Macon County, Missouri - Biographical sketches, 1910 (part 13 of 20)

Mr. Walker was born in Round Grove township, Macon county, Missouri, on the 30th of November, 1845, and is a son of John P. and Mary (Brown) Walker, both of whom were born in the state of Virginia, where the respeetive families, of English lineage, were early founded. John P. Walker was reared and educated in the Old Dominion, where his father was a successful plante id a man of prominence and influenee, having been a native of Virginia and having there passed his entire life. John P. Walker eame to Missouri in the year of 1839, making the trip from New Orleans up the Mississippi river to St. Louis and thenee coming overland with team and wagon to Macon county, where he seeured a traet of government land and reelaimed a good farm. He was one of the pioneers of Round Grove township and was one of the most progressive eitizens of the county, where he wielded much influence in publie affairs. He was a man of strong individuality and exeellent intelleetual attainments, so that he was admirably equipped for leadership in thought and aetion. During the early period of his residence in this county his services were in requisition as a school teacher, and he proved a most able and successful instructor in the pioneer schools, He served for twelve years in the office of county surveyor, and while incumbent of this position did much important work which has effeetually stood the test of time. He was also elected to the bench of the county court, and was presiding judge of the same for a number of years. He was a man of most gracious personality and of impregnable integrity, leaving an indelible and beneficent impress upon the history of Macon county, on whose roll of honored pioneers his name merits an enduring place. He continued to reside on his fine homestead farm until his death, and his devoted wife was summoned to the life eternal, later. She was a consistent and active member of the Baptist church, and in polities Judge Walker was ever a stalwart advocate of the principles and policies for which the Democratic party has stood sponsor in a generic way. Judge and Mrs. Walker became the parents of five sons and four daughters, and all save one of the daughters attained to years of maturity. The five sons and two of the daughters are now living. Mrs. Walker's father, a Virginian by birth, was a valiant soldier in the war of 1812.

William G. Walker, whose name initiates this review, passed his childhood and youth on the old homestead which was the place of his birth, and his earliest experiences in connection with the practical affairs of life were in connection with the work on the farm. He was afforded the advantages of the common schools of the locality and period and also had the gracious surroundings and influences of a home of distinctive culture and refinement. After the close of the war between the states he became identified with the civil engineering work in connection with railroad construction. In this line of work he was identified with the building of the Missouri & Mississippi Railroad, the Santa Fe system and other lines. He has been to a greater or less degree actively identified with agricultural pursuits in his native county from his youth to the present time. He has maintained his residence in the city of Macon since 1901,

In 1872 Mr. Walker was elected county surveyor, and in this office he ably carried forward the work which has previously been assigned to the eare of his honored father. He held this ineumbeney for a period of eight years, and since that time he has devoted his attention largely to the real-estate business, in which his operations have been of wide scope and important order in a relative way. To him was assigned the disposing of the lands owned in Macon eounty by the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad Company, and he has had much to do with the material and eivie development and progress of his native county, where his name has ever stood exponent of integrity and honor in all the relations of life and where his circle of friends is limited only by that of his acquaintanceship, which is exceptionally wide and representative. He served as county superintendent of schools from 1869 to 1871, and has ever taken a deep interest in providing the best of school facilities in the eounty, as well as in all other matters that touch civic prosperity and social well being. He is aligned as a staunch supporter of the cause of the Demoeratie party and is strongly fortified in his opinions as to matters of public pol He is affiliated with the Maeon lodge of Free & Aecepted Masons, and with the local lodge of the Benevolent & Protective Order of Elks. Both he and his wife have long been zealous and valued members of the Presbyterian ehurch in Macon.

In the year 1871 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Walker to Miss Sarah C. Thompson, who was born and reared in Macon county and who is a daughter of the late Granville Thompson, a farmer by voeation and one of the honored citizens of the eounty. Mr. and Mrs. Walker have one son and six daughters: Fannie and Maude who now resides in Lethbridge, Canada; Stella, who resides in Seattle, Washington; Lela, who resides in Chicago. Nellie and Norma live with their parents in Macon, as also the son Clyde, who at this writing is attending sehool at Columbia, Missouri.

William E. Moss

The able and popular superintendent of schools in Macon county is undoubtedly one of the youngest incumbents ever called to this responsible position in this county, and in his administration of the affairs of his important office he has fully justified the wisdom of those through whose suffrages he was chosen. Mr. Moss is a native son of Macon county and a scion of one of its old and honored pioneer families. The name which he bears had been indissolubley identified with the annals of this seetion of the state from a very early period in its history and has ever stood exponent of sterling character and loyal citizenship, as one generation has followed another on to the stage of life's activities.

Mr. Moss was born in Round Grove township, Macon county, Missouri, on the 15th of May, 1880, and is a son of Francis M. and Sarah J. (Hutton) Moss, both of whom are likewise natives of this county; the father was born in Round Grove township and the mother in Middle Fork township. Francis M. Moss was reared and educated in Macon county and his entire active career has been one of close identification with the great basie art of agrieulture, under whose influences and labors he grew to maturity. He is now the owner of a finely improved landed estate in his native township, and is one of the representative farmers and highly honored citizens of the county. He is a Democrat in his political proclivities but has never desired publie office. The only position of this order of which he has ever been ineumbent was that of road overseer. His wife is a zealous member of the Christian church. To them have been born five children - two sons and three daughters - all of whom are living.

James Moss, the paternal grandfather of the subjeet of this review, was likewise a native of Round Grove township, this county, where he became a successful farmer. At the inception of the Civil war he tendered his services in defense of the cause of the Confederacy, and enlisted in the Regiment of Missouri Volunteer Infantry. He was with his command in a number of important engagements and served under General Price. He was captured, and was confined for a considerable period in the federal prison at Alton, Illinois. After his release he started for his home but died en route, while in the city of St. Louis. His wife survived him by many years and died in Macon county. They became the parents of three sons and two daughters, all of whom still maintain their home in Macon county except one of the sons, who resides in Monroe county. James Moss, the honored veteran of the Civil war, in which he sacrificed his life, was a son of Carlos Moss, who came from Kentucky to Missouri, becoming one of the early settlers of Macon county, where he seeured a tract of government land and eventually developed a produetive farm. Here he continued to reside until his death.

Wiliam E. Moss, whose name initiates this artiele, passed his boyhood days on the old homestead farm in Round Grove township, and after duly availing himself of the advantages of the publie schools of his native county he contuined his studies in turn in McGee College, at College Mound, and in the Chillicothe Normal School, at Chillicothe. After leavig this institution he devoted his attention to teaching in the schools of Macon county, and he continued to be successfully engaged in pedagogie work of this order for a period of nine years. In 1897 he was elected to his present responsible office of superintendent of schools for Macon county, and his administration has been one of energy, eareful system and marked diserimination, so that he has done much to further the efficiency of the work of the schools of the county. His term of office will expire in 1911. Mr. Moss is aligned as a staunch advocate of the principles and policies of the Demoeratie party, is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias, and both he and his wife hold membership in the Methodist Episcopal church. He is well known throughout his native county, and his circle of friends is limited only by that of his aequaintaneeship.

Bertha Cook, who likewise was born and reared in Macon county and who is a daughter of Jeremiah L. Cook, a representative of Liberty township. Mr. and Mrs. Moss have three daughters, - Lucile, and Hazel and Helen, who are twins.

Among the men of Macon county who are known as self-made men there is none more justly deserves the title than the subject of this brief sketeh, Mr. John T. Doneghy, who was for many years actively engaged in merchandising and banking at La Plata, but who is now living praetically retired in the eity of Macon, Missouri. Mr. Doneghy is a native of Danville, Boyle county, Kentucky, where he was born on February 18, 1852, and is a son of James and Kate (Campbell) Doneghy, who were also born and reared in that state. The family from which Mr. Doneghy sprang, was among the old and well known ones in Kentucky and Maryland. » The first of them to become a resident of Missouri was the father of our subject, who emigrated to this State in 1855. He located on a traet of land near Independence, and eontinued to reside there until his untimely death in 1862, when he became one of the first vietims of that great Civil war that darkened this land from 1861 to 1865.

John T. Doneghy obtained his education at Bryant's Academy, Independence, Missouri. He was obliged to begin life for himself at a very early age, and began making a meager living for himself when he was but fourteen, by working as a clerk in a general store at Independence. He continued his industry in this capacity until he reached the age of twenty. In 1874 he moved to La Plata accepting a position as clerk for his uncle, T. C. Campbell, who was operating a store there. Some time afterwards he and his brother purchased their uncle's interest in the business and formed a partnership under the firm name of "J. C. Doneghy & Brother." The business flourished under the wise and productive management they applied to it, and they continued to carry it on successfully for more than twenty years. In 1894, J. T. Doneghy purchased his brother's interest in the establishment, and from then until 1900 he continued the business alone. In the year last named he disposed of the stock and all that went with it, and years later he became a resident of Macon, where he has ever since resided.

