., Parsons, Kansas, in the employ of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas railway, married Mary Frye and has one son, William Benjamin; three children died in infancy. Mr. Tyler has been a director of the Missouri State Bank for the past ten years.

When W. B. Tyler first came to Spruce township he leased a farm of forty acres and made his home in a little cabin on the place. He was pocrr but industrious, and his neighbors were all in like condition. In 1870, a stranger came along accompanied by his wife and inquired if there were any vacant houses in the country. He desired shelter for the winter. Mr. Tyler did not know of any house that was vacant at the time, as there were very few houses of any kind on the prairie at that time. They talked further about the matter and the stranger then asked Mr. Tyler if he did not wish to sell his place. Upon learning that Mr. Tyler had only a lease on the farm he offered to buy it and a deal was made. The stranger referred to was Thomas Cuddeback, who became well known among the early settlers of the county. Cuddeback eventually bought the forty acres of land and added one hundred twenty acres a few years later. He created one of the l)est farms in Spruce township which he later sold and removed to Johnson cc>unty, Kansas, where he died in 1914. He sold his Spruce to\vnship larm for the high price of thirty-five dollars an acre. He and Mr. Tyler were very close friends for many years and had a brotherly affection for each other. During the hard times of the seventies when dollars were scarce and seemed to be as big as cart wheels, wdth farm products very low in price, they frequently assisted one another, by going on each other's notes at the banks and wdien buying goods at public sales. When they had to pay their taxes each followed the custom of 'TIenry Clay and Daniel W'ebster," who frequently indorsed the other's notes wdien in need of money. Thomas Cuddeback was vice-president of the Spring Hill, Kansas, Banking Company for many years and stood high as a citizen. His brother, Frank Cuddeback, bought a farm in Spruce township in 1873 and later sold it and made his home in Johnson county, Kansas, where he died in 1917.

for one dollar and one dollar and twenty-tive cents per bushel to a Captain W'ally. a liveryman, who charged seventy-five cents for a feed of hay or corn to one horse. One -evening, after he had unloaded his corn, a storm of snow and sleet came on and Mr. Tyler decided it would be impossible to drive home, a distance of sixteen miles at night as he had no lantern and the roads were not good. A squatter lived on the land now occupied by the Butler cemetery. Mr. Tyler drove out there and ask for lodging for the night. The man told him that he was sh}' of bed covers and could not accommodate him. Tyler told him he would be willing to put up with any inconvenience rather than to brave the storm, and the man told him to come in and stay. He sat up in a chair all night long and left his oxen tied to the wheels of his lynch-pin wagon. The lynch-pin wagon of that day would be a curiosity now. The tongue of the wagon was morticed solidly to the front axle and the wheels with their long hubs were held in place by lynchpins which were droptped through slots cut in the hubs and axles. Mr. 'J'yler talks interestingly of the old times, and is well satisfied with conditions as they are at the present day, when he and his wife can enjoy the many comforts of modern civilization.

Decatur Smith, M. D., a retired pioneer physician of Bates county, Missouri, is one of Butler's most honored and valued citizens. Doctor Smith is a native son of Missouri. He was born June 29, 1841, in St. Louis county, a son of Henry and Mary J. (Watson) Smith. Henry Smith was one of the earliest settlers of St. Louis county, Missouri, a resident of that section of the state when the red men of the forest still claimed the land and resided there on their hunting grounds.

Doctor Smith received his higher education at IMcDowell College at St. Louis, Missouri. He was a young college student at the time of the outbreak of the Civil War and in February, 1862 he enlisted as a private and served as assistant surgeon in Company D, Sixth Missouri Cavalry, three years and two months, receiving- his honorable discharge at Baton Rouge, Louisiana in 1865. After the war had closed. Doctor Smith returned to his home in St. Louis county. INIissouri, and remained there one year, coming thence to Bates county in May, 1866. He intended at that time to locate at lUitler, but the war had so de\astated the town and the prairie surrounding the townsite was not yet settled and there were so few people left in the little village that the young physician changed his mind and decided to open his office at Pleasant Gap. a larger, more populous and prosperous town at that time. Doctor Smith was offered eighty acres of land located near Prairie City, Missouri, for two dollars an acre and he had the money in his possession with which he might have purchased the land, but he refused the offer. In September of the same year, the eighty acres of land were sold for twenty dollars an acre. Doctor Smith opened a drug store at Pleasant Gap in connection with his office, but this proved to be an unsatisfactory venture, as his practice interfered with the proper care of his business interests and it was impossible to obtain competent assistants. Doctor Smith disposed of his store after a short time. He relates how he was want to travel in the early days on horseback across the prairies and how he would sometimes be gone four days and nights before he could return to his office. The settlers would follow after him and he would answer a call direct from one sickbed to another, oftentimes traveling seventyfive miles on horseback in a single day. He made it a rule to carry medicines and all things needed in an emergency case in his old-style saddlebags. The doctor closed his offfce at Pleasant Gap in 1870 and moved to Rockville, where he was engaged in the practice of his profession until the spring of 1871, but as Mrs. Smith was unhappy and dissatisfied in the new home they moved on a farm lying four miles south of the city and then Doctor Smith retired from the active practice of medicine. The Smiths moved from their farm to Butler in 1876 and have since been residents of this city, where he practiced medicine for seven years and freighted goods from Kansas City, Pleasanton and AppJeton City for some years. Their home is located at 200 South Mechanic street in Butler.

October 18, 1866, Dr. Decatur Smith and Mary Jane Atkison were united in marriage at Pleasant Gap, Missouri. To this union were born two children: Alice Elizabeth, who died at the age of fourteen years; and Edgar D., who has been a mail carrier on a rural route out of Butler for the past fifteen years. Their mother, and the doctor's faithful companion and helpmeet for fifty years, died August 1. 1916.

Doctor Smith recalls Doctor Tousey. who was located on Round Prairie near Hudson in the early days. Doctor Tousey had been engaged in the medical practice in this vicinity before the Civil War and was quite an aged man at the time yoimg Doctor Smith located in Bates county, a man of probably eighty years of age. He and his young colleague frequently held consultations. Doctor Patten located at Butler at about the same time as did Doctor Smith at Pleasant Gap and he is now deceased. Dr. William Requa, who was located at Harmony

Endowed by nature with a remarkable sturdy physique and a splendid intellect. Doctor Smith has been able to withstand the wear and tear of time and fatiguing labor remarkably well and is now well past the three score years and ten allotted to man. He is a gentleman of such traits of character that in all his years of practice and activity in Bates county, he could not but leave the impress of his personality wherever he was known. While Bates county has to its credit many men of prominence in all spheres of endeavor, and while its historical annals teem with the records of hundreds of unselfish lives and deeds, the name of Dr. Decatur Smith will always occupy a high place among the county's respected and representative citizens, not alone because of his useful career as physician but also on account of his broad human sympathies and sterling honor.

Rev. Lewis McComb. - The late Rev. Lewis McComb, of Bates county, will long be remembered as the pioneer Baptist minister of this county, who was universally loved and esteemed by all who knew him. He was born in Knox county, Tennessee, May 27, 1821, and was a son of William McComb, who removed from Tennessee to Sangamon county, Illinois in 1827. William McComb was father of ten childrM. He died in Illinois in 1835. Two years later, his widow removed with her family of children to Miller county, Missouri. Lewis McComb was there married to Sarah Vann in 1840. In 1845 he located in Johnson county and in 1848 made a settlement in Van Buren (now Bates county). Soon after his arrival in this county in August, 1848, he entered government land and also bought adjoining land which he developed and became owner of several hundred acres. As a farmer and stockman he was quite successful. He resided in Spruce township for many years and became well-to-do. His dwelling house was erected upon land which practically stood in three counties, but was never moved. When the McComl) residence was built, tlie land was located in Van Buren county. After the territory was re-districted, it was called Cass and Vernon counties, and later, Bates county was formed and thus remained through the Civil W^ar period. The McComb residence was built in 1853 and it was occupied by its builders and the members of his family until 1905, with the exception of two years of the Civil War when Order Number Eleven was issued. In 1905 a new dwelling was erected upon the McComb farm.

