Macon County, Missouri - Biographical sketches, 1910 (part 18 of 20)

Mr. Asbury is a son of Thomas and Katharine (Downing) Asbury, natives of Clinton eounty, Ohio, where the father was born in 1810. His father caught the western fever when he was a young man and moved into what was then the almost untrodden frontier, in southwestern Ohio. It was a bold step for a young man reared and nurtured amid the blandishments of old Virginia's eultivated society and wealth of creature comforts, but he took it bravely, endured the discomforts of the long and tedious journey into and through the wilderness, and settled down in the new domain to carve out for himself a name among the people and an estate worthy of his abilities and industry. Following his example, the son in turn became an emigrant from the parental homestead and sought the betterment of his fortune in the wilds of Missouri, bringing to this state an abundance of.spirit and energy, good health and the buoyant hopefulness of youth, but little else. He took up his residence first in Howard county, where he remained until 1865. In that year he moved to Monroe county, and eight years later to Macon county. Before coming to this county he had lived on rented farms, but on his arrival heré he bought a tract of one hundred acres, which he eultivated with skill and energy until the death of his wife in 1879. He then determined to retire and sold his property, thereafter making his home with his children until his death on January 25, 1884. His wife died in January, 1880.

In 1862 he enlisted in the Union army for a period of nine months and served as a member of Company A., Ninth Volunteer Missouri Infantry, the company being under eommand of General Guitar. Mr. Asbury's term of service was extended to two years, and, although the most of the time during its continuance his command was stationed

The marriage of the parents of Andrew Asbury occurred in Ohio and resulted in nine children, but three of whom are now living: Louisa Jane, wife of William Neff, of Macon county; George W., a resident of Shelby county; and the interesting subject of this memoir. The father was a Republican in polities and long a member of and zealous worker in the Christian ehureh. He was regarded throughout the county as an enterprising and progressive citizen and a very worthy and estimable man.

Andrew J. Asbury got his meager draughts of scholastie learning at the eommon fountain of inspiration for the Ameriean people, the district schools, attending these temples to Cadmus in Howard, Monroe and Macon eounties. When he had completed their limited courses of instruetion he remained at home and assisted his father in the work of the farm until 1877. He then bought forty aeres of land and began farming on his own account, continuing his operations in this line of produetive industry until 1895. In that year he moved to Macon City, where he lived for a period of thirteen years. In 1908 he bought another farm of eighty acres, and on this he has ever since made his home, but has not engaged actively in the work of farming the land, having other duties of importance to occupy his time and energies. He was elected sheriff of the county in 1894, and in 1898 was chosen marshal, holding the former office one term and the latter two. At the end of his second term as marshal he was appointed superintendent of the county infirmary, a position whieh he filled with eredit to himself and benefit to the institution and the eounty for a period of two years. While sheriff he hanged the first and only man ever exeeuted by law in the county.

It will be seen that in official life Mr. Asbury has rendered the county good service and dignified and adorned its citizenship. As a farmer also he was highly successful, carrying on his operations on a high plane and helping to raise the standard of farming all around him. It is his demonstrated merit that has raised him to prominence among the people and won him their lasting esteem; and it is his industry, thrift and capacity that have given him a goodly store of this world's goods and made him comfortable for life.

Mr. Asbury's first marriage occurred on February 25, 1877, when he was united in wedlock with Miss Jennie B. Fleming, a native of Pennsylvania. They had six children and five of them are living: Harry W., a resident of Winslow, Arizona; Frank H., who lives in Los Angeles, California; Jesse T., whose home is in Fresno, California; Cline R., who also lives in Arizona, at Winslow, and Ruby K., who is still a member of the parental household. Their mother died in 1891, and on September 25, 1893, the father married a second wife, on this occasion being united with Miss Ida M. Vanneten, a resident of Macon county. In polities Mr. Asbury is a pronounced Republican. In fraternal relations he belongs to the Woodmen of the World and the Independent Order of Foresters, and his religious affiliation is with the Christian church. He has been very active in all and stands well in each.

Three of the great states of the American Union have had the benefit of the activities and elevated citizenship of Charles P. Shay, now one of the leading merehants of Anabel, in this county, and all of them are the better for his having lived and labored in them. These states are Missouri, Colorado and Texas, and Mr. Shay has pleasant memories of each with a cordial regard for the people he mingled with while within its borders. He was born in Warren eounty, Ohio, on February 18, 1874, and became a resident of Missouri with his parents in 1882, when he was but eight years old.

