Bates County, Missouri - Biographical sketches, 1918 (part 15 of 19)

William T. J, Henley. - The late William T. J. Henley, a widely and favorably known farmer of Howard township, was one of the real "old settlers" of Bates county. He was born on June 14, 1846, in Clark county, Indiana, the son of Noah and Louisiana (Monday) Henley, the former of whom was a native of England and the latter of wdiom was born in Kentucky. Noah Henley was reared in Randolph county. North Carolina, and made a settlement in Kentucky, where he was married, and afterward removed to Clark county, Indiana, where he reared a family and spent the remainder of his days engaged in agricultural pursuits. W. T. J. Henley was reared and educated in his native state and was married in Clark county on June 21, 1866, to Miss Margaret E. Bower, who bore him children as follow; Noah Edgar, born November 25, 1867, resides near Ft. Scott, Kansas; John William, born March 2, 1869, died in infancy; Jacob T., born March 3, 1870, lives on a farm near Hume, Missouri; Dennie B., born May 15, 1871, resides in Washington; Jefferson M., born April 10, 1873, died at the age of three years; the next child died in infancy, unnamed; James C, born June 14, 1875; Robert T., born December 16, 1876, is living on the home place ; Katie A., born August 31, 1878, married Leonard Daniels and resides on a farm in Osage township; Rolla I., born June 18, 1880, lives in Butler, Missouri; Okra P., born May 17, 1882, lives at Rich Hill, Missouri; Mrs. Minnie M. Cook, born July 7, 1883. married James Cook, died January 29, 1908; Cleveland B., born December 22, 1884, resides on a farm near Butler, Missouri; Maggie E., born Octo1:)er 3, 1887, married Burk Anderson, resides in Rich Hill; Albert, born February 8, 1893. died in infancy. The Henley family is one of the largest in Bates county. The mother of this large family of children was born May 14. 1847, in Clark county, Indiana, the daughter of John and Angelina (Robbinett) Bower, natives of North Carolina. Mrs. Henley is well preserved for her age, despite the fact that she endured the hardships of pioneer life and has brought up so many children who are all living useful and industrious lives.

Mr. and Mrs. Henley came to Carroll county, Missouri, in 1868 and resided in that county until their removal to Bates county in the autumn of 1875. John Bower, father of Mrs. Henley, had purchased a tract of forty acres in Howard township, which he gave to his sonin-law. This land was raw prairie land, unbroken and unimproved. During their first season the Henleys lived in a little shack on their nearby farm while their own residence was being built. They erected what in those days was considered a mansion and which is still the Henley home place, an attractive farmstead surrounded by great trees and shrubbery which were planted by Mr. and Mrs. Henley when they first settled here. The Henley home place consists of one hundred and sixty acres located just northwest of Sprague on the highway between Rich Hill and Hume. Mr. Henley died May 12, 1904.

Mrs. Henley has the following living grandchildren: Robert E. Henley married Muzy Gates and has five children, as follow: Emma, Frances, Thelmo, Roy, and Virgie. Noah Edgar Henley married Annie Newsom and has four children: Ora, Lela, Alice, and Claude. Jacob T Henley married Lizzie McNamer, and has one child, Charles. Dennie Henley married May Jones, and is father of two children. Pansy and Bryan. Mrs. Katie Daniels has four children, Parker, Elarry, Pansy, and Dorothy. Rolla I. Henley married Belle Potter, has the following children; Ernest and Stella, twins, and Pauline. Okra O. Henley married Nellie Martin, and is father of six children, Lorene, Ethel, Elsie, William, and Mary and Mabel, twins. Cleveland B. Henley married Lizzie Bottoms, and has two children, Harold and Herman. Mrs. Maggie Anderson is mother of six children, Marium, Everett, Ernest, Nell, Ruth, and Clyde.

Mr. Henley was a lifelong Democrat and was a member of the Christian church, of which religious denomination Mrs. Henley is a devout member. The late Mr. Henley's life was so lived that he left an example of industry and right conduct which will for all time serve as a rule of conduct for his children and descendants. He was a kind parent and a good provider for his family and no task was too great for him to attempt in order to insure comforts and proper maintenance for his own family. He was well liked in his community and will long be remembered as a sterling pioneer citizen of Bates county in whom all

William Moore Mills, successful merchant at Foster, Missouri, where he has been engaged as a merchant since 1884, is a pioneer citizen of Bates county and a native Missourian. Mr. Mills was born in Clinton county, Missouri, March 31, 1856, a son of Evan P. Mills, who was born in Kentucky in 1818, and was a son of Evan P. Mills, a Virginian, who was a pioneer settler of Kentucky. Evan P. Mills, father of William Moore Mills, of this review, migrated to Clay county, Missouri, as early as 1839, and ten years later, in 1849, married Mary S. Morris, and then located in Lexington, Missouri, for a short time prior to settling in Clinton county. From the early fifties until 1863 Evan P. Mills lived in Clinton county and he then moved to Clay county, and resided in that county and Liberty, the county seat, until 1876, when he located in Butler. For awhile he was engaged in teaming but advancing age compelled his retirement from active labor and he resided in Butler until his death in 1904, one of the honored and aged residents of the count}^ seat. To Evan P. and Mary S. (Morris) Mills were born the following children: Thomas died in infancy; Bettie L., deceased; William Moore, subject of this sketch; Jasper S., deceased; Mrs. Maggie McFarland, Butler, Missouri; Lida died in 1866.

The mother of the foregoing children died in 1900 at the age of seventy-five years. She was a daughter of Jasper Shotwell Morris, who was the first white child born in Mason county, Kentucky, or Maysville, which in those early pioneer days was the meeting and stopping place of all the settlers from Virginia who were coming westward down the Ohio river to people the wilderness of Kentucky, Missouri, Indiana, and Illinois. Jasper S. Morris later served as a scout and lieutenant in the War of 1812, in the Indian campaign of that period, and became widely known along the frontier. He was personally acquainted with many of the famous border and wilderness characters of that day anc'i was a friend of such famous scouts and Indian fighters as Daniel Boone, Louis AVetzel, Simon Kenton and others. The three historic characters previously mentioned often made the Morris home their headquarters, and one can imagine the tal-es that were told around the Morris fireside of their exploits, in the dense forests of the ''Dark and Bloody Ground" and the land of the Ohio.

William Moore Mills received such education as was afi^orded b}^ the primitive school of his boyhood days and accompanied his parents to Bates county in 1876. During his first vear's residence in Butler he worked in the McClintock woolen mills, having previonsly learned the trade of weaver and wool worker in Clay county, Missouri. He was then employed in various stores for about six years. For a period of three years he served as clerk in the Morris drug store, and for two years following, 1880-1882, he was employed as a traveling salesman. Six months of 1882 were spent as clerk in the drug store owned by Doctor Pyle. He was then employed in the F. M. Crumly drug store until his removal to Foster. He first came to Foster in 1884, and on January 1, 1885, opened a drug store, which he conducted for sixteen years. He then established his present business and carries a general stock of merchandise in a good-sized room located on the main street of Foster. Mr. Mills has been continuously engaged in business in Foster longer than any other merchant in the town.

On January 1, 1889, the marriage of William Moore Mills and Miss Mollie N. Trimble was consummated. This marriage has been blessed with children as follow: William N., superintendent of the shoe department of the Besse-Avery Company, Kansas City, Missouri ; Ella Nora, at home with her parents; Ralph, auditor and bookkeeper for S. A. Gerrard & Company, Cincinnati, Ohio, a commission firm doing business in southern California and handling fruits, vegetables, etc. Mrs. Mollie N. (Trimble) Mills was born in Bates county in 1870, and is a daughter of F. M. Trimble, a former treasurer of Bates county, a native of Kentucky who made an early settlement in Bates county and died here.

Mr. Mills has been a life-long Democrat and has taken a keen interest in the affairs of his party during his forty-two years of residence in Bates county. He is fraternally affiliated with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks of Butler, and has many warm and steadfast friends in the county. His standing as a merchant and citizen is high and he is one of the leading citizens of his home city and county.

Charles W. Doane, a prominent farmer and stockman of Lone Oak township, is of a pioneer family of Bates county. Mr. Doane was born on the farm in Lone Oak township, where he now resides, on January 1, 1872, one of three living children born to his parents, William C, Sr., and Mary E. (Hancock) Doane, who are as follow: William C, Jr., farmer and merchant at "Ada," a sketch of whom appears in this volume; Charles AV., the sul)ject of this review; and Hattie Lee, the wife of William Lacorse, Lewiston, Idaho. The parents are now deceased and their remains are interred in the cemetery at Butler. A more comprehensive sketch of Mr. and

In the pubHc schools of Lone Oak township and of Butler, Charles W. Doane obtained his education. He returned to Lone Oak township, after leaving school, to the farm where he was born, and has lived there since. The Doane farm is nine miles southeast of Butler and is a tract of valley land in Pleasant Valley school district, a district organized prior to the time of the Civil War by Doctor Recjua when the Indian school at Harmony Mission was being conducted. It is a nicely improved and well watered country place. Mr. Doane raises good draft horses and mules and, at the time of this writing in 1918, has from fifteen to tw^enty-five head of pure-bred Shorthorn cattle. The improvements on the place include a new% six-room cottage, built in 1917 and a barn, 36 x 48 feet in dimensions and sixteen feet to square, built in 1917. Mr. Doane is an industrious farmer and stockman and his efforts have been attended with success.

The marriage of Charles W. Doane and Lizzie E. Hancock was solemnized March 5, 1895. Lizzie E. (Hancock) Doane is a native of Pleasant Gap township. Bates county, Missouri, a daughter of David and Sarah (Willy) Hancock. Mr. Hancock died in 1900 and burial w^as made in the cemetery at Butler, Missouri. The widowed mother now makes her home with Mr. and Mrs. Doane. To Charles AV. and Lizzie E. (Hancock) Doane have been born three children: Elmer Lee, of Butler, Missouri ; Mary Catherine, the wife of Roy Walker, of Lone Oak township. Bates county; and Buford Lloyd, who is at home with his parents.