Although seemingly retired from the daily exactions of a large business, Mr. Doneghy is by no means an idle man. He is vice-president of the Savings Bank of La Plata, and still has large interests in the locality of that town which requires his close and diligent attention.

He is also a direetor of the State Exchange Bank of Macon, and is connected with other productive activities of this city. His active mind and strong physique could not be satisfied with a life of ease and leisure, and although he has changed the form he has not lessened the volume of his engagements or diminished the intensity of his energy. The affairs of the city, county, state and nation enlist his earnest and serviceable attention and command his active and intelligent support in whatever he believes to be right. No movement for the advancement of the county or city goes without his co-operation in the most substantial way, and no project for the general welfare of the people eseapes his notice or lacks his energetic assistance. He is an ardent Democrat in polities, but while he always gives his party loyal and effective support, he has steadfastly refused to accept a political office of any kind, or rank, having no fondness for the distinction of official station and being very averse to its exactions and responsibilities.

On May 20, 1885, Mr. Doneghy was united in marriage in Mexico, Missouri, with Miss Mary M. Craddock, a daughter of Samuel F. Craddock, a prominent lawyer of that town. Mrs. Doneghy is a native of this state, but her father was born and reared in Munfordville, Kentueky. One child has been born to them, their son John T. Doneghy, Jr, who is now (1910) a senior in Yale University, where he is preparing himself for a business career.

In conelusion we can truly say that Mr. Doneghy is in every sense a self-made man. The Civil war stripped him of all possessions that would have been his by inheritance, yet he rose from the ruin and rebuilt his estate to proportions surpassing those which dignified it before the disaster came. He has ever been a man of peace, settling all eontroversies by persuasion and coneession in conferences of reason, never appealing to force of any kind, never suing anybody or being sued in his life. By those who know him well he is admired and esteemed as few men are, and by all that know him slightly or have knowledge of his record and career, he is regarded as a fine type of the most exalted American manhood. Both his private life and business career are above reproach and universally acknowledged to be altogether ereditable to him.

Francis Dunn Jones

Miner, musie teacher, editor, poet, preacher and man of affairs, Franeis Dunn Jones of Bevier, this county, has eontributed to the land of his adoption a stimulus for good and an artistie inspiration in many lines of endeavor, and has also aided in its material development and moral and mental uplifting in ways and to an extent that has won him the esteem of all who know him and a high rank in the eitizenship of the county and state. He has given to the productive forces of Missouri both brawn and brain, and has made an excellent record as a worker in all the departments of industry in which his faculties have been employed.

Mr. Jones is a native of South Wales and the son of David W. and Elizabeth (Jones) Jones, also natives of that part of the Welsh country. He was born in 1859, and when he was but a year old his father came to this country and located in Pennsylvania, where he was foreman of a mine for a number of years. In 1881 he came to Missouri and took up his residenee at Bevier in Macon county, where he died in November, 1893. His marriage with Elizabeth Jones oceurred in 1838, and by it he became the father of eleven children. Four of these are living: William, whose residence is at Reading, Pennsylvania; Watkin, who lives at Donaldson in the same state; Mary A., the wife of Jonathan Davis, a citizen of Iowa, and Francis Dunn. The mother of these children died in 1868, and in 1869 the father married a second time, uniting himself with Miss Elizabeth Thomas, who was also born in South Wales. They had one child, their daughter Elizabeth, who is now the wife of David G. Thomas, at one time state mine inspector of the state of Wyoming. After his arrival at Bevier the father engaged in mining there during the remainder of his life.

Franeis D. Jones was educated in the publie or state sehools of his native land and thoroughly instructed in musie there by Prof. T. Price, a renowned musical teacher and composer of that country. After completing his edueation, the young man, the theme of this writing, whose parents were far distant from him, making their way to comfort and consequence in a foreign country, worked in the mines in Wales for a few years. He, also, came to the United States with a view to bettering his fortunes, making the trip in 1880 and living for a time in Pennsylvania. He became a resident of Missouri and Macon eounty, finding a home in a region somewhat similar to his native heath in the mining distriet of Bevier, where he located. Here he mined coal and taught musie for a period of about eight years, mak ing headway in the world in the accumulation of some means and gaining in favor and popularity among the people.

In September, 1889, he founded The Bevier Appeal, of which he is still the editor and proprietor, being the oldest newspaper editor in continuous service in Macon eounty. He is especially well fitted for his work in the field of letters, having considerable seholastie attainments, a rendy and fluent pen, a comprehensive grasp of publie affairs and a high sense of duty. He is an accomplished musician and a great lover of musie. And he has another gift of intelleetual power among the ornamental and more graceful lines of literary ability. His father was a poet of ability and celebrity in the Welsh language, and the son has inherited the talent and uses it in a different tongue. He has written many English sonnets and other poems which are esteemed as productions of high merit and have given him a wide reputation as a refined and graceful writer of verse.

In politieal affairs Mr. Jones is independent of party control, bestowing his suffrage aecording to his best judgment without reference to partisian considerations, choosing his candidates according to their worth and wholly apart from any claim their party alliances might seem to give them. He has always avoided the turmoil of political eontentions and might very properly be said to have no party ties at all. In September, 1882, he was married to Miss Jennie Jones, a native of Macon county whose parents came to this region from South Wales. Of the nine children born to the union six are living: Myfanwy, whose home is in Denver, Colorado; and Anna, Frank, David, Gwenwyfar and Jennie, who are living in this state. The father is a Knight of Pythias and a Modern Woodmen of America in fraternal relations, and in religious affiliation he is connected with the First Baptist church, in which he is the leader of the choir. He is a preacher in his church organization and has been of considerable service to the community in this capacity, although he has no regular charge or congregation. Among the citizens of Macon he stands high and is universally esteemed.

Robert Allen Guthrie

This gentleman, who is one of the leading men of Macon in business, social and church circles, was born at College Mound, Missouri, on January 2, 1875, and was brought by his parents to the city of Macon when he was but one year old. Since then he has lived in the city and ever since reaching maturity has been active and zealous in the work of promoting its welfare, aiding and augmenting its forces of progress and building up its industrial and commercial power and influence. No project of merit in which the enduring good ol 1ts people has been involved has been without his active support and intelligent, broad-minded direction.

He is a son of a distinguished sire, Capt. Ben Eli Guthrie, a sketeh of whose life will be found in this volume, and began his education in the publie schools of Macon. His scholastie training was completed in Missouri Valley College, located at Marshall, Missouri. After leaving that institution he engaged in newspaper work, aeting as secretary and treasurer of the corporation that owned and conducted the Macon Times, until 1898. Previous to his connection with the paper he was employed for a few years in the Bank of Macon. "This gave him an insight into and a taste for the banking business and he returned to it a few years later. When he severed his connection with the Macon Times in 1898 he assumed the management of the La Plata Home Press, and was the controlling spirit of that enterprising and able publication for about one year. In 1899 he accepted an appointment on the force of the First National Bank of Macon, and he remained in association with that institution until 1907, rising through successive steps on demonstrated merit to the position of cashier, and filling every position he held with great eredit to himself and benefit to the bank and its patrons.

On September 1, 1907, he resigned as eashier of the bank and accepted the position of secretary and treasurer of the Theodore Gary Investment Company, one of the most energetie, enterprising and progressive business institutions in the city of Macon. He is still acting in that capacity and the company is flourishing and enlarging its business as a result of its own enterprise and the care and capacity with whieh he performs his duties in its service, which, though at times onerous and exacting are in line with his tastes and his business training for effective work.

Mr. Guthrie is allied with the Democratie party in polities and an active worker for its success in all campaigns, but he has always refused to accept a politieal office, either by election or appointment, and has never consented to allow the use of his name as a candidate, preferring at all times to serve the state from the honorable post of private citizenship. His religious affiliation is with the Presbyterian church, and in the congregation to whieh he belongs he is a zealous worker and a leading man. He is a member of its board of deacons and the treasurer of the ehureh and its Sunday school, and engages earnestly in all its benevolent and uplifting work.

On November 7, 1900, Mr. Guthrie was united in marriage with Miss Effie Sharp, a daughter of J. P. and Mary L. (Stark) Sharp, who came to Missouri and Macon county from Kentucky many years ago. Mrs. Guthrie was born and reared in this county. She and her husband have two children, their daughters Allene and Mary Sue. "The parents move in the leading social eireles of the eity and are accounted as among its best and most useful citizens, contributing to all the forces for good at work among its people and stimulating others to exertion by their own industry for the general weal and the excellent examples of fidelity to duty which they give.