When Lewis McComb settled in Spruce township, his nearest neighbor was Mr. Enibree on Elk Fork, almost five miles away. Deer and wild turkey w^ere plentiful and he killed them in large numbers in his own dooryard when in need of fresh meat for the family larder. Reverend McComb lived to see a wilderness developed into a thickly populated and prosperous country and took a very active part in its up-building.

Soon after Lewis McComb came to Bates county, he was joined by his three brothers, Jacob, John, and James, and a sister, Elizabeth. Jacob McComb bought a farm adjoining that of his brother Lewis and lived thereon until the outbreak of the Civil War, when he enlisted in the Confederate army and was wounded at the battle of Wilson's Creek, dying three days later from the effect of his wounds. John McComb opened a store at Papinsville, and afterward moved to Butler, where he opened the first store in the town, in 1855, the store being operated under the firm name of McComb & Robinson. This store was conducted until the outbreak of the Civil War, when John McComb joined the Southern army and was elected captain of a company of men recruited in Bates county. Capt. John McComb led the charge upon the Federal stronghold at Lone Jack. Wdiile making the charge at the head of his men, just as he had climbed atop the fence surrounding the Federal stronghold, he was shot in the left breast, the bullet passing through the lung and body. He fell into the arms of one of his own men and told him to lay him down and to go on with the charge. When the battle was over his brother, Lewis, was notified and immediately went to his brother's assistance at the risk of his own life, remaining with the wounded soldier until his death on the following Sunday night. The wounded captain was taken to a room occupied by nineteen other sufferers and his brother, Lewis, was the only attendant. The room was poorly lighted by a grease lamp and about all that could be done for the wounded men, was to change their uncomfortable positions occasionally and give them water to drink, while all the time one was compelled to listen to their shrieks of pain and dying moans. Three men died on that night. The battle of Lone Jack was fought on Friday morning and John McComb died the Sundav following his mortal wound. His brother Lewis remained with him until he died and was buried and then made his way home, successfully evading several Union scouting parties on his homeward wa3^ terms of school. In the spring of 1854 he farmed with Lewis McComb, and taught school in Henry county. In 1855 he and his brother, John, opened a store in Butler, and in November of 1856, he left Butler to become a student at the State University in Columbia. In the fall of 1857 he entered the St. Louis Medical College, and in 1858, he began the practice of medicine near Lebanon in La Clede county. Dr. McComb graduated from the Jefiferson Medical College, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and then located permanently in Lebanon, where he has ever since been engaged in the practice of his profession. He is the only surviving member of his father's family at this date.

Elizabeth McComb became the wife of Bowen Coleman, a member of a prominent pioneer family of Bates county. She died soon after her marriage, leaving one child, Ella, now the wife of S. B. Kash of Deepwater township.

The marriage of Rev. Lewis McComb and Sarah Vann was consummated in 1845. Five children were born to this marriage, namely: J. D., Porum, Oklahoma; Dr. Lewis L., Norman, Oklahoma; William, died at the age of twenty-four, Lawrence, Kansas; Mary J.; and one other, deceased. Mrs. Mary (Vann) McComb died in 1855. Some time after the death of his first wife he married in 1857 Annie E. Cooper, who died six months later. In 1859. he married Mary J. Radford, who bore him children as follow: John L., Norman, Oklahoma; Mrs. Amy E. Malsbee, deceased; Mrs. Sarah L. Rogers, Spruce, Missouri; Finis, deceased; Charles A. McComb, Butler, Missouri; Walter O., Spruce, Missouri ; Mrs. Mary J. McElwain, Nevada, Missouri. Mrs. Mary J. McComb died October 6, 1882.

At the age of thirty-five years, Lewis McComb entered the Baptist ministry and from that time on his life was unselfishly given to otiiers as a servant of Christ. He became pastor of many churches in Bates and adjoining counties and served as pastor of the home church located on his farm for seventeen consecutive years. He resigned his position and the congregation then passed resolutions asking him to continue his pastorate. After a lapse of two years he again became the pastor of the church and continued to preach the gospel until advancing age compelled him to relinquish his duties as pastor. He preached the Gospel until he attained the age of eighty-six years and even after attaining that great age he would respond to calls. Until his later years he remained active and in possession of his mental powers. al)le to hitch his horse to the carriage and journey anywhere he was called to minster to an ailing body or soul. Reverend McComb possessed a fair knowledge of the healing art and frequently took care of the sick and ailing on the country side. In this, he was the typical pioneer minister who combined the two professions in caring for the members of his flock.

He was widely known as the "Marrying Parson," the "St. Louis Republic" at one time referring to him in this sense, and stating that he had married more couples than any man in the state of Missouri during the course of his ministerial career.

Rev. Lewis McComb sold his farm to his son, Charles A. McComb, in 1897 but continued to make his home on the place until his death, February 26, 1907. His death marked the passing of one of the best loved and most useful personages of the pioneer era of Bates county. He endured many hardships in the pioneer days of the settlement and development of western Missouri, but maintained a cheerful disposition through adversity and sorrow and lived to see peace and plenty mingled with happiness and contentment take the place of the old, troublesome days on the plains of Bates and adjoining counties. He spent the major part of his long life as a pioneer Baptist missionary in western Missouri and eastern Kansas and assisted in establishing many Baptist churches in this section. He resided upon his farm in Bates county continually until his death with the exception of two years spent in Morgan and Miller counties from 1863 to the close of the Civil War in accordance with the requirements of General Ewing's Order Number Eleven. Reverend McComb donated the land for the church and cemetery located in Spruce township upon his farm and was a large factor in the building of the church edifice thereon. Both he and his wife are sleeping the long sleep of the just and godly in the plat of ground which he set aside for the community burial place many years ago. Alongside with them are sleeping children and relatives who have departed from this earthly realm. History will give Rev. Lewis McComb an enviable place in the annals of Bates county and western Missouri for the great work which he accomplished and the unselfish and whole hearted devotion with which he ministered to the souls and bodies of the people of Bates county. No task was ever too great for him if by doing it he could benefit some one of his fellow men ; no sacrifice was too great for him to make if he could save a soul and win a convert to Christianity and his converts numbered into the hundreds and thousands during his long and devoted ministerial career.

eighty acres in Deepwater township, was born in Tazewell county, Virginia, August 20, 1855, a son of Thomas (born 1827 - died February 18, 1911) and Sarah (Harman) Nickell, the former of whom was a native of Kentucky and the latter a native of Virginia. Thomas Nickell was a veteran of the Civil War, having served in the Confederate army in Virginia. During the war in 1863 he located in Omaha, where he became one of the originators of the Omaha Stock Yards. Mrs. Sarah Nickell died in 1863. Thomas and Sarah Nickell were parents of the following children: James E. ; Howard; and Rosa, who died at the age of thirteen years. James E. Nickell came to Bates county in 1868 with an uncle, James H. Harman, wdio located on a farm in the northeast part of Deepwater township which he improved and later sold and bought a farm situated five miles northeast of Butler. After some years of residence on this place, Mr. Harman sold it and moved to Warrensburg, where he died. Mr. Nickell made his home with his uncle during his boyhood days and attended the Elm Grove school. He took up farming as a life vocation and has prospered from a small beginning, now owning a large place of two hundred and eighty acres, one quarter section of which is the old Nicholas Choate farm. He has a handsome farm residence and a splendid barn erected in 1897. The Nickell farm presents a well kept appearance and its productive capacity is kept at the maximum.

On June 14, 1880, James E. Nickell and Miss Sarah J. Choate were united in marriage. Mrs. Sarah J. (Choate) Nickell was born April 26, 1863 and is a daughter of Nicholas and Pernelia (Wilson) Choate, a sketch of wdiom appears in this volume in connection with the biography of Dr. J. W. Choate of Butler, a brother of Mrs. Nickell. Mrs. Nickell was educated in the AA'illow Tree and Elm Grove district schools. Her first teacher was Phineas Holcoml), who taught in 1868-1869, the next being Henry Jarvis, now a practicing physician of Schell City, who taught in Elm Grove district, 1869-1870. The Willow Tree district was organized in 1870. Mr. and Mrs. Nickell have two sons: Erie W., a jeweler at Clinton, Missouri; Charles L., who is farming on the home place and was born May 31, 1883. C. L., after attending the district school in his neighborhood, attended the Butler public schools for one year and then spent two years at the ^^^arrensburg Normal College. Mr. C. L. Nickell has a modern residence of eight rooms erected in 1909 and a large barn 38 x 42 feet, built in 1912. He is conducting g^eneral farming operations on the Nickell home place and raising cattle and hogs for the markets. Charles L. Nickell was married in 1907 to Miss Rozella Barackman, a daughter of Benjamin and Rozella Barackman, of Spruce township, Bates county. To Charles and Rozella Nickell have been born three children: Helen, Wilbur, and Cecil.

