Bates County, Missouri - Biographical sketches, 1918 (part 1 of 19)

Biographical sketches

Theodrick C. Boulware, physician, a native of Missouri and leader of the medical profession of Bates county, was born in Callaway county, son of Stephen G. and Mary (Ratekin) Boulware, the former, a native of Kentucky and a son of Theodrick Boulware, Sr., who was born in Essex county, Virginia in 1780. Early in the life of Theodrick Boulware, Sr., and in the year 1784, his parents removed from Virginia to Kentucky. At that time, he was a mere child but, wdth the rest of the family, walked the entire distance, the packhorses being employed to carry the necessary household goods. The records of that state show that they were numbered among the founders of the commonwealth. They were constantly surrounded by dangers incident to life in the wilderness at that period, and it is related of them that when they went to church the head of the family always carried his musket on his shoulder in order to protect his family in event of an attack by Indians, who were then numerous and warlike in that region. The Boulware family is of Scotch descent, though the date of the original ancestor's coming to America is not known. Several representatives of the family have risen to prominence. An uncle of the subject of this sketch was for many years a resident of Albany, New York and was known as one of the most prominent physicians and surgeons of the Empire State.

Stephen G. Boulware, the father of Dr. Boulware, accompanied his parents from Kentucky to Missouri in 1826, in the pioneer days of this state. His father finally settled in Callaway county, near Fulton, where he developed a fine farm and also preached in Fulton and the vicinity for many years. He died in 1868 on his daughter's plantation near Georgetown, Kentucky. As indicating his character and the principles which governed him, we transcribe the following rules which he adopted soon after his marriage, wdien quite young, and to which he adhered throughout life : "First. Read the Scriptures and worship God in the family. Second. Use regular industry and prudent economy. Third. Never deal on credit or go in debt, except through unavoidable necessity. Fourth. Make expenses less than your regular profits. Fifth. Keep a regular book both of profits and expenses." Reverend Boulware was not a voluminous writer, but he published an autobiography, two or three volumes on doctrinal subjects, and a considerable number of sermons. Stephen G. Boulware grew to manhood on his father's farm, married, and reared a large family. His son. Dr. Theodrick C. Boulware, was reared at the old homestead and began his education in the common schools of the neighborhood.

After completing his preparatory course, Dr. Boulware entered Westminster College, a Presbyterian institution at Fulton, where he pursued the scientific course. Upon leaving this school, he became a student in the Missouri Medical College at St. Louis, from which he was graduated with the degree of Doctor of Medicine in 1868. In the same year, he located for practice in Walnut township. Bates county, but one year later moved to Butler, becoming one of the pioneers of that city, where he has remained ever since. At the time he located at Butler, there were but eight or ten small houses in the town. Deer and other game were abundant in the neighborhood and he could ride a distance of ten miles on the prairie without seeing a single house, for, by Order Number 11, issued by General Ewing on August 21, 1863, all houses in the surrounding country had been burned for the purpose of depriving the Confederate forces places of refuge. The court house of Bates county was a small frame building and the town had no railroad facilities. At that time, Butler was the principal station on the stage route between Pleasant Hill and Fort Scott, this route having been established in 1865. No roads had been laid out and no bridges spanned any of the streams in this vicinity. Horses were not thought to be capable of breaking sod on the raw prairie and oxen were employed in the work. The doctor relates that he has seen as many as one thousand prairie chickens at one time, while herds containing a dozen or fifteen deer were not uncommon. In the fall of 1874, he witnessed the memorable plague of grasshoppers. In the middle of the day, the hoppers began to descend like snowflakes, literally covering the ground. Everything growing, in the line of vegetation, was completely destroyed in a few hours. Even the bark of trees was eaten. The insects deposited billions of eggs in the ground and, with the amount of warm weather in 1875, the new generation created even greater havoc than the original pests. So general and complete was the devastation resulting from iheir ravages, that the inhabitants of western Missouri were compelled to apply to the outside world for food to keep them from starvation. Even the common weeds were destroyed. But the marvelous part of the story is that the destructive visit of these pests was followed by the greatest yield of farm products that this section of the country has ever known.

Upon the outbreak of the Civil War, Doctor Boulware, then a lad of sixteen and a student in Westminster College, was seized with the martial fever, so common with boys at that time, and enlisted in the Confederate service. Though his expectations were that the demand for his services would cease at the end of two or three weeks, his services covered a period of four years, or until the close of the war. He at once became a member of the personal escort of Gen. Sterling Price, remaining with that noted commander until the close of the conflict and witnessing all the campaigns in which he participated. He was never seriously injured, though he had more than one narrow escape from injury or capture.

Dr. Boulware has always exhibited a deep interest in matters pertaining to the advancement of his profession. For many years, he has been a member of the American Medical Association, the Missouri State Medical Society, of which he has been vice-president, the International Association of Railway Surgeons, and the Hodgen Medical Society, of which he has served as president. During the second administration of President Cleveland, he was chairman of the local board of pension examiners, and for thirty years Dr. Boulware was the local surgeon for the Missouri Pacific Railway Company.

Though a lifelong Democrat, Dr. Boulware has never sought or consented to fill public ofifice. Fraternally, he is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He is one of the incorporators and still a director of the Missouri State Bank and he is identified with other interests calculated to promote the welfare of the city, of which he has been a prominent and influential citizen for nearly fifty years.

Dr. Boulware's first marriage occurred June 21, 1877. He was married to Nettie Humphrey, a native of Iowa and a daughter of A. H. Humphrey, who was for many years a resident of Bates county, Missouri. Dr. and Mrs. Boulware had one child, who died in infancy, and Mrs. Boulware died in 1882. October 25, 1887, Doctor Boulware married Miss Dixie Ostrom, of St. Louis, Missouri. She \vas formerly a resident of Butler. She died April 26, 1896, leaving one son, John B., now a citizen of Butler.

Doctor Boulware is a man of the highest moral character, and his professional career has been without spot or blemish. Of great liberality of heart, deeply interested in all matters pertaining to the well being of the community in which he has resided so long, he has assisted in the promotion of numerous measures calculated to advance the material welfare of Butler. His record is that of a liberal, broad-minded, upright, and useful member of society. Doctor Boulware has been practicing medicine longer than any doctor in the county and he is still an active practitioner, thoroughly alive to the new things that come up in the medical profession. The long experience under the trying conditions of the early days has given him a fund of anecdotes, which, when related by him in his inimitable, humorous art, delight his hearers. At the meetings of the medical associations in the state, a talk from Doctor Boulware will receive the closest attention and the point he desires to make is so well placed, with his original humor interspersed, that the audience never fails to get the full benefit of the lesson he intends to convey.

Doctor Boulware states that a Mr. McFarland, a pioneer of the early seventies, was the first man to introduce barbed-wire fencing in this vicinity. He fenced his farm with wire and one night a party of men, residing in the neighborhood, destroyed the fence, claiming that it was dangerous to stock. In time, this prejudice was overcome and a few years later all the farms in the county had more or less wire fencing on them. Farm land in 1869 sold here for from two to four dollars an acre and when land rose in value to six dollars an acre there were many who thought it too high and the same land today is worth more than a hundred dollars an acre. Doctor Boulware says that if steamboats then had been selling for five dollars, he couldn't have bought a skiff.

In the early days in Bates county, in the days when the rivers and streams were unbridged and at times of high water were practically impassable. Dr. Boulware conceived the idea of building a vehicle which should be so high that any swollen creek or stream in the county might be forded in safety and comfort by the occupant. Accordingly, a buggy was specially made to order for the doctor, a buggy having unusually large, high wheels, high springs, and seat, the running gear costing one hundred ten dollars, and when complete two steps had to be added so that one could climb into it. Doctor Boulware then could travel on the worst roads and in the worst weather and no swollen stream might delay him on any journey for his horses would swim across and the doctor, "high and dry," would land in safety on the opposite bank. Doctor Boulware's buggy became as famous in its day as Doctor Holmes' "Wonderful One-Hoss Shay" and throughout the countryside was known as Doctor Boulware's "Two-Story Buggy."

J. B. Rice, farmer and dairyman, Mound township, was born in Nicholas county, Kentucky, near the town of Carlisle, September 20, 1856. He is a son of Morgan and Courtney (Dayton) Rice, both of whom w^ere born and reared in Kentucky, where they spent their lives in the honorable pursuits of agriculture. They were parents of seven children, as follow: William, Indianapolis, Indiana; Lynn B., Lexington, Kentucky; Mary, deceased; Alice, deceased; Courtney, wife of Marion Buchanan, now deceased; Mrs. Sally Martin, Paris, Kentucky; and J. B., subject of this review, who was reared and educated in his native state where he resided until he attained the age of twenty-eight years.

Mr. Rice came to Bates county, Missouri, in 1884 and here purchased a tract of one hundred six acres of land, upon which he has been successfully following farming, stock raising, and dairying. He keeps a herd of ten milch cows and hauls the cream from his dairy to the nearest shipping point. He also raises and feeds a large number of hogs each year and has become fairly well-to-do and is prominently identified with Bates county interests.