With twelve years of active general practice in this county as a physician and surgeon, Dr. James R. Hunt has had opportunity to win a large business and establish himself firmly in the regard and good will of the people, and he has used his opportunity to the best of advantage by faithfully performing his every duty and giving the publie the best service of which he has been eapable, which has been the best his circumstances and abilities have permitted. He has taken nothing for granted and been satisfied with nothing less than the best that was attainable. He has kept abreast of the most advanced thought and discovery in his profession by a elose and reflective study of its literature and a free interchange of thought and experience with its leading praetitioners all around him.

Dr. Hunt is a native of Macon county and his professional serviees have had the incentive, in addition to others, of being rendered to his own people - the men and women among whom he has grown to manhood and passed his life so far. He was born on April 18, 1874, the son of John Henry and Julia (Leathe) Hunt, born Oetober 16, 1839, the former a native of Kentucky and the latter of Virginia. The father became a resident of Macon county when he was but ten years of age and has been living within its eonfines ever sinee prosperously engaged in farming. His birth oceurred March 25, 1833 and his marriage on April 18, 1856. He and his wife became the parents of eight children three of whom are living: Ella, wife of George Brock of College Mound; George O., a successful Macon county farmer; and Dr. James R., the immediate subjeet of this sketeh. The father has been a life-long Demoerat in polities. He and the mother are still living and have their home at Callao.

Dr. Hunt was reared in the eity of Macon and began his scholastie training in its publie sehools, "This he completed at the Missouri State University, which he attended two years. At the end of his university course he began the study of medieine at St. Louis, attending the Beaumont Hospital Medical College, from which he was graduated with the degree of M. D. in 1897. He began his practice at Macon and for eight while performing with fidelity and zeal the duties of a general actitioner, he also served as physician and surgeon for the Central

Coal and Coke Company at that place. In June, 1906, he located at Callao, where he has been carrying on an increasing practice ever since. He has now reached the first rank of physicians in the eounty, and while standing well with his professional brethren, is also eordially respected and esteemed by all elasses of the people.

In connection with his practice he owns and operates a drug store in Callao, and to this he gives his persor tention to the extent of seeing that it is conducted with eve ird to the welfare of its patrons, and that all its work is firs in every partieular. "The utmost care is used in compounding preseriptions, and only the freshest and purest drugs are employed in the work. The general stock of the store is up to the highest standard, and the prices are always reasonable and fair.

While Demoeratie in his polities, the Doetor is not an active partisan, always believing that he does his part in helping to keep the people from illness and relieve their sufferings when sickness or disease assails them, without attempting to aid in governing them. Fraternally he is a member of the Masonie order, the Odd Fellows and the Woodmen. Professionally he is examiner for the New York and the Aetna Life Insurance Companies and the National Life Insurance Company, of Vermont. He was married on April 13, 1898, to Miss Nellie Gibbs Cromwell, a native of this county, born January 11, 1877. He has been very successful and is acknowledged to be one of the leading physieians of the eounty.

** Here shall the Press the People's right maintain, Unawed by influenee and unbribed by gain; Here patriot Truth her glorious precepts draw, Pledged to Religion, Liberty and Law.'"

This exalted sentiment, whieh Story penned as a motto for the Salem (Massaehuetts) Register many years ago, might fitly be written conspicuously on the Times-Democrat of Macon as that newspaper is conducted under the proprietorship and editorial management of Frederick H. Tedford, its present owner. It is the leading Democratic paper in the county, and the most potential organ of the party whose principles it advocates with such signal ability and force, and it has a hold on the regard and good will of the people that is solely due to merit of a high order.

tleman, and a writer of considerable fluency and force. He has served the people well in important public offices and has contributed to the wealth and power of the state by excellent work in mercantile lines. He also rendered good service for a number of the earlier years of his manhood in the transportation department of industriallife. In every position he has filled he has met all the requirements in a masterly manner and won high eommendation by the ability and integrity he has shown.

Mr. Tedford was born on a farm near Moberly, Randolph county, Missouri, on July 5, 1873, and is a son of John F. and Virginia (Baird) Tedford, the former a native of Missouri and the latter of Pennsylvania. The parents are both living and have their home in Moberly. The father served in the Confederate army in a Missouri regiment under the command of General Price from the beginning to the end of the Civil war. He participated in many a hard fought battle, endured the wearying and wearing draft of many a long march, suffered often for want of food and proper shelter, and finally was taken prisoner, and for a time languished in a military prison. During a portion of his military service he was under the command of Capt. Ben Eli Guthrie, a sketch of whom will be found in this work. His service was arduous, and, while he escaped being wounded, he found it, at all times, full of hardships and privation. But his paternal ancestors were Virginians and he was true to the section of his nativity and the family history, abiding by the convictions that pervaded it.

Frederick H. Tedford grew to manhood in Moberly and obtained his education in the publie schools of Moberly. After leaving school he entered the employ of the Wabash railroad company as an office boy at Moberly and remained with it in various positions until he reached the age of twenty-five years. In 1898 he was appointed chief deputy grain inspector for the state, with headquarters at Kansas City, and after serving well in that eapaeity six years, was appointed chief inspector and held the office three years. At the end of his term he spent a year on the road selling cement, then, in January, 1909, took charge of the Macon Times-Demoerat, which he is still in control of. The paper gives him opportunity for the full expression of his politieal convietions, as he has been a life-long Demoerat, and a student of publie affairs, and it also affords him an opportunity to advocate and defend what he believes in at all times. He does this with great ability and foree, and without fear or favor, keeping his paper in the first rank of its class and holding it ever up to a high standard of excellence.

and he is a deacon and the superintendent of the Sunday school in the eongregation to which he belongs. In fraternal life he is a member of the Masonie order of the Royal Arch degree, and also belongs to the Order of Elks. In 1897 he was united in marriage with Miss Gertrude MeCully of Macon. "They have two children, their daughter Frances M. and their son Howard William. The parents are reckoned among the leading citizens of Macon and have hosts of admiring friends wherever they are known. The father is a man of influence and prominence, with a potential voice in the publie affairs of the eity and eounty of his home and in the political councils of the state. He is a progressive and enterprising man in reference to publie improvements and the advancement and development of the region in whieh he lives, and at all times and under all circumstances does his part toward promoting them to the highest degree and in the most wholesome manner. Macon has no better citizen and none for whom all classes of the people have a higher regard, or in whom they have greater confidence,

James M. Randall

Retired farmer and veteran of the Civil war, and having met the claims of duty on both the farm and the battlefield in a manly and courageous way, James M. Randall of Callao has served his country well in lines of produetion in peaceful industry and defense in time of need. He was born at Canton, St. Lawrenee county, New York, on February 13, 1841, and is a son of Ora P. and Jane (Putnam) Randall, the former a native of Vermont and the latter of the state of New York. The parents were prosperous farmers in New York and also in Wiseonsin after their removal to that state in 1856.

The father was born in 1819 and died at his Wisconsin home in 1889, the mother following him to the other world two years later, passing away in 1891. After wrestling for years with the soil in the state of New York in an earnest endeavor to make it yield up it full mete of return for their systematie and well applied industry, they looked westward and saw a winning smile on the face of the countr: yielded to its persnasions and moved their family to Waupaca county, Wisconsin, locating near Oshkosh in the adjoining county of Winnebago, which was then, as it is now, the largest town in a large extent of the surrounding country and the point of identification for a very considerable region. Here they improved a farm taken from the wilderness, and on it they passed the remainder of their days. They had five children but only two are living, James M. and his sister.

The Randall family is of English origin. Its first representative in this country was John Randall, who settled at Westerly, Rhode Island, where his oldest son, Peter Randall, was born in 1673. From there the family moved to Vermont, and some generations later to New York, becoming domesticated in St. Lawrence county in that great commonwealth. The region in which it located was almost as much the frontier then as Wisconsin was when Ora P. Randall settled in it, and as Missouri was at the same time. It might be said with propriety, therefore, that this family has been a pioneer family from early colonial days, and if there be anything in the doctrine of heredity, it would still be one if there were any longer a frontier in this country for it to pitch its tent on.