Thomas Bolin, Union veteran and farmer of Shawnee township, was born January 8, 1843 in Montgomery county, Kentucky, a son of Hiram Bolin, who was born in Culpepper county, V^irginia. Hiram was a son of John Bolin, who was a pioneer in Kentucky. Hiram Bolin married Emily Hall of Kentucky, a daughter of Green Hall. Her grandfather, William Hall, was a soldier of the Revolution and served under General Greene as captain. Thomas Bolin was reared and educated in Kentucky and he enlisted at the beginning of the Civil W^ar, at Camp Dick Robinson, in Boyle county, Kentucky, in 1861, under Captain Gist. He served in Colonel Erye's brigade, and under General Thomas in the Eourteenth Army Corps. He fought in the first hard battle at Mill Springs, Kentucky. Other notable engagements in which he participated were Stone River, Tennessee ; Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge, and many skirmishes and minor engagements, fighting from Dalton, Georgia to Atlanta. He was with Sherman at the capture of Atlanta and took part in Sherman's famous march from Atlanta to the sea and the capture of Savannah. He served over four years in the Union army and received his final discharge in September of 1865 at Wilmington, North Carolina. Mr. Bolin was captured by the Confederates in the rear at Atlanta- and interned in Andersonville prison, where he remained for eleven months and then he managed to escape.

After the close of his war service he returned to Iventucky and resided in his native state until 1880, and then came to Henry county, Missouri, residing there until the early nineties when he made a settlement in Shawnee township. Bates county. Mr. Bolin has prospered in Bates county and owns a splendid farm of two hundred and forty acres, well improved. Wliile a resident of Kentucky he took a prominent part in civic affairs and filled the offices of constable and magistrate.

Mr. Bolin was married February 12, 1868 to Ansel D. Hoskins of Estill county, Kentucky, who died January 10. 1914 and her remains are interred in the cemetery at Butler. She was a good and faithful wife and a kind mother to her children. To Thomas and Ansel Bolin were born children as follow: Albert, living in Arizona; Laura, at home with her father; Green H., state mine inspector of Arizona; Sterling, Bates county, Missouri; Mrs. Emma Johnson, Platte county, Missouri; D. S., farming near Phoenix, Arizona; and Clara, at home with her father.

Although this aged veteran has passed the allotted span of three score years and ten and spent over four of the best years of his life in the service of his country, he is active and w^ell preserved and is still able to do work about his farm.

John M. Catterlin, a retired agriculturist, formerly in the loan business at Butler, Missouri, one of Butler's most substantial citizens, is a native of Ohio. Mr. Catterlin was born April 20, 1845, in Miami couiity, a son of Solomon B. and Eliza (Jones) Catterlin. Solomon B. Catterlin was a native of Ohio, born on his father's farm in Hamilton county near Cincinnati. Solomon B. Catterlin was a son of Joseph .Catterlin, also born near Cincinnati, Ohio, who was a son of Joseph Catterlin, a native of New Jersey, who married a half-sister of King James VII of England. The Catterlins are among the oldest American families. Eliza (Jones) Catterlin was a native of Kentucky. The Catterlins came to Missouri from Ohio in June, 1881, and located temporarily at Butler, intending to purchase a farm in Bates county, but the father died in November, soon after their coming West, and the mother died in 1889, just eight years afterward. The remains of both parents are interred in Oak Hill cemetery in Bates county. Solomon B. and Eliza (Jones) Catterlin were the parents of five children: John M., the subject of this review; Mrs. Amanda Jane Reisner, who died at Butler in 1891 ; Mrs. Emma Hickman, a former resident of Butler, now of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Mrs. Mary C. Legg, the widow of T. W. Legg, a sketch of, whom appears in this volume, and Clifford C, with the Standard Oil Company, of Butler.

John M. Catterlin received his education in the public schools of Piqua, Ohio, and at Oxford College, in Ohio. He was a youth, sixteen years of age, at the time of the outbreak of the Civil War and applied three times for admission to the Union army, but because he was at that time engaged in the pursuits of agriculture and being then the onlv son of that family he was refused admission, the country needing him on the farm. Mr. Catterlin came to Bates county, in 1869, and for eleven years after coming West was engaged in farming and stock raising. He retired from these pursuits in 1880 and moved to Butler, where he entered the farm loan business, in which he was employed until 1914, when he disposed of his business and has since been living in quiet retirement in this city. Mr. Catterlin built his present residence, still one of the most beautiful homes in the city, in 1881. It is a handsome, modern home, constructed of white pine at a cost of eleven thousand dollars and worth much more now. Mr. Catterlin recalls that, in the autumn of 1881, he bought coal at the Rich Hill coal banks, loaded into the wagon, for one cent a bushel.

The marriage of John M. Catterlin and Lucy A. Atkison was solemnized in 1874. Lucy A. (Atkison) Catterlin was born in Cooper county in 1847, is a daughter of John and Hannah (Catterlin) Atkison, who came to Missouri in the early forties and located in Cooper county, whence they came to Bates county in 1860 and settled on a farm in Pleasant Gap township, which Mr. Atkison had purchased. Mrs. J. M. Catterlin was born and reared in Cooper county, Missouri, and she came with her parents to Bates county in 1860. Pleasant Gap, at that time, boasted three mercantile establishments, two of the merchants being Mr. Bryant and Joseph Smith. John Atkison conducted the Ohio House for two years following the Civil War. He was appointed sheriff during the Civil War and served out the term and was twice elected sheriff of Bates county after the war. When Order No. 11 w^as issued, the Atkison family moved first to Clinton and then to Old Germantown, Missouri, and resided on a farm. AVhile there, on account of the depredations inflicted by the opposing armies, the Atkisons kept most of their clothing and all their bedding hidden in a box under the floor, for in the raids frequently made on the settlers by plunderers, all the good clothing and bedding were invariably stolen. To John and Hannah Atkison were born the following children: Mrs. Mary Jane Smith, deceased; Mrs. John M. Catterlin, the w^ife of the subject of this review; Robert Alexander, Butler, Missouri; Mrs. Sarah E. Catterlin, deceased; Mrs. Susan E. Rogers, Butler, Missouri; and Mrs. Dora Risley, Santiago, California. John Atkison died April 24, 1900, at Butler, Missouri, and on June 29 of the same year he was united in death with his wnfe. Both Mr. and Mrs. Atkison were interred in Oak Hill cemetery. The Atkisons were one of the pioneer families of western Missouri, and their descendants have long been held in the highest esteem in Bates countv. J. M. and Lucy A. (Atkison) Catterlin were the parents of three children, all of whom are now deceased; Hannah, died at the age of eight years; Solomon, died at the age of two years; and Grace, died at the age of fourteen years.

War. He left Bates county and enlisted, in 1861. in Company H, Seventh Missouri Cavalry Regiment, at Sedalia, and attained the post of captain of his company.

The Catterlin name has been closely interwoven in the record of the growth and development of Bates county, and no biographical compendium would be complete which omitted mention of John M. Catterlin, who has for nearly fifty years been interested in promoting its material prosperity.

In politics, Mr. Catterlin is a Democrat. He is fraternally affiliated with the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, is a Mystic Shriner, and has attained all degrees up to and including the Thirty-second Degree.