As a farmer and stockman, Charles W. Doane has won a conspicuous place among the leading men of the township. Personally, he is highly respected by his neighbors and friends and Lone Oak township is proud to designate him as one of her native sons w-ho have "made good."

W. S, Mahan, an honored veteran of the Civil War, ex-mayor of Adrian, the highly respected justice of the peace of Deer Creek township. Bates county, Missouri, is a native of Iowa. Squire Mahan was born in Taylor county, Iowa, in 1846, a son of Thomas and Mary (Mavity) Mahan, who later returned to Orange county, Indiana, the place of their nativity. Thomas Mahan was a son of Peter Mahan, a native of Virginia and a son of an Irish immigrant. Mary (Mavity) Mahan was a daughter of Michael Mavity, a native of Kentucky and of Norman French descent.

W. S. Mahan And Family

In Indiana, W. S. Mahan was reared to manhood and in that state revived his elementary education and later entered college. After leaving college, Mr. Mahan was employed in teaching school in Indiana for thirteen years. During the Civil War, he abandoned his profession and enlisted with the Union forces, serving with the Twenty-fourth Indiana Infantry throughout the conflict. He took an active and important part in many decisive engagements, fighting bravely at Shiloh on April 6, 1862, when the list of casualties for the Union side alone was thirteen thousand men, the Confederates losing ten thousand seven hundred valiant fighters, and later taking part in the siege of Vicksburg, one strong position left the Confederates after Memphis and New Orleans had fallen, which resulted in Pemberton signing the articles of surrender on July 4, 1863, after King Hunger had allied himself with Grant and had done his worst for several weeks, and lastly being present at the capture of Mobile in the spring of 1865.

After the Civil War had ended, W. S. Mahan returned to his home in Indiana and there resided until 1880, when he came to Bates county, Missouri, and purchased two hundred acres of land near Adrian. At that time, Mr. Mahan bought a team of mules and assisted in the building of the Missouri Pacific railway in this county. Afterward, he entered the teaching profession and for three years was thus engaged, when he again abandoned it and this time entered the mercantile business at Adrian. Until 1893, Mr. Mahan conducted a grocery store in this city and he was one of the successful merchants of Adrian when he was commissioned notary public of Bates county and appointed an insurance agent. Prior to coming to Missouri, Mr. Mahan had served as justice of the peace in Indiana and in 1910 he was elected to the same office in Bates county and for the past eight years has ably filled the position of justice of the peace in Deer Creek township. He disposed of his insurance work, in 1911, selling to C. W. Mahan, who is now conducting the business at Adrian.

The marriage of W. S. Mahan and Sarah J. GifTord, a daughter of Josephus and Elizabeth Gifford, was solemnised October 22, 1871, in Orange county, Indiana. To this union have been born two children: Mrs. Lula D. Haven. Kansas City, Missouri ; and Clyde G., of Kansas City, Missouri. Mr. and Mrs. Mahan are valued w^orkers in the Christian church and Mr. Mahan is one of the worthy elders of the church and a teacher in the Christian Bible School. They reside in Adrian, where they own a beautiful home, a comfortable residence of seven

Squire Mahan was one of the very first residents of Adrian, Missouri, and no one in Bates county is better authority on the early history of this flourishing little city than is he. Mr. Mahan states that Adrian was planned and founded by the Adrian Town Company in June, 1880. An agreement had been made with the Missouri Pacific Railway Company whereby the Bates County Town Company was to have the privilege of locating towns and stations in return for the grant of right-ofway through Bates county. The particular depot of Butler was to be located not less than one mile from the court house and the Adrian Town Company purchased land in this vicinity and platted it and the Missouri Pacific railroad and the town of /\drian, ten miles away, were being built simultaneously in Bates county. Squire Mahan recalls that the first train came into Adrian on August 1, 1880. Adrian was organized as a village with M. V. Meisner as justice of the peace. S. P. Cox opened the first mercantile establishment in Adrian, a small grocery store in a box house, and he was obliged to borrow Mr. Mahan's team of mules in order to secure his first load of groceries from Kansas City, Missouri. Mr. Cox erected the first brick building in the town, in 1883, which building is now occupied by Howard Smith, the clothier, who is conducting a business establishment. Garfield Moudy bears the distinction of having been the first child born in Adrian and the Methodist Episcopal church as the oldest church of the five now in existence, namely: Methodist Episcopal, Baptist, United Brethren, Christian, and The Brethren. After Adrian was incorporated as a city, J. N. Bricker was elected the first mayor of the city. Squire Mahan has been and still is one of the most prominent and influential citizens of Adrian and during the past thirty-eight years he has held many ofiices of public honor and trust in the village and in the city. He has served as alderman, as mayor of the city, as city collector, and as a member of the township board, holding the last-named position for six years. Politically, Squire Mahan is aifiliated with the Republican party and is a most active party worker. Squire Mahan was appointed agent of the Adrian Town Company to sell the lots from the original plat of eighty acres.

Squire Mahan has already passed the allotted three score years and ten and is still alert and active, bidding fair to consume many years in going down the shady side of life's mountain to the "twilight and evening bell and after that - the dark" and he has erected for himself a monument in the respect and affection of his associates and friends that will prove more lasting than an epitaph carved in marble or chiseled in granite. Mr. and Mrs. Mahan are not only zealous workers in the church but in their daily lives demean themselves as true, sincere followers of the holy Nazarene.

Judge David McGaughey, a late prominent citizen and leading public official of Bates county, Missouri, was one of the best known and most highly respected men in this section of the state. Judge McGaughey was a native of Indiana. He was born August 26, 1826, at Mount Carmel in Franklin county, Indiana, a son of Robert and Mary (Clark) McGaughey. Robert McGaughey was born at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, of Scotch and Irish descent, a descendant of David McGaughey, a native of Ireland, who emigrated from his home land because of the political troubles there and came to America in 1772. David McGaughey was one of the first to volunteer in the Revolutionary War and he served as General Washington's aid until the end of the struggle. He first saw his future wife when he was on the battlefield of Monmouth, the battle taking place on her father's farm. She was Mary Lytle. David McGaughey and Mary Lytle were united in marriage soon after the war had ended and they located at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. Mary (Clark) McGaughey, the mother of Judge David McGaughey, w^as born at Indian Hill in Hamilton county, Ohio, in 1810.

In his youth, David McGaughey attended the public schools of Indiana and in 1845 matriculated at Miami University in Ohio, at which institution he was a student for three years. On leaving college, Mr. McGaughey engaged in teaching school in different localities in the W^est and South. In June, 1854, he entered the law office of Gen. Lew Wallace and with him read law for one year. In the suinmer of 1855, Mr. McGaughey went to De Moines, Iowa, from Indianapolis, Indiana, and in Iowa was employed in locating land warrants for eastern parties and in surveying. He was elected a member of the first city council of Des Moines. Iowa. In 1858, Mr. McGaughey left this city and located at Hackbury Ridge in Andrew county, Missouri, where he was engaged in teaching school for one year. The following year, Mr. McGaughey began practicing law at Albany in Gentry county and in 1860 was elected county superintendent of schools in Gentry county. During the Civil War, he was for a time a resident of Falls City, Nebraska and wdiile there was elected prosecuting attorney of Falls City and appointed superintendent of schools by the county court. Mr. McGaughey came to Bates county, Missouri, in August, 1865, and was for several years county superintendent of schools and director of Butler Academy. He was appointed by the Bates county court in 18G6 county seat commissioner. While serving in that capacity, the old Bates county court house and jail were built. He cleared up the sale of the old county court house at Papinsville, the former county seat, and sold the building to Philip Zeal. When the twenty-second judicial district was organized in 1869, David McGaughey was elected the first circuit judge. When serving as judge, the four-hundred-thousand-dollar bond swindle, involving the Kansas City & Memphis railway, came up in the form of an injunction, as did also the two-hundred-thousand-dollar swindle, involving the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway Company, and both were defeated by Judge McGaughey's decision in favor of the people of Bates county. Due to that decision, the tax-payers of this county are not burdened with a heavy bonded debt. For six years, Judge McGaughey was presiding judge of his district. He was appointed by the governor of Missouri to complete an unexpired term and was afterward elected to fill a term of four years. He was one of the three organizers of the Butler Presbyterian church, founded in this city in 1867, the first church in Butler. The church building was erected in 1868 and Judge McGaughey was made ruling elder. Politically, Judge McGaughey was a stanch Republican. He was an officer in the first Republican club organized west of the Mississippi in Iowa.

October 26, 1875, Judge David McGaughey and Dorcas Tuttle were united in marriage. Mrs. McGaughey is a native of Clark county, Ohio, a daughter of David and Rebecca (Buckles) Tuttle. To Judge David and Dorcas McGaughey were born four children : John Edwin, who is in the employ of the Wabash Railway Company and the Wells Fargo Express Company, located at St. Louis, Missouri ; Mary Rebecca, who is employed by the Walker-McKibben Mercantile Company at Butler, Missouri ; Katherine L., who is employed as bookkeeper for the Bennett-Wheeler Mercantile Company at Butler, Missouri and David Earl, a successful druggist at Kansas City, Missouri. Mrs. McGaughey has five grandchildren, Helen, Frank S., Josephine, Laura Katherine Martha Jane. Judge McGaughey died January 12, 1892, and Mrs. McGaughey has reared their children and reared them well. Her home is in Butler at 308 Harrison street.

transacted all business coming within his sphere of duties with promptness and cautious discernment and the wisdom of his decisions met with the unqualified approval of all. His career was distinctively marked by progress onward and upward and at last he stood the peer of his fellowmen in all that constitutes true citizenship. He was decidedly a man of action, an intelligent, energetic, resourceful Western man. in the highest esteem by the public and an influential factor for good in his community, at the very zenith of a vigorous manhood and mentality, there still remained much to be accomplished, the children he loved so well to be reared and educated, when he was called to lay down the burdens of life. Judge McGaughey lived not in vain. He has bequeathed to his descendants a name they may well be proud to bear and to all the inspiration of a life of tireless endeavor, a record upon which not a single blot can be found. Judge McGaughey was a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons.

