Bates County, Missouri - Biographical sketches, 1918 (part 18 of 19)

Charles Marsteller, one of the prominent agriculturists of Mount Pleasant and Lone Oak townships, is a member of a pioneer family of Bates county. When the Marstellers settled here there was no court house at Butler, but one was erected soon after they came, which building was destroyed during the Civil War and a second constructed. In the lifetime of the Marstellers in Bates county, there have been three different court houses erected at Butler. Mr. Marsteller was born at Butler, Missouri, in 1862, in the home which is now Judge Silvers', a son of Randolph and Mary A. Marsteller. Randolph Marsteller was a native of Licking county. Ohio. He came to Bates county, Missouri in 1857 and purchased the farm now owned by his son, Charles. During the Civil War. when Order Number 11 was issued, the Marstellers moved to Henry and Pettis counties and remained there until the conflict had ended. When Mr. Marsteller came back to his home in Bates county, he was obliged to begin life anew for all the buildings he owned, including five houses, practically all his stock, the fencing, and from five to eight hundred bushels of corn were destroyed. In the war, he served with the Home Guards under Captain Newberry. The Marstellers returned to the farm to live, a place formerly owned by Lucinda Seal and comprising five hundred acres of splendid, productive land, of which Charles Marsteller owns one hundred forty-five acres located two and a half miles south of Butler. To Randolph and Mary A. Marsteller were born six children: Harriet, the wife of Mr. Daniels, of Lone Oak township; James A., Lone Oak township; Mollie, the wife of Mr. Pierce, Battleground, Tippecanoe county, Indiana; Florence, deceased; Tena, deceased; and Charles, the subject of this review. Mr. Marsteller was actively identified with the farming and stock interests of Bates county for many years. He was a man of industrious habits, an excellent, public-spirited citizen, who served his township many years as justice of the peace. He died about 1883. Mrs. Marsteller departed this life April 10, 1914. Both father and mother were laid to rest in the cemetery known as Oak Hill. Mr. Marsteller was an enterprising and energetic .farmer, a gentleman of native abilities of a high order. He was honest himself and not only expected but thought everyone else to be so. Generous and obliging, he assisted to the limit of his ability all worthy enterprises. His death and that of Mrs. Marssteller, a brave pioneer woman, were sadly lamented in Bates county.

Charles Marsteller attended the city schools of Butler. He remained at home with his father and his mother until both were taken from him and he still makes his home on a part of the old home place, a farm of one hundred forty-five acres. The Marsteller farm lies partly in Mount Pleasant and partly in Lone Oak townships. Mr. Marsteller is numbered among the best citizens of his community and he is widely and favorably known throughout the county. He is unmarried.

Seth E. Cope, a well-known and highly respected citizen of Bates county, Missouri, an honored pioneer of New Home township, veteran of the Civil War, was born May 21, 1845, in Monroe county, Ohio. Mr. Cope is a son of Edmund and Mary (Blackburn) Cope, the former, a native of Virginia and the latter, of Maryland. They were the parents of four children : Samuel B., deceased ; John O. Adams, a sketch of whom appears elsewhere in this volume; Maria A., the wife of Leonard Tripp, of Mountain View, Wyoming; and Seth E., the subject of this review. A more elaborate genealogy of the Cope family is given in connection with the biography of John O. Adams Cope.

In Clark county, Missouri, Seth E. Cope received his education. The Copes had moved from Ohio to Iowa in 1847 and thence to Missouri in 1851, locating in Clark county, where they resided for several years when they moved to Kansas in 1862. In 1864 Seth E. Cope enlisted with Company E and was later transferred to Company F, Eleventh Kansas Cavalry, and was in active service in Kansas, Arkansas, and in the land of the Cherokee Nation. Capt. Evan G. Ross, Company E.. who later became United States Senator and whose vote acquitted President Johnson from impeachment, was later appointed governor of New Mexico by

Seth E. Cope

President Cleveland, was a brave officer. Mr. Cope says William Gilbreath was the largest slave-holder in the county and was a strong Union man. Mr. Cope had a special pension bill passed for a blind girl, a soldier's daughter. Mr. Cope was an important participant in the battle of Mine Creek and in the engagements accompanying Price's famous raid from Lexington to Weber Falls, Arkansas. The regiment, of which he was a member, made the Indian campaign in Wyoming and on the plains in 1865. Mr. Cope states that Quantrill, returning from the raid on Lawrence, Kansas, on August 21, 1863, disbanded in New Home township. Bates county, Missouri, just north of the river, a part of his men going down the north side and a part down the south side of the Marais des Cygnes. Mr. Cope was discharged from the Union service August 31, 1865, at Fort Leavenworth and took a one-hundred-dollar bond in payment for services.

In the fall of 1866, he came to Bates county and selected his land and at Butler, heard Colonel McClurg speak. In the spring of 1867, Seth E. Cope came to Bates county, Missouri, and settled on a farm in New Home township, where he has lived continuously since. Mr. Cope now makes his home with his brother, John Q. Adams Cope, of whom further mention is made in this volume. The former has resided in Bates county for fifty-one years and has known personally and still knows probably every individual of prominence in the county.

In January, 1885, Seth E. Cope and Gussie Littlefield, a daughter of Warren Littlefield, of New Home township, Bates county, Missouri, were united in marriage. To this union were born two children, who are !iow living: John Logan, of New Home township, Bates county; and Etta, who is now married and resides at Hoskins, Iowa. Mr. Cope is widely and favorably known in western Missouri and among the most valued men of Bates county he occupies a conspicuous place. He is a gentleman of the old school, possessing countless sterling qualities of mind and heart, and he has a host of friends in this section of the state. PYaternally, Seth E. Cope is affiliated with the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons and is a Royal Arch Mason, Miami Chapter No. 76.

John Logan Cope married Grace Osborne, of Bates county, and has a daughter, Ruth, born July 1, 1917, for whom Mr. Cope has bought a government bond. Mr. Cope is promoting the plan of every grandfather buying a bond for every grand-child born since 1917.

In the seventies Mr. Cope had introduced and passed tlirough Colonel Burdette, a bill by the general government establishing a mail route from Osceola to Garnett, passing through Chalk Land, Papinsville and Rich Hill, New Home, Walnut, Pleasanton and Mound City, etc.

John Quincy Adams Cope, pioneer of New Home township, Bates county, Missouri, proprietor of two hundred forty acres of land in New Home township, where he has resided for fifty years, an honored veteran of the Civil War, notary public in Bates county for thirty years, is one of the county's best known and most prominent citizens. Mr. Cope is a native of Ohio. He was born December 5, 1835, in Columbiana county near Lisbon, a son of Edmund and Mary (Blackburn) Cope. Edmund Cope was born May 2, 1807, a son of John and Mary (McCabe) Cope, who were united in marriage in 1803 in Frederick county, Maryland. Mr. and Mrs. John Cope removed with their family to Fairfield township, Columbiana county, Ohio, where they settled in 1810. John Cope was a son of Oliver Cope, who emigrated from Wiltshire, England and came to the colony of Pennsylvania among the earliest settlers from his native land, in 1687. Oliver Cope was the father of the following children: William, Elizabeth, Ruth, and John. Edmund Cope, a son of John Cope, was united in marriage with Mary Blackburn in 1832 and to this union were born the following children: Samuel B., who was born October 6, 1833, and died at Enid, Oklahoma, in 1913; John Quincy Adams, the subject of this review; Maria A., who was born April 20, 1838, is now the wife of Leonard Tripp; and Seth E., who was born May 21, 1845, a sketch of whom appears elsewhere in this volume. Edmund and Mary (Blackl)urn) Cope moved with their family to Van Buren county, Iowa, in 1847, thence to Clark county, Missouri, in 1851, and to Kansas in 1862. In the state of Kansas, the Copes resided at different times in Jefferson, Shawnee, and Jackson counties. In 1867, they came to Bates county, Missouri. Mary (Blackburn) Cope was born in 1800 in Maryland. The father died in 1884 and the mother joined him in death four years later, in 1888.

All three sons of Edmund and Mary (Blackburn) Cope enlisted and served in the Civil ^^'ar, Samuel B., with the Seventh ]\lissouri Cavalry; John Quincy Adams, witli the Second Kansas State Militia in the Topeka Regiment; and Seth E., with the Eleventh Kansas Cavalry. John Quincv Adams Cope fought in the battle of ^^'estport and assisted in driving Price southward. After the l)attle mentioned, he returned to his home, receiving his honorable discharge. Seth E. Cope took part in the

Indian conflicts on the plains in 1865. In the autumn of 1866, John Quincy Adams and Seth E. Cope came to New Home township and purchased one hundred sixty acres of land. Their father, Edmund Cope, took up a homestead claim of forty acres of land; Samuel B., forty acres; John Quincy Adams, forty acres ; and Seth E., forty acres. Afterward, John Quincy Adams Cope bought an additional tract of one hundred twenty acres for ten dollars an acre. He cared for his father and mother as long as they lived.

Politically, Mr. Cope is afifiliated with the Republican party. He twice cast his vote for Abraham Lincoln, the first time in Clark county, Missouri, and again, in 1864, at Indianola, Kansas. In religious matters, Mr. Cope is a Deist, believing in Nature, in a Hereafter, and in the doctrines of Christianity. He has been a member of the Ancient Eree and Accepted Masons since 1865 and in point of membership is the oldest Mason now living in Bates county. Mr. Cope is a member of the Foster Blue Lodge, of the Butler Chapter and Commandery.