Watt Burress Dawson, prosecuting attorney of Bates county, was born in Wayne county, Ohio. March 18, 1874. He is a son of Eugene B. and Sarah (Moses) Dawson, the former of whom was a native of the Western Reserve section of Ohio and the latter a native of jNIassachusetts. Both parents of Watt B. Dawson were of old New England stock. Eugene B. Dawson was reared to manhood in his native state and in 1879 went to Trego county in western Kansas and homesteaded a tract of land. He is said to have sown the first wheat in that section of Kansas, taking the wheat with him from Ohio. After some years of residence there he went to Rich Hill, Missouri and rented land in that neighborhood for the first season. In the spring of 1883 he drove a herd of cattle to Linn and Anderson counties, Kansas, and in 1889 settled on a quarter section of land in Bates county, near Hume, in Howard township. He developed his farm and Vvhen old age came upon him he retired to a home in Hume where his death occurred in 1904. His remains are interred in the Hume cemetery. Mrs. Dawson resides at Hume and is aged eighty-two years. Mr. and Mrs. Eugene B. Dawson were parents of nine children, as follow: Dr. N. B. Dawson, Sterling, Ohio; Lydia E., at home with her mother; AVatt B., su])ject of this review; Mrs. Mima C. Hofses, Parsons, Kansas; G. P. Dawson, died at Pleasanton, Kansas; Edward Marion, died at Rich Hill, aged twentyone years; Wallace W., died at Hume, aged thirty-one years; Thomas, died in Ohio when eight years old; and Mary, died in Ohio at the age of four years.

After graduating from the Hume, Missouri. High School in 1894, Watt B. Dawson taught school in Bates county for five years from 1894 to 1899, inclusive. He then entered the Missouri State Universitv at Columbia and pursued a literary and law course, graduating therefrom ill the class of 1901. Following his graduation from law school he taught for another year and began the practice of his profession at Rich Hill. In the fall election of 1905 he was elected to the office of prosecuting attorney of Bates county, being the first attorney outside of the county seat to be elected to that county office. It had been the custom or habit to elect a county seat attorney to the office previous to the election of Mr. Dawson, a precedent thus being established. He carried every township in the county at the primaries excepting West Point. Mr. Dawson served three terms as prosecuting attorney and established a reputation as a fearless and able prosecutor. He was re-elected to the office in the fall of 1916 and is the present incumbent of the office. Since his election to the prosecutor's office he has made his residence in Butler and is associated in the practice of law with Mr. J. A. Silvers.

Mr. Dawson was married July 1, 1902 to Miss Emma N. White, a daughter of Mrs. Aramintha White of Rich Hill. Mrs. Dawson's father died when she was an infant. Mr. and Mrs. Dawson have two children: Mildred, and Donald.

A legal practitioner of excellent judgment, scholarly attainments, and profound knowledge of the law, and an official of known integrity, Mr. Dawson has achieved a place for himself as one of the most successful practicing attorneys in the county. He has always been a strong advocate of temperance and has always stood for strict law enforcement, having at various times used the powers of his office to compel the enforcement of the temperance and prohibition laws which govern the community. Mr. Dawson is a member of the Modern Woodmen of America, the AVoodmen of the W^orld, and the Knights of Pythias. He has served as a member of the board of trustees of the Baptist church for some time and both he and Mrs. Dawson take an active interest in church work.

James W. Robinson, farmer and stockman, Shawnee township, is cultivating one of the best improved farms in Bates county, known as the Robinson homestead, and upon which his father settled over a half century ago. This farm comprises a total of two hundred and eighty acres, all of which lies in Shawnee township, excepting twenty acres in Mt. Pleasant township. The improvements on this farm are splendid. A large eight-room house which was erected by the father of James W. Robinson makes a fine appearance. A large barn 36 x 50 feet in dimensions, with a twenty foot shed was erected in 1910. The place is principally devoted to stock raising and Mr. Robinson maintains a herd of from seventy-five to one luindrecl head of cattle, besides a considerable number of hogs, sheep and mules and horses. It is usually well stocked with good grades of livestock. James W. Robinson was born on the homestead in Shawnee township, in 1886, a son of James A. and Charlotte (Johnson) Robinson, natives of Indiana.

The late James A. Robinson was born in Ripley county, Indiana, February 24, 1846, and was a son of Joseph Jefferson Robinson who located in Pettis county, Missouri, and there spent the remainder of his days engaged in farming pursuits. At the outbreak of the Civil War, James A. Robinson enlisted in Company E, Seventh Indiana Cavalry regiment and served until his honorable discharge in 1864. He re-enlisted as a veteran in Company M, Thirteenth Indiana regiment and served in behalf of the Union until January, 1866. Following his honorable discharge from the service he came west to Pettis county, Missouri, and thence to Bates county in that same year. He located in Shawnee township and developed a splendid farm from the prairie land which at that time was thinly settled. Mr. Robinson became a well respected and prosperous citizen of Bates county and reared a fine family of children. He was married to Charlotte Johnson of Indiana and the following children were born to this marriage: Elizabeth, at home; Mrs. Ella Flescher, wife of J. H. Flescher, Jolly, Texas; L. F., Pawnee, Oklahoma; Jefferson J., Grainfield, Kansas; Adelia, wife of Marion Pennycuff, Kansas City, Kansas; Harvey M., Ida Grove, Iowa, married Stella Warner, who died in November, 1915, who was a daughter of C. A. Warner, of Foster, Missouri, and left two children - Harvey and Ralph; Dr. John A. Robinson, a graduate of the St. Louis Medical College, and now located in St. Louis; Dr. Edward Robinson, Adrian, Missouri; Maggie, died in infancy; Myrtle, at home; Mattie, Kansas City, Kansas; J. W., subject of this review. James A. Robinson died at his home place in Shawnee township, in June, 1915. Mrs. Robinson departed this life August 14, 1908. They were a worthy and industrious couple who nobly did their part in developing Bates county, and contributed to the commonwealth a splendid family of eleven children, all of whom occupy positions of standing in the various communities in which they have made their homes.

James W. Robinson, manager of the Robinson home place, was educated in the district schools and has chosen to become a farmer, thus following in his father's footsteps. For several years he was the mainstay of his parents in their old age and was a devoted son to them.

He is an excellent farmer and raises considerable live stock on the place. Mr. Robinson is an industrious and loyal citizen of his native county and keeps the homestead in splendid condition as a matter of duty and pride.

O. A. Heinlein. - The most satisfactory thing that can be said of the career of a successful citizen, in recording the story of his accomplishments in the realms of business, industrial, or other fields, is - that "He is a self-made man," and is justly entitled to all that he possesses and has accumulated, because of the fact that his success has been due to his ow^n honest endeavors. The title of "self-made man" can be w^ell applied to Mr. O. A. Heinlein, mayor of Butler, Missouri and president of the Bennett-Wheeler Mercantile Company of Butler, Missouri, and vicepresident of the Farmers Bank. During thirty-five years of endeavor in Bates county, Mr. Heinlein has achieved a success which is creditable and due to the following of a fixed plan and energetic application to the duties at hand, a policy which has placed him at the head of one of the most important commercial concerns of western Missouri, and his recognition by the citizens of Butler as a man capable of filling the post of city executive. Mr. Heinlein began his career as a clerk at small wages in the mercantile establishment of which he is now president, and steadily forged his way to the front. During the years that have passed, he has become a leader in the business world of this county. O. A. Heinlein was born in Christian county, Illinois, December 16, 1864, a son of Lawa'ence and Elizabeth (Johnson) Heinlein. Lawrence Heinlein, his father, was born April 28, 1828 in Ohio, Guernsey county, a son of Asa Heinlein, a native of Ohio reared in Guernsey county. He married Elizabeth Johnson, born October 14, 1830 in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania. To this marriage were born children as follow: Samuel E., employed with the Emerson-Brantingham Company, Kansas City, Missouri; F. M., a retired farmer living at Blue Mound, Illinois; Mrs. J. A. Wear, Butler, Missouri; O. A., subject of this review; H. W., traveling salesman for the Hall Lithograph Company, Kansas City, Missouri ; two children died in infancy. During his entire life, Lawrence Heinlein followed agricultural pursuits. Mr. Heinlein moved to Illinois in 1848 and settled near Springfield. He came to Bates county, Missouri, in 1883, driving fronl Illinois overland in a covered wagon, and located on a farm in Spruce township. He resided upon a farm until his retirement to a home in Butler, in 1896. His death occurred in this city in 1901. Eight years later his wife followed him to the grave, dying in

1909. Both parents are buried in Oak Hill cemetery. They were substantial and well respected citizens of Bates county, who added materially to the citizenship of the county.