Mr. Shay is a son of John B. and Margaret (Carpenter) Shay, and he and his brother, Benjamin M., of New York, are the only ones of their three ehildren who are now living. The father was born in Ireland in 1844 and lived in that country until he reached the age of eleven years. Then, in company with an older brother, he came to this country, led to the step by the lack of opportunity for the deserving poor in his own land and its abundanee here. Fortune smiled upon him for his daring and gave him aequisitions in material substance and influence as a eitizen which he eould never have made in the Emerald Isle under its present political and social conditions. On the arrival of the self-expatriated brothers in the United States they located in Warren eounty, Ohio, and there the younger, orphaned by distance from his parents if not by their death, completed in the publie sehools the education he had begun in those of his native land.

When he was obliged and ready to take up the burden of life for himself, whieh was at an early age, he bought and shipped grain and feed for some years and then turned his attention to farming and raising live-stock. He carried on these industries in Warren county, Ohio, until 1882. In that year he concluded to take another flight in the wake of the setting sun, and, in consequence of this determination, he came to Missouri and located in Macon county, half a mile south of Anabel. There he farmed in a general way until his death in 1894. He was married in 1868 to Miss Margaret Carpenter, a native of Maysville, Kentucky. In politics he was a Republican, in fraternal relations a Free Mason and an Odd Fellow, and in religious connection a member of the Methodist church. All who knew him esteemed him highly, and his early death at the age of fifty was generally lamented. For he had shown in Missouri the same qualities of enterprise and thrift, of selfreliance and readiness for any emergency, that had brought him across the stormy Atlantie in his boyhood and sustained him through all his subsequent struggles; and had manifested here, also, a sturdy devotion to the land of his adoption and an eager desire to do all he could to promote its welfare and enlarge the power of its beneficent institutions, political, educational, industrial and commercial.

Charles P. Shay began his scholastie training in the district schools of Ohio, continued it in the publie schools of Clarence, Missouri, and completed it in a course of special instruction at the Northern Indiana State Normal School at Valparaiso, in that state, from which he was graduated in 1892. His first oceupation after leaving school was that of telegraph operator at Higginsville, Missouri, and Mansfield, Texas. When his father died he returned to this state and a ed his mother in conducting the operations of the home farm until 1896. During the next three years he was engaged in general farming on his own account. In 1899 he moved to Pueblo, Colorado, to perform the duties of an important position for which he had been selected, that of department foreman in a rolling mill operated as a part of the great plant of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company.

Mr. Shay remained in this important and responsible position until 1903. But, while there were many agreeable features in his employment, it was not altogether to his taste, and in the year last mentioned he returned to his former home in this county. Soon afterward he opened a general store at Anabel, where he has ever since been engaged in merchandising, rising steadily in rank as a merchant, building up a good and expanding trade, gaining constantly in the esteem of the people, and aiding by all the means at his command in advaneing the best interests of the community. In November, 1906, he was appointed postmaster of Anabel by President Roosevelt. He is still filling this office and, what is rare, is discharging its duties with satisfaetion to all the patrons of the postal serviee in the territory dependent for that service on the Anabel office. `

Mr. Shay was married on June 30, 1896, to Miss Mae White, a daughter of William C. White, one of the leading citizens of Macon county. They have two children, their sons, Charles W. and Connor

P., who are living at home and attending school. In polities Mr. Shay is a consistent and zealous Republican, earnest and effective in the service of his party and esteemed by its leaders in the county and state as judicious in council and very energetic in work. Fraternally he belongs to the Independent Order of Red Men and the Knights of the Maccabees. With youth, health, enterprise and good judgment as assets, with lofty ideals of citizenship as beacons for his guidance, and with a determination to make the most of his opportunities in every way, the people of Macon county expect him to become one of their best and most representative and useful men.

Charles P. Hess

The honored subject of this sketch is a worthy representative of that sturdy and valued element which the great empire of Germany has contributed to our American social and industrial life, and, coming to the United States when a young man, he has won for himself definite success in a material way, the while he has so guided and governed his course as to merit and receive at all times the unqualified confidence and regard of those with whom he has come in contact in the various relations of his signally active and useful life. He gave to his adopted country loyal service as a soldier in the Civil war, and none could manifest greater patriotism than this. In the **piping times of peace" his loyalty has been of the same insistent order and he deserves well of the nation whose integrity he aided in perpetuating. He has served as county judge and held other offices of distinctive public trust, is a veteran member of the bar of Macon county, and he has long wielded much influence in public affairs. His intellectual powers are of high type, though he gained his training largely in the school of experience and through effective self-discipline, and he has proved amply qualified for leadership in both thought and action. Judge Hess stands today one of the best known and most honored citizens of Macon county, and, venerable in years, he can view the dim perspeetive of the past and find that he has not flinched from duty and has striven ever to play his part as one of the-world's noble army of workers. It is a matter of satisfaction to the publishers of this work to be able to incorporate in the same even a brief review of his eareer, - a record that is properly perpetuated in such a vehicle of historie import.