John Wright, a well-known citizen in Bates county, is a native of Kentucky . Mr. Wright was born in 1853, a son of James and Elizabeth (Dean) Wright, both of whom were natives of Kentucky. James Wright came to Missouri in 1881 and settled on a farm of eighty acres of land in Mount Pleasant township, a place formerly owned by Henry Medcalf, of Kentucky, and now owned by Lewis Deffenborgh. Mr. Wright resided on this farm until his death in 1887. Mrs. Wright departed this life in 1905 and both father and mother were interred in the cemetery at Oak Hill. James and Elizabeth (Dean) Wright were the parents of the following children: Jackson, Okmulgee, Oklahoma; Mary C, the widow of John McCann, Butler, Missouri; Angelina, the wife of G. W. George. Carlisle, Kentucky; John, the subject of this review; R. M., who died about 1897 and whose remains are interred in Oak Hill cemetery; Dorcas, who died in 1886; Sallie J., the wife of C. O. Blake, Mount Pleasant township, Bates county, Missouri; and Bettie, who first married John Walls, now deceased, and then Thomas Gibson, of Kansas. City, Missouri.

John Wright came to Mount Pleasant township. Bates county in 1878. He rented land for one year and then purchased forty acres of land, on which tract liis present country home is located. At different times later, M. Wright added to his holdings tracts of forty acres each and he is now owner of a farm comprising one hundred twenty acrc-^ of valuable land. All that is now on the Wright farm in the way of improvements, John Wright has himself placed there. In addition to his country place, Mr. Wright owns the old John Karris homestead in Butler, a handsome residence of eight rooms with a barn and an abundance of shade and fruit trees situated on a tract of two and a half acres of land in Burton's addition.

At Aberdeen, Ohio, the marriage of John Wright and Mary A. McCann was solemnized on November 11, 1875. Mary A. (McCann) Wright is a daughter of James and Susan (Barr) McCann, both of whom were natives of Nicholas county, Kentucky. The Wrights and the McCanns were neighbors in Kentucky and John and Mary were friends and playmates in their school days. Mrs. McCann died in 1891 and Mr. McCann joined her in death in April, 1907. Their remains are resting in Concord cemetery in Nicholas county, Kentucky. To John and Mary A. Wright have been born two children: Carrie E., the wife of Charles AV. Dickerson, of Butler, Missouri ; and Anna Maud, the wife of Harry French, of Charlotte township. Bates county, Missouri. Mr. and Mrs. Wright are very proud of their five grandchildren, the sons and daughters of Mr. and Mrs. Harry French : Kenneth Wright, Dorothy Belle, Doris Louise, Mary Mildred, and John \\illie.

Mr. Wright moved to Butler from his farm several years ago and while a resident of Butler he was twice elected assessor and served capably and well for two terms. After six years in the city, he returned to the farm and in Mount Pleasant township he was again elected assessor and he served one term. When Mr. Wright again took up his residence in Butler, about tw^o years ago dating from the time of this writing in 1918, the voters of this city knew where to find an honest, conscientious of^cial and he was for the fourth time elected assessor and served another term in office, making a record of eight years of efficient, satisfactory service.

Mr. Wright has steadily climbed upward in life, overcoming countless obstacles and forging to the front until he now ranks high with the successful citizens of Butler and Bates county.

J. F. Bedinger, of Mount Pleasant township, is one of the successful farmers and stockmen of Bates county. Mr. Bedinger is a native of Illinois. He was born in 1885 at Normal, a son of AA^illiam H. and Mary E. (Bishop) Bedinger, both of whom were born in Kentucky and died in Illinois. William H. Bedinger was a prosperous farmer and stockman of Illinois.

ael, his great-grandfather, came to America from Germany with his parents and they settled in Pennsylvania. He was at Philadelphia at the time the Declaration of Independence was signed and later fought at Valley Forge, serving under General Washington. J. F. Bedinger obtained his elementary education at Normal, Illinois and afterward attended the State University of Illinois. In early maturity, he came to Missouri from Bloomington, Illinois, and located at Kansas City, where he conducted a hat store for several years. He came from Kansas City to his present country home in Bates county.

The Bedinger farm comprises two hundred forty acres of land located three miles southwest of Butler. This farm is one of the attractive country places in Bates county. There are two sets of improvements. The Bedinger residence is a comfortable house of seven rooms and with it is a barn, 34 x 60 feet, and a garage. On the east one hundred sixty acres are a cottage of four rooms and a barn, 80 x 50 feet. A well, twenty feet in depth, was dug on the farm in 1917 and from it water is piped to the barn. The water runs over the top of the well and into the pipes at the rate of about thirty barrels a day, thus an abundance of good water is supplied the stock. He is just beginning the raising and breeding of registered Hereford cattle. He has at the present time twentysix head of Hereford heifers eligible to be registered, heifers from the Jacob Varren herd at Appleton. Missouri. "Vincent." 481148, a registered steer from the Judge E. Hurt herd, heads the Bedinger herd.

In. February, 1915, J. F. Bedinger and Maud Florence Snyder, daughter of George Snyder, of Kansas City, Missouri, were united in marriage. To this union has been born one child, a son, George AVesley, who was born July 23, 1917.

Mr. Bedinger is keenly alive to everything pertaining to the growth, development, and betterment of his township and county and he has always been a stanch advocate of progress. Mr. and Mrs. Bedinger have countless friends in Bates county.

H. H. Council, proprietor of the Butler Steam Laundry, is a native of Indiana. He was born in 1870, a son of Thomas and Mary Council, both of whom are now deceased. His father died when the son, H. PL, was a child nine years of age. Mrs. Council departed this life seven years ago, in 1910. To Thomas and Mary Council were born three sons, who are now living: Harry, Lansing, Michigan; Charles, a successful rancher at Mondak, Montana: and H. H., the subject of this review.

of his father, when he was obliged to make his own way in life and labored as a farm "hand" for his board and clothing, attendance at school being of secondary importance. Mr. Council was given the opportunity to acquire an education at intervals, which were brief, few, and far apart. He drove a riding cultivator for his cousin, when he, H. H. Council, was too small to hold the plow handles. Mr. Council came West as far as Des Moines, Iowa, when he was eighteen years of age and entered the laundry business there, which business he has followed for thirty years. He remained in Iowa several years and from that state moved to Missouri, locating first at St. Louis, then at Kansas City, and at last at Butler.

In 1891, H. H. Council and Ida A. Seamen, of Des Moines, Iowa, were united in marriage and to this union were born six children : Thomas, who has been in the service of the United States Government for the past four years, enlisting at Kansas City, Missouri, serving in the Philippine Islands three years, and when war was declared by the United States on April 6, 1917 he w^as sent by the Government to Leavenworth, Kansas and is now with the Coast Artillery at Galveston. Texas; Marie, the wife of Omer E. Brown, of Butler, Missouri ; Edward, who enlisted in February, 1917 in the United States navy and is now on the battleship U. S. A. "New York;" Clyde, who is twelve years of age and is at home with his father; Nina, who is nine years of age and is at home; Donald, who is six years of age and is at home. The mother died at Butler, Missouri in December, 1915. Interment was made in the cemetery at Butler. Mr. Council has kept his little ones together and has gi\-en them as good home and training as he could, though sadly handicapped by the loss of his life partner.

Mr. Council came to Butler in December. 1913, at which time he bought out Kienberger & Macomb, owners and managers of the steam laundrv, which they liad ol)tained from C. Sells. Since H. H. Council acquired the ownership of the laundry, he has installed a new boiler, at an expense of one thousand dollars, two washing machines, and a shirt ironer, making the establishment thoroughly up-to-date. The building occupied by the laundry, a structure 100 x 26 feet in dimensions, located on Dakota street was purchased by Mr. Council in October, 1917. Eight people are employed at the laundry in order to handle the immense amount of work as family washings as well as the washings of individuals are taken care of here. ]\Ir. Council was connected with the Silver Laundry of Kansas City, Missouri jirior to coming to Butler.

He had scores of years of experience in the laundry business when he began business at Butler and but little else except an invincible ambition to succeed. Practically without one dollar, Mr. Council has made a marked success in his line of work, for by honesty and straightforward business methods he has won the confidence of his patrons and has built up a splendid establishment from nothing in less than five years.

H. H. Council is an up-to-date laundryman, thoroughly familiar with every detail of the laundry work, and he knows full well how to take advantage of opportunities and to create opportunities when none exist. Joining the great army of wage earners in America at the age of nine years, Mr. Council has had a world of~ experience and after a lapse of years of hard toil he is now the possessor of a competence which in the dreamiest days of his youth he never hoped to realize.

J. T. Hathaway, a veteran of the Civil War, one of the oldest resident farmers of Bates county, now living in comfortable retirement at his country place in West Boone township a few miles south of Drexel, was born in Shelby county, Ohio, December 31, 1834. He was a son of Eleazer and Sallie (Henry) Hathaway, natives of Miami county, Ohio. Eleazer Hathaway was the son of John Hathaway, a son of John Hathaway (I), a native of Wales, who accompanied by two of his brothers made a settlement on the Atlantic seaboard before the American Revolution. John Hathaway, great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch, fought in the Army of Independence during the Revolutionary War. His grandfather, John Hathaway (H), fought in the War of 1812. John Hathaway, the first in line, was a scout for the American forces during the War for Independence of the colonies. Eleazer Hathaway settled in Illinois in 1867, two years after J. T. Hathaway had settled in Christian county. Father and son resided on adjoining farms. The father died there in 1871. The mother of J. T. Hathaway died in 1874.

y. T. Hathaway enlisted in November of 1861 in Company F, Twentieth Ohio Regiment of Volunteer Infantry and served for nearly four years, receiving his honoral:)le discharge in July, 1865. He took an active part in many battles and skirmishes, among them being the attack on Fort Donelson ; the campaign around Vicksburg, Mississippi ; Pittsburg Landing; Pea Ridge; siege and capture of Atlanta; Sherman's famous march to the sea and the subsequent capture of Savannah. From Savannah he was sent to Washington and participated in the Grand Review. He received his final discharge and was mustered out of the service at Cincinnati. Ohio. He then returned home to Shelbv countv, Ohio.

