Cooper County, Missouri - Chapter 17, 1876

Robert P. Clark, Joseph Stephens, Sr., John Miller

Robert P. Clark was born in Bedford county, Virginia, in the year 1791, and whilst yet a youth, emigrated with his father and family to Clark count}^ Kentucky. He was there placed as an apprentice in the clerk's office, with his uncle, David Bullock, and after serving the usual time and passing the customary examination, he was appointed to the clerkship of Estill county, Kentucky. He held this position until about the vear 1816, when he resis^ned, and with his father and other members of the family, emigrated to Howard county, Missouri, where he arrived in the year 1817. The next year he moved to the present site of Boonville.

On the first day of March, 1819, he was appointed clerk of the Circuit Court of Cooper county, by Hon. David Todd, judge of said court. In May, 1820, he was elected a member of the "Missouri State Convention," which framed the first constitution for the State, and which was presided over by Hon. David Barton.

He held the offices of clerk of the Circuit and Count3' Courts, and also postmaster of Boonville, from the formation of the county until the year 1835, ^vhen he resigned the office of postmaster. During this year the clerks of the different courts havinnr become elective, he was a can- didate for, and was elected to the office of clerk of the Circuit Court, which office he continued to hold until his death. He also held the offices of County Treasurer and Commissioner of School Lands until the year 1832.

He was called by the old settlers, on account of his intimate knowledge of the statute laws applying to the county, and of his being general adviser in matters of this nature, "'The Father of the county."

He first with his family, resided in a log cabin, containing only one roo7ji, which stood southwest of the present residence of Cant. James Thompson, and was a very unpretending round log affair. In these more refined days it would seem impossible for a family like his, with the late Judge Abiel Leonard, Pej'ton R. Hayden, Charles French, and John S. Buckey, then constituting the bar of Boonville, as his boarders, to live in a house having only one room, but such were the necessities of the times, and every thing flourished.

He built a house on High street, on the lot where Adam Eckhard now resides, and moved there in the fall of 1820. In this house the first County Court was held, on the 8th day of January, 1821. He afterwards built a large two story brick house on the corner of High and Sixth streets, now owned by Joseph and William Williams. It is still standing, and was, at the time it was built, considered a very fine and elegant structure.

Joseph Stephens, Sr., was born in Wythe county, Vir^ ginia, in 1763, and was there married to Miss Rhoda Cole, the sister of Maj. Stephen Cole, and in 1801 emigrated to Wayne county, Kentucky, where he remained until the year 1815. In the last mentioned year he moved to Ten-^ nessee, and from thence, in November, 1817, to Cooper county, Missouri. The company of which he was a mem- ber, came overland in wagons, and crossed the Mississippi river above Alton, and the Missouri river at Boonville. He settled about fourteen miles southwest of Boonville, his house being located in the bottom, one-quarter of a mile north of the present site of Bunceton, a few yards west of the railroad leading from Boonville to Tipton. He and his family lived during the first winter in a half face camp. All his children came with him except Mary Weatherford, who remained in Kentucky. He was married twice. The names of the children of his first wife were William, Peter, Lawrence C, Joseph and James Madison - five sons, and Nancy, Nelly, Mary, Johanna, Frances, Rhoda and Zilpha - seven daughters ; there were also three other children who died when infants, whose names are not known. Nancy married Thomas B. Smiley; Nelly, James D. Campbell ; Mary, Archibald Weatherford ; Johanna, John Kelly ; Rhoda, B. W. Levens, and Zilpha, Pemberton Cason.

Joseph Stephens' first wife died in 1822, and in 1824 he married Miss Catherine Dickson ; this union was blessed with four sons: John D., George D., Andrew J., and Thomas H. B., and five daughters: Margaret, Alpha, Harriet, Isabella and Lee Ann, making in all twenty-four children of which he was the father.

Of the children of Joseph Stephens who emigrated to Cooper county with him, Joseph, James M., Nelly and Zilpha are still alive. Joseph Stephens was the first settler in that part of the county. At the time of his settlement, his nearest neighbor being seven miles distant. He was a very prosperous farmer, and an excellent manager in business aff'airs, never went in debt, and advised his children to follow his example. He was economical and saving, and just in all his dealings with others. He was a generous, good neighbor, a man of good moral character,

He gave all his sons a tract of land, and his daughters a negro slave, and to each of his children he also gave a horse, saddle and bridle, a cow and calf, a sow and pigs, a flock of sheep, and a bed and bedding. He then warned them to take care of and add to this property, as it was all he ever intended to give them.

He died in May, 1836, at the age of 73 years. He was always a strong Jackson man, and took considerable interest in politics, but never would become a candidate for or accept any office.