Charles Philip Hess was born in Laugenlonsheim bei Kreuznach, Prussia, on the 9th of September, 1837, and there his parents, Johannes and Katherine (Stern) Hess, passed their entire lives, secure in the esteem of all who knew them. The father was a farmer by vocation and served the preseribed term in the Prussian army when a young man. Judge Hess seeured his early edueational discipline in the schools of his native place, where he was reared to maturity. Asa youth his ambition prompted him to sever the gracious ties which bound him to home and fatherland and to seek his fortunes in America, which had proved a veritable land of promise to many of his countrymen. Accordingly, in 1854, when but seventeen years of age, he came to the United States, making the voyage on a sailing vessel, from the port of Havre de Grace, and being on the ocean for a period of thirty-two days before landing in the port of New York eity. He soon made his way to the eity of Buffalo, where he entered upon an apprenticeship to the trade of carriagemaker, in which he became a skilled workman and to which he devoted his attention until he felt the eall of higher duty, when the dark cloud of Civil war obscured the national horizon, He was one of those who responded to President Lincoln's first call, he became a member of the regular army by proceeding to the eity of Philadelphia, where, in October, 1861, he enlisted as a private in the Sixth United States Cavalry. He was in service during three years of the great internieine eonfliet and proved a gallant and faithful soldier of the republic. Among the more notable engagements in which he took part may be mentioned the following: Williamsburg, Hanover Court House, Chiekahominy Swamp, Savage Station, Glendale and Malvern Hill, Antietam, the first and second battles of the Wilderness, and Appomattox. Besides these he took part in many skirmishes and minor engagements. For efficient service he was promoted to the office of sergeant of Company A of his regiment, and in 1862 he was transferred to Company C, of which he was made first sergeant. In the engagement at Fairfield, Pennsylvania, he was severely injured, on the 4th of July, 1863, his left knee having been dislocated by his horse falling upon him after the animal had been shot from under him. He was confined to the hospital for a period of nine weeks, at the expiration of which he rejoined his command, at Fairfax, Virginia, where he was detailed a& forage master at the headquarters of the cavalry corps of the Departmentof the Potomae. He received his honorable discharge at Harrisonville near Winchester, Virginia, on the 10th of October, 1864, after which he was appointed second lieutenant of the Twenty-seventh United States Reserves, at Alexandria, Virginia. He has ever maintained a deep interest in his old comrades of the Civil war, and signifies the same by his membership in F. A. Post, No. 23, Grand Army of the Republic, in Macon, of which he has served as commander and also as Jr. Department commander of the state of Missouri.

In 1865 Judge Hess returned to his native land, where he remained about six months, renewing old associations and enjoying onee more the hospitality of his boyhood home. He returned to America in October of 1865 and was aecompanied by his sister Katherine and her husband Frederiek W. Muff and family and who are now dead. Soon after his return to the United States Judge Hess came to Macon county, Missouri, and settled on a farm in Eagle township. He improved the property and continued to be actively identified, with agricultural pursuits for two years, and then he took up his residence in the city of Maeon, whieh was then a mere village, in 1867. He gave careful attention to the study of approved law textbooks, and in 1868 was admitted to the bar of the state. His knowledge of the science of jurisprudence is exact and comprehensive and while he has not given much attention to the active work of his profession his technical learning has been of great value to him on the bench and in connection with other offices of which he has been ineumbent.