After a short stay he went to Christian county, Illinois and engaged in farming until his return to Illinois in 1866 and married the sweetheart of his boyhood days, Hattie Blake, a native of Ohio, who died in 1871, leaving one daughter, Mrs. Clara New, living in Bates county, on a farm adjoining that of her father. ]\Ir. Hathaway lived in Illinois until 1901 and then came to Bates county, where he invested his capital in two hundred thirty-three acres of land, part of which he has given to his daughter and now has one luindred fift\-five acres in the home place. Incidentally, it is worthy of mention that Mr. Hathaway went to Clay county, Kansas, in 1859, homesteaded a claim, proved up on it and then returned to Illinois.

His second marriage took place in 1881 with Margaret Ellen Wilson, who was born in 1843 in Pike county, Illinois, a daughter of James Wilson. One son has been born of this marriage: Mark Wilson Hathaway, born in .1882, an intelligent and industrious young farmer who has relieved his father from the burden of managing and cultivating the home place in ^^'est Boone township. Mr-. Hathaway is a pronounced Prohil)itionist and a member of the Methodist Episcopal church.

Daniel K, Walker, one of the most progressive and up-to-date merchants in this section of the state, the senior member of the business firm widely known as the W^alker-McKibben Mercantile Company, was born in 1870 near Otterville in Moniteau county, Missouri. Mr. W' alker is a son of Rev. Alexander and Agnes (Hannah) Walker, who were the parents of ten children, eight of whom are now living, as follow: D. v., a successful merchant of Wichita, Kansas ; A. B., a prominent real estate dealer of Columbus, Ohio; Mrs. Annie C. Pyle, Butler, Missouri; Mary S., Butler, Missouri; D. K., the subject of this sketch; C. M., who is engaged in the loan business at Kansas City, Missouri; Harry, a prosperous merchant of Enid, Oklahoma; and John S.. who is engaged in the life insurance business at Butler, Missouri. Rev. Alexander ^^^llker was born in Scotland. He and Mrs. Walker, who was of Scottish descent, came to Moniteau county, Missouri, in 1868, and located at Tipton in that county in 1870. Twelve years later, Reverend Walker moved with his family to Bates county, wdiere the remainder of his life was spent in ministerial work. He was a gifted minister of the Presbyterian church and was well known and highly esteemed in Butler, in which city he was pastor of the Butler Presbyterian cluircli iov man\- vears. In his latter years, he was appointed state synodical missionary of the Presbyterian church, which position he was most ably filling at the time

Elliott Pyle Walker

In the public schools of Tipton, Missouri and in Butler Academy, Daniel K. Walker obtained his education. He received his first business experience at the age of fifteen years at Wichita, Kansas, where he was employed for one year by Larimer & Stinson. Mr. Walker then returned to Butler, Missouri, and entered the employ of James McKibben, who conducted a dry goods and clothing store where the Palace Hotel was once located on the northeast corner of the public square, and later became associated in business with James and Joseph McKibben, organizers of the McKibben Mercantile Company of Butler, Missouri. James McKibben now resides in Kansas and Joseph McKibben is living at Pasadena, California. Further mention of both McKibbens will be made in this sketch in connection with the history of the Walker- McKibben Mercantile Company.

In 1895, Daniel K. Walker was united in marriage with Ruby Pyle, daughter of Dr. Elliott Pyle, a prominent pioneer physician of Butler, Missouri, a surgeon of the Union army, who settled in this city a short time after the close of the Civil War. To Daniel K. and Ruby (Pyle) Walker have been born three children : Elliott Pyle, the eldest, graduated from Butler High School and was attending the University of Illinois when, in the spring of 1917, he enlisted with a University ambulance unit for service in Erance, afterward transferring with his unit to the United States Army Ambulance Corps, which was immediatelv sent to the training camp at Allentown, Pennsylvania. He earned promotion to first sergeant of Casualty Company Number 9, but March 30, 1918, just at the time his company was to sail for France, he died of pneumonia. Fie was the first Butler boy to die in the service. He was buried at Butler, Missouri, April 4, 1918, with military honors. Kirkbv A., a graduate of the Butler High School, wdio is now studying at the Missouri University; and Agnes, wdio is a student in the Butler High School. The W^alker family has long been prominent in Bates county and is still numbered among the best families of this part of the state. Mr. and Mrs. Walker reside at 512 West Pine street in Butler.

The Walker-McKibben Mercantile Company, of Butler, was organized in 1892 by James McKibben, Joseph McKibben, and D. K. Walker as the McKibben Mercantile Company, succeeding James M. McKibben, who had succeeded M. S. Cowles & Company. M. S. Cowles opened a general store at Rich Hill about 1881 or 1882, after selling the general store in Butler to James McKibl)en. The M. S. Cowles & Company's general store in Butler was opened about 1867 and was located where the Farmers Bank is now, on the northeast side of the public square. The stock of merchandise was moved by James McKibben to the former location of the old Palace Hotel, on the northeast corner of the square. Tater, Joseph McKibben, who had been with M. S. Cowles & Company at Rich Hill, with James McKibben and D. K. Walker organized the McKibben Mercantile Company and the stock was again moved, this time to the north half of the Bennett-Wheeler block and afterward to one door east of the present location of the Walker-McKibben Mercantile Company's establishment. Daniel K. Walker first entered the employ of James McKibben in 1886 and he was associated in business with the McKibbens at the time of the organization of the McKibben Mercantile Company. After a few years, James M. McKibben sold his interest in the store to Joseph McKibben and Mr. Walker and about eleven years ago Joseph McKibben retired from the business. In 1906, Daniel K. Walker purchased all the interests of the McKibbens in the company, which has since been known as the Walker-McKil)ben Mercantile Company, and the stock of goods moved to the present location on the north side of the public square. The building now occupied is a large, well-lighted, two-story structure, 30 x 100 feet in dimensions.

That Daniel K. Walker is exceptionally well qualified as a business man and merchant and that he has prospered is evidenced Ijy the fact that he carries a stock of merchandise valued at many thousand dollars and employs a corps of assistants. The stock is clean, neatly arranged, and up to date, including a general line of dry goods, notions, ladies' ready-to-wear clothing, shoes, men's furnishings, ladies', misses', and children's furnishings, rugs and lace curtains. The clerks employed are unusually attentive to customers and lend their hearty and cheerful support in the pull for success. This store is undoubtedly one of the finest to be seen in any city, in places even twice the size of Butler. Mr. Walker is a gentleman of pleasing personality and his earnest purpose, humanitarian principles, and upright life richly merit the splendid success, which has attended his efforts, and his present high commercial and social standing.

Elliott F. Edwards, an enterprising business man of Butler, is a representative of a pioneer family of Missouri. He was born in 1886 in Bates county on his father's farm near Butler, a son of James P. and Leanna (Hines) Edwards. James P. Edwards was born June 12. 1838 in Nashville, Tennessee. He came West and located at Brunswick, Missouri in 1864. Mr. Edwards was a teamster by trade and a man of exceptional intelligence and initiative. He crossed the plains from Atchison, Kansas in 1865, and, in the same year, built the fourth residence, in Pueblo, Colorado, hauled the first bell to Denver, Colorado, and one year later sold the first merchandise ever sold in Trinidad, Colorado. At Fort Garland, Colorado, Mr. Edwards was engaged in selling merchandise to the Indians, with the permission of Kit Carson. When James P. Edwards started in business at Fort Garland, he had but eighty dollars of his own and was in debt five thousand dollars. He had borrowed the latter sum of money in order to get a start in business and was paying five per cent, interest monthly. Most men would have fallen beneath the weight of the burden and have given up the fight in despair, but it was not characteristic of James P. Edwards to shirk heavy responsibilities, to give up the fight. He worked hard. In four months time, he had earned thirty-tv/o hundred dollars - and that was during the "hard times" of 1865. He hauled the boiler and set it up, which furnished the steam to run the mill where the lumber was sawed which was used to build Fort Lyon, Colorado. He received thirty-five hundred dollars freight at that time. Provisions were exceedingly high-priced at Fort Garland. Four pounds of bacon were worth five dollars, butter sold for one dollar and fifty cents a pound, and coiTee commanded a price of one dollar and fifty cents. After a short sojourn in Brunswick, Missouri, Mr. Edwards came to Butler in February, 1870. He hauled the first rock used in foundation w^ork in Salisbury, Missouri. He engaged in farming and stock raising in Bates county and became closely identified with the business interests of Butler. Mr. Edwards erected a number of the business buildings in Bates county. He was one of the directors of the Bates County National Bank and was 'connected with the Light. W^ater & Power Company. James P. Edwards was progressive and public-spirited and a "booster" for alb enterprises having for their object the betterment and development of Butler and Bates county. His death on July 16. 1913 was universally lamented and mourned in this part of the state. Interment was made in the cemetery at Butler. Leanna (Hines) Edwards is a native of Brunswick, Missouri, a daughter of John S. and Nannie (Pollard) Hines. John S. Hines was a native of Keyesville, Virginia and of English descent. His father was a wealthy plantation owner, the proprietor of a vast tract of land in Prince Edward and Charlotte counties. He was the master of a large number of slaves. Nannie (Pollard) Hines was a native of Marysville, Virginia. To John S. and Nannie Hines were born six children: Edward, deceased; Richard, deceased; Thomas ]., deceased; Sue, who was educated in an academy at Goldsboro, North Carolina, now residing at Butler, Missouri; Emily F., the wife of J. C. Congor, Macon, Georgia; Leanna, the widow of James P. Edwards, Butler, Missouri, the three daughters being the sole survivors of the family. The Pollards, as well as the Hines family, were wealthy plantation owners of Virginia. James P. and Leanna (Hines) Edwards were the parents of seven children: Lola, deceased; Lela, the wife of C. H. Conger, Washington, D. C. ; Lula, the wife of M. S. Horn, Butler, Missouri; Lon L., a prosperous farmer, Butler, Missouri; Claude, a successful merchant, Oakland, California; Elmer, deceased; and Elliott F., the subject of this review. Mrs. Edwards, the widowed mother, resides at the present time in Butler.