J. B. Rice was first married in 1881 with Emma Barnett, of Kentucky, who died in 1907, leaving three children: Walter M. and Dayton E., who are conducting a general store at Passaic, Missouri, under the firm name of Rice Brothers; and Vesta L., wife of C. A. Falk, of Passaic, Wyoming. Mr. Rice was married, on May 10, 1911, to May Crawford, a native of Fleming county, Kentucky. Mrs. Rice accompanied her parents to Bates county in 1879. She is a daughter of William Crawford, who settled in West Point township, near Amsterdam, in

Mr. Rice is a leader of the Democratic party in this county and has served two terms as township assessor. His conduct of the duties of his office was such as to give satisfaction to all concerned. He has been closely identified with party affairs and has served as a member of the county central committee for six years. He has several times served as delegate to county and state conventions and wields much influence in political affairs. He is affiliated with the Modern Woodmen of America and is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, South. Mrs. Rice is a member of the Baptist church. Both Mr. and Mrs. Rice have many friends in Bates county and they tai^e an active part in social affairs in their neighborhood.

. A. C. Rosier. - The individual who enlarges his sphere of usefulness and extends his activities beyond the immediate confines of his own personal needs is conferring a benefit upon his home community and doing some good in the world other than reaping the profits of his own enterprise. Endowed with ability of a high order, equipped with a broad education, which fitted him for the role which he has played in the social life of Bates county, A. C. Rosier, successful farmer and stockman of Mound township, has devoted his life to the cause of Christianity and has spent his spare time in religious and Sunday school work, thereby preparing the youth of his neighborhood to lead more upright lives. Mr. Rosier was born in Fayette county, Iowa, in 1864, a son of J. K. and Susan Ann (Chambers) Rosier, both of whom were born and reared in Logan county, Ohio.

J. K. Rosier was married in his native state, and, doubtless, being of pioneer stock, he and his devoted wife, located in the territory of Iowa, in Fayette county, at a period when settlers were few and far between. Their home w^as situated forty miles from the nearest railroad. Here they built a rude house and began the work of founding a homestead on the rich soil of Iowa. They endured the hardships of frontier life and withstood the rigors of the severe winters of their adopted state, until prosperity was their inevitable reward. Both Mr. and Mrs. Rosier were cultured, refined people of excellent education. Both were great readers and it was the custom of the mother to gather her children about her in front of the wide, open fireplace of the living room of the Rosier home and read to them nightly, tales of other lands and entertaining books which broadened their minds and made them ambitious to be able to thus read as they grew older. In those days, in the Iowa wilderness, schools were few and were held but a ie\y months of the year. The early education of the Rosier children thus devolved upon their devoted parents. J. K. Rosier was a close student and an authority upon the Holy Bible which he read completely no less than twelve times. His was a religious nature and he set an example which has been followed by his children to this day. When the family drove through to Iowa, the present site of the great city of Chicago, at that time was but a cluster of huts around the fort. The elder Rosier was offered two hundred acres of land, now a part of the site of the Chicago stock yards, in exchange for his team and two hundred dollars in money. The outlook for the building of the great city, which has since grown on the marsh lands bordering Lake Michigan, was not then promising and the land seemed undesirable, so Mr. Rosier declined and set his face to the westward and took up the journey to Iowa. For thirty years, they remained on their Iowa farm and again moved westward, this time to Bates county, Missouri, arriving here in time to be classed as early settlors of this county. The family settled on a farm, in Mound township in 1882, where the parents lived until death called them, the father dying in 1909. The mother had departed this life in 1894. Both were devout members of the Brethren church, but Mr. Rosier afifiliated with the Methodist church. South, upon coming to Missouri. He was a man of marked liberality in his donations to religious and educational institutions and no call upon him for financial contributions to a religious cause was ever refused. He assisted with his means in the building of Drury College in Iowa. Withal, he was a successful business man, one who looked well after his own financial affairs and was a good provider for his family, not alone in material sense but he saw to it that each member of his large family was well equipped with a good education. J. K. and Susan Ann Rosier were parents of ten children as follow: Lawrence, a merchant, Muskogee, Oklahoma; Elizabeth, widow of Lafayette Ash, who died at Tombstone, Arizona, and she is now making her home in Kansas City; Absalom, a retired merchant, Kansas City; William, a merchant at Belton, Missouri; Ella, wife of Burney Chandler, of West Union, Iowa; Albert S., a farmer, Fredonia, Kansas; A. C, subject of this review; Enoch H., Mt. Pleasant township. Bates county; Matthew, Butler, Missouri; and Dr. Lewis Rosier, a dentist, Independence, Iowa. Each of the foregoing children received the advantages of a good education. The daughters were educated in music.

- Following his primary education in the district school of his neighborhood, A. C. Rosier studied in the Old Butler Academy, and then pursued his classical studies in the University of Kansas for a time, after which he entered the United Brethren College at Avalon, Mis- souri, where he studied for three years, graduating in 1893 with the degree of Bachelor of Science. For a period of about seven years, he taught school and served one year as principal of the Belton High School, Belton, Missouri. After his teaching career, he and his brothers, William and Enoch, purchased a store at Belton and for a period of five years conducted a profitable mercantile business under the firm name of Rosier Brothers. Mr. Rosier then disposed of his interest in the business and returned to Bates county, where he engaged in farming with his father on the old home place. He has continued in agricultural pursuits with considerable success and has one of the finest herds of Hereford cattle in Bates county. For the past twenty years, Mr. Rosier has been engaged in the breeding of this fine variety of cattle and markets a considerable number each year. He is cultivating a total of three hundred twenty acres of good land, being owner of one hundred sixty acres, which are well improved.

In November of 1895, A. C. Rosier and Lulu May Funk, of Clay county, were united in marriage and to this union have been born four sons, as follow: Richard, Russell, David, and Vincent. Lulu May (Funk) Rosier is a daughter of John Funk, a deceased pioneer of Clay county, Missouri, a native of Kentucky, as was also Mrs. Funk. Mr. Rosier is politically allied with the Democratic party. He and Mrs. Rosier are both members of the Methodist Episcopal church. South. Mr. Rosier has been active in church and Sunday school affairs for many years. For several years past, he has served capably as superintendent of the Passaic Sunday School. He is one of the leaders in the Bates county and State Sunday School Associations. Mr. Rosier is a member of the Modern Woodmen of America.

Dr. Stephen Lafayette Standish. - The truly heroic and self-sacrificing figure in the early redemption of any unsettled country from a wilderness state is the "country doctor." It is his duty to administer to the sick and dying who all too frequently are not blessed with much of this world's goods and the remuneration of the country physician is small compared to what his brothers in the city are accustomed to earn. The early doctors in Bates county rode horseback across country following the trails wherever possible and no call, no matter how distant nor how difficult to make, and no matter what the condition of the weather would stop the doctor from performing his duty. He was the counselor and friend of the settler and always became a leader in the community where he made his residence. The late Dr. Stephen L.

Standish was one of the early physicians in Bates county, who did not win a fortune by the practice of medicine, but wisely supplemented his active practice with tilling the soil and raising cattle upon his homestead in Walnut township. Doctor Standish was one of the most successful of physicians and enjoyed the respect and esteem of the people of the country side. He was a veteran of the Civil War and used to hardships. Combining farming activities with the practice of his profession he would ride all night long to minister to ailing patients and then spend the daylight hours in looking after his farming interests and livestock. Such energy and enterprise met with due reward and he became one of the wealthy citizens of Bates county.

Stephen L. Standish was born in DuPage county, Illinois, September 6, 1843, the son of Hiram and Polly (Bronson) Standish, both natives of New York. Hiram Standish was a descendant from the famous Standish family of Plymouth, Massachusetts, which was founded by Miles Standish, whose exploits were immortalized in the poet Longfellow's "The Courtship of Miles Standish." The warrior spirit oi Miles Standish was evidently bequeathed to his descendants, inasmuch as Stephen L. Standish enlisted in Company C, Twelfth Regiment of Illinois Volunteer Infantry, in 1862 and had three years of arduous service during the Civil War, serving until the close of the war. He was second lieutenant of his company. He was never wounded while in the service but suffered spells of illness which would incapacitate him for a time. After the close of this war service he studied medicine for two years at Rush Medical College in Chicago, graduating from Rush College in 1868. He came to Bates county in that year and began the practice of his profession. At the same time he settled on a farm located on Walnut creek in the township of the same name. At this period the prairie was unfenced and there was much open range. Doctor Standish took advantage of this condition and engaged in cattle raising on an extensive scale. His home place was located in section 28, of Walnut township and he bought and shipped cattle, driving them to Pleasanton, Kansas, where they were loaded on the train for the city markets. He followed his profession and engaged in cattle raising until his removal to Hume, Missouri, in 1885. He then engaged in bankine and established the Hume Bank of which he was cashier and virtual head until the bank was merged with its successor, the Commercial Bank of Hume. Doctor Standish was a large stockholder of this bank. For a number of years he was a breeder of thoroughbred

Hereford cattle and owned one of the first herds of these fine animals ever brought to this section of the county. He frecjuently exhibited his fine stock at the Royal Stock Shows held in Kansas City, and local fairs, winning many premiums. Doctor Standish became a large land owner, accumulating nearly one thousand acres of Bates county land, and prior to the building of the north part of the town of Hume he owned the land which is now known as the Standish addition to Hume.