John Miller, the father of Judge George W. Miller, was born in South Carolina, and raised in McLanburg, North Carolina. When he was 20 years old, he moved to Knox county, Tennessee, where he married and resided for a few years. About the year 1805, he emigrated to Christian county, Kentucky; and in 1818, he came to Missouri, then a territory, and settled near Glasgow, in Howard county. He was elected from that county to the House of Representatives in 1822 and 1824. The other members of the Legislature from that county in 1822, were Alfred Bayse, the fiuher of Judge George W. Miller's wife, Nicholas S. Burkhart, Ignatius P. Ovvings, and Stephen Trigg ; and in 1824, Alfred Bayse, William J. Redd, William Ward, and Edward V. Warren. He always said that he would keep out of politics if he remained in Howard county, although it might keep him poor all his life.

He moved to Cooper county in the fall of the year 1825, and settled within the present limits of Pilot Grove township. In the previous spring he had sent his son, George W., accompanied by a hand, to make a crop at his future home, and as young George was an industrious boy, loving work so well that he could lie down and slee-p by it^ of course they must have succeeded w^ell with their under-, taking.

But history will show that Mr. Miller did not keep out of politics as he had intended, when he moved from Howard county, as he was elected to the State Senate in 1828, on the Jackson ticket, and re-elected to the same office in 1832, having served in that capacity for eight years. In 1836 he was selected to carry the returns of the presidential election of this State, for that year, to Washington City. In 1838 he was again elected to the House of Representatives. He was also appointed Indian agent at Omaha by president Polk.

The father of John Miller was of Scotch-Irish decent, and came from Ireland to this country a short time before the Revolution. He was a soldier in the war of the Revolution during the whole time it continued, until he was killed in the battle of Utau Springs. He belonged to a company of cavalry, and fell by the side of his friend and comrade in arms, Mr. Johnston, the great grandfather of James H. Johnston, the present Prosecuting Attorney of Cooper county, who gave the following account of his death : **As the battle was about being closed, Mr. Miller was heard to shout, 'They are fleeing,' and at that instant he was shot from his horse.

This happened about four months before the birth of John Miller, and about one month after his birth the Tories set fire to the house in which his widowed mother resided, and burned it to the ground. As it was then winter, and the weather very cold, Mrs. Miller became sick from the exposure, and died in a few days, leaving John and his three little brothers in destitute circumstances, and without any known relatives in the United States.

Mr. Johnson, who was with their father when he was killed, took charge of the little orphans, and, in due time, they were bound out, and raised separate from each other.

John Miller survived all his brothers, and died in this county at the advanced age of eighty-five years, honored and respected by his countrymen, with the consolation that the world had been bettered by his having lived in it. He was an earnest, zealous member of the Cumberland Presbyterian church. In politics he was always a Democrat.

Peyton R. Hayden was born in Bourbon county, Kentucky, on the 22d day of February, 1796, and came to Old Franklin, Howard county, Missouri, in 1817, and there married in December, 1819, Miss Maria Adams, daughter of the Hon. John Adams, sister of Judge Washington, and Mr. Andrew Adams, of Boonviile, and the niece of Judge John Boyle, of Kentucky, and then settled with his family the same month in the village of Boonviile, where he remained up to the time of his death, which took place on the 26th day of December, 1855. -^^ ^^^ the first attorney admitted to the Boonviile bar - in March, 1819. He first taught school in Howard county for twelve months, for a livelihood, being a poor young man who had cast his lot among strangers in what was then almost a wilderness, and there was not then sufficient practice to support one lawyer. He practiced law in all the courts in western Missouri, and in the State Supreme Court with Hamilton R. Gamble. Edward Bates, Charles R. French, Atiel' Leonard, John F. Ryland and others, who afterwards became eminent. He was a leading and successful lawyer, having accummulated considerable property. He was noted for his zeal in advocating the cause of his client, and for his great energy and untiring industry. He was a man of affable manners, kind hearted and charitable, and always took undisguised pleasure to aid by counsel and advice, the efforts of the young members of the har, struggling for practice. Judge Washington Adams and Emmett R. Hayden his son, were law students under his teaching who became eminent in their profession, both of whom are yet practicing law in Boonville.

His younger son, Henry C. Hayden, studied law under Judge Washington Adams, and practiced the same successfully in Calloway county, Missouri, until 1870, and then removed to Saint Louis and engaged in the practice in partnership with the Hon. John B. Henderson, until the ist of August, 1873, when he died at Long Branch where he had gone to spend the summer with his family. Peyton R. Hayden was a Whig in politics, but never made a political speech nor was he ever an aspirant for office. He was a kind and indulgent father, a good neighbor and citizen, and died honored and respected by all who knew him. His funeral was attended and his memory honored by all the citizens.