Elliott F. Edwards obtained his education in the city schools of Butler. He began life for himself when he was twenty-one years of age, at first following the pursuits of agriculture. In 1914, Mr. Edwards entered the coal and transfer business at Butler, his office being located due north of the Missouri Pacific railway station, and from the beginning he has prospered. Mr. Edwards is as honest as the light and when he sells a ton of coal his customers know that they are receiving a ton of coal. He owns a nice farm of eighty acres of good land located northwest of Butler.

January 14, 1908, Elliott F. Edwards and Cleo Moore were united in marriage and to this union have been l)orn two children: Elliott F., Jr. and Leomi. Mrs. Edwards is a daughter of J. M. and Naomi (Browning) Moore. J. M. Moore is a native of Pettis county and Mrs. Moore was born near Humboldt in Woodson county, Kansas. The Moores came to Bates county about thirteen years ago. J. M. and Naomi Moore are the parents of six children: Clara L., the wife of Clarence Harrison, Altona, Missouri ; Cleo, the wnfe of Elliott F. Edwards, the subject of this review; Juanita, deceased; Ethel, deceased; John L, Butler, Alissouri ; and Roy V., Butler, Missouri. A strange affinity in dates occurs in the Moore and Edwards families, January 14, 1918, was the ajiniversary of the marriages of Mr. and Mrs. James P. Edwards, Mr. and Mrs. J. M. Moore, and Mr. and Mrs. Elliott F. Edwards. The oldest child in 1)oth the Moore and Edwards families was a daughter and both girls were born on the same day of the same month.

Elliott F. Edwards manifests unquestioned integrity and the pleasing demeanor of a gentleman, gaining by his unassuming, quiet manners and kindly personal bearing countless friends in Butler and Bates county.

William J. Bullock, an ex-sheriff of Bates county, is a native of Cass county, Missouri. He was born near Old Index, Alarch 1, 18G0, a son of H. N. and Margaret M. (Hereford) Bullock, the former, a native of Kentucky and the latter, of Mason county. West Virginia. H. N. Bullock was born September 24, 1832 and, when a child three years of age, came to Missouri with his father, William Bullock, who located first in Johnson county in 1835 and shortly afterward settled in Cass county. H. N. Bullock has been a resident of Cass county for eighty-two years a-nd is now living, at the advanced age of eighty-five years, at Archie, Missouri. His father, William Bullock, died many years ago and his remains are interred in the cemetery at Index. H. N. Bullock is a Confederate veteran and he was in active service throughout the Civil War, serving under Gen. Francis M. Cockrell. When Mr. Bullock enlisted, he left his wife in charge of their farm in Cass county and to care for their little ones. Order Number 11 was enforced jfnd Mrs. Bullock moved with her children to Clinton in Henry county, Missouri, where her brother, Capt. W. JP. Hereford, resided. During their absence, all the improvements on the Bullock farm were destroyed. The home was burned to the ground in 1862. Mr. and Mrs. H. N. Bullock were the parents of the following children: Mrs. Dora Adair, Archie, Missouri; Mrs. Minnie Keyes, Wellington, Kansas; Mrs. Nora Lee, Appleton City, Missouri; James Emmet, deceased, a prominent minister of the Methodist Episcopal church. South, who died at Bronson, Kansas in 1894 wdiile engaged in ministerial work and his remains were interred in Crescent Hill cemetery; and AVilliam J., the subject of this sketch.

The pul)lic schools of Index in Cass county and of Burdett in Bates county afforded William J. Bullock the means of obtaining an excellent common school education. At the age of twenty-one years, he began life for himself, engaged in the pursuits of agriculture in Cass county. Mr. Bullock moved to Bates county in 1878 and located in East Boone township, returning later to Cass county for two years, when he came back to Bates county and located in Deer Creek township. Mr. Bullock always took an important part in the public affairs of his township and in the autumn of 1908 was elected sheriff of Bates county and served from 1909 until 1913. Since that time, he has resided in Butler, where he has a handsome home at 201 Dchiware street. Mr. Bullock is at the present time in the employ of the Red Arrow Oil & Gas Company of Oklahoma, having their main office in Kansas City, Missouri.

June 22, 1884, William J. Bullock and Mary A. Dejarnette were united in marriage. Mrs. Bullock was born in Boone township in Bates county, a daughter of W. H. and Mary A. Dejarnette. Mr. Dejarnette is now deceased and the widowed mother resides in Archie, Missouri. To Mr. and Mrs. William J. Bullock were born seven children, all of wdiom are now living: Georgia, the wife of Charles Hall, Floweree, Montana; A\'illa, the wife of Clarence Buillman, Oakgrove, Missouri; Aumer, at home with her father; Minnie, at home with her father; Julia, who is with her sister, Mrs. Charles Hall, at Floweree, Montana; Emmet H., a student in the Butler High School; and \\^allace, at home with his father. Mrs. Bullock died July 23, 1908 and her remains were laid to rest in the cemetery near Adrian, known as Crescent Hill cemetery. Nearly six years afterward, Mr. Bullock's mother died at Archie, Missouri and she, too, was taken to Crescent Hill cemetery for Inirial. Mrs. H. N. Bullock died April 15, 1914. Both women were beautiful and exemplary moral characters, mothers whom to know was to admire and love, and they have been sadly missed, not only in their home circles, but by a vast number of close personal friends.

John R. Weadon, prosperous farmer of New Home township, township trustee, has resided in Bates county since 1878 and is justly classed among the old settlers of this county. He has created his fine farm from unbroken prairie land and has placed every stick and shrub thereon and erected every l)uil(ling on the place during the many vears in which he has resided here. In 188v3 Mr. \\'eadon made his first purchase of land in Bates county and is now the owner of one hundred forty-two and a half acres of well improved and productive land, located in the southwest corner of New Home township.

Mr. Weadon was born in Loudoun county. Virginia, Octol)er 17, 1857, a son of Samuel K. and Almira (Wines) \\'eadon. both of whom were born in Virginia. They removed to Missouri in December of 1870 and first settled in Greene county, where thev resided until 1874 when they located in Lawrence county. Six years later Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Weadon made a settlement in the southwest part of New Home township in Bates county and resided here until death called them.

Samuel Weadon was born in 1835 and died on June 1, 1887. Mrs. Almira Weadon died in March, 1890 at the age of fifty-five years. They were parents of the following children : Francis, a resident of Kansas City, Missouri; John R., subject of this review; Samuel, living in Kansas City; Turner, a citizen of Oregon.

John R. Weadon received his schooling in Virginia and in Missouri. He was reared to the life of a farmer. He came to Bates county from Lawrence county, Missouri in 1878. When Mr. Weadon came to this county, a young man twenty-one years of age, he had little or practically nothing in the way of capital or property. He began working on the farms of the county with a willing heart and strong hands and was imbued with an ambition to some day own a farm of his own. Five years later in 1883 he was enabled to make his first purchase of land and is now ranked with the well-to-do and forehanded farmers of this prosperous county. He has created a farm of his own upon which he has reared his family with the assistance of a capable wife.

Mr. W^eadon was very fortunate in his selection of his helpmeet and took to wife a daughter of one of the first and most proniinent of the Bates county pioneers. He was united in marriage with Miss Mattie C. Miller, who was born in New Home township, March 13, 1861. a daughter of O. H. P. Miller, one of the earliest of the Bates county pioneers concerning whom extended mention is given in the history of the Miller family which will be found in connection with the biography of the late Jason Woodfin elsewdiere in this volume. This marriage was consummated on November 18, 1883, and has been a happy and prosperous one. Mr. and Mrs. John R. Weadon have one child, Mrs. Edna R. Birks. of Howard township. Bates county.

Mr. Weadon has been a life-long Democrat and is prominent in the councils of his party in the county. He is a1)ly filling the office of trustee of his township and has filled many positions of trust and responsibility during his residence in the county. Mr. and Mrs. Weadon are members of the Methodist Episcopal church. South, and are worthy and respected citizens of Bates county.

Eli F. Kincaid, proprietor of a fertile farm of two hundred sixtyfive acres in the northwest part of Howard township adjoining the Kansas-Missouri border, was born June 9, 1850 in Preble county. Ohio. He is the son of John and Sarah (Fair) Kincaid, both natives of Ohio. John Kincaid was the son of Samuel, a native of Kentucky, who moved to Ohio and resided with his familv until 1866 in Preble countv. In the fall of that year he came to the West and made a settlement near Lonejack in Jackson county, Missouri. Some years later he moved to Cass county, Missouri and there died in July, 1896. Eli F. Kincaid was one of eight children born to his parents, as follow: William, Cass county, Missouri; Eli F., subject of this review, and Ervin, living in Kansas, twins; Mrs. Rachel Grifhth, Cass county, Missouri; Leander, living in Washington; Wesley, deceased; Joseph, living in Missouri; and Mrs. Mattie Akers, Cass county, Missouri.

Eli F. Kincaid received his schooling in Ohio, and accompanied his parents to Missouri when sixteen years old. He stayed at home and assisted his father on the farm until 1873, when he began his own career. He went first to Henry county, Missouri and during the first year in that county, he was employed at farm labor. He then rented land for several years and eventually made a purchase of eighty acres in Henry county to which he added forty acres. He sold this tract and bought a farm of one hundred twenty-seven acres which he cultivated for four years. He sold this tract and invested the proceeds in another farm of one hundred forty-eight acres at Montrose, Missouri, which he later sold at a profit and then bought a farm of one hundred forty acres located ten miles east of Butler in Bates county. He again sold out in 1907 and bought one hundred twenty acres south of Hume in Vernon county, which he retained until the spring of 1911 when he sold out and bought a farm in Cass county which he soon traded for his present place in Howard township. Mr. Kincaid has one of the best farms in Bates county, twenty-five acres of which are heavily timbered.