Doctor Standish was married May 19, 1869 to Miss Serepta Standish, who was born September 25, 1852, in Livingston county, Illinois, a daughter of Chauncey and Mary (Truman) Standish, natives of Kentucky. Her parents moved to Missouri in 1867 and settled on Walnut creek in Bates county. Both of Mrs. Standish's parents died in this county, her father dying at the age of sixty-four years. The children of Doctor and Serepta Standish are as follow: Orra, at home with his widowed mother; T. Lyle, deceased; Chauncey, at home; Nellie, deceased; William Roy, a sketch of whom appears in this volume; Roscoe, deceased.

Politically, Doctor Standish was allied with the Republican party, and, while interested in the success of his party at the polls, he was never a seeker after political preferment. He was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church and was affiliated with the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, attaining the Royal Arch degree in that order. Doctor Standish accomplished a great work in Bates county and his name will always be honored as that of one wdio did much to assist in the building and the development of his adopted county. His death occurred May 5, 1911 at his home in Hume, Missouri, and his remains were laid away in the everlasting sleep from which the godly are destined to awaken to the higher and better life. He endeavored to live a Christian life according to the precepts of the Methodist denomination of which he was a member and liberal supporter. His was a useful life, and his hundreds of friends mourned with his widow and family their great loss when he was called to the bosom of his Maker.

William Roy Standish, progressive young farmer of Walnut township, is a native son of Bates county wdiose father, Dr. Stephen L. Standish, was one of the best known and most successful physicians of Bates county. A sketch of the life of Dr. S. L. Standish appears in this volume. William Roy Standish is proprietor of the old home place of the family on Walnut creek, which is one of the most attractive and best improved farmsteads in his township. The Standish home farm consists of a fertile tract of three hundred twenty acres which is well watered by the never failing water supply furnished by Walnut creek. Mr. Standish has remodeled the old home, adding concrete verandas and otherwise beautifying and modernizing the residence until it presents a likable sight from the roadway. The house is flanked on the east by a natural grove of forest trees bordering the stream. Mr. Standish is a heavy feeder of livestock and has thirty-five head of cattle on his place at the present time. During 1917 he harvested one hundred fifteen acres of corn, forty acres of which made the great yield of fifty-seven and a half bushels of grain to the acre, the rest of the tract averaging a little over forty bushels to the acre. He follows the latest methods of farming and generally gets good yields of crops from his well tilled land.

W. R. Standish was born April 23, 1884, on the farm which he now owns but was reared to young manhood in the town of Hume, where he attended the public schools. Following the completion of his public school course he completed a commercial course in business college at Kansas City and Sedalia, Missouri. Since that time he has followed farming and it is evident that he has chosen wisely and well his life vocation.

Mr. Standish was married on May 11, 1903 to Miss Grace Mabel Shellenburger, of Metz, Missouri. To this marriage have been born two children: Edra Beryl, born December 13, 1907; and Wynston Vere, born July 23, 1914. Mr. Standish is a Republican. in politics, belongs to the Methodist Episcopal church, and is fraternally afifiliated with the Modern Woodmen of America, the Mystic Workers and the Knights of Pythias.

Marshall Lee Wolfe. - The career of Marshall Lee Wolfe of Passaic, Bates county, has been a remarkable one, characterized by industry and professional usefulness in the active development of Bates county in a material sense, such as has not been surpassed by any one citizen in a decade and more. As a pioneer, farmer, surveyor, land-owner, and citizen, he has won a high place in the citizenship of this county and no individual is more widely nor more favorably known than Mr. Wolfe. He was born on a plantation on the banks of the Potomac river, in Frederick county, Maryland, December 8, 1843, a son of Josiah and Anne Lee (Bell) Wolfe.

Josiah Wolfe was a native of Pennsylvania. His wife was a native of Maryland, a daughter of an officer of the United States navy who served under the intrepid Commodore Decatur in his famous and victorious naval campaign against the pirates of the Barbary Coast States. Josiah Wolfe died when Marshall Lee Wolfe was but an infant and his mother married Levi Hiatt, who brought the family to Missouri in 1859, making a settlement first in Lafayette county. Finding land in that county too high priced for his purse, Mr. Hiatt located in Johnson county, Missouri, near Warrensburg. Here the mother died in 1913, at the age of ninety years. There were five children in the Wolfe family, only two of whom survive: Marshall Lee, subject of this review; and John B., editor of the "California Democrat," California, Missouri.

Mr. Wolfe was educated in the public schools of Warrensburg, Missouri. When seventeen years of age, he enlisted in the Fifth Provisional Regiment of State Troops for service in the Civil War. For a great part of his time of enlistment he, with his command, was stationed at Old Germantown on the Deepwater river and was also stationed at various places in Missouri. At the close of the war he was married and then came to Bates county, first locating on a farm near Rich Hill, where he lived for fourteen years. After a few years' residence in Butler he settled on a farm northeast of the city. Of late years his residence has been at Passaic. x\bout 1893, he went to Wyoming and bought several ranches in the Powder River valley, where he engaged in horse raising on an extensive scale, having as many as six hundred head of fine horses on his ranch as well as hundreds of sheep and cattle. Mr. Wolfe spent much of his time in Wyoming in the hunting of big game, and has killed buffalo, elk and bear in considerable numbers, having killed several ''grizzlies" in the Rocky Mountain country. Mr. Wolfe was an excellent rifle shot and enjoyed hunting and he has hunted in all of the Rocky Mountain states. He recalls that hunting was good during the early days of his residence in Missouri when herds of deer and wild turkeys were to be seen in almost any direction. During past years he has spent his time in Missouri, Arkansas, and Wyoming. In Wyoming, he still has a large ranch, besides large tracts of land in Arkansas, totaling four thousand acres. At one time he owned over eleven hundred acres of Missouri land, but of late years he has been investing his capital in government land in the above-named states. During his long career he has been interested in the coal mining indus-

November 17, 1866, Mr. Wolfe was united in marriage with Kitty Dawson, of Knob Noster, Johnson county, Missouri, who bore him two children : Carby. deceased ; and Dawson, residing in Arkansas on the Wolfe lands. The wife, and mother of these children, died December 21, 1880. His second marriage was in 1882 to Pattie Henderson, and to this marriage were born children as follow: Mrs. John Crim, Butler, Missouri; Mrs. Bird Cook, Wyoming; Frank, living in Canada; and Mrs. Emma Jennings, living in Wyoming.

During his entire life since attaining his majority, Mr. Wolfe has been allied with the Democratic party. He was elected county surveyor of Bates county in 1880 and was re-elected to this important ofiice in 1884, by a majority of one thousand one votes, which is unquestionably the largest majority ever given any candidate for ofHcial preferment in Bates county. His career in the surveyor's office was a notable one, which has never been surpassed. During the course of his administration many of the large bridges of the county were built under his supervision and planning. The feat of joining Rogues' Island in the Marais des Cygnes river to the mainland was a notable undertaking in engineering and one which the county judges declared could not be done. Mr. Wolfe had made an exhaustive study of the Eads' plan of controlling the Mississippi in the delta country and applied his knowledge to conditions in this county. He joined the island to the mainland by deepening the other channel opposite by building levees or by bunches of willows together and weighting them down with stones, compelling the water to cut its own channel within the borders of the willow battices. Mr. Wolfe surveyed thousands of acres of Bates county lands and "old timers" of the county well remember his careful and conscientious work. He laid out hundreds of miles of roadways and surveyed more miles of road than any other surveyor in the county. During his first term of ofifice, a state law was passed which created an additional duty on his part as county mine inspector. Later the law was passed creating a board or a commission consisting of five members whose duty it was to examine and select a state mine inspector in competitive examination. With nineteen other applicants for this position he underwent the examination before this commission and was successful, receiving his appointment as state mine inspector from Gov.

John S. Marmadnke. He served in this important state office for five years and then resigned. While fihing tliis position, the practical mining knowledge which he had gained while interested in coal mining was of considerable benefit to him in his work.

Mr. Wolfe is fraternally affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd I'^llows and the Ancient I^'ree and Accepted Masons. He is a member of the Christian church. Although he is well past the allotted three score years and ten, his activity has been little diminished with the passing of time, his mind is still vigorous, and his interest in things mundane continues to be as great as ever. He is one of the fine, old characters of this county and the state of Missouri and one of the few remaining pioneers of this important division in the upbuilding of which he has assisted so materially. His accomplishments in the engineering field in this county will long endure as a monument to his ability and genius. Marshall Lee Wolfe ranks among the historic characters of a great county.

H. L. Wright. - Nearly fifty years have elapsed since H. L. Wright, of Mound township, was born in Bates county. The Wright family came to this county and made a settlement in Elkhart township in 1868 during a period when the county was practically in its infancy and was just making its second start along the path of progress and development. Mr. Wright has grown up with his native county and has progressed with his fellow citizens, and although he has endured many vicissitudes during his life time, has experienced the cyclones, has known hardships imposed by drouths and the various disappointments which fall to the lot of the tiller of the soil, he has prospered and is owner of one of the best farms and one of the finest country residences in this part of Missouri. H. L. Wright was born in Elkhart township. Bates county, December 22, 1869, a son of Francis Marion and Philara (Holland) Wright, the former, a native of Brown county, Ohio, and the latter, of Tazewell county, Illinois.