James M. Randall grew to manhood in Wisconsin and obtained a limited education in the primitive schools of his boyhood on the western plains. After leaving school he engaged in farming and continued his operations in this line of industry until 1861. Being fervently attached to the Union and inspired by lofty patriotism in his devotion, he obeyed the first call for volunteers to defend it against dismemberment, and enlisted in Company B, Fourteenth Wisconsin infantry. He served in this company eleven months and during a portion of the time was orderly sergeant. While belonging to it he took part in the battle of Shiloh. In the summer of 1862 he was transferred to Company G, Twenty-first Wisconsin infantry and made second lientenant of it. In the spring of 1863 he was promoted captain, and served as such until he was dicharged in 1865,

While connected with Company G Captain Randall participated in the battles of Stone River, Perryville, Telehoma, Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge, Buzzard's Roost, Peach Tree Creek, and the siege and capture of Atlanta. He was then with Sherman in his victorious march to the sea, and afterward in the campaign in the Carolinas. He was discharged from the service at Goldsborough, North Carolina, in consequence of injuries received at Bentonville in the same state, his discharge taking place in 1865, after four years of service in which he faced death on many bloody fields, tramped thousands of miles on the mareh, and saw thousands of gallant men, among them some of his best beloved friends, fall before the withering fire of one of the most sanguinary conflicts of history.

After leaving the army Captain Randall returned to his former Wisconsin home and there followed farming until 1868. In that year he moved to Macon county, Missouri, and took up a new farm, which he farmed and improved until a few years ago, when he retired from all active pursuits. He was married on Decembe , 1863, to Miss Martha M. Pollard, a native of Wisconsin and a daughter of Martin and Rachel (Powers) Pollard, the former born in New Hampshire and the latter in Vermont. The Captain and Mrs. Randall have four children; Lena, the wife of P. A. Decker; Linden M., a prosperous farmer living in Macon county; Clinton L., and Mrs. Dr. Welch. The father is a Republican in politics and has served as county judge. He is a Blue Lodge Mason and a member of the Grand Army of the Republie fraternally and belongs to the Christian ehurch in religious affiliation.

The worthy son of a prominent, enterprising and successful sire, and combining in his parentage the sturdy strain of Old England's yeomanry and the all-daring, all-enduring spirit of the early New Yorkers, Bloom J. Simmons, one of the successful and progressive farmers and stock men of Eagle township in this county, has had the inspiring influence of good family traditions and examples to stir him to aetion and give him the confidence in himself that is usually necessary to success in any undertaking and scarcely ever fails to win a considerable measure of it. He is not a native of Missouri, but was born just aeross the great river in Pike county, Illinois, on July 11, 1853, but became a resident of the township in which he now resides when he was but two years of age, his parents locating in Eagle township in 1855.

Mr. Simmons is a grandson of Jacob Simmons, who was born and reared in England and came to the United States when he was a young man. He took up his residence in Rensselaer county, New York, and there his son, William H. Simmons, the father of Bloom J., was born in 1820. He remained in his native county until his marriage, then joined the tide of migration to the West, as it was then, locating in Pike county, Illinois, where he was actively and profitably engaged in general farming until 1855, when he moved his family to a farm of 320 aeres of land whieh he bought in Eagle township, Macon county, Missouri. He continued his general farming operations here and added a thriving and steadily expanding live stock industry, and both as a farmer and a stock man became prominent and highly successful, owning at one time 700 aeres of land, all under advaneed eultivation with a stock raising and feeding business commensurate with his acreage. Some years previous to his death, which oceurred in 1889, he divided his land among his children and retired from active pursuits.

efforts tell to his own advantage and the benefit of the section in which he lived, and rising to considerable consequence and influence in the community of his home, both in this state and Illinois. His political allegiance was given firmly and with ardor to the Republican party, and hne was an earnest and effeetive worker for its welfare. In 1842 he was united in marriage with Miss Sarah Wager, and by this marriage became the father of ten children, four of whom are living of the six that grew to maturity. They are: Harriet, the wife of James Wilson, who lives in Macon county; Bloom J., the subject of this writing; and Lafayett and Addie, the wife of Henry Muff, who are also residents of this county.

Bloom J. Simmons grew to manhood in Eagle township and obtained his education at Hickory Grove district school, which he attended about four months a year until he reached the age of seventeen. He then worked on his father's farm and assisted the family until 1876, when he began the battle of life for himself. A year or two later he moved to Minnesota, where he bought seventy acres of land and passed seven years actively occupied in farming, and during the greater part of the time, conducted a saw mill with great suecess and profit. In 1887 he returned to his former home in Macon county, Missouri, and located on a farm of 120 acres of land given him by his father. He sold all his interests in Minnesota and devoted himself wholly and with produetive energy to the eultivation of his land in this county and the development of an active and remunerative business in raising and feeding stock for the markets. His farm now comprises 200 acres and is nearly all under cultivation. It is well improved, skillfully tilled and has grown into considerable value and been also made very complete, convenient and attractive as a country home, being one of the admired farms in the township.

Mr. Simmons has been devoted to the progress and development of his loeality, giving all its publie affairs, its industries and its social life the benefit of his active aid and intelligent help in supervision, and stimulating others to exertion by the force of his example and his influence. He has been a member of the school board twenty-one years, and the value of his service to the people in this eapacity is shown by the elevated standard and excellent condition of the schools. He is a Republican in polities and a hard and efficient worker for the good of his party. On March 19, 1876, he was married to Miss Nancy Ann Wilson, a daughter of Richard and Sarah Wilson, esteemed residents of Macon county for many years. Five children have been born of the union and all of them are living. They are all, also, residents of Macon county and are: Sarah, the wife of Thomas Goodman; Dora, the widow of the late Emory Naylor; and Ada, Esther and Virgil, who are still at home with their parents.

This vigorous, progressive and successful farmer is a native of Macon county and has passed the whole of his life to the present time within its borders and been active and helpful in the development of its industries and the promotion of all of its elements of progress and power. He was born in Riehland township on December 8, 1856, and obtained his education in Seibert district school in that township. Selecting farming and raising stock as his occupation for life, he began very early in his manhood the career in those industries which has distinguished him as one of their energetie and enterprising promoters in this part of the county.

Mr. Carpenter is a grandson of Samuel Carpenter, who was born in Virginia and became an early settler in Cooper county, Missouri, where his son, Henry Carpenter, the father of John C., was born. Henry remained in that county until 1847, when he moved to Macon county and acquired the ownership of 400 acres of land, on which he conducted a highly successful and profitable business in farming and raising stock until the beginning of the Civil war. Then, inspired by a strong love of hisstate and firm faith in his political convictions, he gave himself up to her service by enlisting in the Confederate army under General Price He continued his military service until 1865, when he was taken prisoner and sent to a military prison at St. Louis, where he died. He participated in numerous engagements during the war, among them the battles of Lone Jack and Pea Ridge, and a host of encounters of minor historie importance.

He was united in marriage with Miss Naney E. Gilbreath of this eounty, and by this union became the father of seven children, five of whom are living: Samuel, whose home is in La Plata, this county; Hugh F., who is also a resident of Macon county; William H., who lives in Texas; John C., the subject of this memoir; and James N., who is one of the prosperous and progressive citizens of California. In polities the father was an active and loyal member of the Demoeratie party of the ultra state rights' school, and he gave his every energy, his most zealous service and finally his life in behalf of his political convictions and the wing of his party to which he belonged. He was a Baptist in religious faith and a member of Mission Baptist church. Industrious and frugal in the pursuits of peaceful industry, valiant and all-daring in war, and patient under the hardships and privations of prison life, he was a man of whom Missouri is justly proud as a representative of his citizenship, and whose memory is securely embalmed in the admiring regard of her people.

His son, John C. Carpenter, began his career as a farmer and stock man at the age of twenty-two, when he bought 120 acres of land as a base of operations and on which he has ever since lived, labored wisely and flourished in a gratifying measure. He has increased his farm to 225 aeres, improved it judieiously and brought it to a high state of development and productiveness. His stock industry has also been conducted with energy and capacity, and been kept up in magnitude to the limit of his resources for its successful and profitable prosecution, making it one of the leaders in its class in this part of the state.

Mr. Carpenter has also been active and helpful in promoting the welfare of the township and county and the substantial advancement of their people. He has served well and with approval as school director and in many other ways has been of decided benefit to the region in which he lives by his enterprise, breadth of view and publiespirit. On March 3, 1878, he was united in marriage with Miss Ella Graves, a daughter of John R. and Mary (Gates) Graves, esteemed residents of Macon county, of which she is a native. She and her husband are the parents of three children, all of whom are living. They are: Aura, the wife of W. E. Hertzler, of Independence township, this county; and Wilbur and Nellie, who are living at home. The father's political allegiance is given to the Democratic party and he is very energetie and zealous in its service. Although in no sense an office seeker himself, he does all he can to aid in securing the success of his party, the election of its candidates in all campaigns and the maintenance and increase of its power at all times. He is regarded as one of the leading men in his township and is highly esteemed for his demonstrated worth and sterling manhood, whieh find expression in elevated and serviceable citizenship.