Mr. Kincaid was married on December 20, 1890 in Bates county, to Miss Eva Fowler, who was born April 29, 1869 in Illinois, a daughter of Isaac and Martha (Breedlove) Fowler, natives of North Carolina, who moved to Illinois after the Civil W^v period. Isaac Fowler served in the Confederate army with a North Carolina regiment throughout the Civil War. He left Illinois and came to Henry county, Missouri in 1871, and made a permanent location in that ccumty, dying there in 1893. His widow (lied in 1914 at the age of seventy-three years. Of the eight children born to Isaac and Martha Fowler. scNcn arc living, as follow: Harvey, Schell City, Missouri; Herman, died in infancy; ^Irs. Delia Ford, lives near Butler; Cora, resides at Eldorado Springs, Missouri; Mrs. Eva Kincaid and Ira Fowler, of Ea Ilarpe, Kansas, are twins; Ezra, lives at Dallas, Texas; Carrie, makes her home at Eldorado Springs. The followinc: children have been born to Eli F. and Eva Kincaid: Earl.

died in infancy; Roy, died at the age of seventeen years; Emmons, a student in Missouri University, Colundoia, Missouri; Marl, Herbert, and Nore, are at home with their parents.

Both Mr. and Mrs. Kincaid are members of the Methodist Episcopal church and are substantial and w^orthy citizens of Bates county. Mr. Kincaid is a Democrat politically and his fraternal affiliations are with the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons.

James McCulloch, member of one of the old pioneer families in Bates county, farmer of New Home township, was born in Cooper county, Missouri, August 20, 1866. He is a son of Joseph Richardson and Isabella America (Brown) McCulloch, natives of Virginia. His father was born in old Virginia and his mother was born in what is now West Virginia. The Brown family of which Mrs. J. R. McCulloch was a member was one of the early pioneer families of Missouri. W. O. Atkeson, author of this "History of Bates County" is related to the McCullochs through the mother's family. Joseph R. McCulloch was born in March, 1826 and died in September, 1893. He was a son of Robert McCulloch, who settled in Cooper county, Missouri in 1834. Isalxdla A. McCulloch was born in October, 1836 and died in July, 1915. She was a daughter of Matthew Brown, who emigrated from Virginia to Missouri in 1850 and was married in Saline county.

J. R. McCulloch came to Bates county on October 11, 1866, and settled in New Home township. Prior to this time he had served for three years with the Confederate forces under Generals Price and Marmaduke. Upon taking up his residence in Bates county, he built a oneroom log cabin and in this cabin reared a family of live children: Robert M., a farmer in New Home township; Mrs. Adeline Brown Caton, Howard township ; James, subject of this sketch ; Mrs. Mattie Clark, Rich Hill; Joseph, Rich Hill, Missouri. J. R. McCulloch became owner of one hundred acres of land in New Home township, and the home place of the familv is now owned by James McCulloch, the tract having been deeded to him by his mother. Mr. and Mrs. J. R. McCulloch were members of the Methodist Episcopal church and were sturdy, God fearing, industrious people who courageously withstood the poverty and hardships of their earlier days in this county and their names are honored ones in the history of Bates county.

Tames McCulloch was reared to young manhood upon the McCulloch home farm and has always lived in this vicinity. He received eighty acres of land from his mother upon which he is now making his home.

Mr. McCulloch was married on June 15, 1893 to Florence Salina Benson, who was born October 5, 1875 in Illinois, a daughter of Thomas and Florence Benson, who died in St. Clair county, Illinois when Mrs. McCulloch was an infant. She and her brother, Louis, were adopted by William Allenson, an Eng-lishman, who came to Missouri and settled in New Home township, Bates county, in 1883. Mr. Allenson was an old friend of Mr. Benson and accompanied the Bensons to x\merica from their native England. During his last years, Mr. Allenson made his home with Mr. and Mrs. McCulloch. Four children have been born to James and Florence McCulloch: Mrs. Salina Donaldson, New Home township, mother of two children - ^Joseph Elmer, and Lucille ; Lois Ada, living in Tulsa, Oklahoma; James B., aged nineteen, and Benjamin Lee, aged fifteen years, at home with their parents. Mr. McCulloch is a Democrat.

Alfred Norbury, successful farmer and stockman, Walnut township, owner of four hundred twenty-five acres of rich, prairie farm lands in the western part of Bates county, is a native of England, born in Ramshire, August 7. 1849. He was a son of John and Tabitha (Besant) Norbury, who lived all of their lives on an English farmstead in Ramshire. Alfred Norbury was reared and educated in his native England and immigrated to America in 1871. W^ien he landed at New York he had his savings wnth him, and traveled to Olathe, Kansas, where he was employed at market gardening, during his first year. He farmed land in Johnson county during his second year and in 1873 he located in Bourbon county, Kansas, moving to a farm located five miles south of Fort Scott. Some time later he removed to Crawford county, Kansas and purchased one hundred twenty acres of farm land which he occupied until 1901, and then traded the tract for tw^o hundred twenty acres in Bates county. He moved to his farm in ^^^'llnut township during the fall of the "dry year" as it will always be known in the history of Missouri and Kansas. He prospered thereafter and added to his acreage until he owned six hundred ten acres, a portion of which he has deeded to his sons.

Mr. Nor])ury was married in England, in the year 1871, to Sarah Rowe, born in Essex county, England, in 1852. To them have been born children as follow: Daniel, a farmer in Walnut township, married and has seven children - Emma, Grace, Sarah, Agnes, Margaret, Alpha, and Fred; Edward, a farmer, \\\alnut township, has six children - Edna, Marv, Lanita, Anna Mav, Edith, Edward, and Leonard; Sydney, is mar- ried and has six children - Alfred, Naomi, Leroy, Vint, Ellis, and Lillie; Walter, is a farmer and has two children - Freda, and Harold. Mr. Norbury is fortunate in having all of his sons residing in the neighborhood of the home place and all are doing well as tillers of the soil. In politics, Mr. Nor1)nry is a Socialist, and belongs to the Episcopal church.

J. J. Mudd is one of the young, hustling and progressive young farmers of East Boone township. Mr. Mudd was born in 1882 in Bates county, a son of Joseph D. and Nancy Jane Mudd, who are among tiie oldest residents of the township.

Joseph David Mudd was born in April, 1842, in Bullitt county, Kentucky, and was a son of Joseph and Nancy (Brown) Mudd, natives of Kentucky who immigrated to Missouri in 1866, and settled upon the farm where Joseph D. now resides. Joseph Mudd was father of thirteen children, of whom four are yet living: J. D. ; Mrs. Jane Hall, Pasco, Kansas; Henry, Adrian, Missouri; Mrs. Julia Bunton, Nelson county, Kentucky. Joseph D. Mudd came to Bates county with his parents and has lived for over fifty years in the vicinity of his present home. He was married in 1868 and began his career with twejnty acres of ground upon which he built a log cabin which was the first home of Mr. and Mrs. Mudd when they began housekeeping, but the years that have passed since that time have been prosperous ones, Mr. Mudd now being owner of four hundred fifty-five acres of well improved farm land in the western part of East Boone township. Mr. Mudd was married to Nancy Jane Deacon, born in Nelson county, Kentucky, a daughter of Andrid and Eliza (Shockame) Deacon, who lived and died in Kentucky. To this union have been born children as follow: Joseph E., deceased; Mrs. Eliza Ann Ormsbee, Cass county, Missouri; Mrs. Sidonia McDaniels, Canon City, Colorado; RufTee, Stephen, Nancy Lee, and Edgar, deceased; Mrs. Fannie Louise Hughes, deceased; J. J., .subject of this review; Ernest Arnold, who is managing- the home farm; Honest Arthur, farmer near Adrian, Missouri ; Sarah Margaret, deceased ; Ruth v., deceased. For the past thirty years, Mr. Mudd has been a member of the Adrian lodge of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons. He has always been a Democrat in politics.

J. J. Mudd was educated in the Liberty High School, and began farming on his own account on the farm owned by his cousin, E. C. Mudd, in February, 1912. This farm is a splendid property, well improved and highly productive and Mr. Mudd is keeping up the farm to its fullest productive capacity.

He was married in 1908 to Miss Ethel Buchanan, of Burdett, Missouri. The have one child, Gleeta, aged four months. Mr. Mudd is an independent Democrat who votes for the man regardless of his party label if by so doing he can assist the cause of good government. He is a member of the Baptist church and is fraternally afifiliated with the Fraternal Aid Union and the Ancient Free and yVccepted Masons of Adrian.

Horace Perry Edwards. - The life story of H. P. Edwards, of East Boone township, is that of a self-made man, who when he had achieved a sufficient competence, invested in land whereon he could always be certain of a comfortable and independent living and be free from want in his later years. Mr. Edwards has one of the most attractive and well kept farm plants in Bates county upon which he has resided since 1907. Since coming into possession of this farm of one hundred and sixty acres he has remodeled the home, adding substantial verandas, etc., and has built a modern barn, thirty-six feet square and ten feet to the square in addition to a barn which had been previously erected by other owners. He has expended five hundred dollars for wire fencing and generally enhanced the appearance and value of the place during the past ten years. During 1917 there were harvested on the place thirty-live acres of corn which yielded thirty bushels to the acre. Part of the Edwards land is rented out because his crippled condition will not permit of active, heavy farm labor on his part. At the present time he has fifteen head of cattle, six horses and a fine drove of forty-six head of sheep which are considered the best flock of Shropshire sheep in Bates county. His success in sheep breeding has been such as to determine him to engage in the l^reeding of thoroughbred Shropshires for the discerning trade.