When but a boy, Francis Marion Wright accompanied his parents to Illinois and there he grew to manhood. He was married in Illinois and in 1868 came to Bates county to make a permanent home for his family, locating in Elkhart township. He purchased unimproved land, from a Mr. Danielson. and followed farming during the remainder of his active life. Mr. Wright was a Republican in his political views. He departed this life in 1890 and one year later his wife followed him to the grave. They were parents of nine cliihh-cn, four of whcjin are hving: Mrs. M. L. Burnett, Mound township; P. K., living on the old homestead in Elkhart township; James A., Cottonwood, Idaho; and H. L., subject of this review.

During his entire life, Mr. Wright has lived in Bates county and has followed the traditional vocation of his fathers, becoming a successful agriculturist. He improved his present splendid farm in 1910. After he had placed the finishing touches upon the buildings and was looking forward to years of undisturbed prosperity in his newly completed home, there came the cyclone of June 15, 1912, and in the twinkling (jf an eye, the results of his handiwork and preparation for comfortable living were wiped out of existence and dispersed to the four points of the compass by the pcnver of the strong wind wdiich tore down fences, razed buildings, and scattered the lumber far and near. All the family heirlooms, which had been gathered during a lifetime, were gone forever. .Mr. Wright later, found the covers of the old family photograph album at some distance from the site of the home. A fine orchard of fifty trees was utterly destroyed. The first warning which the family had of the approaching tornado was the appearance of a black, angry-looking, twisting cloud, which was sweeping down upon them from the west, leaving death and destruction in its w^ake and destroying everything in its path. The Wrights took immediate warning and Mr. and Mrs. Wright hurried to the storm cave, as they heard the roaring and crashing which accompanied the cyclone. Within five minutes' time the storm had passed and had done its fearful work. Livestock were carried some distance away, the tornado wiping out every vestige of a once comfortable hf;me. Mr. W^right has since rebuilt and replaced the farm buildings at consideralile expense.

Mr. Wright was married in 1910 to Adelia L. Addleman, who was born in northern Missouri, but was reared in Bates county, a daughter of J. M. Addleman, now residing in Mound township. Mr. Wright specializes in the breeding of Shorthorn cattle and Poland China and Chester White hogs. He is engaged in general farming and stock raising. He is af^liated with the Central Protective Association and both he and Mrs. Wright are members of the Adrian Christian church. They are upright, worthy people who have a host of friends in Bates county and are numbered among the best citizens of this section of the state.

Martin V. Owen, an honored and highly valued citizen of Bates county, Missouri, a veteran of the Confederate army in the Civil War, president of the Adrian Banking Company of Adrian, Missouri, a .prominent stockman of this section of the state, is a native of Kentucky. Mr. Owen was born February 17, 1840 in Daviess county, a son of M. B. and Jane (Haggard) Owen. M. B. Owen was a son of Mr. and Mrs. John Owen, a well-to-do farmer of Henry county, Kentucky prior to his marriage with Jane Haggard, a daughter of John Haggard, a native of Kentucky. The Owens came to Missouri from Kentucky in 1853 and located on a tract of land in Cass county, as the boundaries were at that time. At a later date, the county was divided and that part which belonged to the Owen family became a part of Bates county. Mr. and Mrs. M. B. Owen, with their children, took a boat at Owensboro in Daviess county, Kentucky and landed at Westport Landing, Missouri, which was all that then existed of the present metropolis, Kansas City, and made the remainder of the journey in a wagon drawn by oxen. The father entered a vast tract of land in this part of Missouri and engaged in farming and stock raising.

Martin V. Owen was a bright, observing lad, thirteen years of age, when he came with his parents to Missouri and he has a most vivid recollection of the appearance and primitive condition of the country at that time, more than a half century ago. Roving bands of Indians frequently visited their settlement and of the dusky savages the young white boy was much afraid. In the fifties, there were few settlements in western Missouri except along the rivers and streams, practically none out on the open prairie. Mr. Owen has seen more than one destructive prairie fire. In his youth, supplies were obtained from Lexington, to which city the pioneers would go with a wagon drawn by oxen. It required four to five days to make the trip. Roads were simply beaten trails across the prairie and were frequently impassable. Wild game of many different kinds abounded and there was no need for the early settlers to be hungry as wild turkeys, ducks, geese, prairie chickens, and deer might be easily obtained. Martin V. Owen recalls one particular night in his youth, when the moon was shining brightly, that he in a few moments killed five wild turkeys. Wolves, too, made their unwelcome presence known and felt in the early days and countless times did young Martin V. Owen hear them as they howled around his wagon loaded with supplies, when he camped along, the road from Lexington. Mr. Owen received his education in the "subscription

The marriage of Martin V. Owen and Emma D. Porter, a daughter of David Porter, a highly respected pioneer of Bates county, Missouri, who settled in this part of the state about the time of the Civil War, was solemnized in 1882. To this union have been born three children : Mrs. Orpha Lee Robinson, Adrian, Missouri ; Mrs. Ruby McCullough, Adrian, Missouri; and H. B., Adrian, Missouri. Mr. and Mrs. Owen are worthy and consistent members of the Baptist church. For nearly three score years and ten, the Owen family has been known and respected in Bates county, Missouri and the name has become the synonym of all that is good and true and upright.

During the Civil War, Martin V. Owen enlisted with the Confederates and served throughout the four-year-strife, being most of the time with "Fighting Joe" Shelby. After the conflict had ended, Mr. Owen returned to Bates county, Missouri and again engaged in the peaceful pursuits of farming and stock raising. He became the owner of extensive stock interests in western Missouri and at one time was the proprietor of a stock farm comprising one thousand six hundred acres of valuable land in Bates county. In 1888, Mr. Owen was elected president of the Adrian Banking Company of Adrian, Missouri and two years afterward, in 1890, he moved with his family from the farm to this city, where he purchased a tract of land embracing eighty acres lying adjacent to the city limits. He has rebuilt the residence and now has one of the attractive, comfortable homes of Deer Creek township, a two-story structure of eight well-arranged rooms, surrounded by a beautiful lawn. Mr. Owen has spent the past thirty years in the study of the intricate problem of finance, but at present is not so active in business as in former years and he is planning to retire in the near future and to spend the closing years of his long life of usefulness, filled with thousands of days of long, hard toil, in well-earned restful peace and quiet.

No calling in life brings out and develops stronger, nobler qualities of manhood or insures a better success and more ample competence than does the ancient and honorable vocation of farming. To the early pioneer, the hardships and privations incident to spending the best years of life in transforming dense forests and trackless prairies and dismal swamps into rich, cultivated fields, orchards, and gardens, thriving villages, towns, and cities, were but stronger stimuli to build with his own toil-worn, weary hands a comfortable home which should be a place of rest and happiness in his clecHning years. The retired farmer can bring to mind many satisfying thoughts of the difficulties encountered and overcome, of the long, hard, upward struggle of the days agone recompensed by the sure reward, of the old scenes, and of the old, tried and true friends. Thus is the heart of him made glad, who labors long and diligently with an honorable purpose. Mr. Owen has passed the seventy-eighth milestone in life and we hope he may remain with us for many more years, that another score Of years will be added to his now noble age, ere he hears the Master say, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant."

O. C. Johnson, farmer and stockman. Mound township. Bates county, was born in Vinton county, Ohio, September 21, 1872. He is a son of Hiram and Mary (Bailey) Johnson, the former of whom was born in Virginia in 1849. The mother of O. C. Johnson w^as born in Ohio and is descended from an old family of Ohio. The Johnsons are descended from Virginia colonial stock. The family came to Missouri in 1881, arriving here on November 30, of that year and they settled in Elkhart township. The Fairview church and school house is located on the old Johnson homestead in Elkhart township. During his entire life, Hiram Johnson followed the vocations of farmer and stockman, dying at his home in 1905. He was a life-long Democrat and took a keen interest in political matters. He was a member of the Central Protective Association and was accounted a leading and substantial Bates county citizen. He was a hard worker and never knew a sick day until he was afflicted with his mortal illness. The widowed mother still resides at the homestead. Six children of the seven born to Hiram and Mary Johnson are living, namely: Etta J., wife of James Webb, Vinita, Oklahoma; Ida M., wife of George Black, East Boone township, Bates county; O. C, subject of this review; Enson L., living in East Boone township; Mary R., wife of B. F. Wall, Passaic, Missouri; and Harley B., living on the homestead in Elkhart township.

O. C. Johnson first attended the public schools of Vinton county, Ohio, and after coming to Bates county he attended the district school in his home locality. He began his own career soon after his marriage in 1898 on the place which he now owns, consisting of eighty acres of good land. In addition to farming his own acreage, Mr. Johnson farms a considerable tract of rented land. He keeps good grades of horses, hogs and cattle and is making a success of his life work.

Mr. Johnson was married in 1898 to Miss Emily M. Black, a daughter of Perry Black, now making his home in Adrian, this county. Mr. Johnson is a Democrat and has served two years as trustee of Mound township. Both he and Mrs. Johnson are members of the Presbyterian church and contribute of their means to the support of this denomination.

Alexander M. Barclay. - The late Alexander M. Barclay was a pioneer settler of Bates county, whose forty years of residence in Bates county were devoted to good deed^ in the constant endeavor to do to the utmost of his ability and strength his part in the upbuilding of Bates county. When Mr. Barclay came to Bates county forty years ago, all of the visible property which he possessed consisted of a team of horses. His first investment in land was made on his promise to pay. During all these years he made good in his adopted county and became one of the most progressive and best-loved citizens of the county. Mr. Barclay was born in Smith county, West Virginia, September 4, 1847, a son of Joseph and Mary (Call) Barclay.