O. A. Heinlein was educated in the pul)lic schools and in Butler Academy. After leaving school he entered the Bennett-Wheeler Mercantile Company establishment as a clerk at twenty dollars per month. So diligently did he apply himself and so careful was he with his earnings that he was enabled to purchase a small interest in the concern on January 1, 1891. He continued to invest his savings in the business and to apply himself assiduously to attain familiarity with every phase of the conduct of the business, and he was elected president of the company on January 1, 1898. Since this time he has been the active head of the business which has grown constantly in importance and size. The Bennett-Wheeler store was originally located on the site of the Missouri State Bank. It was moved to the site of the Farmers Bank, and in 1890 the store was located in its present cjuarters at the northeast corner of the public scjuare. The brick store building is two stories in height, and is 50 by 100 feet in dimensions, with an additional main floor space of 50 by 145 feet. The store covers an entire block. The concern also occupies two floors on the opposite side of the street measuring 50 by 100 feet and 25 by 75 feet in dimensions. The stock of hardware goods and implements carried by the Bennett- Wheeler Mercantile Company is the largest in Bates county. Mr. Heinlein is owner of one thousand acres of land in Bates county. He is vice-president of the Farmers Bank of Butler.

In 1910, the marriage of O. A. Heinlein with Miss Katie Lambert Canterbury occurred. Mrs. Heinlein is a daughter of Ben and Frances Tillie (Pentzer) Canterbury, well-known residents of Butler, concerning whom a biographical review is given elsewhere in this volume. Mr. and Mrs. Heinlein have four children: Oscar Allen, Jr.; Frances Elizabeth; Ben Canterbury; and Katherine Ann. The Heinlein residence is located at 200 North Delaware street and is one of the many beautiful, modern homes of Butler.

Along with his business activities, Mr. Heinlein has ever been cognizant of his obligations as a citizen of Butler and Bates county. Every movement having for its purpose the advancement of the material welfare of the county and its people have found him in the very forefront from its inception. He served a term as city councilman and was elected mayor of the city, in April, 1916. Since taking over the duties of his office he has applied to the conduct of city and municipal affairs the same business methods which have made his own business such a pronounced success, the result being that Butler is practically out of debt. The indebtedness of the city amounted to $8,000 at the beginning of his term of office, all of which has been paid, and the city now owns its own water and electric light plants which are ably managed at a profit to the city treasury. For the past twenty-eight years, Mr. Heinlein has been secretary and treasurer of the Presbyterian Sunday School of Butler.

E. C. Wilson, the well-known cashier of the Farmers Bank of Rockville, Missouri, is one of Bates county's prominent financiers. Mr. Wilson was born July 31, 1891, at Clinton in Henry county, Missouri, a son of Mr. and Mrs. C. B. Wilson, who settled in Henry county forty years ago and are now residents of Clinton, Missouri. To Mr. and Mrs. C. B. Wilson have been born the following children: Frank, of Clinton, Missouri; C. D., of Clinton, Missouri; W. A., of Parsons, Kansas; Jessie, an only daughter at home with her parents; and E. C, the subject of this review.

Tn the city schools of Clinton, Missouri, E. C. \\ ilson received his elementary education, which was afterward supplemented by a thorough business course at Colt's Business College. After completing his school work, Mr. Wilson was engaged in railroad work until he entered the Farmers Bank of Rockville, Missouri, as cashier in 1916, succeeding J. R. Wyatt, who has succeeded L. Wyatt, the cashier at the time of the organization of the institution. The Farmers Bank has doubled its business during the past year and much of its marked and splendid success has been and now is undoubtedly due to the energetic efforts of its capable cashier, who has mastered w^ell the intricate problem of finance.

The marriage of E. C. Wilson and Mayme L. Griffith, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. W^esley Griffith, of Clinton, Missouri, was solemnized May 19, 1916. Mr. and Mrs. Wilson are very popular with the young people of Rockville and they move in the best social circles of Bates county. Mr. Wilson is held in the highest respect by the leading business men of the county, who know him to be a young man of ability and exceptionally keen discernment and business judgment.

The Farmers Bank of Rockville, Missouri, was organized July 10, 1913, with a capital stock of ten thousand dollars. The present capital stock of the bank is ten thousand dollars, the surplus fund and undi- vided profits fifteen hundred dollars, and the deposits, at the time of this writing in 1918, more than sixty-six thousand dollars. The officials of the Farmers Bank of Rockville are, as follow: J. N. McDavitt, president; August Fischer, vice-president; E. C. Wilson, cashier; and John T. Mock, Gates Merryfield, M. G. Wilson, C. L. Roberts, and T. W. Gray, directors. This bank is one of the sound financial institutions of Bates county, Missouri.

D. D. Bassett, a well-known and successful farmer and stockman of Pleasant Gap township, is a native of Michigan. He was born in Branch county, April 18, 1870, a son of George and Rebecca (McCool) Bassett,

George Bassett was born in Billows Falls, Vermont, April 8, 1828. He was a son of George R. Bassett, who was also a native of Vermont, He went to Utica, New York, with his family in 1842, when George, the father of D. D., was about fourteen years old. Six years later, or in 1848, he went farther W'est, this time locating in LaGrange county, Indiana. Here, George R. Bassett spent the remainder of his life. He died in 1899, lacking only six days of being one hundred years old. His wife lacked only three days of being one hundred years old at her death.

The Bassett family is of Engdish descent and trace their ancestry back to the House of Kent in England. The Bassett family was founded in America by Francis Livingston Bassett, who settled in New England in colonial times. Richard Bassett, ancestor of D. D. Bassett, was a signer of the Declaration of Independence.

Rebecca McCool, mother of D. D. Bassett, was a Pennsylvanian, born near Philadelphia. She was a daughter of Aaron and Margaret (Montgomery) McCool. Her father was a native of Ireland and her mother was a daughter of Robert R. Montgomery and of Scotch descent.

George Bassett was about twenty years of age when he came West with his parents. He was employed on the first railroad to reach Chicago from the East, at that time making his home at Elkhart, Indiana. Later, he went to Michigan and was engaged in the lumber business for a time when he returned to Elkhart, Indiana. In the fall of 1874 he went to Iowa with his family, remaining there until 1877, when he went to Kansas and settled in Dickinson county. Three years later, or in 1880, he came to Bates county, Missouri, locating in Pleasant Gap township on the place where D. D. Bassett, the subject of this sketch, now resides. He was successfully engaged in farming and stockraising here during the remainder of his life. He died on September 27, 1911.

Three Generations Of The Bassett Family

He was a progressive citizen and a man whose career may be well said to have been a successful one. He was reared a Democrat but in later life became a Republican.

George Bassett was twice married, his first wife being Martha Lee, a direct descendant of "Light Horse Harry Lee." To this first marriage were born four children as follow: William, with the Postum Cereal Company, Battle Creek, Michigan; James, locomotive engineer on the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern railroad, resides at Elkhart, Indiana; Charles, resides near Elkhart, Indiana; and Evving, Pleasant Gap, Missouri.

To George Bassett and Rebecca McCool, his second wife, whom he married in 1867, was born only one child, D. D. Bassett, the subject of this sketch. Rebecca McCool was a widow when she married Mr. Bassett, her first husband being Timothy W. Adams. Two children were born to that union: Timothy W. Adams, Jr., whose whereabouts is unknown; and Cassius Adams, deceased. Rebecca (McCool) Bassett died in 1897.

D. D. Bassett was about ten years old when he came to Bates county with his parents. He received his education in the public schools and has made farming and stockraising his occupation. He specializes in high-grade Shorthorn cattle and has his place well stocked. Mr. Bassett's farm is one of the valuable places of Pleasant Gap township. It is well improved, well kept and has all the earmarks of a progressive and thrifty owner. The home place consists of one hundred forty-five acres.

Mr. Bassett was united in marriage in 1900 with Miss Eva Willey, a native of Pleasant Gap township, born in August, 1872. She is a daughter of Gideon Willey, a native of Delaware, born in 1829. He came to Missouri in 1870 and died here in 1882.

To Mr. and Mrs. Bassett have been born three children, as follow: Helen, born in 1900 and died in infancy; Dexter Dillard, born February 6, 1902; and Lloyd L., born November 8, 1903, both attending school.