J. B. Armstrong, secretary of the Bennett-Wheeler Mercantile Company of Butler, Missouri, is one of Butler's most widely and favorably-known citizens. Mr. Armstrong is a worthy representative of a splendid, old, pioneer family of Missouri. He was born in 1861, at Pleasant Hill, Missouri, a son of Samuel and Sallie Emily (Hon) Armstrong, the former, a native of Virginia and the latter, of Kentucky. Samuel Armstrong was a son of John M. and Elizabeth (Gibbons) Armstrong. John M. Armstrong was also a native of Virginia. He came to Missouri with his family in the earliest days and was a pioneer merchant at Pleasant Hill prior to the outbreak of the Civil War. Elizabeth (Gibbons) Armstrong was an aunt of the Gibbons, twin brothers, John and Hank, who at the time of the death of John Gibbons were the oldest twins in Missouri. The land which is now the site of the Missouri Pacific railway station was formerly owned by John M. Armstrong and he often related how he was want to kill deer, when he first came to Missouri, on the land which is the present townsite of Pleasant Hill. Both he and his wife died at Pleasant Hill and their remains are interred in the cemetery at that place. Samuel Armstrong was a lover of fine horses and was recognized as an exceptional judge of highclass horses. He won a silver loving cup at a Bates county fair in the days before the Civil War for the best saddle horse entered. This cup is stih treasured by his son, J. B. Armstrong. At the outbreak of the Civil War, Samuel Armstrong enlisted with the Confederate army at Pleasant Hill. He died while in service one year after he had enlisted, his death occurring in Indian Territory. The widowed mother died at Butler, Missouri, in 1890, where her home was at that time, and she was laid to rest in the cemetery at Pleasant Hill. To Samuel and Sallie Emily Armstrong were born two children, who are now living : Fannie Bertha, Tulsa, Oklahoma; and J. B., the subject of this review.

J. B. Armstrong attended the city schools of Pleasant Hill. He has made his own way in life since his early boyhood days. He began his first mercantile work in the business establishment of E. D. Harper, his stepfather, w^orking nights and Saturdays. At a later time, Mr. Armstrong was employed by Russell & Gustin, of Pleasant Hill, for nearly one year. Prior to that, he was in the employ of Myers & Cooley. Mr. Armstrong came to Butler on Feliruary 4, 1882, and accepted a position with C. S. Wheeler & Company. In the autumn of the same year, the firm changed to Bennett & Wheeler, E. A. Bennett becoming a member. Mr. Armstrong purchased an interest in the business establishment in January. 1884, and the name was changed to Bennett, Wheeler & Company. The firm was incorporated as the Bennett-Wheeler Mercantile Company in 1890. At the present time, Mr. Armstrong's two sons, Edward H. and Samuel M., have interests in the company. When he began working in the employ of the C. S. \Mieeler & Company, J. B. Armstrong was bookkeeper and he held this position for many years. He now calls himself "the general roustabout," as he knows every department thoroughly. The present capital stock is thirty-five thousand dollars and the officers of the company are, as follow: O. A. Heinlein, president and business manager; S. E. Heinlein, vice-president; J. B. Armstrong, secretary; and Edward H. Armstrong, treasurer.

October 9, 1884, J. B. Armstrong and Mary Maud Harriman were united in marriage. Mrs. Armstrong was a daughter of J. R. and Helen (Morrell) Harriman, of Butler. Both Mr. and Mrs. Harriman are now deceased. To J. B. and ]Mary Maud Armstrong have been born five children; Helen, who is now Mrs. Day, of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Edward H., treasurer of the Bennett-Wheeler Mercantile Company, Butler, Missouri; Samuel M., who has been engaged in the banking business for the past seven years at Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and is soon to be called into service in France ; John, who died in childhood at the age of four years; and Dorothy, a graduate of the Butler High School, who is now at home with her parents. Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong purchased their present residence in 1904, which home was formerly the

Doctor Everingham property, comprising nearly three acres of land in the grounds surrounding the house, located within the city limits at 500 North Main street. The Armstrong home is one of the beautiful, modern residences of Butler.

Mr. Armstrong started in life empty-handed, but he surmounted all obstacles and has pushed aside all barriers that would have obstructed the pathway to success of the ordinary man. He was endowed with both ambition and ability, and with an indomitable will and courage he has pushed steadfastly forward overcoming difficulties and accumulating a handsome competence. Honest and honorable, upright in all relations of life, true to family and friends and to the best interests of his city and county, J. B. Armstrong is justly enrolled among the most respected and valued citizens of Butler.

Alonzo Dixon, a prominent farmer and stockman of Mount Pleasant township, is one of the most highly respected citizens of Bates county. Mr. Dixon came to Bates county in 1857 with his parents, Lewis and Elizabeth (Silvey) Dixon, both of whom were natives of Virginia. Lewis Dixon first came to Bates county in 1856, at which time he made arrangements with Ex-Sheriff Clem, afterward Judge Clem, to enter one hundred sixtv acres of land, the Dixon homestead. Mr. Dixon returned with his family the following year, in 1857, and located at Butler. He and Judge Clem, in partnership, operated a saw-mill located south of Butler on the James Brown farm. They made posts, rails, and fencing materials and Lewis Dixon fenced his farm of one hundred sixty acres with lumber sawed at his mill. During the Civil War, because of Order No. 11, Mr. Dixon was taken prisoner, placed in the guardhouse at Butler, taken to the guardhouse at St. Louis, Missouri, and thence to Alton, Illinois, and JefTerson City, Missouri. He remained in prison until the close of the war. When Lewis Dixon again took up the fight of making an honest and honorable living, after he was released in 1865, he was penniless. He resumed farming and stock raising, pursuits which he followed the remainder of his life. Mr. Dixon died January 5, 1886. and five years afterward he was joined in death by his wife. Mrs. Dixon departed this life in June, 1891. Both father and mother were laid to rest in the family burial ground on the home place, the farm Mr. Dixon had entered from the government in 1856. The Dixon homestead is located one mile south of Butler.

county. About twenty-seven years ago, he moved to his present farm, formerly known as the old Porter place, located three and a half miles southwest of Butler. All the splendid improvements on the place, Mr. Dixon has himself added. He is successfully engaged in farming and stock raising. The Dixon farm comprises one hundred sixty acres of land.

In 1910, the marriage of Alonzo Dixon and Ora Jones was solemnized. Ora (Jones) Dixon is a daughter of Andrew^ and Sarah E. Jones, of Mount Pleasant township. Mrs. Dixon is a native of Bates county. Andrew Jones died in 1902 and his widow' makes her home with Mr. and Mrs. Alonzo Dixon. To Alonzo and Ora Dixon has been born one child, a son, Alonzo Lee. ]\Ir. Dixon has one son by a former wife, Lewis Dixon, now bookkeeper with the American Express Company at Kansas City, Missouri. Mr. and Mrs. Dixon are excellent citizens, good, quiet, and unobtrusive people, and they are held in the highest esteem in their community.

Reinhold A. Julien, of West Point township, during his thirteen years of residence in Bates county, has made a remarkable success as an agriculturist. However, he comes of a race of people who are noted for their aptitude in tilling the most stubborn of soils and it is a fact that wherever you find a settlement of American farmers of Swedish birth or descent, there you find prosperity and success attending their efforts. \Mien Mv. Julien came to Bates county from Nebraska he was told that "he would starve to death in Missouri." He was in search of cheaper land than could be purchased in Nebraska. His first quarter section purchased in 1904 has since been increased to a total of two hundred eighty acres. Mr. and Mrs. Julien have a splendid farm residence which is furnished and equipped in keeping with refined tastes. His large barn, which has l^een erected recently, is forty-eight by fiftyfour feet in dimensions and he has also built a silo having a capacity of one hundred tons of silage. Mr. Julien has a herd of fifty-three head of cattle of the Sliorthorn breed, including eight milch cows. Each vear he raises from one to two carloads of hogs for the market.

Mr. Julien was born in Sweden in 1868 and is a son of Anderson and Louisa (Engborn) Julien, who lived all their days in their native land. In 1888, Mr. Julien immigrated to America, a poor lad, in search of employment and joined his brother, John Julien, who was located in Iowa. He was so poor on his arrival that he had to repay his borrowed passage money across the ocean by the fruits of his first month's labor in America. In 1890, he went to Nebraska and worked for some time among fellow countrymen in Saunders county, Nebraska. For a period of eleven years he tilled rented land in Saunders county, Nebraska with a view to the ultimate purchase of a farm. Meanwhile land had been constantly advancing in price in Nebraska and he believed that the price was entirely too high. He cast about for a suitable location where land was not too high in price and within his power of purchase. Deciding upon Bates county against the advice of friends and advisers he came here in February, 1904, and made his first purchase of one hundred sixty acres of land in West Point township at a cost of forty-five dollars an acre. In 1906 he bought forty acres at a cost of thirty-five dollars an acre and later bought an "eighty" at a cost of forty dollars an acre. His record since coming to Bates county shows what industry, perseverance, and careful methods of farming can accomplish on Bates county soil.

Mr.- Julien was married in February, 1898, in Saunders county, Nebraska, to Miss Amanda Frostrom, who was born at Weston, Nebraska, February 13, 1877, a daughter of C. J. and Christina Frostrom, natives of Sweden, who immigrated to America and settled in Nebraska and became prosperous and well-to-do in the land of their adoption. C. J. Frostrom came to this country in 1869 and his wife, Christina, migrated to America in 1873. They were married in Sweden, have reared a fine family of children and are now living in comfortable circumstances at Weston, Saunders county, Nebraska. To Reinhold and Amanda Julien have been born two children as follow: Ethel, born May 15, 1899; Ernest, born February 24, 1902. Mr. Julien attrilnites much of his success to the assistance of his intelligent and capable helpmeet.

Mr. Julien is a Democrat in politics but is content to leave the management of political matters to others who have more time and the inclination to devote to such matters. He and his family are members of the Baptist church. WMiile he is not a member of any secret society he carries fraternal insurance as a safeguard against disaster, thus providing for the future of his family. Mr. and Mrs. Julien have made many friends during their residence in Bates count}=' and have the respect and esteem of their many accjuaintances. The record which they have made in Bates county place them in the front rank of Bates county citizens of the better and more successful class.