J General Gilmore Slaughter

Prominent among the progressive and prosperous farmers of Richland township, a leading man in the live stock industry of the same locality, and an important and influential citizen in the social and political life of his community, General Gilmore Slaughter is a credit to Macon county and to the stalwart manhood of Missouri. He is not a native of the state, having been born in Fayette, Seneca county, New York, on June 16, 1863, but has lived in Macon county ever since he was seven years of age, and during the whole of his youth and manhood to the present time, has been actively and fruitfully engaged in promoting its industries and advancing the substantial and enduring welfare of its people along all lines of wholesome progress.

Mr. Slaughter is a son of Andrew B. and Mary (Brown) Slaughter, the former born in Germany in 1827 and died January 31, 1895, and the latter a native of Seneca county, New York, where she was born September 10, 1823, and died January 26, 1872, in Macon county, Missouri. The father came alone to this country when he was fifteen years old, arriving in 1845 and taking up his residence in the town of Fayette in the great Empire state of the East. There he met with and married Miss Mary Brown and by this marriage he became the father of four children, three of whom are living and named as follows: Jacob, a resident of Macon county, Missouri; Chester, whose home is in Fayette, New York, and General Gilmore, the immediate subject of this brief review. The father brought his family to Macon county in 1870 and settled in Richland township. Here he was actively engaged in farming on a tract of eighty acres of land, which he bought soon after his arrival in the locality, during the remainder of his life. He died January 31, 1895, His birth occurred July 9, 1827.

His son, General G. Slaughter, obtained his education in the Davis district school of Richland township, and after completing its course of instruction, worked out by the month and assisted the family until 1884. In that year he bought sixty acres of good land as a start in the industries of farming and raising stock, to which he had determined to devote himself, and to which he has adhered with unwavering persisteney ever since. He has been very suecessful in his undertakings and all his years of labor have been years of progress. He now owns 318 acres of land, and has his farm well improved with attractive modern buildings, equipped with everything needed for its advanced cultivation, and brought to a high state of development and produetiveness. His stock industry is also a thriving and profitable one, and both this and his farming operations are conducted with vigor, intelligence and skill.

On February 27, 1884, Mr. Slaughter married with Miss Mary E. C. Percival, a daughter of Jered Erostus and Susan (Allen) Percival. (She was born April 12, 1844 and died January 8,1893.) They were long esteemed residents of Macon county. Jered E. Percival was born at Shounee Town, Illinois, January 6, 1841 and died October 4, 1869 in Macon county, Missouri. He served in the Civil war as a member of Company I, Seventh Missouri Cavalry. Mrs. Slaughter was born and reared in Macon county, and they had three children: Mary, the wife of William Yates of this county ; Susan, the, wife of Harvey S. Easley, also of Maeon county, a sketeh of whom will be found in this work; and Bedford G., who lives on the home place. The father is an ardent Republican in his political allegiance and a zealous and energetie worker for the good of his party. He is a member of the Christian church and takes a leading part in all its worthy undertakings for the improvements of the community and the good of mankind. Mrs. Slaughter's death occurred March 2, 1908.

Mr. Slaughter has been in all respeets the architect of his own fortune, and his record is altogether to his eredit. It shows a gratifying and steady progress from nothing to consequence, the results being aehieved wholly by his own efforts and ability. He is a man of prominenee and influenee in his township and held in universal esteem for the uprightness of his life, the eraon of his character and his usefulness as a citizen.

Henry Willard Hall

Nature has no choice spots for the birth of her great men. When her purposes require it she is all Athens, all Stratford-on-Avon, all rural Virginia, in which she brought forth a race of heroes for our Revolutionary struggle. Neither is she strenuous in her exactions as to age. Often she endows young men with the breadth of view, the comprehensiveness of grasp and the ready and resourceful ability for great affairs which is ordinarily the result of long training in practical experience and through other means of development. In his way and to the extent of his operations, Henry Willard Hall is an illustration of this faet. He is but thirty-six years old, or searcely that, and yet he is operating as a farmer and stockman on a scale which is the goal of many a long life in this part of the country and yet is but his starting point.

Mr. Hall was born in Maeon county, Missouri, on May 17, 1874, and is a son of Henry and Mrs. Augusta (Pulver) Hall, the former born in Michigan in 1829, and the latter in this county. They were married in 1873 and had three children, only two of whom are living, Henry W. and his brother, Charles, who lives in Adair county, this state. "The father was a carpenter and worked at his trade in many states, being of a roving disposition and keeping on the move at intervals until his death, which oceurred in June, 1901.

His son, Henry W., obtained his education, it might be said, on the wing, attending schools in a number of different places, but prineipally and her alone, she unbosoms her treasures of legal lore and success in the application of it in the same generous measure. A striking illustration of these truths is to be found in the career of Joseph Parke, of La Plata, one of the eminent attorneys and counselors of Macon county, who has been assiduons in his attentions before the altar of Themis, and has found his fidelity an open sesame to her storehouse, securing a large measure of professional reputation and a substantial return in more material acquisitions.

Mr. Parke is a native of Henry eounty, Iowa, where he was born in 1848. His father, John Parke, was born and reared in Pennsylvania, in the eastern part, and emigrated to Henry county, Iowa, in 1842. There he worked industriously at his trade as a cabinet-maker until his death on June 7, 1851. In 1820 he was married to Miss Sarah Barry, a native of Pennsylvania, who was born January 1, 1804, and they became the parents of ten children, six of whom grew to maturity. our subject being the youngest. The mother survived her husband a full quarter of a century, dying on Christmas day, 1876. By his death she was left with a large family of young children to rear and educate, but, although the task was one of great magnitude and difficulty, she entered upon it with resolute courage and performed it with fidelity and a considerable degree of success. :

Joseph Parke was reared and educated in the city of Ottumwa, Towa. He was deprived of the guidance and assistance of his father at the age of three years, but he found in his mother a faithful friend and a safe and sympathetie adviser. Besides, he had within himself the qualities that compel success and the disposition to use them. His direct scholastice training was necessarily limited, owing to the eireumstances of the family, but its deficiencies have been made up by Mr. Parke's extensive reading, observation and refleetion, and been richly atoned for in the lessons of experience and his wisdom in laying them to heart. He is a gentleman of extensive general information, and of positive and acenrate knowledge of many subjects of the highest human interest, And, what is more to his eredit, his acquisitions in every line of effort are the fruits of his own ability and energetie practical industry.

Mr. Parke began the study of law in 1874, at Kirksville, Missouri, and was admitted to the bar on June 11, 1875. He at once began the practice of his profession at La Plata, and has been engaged in it there ever since. He has risen to eminence as an advocate and counselor, exhibiting on all occasions extensive knowledge of the law and its construction by the courts, and admirable skill and shrewdness in the appli- eation of his acquirements. His professional brethren esteem him highly for his acumen and comprehensive ability, and the whole people hold him in cordial regard because of his integrity, his progressiveness and his exalted and serviceable citizenship. While pushing his own car of progress with all the energy and prudence he could eommand, he has not been oblivious of the general welfare of the community around him and has been sedulous and constant in helping to proteet and promote the best interests of its people.

Although he has never held or desired a political offiee, he is an netive worker for the principles and candidates of the Republican pariy, of whieh he has been a zealous member from the dawn of his manhood. He has taken a warm and earnest interest in all the details of its campaigns, serving as a delegate to all its state conventions for many years, and a national delegate in 1896 to the convention which nominated Wm. McKinley for president, and doing all in his power to give its assemblies wise eounsel and its activities proper guidanee and trend. His services in this respect are so highly appreciated by both the party leaders and the rank and file that he is regarded as one of the party's best advisers and his judgment is alw deferred to in matters of party judgment. In fraternal relations he is allied with the Masonie order, and his membership in it is highly valued beeause of the interest he takes in its work and the judieious eounsel he is able to give its local authorities in every time of need. Mr. Parke is able to give all of the work in the different degrees from memory, even to the burial service, with the exception of the lectures of the second degree.

In 1875 Mr. Parke united in marriage with Miss Lottie MeQuary, a native of this county. All of the eight children born to them are living. They are: Jay Clinton, eashier D. & R. G. Railway, Trinidad, Colorado; Austin E., a suecessful lawyer living at Los Angeles, California; Charlotte, the wife of T. E. Francis, attorney, of St. Louis, with the firm of Boyle & Priest, and reporter for the St. Louis Court of Appeals; Grace Linn, the wife of Dr. T. J. Collins, who lives at Trenton, Missouri; Chester J., engineer for the Prairie Oil Gas Company, at La Plata; Mrs. Mary Stagg, wife of J. B. Stagg, assistant civil engineer A. T. S. Fe R. R. at Topeka, Kansas, and Josephine Kay and Pauline, who are living at home with their father. Mr. Parke is approaching the sunset of life and he finds his evening serene and benignant because his day has been active and productive. It has been filled with useful labor for himself and others, and given him a record of fidelity to every duty and capaeity for every requirement.