Judge Hess has ever been an able and uncompromising advocate of the principles and policies of the Republican party, and has been influential in his eouneils in his home county and state, where he has given active and efficient service in the promotion of its cause. In 1868 he was eleeted to the bench of the county court of Macon county, and prior to this he had served as justice of the peace. He continued on the county bench until 1873, and in 1876 he was elected city attorney of Macon, of which office he continued incumbent for the long period of fourteen consecutive years, within which he ably safeguarded the interests of the city. For twelve years he was secretary of the Macon board of education, and he has always taken a zealous part in the furtherance of the cause of popular education. In 1888 Judge Hess was fittingly honored in being chosen a delegate to the Republican national convention, in Chicago, in which General Benjamin Harrison was nominated for the presidency. In 1892 he received the Republican nomination for cireuit judge of his cireuit, but was unable to overcome the normal Democratic majority in the eireuit, through he received a flattering support at all the polls. Judge Hess has done much in the way of directing public opinion in this section of the state and in 1899 he became associated with the late F. W. Blees in the publication of the Macon Citizen, of which he became manager and editor. Under his direction and able editorial policy the paper wielded much influence in political affairs and was made an effective exponent of local interests. He continued as editor in chief of this paper, which is issued weekly, until 1902, when he severed his connection with the same. Since that time he has lived virtually retired, secure in the high regard of the community in which he has long made his home and to whose best interests he has given unreserved service of promotion. He is identified with the local lodge of the Knights of Pythias, as well as with the Grand Army of the Republic, as already noted. On the 29th of October, 1869, Judge Hess was united in marriage to Miss Catherine Sophia Maffry, who was born in Germany but who was at that time a resident of Macon, and of their eight children six are living, namely: Alma, who is the wife of Edward A. Dumeter, of Macon; Caroline, who is the wife of Burlis H. Collins, of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania; Bertha, who is the wife of Clarence Henley, of Oklahoma City; Annette, who remains at the parental home; Olga, who is the wife of Charles Sears, of Ames, Iowa, and Ralph, who is a commercial traveler, in Alabama and Georgia and is now married to a lady who was Miss Mabel Shipp of Winchester, Kentucky.

Y Charles O. Walker

Charles O. Walker, one of the prosperous and progressive farmers, fruit-growers and dairymen of Round Grove township, is wholly a produet of Macon county, and in himself and his career he reflects credit on the portion of the state that gave him birth and opportunity for the exercise of the faculties which have built his own fortunes and greatly helped in the development and progress of the locality in which he has operated. Born, reared, educated and married in this county, and earrying on within its borders all the activities that have engaged his attention, he is a representative man among the people of the county and is esteemed accordingly.

Mr. Walker's life began on September 5, 1850, and he is a son of John P. and Mary H. (Brown) Walker, natives of Botetourt county, Virginia, where the father was born in 1820. In 1840, when he was but twenty years of age, with the hardy and daring spirit that has long characterized his family, he determined to leave the parental rooftree and the seenes and associations of his boyhood and youth, and make a home and name for himself in a region remote from his ancestral home, and in which there was still conquests awaiting the pioneer, the woodsman and the hunter. In that year he came to Missouri in obedience to this impulse and located in Macon county, where he passed the remainder of his days actively engaged in farming and raising livestock. He took up wild, unbroken land and was successful in improving it and bringing it to productiveness. He increased his holdings from time to time until when he died on March 3, 1898, he owned and had under cultivation 240 aeres of first-rate land, well improved with

John P. Walker was married in 1843 to Miss Mary H. Brown, of Virginia, and their union resulted in nine children, seven of whom are living and adding to the productiveness, wealth and power of this country and Canada. They are: William G., a resident of Macon City, this state; Nathan E., who lives at Moberly, Missouri; Charles O., the immediate subject of this brief review; John S., also a resident of this county; Sarah, the wife of William Sketchley, of Canada, and Ella J., the wife of Louis Ebright, of Mequite, Texas. In polities the father was a lifelong Democrat, true and faithful to his convietions and earnest in seeking to enforee them. Fraternally he belonged to the Masonie order and was a veteran in its ranks. He was suecessful in industry, upright in manhood and influential in citizenship, winning an estate from Nature's bounty for himself by his enterprise and the esteem of all who knew him by his uniform cleanness of life and fairness in all transaetions in business, united with his progressiveness and clearness of vision as a potency in efforts for the improvement and elevation of the county. He was county surveyor and county judge for years.

Charles O. Walker began his education in the district schools near his home, continued it at the Macon City high school, and completed it at the college in Huntsville, Missouri. After leaving college he remained with his parents on the homestead until his marriage on February 17, 1884. He then bought 120 acres of land on whieh and his subsequent purehases he has ever since been engaged in vigorous and progressive farming and stock-breeding. He also has a fine and fruitful apple orchard of forty acres, and, in addition to the industries already indicated, carries on a flourishing business as a dairyman, helping to supply the surrounding country with the products from his herds and shipping large quantities of milk, cream and butter to the market.