Missouri, a former hotel man of Butler, is a prosperous and influential farmer and stockman of Alount Pleasant township. Mr. Frank is a native of Carlinville, Illinois. He was born in 1852, a son of A. J. and Mary Eliza Frank, the former, a native of South Carolina and the latter, of Kentucky. A. J. Frank was a blacksmith by trade and he followed his vocation at Carlinville for many years. Later in life, Mr. Frank became interested in horse racing and track meets and attended all the races held in his state of Illinois with his own horses. He always kept from ten to fifteen racing horses in his stables and many of them made records known throughout the country.

George H. Frank, when a small boy, was drummerboy at the barracks at Carlinville, his principal duties being to call the soldiers in the mornings and sound "taps" in the evenings. Mr. Frank was educated at Blackburn Seminary in Illinois. He was a mere child, thirteen years of age, when he was first employed by his father as jockey. Since he was seventeen years of age, Mr. Frank has been self-supporting. He rode "Prairie Boy" at Springfield, Illinois, at the time he won the world record in 1 :44. Although Mr. Frank was an experienced jockey and is an exceptional judge and lover of fine horses, he never bets on a race.

In 1880, Mr. Frank came to Bates county, Missouri, and located at Butler, where he followed painting for two years and then operated a bus line for twelve years. Following this, George H. Frank conducted the Ross Hotel in Butler, which house was situated in the building now occupied by the American Clothing House. He enjoyed the hotel business, worked hard, and made a success of it. When 'Sir. Frank was a genial host, it was in the days before the quitting of the saloon. Butler was "booming" at the time he came here. Traveling men, who were on the road fifteen and twenty-five years ago, recall with pleasure the Ross Hotel of Butler and the kindly keeper, George H. Frank, who made their stay as pleasant and home-like as possible. AA'hen the house was sold, Air. Frank purchased his present country home, a farm comprising sixty acres of valuable land located four miles southwest of Butler, which place was formerly owned by "Bob" Hurt. Mr. Frank is enjoying his rural home and is "making good" on his little farm, finding as much pleasure in agricultural pursuits perhaps as he did in the hotel business in Butler.

of Richard and Emily Compton, both of whom are now deceased. To George H. and Belle Frank have been born three children: Emma, the wife of John W. McKinick, Kansas City, Missouri; Charles, a prosperous farmer of Mount Pleasant township; and Richard, a well-to-do clothing merchant of Chicago, Illinois.

Since becoming a resident of Bates county, Mr. Frank has willingly and cheerfully borne his part in all public improvements and enterprises and his high standing as one of Mount Pleasant township's intelligent, progressive and representative citizens is unanimously conceded. He has an extensive acquaintance throughout the country and the number of his warm personal friends is legion.

W. S. Fuller, a successful and industrious agriculturist of Mount Pleasant township, is a native of Jasper county, Missouri. Mr. Fuller was born in 1880 at the Fuller homestead in Jasper county, thirty-four years after the birth of his father at the homestead. He is a son of S. W. and Laura J. (Allen) Fuller. S. W. Fuller was born in 1846, a son of John L. Fuller, a native of Webster county, Missouri. John L. Fuller was a Confederate soldier in the Civil War, as was also his son, S. W., and he was killed in a battle in Arkansas. S. W. Fuller served in the Confederate army two years. Louisa J. (Allen) Fuller was born in South Carolina. She came to Bates county with Mr. Fuller in 1903 and they purchased the farm now owned by Mr. Hartrick. Mr. Fuller died at Eldorado Springs in 1906 and interment was made at Carthage, Jasper county, Missouri. His widow now resides at Carthage, Missouri. S. AV. and Laura J. Fuller were the parents of ten children, six of whom are now living: AV. S.. the subject of this review; Sinia, the wife of H. G. Mallet, Lamar, Missouri; Blanche E., Carthage, Missouri; Tvlrs. Mabel Lowry, Lamar, Missouri; Mrs. Ethel Cox, Butler, Missouri; and Mrs. Sammie Shay, Fort Bliss, Texas.

W. S. Fuller attended school in Jasper county, Missouri, at Carthage. He has made his own way in life since he was eighteen years of age, engaging first in mining in Jasper county and later in agricultural pursuits. Mr. Fuller came to Bates county with his father and labored on the farm with him. In 1910, he purchased his present country home, a farm located two miles southwest of Butler on the Jefferson Highway and comprising one hundred forty acres of land, well watered, drained, and fertile. The residence is a neat, well-built structure of seven rooms and there are two large l:>arns on the place, which afford ample room for stock, hay. and grain.

The marriage of A\\ S. Fuller and Mrs. Edith (Dickhout) Flynn was solemnized in October, 1909, at Bntler, Missouri. Mrs. Fuller is a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. P. S. Dickhout, of Jackson county, Missouri. To W. S. and Edith Fuller have been born two children, Samuel and Garland.

Fraternally, Mr. Fuller is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Modern Woodmen of America. He has pursued an undeviating course of industry thus far in life and has sternly adhered to the upright principles which governed the life of his father before him. A\\ S. and Mrs. Fuller are highly respected and esteemed as neighbors and citizens in their community. Constant and faithful in all his relations with his fellowmen, Mr. Fuller is destined to continue in the future, as he has been in the past, one of the substantial, enterprising men of the township in which he lives.

John F. McKissick, a well-known and respected farmer and stockman of Mount Pleasant township, is a worthy representative of a prominent and sterling pioneer family of Missouri. Mr. ^McKissick was born at the McKissick homestead, five miles southwest of Butler, Missouri, a son of George M. and Mary E. (Benson) McKissick. George M. McKissick was born in 1838 in Clay county, Missouri, a son of John McKissick, who moved to Bates county from Clay county before the Civil War. John McKissick purchased the farm upon which his son, George M., settled after the war had ended. The latter built a small brick house, 14 x 16 feet in dimensions, which was the McKissick home for many years and is still standing on the place. To George M. and Mary E. McKissick were born seven children : Mrs. Elizabeth J. Blount, Butler, Missouri; Jonathan L., and Charles A., who died in infancy; one child died at birth; Mrs. Martha Pickett, Platteville, Colorado; George, Bowler, Montana; and John F., the subject of this review. Jonathan McKissick, brother of George M., came from Clay county to Butler, Missouri, in 1887 and was engaged in the mercantile business in this city for several years. There are hundreds of men and women who will recall Jonathan McKissick, who knew him personally and well, who patronized him at his general store, where he sold groceries, hardware, and feed. He was a valued member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons of Butler. Mrs. Jonathan McKissick was an active worker and devout member of the Christian church. Interment was made for Mr. McKissick, merchant and enterprising citizen, in the cemetery at Butler. George M. McKissick was also affiliated with the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons of Butler, Missouri. He was for several years the Grand Master of the Butler lodge. Mr. McKissick was a member of the Presbyterian church and Mrs. McKissick was a member of the Baptist church. She was a native of Tennessee. George M. McKissick was a man of excellent repute and much influence in his community, taking a deep interest in public and political affairs. He served several years as justice of the peace in his township. He died in 1913 and two years later, in March, 1915, he was joined in death by his wife. Both father and mother were laid to rest in Morris cemetery.

John F. McKissick received his education in the city schools of Butler, Missouri. At the age of twenty-one years, he began farming and stock raising on the home place and these pursuits he has since constantly followed. Mr. McKissick is the present owner of one hundred twenty acres of land in section 32, Mount Pleasant township, which is considered one of the best "bottom farms" in Bates county. The McKissick residence is a pleasant cottage of five rooms. A commodious barn, 44 X 38 feet in dimensions, affords ample provision for the care of both stock and grain. The buildings are all situated on upland.

The marriage of John F. McKissick and Lutie May Leonard, daughter of John E. and Mary (Tucker) Leonard, formerly of Charlotte township but now residents of Mt. Pleasant, was solemnized in August, 1910. To this union have been born four children: John Howard, Mary Katherine, Robert L., and Edward L. Mr. and Mrs. McKissick are sincere and highly respected members of the New Hope Baptist church.

Incomplete would be a biographical compendium of Bates county, Missouri, were no mention made of the McKissicks, whose lives for so many years have been interwoven with' the local history of Butler and vicinity. For many long years, George M. McKissick was an important and forceful factor in the development of Mount Pleasant township and he always took a leading part in the affairs of his community. Jonathan McKissick, a business man of strong and vigorous personality, devoted his time and energies to the upbuilding of the commercial interests of Butler. Although John F. McKissick is still a young man. he is ably maintaining the reputation of the family and his career has so far been marked by well-directed energy, strong determination to succeed, and honest, honorable endeavor. A public-spirited citizen, an intelligent, capable agriculturist, a kind neighbor and friend, Mr. McKissick is undoubtedly a true son of a noble pioneer.

of one of the oldest and best pioneer families of Bates county, Missouri. Mr. Henry is a Bates county boy. He was born in this section of Missouri in 1878, a son of E. P. and Gertrude (Garrison) Henry, the former, a native of Ohio and the latter, of Wisconsin. Mr. and Mrs. E. P. Henry were the parents of the following children: Alice, the wife of Dr. J. T. Hull, Butler, Missouri; Bertha, the widow of Judge J. S. Francesco, Butler, Missouri; Charles, the subject of this review; Walter, who is engaged in the garage business at Butler, a sketch of whom appears elsewhere in this volume ; and Emma Dell, who died at the age of five years. The Henrys came to Bates county, Missouri, about 1868 or 1869 and settled on the farm now owned by the son, Charles. E. P. Henry died in 1889 and Mrs. Henry joined him in death in 1914. Both parents are interred in Oak Hill cemetery near Butler. A more detailed account of E. P. Henry, familiarly known as Captain Henry, one of the late leading citizens of Bates county, appears in connection with the biographical review of Walter, a brother of Charles Henry.

Mr. Henry, whose name introduces this sketch, attended the city schools of Butler and. later, Detroit Business University. A few years after he had completed his commercial education, the Spanish American War broke out and Mr. Henry enlisted at Butler in the service of the U^nited States. He served one year and was mustered out and honorably discharged. Pie returned home and began farming, in which pursuit he was engaged until he enlered the dairy business in 1914.