Mr. Bassett is a Republican and takes an active interest in the local political organization, having served as township committeeman for a number of years.

J. N. McDavitt, a well-known merchant of Rockville, ^Missouri and former justice of the peace, clerk, assessor, trustee, and treasurer of Hudson township, a notary public of Rockville, filling his second term in ofBce at the time of this writing in 1918, is a worthy representative of a sterling pioneer family of Bates county, Missouri. Mr. McDavitt was born in Edgar county, Illinois, in 1854 and when a child thirteen years of age came to Bates county,* Missouri, with his parents, J. P. and Eliza J. McDavitt. J. P. McDavitt was a native of \'irginia. He was born in 1828 and ]\Irs. McDavitt was born in Virginia in 1833. Mr, McDavitt purchased a farm in this section of the state before he came thence to make his permanent home, a tract of land embracing two hundred forty acres, which he improved and cultivated, engaging in general farming and stock raising and feeding. J. P. McDavitt was a leader in his community and one of the most prominent and iniiuential men of his day in his district. He was instrumental in bringing about the organization of District Number 6 and in the building of the school house, erected in 1869, a small frame building constructed after the style of the sixties, Mr. McDavitt took a leading and important part. He was for many years the school director in his district. He built the residence on his farm in 1867, hauling the lumber for its construction from Pleasant Hill. J. P. McDavitt had purchased a yoke of oxen from James Hook for one hundred fifty dollars, a team which weighed four thousand one hundred sixty pounds, and with the oxen it required one week to make the trip to Pleasant Hill. There was a stage route from Sedalia to Fort Scott and the route passed through the McDavitt farm. One day, J. P. McDavitt sent a young man, named Lindsay, who was employed by him, to Prairie City for the mail. Prairie City was six or seven miles distant, and at that time was little more than a village in embryo as there was but one store and two residences in the place. Johannas was then the leading merchant of Prairie City. Young' Lindsay had traveled the distance that had been designated and as he was a city man accustomed to large towns he became alarmed thinking that he had missed the w^ay, so he rode to the little country store and inquired of the owner the way and the distance to Prairie City. Johannas. replied, "This is Prairie City."

The first house built on the McDavitt place was a cal:)in having a stick chimney, which was put up in the autumn of 1866 prior to the coming of the McDavitts. J. N. McDavitt well recalls seeing deer, a herd of five, which frequently came near his father's home. The father owned a long, old-fashioned rifle and though young J. N. McDavitt longed for an opportunity to try his skill at killing deer with it his father was fearful lest harm come to his son and refused hin; permission to shoot with the old rifle. A neighbor, Vanderpool, kept a pack of hounds and was constantly on the hunt and the chase. Once, when J. N. McDavitt heard the baying- of the hounds and knew that they were chasing a deer, he located himself behind a tree near the path the prey must necessarily come and with his father's old rifle waited impatiently, became too anxious to shoot and fired at the buck before taking aim. When Vanderpool came up, he asked of the lad if he had hit anything and young McDavitt replied that the big buck ran out of the path and acted very much as if it were hit. But when Vanderpool returned from the chase emptyhanded, J. N. McDavitt was informed in a few terse words as to the value of his unasked assistance in the' hunt. In the same year and in the autumn, Mr. McDavitt had an exceptional opportunity to kill a deer. He ran for the trusty old rifle and, thinking it a pity to shoot the animal in the heart, he decided to shoot it in the head. The bullet barely grazed the animal's head and the deer seemed to be unable to decide just what had happened before the boy hunter had reloaded the rifle from his vantage point behind a tree and shot again, this time at the deer's heart. It ran about thirty feet and fell. Young McDavitt reloaded, approached the dying animal and the second shot in the head had an immediate effect. An old hunter passed the lad and his first prey and explained to him how to carry the deer, but it was too much of a load for him. He called his father, proudly telling him of his good fortune and the two carried it home. Henceforth, the senior McDavitt granted his son the free use of the trusty old rifle.

To J. P. and Eliza J. McDavitt were born the following children: J. M., the subject of this review; J. F., who died at Anadarko, Oklahoma; Mrs. Mary S. Peeler, of Hudson township. Bates county, Missouri; Mrs. Rosa Peeler, Guthrie, Oklahoma; and Mrs. Dollie Nichols, of Vernon county, Missouri. The father died on his farm, where he had settled in 1867, in 1906 and five years later, in 1911. he was joined in death by the mother. Both parents are interred in the Baptist cemetery in Bates county.

J. N. McDavitt received his education in the public schools of District Number 6, Bates county, Missouri. He afterward taught school for one term in the same district, while at the same time he was engaged in farming on his eighty-acre tract of land. In December, 1909, J. N. McDavitt moved from the farm to Rockville, having received the appointment of postmaster, and for three years he served efficiently in this capacity. Mr. McDavitt was one of the organizers of the Farmers Bank of Rockville and he has been the first and only president of

this financial institution, still holding this position at the time of this writing in 1918. A brief sketch of the Farmers Bank of Rockville, Missouri, appears in connection with the biography of E. C. Wilson, which will be found elsewhere in this volume. Mr. McDavitt opened a general store at his present location in Rockville in December, 1914, and is now the owner of one of the prosperous mercantile establishments of Bates county. He conducts a variety store, carrying a complete line of dry goods, gents' furnishings, and notions, and enjoys a large patronage.

The marriage of J. N. McDavitt and Alice M. Nearhoof, a daughter of Mrs, Catherine Nearhoof, of Round Prairie, was solemnized in 1878. The father of Mrs. McDavitt died when she was a little child. Mrs. Catherine Nearhoof died in 1910. To J. N. and Alice M. McDavitt have been born four children, who are now living, two who are deceased, as follow: Pearl, the wife of William Carter, of Horace, Kansas; Gertie, the wife of R. L. Piepmeier, CofTeyville, Kansas; Jessie, the wife of Vernie Rains; Grace, the wife of L. V. Brown, of Round Prairie; Hallie, who died at the age of seenteen years; and Joseph P., who died in infancy.

Mr. McDavitt is a skilful accountant, one familiar with all the intricacies of banking, and his judgment in matters of finance" is seldom at fault. He has been an active participant in the public affairs of his town and township and has filled satisfactorily many public offices. In every station of life, official or otherwise, Mr. McDavitt has displayed superior ability and not a breath of suspicion has ever darkened his record. Plain and unassuming in manner, frank and genial, he has won and retains the good will, respect, and esteem of all with whom he has come in contact. Mr. and Mrs. McDavitt are numbered among the best citizens of Rockville.

Henry William Schapeler, a late leading farmer and stockman of Prairie township, was a native of Germany. Mr. Schapeler was born in 1851 and came to the United States when he was a youth, sixteen years of age. He located first in the state of Texas, where he remained more than two years, going thence to Kentucky and from that state coming to Bates county, Missouri, where he, his mother, and his two brothers, Ferdinand and Hermann, located on a tract of land east of Prairie City, Missouri, for a few months, when they moved to a country place south of the Redford church. Mrs. Schapeler and her three sons made their home together for several years, until each of the boys married, Ferdinand being united in marriage with Mrs. Catherine Link and Hermann with jMinnie Drawe. The Schapeler brothers were associated in business and together purchased a large tract of land in Bates county. For many years, the three boys had but one pocketbook. They made the brick for the construction of their first residences in Bates county, Missouri, building a small house for each one in the early seventies. These houses are still standing and are in use, but additions have since been made to the original structures. The Schapeler brothers during the early days, drove large herds of cattle from Texas and fattened them in Bates county.

In the early days, Henry William Schapeler experienced a neverto-be-forgotten attack from a large rattlesnake. Mr. Schapeler was bitten on the foot, while barefoot plowing corn. He killed the reptile and then drank one and a half quarts of whiskey. The men who were with him in the field started with him to Papinsville, JDUt before they arrived the whiskey had taken effect and that saved his life. Mr. Schapeler had never before been or afterward became intoxicated.