Mr. Walker now owns and cultivates 170 acres of good land and has his farm well improved. He has been successful in all his undertakings and is regarded as one of the most prosperous and substantial men in the township in which he lives. But his own advancement has not blinded him to the needs of the county or the enduring welfare of its people. On the contrary, it has made him zealous in behalf of all public improvements and the general elevation of his locality through the quickening influence of the mental and moral agencies at work in it. These and every form of material development he has aided diligently and intelligently to promote, serving eapably and acceptably as a member of the school board and in various other positions of publie usefulness and responsibility.

On February 17, 1884, he married Miss Sina Rogers, of Macon County. They have had eleven children and all of them are living but two. Those living are: Elva, wife of Frank Scarlott, of South Dakota; Albert L., of South Dakota; Grace, wife of James Goe, of New Mexico; Agnus M., of Washington, D. C.; William O., and Ruby J., who reside in South Dakota, and Ada H., Chauneey M. and Roger W., who are still living at home. The political faith of the father is in the Democratic party's prineiples and theories of government, and he gives a loyal and helpful support to the candidates of that party on all occasions. His religious affiliation is with the Methodist Episeopal Church, South, of which he has long been a lending member in the eommunity of his home. His life has been a stimulus and an incitement to those around him, showing what industry, thrift and skill can aceomplish in this bountiful land, and demonstrating, at the same time, what elevated and useful citizenship means. All look upon him as a representative of the best elements in the population of the eounty and esteem him highly.

Jacob T. Browning

Born and reared in the mountain region of Pennsylvania, and dur ing the last thirty-six years a resident on the plains of Missouri, Jacob T. Browning, one of the most prosperous, progressive and successful farmers of Round Grove township, Macon county, during the long period of his activity, finds his evening of life passing amid scenes and associations far different from those of its morning, and the intervening time has been full of incident, adventure and conquest for him. It has given him experience, too, in many trials and privations, and subjected him at times to all the hazards of deadly warfare, on whose ensanguined fields Death stalks always the final eonqueror, whatever military banner may be vietorious.

Mr. Browning is a native of Bedford county, Pennsylvania, where his life began on August 13, 1835. His parents, Basil and Nancy (Cheney) Browning, were also born and reared in the East, the former being of the same nativity as the son, and the latter born in the state of Maryland. The father was born on November 5, 1798, and passed the whole of his life in agrieultural pursuits, but traveled extensively for diversion. He was very successful in his undertakings, and when he died owned 889 acres of land in the fertile valleys and on the sloping sides of the Alleghanies. He died on May 23, 1879, on the farm which

On March 9, 1819, the elder Mr. Browning was united in marriage with Miss Nancy Cheney, then living in Bedford county, Pennsylvania, but, as has been stated, a native of the neighboring state of Maryland. Of the five children that blessed their union but two are now living, the subject of these paragraphs and his sister, Rebecca E., who is now the widow of James A. House, deceased, of Flintstone, Maryland, where she maintains her home. In politics the father was a Whig until the birth of the Republiean party, and from then on to the end of his days he adhered to the new organization.

Jacob T. Browning, whose grandfather, bearing the same name as himself, was born and reared in Scotland and emigrated to this eountry in his early manhood, seems to have inherited from his paternal ancestry all the sturdy qualities of the race to which his forefathers belonged, and to have had his faculties of industry, frugality and prudence strengthened and intensified through the influence of his surroundings and requirements in that enormous workshop of all the crafts, Pennsylvania. He obtained his education in the district schools of his native county, and after leaving school worked on his father's farm until 1862. The Civil war was then under full headway, and the integrity of the Union was seriously threatened by the awful sectional strife. Under the eireumstances he felt it his duty to go to its defense, and, accordingly, he enlisted in the Union army as a member of the renowned ** Buektail Volunteers," which became a part of the division of the army under the eommand of Brigadier General Stone. He was soon at the front and in the very thick of the fight, taking part in the battles of Haymarket, Mine Run, Stevensville and Gettysburg and many minor engagements. He was in Company I, One Hundred and Fortyninth Pennsylvania Volunteers, whieh was one of the fighting regiments of the war. In March, 1864, he was discharged at Culpeper, Virginia, on account of disabilities incurred in the service, and returned to his home.