This progressive and prosperous young farmer, who is one of the most suecessful and enterprising men engaged in this line of productive industry in the township of Richland, Macon county, is a son of Asa W. and Mary M. (Murry) MeDavitt, a brief sketeh of whom appears elsewhere in this volume, and both in his character as a man and his record as a farmer and stoekman admirably sustains the family reputation and is a credit to the citizenship of the locality in which he lives. He is not a native of Missouri, having been born in Adams county, Nebraska, during the residence of his parents in that state. But the greater part of his life to the present time (1910) has been passed here and he is a thorough Missourian in everything but his birth.

Mr. MeDavitt's life began on Mareh 10, 1876, and his education in the distriet schools of Macon county, to whieh he was brought by his parents in his boyhood. He completed his scholastie training at Lombard College in Galesburg, Illinois, and after leaving that institution taught sehool one year. Thereafter, preferring to make farming and raising stock his occupation, for a time at least, if not for life, he worked on his father's farm unti] 1889, then went to work improving and developing one of his own, comprising eighty acres, which his father gave him when he attained his majority. He has adhered steadfastly to his chosen employment ever since and has made it pay well by giving it elose and eareful attention and applying to it all the information he has been able to gather from studious reading and reflective observation of the teachings of his experience. His methods in his farming operations and also in his stock industry are modern and are applied with a vigor and intelligence that are bound to command success, and this he has enjoyed in a marked degree, making his farm a silent but eloquent testimonial to the value of enterprise and progressiveness in agriculture and his live stock business an equally strong argument for the same elements of power in that line of endeavor.

Enlightened, wideawake and energetie as he is, with reference to his own affairs, he is no less so in connection with the welfare and progress of his township and eounty. With a true eitizen's loyal devotion to the loeality of his home, he gives every commendable project for its improvement and advance in development and commercial or industrial power his ready, active and effective support, acting on the convietion that the general well being of any community promotes the interests of every one living in it, and that it is the duty of all to do whatever they can to bring the region in which their lot has been cast to the highest and best eondition its resources will allow, and help to make its people as intelligent, progressive and comfortable as possible under the circumstances of the case. His farm now comprises 105 acres and he has it all under eultivation.

On August 17, 1889, Mr. MeDavitt was united in marriage with Miss Ruth Reesman, of La Plata, a daughter of David B. and Cordelia (Randal) Reesman, prominent residents of that town. The marriage has resulted in three children, Elwood, David W. and Mary, all of whom are still members of the parental household. "The father is a Republican in polities and a Knight of Pythias in fraternal life. He and his wife are zealous and devoted members of the Universalist ehureh and take à leading part in all its useful exertions for the good of the community and its residents. They are looked upon as among the leading citizens of their township and stand high in the regard and good will of all its people.

Born and reared in this state, aiding in its defense against armed invasion and internal strife during the Civil war, and engaging energetically and productively in its industries throughout his mature life to this time (1910), Franeis Marion Curtis, of Riehland township, Macon county, has been closely connected with its progress and a valuable contributor to its development and improvement in every material, mental, moral and commercial phase of its varied and multitudinous aetivity. Although not a native of Macon county, he has lived in it for a continuous period of twenty-eight years since his last location among its people, and before that passed the greater part of his youth in Missouri. He has therefore had plenty of opportunity to become known to its inhabitants and win their esteem by his uprightness and business enterprise as a man and his usefulness as a citizen.

Mr. Curtis was born in Ray county, Missouri, on December 11, 1838. He is a son of Samuel K. and Naney (Gentry) Curtis, the former a native of Tennessee and the latter of Kentucky. On the father's side the family long lived in Tennessee and its members were prominent and influential in the history of that state, the paternal grandfather, Elijah Curtis, being one of the leading citizens in the county of his home there. The same is true of the ancestry of the mother in Kentueky. Samuel K. Curtis born in 1800 and eame to Missouri with his parents while he was yet a boy and the present great state of the Middle West, in which he passed the remainder of his days, that now challenges the admiration of the world by its enterprise and progress, was but an expanse of unpruned wilderness, given up to the dominion of the savage and the wild beasts of the forests and plains. On its arrival in this state the family located in Ray county, and there the father of Franeis M. Curtis grew to manhood and obtained a distriet sehool education. He remained in that county until 1852, then moved to Macon county and took up his residence in Richland township, where he entered eighty aeres of government land on which he passed the rest of his life suecessfully and profitably engaged in farming and raising live-stock. At the time of his death, which occurred in 1874, he owned and had under vigorous and advanced eultivation 280 acres, which made one of the attractive and valuable farms of the township, and was a model that inspired other farmers to inereased enterprise and activity. His marriege to Miss Naney Gentry oceurred in 1836 and brought him five children, three of whom are living: Franeis Marion, of Richland township; David, who resides in Adair county, and General Jackson, who is also a resident of Macon county.

Franeis M. Curtis was educated in the distriet school near his home and, after completing its course of instruction, worked on the home farm and assisted the family until 1861, when he enlisted in the Federal army, at Macon in Company I, Seventh Missouri Cavalry, under command of Colonel Foster. He served eleven months in the war and took part in a number of skirmishes in the vieinity of his home, that is in Macon and the nearby counties, and at the end of his term he was mustered out at the same place that witnessed his enlistment. In 1862 he quit the army and returned to his home in this county. During the next twelve years he worked again on his father's farm, and in 1870, desiring to do something on his own account, he bought 120 acres of land in Adair county. This farm was his home and the seat of his progressive operations until 1882, when he returned to Macon county and took up his residence on the farm which is now his home. He has 200 acres of first-rate land, all of which is under good cultivation and is well improved with commodious and comfortable buildings. His farming operations are extensive and carried on with the utmost energy and all the skill he has acquired in long experience and from an industrious study of the requirements of the business he is engaged in. He conduets, also, a flourishing industry in raising live-stoek and does it in such a way as to make it profitable to himself and a valuable addition to the productiveness of the township in which it is located and so successfully prosecuted.

In polities Mr. Curtis gives his fealty and active service to the Republiean party. Fraternally he is a member of that fast-fading host, the Grand Army of the Republie, and in religious affiliation he is connected with the Christian church in whose improving activities he takes a leading part. He is also a zealous member of the Masonie fraternity, to which he has belonged for a great many years, and in which he has found a great deal of enjoyment. On June 5, 1862, he was united in marriage with Miss Martha Phillips, a daughter of James and Ruth (Chambers) Phillips, and a native of Macon eounty. Eight children were born of the union, but only three of them are living: Emma J., the wife of S. H. Elliot, who resides in the county of Macon; James S. a highly respected citizen of Macon county, and John F., whose home is in the state of Montana. The wife and mother passed away August 3, 1909. She was a lifelong member of the Christian church and highly respeeted by all who knew her.

Joseph V. Lane

The great state of Pennsylvania, which is a veritable hive of almost every form of human industry, has sent abroad throughout the rest of the country many men trained to usefulness in her busy and productive fields of labor, who have put in motion in other plaees the forces of fruitfulness which they drew in with their stature and strength from her soil Among the men of this class who have located in Macon eounty, Missouri, and contributed to its progress and development, adding to its industrial and commercial power and aiding in giving tone and charaeter to its citizenship, Joseph V. Lane, of La Plata township, is entitled to honorable mention and the high plaee he holds in the regard and good will of the people living around him among whom he has long lived and labored.

Mr. Lane was born in Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, on October 31, 1844. There also his father, John Lane, was native and was born in 1791, and there he passed almost the whole of his life, aetively engaged in general farming until his death, which occurred in 1863. He was married, in Pennsylvania, to Miss Elizabeth Stoakley, a native of New Jersey, and they became the parents of twelve children. only five of whom are now living. They are: Bennet, whose home is in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania; James, who resides in McKeesport, in the same state; Mary. the wife of Maury Sutton, who lives in Indiana eounty, Pennsylvania; Susan, the wife of Isaac Jacobs, a resident of Washington county, Pennsylvania, and Joseph V., the only member of the family who lives in Missouri.

The last named obtained a limited education in the district schools of his native county, and, after completing that, worked on the home farm and assisted the family until the death of his parents in 1863. Then, left alone in his orphanage at the age of nineteen, with the wide world before him and no equipment for any enterprise among its multitudinous activities except the health, strength and determined spirit nature had given him and the training in farming he had aequired from experienee, he still lingered in the neighborhood of his former home and worked on farms nearby for a number of years. He hung around the old homestead for a time, but all the while the voice of the great west was sounding in his ears with increasing force, pleading with him to join its army of industrial conquest and offering him larger opportunity and better rewards for his efforts than his own state could then promise. In 1879 he hearkened obediently to the persuasions and came to Missouri, locating in Macon county. He had saved a little money from his meager earnings, and with this and the confidence he had in himself and inspired in others by his bearing, he bought the farm of 159 acres in La Plata township on which he now lives, and on whieh he has ever sinee been engaged in energetie farming and a vigorous, flourishing and expanding live-stoek industry, through which he has seeured a competence for life and risen to consequence and influence among the people of the township and county.