H. P. Edwards was born in the city of Indianapolis in 1860 and is a son of Nathan and Cynthia (Swcaringen) Edwards, natives of North Carolina. Nathan Edwards removed with his family to Indiana in 1833 and engaged in the contracting and 1)uil(ling l)usiness whicli he followed for several years with signal success. It was he who erected the first union railroad depot in Indianapolis, and the building of this structure was followed by the erection of many other public buildings throughout the state under his supervision. Natlian Edwards em])loyed upward of three hundred men in his building operations and had the reputation of being an honest, reliable and painstaking contractor who could be trusted to meet his obligations and perform his duties to the letter of his contracts. For a period of about f^^-e years he was engaged in the mercantile business. In 1862 he removed with his family to a small farm in Morgan county, Indiana which he purchased for a home. Nathan Edwards was born in 1812 and died in 1881. His wife was born in 1818 and died in 1885. They were the parents of three daughters and two sons, of whom but two are now living: Horace Perry, subject of this review; and Henry Tyson Edwards, born in 1856 and now residing in Harrisonville, Missouri.

H. P. Edwards came to Missouri with his mother in 1882 and the family located on a farm in Cass county. For the first two years he rented land in Cass county and in 1884 he came to Adrian, Bates county. From July, 1885 until the spring of 1887 he followed laboring in Adrian, and then entered the employ of Bryant & McDaniel as grain buyer, remaining in the employ of this firm for seven years. In 1892 he established a draying and transfer business in Adrian which was very successful. He conducted this business until 1898 and then bought a small farm of sixty-four acres adjoining Adrian on the south and turned over the draying business to his sons. He cultivated his Adrian farm until 1907 and then traded for a farm in East Boone township.

Mr. Edwards was married in 1881 to Anna E. Whitlem, who was born in Iowa and came to Cass county, Missouri, when a child with her parents, Robert and Sarah Whitlem, both of whom died in Bates county at the Edwards home. Both parents of Mrs. Edwards were born in England. Mr. and Mrs. Edwards have four children: Fred Richard, El Paso, Texas, a railroad conductor, who has had some exciting experiences in operating trains in Old Mexico during late years, and who was arrested by the Mexicans and held in jail for twelve hours on a trivial charge at one time: Arthur R., owner of two newspaper delivery routes in Kansas City, Missouri ; Claude B., a rancher near Steamboat Springs. Colorado; Clarence AV., attending the Adrian public schools.

Mr. Edwards is a Republican in politics and while a resident of Adrian held office as city councilman. He is a member of the Christian church, as is Mrs. Edwards. He is fraternally affiliated with the Modern Woodmen of America, and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. During the session of the Sovereign Grand Lodge of the Odd Fellows in 1911, Mr. Edwards was an interested visitor and took great pleasure in going over old home scenes of his boyhood days. Mr. and Mrs. Edwards are among Bates county's best and most patriotic citizens.

he is widely and favorably known, was born May 19, 1861, in Tazewell county, Illinois. He is a son of James Walker and Frances (Wilson) Herndon, the former of whom was born in Tennessee, in 1827, and the latter of whom was born in Illinois in 1831. James W. Herndon accompanied his parents to Illinois in boyhood in the early pioneer days of the settlement of that state and was there reared to young manhood and married. He died in Tazewell county in 1887. The widowed mother of Jeff Herndon resides in Illinois. There were five children in the family of James W. and Frances Herndon, namely: Mrs. Kittie Beckman, Arkansas City. Kansas; Nannie, deceased; Jefferson, subject of this review; Benjamin, who is farming the old home place in Tazewell county, Illinois.

Jeff Herndon was reared on the old home place of the family in Illinois and attended the common schools of his native county. He remained on the home place until twenty-eight years old and began for himself in 1879. Upon his father's death he inherited eighty acres from the estate which he cultivated until 1893, when he sold out and came to Missouri, arriving here on March 8. He purchased two hundred forty acres of land in Howard township, through which the railroad has run taking off nine acres. For the past twenty-four years Mr. Herndon has lived continuously upon his farm and has made a success in raising livestock and producing good crops.

Mr. Herndon was married in 1887 to Miss Lenna Miller, who was born in Tazewell county, Illinois, in 1860, and daughter of Moses and Lucia Miller, of Illinois. Mr. and Mrs. Jeff Herndon have five children: Harlan, Montana; Mrs. Frances Hoffman, living in Kansas; William Lester. Frank, and James, at home with their parents. Mr. Herndon is a Democrat in politics and is one of the substantial and well-thoughtof citizens of his section of Bates county.

John McKee, well-to-do farmer of West Point township and president of the Bank of Amsterdam, Missouri, is one of the most substantial and influential citizens of his neighborhood. Mr. McKee was born near Belfast, Ireland, in 1857, a son of John and Elizabeth (Peddon) McKee, of Scotch-Irish origin and wdio lived all of their days in Ireland. Four of their cliildren came to America to find Iionies in this country. John McKee left his native land in 1869 and upon landing at New York Citv. had barely sufficient funds to enable him to reach his destination, which was Peoria, Illinois. He soon got a job as farm hand during the harvest season at a wage of thirty dollars per month, later working for twenty dollars per month. His object in coming to America was to get a "bit of land" which would be his own home. Land rose to such a high price in the vicinity of Peoria, Illinois, that he decided to come further west. He saved his money and came to Bates county, where he rented for a time and invested his savings in stock for the farm which he intended to buy. After casting about for a suitable location he bought one hundred and sixty acres at a cost of sixteen dollars an acre. This was raw land and unfenced at the time of purchase. When Mr. McKee first came to Bates county there vvas much free range for cattle and he took advantage of this condition and invested a good part of his savings in cattle which ranged the prairies. He erected all the buildings on his place, built the fences and in 1887 added eighty acres more to his holdings at a cost of twenty dollars and twenty-five cents an acre - a tract which had been broken up and fenced. Mr. McKee has always handled livestock and for a number of years was a successful sheep raiser. By careful management and hard work he has become practically independent and is rated as one of the best farmers and stockmen of Bates county.

Mr. McKee was married in 1878 to Bessie McKee, who was born near Belfast, Ireland, in 1849 and departed this life on July, 28, 1894. To this union children were born as follow: Mrs. Lizzie Crawford, living in West Point township; Eleanor G.. who is at home with her father. Mr. McKee was formerly allied with the Democratic party but has long been ah advocate of temperance and prohibition. So pronounced has his views upon prohilntion become that of late years he has definitely allied himself with the Prohibition party and now steadfastly supports his party's candidates at election time. He is a member of the United Presbyterian church.

A, E. Moore, a prominent farmer and stockman of Pleasant Gap township, was born in Bates county January 17, 1875. He is a son of William and Nancy (Gragg) Moore, the former a native of Luliana, and the latter of Henry county, Missouri. The family came to Bates county in 1868 . In 1876 they moved to Barton county, and the father died shortly afterwards. The mother married for her second husband, A. H. ^^'oodfin. They are now deceased.

A. E. Moore was one of a family of three children born to his parents, two of whom are living: A. H., Pleasant Gap township and A. E.. the subject of this sketch. A. E. Moore spent his boyhood days mostly in Bates county. He was educated in the public schools of this county, and the high school at Springfield. Missouri. He has made farming and stock raising his principal occupations, and has been successful in his line of endeavor.

Mr. Moore was united in marriage March 14, 1901, with Miss Carrie Rogers, wdio is also a native of Bates county, and was born on the place where she now resides. She is a daughter of Judge James Madison and Lucy (Wilson) Rogers.

Judge James Madison Rogers was born near Cumberland Gap, Tennessee. He came to Bates county in 1851, coming from Platte county to Bates. He first settled near Mulberry, where he remained until about the time the Civil War broke out, when he left the county. In 1865, he returned and settled in Pleasant Gap township, where he engaged in farming and stock raising and spent the remainder of his life. He was prominent in the alYairs of Bates county for a number of years. His political affiliations were with the Democratic party and he generally took an active part in politics. He served as judge of Bates county and held other minor offices. He died in 1902, aged eighty-seven years. He was widely known in Bates county and held in high esteem by his fellow citizens.

Judge Rogers was married three times. His first wife was Sarah Moon. Four children were born to that union, one of wdiom, Mrs. Angeline Gassoway, is now living. After the death of his first wife, Judge Rogers married Levena Sittles and four children were born to that union, one of whom is now living, John, who resides at Harwood, Vernon county, Missouri. After the death of his second wife. Judge Rogers married Miss Lucy Wilson, a native of Callaway county, Missouri. To this union seven children were born, five of whom are living as follow: Sterling, Los Angeles, California: Mrs. Emma Settle, Harrisonville. Mo.: W. D., JefTerson City, Missouri; P. V., Porterville, California: and Mrs. A. E. Moore, the wife of the subject of this sketch.

Mr. Moore is a Democrat and takes an active interest in local political afifairs. He has served two terms as constable of Pleasant Gap township. He is a member of the Masonic Lodge. Ancient Eree and Accepted Masons No. 140, Butler, and he holds membership in the Modern Woodmen of America.

Oscar Hand, of Elkhart township, former township assessor and central committeeman of the Republican party, belongs to one of the old families of Bates county, his parents with their children and worldly possessions, having driven overland from their former home in Illinois to Bates county in 1871. Mr. Hand was born in Knox county, Illinois, in 1857, and is a son of Ellis and Jane (Kennedy) Hand, the former having been born in Indiana in 1832 and still resides in Bates county. The wife and mother was also born in Indiana and is now eighty-one years old. Both Ellis and Jane Hand were children when they accompanied their respective parents to Knox county, Illinois. They grew up in that county and were there married. Two weeks traveling were required to bring the family to Bates county and the trip was a distinct novelty to the younger children, who rather enjoyed the outing. They made their home here at a time when there was no town of La Cygne, and Butler was but a settlement. Their nearest market was at Harrisonville, where they drove their stock and hauled their grain to be sold and shipped.