Joseph Barclay, his father, was born and reared in Kentucky, a son of parents who came to Kentucky from North Carolina, of English descent. He married a lady who was of Virginia parentage, and removed to Kentucky from Virginia when Alexander M. was but one year old, and made a settlement in Pulaski county, that state. In 1867, Joseph Barclay settled in Kansas, where the wife and mother died in 1905. Later, Mr. Barclay went to Oregon and died there. Two children of Joseph and Mary Barclay are yet living: Felis, residing at Vale, Oregon; and John, living at Cambridge, Idaho.

Upon the outbreak of the Civil War, Alexander M. Barclay enlisted when fifteen years of age in the First Kentucky Cavalry and served thirtyone months to the day in continuous and active service of the most hazardous character, much of which was hand-to-hand fighting between the opposing forces. He participated in the battle of Mill Springs, Kentucky, and was present at the capture of the famous Rebel raider. General John Morgan, whose forces were surrounded in a natural pocket in Columbiana county, Ohio, and forced to surrender to the Union forces under General Hildebrandt, He fought in the Battle of Resaca, Georgia, and was in many sharp skirmishes and minor engagements, being among the first troops to enter the captured city of Dalton. Georgia. During the course of his military service, he received a few slight wounds and at one time was struck on the head by a Confederate soldier who wielded a pistol in an effort to compel his surrender. He had many narrow escapes from death and capture, but survived to receive his honorable discharge at Louisville, Kentucky, and now enjoys the honor of being one of the very few survivors of the grand "Old Guard," bearing the distinction of having been one of the youngest soldiers to fight in the Civil War.

After the close of his war service, he returned to Kentucky and followed the peaceful pursuits of farming until his removal to Missouri in 1878. Three years after coming to this county, he purchased his present home place on time, but with good management and diligence he was not long in paying for the land. The years that have passed brought prosperity to this aged veteran and besides his fine farm he was well-to-do and was a stockholder in the Walton Trust Company of Butler.

On December 9, 1869, Mr. Barclay was united in marriage with Miss Louisa F. James, and to this union there have been born two children: Mary, wife of William G. Dillon, of Mound township; and Susan, who married Charles Jenkins, of Mound township, and died in 1896. Mrs. Louisa F. (James) Barclay was born in Virginia and reared in Kentucky and is an aunt of Senator Ollie James, the famous Democratic leader and statesman of Kentucky.

Until the disbanding of the Adrian Post of the Grand Army of the Republic, Mr. Barclay was affiliated with the organization. He had always been a Republican and was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. He was progressive in his views and tendencies and had always endeavored to keep pace with the march of progress. Mr. Barclay loved to contrast the easy times of the present with the hard times and vicissitudes through which he was compelled to make his way during his young manhood, and recalled that in the days of long ago, he husked corn in Missouri for a wage of sixty-five cents a day during cold winter days when the weather was very similar to that which we have endured during the past winter of 1917-18 and that "it was cold enough to freeze a man to death." Happily the days of low wages and low prices for farm products are passed and the farmer "has come into his own," and is enjoying his share of the widespread prosperity which has enveloped the whole country. Mr. Barclay departed this life on February 8, 1918, and his remains were interred in Mt. Olivet Cemetery on the Sunday following his death. His loss has been a sad one to the community and Bates county is bereft of a splendid and noble citizen whose life was well spent and whose sonl rests in peace in the ''Bourne from whicli no man returneth." His spirit is still with us and his example of right living was a noble one.

Wilbur J. Park. - The Park family is one of the oldest, most honorable families in Bates county, members of this family having settled here sixty years ago when the greater part of Bates county was in an unoccupied state. W. J. Park, a sterling representative of this old and respected family, residing on his splendid farm in Elkhart township, was born in Hampshire county, Virginia, July 11, 1856, and has lived in Bates county since he was two years of age. His father was Jefferson Park and his mother, prior to her marriage, was Barbara Davis, both of whom were born and reared in Hampshire county, Virginia, of old Virginia stock. Jefferson Park immigrated to Bates county, Missouri, in 1858, accompanied by his brothers, Washington, Samuel, and Wesley Park, all of whom settled in the same vicinity excepting Wesley, who went further westward and located in Pottawatomie county, Kansas, remaining in Kansas until after the close of the Civil War, when he returned to Missouri and here made his permanent home. Jefferson Park settled on a farm located just one mile south of the farm owned by the subject of this sketch, in Charlotte township. He and his brother, Washington, purchased four hundred acres of land from Russell B. Fisher and the former made his home on this place until the outbreak of the Civil War. Being a man of pronounced Union sympathies and loyal to the government he could not abide the views and actions of the pro-slavery advocates, and accordingly removed to Linn county, Kansas, to remain there during the years of warfare. He was pronounced in his views and intensely loyal to the Union, outspoken to to such an extent in expressing himself that he had many clashes with those whose views and opinions were just the opposite. He lost considerable property through the depredations of "bushwhackers" and at the time of his departure from Kansas, he and his family were forced to travel by ox-team motive power because of the fact that all his horses had been driven away by marauders. He returned to Missouri in the fall of 1865 and proceeded to repair the damages which his farm had suffered, it being practicallv necessary for him to begin all over again and replace the buildings and fences. The Park farm, eventually, became one of the best improved tracts in the county and Jefferson Park made his home thereon until his death on February 1, 1897, at the age of seventy-six years. He was born February 1, 1899. To Jefferson and Barbara (Davis) Park were born the following children: Rhoda Ann, born November 1, 1849, married Dr. R. A. Rising, and died in August, 1916, at her home in Cowley county, Kansas; Phoebe ]., born January 23, 1852, in Virginia, and died in childhood, December 28, 1865; Luther D. C, born June 1, 1854, resides in Nevada, Missouri; Wilbur J., born July 11, 1856, subject of this review; Ezra B., born November 6, 1865, in Missouri, died April 28, 1895; Ulysses G., born March, 1864, in Linn county, Kansas, now living in Clark county, Kansas; Lydia S., born May 25, 1867, married Fletcher Orear, she died at Butler, Missouri, September 29, 1908; and Laura J., born April 2, 1869, and died September 9, 1870. The mother of this fine family of children was born January 30, 1829, and died December 29, 1915.

Jefferson Park was a follower of Abraham Lincoln and a stanch Republican during his whole life after attaining his majority. He and his wife were members of the Methodist Episcopal church and were liberal supporters of religious and charitable works.

Wilbur J. Park, subject of this review, spent his boyhood days in Bates county and received his education in the public schools. He has followed farming pursuits continuously from his youth and has made a pronounced success of his life work, owning an eighty-acre farm which comprises his home place and also eighty acres which were formerly part of the Park homestead in Charlotte township. He carries on general farming and stock raising. Mr. Park was married April 16, 1882, to Miss Mary Chandler, and to this marriage have been born the following children: Floyd, who married Vera Angel, of Bates county, and resides at Adair, Oklahoma; Leroy J., married Minnie Largent, of Bates county, and lives on the old home place in Charlotte township ; Odessa, resides at Ogden, Utah ; and Leonard, married Vesta Leitch, a native of this county, and they reside on the Leitch farm in Bates county. Mrs. Mary (Chandler) Park was born in Tennessee, a daughter of L. L. and Margaret (Belcher) Chandler, both natives of Tennessee, the former dying when Mrs. Park was four years old. The family moved to Illinois when she was a small child and her mother now resides at Longton, Kansas. Mrs. Park is one of three children born to her parents, the others being Amanda and John S., who live with their mother at Longton, Kansas.

The allegiance of Mr. Park to the tenets and principles of the Republican party has generally been constant, although he is inclined to much independent thinking and voting in local and state matters, rather than yielding a blind obedience to any political fetich or organization. If a candidate for office is well qualified, according to his idea, he willingly supports that individual for the office sought regardless of his political affiliations, and he pursues the same course with measures which are intended to make changes in the government, be it local, state or national. He is the present justice of the peace of Elkhart township and he had served one term in this capacity prior to the beginning of his present term of office.

John Speer, proprietor of the "Round Barn Farm," located in Mound township, on the Jefferson Highway, two and a half miles south of Adrian, was born in Summit township, Bates county, on a farm located nine miles southeast of Butler, July 1, 1871. He was a son of Henry and Emma (Boyd) Speer, the former of whom was a native of Shelby county, Ohio, and the latter, of Illinois. Henry Speer was a soldier in the Union army and served throughout the Civil War. He is now deceased and the widow now resides in Butler. Three children were born to Henry and Emma Speer, as follow : John Speer, subject of this review; Minnie, wife of Louis Defifenbaugh, Butler, Missouri; and William Percy, of Independence, Kansas.