Mr. Browning remained on the farm of his parents and assisted them in carrying on its operations until 1873. He then came to Missouri and located in Macon county, where he has ever since resided. Soon after his arrival in this eounty he bought forty acres of land near Anabel, on which he has continuously made his home, and as time passed and his ventures prospered, he added to this domain until he now owns and, until recently farmed, 210 acres. In 1907 he retired from

Mr. Browning has shown himself to be a vigorous and skilful farmer, keeping up to date in all his operations, and applying broad intelligence to his work as well as diligence and thrift. He has also been in line with the most advanced ideas in improvement of land and dwellings and other structures on a farm, and what he has done for himself in this connection not only stands forth as a monument to his enterprise, but has been potential in stimulating others to follow his example, and thereby has been of real and substantial benefit to the township and county. In promoting the welfare of both he has also been zealous and effective in other ways. He has served as road overseer for seven years, and in connection with every avenue of development and advancentent has been among the most assiduous and constant of the progressive forces in the county.

On January 16, 1855, Mr. Browning was united in marriage with Miss Jane A. Bennett, of Bedford county, Pennsylvania, a daughter of John Bennett, one of the leading citizens of that county. She died on August 10, 1903. They had seven children, three of whom are living: Roy S., of Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Rebecca E., the wife of John C. Gadd, of Moberly, Missouri, and Emory Milton, who is still living at home, and has charge of the farm. In polities the father has been a Republiean from the dawn of his manhood, and in fraternal life he is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic.

Dr. Francis W. Allen, of Morrow township, Macon county, may properly be said to have inherited his professional taste and inclination from his father, and with it to have been born to a large degree of that esteemed physieian's ability, resolution and persisteney in whatever he undertook. He has been in active and successful practice for twelve years, except during a period of some months in which he was studiously pursuing post-graduate courses in general and special lines of the medical seience in Chicago. The whole time of his actual practice has been passed in this state, and nearly the half of it in Macon county.

Dr. F. W. Allen was born in this eounty in 1873 and is a son of Dr. F. W. Allen, Sr., who was born and reared in Monroe county, this state. Before the Civil war the father conducted an academy for ten years in Maeon. But in the awful conditions attendant upon that sanguinary eonfliet his school was broken up and the buildings were destroyed. He began to study medicine in St. Louis, and, after his graduation, located in Macon eounty, where he lived during almost the whole period of his eminent services as a physician and surgeon. He was a graduate of Bethany college and his career was highly creditable to that institution as well as to himself. In connection with his practice he also conducted a farm with success, standing as well as a farmer as he did in his profession.

In politics he was always a Democrat and active in the service of his party, but could never be induced to accept a publie office either by election or appointment. But he was zealous in behalf of the improvement of the county and was esteemed as one of its wisest and most useful citizens. . His wife, whose maiden name was Melvina Pearl, was a native of Randolph county, Missouri. They had four children, their sons, R. W., C. M., F. W., and J. P., and also reared an adopted daughter named Elizabeth. The father died in Nowember, 1906. The mother is still living and is now sixty-eight years of age. She has her home on the old family homestead and is universally revered throughout the whole surrounding eountry. For a more extended account of the life of Dr. F. W. Allen, Sr., see sketch of his life on another page of this volume.

Dr. Francis W. Allen, the immediate subject of this brief review, began his academie training in the distriet schools and completed it at a first-rate high school. He afterward pursued a course of special training at the business college in Moberly. His preparation for his professional work was made in the State University at Columbia, from the medical department of which he was graduated with the degree of M. D. in 1898. During the year following his graduation he served as an interne in the hospitals of St. Louis, and at the end of that period he began his praetiee at Middlegrove, in Monroe county. In 1903 he entered upon post-graduate eourses of instruetion at Rush Medical college in Chicago and the Chicago Polyelinie school. On completing these courses he returned to Missouri and located at Springfield, Greene county, where he was engaged in an active general practice until 1906, In that year he returned to Macon county and established himself in Morrow township, where he has ever since been living and practieing with a growing reputation for skill and ability and a steadily increasing number of patients. He, like his father, is also a farmer and stockman, owning and eultivating eighty aeres of land and carrying on a flourishing business in raising live-stock for the markets. In the management of his farm and his stock industry he finds relief from the exactions of his professional work, but this is never neglected for any other pursuit. He keeps in touch with the advances in his profession by a studious and reflective reading of its best literature, and with its latest discoveries in practice by an active, participating membership in the North Missouri and Macon County Medical Associations. He is also examining physician for the Order of Modern Woodmen of America.