Ellis Hand followed the vocation of farming all of his life and became cjuite prominent in the civic and political affairs of Elkhart township and the county. He served several terms as a member of the tow^nship board and was actively identified with political matters as regards the Republican party with which he was always identified, serving as Republican committeeman. Six children born to Ellis and Jane Knox were reared to maturity: Oscar, subject of this review and the eldest son of the family; Lizzie, wife of Charles Evans, residing near Scott Citv. Kansas ; Albert, Kansas City, Missouri ; George, a farmer in Elkhart township; Minnie, who married William Allen, who is now deceased; Rebecca, wife of Buell Mudd, living near Burdett, in Bates county.

The early education of Oscar Hand was obtained in the public schools of Illinois and Bates county. He applied himself diligently to his studies and has become well informed through constant reading. From his youth he has been engaged in farming and with the exception of nine years spent in Kansas City in the employ of the Santa Fe Railroad Company and the stock yards, has lived in Bates county since coming here in 1871. He removed to Kansas City in 1880 and returned to the farm in 1889.

Mr. Hand was married to Mary J. Peebles, a native of Illinois and daughter of Abraham Peebles, who came to Bates county and located in Elkhart township as early as 1869. Mr. and Mrs. Hand have three

Mr. Hand is prominently identified with the Republican party and is one of the leaders of his party in Bates county. He has filled the oftice of township assessor and is the present central Republican committeeman for Elkhart township. He is secretary of the local Central Protective Association and is a member of the Modern Woodmen of America.

Robert Marshall, of Elkhart township, is a son of one of the early pioneer families of Missouri, the family having made its first settlement in north Missouri as early as 1856. He was born in Brown county, Indiana, in 1845, and is a son of James and Artemesia (Fallowell) Marshall, the former a native of l>nnessee, but was reared in Indiana, and the latter was born and reared in Indiana. They came west and located in north Missouri in 1856, but remained only two years, going to Macoupin county, Illinois, in 1858. The family made their home in Illinois until 1880 and then came to Bates county and located in Elkhart township, one mile west of the village of Elkhart. They both died at the age of seventy years and within one month, the father dying in February 20, 1881, and the mother March 20, of that same year. James and Artemesia Marshall were parents of the following children: William, died in Bates county in 1907; Louisa, married J. M. Scott, now deceased; Lucinda, wife of James Patterson; Robert, the subject of this sketch; and two children died in infancy.

Robert Marshall was educated in the public schools of Indiana and Illinois and followed in his father's footsteps as a tiller of the soil, beginning his own career upon the place of one hundred acres which he owms in Elkhart township. His farm is well kept and highly productive and he carries on general farming and stock raising.

Mr. Marsliall w^as married in 1873 to Sarah Jane McCoy, who was born in Caney county, Missouri, and to this marriage have been born two children: James P.. who is assisting his father \vith the farming operations; and Maude, also at home with her parents. Mr. Marsliall is affiliated fraternally with Elkhart Lodge, Modern Woodmen of America, and is a Republican.

J. O. Brown, well-known citizen of Passaic, Mound township, was born in London, Madison county, Oliio, in 1849, and is a son of James P. and Mary A. (Black) Brown, tlie former a native of Hampshire county, Virginia, of English descent, and llic latter a native of

Pickaway county, Ohio. James P. Brown was a drover who was engaged in the arduous business of driving herds of cattle across the country from western Ohio to the Pittsburg and across the Alleghany Mountains to other Eastern markets for a number of years. When Bates county was largely in an unsettled state and the land was still owned to a considerable extent by the United States Government, he with three other men, came to this section and entered one and three-quarters sections of government land at a cost of one dollar and twenty-five cents an acre. Of this original tract, J. O. Brown, subject of this review, owns one hundred and seventy-six acres. James P. Brown never took up his residence in this county, but returned to Ohio and engaged in farming for the remainder of his days, dying at his home in Madison county, Ohio. He became identified with the Whig party when it was formed and when the Whigs were succeeded by the Repubicans as a political organization, he espoused the principles of that party. The three children reared by James P. and Mary A. Brown are : J. O., subject of this sketch; Elizabeth, wife of Charles Frye. wealthy land owner of Circleville, Ohio; Annie, wife of David Campbell living at Dayton, Ohio. Another son, Charles Wesley, is deceased.

The boyhood and school days of J. O. Brown were spent in his native county of Madison and Ross county. Ohio. He migrated to Bates county, Missouri, in 1877 and has since been engaged in farming operations. His first employer in this county was Levi Steele, and he later handled cattle in his brother's interest for some time. He was engaged in herding cattle on the plains for four years and was then engaged in pasturing cattle for fifteen years in all. Finally when the wire fence came into vogue, and the entire country was crossed and criss-crossed with fences of barbed or woven wire, thus cutting up all the free ranges which had marked the surface of Bates county for a long period of time, he fenced his land and then engaged in farming like other settlers. He has two hundred and thirty-six acres of very fine land in Mound township and makes his home in the pretty little village of Passaic. Mr. Brown is an excellent farmer and keeps only the best grades of livestock, his special fancy being Shorthorn cattle and Duroc Jersey hogs.

Mr. Brown was married to Alice Troutman, of Ohio. They have three children, namely: James Arthur, a student in the Adrian High School; Gladys, also in high school: and Harry, who is attending the Passaic public school. Mr. Brown has always been a stanch Republican

When Mr. Brown came to Bates county there was no railroad in the county and no Passaic. Butler was a little village consisting of a cluster of houses around the puhlic square. There were no highways, and one followed the trails which crossed the open prairie and took the shortest route to any given destination. Wild animals, such as wolves and deer, were plentiful. Prairie chickens and wild turkeys were here in alnindance. For fifteen years, Mr. Brown kept bachelor's hall and then decided that he needed a helpmeet. When he came to this county, he, like others, had little expectation of ever seeing the country so thickly populated as it is at this day, and had no idea that land values would climb as they have been doing of late years. He was content to herd his cattle upon the i)lains and did not undertake actual cultivation of his land until he saw that intensive farming w^as inevitable and that the old days of the free range were gone, never to return.

J. C. Denton, who has a fine farm located in Mound township on the Jefferson Highway, seven miles north of Butler, and three miles south of Adrian, was born in Monroe county, Tennessee, in 1857. He is a son of \\'illiam H. and Fathie Ann (Stephens) Denton, the former of whom was born in Tennessee and the latter a native of North Carolina. The Dentons came to Missouri in 1857 when the subject of this sketch was but six months old. They first located in Saline county, where they remained for one year and then removed to Johnson county, where they made a permanent location. The family lived in Johnson county during the dark days of the Civil \\'ar. and J. C. Denton remembers some of the sadness and hardships of that period. \\'illiam H. Denton made his home on a farm eight miles south of \\'arrensburg and there spent the remainder of his life. He followed farming until 1885, when he engaged in the grocery business in until his retirement, and attained the great age of eighty-eight years before death called him. Three children of William H. Denton are living: John Denton. Columbia, Missouri; J. C, subjec4; of this sketch; Richard, Parsons, Kansas.

J. C. Denton was reared in Johnson county and educated in the public schools. He followed farming in that county until 1886. He then came to Bates county and purchased his present homestead of eighty acres, which is well impro\'ed and yields him a comfortable li\ing. Mr. Denton was married in 1882 to Florence Glazebrook. a daucliter

As a good citizen, Mr. Denton takes an active and influential interest in township and county affairs. He has held the office of school director of his district on several occasions and is allied with the Republican party in whose activities he takes a keen interest, being prominent in party councils. He is affiliated with the Woodmen of the \\'orld and is a member of the Baptist church.

C. W. Chrisman and G. E. Chrisman, widely known in Bates county as the "Chrisman boys," are representatives of a pioneer family of Bates county and they are still residing at the Chrisman homestead in East Boone township. C. W. Chrisman was born in 1855 in Jackson county, Missouri, and G. E. Chrisman was born in 1860 in the same county, both sons of Ewin and Mary M. Chrisman. The Chrisman trace their lineage back to a prominent colonial family of Virginia. Ewin Chrisman was a son of John Chrisman, who came to Missouri in 1832 and settled on a vast tract of land in Jackson county, as the boundaries were later defined. Ewin Chrisman came to Bates county, Missouri, from Jackson county in 1877 and purchased a farm comprising ninety-two and a half acres of land in East Boone township.

To Ewin and Mary M. Chrisman were born eight children, seven of whom are now living: J. L., who resides in Oklahoma; J. T., Armstrong, Missouri ; C. W., one of the "Chrisman boys," a subject of this review; E. F., Adrian, Missouri; G. E., the younger of the "Chrisman boys," a subject of this review; Mary E., deceased; Mrs. Anna F. Corbin, Kansas City, Missouri ; and Mrs. Ida L. Haley, Slater, Missouri. Mrs. Chrisman, the mother, one of the most highly respected and esteemed of Missouri's noble pioneer women, died in Bates county at the Chrisman homestead in 1904. Eleven years later, she and her husband were united in death. Ewin Chrisman died in 1915. He was one of the best citizens of East Boone township, a gentleman who easily made many friends, and wherever he was known his name was honored as the synonym of honesty, integrity, and uprightness. He was an honored veteran of the Confederate army, having fought bravely in many battles, serving faithfully for two years with Company K. Missouri Infantry, under "Fighting Joe" Shelby.

The "Chrisman boys" have spent more than forty years in Bates county on the home place in East Boone township and they well recall the pioneer conditions and primitive appearance of Bates county, for amid the scenes of the early days they spent their young manhood.