The early education of John Speer was obtained in the public schools of Bates county, after which he graduated from the old Butler Academy. He remained on the farm until he was eighteen years of age and tlien removed to Butler, where he became associated with his father in the nursery business under the firm name of Speer & Son, succeeding Halloway & Speer. He was engaged in the nursery business for seven years, and was then employed by the Logan Moore Lumber Company for four years, following. In 1890, he took possession of his present farm of one hundred sixty acres and has established a reputation as a dairyman and breeder of registered Jersey cattle. Mr. Speer maintains an average of thirty head of purebred Jersey cows upon his place, which is fitted with modern conveniences for the economical conducting of the business with the least possible labor. Mr. Speer is a member of the Southwest Jersey Cattle Breeders' Association. The circular barn which he has had erected, has a circumference of one hundred ninetytwo feet, is fifty feet in height, and equipped with a silo, in the exact center, which is forty feet high and eleven feet in diameter. This barn was erected in 1908 and is one of the most convenient in this section of the state for dairying purposes. The interior is so arranged that the stock are placed in stalls facing the center of the building, thus enabling the stock tenders to feed from the filled silo very conveniently and quickly with little or no waste. The Speer place is equipped with gasoline power which is used for many purposes, such as running the cream separators, churning, and doing the family washing each week, besides cutting wood and crushing the silage for filling the silo.

Mr. Speer was married on December 19. 1900, to Miss Maud Garrison, who was born and reared in Bates county, a daughter of j\lr. and Mrs. J. C. Garrison, natives of Wisconsin. Mrs. Garrison died in the spring of 1917 at the age of eighty-six years. J. C. Garrison was a millwright by trade and he built the original Powers" mill in this country, and is accounted one of the earliest of the Bates county pioneer settlers.

The Republican party claims the support of Mr. Speer and he has served as justice of the peace of Mound township and has been a member of the township board. He is affiliated with the Modern "\\^oodmen of America and the Presl)yterian church of Butler.

General Joseph O. Shelby, a dashing and beloved commander of Confederate forces during the Civil War and a resident of Bates county during the latter years of his eventful life, was born at Lexington, Kentucky, in 1831. At the age of nineteen years he removed from Kentucky to Lafayette county, Missouri, and established a rope factory. His manufacturing venture flourished with able management and he was in a fair way to amass riches when the border warfare began. He espoused the cause of the South and went to Kentucky and raised a company of cavalry and took the field in Kansas with Clark, Atchison, and Reid. The border troubles over, he returned to Waverly, Missouri, and his company was disbanded at St. Joseph. Missouri.

With the firing of the first gun upon Fort Sumter in 1861, young Shelby was one of the first in the field. He organized a compan}^ of cavalry and marched to Independence, Missouri, which was then threatened with attack by the Federal forces stationed at Kansas City. This was his first actual entrance into the war in 1861 at the age of thirty years. He joined General Price's forces in western Missouri. His first battle was fought at Boonville, where the Confederate army was defeated by the Federals imder General Lyon. The history of Shelby's military career would be a minute history of the entire war fought west of the Mississippi river. He was a participant in every hard-fought battle fought in this section of the country and he was always the first to charge the enemy and the last to retreat. He had charge of the most important raids made by Price's army and >had command of a splendid fighting force of ten thousand men, of whom four to five thousand were constantly under arms and always on duty. General Shelby knew the name of every man enrolled in his command and knew where to call him when needed for service. In 1862. he was commissioned a colonel of cavalry; in January, 1863, he was created a colonel in command of a brigade; and in May, 1864, he was commissioned a general of brigade or brigadier general.

He distinguished himself by exceptional bravery at the battle of Pea Ridge, March 4, 1862, where he was exposed to a heavy fire and by a brilliant maneuver he saved one of Price's battalions from capture or annihilation. After the battle of Cane Hill, General Shelby's command was the last to evacuate Corinth when it was abandoned by the Confederate forces. He was severely wounded during the attack on Helena, July 4. 1863, but he recaptured his battery from the Federals after receiving his wound. He then made a raid through Missouri to Boonville, during which many farms and homes were destroyed. From Boonville, he marched to Marshall and then retreated with his command into Arkansas, going into winter quarters at Camden, Arkxinsas. His activities were resumed in the spring of 1864 and he fought numerous minor battles in northern Arkansas. When the last raid into Missouri was decided upon in 1864, General Shelby was found to be the youngest general in the list west of the Mississippi river. The Confederates had planned to attack St. Louis, but this was given up upon learning of the strength of the St. Louis defenses. They advanced upon Jefferson City, and this city was also found to be too strongl}^ fortified for attack, and the plan to attack the capital was abandoned. The army then moved M^estward and was engaged with the Federals in several sharp encounters. On Octoljer 20, 1864, General Price's army reached Lidependence and Blue river and in the movement which followed, both Generals Marmaduke and Shelby were engaged and drove the Federals back to Westport. On October 22, Shelby received orders to capture Westport and a desperate battle ensued during which Shelby lost eight hundred of his men, but so great was his strategy and so quick were his movements that Price's army was saved from capture by the Federals although the battle was lost and the retreat through Missouri was begun. He was placed in command of the rear guard of

Price's retreating army and fought his way foot by foot to Newtonia, Arkansas. The last battle of the war west of the Mississippi was waged there. When it came to a question of final surrender, Shelby advocated further resistance to the Union forces. Kirby Smith, then in command, was unpopular and was in favor of surrender. At Shelby's request he withdrew from the command, turned over his power to General Buckner, who in turn surrendered to the United States.

The cause of the Confederacy being lost. General Shelby conceived the idea of doing further fighting in Mexico which at that time was under the rule of Emperor Maximilian who had been placed upon the throne by the French forces. He organized a force of six hundred men who armed themselves in Texas and marched through the state toward Mexico. At Houston, Texas, were vast supplies which w^ere in danger of being despoiled by a force of one thousand renegades. Shelby w^anted the suffering women and children to be nourished from these supplies. In line with this desire he sent one hundred picked men into the city to accomplish his purpose. So great was the terror of his name that the evil-doers agreed to desist from the proposed attack and the city was quieted. When near the city of Austin, he was called upon by the citizens to assist them in preventing the looting of the state treasury and vaults which contained besides the entire monetary wealth of the state government, much valuable wealth placed there by business firms and citizens for safe keeping. The citizens had knowledge of a plot to loot the capital. Shelby very willingly gave his services to this cause and the Texas treasury was saved from spoliation. At the first station in Mexico he left it to a vote of his men as to which side they should join in the Southern country. They decided that, inasmuch as the French were supporting the Emperor Maximilian and had promised to furnish money and supplies to still uphold the Confederacy, they would offer their help to the Emperor. Maximilian refused Shelby's proffer of the services of his men and the adventure was ended. General Shelby returned to Lafayette county and remained there until his removal to Bates county in 1885. He purchased a farm of seven hundred acres in Elkhart township and was engaged in the peaceful pursuits of agriculture and stock raising until his death, February 21, 1897. His funeral was attended by a vast concourse of people and he was interred with military and civic honors at Forest Hill cemetery, Kansas City. The final ol)sequies over the burial of this famous soldier were made the occasion of a public demonstration of the great esteem and love which was borne his memory by the thousands of Missourians who had known him in civil and military life.

During Grover Cleveland's administration, General Shelby served as United States marshal for the Western District. He has never inclined to seek political preferment but accepted the appointment of recorder under Governor David R. Francis, however, his magnanimity and sense of honor being so great that he turned over the salary he received to the widow of the former deceased incumbent. This was like General Shelby and similar acts of kindness characterized his whole life. He held his personal honor inviolate and always extended mercy and kindness to the captured foe whom he respected for playing the game of war according to his code of honor.

He was married to Elizabeth Shelby who bore him seven children: Orville, living in Montana; Joe, Kansas City, a police captain; Ben, living in Texas ; Webb. Bates county, Missouri ; Samuel, residing in Kansas City; John, living at La Cygne, Kansas; Annie, wife of F. W. Jersig. Texas, with whom the widowed mother is now residing.

Webb Shelby, a leading farmer of Elkhart township, was born in Lafayette county, Missouri, a son of General Joseph O. Shelby, whose biography immediately precedes this sketch. Mr. Shelby was reared partly in Lafayette county where he was born December 6, 1870. When fifteen years old he accompanied his parents to Bates county and has since lived in Mound township. Since coming to Bates county with his father in 1885, A\'ebb Shelby has made farming and stock raising his chief occupations. He began life for himself at the age of twentytwo years and is self-made. What he has accomplished and accumulated has been with his own hands and brain. Mr. Shelby purchased his present home farm in Mound township in 1905. This place comprises one hundred sixty acres, and to look at the well-kept appearance of this farm and the neatness of the buildings and farm arrangements thereon is to conclude emphatically that Mr. Shelby is a thoroughly good farmer, somewhat better than the average. He raises good crops of grain on his acreage and feeds the product to cattle for the market.

Mr. Shelby was married in 1902 to Miss Cassie Johnson, of Belton, Cass county, Missouri. They have one child, John. Mr. Shelby, like his illustrious father before him, is a Democrat of the old school and takes a prominent and leading part in Democratic politics in Bates county. At present he is serving" as Democratic committeeman for Mound township. He is genial, industrious, well-Hked, prominent in his own right, and recognized as a worthy son of a great father.