In political allegiance the Doctor is a Democrat, with an earnest interest in the success and general welfare of his party, to which he contributes by energetic work in its behalf. His fraternal alliances are with the Order of Modern Woodmen and the Order of Odd Fellows, in the proceedings of which he is zealous and helpful in his interest and service. He was married in 1901 to Miss Essie Pearl Boyd, a native of Boone county, Missouri. They have two children, their daughter, Helen V. and their son, Francis B. The Doctor stands well in his profession and deserves the high rank he holds. He has won the confidence and regard of the people by his tireless industry and acknowledged ability in his professional work and his energy and wisdom in the aid he gives to all undertakings designed to improve the county and promote its welfare. In all the relations of life he is recognized as an upright, useful and representative man.

The sturdiness and rectitude so characteristic of the race from which he sprang are well represented in the career of this honored pioneer of Macon county, with whose business and civic interests he was prominently identified for more than thirty years, having been one of the ieading business men and influential citizens of the village of Bevier, where his death oceurred on the 3d of June, 1899. He passed to his reward seeure in the high regard of all who knew him and left to his descendants the heritage of a good name and of worthy and kindly deeds performed without ostentation and with the simple dignity and sym; pathy that characterized him in all the relations of life. He won success in the face of obstacles that would have proved insuperable to men of less mental and moral stamina, and was, in the most signifieant sense, the architeet of his own fortunes, since he became largely dependent upon his own resources while still a mere boy, owing to the somewhat straitened circumstances of the family.

John R. Hughes was a native of Wales, where he was born on the 3d of December, 1837, and where he seeured his rudimentary education, having attended night school after the age of ten years, as he thus early began to work in the mines during the daytime. His father was a miner in his native land, but followed other lines of work after coming to Ameriea. When the subjeet of this memoir was a lad of twelve years his parents immigrated to the United States and settled in Meigs county, Ohio. His folks were of sterling character and whose lives were summed up, as Lincoln said of his own parents, in ''the short and simple annals of the poor." In the old Buckeye state John R. Hughes was enabled to extend somewhat his educational training, attending the common schools as opportunity afforded, but finding his portion that of ceaseless toil and endeavor during the greater portion of his boyhood and youth. He was reared to manhood in Ohio, and at Pomeroy, that state, on the 14th of October, 1863, was solemnized his marriage to Miss Elizabeth Reese, who likewise was a native of Wales, whenee her parents came to America when she was a child of four years. She proved a devoted companion and helpmeet to her | husband, and their mutual love and sympathy made their relations of idyllie order during that many years that they walked side by side down the pathway of life. She survived him and is still living at Bevier, Missouri. Of their fourteen children, nine died in infancy, and the other five are still living. Daniel R., a member of the bar of Macon county, residing in the city of Macon, is individually mentioned on other pages of this volume; Edward R. is identified with the newspaper business in the city of Seattle, Washington; John R., an able lawyer, is associated in practice with his brother, Daniel R., in Macon; Miss Elizabeth resides in Bevier, and Jennie is the wife of John W. Howell, of Fort Smith, Arkansas.

After his marriage John R. Hughes continued his residence in Ohio until 1867, when he eame to Missouri and took up his abode in the village of Bevier, Macon county, where he seeured employment as clerk in a general merchandise store. In 1871 he engaged in business on his own responsibility, opening a well-equipped store in the same town, but the panie of 1873 soon followed and tested to the full his resourcefulness and stability and integrity of character. That he weathered the storm successfully is evident when we revert to the fact that he was the only one of the twenty merchants in Bevier that did not fail as a result of this memorable financial panic. With utmost caution, wisdom and cireumspection he conserved his resources and so effectively handled his business affairs that his every creditor received one hundred cents on the dollar. He continued in business at Bevier until his death, and his success was of no mean order, testifying alike to his personal popularity, his honorable methods and his enterprising spirit. No man in the community has enjoyed a more generous measure of publie confidence and esteem than did he, and upon the record of his entire career there rests no suspicion of wrong or shadow of injustice. He made his life eount for good in all its relations and his memory is revered by all who eame within the bounds of his kindly and beneficent influence,

Though a staunch Republican in his political views of a generic order, Mr. Hughes was never offensively partisan, and in local affairs was liberal in his political influence and action. His first presidential vote was cast for President Lincoln, in 1860. In 1890 he was elected justice of the peace, and of this office he continued incumbent for three successive terms, giving an administration which made the position justify its title. Both he and his wife were most devout and zealous members of the Congregational church, with which he identified himself when seventeen years of age. He became a deacon of the church when but twenty years old and of this position he continued incumbent without interruption during the residue of his long and signally useful life. He became a man of broad mental ken and of much intellectual strength, but he never ceased to regret the lack of educational opportunities in his youth, and thus was the more insistent in doing all in his power to accord to his children the best of opportunities and to support by his aid and influence every measure tending to conserve educational work in his home, village, county and state. He was the first candidate to be initiated in Eskridge Lodge, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, in Bevier, and was its first representative in the grand lodge of the state. He continued to be actively affiliated with this lodge until his death, and all of his sons are members of the same fraternity. A man of intrinsic nobility, simple and unassuming, affable and kindly in his intercourse with his fellow-men, Mr. Hughes was a power for good in his field of labor and sphere in life, and his name merits a place of honor in this compilation, through which may be perpetuated a slight tribute to his memory.