The Butler Dairy was established by James Wells. He sold to C. S. Douglass, from whom Charles Henry obtained the dairy in 1917. Mr. Henry had, however, been engaged in the dairy business for three years previous to purchasing this business establishment, at his present location adjoining the townsite of Butler. Two hundred thirteen acres of land comprise the Henry dairy farm, the old E. P. Henry homestead. Mr. Henry raises all the feed he needs for his herd of forty-five dairy cows and besides leaves eighty acres of the farm in pasture. He has two silos, each having a capacity of two hundred fifty tons. The Butler Dairy is one of the best, most sanitary, and splendidly equipped in the country. In addition to a washer, sterilizer, and milk cooler, all operated by steam, Mr. Henry is installing a bottling machine, which fills four bottles at a time and having a capacity of five hundred liottles an hour. Thus practically all the work of the dairy is done speedily, efficiently, and in the most approved and sanitary manner. The water used in connection with the dairy comes from a well of great depth and is pure.

Mr. Henry caters to the family and hotel trade and he is doing an excellent and profitable business. The dairy barn on the farm was rebuilt and improved in 1917 and now contains forty-seven stanchions and concrete floors and is kept scrupulously clean.

The marriage of Charles Henry and Gertrude Guyant, of Butler, Missouri, was solemnized in 1910. Mrs. Henry is a daughter gf J. M. and Mary (Young) Guyant. Mrs. Guyant is now deceased and Mr. Guyant resides at Butler. To Charles and Gertrude Henry have been born two sons: Charles E., Jr., and Fred. Mr. Guyant resides with Mr. and Mrs. Henry.

Aside from his business interests, Charles Henry takes a deep interest in all matters pertaining to the welfare of the community. He is one of the energetic, progressive men, who are doing so much to keep Bates county in the front rank with the most prosperous counties of Missouri. AVillingly and cheerfully. Mr. Henry lends his support to every worthy enterprise wdiich has for its object the promotion of the interests of Butler and Bates county and the elevation of the standards of citizenship. He is a w^orthy son of a good father, an excellent representative of a long line of eminently honorable ancestors.

Grover C. Ireland, a progressive and energetic young farmer and stockman, is one of Bates county's worthy citizens. Mr. Ireland was born at the Ireland homestead in Spruce township. Bates county, September 9, 1887, a son of Benjamin and Callie (Harmon) Ireland, pioneers of Spruce township, a sketch of wdiom appears in this volume.

In the district schools of Spruce township, Bates county, Grover C. Ireland ob.tained a good common-school education. At the age of twenty-one years, Mr. Ireland with a mule-team began farming on land five miles northeast of Butler. He purchased eighty acres in January, 1918, and forty acres additional in March. 1918, now owning one hundred twenty acres of valuable land. He has leased two hundred forty acres of the Scully land, one mile east of Ballard, Missouri. At the time of this writing in 1918, Mr. Ireland has on his farm twenty head of Shropshire sheep ; thirty-two head of high-grade white-face cattle, all cows, with the exception of a registered male at the head of the herd; thirty head of Duroc Jersey hogs, two being registered sows, one costing ninety-one dollars, the other eighty-six dollars; twelve head of horses, one a registered stallion, "Tam O'Shanter," two years old, from Jacob Baum's herd, and six brood mares ; and three head of mules. Mr. Ireland has some verv excellent views on stock raising and it is his opinion that "keeping poor-grade stock on any farm doesn't pay and he is giving a practical demonstration of the truth of the converse.

In February, 1909, Grover C. Ireland and Lillian Nina Speers, of Spruce tow^nship, a daughter of William and Dolly Speers and a' granddaughter of "Uncle James" Speers, a widely-known resident of Johnstown, Missouri, who came to Bates county in 1859 and located at Johnstown and is still living there, were united in marriage. To this union have been born three children: Harland, Letha, and Donald. Mr. and Mrs. Ireland reside one and a half miles northeast of Ballard, Missouri, and they receive their mail on Rural Route 26 from Urich, Missouri. They are highly respected and esteemed in Spruce township and in Bates county, and the number of their friends is myriad. Mr. Ireland is carving a name for himself and has now established a reputation which might well be emulated by many citizens much older than he. He is one of the successful Bates county boys of whom all are justly proud.

August Fischer. - The "Fischer Farm," located two and a half miles south of the village of Pleasant Gap in the township of the same name, is one of the best and most productive in Bates county. The house and buildings are well located upon a sloping hillside from which every acre of the farm can be overlooked - an ideal setting for a farm home. This fine farm comprises two hundred forty acres of valuable land, the cultivation of which yields its owner a good income. All the buildings are the handiwork of the proprietor, August Fischer, who has profitably combined the trade of carpenter and builder with the vocation of farming. Unlike the shoemaker and the painter, whose children are unshod and whose house is left unpainted, Mr. Fischer used his skill and genius in erecting as his own domicile one of the best farm residences in Bates county and the other buildings grouped around about are also kept in a good state of repair. His big barn, built in 1900, measures 32 x 60 feet with a height of sixteen feet to the square. He has a substantial corn crib, hog house, granary and a machine shed, chicken house and hog houses - the buildings on the place forming a little village all in themselves. Probably the most valuable adjunct to the farming operations is a never failing well which was drilled to a depth of two hundred forty-six feet, the water being raised by wind-mill power, and the underground stream having a steady flow of over one gallon each minute. Mr. Fischer carries on general farming and stock raising.

August Fischer was born May 17, 1863, in Germany, the son of Louis and Johanna (Niedenmeier) Fischer, natives of Germany, who came to America in 1880 and made a settlement in Pleasant Gap township, where Louis Fischer died on January 29, 1893. Louis and Johanna Fischer were parents of nine children: Louis, Fred, and Augusta Steiner, deceased; Charles, August, Mrs. Caroline Wittee, Henry, William, Mrs. Geyeta Halwig. August Fischer came to America in 1879. August Fischer came to Bates county in the spring of 1879 and ten years later he made his first purchase of land, investing his savings in eighty acres of land, known as the "Louis Fischer Farm," Prosperity has smiled upon him, and by means of hard work, good management and thrift he has added another quarter section to the original home place. Mr. Fischer learned the trade of carpenter and builder when a young man and he plied his trade in many parts of Bates county, his mechanical ability enabling him to turn many hundreds of dollars into his purse, and was of great help to him in making a good start in Bates county. In addition to his home farm of two hundred forty acres, Mr. Fischer is owner of a tract of sixty-two and a half acres in Rockville township.

On September 25, 1887, August Fischer and Miss Mary Kern, of Rockville, born Octol)er 2, 1863, near Humboldt, Kansas, were united in marriage. She is a daughter of Martin Kern, who died in 1899 and is buried in Prairie City cemetery. Her mother resides at Rockville. The Kerns located in Bates county in 1869. Mr. and Mrs. August Fischer have children as follow: Herman, a farmer in Mt. Pleasant township; Caroline, wife of R. F. Davis, Hudson township ; Willie died at the age of eleven years; Yetta, wife of Joseph Bowers, Rockville township; Augusta, at home with her parents; Sophia, at home.

Since coming to Bates county thirty-eight years ago, Mr. Fischer has risen to become one of the leading and most substantial citizens of this county. His first purchase of eighty acres was made on time - his beginning as a farmer having been practically made without capital. Diligence, careful management, good judgment, and unfailing optimism in hard times have enabled him to forge ahead and become well to do. He is one of the leaders in his township and is president of the Pleasant Gap Boosters Club, an organization formed among the best people of his neighborhood by Mr. Fischer and others for the purpose of advancing the social and business welfare of the neighborhood in general. This club is a very popular and busy concern and is behind the project for the erection of the Community Hall at Pleasant Gap.

Benjamin F. Bamett, ex-collector of taxes in Summit township, one of Bates county's progressive and successful, young agriculturists and stockmen, was born in Carroll county, Kentucky, May 13, 1886. Mr. Barnett is a son of J. W. and Frances (Todd) Barnett, natives of Kentucky. They were the parents of four children, who are now living: Gordon, Butler, Missouri ; Nannie, the wife of Roy Argenbright, of Summit township; May and Lillie, at home with their father. Mrs. Barnett, the mother, died at the Barnett home place in Summit township in 1916. Mr. Barnett is engaged in farming and stock raising in this township.

Mr. Barnett, whose name introduces this sketch, received his elementary education in the public schools of Carroll county, Kentucky. He was a student at Clay City High School, Clay City, Kentucky, for two years. He came to Bates county, Missouri, in 1903 and located on a farm one mile south of Butler, where he remained two years, and then he moved to a country place in Summit township located seven miles east of Butler. Mr. Barnett bought a tract of land, embracing one hundred ten acres, in 1909 from Doctor Foster. The land was practically unimproved, having only a small house and barn. Benjamin F. Barnett has rebuilt the residence and the barn and erected a silo, 14 X 35 feet in dimensions, and a dairy barn, equipped with twenty-four stanchions, and a chicken house, 12 x 38 feet in dimensions. He has increased his holdings and his farm now comprises two hundred ten acres of excellent prairie land, well watered and nicely improved, which he is constantly building up and making better. Mr. Barnett has at present a herd of twenty-four dairy cows and sixteen heifer calves of both Holstein and Jersey breeds. He is the owner of one cow which gives forty pounds of milk daily and the milk tests four per cent, butter fat. Mr. Barnett is enthusiastic in his defence of the dairy cow as a money-making investment. It has frequently been said by other stockmen of Bates county, whose words are quoted in this volume, that beef cattle are a better paying proposition in this part of the state than dairy cattle, but Mr. Barnett states that the dairy cow beats everything else on the farm, being a source of income constantly while at the same time increasing the fertility of the soil and he is planning to handle a larger herd of registered dairy cattle in the future. He has a mechanical milker, which milks twenty-five cows in an hour, the one of two such milkers in Bates county, the other one being owned by Sunderwirth Brothers of Prairie City. Mrs. Barnett is raising Brown Leghorn

In 1910. the marriage of Benjamin F. Barnett and Jessie Cantrell, a daughter of Starlin and Hattie (Gloyd) Cantrell, was solemnized and to this union has been born one child, a daughter, Elizabeth. Mr. and Mrs. Barnett are widely known and universally respected in Butler and Bates county. Mr. Barnett has an extensive acquaintance throughout his township, having served four years as collector of taxes in Summit township. He is a young man of exceptional business ability and judgment and his standing, financially, commercially, and socially is second to none in the county.