John F. Fulkerson, one of the old settlers of Alound township, and a Union veteran, was born February 15, 1842, at Danville, Montgomery county, Missouri. He has lived in Bates county for over forty-five years. He was a son of Robert Craig and Malvina (Dickerson) Fulkerson, natives of Lee county, Virginia. Robert C. Fulkerson was descended from an old Virginia family which dates back to colonial times in American history. Robert Fulkerson was one of the early Missouri pioneers and was a large land-owner and slave-holder in Montgomery county during the ante-bellum days. He was a man of prominence in the communities in which he resided and served as sheriff of Lee county, Virginia, prior to his removal to Missouri. L^pon locating in Montgomery county, he soon became one of the leaders of the new county and served several terms as county treasurer. He died at the age of eighty-four years. Mrs. Malvina Fulkerson died at the age of sixty years. John and Malvina Fulkerson were parents of seven children, two sons and hve daughters, of wdiom the subject of this review is the only survivor.

After receiving such education as was afforded by the early dav public schools in his native county, John F. Fulkerson studied at the Macon Normal College. Upon the outbreak of the Civil A\'ar, he enlisted in Company Iv, Thirty-third Missouri Lifantry, and saw a great amount of active service during the course of the war. His command took part in the Red river expedition, in the battles of Yellow Bayou. Fort Russell, and in the engagements at Cannelton, Old River Lake. Pleasant Hill, Lexington, etc. His military service extended over Arkansas, Texas, Mississippi. Alabama, and Florida and he took part in numerous skirmishes in addition to the principal engagements mentioned. Mr. Fulkerson lay sick for some time in the Military Hospital at Baton Rouge, but was never wounded in battle. He received his final discharge from the service at St. Louis after an honoral)le and brave service extending over three years during which time he participated in some of the hardest and most exacting campaigns of the war.

After the close of the Civil A\^ar, he returned to the old home in Montgomery county and remained there engaged in agricultural pursuits until 1872. when he came to Bates county, and purchased his present farm of eighty acres in IMound township for six dollars and fifty

John F. Fulkerson was married on August 31, 1873. to Anna Painter, who was born near Warrenton, Warren county, Missouri, February 14, 1845, a daughter of Adam and Nancy (Burns) Painter, both of whom were born in Page county, Virginia, where they were reared and married, coming to Missouri soon after their marriage in the early thirties. Mr. Painter became owner of three hundred sixty-five acres of land, and while owning slaves in his native state he disposed of them prior to his removal to Missouri. He was a farmer, stock raiser, and a good Democrat of the old school. Both parents of Mrs. Fulkerson died in AVarren county, the father dying in 1871 and the mother departing this life in 1873.

Mr. and Mrs. Painter were parents of twelve chiklren, five of whom are yet living. Four sons of this family served in the Confederate army and the older brother of Mrs. Fulkerson was wounded in the battle of Vicksburg, Mississippi. To Mr. and Mrs. John F. Fulkerson have been born two children: Robert, who resides in Rul)y, Alaska, where he went in 1898, and is engaged in the mining lousiness at which hazardous occupation he has made and lost several fortunes; Fletcher, an extensive farmer located near Paul, Idaho.

]\Ir. Fulkerson is allied with the Repul)lican party but is inclined to vote independently, and does his own thinking as to men and measures during political camj^aigns. Fie cast his first vote for Abraham Lincoln in 1864 while wearing the uniform of the Federal government. Mr. and Mrs. Fulkerson are counted among the most valued and esteemed citizens of Bates county and are proud of the fact that they are Missourians born and l^red.

Frank J. McCune. - Bates county abounds in picturesque spots for home places in the country side and many line farms are named for some striking feature of the tract of land to wdiich the name applies. It is a matter of record that "]\Iound Slope Farm" located in Flkhart township and owned by F. J. McCune, was the third farm in Bates county which was legally registered under its present title. The beautiful McCune home is situated upon the slope of the mound from which Mound township takes its name and is one of the richest farmsteads in this section of Missouri, the soil being of the black gumbo which has such high value, rich in the materials which nourish successive crops.

and is not easily worn out. Its owner takes a just pride in maintaining the beauty, and well-kept appearance of his place and a remarkable view of the surrounding country can be obtained from the veranda of the McCune residence, the town of Adrian, five miles away being plainly visible.

F. J. McCune was born December 10, 1853, in Athens county, Ohio, a son of Nelson and Lucy ( Blakely) McCune, both of whom were natives of Ohio and practically spent their lives in Athens county. They reared a fine family of children, three of whom are living: Blakely, the eldest son, a member of Company B, Thirty-sixth Ohio Infantry, died on the battlefield of Antietam while serving in the Union forces during the Civil War, his remains being interred at Sharpsburg, Maryland; A. H., died at San Diego, California; George, died in childhood; Lue, married Loren Hill, of Amesville, Athens county, Ohio; Ella, married J. F. Lacy, of Hull, Illinois; and F. J., the youngest son of the family, subject of this review.

Reared to manhood in his native county, Mr. ]\IcCune decided that the West offered better opportunities for advancement than his native state, and he accordingly left his home county in 1882 and came to Bates county. He at once located in Elkhart township and purchased the northern part of his present farm, located in east Elkhart township. The McCune farm consists of four hundred eighty acres, which are kept in a thorough state of cultivation and produce excellent crops. INIr. McCune follows general farming and stock raising in a progressive manner and is accounted one of Bates county's most intelligent and industrious farmers.

October 15, 1879, Frank J. McCune was united in marriage with Cora Wyatt, of Athens county, Ohio, a daughter of Charles and Harriet (Henry) Wyatt, both of whom were born, reared and spent their lives in Athens county, Ohio. Five children have blessed this marriage: Charles Nelson, proprietor of one hundred twenty acres of land in Elkhart township, which he is farming, and he resides at home with his parents; Ella, the wife of AV. W. McReynolds, Elkhart township, and has two sons, Kelver and Billy; Clarence AVyatt married Lola Carroll and has two daughters, AA'ilma and Helen, is farming an irrigated tract at Kuna. Idaho; Grace, at home: and Edward Henry, a teacher in the public schools of this county.

hers of his family, is a member of the Presbyterian church. The McCune place is not only noted for the fine appearance and view from the slope of the mound from which the farm gets its name, which view enables one to see Butler, eleven miles away, and the town of Adrian, five miles distant, but the farm is underlaid wath gas which was found at a depth of two hundred fifteen feet by the boring of a test well, although no attempt has ever been made to make commercial or local use of the output. The McCune family have a permanent and respected place in the civic and, social structure of Bates county and the members of this enterprising family are always found in the forefront of all movements to advance the interests of their home county.

John Dever, progressive, enterprising farmer and stockman. Mound township, was born in Guernsey county, Ohio, July 8, 1860 and was a son of Andrew and Elizabeth (Wise) Dever, the former, a native of Ireland, and the latter, a native of Ohio. The family moved westward to Hancock county, Illinois, in 1868 and in that county the parents spent the remainder of their lives engaged in agricultural activities. Their remains are interred in Oakwood cemetery, Hamilton, Illinois. John Dever is one of five children born to his parents who grew to maturity, as follow: R. W., Macon county, Missouri; Thomas, Marshall county, Kansas; Mary C, wife of Robert Wise, Shelby county, Illinois; Gashium G., Shelby county, Illinois; and John, subject of this review.

Mr. Dever was reared in Hancock county, Illinois, and remained in his native state until 1899, when he came west to Linn county, Kansas, residing there on a farm for ten years. In 1909, he came to Bates county and invested in farm land in Mound township, and has since become prominently identified with the agricultural activities of this county. He is owner of two hundred acres of land and is engaged in general farming and stock raising.

On December 28, 1882, the marriage of John Dever and Frances Anna Gayley was solemnized. Mrs. Dever was born in AYoodford county, Illinois, July 4, 1859. No children of this marriage are living, but Mr. and Mrs. Dever have an adopted son, Elmer W., who is cultivating one of the Dever farms in Mound township.

The Republican party has ahvays had the stanch support and allegiance of Mr. Dever but he is inclined to independence in local political affairs. He is affiliated fraternally with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Lodge No. 13, Adrian, Missouri. He was identified with the

Grange movement and was one of the organizers of the Farmers' Club of the Adrian neighborhood, a movement which is the natural outcome and successor of the Grange. He is a member of the United Brethren church at Deer Creek, and is considered one of the leading and most progressive citizens of his neighborhood, always seeking to advance any movement which is intended for the betterment of conditions in the agricultural sections in which he has spent his life.

Lewis C. Eichler, farmer and stockman of ]\Iound township, is one of the oldest and best-known pioneer citizens of Bates county. Mr. Eichler owns one of the best farms in the county upon which he has recently erected one of the handsomest residences to be seen on the countryside. His career in Bates county and Missouri extends over a long period of over fifty years, and his record has been a most honorable one. Mr. Eichler was born in St. Charles City, St. Charles county, Missouri, in 1836, a son of George and Mary (Weems) Eichler.

George Eichler, his father, was born in Germany, and when a young man, immigrated to America and settled in Baltimore. ]\Iaryland, where he followed his trade of skilled cabinet maker. After residing in Baltimore for several years, he removed to St. Charles county, Missouri. Soon after the territory of Kansas was thrown open to settlement he made the trip to that state in order to appease his hunger for a tract of land, and made a settlement near the city of Lawrence. Border warfare and the trouble between the slavery and anti-slavery advocates caused him to leave Kansas and settle in Bates county where he pre-empted a quarter section of government land which cost him one dollar and twenty-five cents an acre. Upon the outbreak of the Civil War it became unsafe for Southern families to reside in this county and when Order Number Eleven was issued in 1863 he removed with his family to Lafayette county, where his death occurred in 1864. The border trou])les and the Civil AVar both combined to cause him to lose all of his possessions and he was left in destitute circumstances during his later years. He was father of twelve children, three sons and nine daughters. His wife died upon the homestead in Bates county in 1858 and is buried in the family burial place.