The marriage of Henry \\'illiam Schapeler and All^ertina Steffan was solemnized in 1883. Albertina (Steffan) Schapeler is a daughter of Tobias and Catherine Steffan. Mrs. Schapeler came to this country alone in 1880. To Henry William and Mrs. Schapeler were born three children, who are now living: Frederika Catherine, who is at home with her widowed mother; Hermann Tol^ias W'illiam, at home; and Carl Ferdinand Henry, at home. Mr. Schapeler died May 25, 1916. He was a devout Christian gentleman, an earnest and conscientious member of the German Reformed church and one of its most faithful workers and willing supporters. The Schapelers materially assisted in the founding of the Reformed church of Prairie township, the mother of Henry AVilliam Schapeler donating a tract of land embracing three acres for the site of the present church building and cemetery.

The Henry William Schapeler estate comprises nine hundred twentythree acres of valuable land in Bates county, Missouri, of which four hundred forty-three acres are in the home place. Mr. Schapeler was engaged in cattle raising and general farming. He was all his life a busy man, strong, active, energetic. His splendid estate is but a monument to his industry and thrift. His two sons, Hermann Tobias AA'illiam and Carl Ferdinand Henry, are now in charge of the home place. They are successful and progressive, young agriculturists and stockmen, following the vocations of dairying and stock raising and general farming.

They have a large herd of Shorthorn Durham cattle, usually keeping a registered male at the head of the herd, and they keep on the place from sixty to one hundred head of pure-bred Duroc Jersey hogs. For the past eight years, the Schapeler boys have been raising a few sheep Politically, they are affiliated with the Republican party.

In 1870, Henry William Schapeler settled in Prairie township, Bates county, and for nearly fifty years he w^as one of the honored and respected builders of western Missouri. He was a gentleman of pleasing personality and his record in business is well worthy of emulation for he made it his policy to meet all obligations and no coniidence reposed in him or trust confided to his keeping was ever betrayed. He and his most estimable wife always worked hard and as a result of their persistent efTorts, sound judgment, and wise economy they were in later years enabled to live in the ease and comfort, both so richly merited. Mr. Schapeler's influence was ever thrown to the side of morality and his manly, upright, God-fearing life won the respect and esteem of all who knew him.

James E. Bartlett, a prominent citizen of Butler, is a representative of one of the first pioneer families of Bates county. He was born at the Bartlett homestead in Walnut township May 25, 1857, a son of Edmund and Maria L. (Cook) Bartlett. The Bartletts came to Missouri from Kentucky in 1844 and located temporarily in Morgan county. Two years later, Edmund Bartlett came to Bates county and located on the land wdiich is the present townsite of Spruce, whence he afterward moved to a farm in Walnut township in 1849, where his son, James E., the subject of this review, was born. The Bartletts continued to reside on the farm in Walnut township until "Order Number 11" was issued in 1863, when they moved to Baldwin, Douglas county, Kansas, and there remained until the close of the war. They returned to their country home in Walnut township after the Civil War had ended and there resided until 1883. Edmund Bartlett was a member of the Bates county court in the early fifties during the time Judge Myers was a member. At one time. Judge Bartlett was the ownier of five hundred acres of land located in Walnut township. Bates county, a portion of which he entered from the government. He had succeeded in accumulating a handsome competence in spite of the hardships of pioneer life and the disasters of war. Before the outbreak of the Civil W^ar, much of his property was stolen and during the war all his farm buildings were burned and his stock taken. The Bartletts hauled their heavy merchandise from Boonville and from Pleasant Hill, using oxen. The senior Bartlett used to haul loads of pecans and hickory nuts to Boonville in Cooper county and trade the nuts for groceries and other necessities. Judge Bartlett died in January, 1898, and his remains are interred in the cemetery at Foster, Missouri. He was a splendid example of the brave, early pioneer, a strong, virile man, who nobly did his part and cheerfully discharged his duties in wresting the country from its primitive state and laying strong and deep the foundations upon which rests its present prosperity, a representative citizen and public-spirited gentleman of Bates county.

Miss Josephine Bartlett, a sister of James E. Bartlett, was employed as teacher at Greenview school house when James E. began school work there. He recalls his second teacher, Miss Bradshaw. After leaving school, Mr. Bartlett began farming for himself on the home place and was thus engaged until 1883, when he located near La Cygne, Kansas. One year later, he returned to Bates county, Missouri, and for a year was located at Passaic, after which he located on a farm in the spring of 1885 of one hundred thirty-four acres of land, in Lone Oak township, wdiich he purchased for twenty-five dollars an acre. Mr. Bartlett improved his farm in Lone Oak township, adding a comfortable residence and a good barn and all necessary farm conveniences. While a resident of this township, James E. Bartlett was a leader in his community and filled many offices of public trust, serving as collector of taxes, township clerk, township assessor, and school director in his district for many years.

The marriage of James E. Bartlett and Florence Phillips was solemnized in 1881. Mrs. Bartlett is a daughter of Jesse and Elizabeth Phillips, who settled near La Cygne, Kansas, in 1858. Mr. Phillips died in the autumn of 1883 and is buried in the cemetery located southeast of La Cygne. The widowed mother survived her husband until 1906, when she joined him in death. Mrs. Phillips died in Lone Oak township. Bates county, and her remains were taken to the cemetery at La Cygne for burial beside those of her husband. To James E. and Florence (Phillips) Bartlett have been born two sons: Homer C, who is engaged in farming in Lone Oak township on the home place; and- Roy C, a well-known, progressive real-estate man of Butler, a sketch of whom appears elsewhere in this volume. Mr. and Mrs. Bartlett moved to Butler March 1, 1918.

public esteem, being active in all that concerns the public good and liberal in his support of all worthy enterprises, which have for their object the material or moral advancement of the community.

Robert Roland Earsom, a substantial citizen of Pleasant Gap township, belongs to a prominent pioneer family of Missouri. He was born in Audrain county, Missouri, January 18, 1850, a son of James Madison and Mary Nowlan (Mahan) Earsom. The father was a native of Virginia and the mother, of Kentucky.

James Madison Earsom grew to manhood in Virginia, where his father was a large planter and an extensive slave holder, owning at one time nine hundred acres of land in the Shenandoah valley. In 1836, James Madison Earsom came to Missouri, settling in Audrain county, where he proved up on two hundred eighty-six acres of land where he spent the balance of his life. His wife and the mother of R. R. Earsom was also a very early settler in Missouri. She came to this state with her parents from Kentucky when St. Louis was little more than a trading post, at most a small village.

R. R. Earsom was one of a family of ten children born to his parents and he is the only one of the family now living. His oldest brother, John, served in the Union army during the Civil War, and his second oldest brother, Peyton, served in the Confederate army. These two brothers fought on opposite sides at the battle of Marshall, but did not know it until afterward. Peyton died at DuBall's Bluff, Arkansas.

Mr. Earsom was reared in Audrain county, Missouri, and received the greater part of his education in the old log school house of that day and age. He came to Bates county in 1871 and settled in Pleasant Gap township which has since been his home. He at first bought eighty acres of land for which he paid $17.50 an acre, and later he accjuired more land, but within the last few years he has sold some and now owns a valuable farm of one hundred forty-five acres. Mr. Earsom has practically retired and rents his farm.

On January 22, 1871, Mr. Earsom was united in marriage with Miss Celia J. Hukel, a native of Boone county, Missouri, where her parents settled at a very early date. To Mr. and Mrs. Earsom were born eight children, seven of whom are living, as follow: Isaac Newton, Pleasant Gap township; Letta^ married Walter T. Little and tliey reside on the home place, they have two children, Robert Virgil and Leota; William M., Pleasant Gap; Anthony Marion, Butler; Minnie Bell, married Mark Spain, Pleasant Gap township; Rev. Charles Albertus,

Robert Roland Earsom And Wife

Golden City, Missouri; and Earnest Earl, Butler, Missouri. Mrs. Earsoni departed this life Fel^ruary 7, 1915, aged sixty-nine years. She was a Christian woman and lived an exemplary life. She had been a consistent member of the Christian church for forty years, she and Mr. Earsom having- joined the old Macedonian church in Audrain county in 1S67, of which they were charter members.

Mr. Earsom saw many of the hardships of the pioneer days and like many others had a hard struggle to get a start in life, but he finally overcame difificulties and succeeded. AAdien he was a young man he worked one year for a man in the northern part of the state and received SI 75 for the year's work. During that year he split five thousand rails.