Palmer E. Nelson, the well-known manager of the "Allen View Stock Farm," is one of Bates county's progressive and energetic young agriculturists and stockmen. Mr. Nelson is a native of Bureau county, Illinois. He was born in 1885, a son of N. Y. and Mary Nelson, natives of Sweden. Mr. and Mrs. Nelson, with their son, Palmer E., came to Missouri in 1905 and they are now residents of Cedar county, Missouri.

Mr. Nelson, whose name introduces this review, attended school at Princeton, Illinois. Seven years ago, dating from this writing in 1918, he was employed on the Green Walton place for one year and then on the farm, of which he is now manager, for one year, when he left Bates county and accepted a position with the Steam Shovel & Elevator Company of Kansas City. Mr. Nelson was employed with this company for eighteen months and then resigned his position and returned to his father's home in Cedar county, Missouri. Three years ago, in August, 1914, he assumed charge of the "Allen View Stock Farm" in Deepwater township.

The marriage of Palmer E. Nelson and Nellie Miller was solemnized in 1907 and to this union have been born two children: Miller and Mary Jeannette. ]\Irs. Nelson is a daughter of Warren and Awra Miller and a native of Kentucky. Mr. and Mrs. Nelson have made scores of friends since their coming to Bates county and they are held in the highest esteem and respect by all with whom they have come in contact.

"Allen View Stock Farm" is one of the excellent stock farms of Deepwater township, lying eight miles east of Butler, comprising four hundred ten acres of land partly in Deepwater and in Summit townships, owned by Frank Allen, of Butler, Missouri. The land is rolling and is a part of the old \A'hite place. "Allen View Stock Farm" is '"T-he Home of Shorthorn Cattle and Duroc Jersey Hogs" in Bates county and is widely known in the stock markets of Missouri. Mr. Nelson shipped a carload of Duroc Jersey ' hogs, a herd of seventy-eight, farrowed in April and May of 1917, and they averaged two hundred forty-two pounds each December 1st, and "topping the market" at seventeen dollars and seventy-five cents each per hundred pounds in Kansas City, Missouri. Mr. Nelson keeps on the farm usually from eighteen to twenty brood sows and a herd of fifty to seventy-five Shorthorn cattle, mostly cows. "Hallen," one of the best males in the entire country, from the E. M. Hall herd, of Carthage, Missouri, twenty-nine months of age and weighing sixteen hundred pounds, heads the Allen herd. He was purchased in February, 1916, and could easily and cjuickly be made to weigh a ton, if it w^ere so desired. ''Allen View Stock Farm" is nicely improved and well equipped with all modern facilities for the efficient handling of stock. The improvements include a comfortable residence, hog barn, horse barn, hog houses, breeding pens, feeding rooms, implement shed, hog-tight fencing, and a splendid well. The well is 10 X 40 feet in dimensions and the w'ater stands within twelve feet of the top and it would be impossible to pump it dry. The feedingrooms are supplied with a feed grinder, which grinds and mixes the feed, and Mr. Nelson employs all the methods of scientific feeding which have been proven profitable and practical by agricultural institutions. He reads and studies agricultural journals and bulletins and puts into practical use the knowledge he gains thereby, realizing that the main object in raising stock on the farm is to make money and that the farmer and stockman should find out just how much and what is profitable to feed and how to conserve the energy of the animal after it is profitably fed. Palmer E. Nelson is one of the most enterprising, up-to-date, intelligent stockmen of Bates county.

William A. Eads, a highly respected and progressive farmer and stockman of Deepwater township, is a worthy representative of a prominent pioneer family of Missouri. Mr. Eads is a native of Iowa, a son of Strowther and Martha A. (Dodds) Eads, the former, a native of Gasconade county, Missouri, and the latter, of Illinois, and he was born in 1855. Strowther Eads was born March 3, 1825, at the Eads homestead in Gasconade county, Missouri, a son of William and Rebecca (Robison) Eads. AVilliam Eads was a native of Kentucky, born in 1780, a member of a leading colonial family of the South. He was united in marriage with Rebecca Robison, a native of South Carohna, who was ten years his junior, in 1820 and to this union were born live children : Polly, Cyrena, and Strowther, all of whom were born in Gasconade county, Missouri; and Alcy and Louisa, who were born in Sangamon county, Illinois. William Eads and his family resided in Gasconade county, Missouri, during the first years of the statehood and settlement of Missouri, from 1820 until 1835, moving thence to Sangamon county, Illinois, and then to Des Moines, Iowa, in 1846. At Des Moines, Iowa, William Eads died. Strowther Eads, father of William A. Eads, the subject of this review, was reared in Sangamon county, Illinois, and was there united in marriage with Martha A. Dodds, a daughter of Joseph and Martha Dodds and a native of Illinois, born in 1827. Joseph Dodds was born May 18, 1785, and his wife was born May 18, 1793. To Strowther and Martha A. (Dodds) Eads were born the following children: Nancy E., who was born February 28, 1847, married William White and now resides at Appleton City, Missouri ; Mary E., who was born December 9. 1848, married William Purcell and now resides at Kansas City, Missouri ; Rebecca J., who was born March 6, 1851, married Frank Peacock and now resides at Schell City, Missouri; William A., the subject of this review; Finis E., who was born April 15, 1858, a well-to-do farmer residing one and a half miles north of Spruce, Missouri; and Martha A., the wife of Samuel Coleman, of Butler, Missouri. After their marriage on April 16, 1846, Mr. and Mrs. Strowther Eads resided for some time in Sangamon county, Illinois, whence they moved to Iowa, in which state their son, William A., was born. In 1866, they came to Missouri and located near Carrollton, but were dissatisfied and in one year returned to their old home in Sangamon county, Illinois. However, the Eads family could not resist the call of the West and in 1870 returned to Missouri to purchase a tract of land in Bates county in Deepwater township, which was their home until 1881, at which time Strowther Eads moved to Vernon county, purchasing a farm of one hundred sixty acres in .sections 3 and 4, located south of Schell City, Missouri. The father died in Vernon county in 1903 and interment was made in the cemetery at Johnstown. The widowed mother survived Mr. Eads ten years, when in 1913 they were united in death and she was laid to rest beside him in the burial ground at Johnstown. For almost a full century, the name of Eads has been a familiar and honored name in Missouri and the family has long been ranked with the sterling first families of the State.

^^"illiam A. Eads attended school in Bates county, Missouri, and in the district school of Deepwater township obtained an excellent common-school education. Educational advantages in this part of the country were necessarily very limited in the pioneer and war times, but with limited opportunities Mr. Eads made the best progress possible and became thoroughly familiar with the elementary branches and in later life, by eagerly reading and closely observing, has become a remarkably well-informed gentleman. He remained at home with his father as long as the latter lived, the two being associated in partnership in farming and stock raising. Mr. Eads, Jr., was the proprietor of a good farm in Vernon county, Missouri, prior to 1902, when he disposed of it and purchased a country place in Bates count}', the Hall farm one-fourth mile east of Spruce, Missouri, a tract of land comprising one hundred four acres, a part of which place was entered from the government by Barbary Price in the early thirties and improved by ]\Ir. Price's son, Mr. \\'illiam Price. The Eads farm lies twelve miles east of Butler, Missouri.

The marriage of A\'illiam A. Eads and Dora Cooper was solemnized February 26, 1880, in Lone Oak township. Mrs. Eads is a daughter of J. M. and Kate (Gentry) Cooper. The Gentry family came from Kentucky to Missouri in the early days and Mrs. Eads was born at Harrisonville, to which city her father had moved from Lees Summit, where he had originally located. He and his brother conducted a mercantile estal)lishment, owning a carriage and wagon factory, at Harrisonville in the fifties. The old building in which the factory was located is still standing. The Coopers moved to Harrisonville when Order No. 11 was issued by General Ewing- during the Civil War. The residences of J. M. and Jackson Cooper, the two brothers, were the only two houses in the vicinity which were not searched. IMrs. Eads knew the Youngers personally, for when her parents resided at Lees Summit her brothers, sisters, and she attended the same school as they. To William A. and Dora (Cooper) Eads have been born three children: Maude Ethel, the wife of Carl Ludwick, of Los Angeles, California: Ira, who married Mrs. Epsie Murphy, who is engaged in the mercantile business at Spruce, Missouri ; and Charles, who married Bessie Barrickman, and they reside on a farm one-half mile east of Spruce. Mr. and Mrs. Eads are very proud of their five grandchildren: George William and Martha Ruth Ludwick, children of Mr. and Mrs. Carl Ludwick; Mildred and Richard Eads, children of Mr. and Mrs. L-a Eads ; and Charles Kenneth Eads, the onlv son of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Eads.

William A. Eads is a Republican of prominence in his township. He made the race for judge of the county court from his district in 1910 and for county treasurer in 1912. Mr. Eads has always taken an active and interested part in politics and during his residence in Vernon county served for several years on the township board in Clear Creek township and as assessor. Deepwater township is proud to numljer him among its best, most enterprising, public-spirited citizens. Bates county owes its present supremacy to the class of clear-headed, strongarmed, energetic yeomen of which William A. Eads is a creditable representative.

E. E. Morilla, one of the younger generation of farmers who have been born and reared in Bates county, has achieved one of the most striking successes in his vocation ever accomplished in this section of Missouri. Mr. Morilla was born on a farm in Lone Oak township, January 7, 1878, and is the son of Charles and Emma (Thomas) Morilla, both of whom are living. Emma (Thomas) Morilla is a daughter of William R. Thomas, of Lone Oak township. Charles and Emma Morilla are parents of the following children: E. E., subject of this review; Mrs. Alice Ellington, Butler, Missouri; C. W. Morilla, Abilene, Kansas; Mrs. Christina Moore, Huntington Beach, California; Ernest, a soldier in the National Army, Three Hundred Forty-first Field Artillery, Camp Funston, Kansas.