The progress and development of the region around him have always been matters of the greatest import to Mr. Lane, and he has borne faithfully and energetically his full share of the burden incident to promoting them in an enterprising and fruitful manner. He has served the people well and wisely as road commissioner and also as a member of the school board, and in many other ways has shown the high and productive quality of his citizenship and his entire loyalty and devotion to the welfare of the community and his adoption as a permanent residence and base of operations.

On December 31, 1878, Mr. Lane was united in marriage with Miss Emma Norfolk, a native of Pennsylvania and a daughter of John and Lucina ( Morrison) Norfolk, of that state. Seven children have blessed the union and sanctified the family hearthstone and all of them are living. They are: Frank, a resident of Macon county; Florence, the wife of Ben Self, of Moberly, Missouri, and John, Violet, Alice, Joseph and Sylvia, all of whom are living at home with their parents. In political allegiance the father is a Republican and an ardent and effective worker for the good of his party in all eampaigns. He and his wife are devoted members of the Presbyterian chureh, in which he is an elder and both are zealous, efficient and appreciated aids in every worthy undertaking of the congregation to which they belong. Mr. Lane has been very successful in life and it is greatly to his eredit that his suecess is wholly the result of his own industry and ability. He has seized his opportunities as they came and has made the most of them. He has also attended faithfully to all the duties of citizenship and in every relation in life has proven himself entirely worthy of the high and universal esteem in which he is held.

Y 4 Greenup Wilson

Although a native of Dearborn county, Indiana, where he was born, on February 23, 1857, Greenup Wilson, of Johnston township, has lived in Macon county, Missouri, ever since he was two weeks old, having been brought to the county by his parents at that age. His father died in 1860, leaving the son an orphan at the age of three years. It is easy to infer that he was thrown on his own resources at an early age, for while his mother did all she eould to rear her family well and educate her offspring, she found the task a difficult one, and as soon as the sons were able they began the battle of life for themselves, each in his own way.

Mr. Wilson's parents, Greenup and Elizabeth (Moulton) Wilson, were born, reared, edueated and married in Indiana. The father came to Missouri in 1846, but after a residence in the state of two years at that time, he returned to Indiana, where he remained until 1857. He then moved his family to this county and located in Johnston township, and here the family has ever since been domestieated. "The father was a farmer and prospered in his business, owning 280 acres of good land, well improved and fully equipped for its vigorous cultivation at the time of his death, which occurred in 1860. He and his wife became the parents of eleven children, six of whom are living: Nancy Jane, the wife of Green Bowen, of Knox county, Missouri; Sarah Elizabeth, the wife of John S. Lilburn, of Kirksville; Joseph B., whose home is in Colorado; Joshua B. and Harvey L., whose residences are also at La Plata. Greenup Wilson still lives on the farm. "The father was a Democrat in polities and a man of prominence and influence in his party.

Greenup Wilson attended the distriet sehools of Johnston township when he could, and while doing so assisted the family in the work on the farm. * After leaving school he continued this useful and filial course until 1880, when he bought eighty acres of land and began farming on his own account, and also raising stock on a scale as extensive as his facilities would allow. He has kept up his enterprise in these lines of effort ever since, adding to his farm until he now owns 162 acres, and increasing his live-stock business in proportion. He has his farm nearly all under advanced cultivation and directs its operations with sedulous eare and such praetieal intelligence that it is one of the most produetive and profitable in the township for its size. His stock interests are also as flourishing as close attention to their requirements and the utmost care in managing them in every detail can make them. Mr. Wilson is regarded as one of the best and most progressive farmers and stockmen in this part of the county.

He is also prominent in the political, social and official life of his loeality, for he has been very energetie and broad-minded in pushing its advancement and bringing about every good condition for the advantage of its people that has been attainable. He is now, and has been for more than twenty-five years, a member of the school board, and has also given the community excellent service as road overseer. In Polities he is a Republican and an effective worker for the success of his party, although not seeking any of the favors it might have ta confer for himself. In fraternal relations he is connected with the Order of American Patriots, and in religious affiliation with the Cumberland Presbyterian ehurch. His membership in the organizations to which he belongs is not a mere form. He takes an active interest and a leading part in all their proceedings and is one of their energetie workers for every good purpose, wise in counsel and zealous in action for every undertaking in which he engages. Greenup Wilson has been president of the telephone company ever since its organization.

On February 22, 1880, Mr. Wilson was united in marriage with Miss Mollie E. Emmons, a daughter of Jerome B. and Polly Ann (Tiller) Emmons, long prominent and esteemed residents of Macon county, where Mrs, Wilson was born and reared. She and her husband have had eight children, all of whom are living: Enoch, who resides in Macon county ; Lola Ellen, the wife of Grove Chambers, also a resident of this county; Lorain J., whose home is at Novelty, Missouri; and ©. W., J. O., Mintie H., Gay Sylvester and "Babe," all of whom are still living at home with their father, their mother having died on December 7, 1906. She was recognized throughout the community as a good woman, faithful to every duty, zealous in behalf of every worthy cause and true to a lofty ideal of womanhood in every relation in life. Mr. Wilson is also highly esteemed as a man and as a citizen. His eareer shows what ean be aecomplished by enterprise and good business capacity in the unostentatious and noiseless walks of life, and demon- strates also that whatever may be said of the Ameriean idolatry of money, no genuine merit will zo long without recognition and general appreciation among our people.

A native of Macon county, Missouri, and having passed the whole of his life to this time within its borders, engaged in the promotion of its agricultural development and the extension of its live-stock industry, and taking his place in all the activities of the people with a faithful performance of his duty in every way, Augustus Wares, of La Plata township is justly and rightfully regarded as one of the representative farmers and stockmen and useful citizens of the locality in which he lives. He has not sought prominence or distinetion among men, even in his own neighborhood, but has striven to meet the requirements of plain, every-day duty and steady and reliable citizenship all the time, and this course has given him not only success in business, but a lasting place in the regard and good will of the people who live around him and have had the benefit of his serviee and example.

Mr. Wares was born in Johnson township, this county, on March 25, 1851. His father, William Wares, was born in the town of Pratt, Roane county, in what was then Virginia, in 1822. He eame to Missouri in a very early time and loeated on a traet of government land of 160 acres in Johnson township, Macon eounty, where he passed the remainder of his life farming and raising live stock extensively and profitably. His death occurred in 1887, after nearly or quite fifty years of usefulness in this portion of the eountry. When he eame here the Indians still inhabited this section, and while they were in the main not unfriendly to the whites, they sometimes resented the intrusion of the latter into what they considered their rightful domain, and became troublesome. "The wild beasts of the forests and plains were also still numerous, and their enmity to the new comers was as pronounced and often as deadly as that of their long-time masters, the red men of the wilderness. The elder Mr. Wares was a Demoerat of the most pronounced type in his political faith and allegiance, and in religious eonnection belonged to the Missionary Baptist church. He was married in West Virginia to Miss Mary Pratt, a native, like himself, of Virginia. They had eight children, but four of whom are living. They are: Robert, who dwells in the new state of Oklahoma; Richard, an esteemed resident of Macon county; Augustus, who is the immediate subject of this review; and Ellen, the wife of Ralph Zents, whose home

Augustus Wares received a very limited common school education. Under any circumstances, at the period of his school days, his facilities would have been meager in this part of the country. But they were rendered even more so than they would otherwise have been by the disturbed condition of the locality just before and during the Civil war. After leaving school he worked on his father's farm until 1871- and assisted the family. In that year he began a farming and stockraising enterprise of his own on land which he rented for the purpose. After renting land and farming as a tenant for four years, he bought 160 acres of his own, and on this he continued to farm and raise stock until 1883, when he sold the place and purchased the farm of 355 acres in La Plata township, on which he now lives. His farming operations and his live-stock industry have always been extensive and have been conducted with energy, ability and success, On the new and larger farm he increased them both and became one of the leading men in the business in this part of the county. Nearly all of his land is under cultivation and the farm is improved with good buildings and completely equipped for its cultivation in the most vigorous and progressive manner, and both lines of the industry to which it gives life and activity flourish and bring in good returns.