Bates county was wild and unsettled when Mr. Earsom came here, compared with its present state. At that time there was not a barn between his place and Butler. He often saw deer, and other wild game was plentiful.

Roy Bartlett, of the firm of Sleeth & Bartlett, abstract, loans and real estate, is one of the enterprising young citizens of Butler, Missouri. Mr. Bartlett was born May 10, 1885, a son of James E. and Florence (Phillips) Bartlett, a highly respected family of Butler, a sketch of whom appears in this volume. Roy Bartlett has an older brother, Homer C, who is a prosperous farmer of Lone Oak township.

Mr. Bartlett, whose name introduces this review, received his education in 'the city schools of Butler, Missouri. After completing his school work, he engaged in agricultural pursuits until the autumn of 1913, when he, in partnership with C. A. Sleeth, opened an office on Ohio street in the city of Butler and entered the abstract, real estate, and loan business, in which he has been profitably engaged for the past live years at the time of this writing in 1918. When Mr. Bartlett was but twenty-one years of age, he was elected a member of the tov.nship board of Lone Oak township and although he is still a young man thirty-three years of age, he has been twice honored w4th the office of justice of the peace, which he satisfactorily and capably filled for two terms.

In 1909, the marriage of Roy Bartlett and Daisy Seelinger, a daughter of John Seelinger, a well-to-do, intelligent farmer and stockman of Summit towmship. Bates county, Missouri, was solemnized. Mrs. Bartlett is a native of Summit township, a granddaughter of one of the honored pioneers of Prairie township. Bates county. To Rov and Daisy Bartlett have been born three children: Agnes Magdalene,

Fraternally, Roy Bartlett is affiliated with the Knights and Ladies of Security and the Yeomen, Politically, he is a stanch member of the Democratic party. Like his father before him, Mr. Bartlett is a man of prominence in his community and one of the substantial citizens of Butler and Bates county.

H. C, Hyatt, Jr., manager of "Fairview Stock Farm" of four hundred acres of land located two miles east of Adrian in Deer Creek township, one of the finest stock farms in this section of the state, is one of the progressive, young agriculturists and stockmen of Bates county. "Fairview Stock Farm" was improved by Edward Argenbright and purchased by H. C. Hyatt, Sr., in 1908. , The splendid improvements on the place include a handsome residence, a house of two stories and nine rooms; a barn, 64 x 74 feet in dimensions, for horses; a barn, 40 x 80 feet in dimensions, for cattle and hay; and several good wells. One well on the place is only ten feet in depth, but with a windmill attached furnishes a sufficient amount of water to supply all the stock. There are three windmills on "Fairview Stock Farm." H. C. Hyatt, Sr., sold the farm in 1916 and H. C. Hyatt, Jr., is the present lessee. He has at the time of this writing in 1918 one hundred head of cattle and usually keeps on the farm at least one hundred head of hogs and at the present time has twenty head of horses and mules. One year ago, H. C. Hyatt, Jr., had two hundred fifty head of cattle and four hundred head of hogs at "Fairview Stock Farm." He is one of the most extensive feeders in Bates county and he states that he was reared in the stock business and knows no other,

H. C. Hyatt, Jr., was born near Schell City in St. Clair county, Missouri, on March 11, 1889, a son of H. C. and Eliza (Lucas) Hyatt, residents of Clinton, Missouri. The junior Hyatt was reared and educated in St. Clair county, Missouri. He came with his parents to Bates county in 1905 and with them located first in Mound township, coming thence to his present farm in 1908. The son was in partnership with the father until the latter sold the farm in 1916 and since that time H. C. Hyatt, Jr., has been employed as manager of "Fairview Stock Farm." He is an exceptionally capable and intelligent stockman and is making a marked success and a name for himself in the stock business.

mit township, Bates county, were united in marriage. To H. C. and Mrs. Hyatt have been born two children: H. C, "The Third," who was born February 7, 1912; and Elsie Marie. Mr. and Mrs. Hyatt are widely and favorably known in Deer Creek township and they have an enviable standing in the county, socially and financially.

Reared in the country and from his boyhood days accustomed to toil in the field, meadow, and wood, the life of H. C. Hyatt, [r., has thus far been practically devoid of striking incidents, but has been the career of a dutiful son assisting his father in industriously discharging the obligations of a prosperous and successful husbandman and later of the independent, energetic farmer and stockman.

William Buckles, of William Buckles & Son, merchant of Altona, Missouri, is one of the successful business men of Bates county. Mr. Buckles and his son, H. F., purchased the Tabler Brothers' stock of merchandise at Altona on March 1, 1917, and are engaged in conducting a general store at this place, carrying a splendid line of groceries, boots, shoes, rubber goods of all kinds, tanks, and oil, gas, and water pumps. The mercantile establishment owned by William Buckles & Son is located in their own two-story building in Altona, a building 24 x 60 feet in dimensions, the second story of which is used as a dwelling. Altona is a little city situated seven miles east of Adrian, Missouri, having three churches, the Baptist, the Christian, and the Methodist, a postoffice of which H. F. Buckles is the efficient and popular postmaster and Fred Cowgill the well-known carrier on Rural Route 1, a circulating library of two hundred volumes which is much appreciated by the citizens of the town who may have the privilege of reading all the volumes for the payment of two dollars membership fee used to obtain new books, a blacksmith shop, and the general store owned by William Buckles & Son. Altona is in the midst of the richest farming district of Bates county.

W'illiam Buckles is a native of Iowa. He was born in 1859 in Van Buren county, a son of A. J. and Julia (Abbott) Buckles, the former, a native of Indiana and the latter, of Illinois. Both parents of Mr. Buckles died in Van Buren county, Iowa. He was reared and educated in Iowa and in early manhood came to Missouri, locating near Chillicothe in 1883, then in Benton county, whence he came to Bates county in 1893 and located on a farm in Grand River township, which place he rented for nearly thirteen years before purchasing the tract of land which he traded for the stock of merchandise previously mentioned.

In 1881, AA'illiam Buckles and Ella Patterson, a daughter of Robert R. and Catherine Patterson, of Van Bnren county, Iowa, were united in marriage. Mr. Patterson is now deceased and the v\ndovved mother resides at Bolivar, Missouri. To William and Ella (Patterson) Buckles have been born seven children: Pearly G., superintendent of the Odessa High School, Odessa, Missouri; Robert Ernest, who is with the Kansas City Milling Company, Kansas City, Missouri; Harley E. and Charley E., twins, the former, the assistant postmaster of Altona from March until November, 1917, and the postmaster since November, 1917, a teacher emplo3xd at Altona for two years prior to entering business with his father and now his father's willing, able, and energetic assistant, and the latter, an industrious and successful agriculturist and stockman of Grand River township. Bates county, Missouri; Nora, the teacher at Smoky Row in Mingo township, Bates county, Missouri, who resides at home with her parents; and Howard and Homer, twins, both of whom are now sophomore students in the Adrian High School, Adrian, Missouri.

The life of William Buckles has been one of untiring activity and has been crowned with a degree of success attained by those only who devote themselves indefatigably to the work before them. Mr. and Mrs. Buckles and their family are highly respected and valued in Altona and they have scores of friends in Bates county.

Charles W. Wolfe, a retired farmer and stockman of Butler, Missouri, one of the honored Union veterans of the Civil W^ar, is one of the leading citizens of Bates county. Mr. Wolfe is a native of Athens county, Ohio. He was born October 9, 1842, a son of Jacob and Sallie (Bryson) Wolfe, the father, a native of Ohio and the mother, of Bedford county, Pennsylvania. Jacob Wolfe was a son of George \\'olfe, a native of W^estmoreland county, Pennsylvania. Both parents of Charles W. W^olfe are now deceased and their remains lie interred in. a cemetery in Athens county, Ohio.

In the common schools of Athens county, Ohio, Charles A\\ AA'olfe received his education. At the age of nineteen years, he enlisted in the Union army on April 22, 1861, and for five months served with Company A, Twenty-second Ohio Infantry, when taken ill with measles and honorably discharged. Mr. AVolfe re-enlisted with the Eifteenth Iowa Infantrv on September 26, 1864, and he was with Sherman on his famous march from Atlanta to the sea. Charles AA^ AA^olfe was mustered out and received his final honoral)lc discharge at Louis\-ille,