The education of E. E. Morilla was obtained in the public schools of Butler and the Butler Academy. He was a student of the academy when Professor Richardson was the principal in charge. He began his farming career in Mt. Pleasant township, and bought his first farm in 1898, in Pleasant Gap township. He later traded this farm for a tract of land in Greenwood county, Kansas, where he resided for six years. He then returned to Bates county and lived upon the Joe G. Ellington farm in Pleasant Gap township for five years. He purchased his present home farm of two hundred fifty-five acres in 1906. He bought eighty acres March 15, 1918, making a total of three hundred thirty-five acres. The farm was formerly owned by the Hufi'mans. Mr. Morilla has placed practically all of the improvements upon his place, the residence being erected in 1908. and is a modern structure, one and a half stories, of seven rooms. He built his fine barn in 1910. This barn is 64 x 80 feet in dimensions. Mr. Morilla is a believer in the use of the silo to store green food away for cattle feeding in the winter season and he has three of these modern adjuncts to farming on the place, the sizes of his silos are 16 x 30 feet. 14 x 32 feet, and 14 X 34 feet. Air. Morilla is an extensive feeder of cattle and hogs and has about one hundred and thirty-five head of cattle on the place which he will have fed out for the markets by spring. He has fifty head of hogs and is feeding over two hundred head of Shropshire sheep. Mr. ]\Iorilla has been twice married, his first marriage occurring on April 14. 1897, with ]\liss Fannie Ellington, who died Julv 4, 1907, leaving two children: Leo, and Joseph. His second marriage was with Miss Fannie A\'ix, on November 17, 1909. Two children have blessed this union: Clarence, and Vivian Bernice. Mrs. Fannie ]\lorilla is a daughter of Joseph F. W'ix, of Pleasant Gap township, a sketch of whom appears elsewhere in this volume. The ]Morilla family is one of the most prominent in their neighborhood and Mr. and Airs. jMorilla are universally esteemed and respected by the people of their section of Bates county. For a number of years, Mr. Morilla has been prominent in the aft'airs of his township and has served two terms as trustee of Pleasant Gap. He is looked upon as a "live wire" and a progressive and enterprising citizen who has made good in the county of his birth.

Benjamin Franklin Sharpless. M. D., retired physician, ex-justice of the peace of Rockville, Missouri, formerly a leading agriculturist and stockman of Bates county, a successful business man, is one of the prominent pioneers of Rockville. Doctor Sharpless came to Bates county, Missouri, in 1869 from his native state, Pennsylvania, to evade the persistent calls upon him in the practice of medicine and to recuperate from a breakdown due to overwork. He was born December 4, 1837, near Philadelphia in Chester county, Pennsylvania, a son of W^illiam and Abigail (Garrett) Sharpless. Doctor Sharpless was reared and educated in his native state. He is a graduate of the American Eclectic College of Philadelphia.

Doctor Sharpless came to Rockville, ^Missouri, from Sedalia, driving three yoke of oxen, and he purchased a tract of land comprising four hundred acres located in Rockville township, section four, for ten dollars an acre. He resided on this farm and improved the land, building a nice, comfortable residence, two barns, sheds, cribs, and other necessary farm conveniences and engaged in general farm and stock raising. When Doctor Sharpless located in Bates county in 1869, the Tohannas. the Belchers, the Hooks, the Houslevs, the Bowdens, the

Stodclards, and the Murphys resided in the vicinity of Rockville. The raih-oad has been built since that time and the httle village has grown to be a small but flourishing city, having a population of seven hundred inhabitants. The doctor broke the prairie sod of his farm with the assistance of oxen and built a rude cabin home, 18 x 20 feet in dimensions, of unfinished lumber shipped up the Osage to Papinsville and hauled from there to the farm. Doctor Sharpless recalls that there were a large number of emigrants passing through this particular corner of Bates county during the years of 1869 and 1870 and frecjuently the doctor and his friends would recommend, to undesirables, Kansas as a Paradise on earth and urge them to go on. The doctor was instrumental in establishing School District No. 2 in 1871 and while on the farm was a member of the school board. Doctor Sharpless has the distinction of being the first teacher employed in District No. 2, Rockville township.

December 14, 1864, Dr. Benjamin Franklin Sharpless was united in marriage with Harriet Wollerton. a daughter of Samuel and Elizabeth Wollerton, of Westchester, Chester county, Pennsylvania. The A\'ollertons were highly respected and valued members of the Friends church and both Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Harvey Wollerton spent their lives in Pennsylvania, where their remains now lie interred. To Doctor and Mrs. Sharpless have been born five children, all of whom are now living: Elberta, the wife of Oscar Housley. of Kansas City, Missouri; Carrie E., the wife of Dr. E. J. Viedt, of St. Louis, Missouri; William W., who married Kate Rees and they reside at Stonewall, Oklahoma; Harry C, who married Bessie Greeson and they reside at Amarillo, Texas; and Samuel Lewis, who married Miss Amy Bluett, of St. Louis, Missouri, and they reside at Los Angeles, California. Dr. and Mrs. Benjamin Franklin Sharpless celebrated their Fiftieth Wedding Anniversary on December 14, 1914. They are justly proud of their ten grandchildren, one of whom, a grandson, Gilbert O. Housley, son of Mr. and Mrs. Oscar Housley, of Kansas City, Missouri, is a corporal at Camp Doniphan, Fort Sill, Oklahoma, at the time of this writing, in 1918.

Among several priceless possessions owned by Doctor and ]\Irs. Sharpless is a grandfather's clock which is more than a full century old and is still a correct timekeeper. On the inside of the clock is the following inscription: "Cleaned October 13, 1812. W. Putman. Again October 17, 1823." This remarkable heirloom is eight feet high and has two weights, requiring winding once every eight days. The hands designate the day of the month, the hour, minute, second, and the changes of the moon. Doctor Sharpless inherited the clock from his uncle, John Sharpless, and the name "Goshen" is on its face. The doctor also owns an old-fashioned secretary, which is nearly one hundred years of age, and a table constructed without the use of nails, being held together with wooden pins. Dr. Sharpless has a valuable record of the Sharpless family, a book of one thousand three hundred thirty-three pages containing the genealogy of the family from 1682 to 1882. P. M. Sharpless, manufacturer of the Sharpless separator, is a cousin of William Sharpless, father of Dr. Benjamin Franklin Sharpless.

In 1903, Doctor and Mrs. Sharpless moved from their farm to Rockville, where they purchased their present residence from Philip Bartz. The life of Doctor Sharpless has been in the main quiet and always unassuming and although he is now the possessor of an ample competence he and his noble wife continue to live in the simple manner which was their custom in the earlier days. Both the doctor and Mrs. Sharpless are still active and are enjoying life and they are highly esteemed in Bates county for their genuine worth.

George S. Porter, well and favorably known farmer and stockman of Deepwater township, was born on the farm which he is now managing. May 14, 1877. He is the son of Jefferson L. and Catherine (Schere) Porter, natives of Virginia. Jefferson L. Porter was born in Virginia in 1826 and departed this life on his farm in Bates county in 1912. He was a scion of an old American family of prominence. He came to Missouri from Virginia in 1858 and made an early settlement in Deepwater tow^nship, wdiere he became one of the most influential citizens of the count}/. Mr. Porter first purchased a homestead of two hundred and forty acres from Jerrard Witt who had entered the land. He was industrious, a good farmer, and financier and became owner of nine hundred and twenty-six acres of land in this county previous to his death. When Order No. 11 was issued by General Ewing calling for the residents of Bates county who were in sympathy with the South to evacuate their homes, Mr. Porter was the only man in his neighborhood to remain. During the troublesome times in the border country when marauding bands would sweep over western Missouri, burning homes and killing livestock and settlers, J. L. Porter was living on the old home place. When ordered away, he left it for one night only, he and his family returning next day. A party of marauders attempted to assassinate him, and his horse was killed during- the affray. The attack and attempt upon his life occurred near Johnstown. A party was organized to avenge the assault, composed of Mr. Porter, A. E. Page, John Sisson, George and William Warner, Lafayette Griggs, and Valincourt Griggs. The party came upon a part of the band which had attempted the killing and a battle ensued which lasted for some time on April 14, 1861. Lafayette Griggs fell dead at the first return fire from the jay-hawkers and a running fight ensued, the marauders making a stand for their lives near a small lake. Eight of the invaders were killed and the captain wounded, he being killed later by members of the posse who became the victors in the engagement.

Jefferson L. Porter was appointed associate judge of the Bates county court in 1864 wdien the court held its sessions at Johnstown. He was prominent in the affairs of Bates county for many years and became widely known as a breeder of Hereford cattle and Duroc Jersey liogs. In 1901 he started the practice of holding private sales of his fine stock at his place and made a success of the undertaking. To Jefferson L. and Catherine Porter were born children as follow: Stewart F., Jonesboro, Arkansas ; Damaris, wife of Lee W^itt. she died in September, 1917, at Troy, Missouri; Bettie, wife of Alvin Hart, Henry county, Missouri; Jennie, wife of Jasper Talbot. Miami, Oklahoma; Edith Murray, widow, Longmont, Colorado; Mollie M., wife of Jordan Cottle, Chicago. Illinois; George S., subject of this sketch; A. L. died at the age of thirty-five years in 1892, killed at Lexington Junction in a railway accident; Nora died in 1912, aged forty years; three children died in infancy. Mrs. Catherine (Schere) Porter was born in Virginia and died in 1892. Mrs. Porter was a daughter of John Jacob Schere. born in Guilford county. North Carolina, February 7, 1785, married Elizabeth Grierson. John Jacob Schere was the son of Frederick Schere, born in Guilford, North Carolina, in 1763. married Barbara Smith, and served in the Patriot Army during the War of the American Revolution, losing an ear in battle. He was the son of Jacob Daniel Schere, a native of Oberbelbock, Germany, married Hannah Sophie Dick, and immigrated to Berks county. Pennsylvania, in September, 1748. His son probably migrated to North Carolina and there founded another branch of the family from wdiich George S. Porter is a direct decendant.

took up farming and was his father's partner until Judge Porter died. He is managing a large farm of five hundred acres in all which is one of the best equipped stock farms in Bates county. All of this land is located in Deepwater township, excepting eighty acres which lies in Spruce township. All of the land excepting sixty acres is in hay, pasture and timber. The place is well watered, a deep well drilled three hundred and twenty feet furnishes an abundant supply of water for all purposes. Mr. Porter keeps one hundred head of cattle and al)out twenty head of horses and mules on the place.