In the spring of 1861, Lewis C. Eichler enlisted in the Confederate Army in Colonel Rains' Regiment and served during the war in Generals Parsons and Price's Divisions. His first battle was at Lone Jack. ]\Iissouri, wdiere he received a wound in the hand. He participated in the battles of Drywood, Oak Hill, and Helena, Arkansas. He took an active part in many minor engagements and skirmishes. The most important and greatest battle in which Mr. Eichler fought was at Prairie Grove and his period of service extended throughout the war in the states of Missouri. Louisiana, and Texas. After the war ended he remained in Arkansas in gainful employment until the fall of 1868.

In 1868, Mr. Eichler returned to the homestead which had been the home of the family prior to the war and set to work to rebuild what had l)een destroyed during the war time. Times were hard, money was scarce, but e\'eryone was in the same plight and he managed somehow to get ahead and has these many years been engaged successfully in farming and stockraising. He is owner of two hundred acres of very fine land which is well improved, forty acres of which are located in Elkhart township. Mr. Eichler has specialized in the breeding of Durham cattle and has one of the finest herds of this l^reed in the county. Only recently he has finished the building of a splendid, new, modern residence, where he proposes to spend the remaining years of his long and fruitful life in comfort.

The marriage of Lewis C. Eichler and Sallie J. Early occurred May 18, 1876. and to this union were born four children: Lucie Lee, who resides at home with her parents; Harry, died at the age of two years; Charles, died at the age of four years; and John, cultivates the family acres. The mother of these children was born in Lafayette county, July 24, 1846, a daughter of John and Elizabeth (Dean) Early, the former of whom was a native of Virginia and the latter of Kentuckv. John Early was a wealthy slave holder and had a large estate at the outbreak of the Civil War but was ruined financially during the course of the conflict. He was a cousin of General Jubal A. Early, the noted Confederate commander of Civil War fame.

The life of this aged citizen has been spent usefully and productively in active pursuits. Li addition to his farming activities he has followed the trade of carpenter more or less for many years and is skilled in this useful art, having learned liis trade under the tutelage of his father. Mr. Eichler has always heen allied with the Democratic party and served as justice of the peace for Mound township for four years. He and the members of his family are religiously associated with the Methodist church. South. Mr. Eichler recalls vividly the troublesome days of the i)or(ler warfare and remembers many of the jay-hawkers who made raids into Missouri over the border. He remembers Colonel Johnson's raid through Bates county, and states that Johnson's men even cut down or destroyed the fruit trees which had been planted and carefully nurtured by the settlers. Johnson had nearly five hundred men in his command and this party left terror and desolation in their wake. When the Eichler family located in Bates county, the first postofBce was located at the old and historic town of Papinsville, which at that time was a government post. Mr. Eichler likewise remembers that some excellent apples grew on the Mission grounds at Papinsville and he always ate of the fruit in season when going to Papinsville to trade. He states that a Frenchman named Francis Lorain was the first actual settler at Papinsville, and this man kept a store and trading post. Mr. Eichler always kept on good terms with the nomadic Indians and found them harmless, but badly given to petty thieving, necessitating constant watchfulness on the part of the housewives, being likewise everlasting beggars. The milling of the settlers was done at Papinsville and also at Balltown, the first settler at that place being a Scotchman named McNeal who conducted a trading post. For a number of years he preserved a copy of the first newspaper published in Bates county, called the "Bates County Standard," but this paper was destroyed when the Eichler residence was burned some time ago.

When Lewis C. Eichler came to Bates county the country was largely an unpeopled wilderness in which wild game abounded. There were herds of deer, great flocks of prairie chickens and wild turkeys. There were no roads and the settler followed trails across the prairie and blazed tracks through the woods. He has witnessed the growth of this county and taken an active and influential part in its upbuilding. There are few of the real old pioneers left to tell the tales of the early days, and of these. Mr. Eichler is one of the most honored.

Herman Engelhardt. - The Engelhardt farm, widely known as "Pleasant View Farm" located in Charlotte township, is one of the finest and most productive agricultural plants in this section of Missouri. It consists of three hundred twenty acres of land, every square yard of which serves some useful purpose. The residence on the place was erected by the proprietor in 1905 and consists of seven good-sized rooms. Eight years later, in 1913, Mr. Engelhardt built one of the finest barn structures in Bates county, a building 48 x 58 feet and forty-eight feet in height, with a gambrel-roof, the loft underneath this roof having a storage capacity of ninety tons of hay and forage. This building with the cow barn and silos cost Mr. Engelhardt something over two thousand two hundred dollars to build. He is extensively engaged in raising Red

Polled cattle and Poland China hogs and does considerable grain farming, " most of the grain produced by his fertile acres being fed to livestock on the place. This farm produced the champion yield of seventy bushels of oats to the acre in 1917 and also produced nearly three thousand bushels of corn. The wheat crop averaged twenty bushels to the acre, one of the best, if not the best, yields in Bates county. One hundred tons of hay were cut from the meadows last year. Mr. Engelhardt employs plenty of help to operate his large acreage and believes in spending money unstintedly on his land in order to make money. His methods of cultivation are such as to increase rather than diminish soil fertility and each year has seen his prosperity increase as a result of such wise measures.

Mr. Engelhardt was born in 1858 in Saxony, Germany, a son of Frederick and Collene Engelhardt who lived all of their days in the land of their birth. Herman Engelhardt served for a time in the German army and in his youth learned the trade of nail-maker. This was in the days when nails were laboriously made by hand and Herman became skilled in the art of nail making, being able by a few strokes of the hammer to turn out quickly and efficiently a nail of any size. He immigrated to America in 1882 and obtained employment in the Rolling Mills at Rosedale, a suburb of Kansas City, where he remained for a time and then located in Douglas county, Missouri. In this county, he homesteaded a tract of government land and by the hardest kind of labor cleared and placed in cultivation one hundred twenty acres. He started his career as a farmer with little or no means at his disposal and in less than eighteen years created a salable property in Douglas county from what had before been a wilderness. He spent his winters in chopping down the trees and preparing his ground for cultivation and in order to provide for his family he did railroad work during the summer seasons. In 1901, he traded his Douglas county farm for a tract of one hundred acres in Charlotte township to wdiich he has since added other acreage until he now owns three hundred twenty acres. Mr. Engelhardt gives great credit to his faithful wife and the members of his family for assistance in achieving his marked success.

While living in Kansas City, he was married in 1883, to Pertha Glass, wdio was also born in Saxony, Germany, and to this marriage have been born five living children: Paul H., a farmer living in Charlotte township; Lena, wife of Francis Gasch, a native of Austria, Marshall county, Kansas; Ida, who married Fred Nowatna, Piatt county,

Kansas; William, at home; and Elsie, also at home with her parents. Politically, Mr. Engelhardt is independent and votes as his conscience and judgment dictate. He is a member of the Christian church, and Mrs. Engelhardt and the children are members of the Methodist Episcopal church. Mr. Engelhardt is one of the most progressive and enterprising citizens of Bates county, one who has good and just right to be proud of his fine farm and the success which has come to him through his own efforts and with no other assistance than that cheerfully given by the members of his family who have all worked together harmoniously for the common good of the family. Bates county is likewise proud of such citizens as he, men who have demonstrated that successful tillage of her soil depends to the greatest extent upon the individual himself.

John Robert Walters, of Eone Oak township, is one of the oldest and most honored of the Bates county pioneers. Besides being one of the oldest of the citizens of his township, not only in age but in years of residence in the county, he has reared one of the largest families in the county. This is not all, however, for he spent some of the best years of his life in defense of the Union during the Civil War. He was born October 3, 1844, in a primitive home on Camp Branch creek, in Cass county, between Pleasant Hill and Harrisonville. His early recollections of conditions during his boyhood days, in Cass and Bates counties, are vivid. He has seen his father shoot deer to the number of two and three before breakfast. Deer, as well as other wild game, were plentiful on the prairies and years ago he has shot deer himself and hunted the wild prairie chicken and turkeys. Having lived in Bates county since 1849, he is entitled to honorable mention as one of the oldest of the real pioneers of the county.

Joseph Walters, his father, a Kentuckian by birth, was taken by his parents to Indiana and thence to Illinois, where he spent the days of his youth under primitive conditions. He was married near Terre Haute. Indiana, to Margaret Burkhart, who was born in Indiana. In the early forties, Joseph Walters came to Missouri and first made a settlement in the southern part of the state, but, conditions not being to his liking, he settled in Cass county, where he lived until 1849 and then came to Bates county, settling in Pleasant Gap township, where his death occurred at the age of eighty-five years. Mrs. Walters attained the great age of ninety-six years and at the time of her death was the oldest pioneer woman of Bates county. They w^ere parents of sixteen children, nine sons and seven daughters, six of whom are yet living: Nelson, on the old homestead in Pleasant Gap township; John Robert, subject of this review; Mrs. Mollie Brownfield, state of Washington; Solomon, living near Harrisonville ; Mrs. Malinda Thomas, at the old family homestead in Pleasant Gap township; James, who makes his home in California: and Joseph, lives in Colorado.