The publie affairs of the township and county have at all times received a good eitizen's attention from Mr. Wares, and everything that seemed likely to minister to their welfare and the advancement of their residents has had his earnest and energetie support. He has served as a school direetor and in many other ways has done his part for the progress and improvement of the region in which he lives. In polities he is an active, working Democrat, strong in his faith in the principles of his party and zealous and effective in helping it to suecess in all campaigns. In fraternal life he belongs to the Knights of the Maccabees, and in religious relations is a member of the Missionary Baptist church, of which he has for years been one of the deacons. His wife is also an active and devoted member of this church,

The marriage of Mr. Wares oceurred on December 24, 1871, and was with Miss Nancy B. Kelley, a daughter of William and Frances Kelley, early settlers in Macon eounty, where Mrs. Wares was born. She and her husband have eight children living of the ten born to them. Those living are: Mary; Frances, the wife of William Boland; James; William B.; Melissa, the wife of Everett Fisk; Clark; Adra and Ray, all residents of Macon county and the three last named living at home with their parents. The parents are prominent in the social life of the township, and the father is a man of considerable influence in the politjeal and business activities of the county.

E Gamaliel H. Graves

For a period of twenty-two years on the road as a traveling salesman, subject to all the perils, inconveniences and annoyances of that exacting employment, and, since he abandoned that line of endeavor a farmer and land-owner on a large scale, with all the responsibilities and cares incident to such a position in the industrial and productive world, and, finally, with his home darkened by the awful tragedy of a railroad accident which bereft him suddenly and terribly of the partner he had chosen for life, G. H. Graves, of La Plata, in this county, has bad his full share of burden to bear and sorrow to suffer. But, in spite of all, he has kept steadily on his way of expanding and progressive prosperity, adding to his worldly estate and steadily gaining in prominence and influence among the people around him. For he has a nature that is not easily discouraged or driven from its purpose, and while he has by no means been indifferent to his burden of toil and care, he has not allowed it to master him, lessen his activity or abate his enterprise. Rather has it increased his efforts and made them more fruitful, it should be said to his eredit.

Mr. Graves is a native of New England, born in Litchfield county, Connecticut, on January 14, 1847. His father and his grandfather were of the same nativity as himself, and his mother was born and reared in the adjoining county of Fairfield, Conneetieut. He is a son of Jackson J. and Mary E. (Giddings) Graves, who had nine children, four of whom are living: Sarah C., the wife of Perry L. Hubbell, of Gaylordsville, Connecticut; Frank, whose home is at St. James, Missouri; G. H., the immediate subject of this brief review, and Charles M., who lives in Chicago, Illinois. The father was born in 1816 and passed the greater part of his life in his native county. He was a farmer for many years and also served as railroad station agent at Gaylordsville, Connecticut, for a number. In 1879 he moved to Missouri and located in Macon county, and here he resided, with occasional periods of absence, until his death, which occurred in 1900. In polities he was a Republican and active in the service of his party, and both in his native state and the state of his adoption he was universally esteemed as an excellent citizen and an upright and useful man.

finishing with a course of special commercial training at a first-rate business college in Bridgeport, Connecticut. After leaving that institution he entered the employ of the Whiting Paper Company, of Holyoke, Massachusetts, and during the next twenty-two years he was on the road as one of its traveling representatives. So faithful was he in the performanee of his duties, and so successful in pushing the interests of the company and inereasing its business, that long before he quit his oceupation as a commercial tourist he became a member of the company, with a considerable interest in its operations and an influential voice in its management.

In 1887 Mr. Graves took up his residence in Macon county, Missouri, and became an extensive purchaser of land and a farmer and stockman on a large seale. He began buying land here soon after the close of the Civil war and has kept on in this line of acquisition until he now owns 1,200 aeres of first-rate land and has all of his traet under vigorous and advanced eultivation. His farming operations are earried on with the same solieitous eare and the same broad intelligence and productive energy that distinguished him in mercantile life, and that has characterized his movements in everything else. He is also one of the lending stoekholders in the La Plata Savings Bank.

In politieal faith and allegianee Mr. Graves is a Republican, and, while he neither seeks nor desires a political office of any kind for himself, he is zealous and effective in service to his party, giving it aid that is appreciated cordially by both its leaders and their followers. He also takes an earnest, intelligent and helpful interest in the affairs of his township and county, backing every worthy enterprise for their advancement by his influence and helping all with wise counsel and more material assistanee. No eitizen of La Plata township has been of greater service to this part of the county, and none is more highly or generally esteemed. He was married in 1891 to Miss Mary S. Monerief, a daughter of Wilson and Matilda (Young) Moncrief, natives of West Virginia, highly respeeted residents of Macon eounty. Of the three children that blessed the union and sanctified the family altar only one is living, a daughter named Minnie E. On September 6, 1904, her mother was killed in a wreck on the Wabash railroad, which brought bereavement to many households. The event shrouded the whole community in grief, for Mrs. Graves was held in high regard and her tragie death was felt as a personal bereavement by all who knew her nnd a distinet loss to the region which had enjoyed the benefit of her valued services and excellent example in all the relations of life.

Edward A. Gates Hon. Edward Allen Gates

A native of Macon county, and having passed the whole of his forty-five years of life to this time within its borders, mingling with its people and bearing his full share of the labor and responsibility involved in the management and further development of its industrial, intellectual and moral activities, Hon. Edward Allen Gates, county judge for the Southern Distriet, is well qualified by his knowledge of the conditions and requirements of the county and the habits, tendencies and aspirations of its residents, to discharge effeetively and for the best interests of all the duties of the exalted station to whieh the voice of the people ealled him in November, 1908. And that he will do this all the record of his past life attests.

Judge Gates was born in this county on October 16, 1864, and is a son of William and Elizabeth (Whelan) Gates, the former a native of Kentucky and the latter of Randolph county, Missouri. The father eame to Missouri and located in Macon eounty in 1835, and was married in 1856. The parents were industrious and prosperous farmers and stood high in the esteem of the whole township in which they lived. The father's life was eut short, his death on July 17, 1866, ending a promising career, when he was but thirty-one years old. The mother survived him forty-three years, passing away on April 2, 1909. She was universally venerated as one of the most estimable Christian women in the county, and her life was cited as an example worthy of all imitation.

Judge Edward A. Gates attained his maturity in his native place, and while gaining strength and suppleness of body and independence and self-reliance of spirit in his labors on his father's farm, sought mental development and further preparation for the battle of life in the great university of the people, the publie sehools. Although his opportunities for schooling were meager, he made good use of what he had, and especially acquired the habit of study, reading and reflection, and this has been the source of his present wide intelligence and excellent equipment for any of life's duties. After leaving school he began an enterprise in farming and raising stock, which he is still eondueting, and in which he has won great suecess and prosperity. He now owns and farms more than 300 acres of first-rate land, and has it well improved with substantial and commodious buildings and other structures. His land is cultivated with intelligence and skill, and has been made as good and productive as any in the county.

of Judge Evans Wright. 'Two children have blessed their union, their daughters, Eva, the wife of William Wright, of Callao, and Josie, the wife of Perd Grimshaw, a resident of Hanford, California. The mother of these ladies died on October 2, 1890, and on March 30, 1892, the father was married a second time, being united on this occasion with Miss Lina Tuttle, who was born and reared in this county, a daughter of Marion Tuttle, of Callao. Five children have been born of this union and all are living. They are Carl B., Wanita Ruth, Ura Wayland, William Marion and George Gailia.

In polities the Judge is allied with the Democratic party. He has always manifested a good eitizen's interest in publie affairs, and has at all times been active and effective in the serviee of his party. His influence has been potential in its councils, and his work on the hustings and otherwise in the successive campaigns has been of the most pronounced and beneficial charaeter. His activity and skill in party work brought him prominently into the notice of the people and established him in their regard as a man of affairs and well qualified for judicial functions. To this judgment his high character and sterling worth in every way gave added weight, and the people were not slow to act on their eonvietions. In November, 1908, he was elected judge of the county court for the Southern district. His tenure of the office has been short to this time, but he has already demonstrated that the judgment of the electorate was a wise one, and given ample assurance in his eourse on the bench so far that the whole of his term will be ereditable to him and beneficial to the county and its people, conserving and protecting all rights, publie and private, and holding the judicial ermine high above all taint or chance of uncleanness. The laws will be properly enforeed and equal and exaet justice to all will be meted out, as far as human agencies can accomplish it.

The judgeship is not the only publie position the Judge has filled with acceptability to the people. He has been a member of the school board almost continuously since he was twenty years of age, and is now president of that body. He is also one of the directors of the Callao Fair Association, In fraternal circles he is connected with the Knights of Pythias and the order of Modern Woodmen of America. His religious affiliation is with the Christian church, in whose welfare and beneficent activities he takes great interest, advising with those who counsel and working with those who work. In every attribute of good citizenship he is highly endowed and all his powers are freely placed at the service of his county and its people.