On December 11, 1900, George S. Porter was united in marriage with Sarah Bessie Alexander, of Deepwater township, a daughter of T. J. and Maud (Colegrove) Alexander. Her father was a native of Indiana, born in Jay county, May 18, 1854, and accompanied his father. Andrew Calvin Alexander, to Bates county in 1867. Andrew Calvin Alexander died in Bates county in 1893. T. J. Alexander, farmer, died August 21, 1899. His wife, Mrs. Maude x\lexander, was born in Lebanon, Indiana, November 12, 1860, and is now making her home near Johnstown. Mr. and Mrs. George S. Porter have three children: Ruby \^iolet, Ralph Alexander, and Ruth Catherine. Mrs. Sarah Bessie Porter was born July 20, 1882, and reared in Bates county. Her grandfather, Andrew C. Alexander, a prosperous farmer, was a native of Ohio, and married Sarah H. Callahan, who was born April 9, 1834, in Jackson county, Ohio, and died Fberuary 10, 1895. They were married June 2, 1853, moved from Indiana to Iowa in 1857, and from Iowa to Missouri in 1867 and located near Johnstown.

While Mr. Porter is a Republican in politics he attends strictly to his own business affairs and leaves political matters for those who have more time for politics. He votes as a good citizen should but the management of his large stock farm and his home affairs keep him occupied.

M. W. Anderson, a prominent and prosperous farmer and stockman of Spruce township, is one of the successful, "self-made" men of Bates county. Mr. Anderson was born October 10, 1860, in Lafayette county, Missouri, a son of Jesse and Marinda Anderson, who came from Virginia in the early days and settled on a farm in Lafayette county. Jesse Anderson died when his son, M. W., the subject of this review, was a small lad, ten years of age. Mrs. Anderson moved to Arkansas, where she died, and the son, M. W., was left to the protection and care of a neighbor, J. H. Hobbs, and he was reared by Mr. Hobbs in Johnson county.

Mr. Anderson, whose name introduces this review, obtained his education in the pubHc schools of Johnson county, Missouri. At the age of twenty-one years, he came to Bates county. He had just fifteen cents in his pocket and that amount meant the sum total of his financial resources. Mr. Anderson obtained employment at once and for his services received an overcoat and a pair of overshoes, which he was needing badly, and then served as apprentice with I. N. Paulline, a prominent contractor of Butler, Missouri, until he had mastered the carpenter's trade, which he followed in connection with farming in Bates county for thirty years. The first work which Mr. Anderson did in Bates county was husking corn in the snow for which he received the munificent sum of twenty-five cents a day - and it was real work, at that. By 1889, he had saved a sum of money sufificient to purchase a farm and he bought his first land in Mingo township, a place he later sold. Mr. Anderson then moved from this county to Urich in Henry county and was there engaged in buying and selling town lots and improving city property. He disposed of his interests in 1894 and purchased his present country place, a farm comprising one hundred twenty acres of land originally, from A. J. Allen and to his first holdings later added forty acres more, a tract purchased from John Winegardner. On this place in Spruce township, Mr. Anderson is profitably employed in raising horses, cattle, sheep, and hogs, and purebred Barred Plymouth Rock chickens.

The marriage of M. W. Anderson and Mary F. Kenney, a daughter of Rev. William and Martha A. (Drennan) Kenney, honored and revered pioneers of Sangamon county, Illinois, was solemnized December 7, 1910. Reverend and Mrs. Kenney came to Bates county, Alissouri in the autumn of 1868 and located in Spruce township, where they both died. The remains of both father and mother were interred in Bethel cemetery in Bates county, Missouri. Mrs. Anderson had the following brothers and sister, two living: C. E., Santa Barbara, California; B. F., of Spruce township; Mrs. Efiie M. Sparkman. who died at Portland, Oregon ; and Arthur E., who died at the age of sixteen years at the old homestead in Spruce township, Bates county. Mr. Anderson's brothers and sisters were, as follow: John, deceased; Alfred, Osceola, Missouri; Isaac, deceased; Mrs. Jennie Gregory; ]\Irs. Lizzie Paul, of Johnson county, Missouri ; Mrs. Mattie Forney, Enid, Oklahoma; Mrs. Huldah Allen, Gypsum, Kansas; Mrs. Belle Rich, of Deepwater township, Bates county; and Mollie. To M. W. and Mary F. (Kenney) Anderson have been born two children: Nina May and

Benjamin A\'esley. By a former marriage, Air. Anderson is the father of four sons: Arthur P., a well-to-do merchant of Los Angeles, California; Robert E.. a successful farmer and ranchman of Great Falls, Montana; Archie B.. a well-known farmer and stockman of ]\Iingo township. Bates county; and William R., a prosperous farmer of Henry county. The Anderson name is widely and favorably known in western Alissouri.

The Anderson farm lies ten miles southwest of Creighton, twenty miles northeast of Butler, and sixteen miles east of Adrian. ]Mr. Anderson has himself improved the place, adding all the buildings except the old ones erected by Mr. Mingus in the fifties. The improvements, which M. W. Anderson has placed on the farm, include a handsome residence, a ten-room structure, two stories and with a basement, built in 1905; a barn, 46 x 50 feet in dimensions, constructed of native lumber; a cattle and hog shed, 18 x 60 feet in dimensions; a sheep shed, 16 X 60 feet in dimensions; a ninety-ton silo, erected in 1911. Air. Anderson feeds silage to his herds of horses, cattle, and sheep and is an enthusiastic advocate of it, but insists that it should be fed properly. He raises fine Percheron horses and is the owner of a Kentucky Hambletonian mare, a splendid saddle horse and trotter, seven years of age. Mr. Anderson has raised Shropshire sheep for twenty-five years and at the present time has a number of registered animals in his herd.

In the election of 1917, M. W. Anderson was elected trustee of Spruce township, the first Republican to be so honored. He is now serving his first term in oiflce and is attending to all his ofificial duties with the skill and excellence of an experienced man. In all the affairs of life. Mr. Anderson has manifested the same zeal, enterprise, business tact, and excellent judgment, wdiich now characterize him as a public ofiticial. His unflagging industry and perseverance have enabled him to carry to a successful issue every undertaking to which he devotes his time and attention. He is in sympathy with all movements which tend to promote the public welfare and his public-spiritedness, his candor, and his integrity have won for him the respect of all with whom he has come in contact. Mr. and Airs. Anderson are worthy and valued members of the AA^alnut Grove Presbvterian church.

Jesse L. Brooks, wide-awake and progressive farmer of Pleasant Gap township, is a native of Alichigan. been born in that state, in 1876. He is the son of Samuel Jay Brooks, who was also born in Michigan. November 30. 1845. He disposed of his farm holdings in Branch county, Michigan in 1883 and came to Bates county, Missouri, his first purchase of land being a tract of one hundred acres formerly owned by David Walker and located three-fourths of a mile north of the village of Pleasant Gap. The improvements on the place at the time of the purchase were a small house and poor outbuildings. Mr. Brooks erected a barn, dug a cellar, and built a hay-shed and added to his possessions until he became owner of two hundred forty-five acres. He died December 8, 1893. His wife was Amanda Evelyn Sweezey prior to her marriage. She was a native of New York, and now makes her home in California. The children of Samuel Jay and Amanda E. Brooks are: Jesse L., subject of this review; Fannie Effie, wife of Perry Rogers, Porterville, California.

After attending the common schools, Jesse L. Brooks studied for one year at Butler Academy. He then returned to the farm in Pleasant Gap township and worked with his father until his death. Mr. Brooks has added twenty acres to the original Brooks home farm and now owns tw^o hundred sixty-five acres in one connected body - splendid farm land - all of which is in intensive cultivation and producing good crops excepting seventy acres of timber and pasture. Mr. Brooks has erected a fine barn 20 x 32 feet in dimensions. His barn number two is larger and measures 45 x 60 feet in size. He has also erected a silo. 12 X 36 feet, and has a smaller barn for hay and fodder. At the present writing (January. 1918) ^Ir. Brooks has twenty head of cattle, thirty head of fine hogs, and ten horses and mules - all good stock.

On January 31, 1903, Jesse L. Brooks and }^larv Alice Swezv. of Pleasant Gap township, were united in marriage. ]\[rs. Brooks is a daughter of David B. and Ida (Brandenburg) Swezy, well-known residents of Pleasant Gap township, the former of whom died on November 5. 1916. and the latter is still living on the farm three miles south of Pleasant Gap. The Swezys came to ^Missouri in 1871 and located in Bates county in 1873. The remains of ]\Ir. Swezy are buried at Round Prairie cemetery. Mr. and [Mrs. Brooks have two children: Ida Evelyn, and ]\Iary Arleen. The Brooks home is a very pleasant one and ]\Ir. and Airs. Brooks take an active part in social affairs in their neighborhood. Mr. Brooks is a member of the Pleasant Gap Booster Club, which is working for the establishment of a community house at Pleasant Gap, an undertaking which is worthy of success and will prove of great benefit to the people of this vicinity in many ways.

William T. Nichols, a successful farmer and stockman of Grand River township, is one of Bates county's most highly regarded and vahied citizens. Mr. Nichols is a native of Indiana. He was born in Warren county, Indiana, in 1847 and in childhood moved with his parents to Warren county, Illinois, in 1854, thence to Coffey county, Kansas, in 1857, where they took up government land and settled on a farm located between Burlington and Leroy and where both father and mother died. The mother died in the spring of the year 1859 and the father died in the ensuing autumn. W. T. Nichols was an orphan at the age of twelve years, the son of Thomas and Elizabeth Nichols. He returned to Illinois after the death of his father and remained in that state until 1867, when he returned to Kansas and two years later came thence to Bates county, Missouri, which county has been his home for nearly fifty continuous years.