There were very few settlements in Missouri in the middle of the nineteenth century and practically all the land was open prairie at the time the Chrismans settled in this part of the state in 1877. There were no roads, just mere beaten trails across the unfenced prairie, and the settlers traveled by their sense of direction. Wild game abounded and one day, in the late seventies, C. W. Chrisman killed a deer near Pleasant Gap. The Chrismans did their trading either at Harrisonville, Missouri, or at La Cygne, Linn county, Kansas, selling their corn for twelve and a half cents a bushel, their meat for two and a half cents a pound. The two brothers once took a load of meat on their sled to Freeman, Cass county, Missouri, and sold it for one dollar and ninety cents per hundred pounds, and that was the highest market price. The hardness of life in the new country and the universality of suffering from the pri\-ations and hardships inspired a more neighborly spirit in the old days than now exists. The early settlers necessarily depended upon their neighbors for assistance in times of sickness and distress and assistance was more freely given then than now. Physicians were few and difficult to secure. Dr. G. W. Chrisman was the nearest one to be had in this vicinity and he probably traveled thousands of miles, all told, during his career and watched beside the bedsides all night long of hundreds of different sufferers in this part of the state. The McNeil school house was the first school building to be erected in this district and William Kirk was the first "school master." Reverend Pitts and Reverend John Sage were pioneer preachers, whom the Chrisman brothers personally knew. They state that the old-fashioned revivals always attracted large crowds of people and they are of the opinion that the early settlers attended church better than do the people of today. G. E Chrisman tells of an old trail which led past the old Chrisman home place, along which he has seen hundreds of covered immigrant wagons going southwest. The inmates of the wagons would frequently encamp near the home of the Chrismans. The old home was built of lumber hauled from Pleasant Hill, the weatherboarding of walnut, and it was probably erected long before the Civil War. When the Chrisman brothers would take their produce to market in the old days, it required two entire days to make the trip. G. E. Chrisman describes a very destructive prairie fire which he witnessed one autumn and he states that for many years the grass out on the prairie grew higher than an ordinary man. He relates how he used to participate in "wolf drives" and has seen many captured and four years ago took part in a "drive" which resulted in the capture of three wolves. From this brief account, the reader may be able to form a fairly clear concept of the early institutions and conditions.

C. W. Chrisman has been in charge of the Chrisman place for many years. He and his brother are engaged in raising good grade cattle and Poland China hogs. Both C. W. and G. E. Chrisman are stanch Democrats and highly respected and valued in East Boone township. The "Chrisman boys" have neither married, but have been content to spend their lives together at the old homestead, which has become a landmark in Bates county.

F. A. Huston, a well-known auctioneer of Bates county, is one of the prominent citizens of Deer Creek township. Mr. Huston was born in Illinois in 1860, a son of John and Catherine Huston. The Hustons came to Bates county, Missouri, in 1876 and settled on a farm in Walnut township. John Huston purchased a tract of land in this township, which tract comprised one hundred ninety-five acres, and engaged in general farming. To John and Catherine Huston were born ten children, seven of whom are now living: Mrs. x\ddie Cox, Miami, Oklahoma; F. A., the subject of this review; Mrs. Mattie Harris, Kiowa, Kansas ; Perry, who resides in Kansas ; Mrs. Acenith N. Moudy, Creede, Colorado ; Melvin S. ; and Elbert, Walnut, Kansas. The father died in 1892 and the widowed mother makes her home with her eldest daughter in Oklahoma. John Huston was one of the most unostentatious of men. open hearted and candid in manner, yet retaining in his demeanor much of the courtesy of the old-time gentleman.

When F. A. Huston was a youth, sixteen years of age. he came to Bates county with his parents and he recalls clearly the open condition of the country at that time. He attended school at Garrison school house after coming to Bates county and was taught by Miss Duncan and John McPeak. About thirty years ago, F. A. Huston attended a sale in this county and, when the auctioneer failed to make his appearance, Mr. Huston was asked to "cry the sale." An enthusiastic, eager, young man, who never knew what timidity means, he did as requested and was at once pronounced by those in attendance as a "star performer." Henceforth, F. A. Huston was many times called upon for his services and became a successful, popular auctioneer in this part of the country.

1883. To this union was born one child, a daughter, Mrs. Grace Lee, of San Bernardino, California. Mrs. Huston died seventeen years ago, in 1901. Mr. Huston has never remarried.

There have been many sorrows and tragedies interwoven in the career of F. A. Huston and more than once have the depths of his moral fiber, the strength of his character been sounded - and still he is an optimist. He enjoys a good joke and a hearty laugh as much as any man in Bates county, probably more than many men for he has known from hard, bitter experience what a sob is.

Mr. Huston recalls among the pioneer preachers, whom he personally knew, Reverend "Billy" Miller, Reverend Gans, and Reverend Nicholson. The last mentioned, Reverend Nicholson, was a lover of sports, especially games of baseball. He had during the week attended a game and had participated in a fight, but the following Sunday he filled his regular appointment. Both his eyes had been most thoroughly blacked, but he said that he never let anything interfere with his serving the Lord.

John Huston, the father of F. A. Huston, was a Methodist minister, llie son describes an early-day wedding, which he witnessed, when he was a curious, fun-loving lad. F. A. Huston states that young people often came from Kansas to Missouri to be married, in order to avoid the extra expense of obtaining a marriage license and his father was frequently called upon to perform the marriage ceremonv. On one occasion. Reverend Huston was away from home and a crowd of young people from Kansas, riding in a wagon, came to the Huston home and announced that two of their number wished to be married. As his father was not at home, young F. A. directed them to the residence of the justice of the peace of the township, and then followed them there. The justice, Levi Gritten, was down along the creek fishing. When informed that there was a young couple at his home wanting to be married, Judge Gritten sent word on to the house that he would be there in a short time, and in the meantime practiced the ceremony upon his two sons, who were with him. When ready to begin the performance, the justice could find no pencil and no paper, except the fly-leaf of an old, worn. l)etlmnibc(l law book, that the young people might sign their names. Tlie matrimonial prospects stood up on the wrong side of one another, wliicli furnished much amusement to a "red-headed girl" in the crowd, wlio seemed to know more of the ethics of marriage ceremonies tlian the rest. After tlie ceremonv, Judge Grit- ten kissed the bride, which furnished more amusement to the "redheaded girl," and she screamed in mirth. Justice Levi, barefoot and his scanty raiment held together by one suspender, returned to his fishing, from which he had most reluctantly parted, saying gleefully to young Huston that he should take the word to his father that the justice would have to "set them up" to him for being away, as he had extracted two dollars and fifty cents for his services!

As a public-spirited citizen and useful member of society, F. A. Huston ranks with the substantial and enterprising citizens of this county and the high esteem in which he is held bears mute testimony to the sterling qualities of his head and heart.

Appendix

My Dear Sir : Yours of Dec. 13 rec'd and in reply will try to give you my recollection of some of the things you ask about. To explain my present situation I will say that I have just arrived at the Denver office after a field season and have not had the use even of my own notes in matters of Mo. history, so any statements I may now make should be accepted onh^ after verification.

As to the precise date when "Marais des Cygnes" as the name of this main upper fork of the Osage was used can only be fixed in a general way. So far as I know now j-our finding in treaty of 1825 is first official use of name. But the name is much older than that. The French Canadian voyageucr, coureitrs dcs hois, or trapper, who overran this whole country that borders the Missouri, Osage and tributaries as early as 1700, trapping and trading with the Indians, gave the beautiful names to the streams which they now bear. Of course this fork is also known as the "Osage" and the other fork coming in just below Papinsville as the "Little Osage," and I believe that the Presbyterian Mission at Harmony when reports were made referred to this stream as the Osage, and no doubt you will find the people living along this stream today often refer to it as the Osage and that the names are used interchangeably. (Is this true?) (No. 'Ehe Author.) ,' ',.

The "Marais des Cygnes," means in English, ^^ive/* of the Swans, and no doubt was so named by the early trappers because of the gr^wr numbers of "Swans," or Sand Hill Cranes and Brants, (Branta Canadensis) and birds of this kind that frequented its reedy sloughs and ponds. As you state the earliest official mention of this name is in the treaty of 1825 with the Osages, but I truly believe the name to have been in use for 125 years prior to this time. It has been my great pleasure to have spent some time among the remnants of the voyageuer, that trapper tribe that may now be found in the Northland, along the Mackenzie. Porcupine, Yukon and tributary waters, living much as did their prototype on the Osage, running their trap lines in the winter months. Around his campfire at night I have listened to his tales of adventure, have employed him as guide, have had him draw maps for me of the country ahead of my party, and I know the way he does this from memory, and these maps are useful to the explorer, altho as "maps" they are misnomers. He has a peculiar way all his own. He will lay down his main stream probably as a straight line, but on that line he will give each tributary its relative position, with the name by which it is known to him, and as he is still a French Canadian his name will likely be in French. No doubt Pike carried such a map with him as he passed your way.* For proof of this I will cite the very appropriate name he gave to "Gravois" creek in Morgan Co. Mo. Now the Gravois at its mouth is as placid a stream with well defined banks and as far as Pike or any of his party on that August day would have time to examine, was just like many other streams coming into the Osage. But several miles up stream its true character is apparent and the name is very appropriate. Pike was the first to bring this name into notice, but the map that Pike carries of the Osage and its tributaries had this information on it from previous explorers. No doubt his party was hired, or many of them because of their familiarity with the upper Osage.

As a boy I lived on the Harmony Mission trail in Morgan Co. Mo. I have often wanted to map this trail from Jefferson City, or from the mouth of the Osage, where the old Indian trace commenced, to the Mission, but have never had the opportunity. Much of its entire length is now in use, and traces can be followed through the cultivated fields to this day.

The Grand Osage village in Pike's time was probably where he said it was on the prairie near the Little Osage, and in Vernon Co., but I do not now remember what details he gives. There were other villages. The Osages deserted their villages after a few years' use or when a pestilence broke out, going to a new place, as the wild tribes of the Northland do today. There is not a flat place of land near the forks of a stream or near a spring of good water in your county which does not contain a village site at some time. By looking the ground over one may find the site of the arrowmakers 'wickyup' by the conchoidal chips covering the ground, together with discarded broken arrow and spear points.