The son and the grandson of pioneers in this state, and himself born and reared long enough ago to see it before anything like its present advanced development and strident progress were manifest, John Henry Gross, one of the progressive and suecessful farmers of Liberty township, Macon county, has been conneeted with the building of our great state from his birth, and from the time when his energies were sufficient for the purpose, has borne faithfully his full share of the work.

ship, this county, and is a son of Noah and Mary (Sears) Gross, the former a native of Kentucky, and the latter of Kentucky, Randolph county, who rode in her mother's lap on horseback to Missouri. The father was born in 1816, and when he was but two years old was brought to Missouri by his father, Abraham Gross, also a Kentuckian, born, reared and married in that state, and for some years prosperous as a farmer there. He located his young family in Randolph county on a tract of land which he acquired there, and at once began to take an active and leading part in redeeming the wilderness, as the region was then, and reducing it to systematic cultivation. He aided in laying the foundations of its future progress and planting the seeds of the advanced civilization which now characterizes it and passed the remainder of his life in that county. His son, Noah, grew to manhood in Randolph county, and obtained his education in the primitive country schools, which were then the only academic institutions in this part of the state.

After leaving school and teaching for a while he learned the carpenter trade. In the year 1853 he built a home which was one of the best houses in the county. He burned the brick and lime, also dressed the weather boarding. It took two years to complete this work. During the remainder of his life he worked at his trade and also farmed and raised live-stock, except for a few years before his death, when he lived retired from all active pursuits. He died in 1902 at the age of eighty-six years, sixty-three years after his marriage. This occurred in 1839 and united him with Miss Mary Sears, of Randolph county. They had eleven children, seven of whom are living: James F., a resident of Macon county; Disa E., the widow of the late Charles Talbott; George W., who lives in Randolph county; Sarah E., the wife of Rufus Goodson; John Henry, the subject of this sketch; Thomas J., and Minnie N., the wife of Jesse Truitt, The four last named are all residents of Macon county, Thomas J. living in the city of Macon. In polities the father was a Democrat and in religious affiliation he belonged to the Primitive Baptist church, being a charter member of the congregation in which he was enrolled, and one of its zealous and faithful members,

John Henry Gross began his education in the district school of Independence township and completed it at the Kirksville Normal School. Following the example of his father, he became a teacher in the publie schools, following this ennobling work during twenty-one winter terms and ing his father on the home farm in the summer. He continued this dual occupation until 1899, having started a farming and stock-raising enterprise of his own in the spring of 1884, and in this he has ever since been energetieally and successfully engaged. He owns 240 acres of first-rate land and has most of it under vigorous and profitable cultivation. His home is considered to be among the prettiest in the eounty. His stock industry is also a thriving one.

In polities Mr. Gross is an active, working Demoerat, but he has never held or sought an ofice. His religious affiliation is with the Primitive Baptist church, and he has long been moderator and deacon in the eongregation to which he belongs. On November 23, 1883, he was married to Miss Myra B. Wilhite, a daughter of Smith and Rebecca (Grant) Wilhite, of Boone county. Three children were born of the union and two of them are living, Ordell and Durward, both of whom take a great pride in their home and farm life, are still abiding with their parents.

Captain Benjamin F. Stone

Capable, industrious and prosperous in business, and true to every duty of citizenship in peace and war, in publie office and private life, Capt. Benjamin F. Stone, a well known resident of Macon and an old soldier who still bears the mark of his military service in defense of the Union, is deservedly ranked as one of the most estimable and worthy men in his native eounty of Macon, where he was born on February 12, 1840, and has passed nearly all of his subsequent life. He obtained his education in the district schools and at MeGhee College, being graduated from the latter in 1859, and pursuing a post graduate course in the same institution in 1860 and 1861.

He is a son of Joseph and Melinda (Burris) Stone, the former a native of Tennessee and the latter of Wayne county, Kentucky. Reuben Stone, his paternal grandfather, was born and reared in South Carolina and moved from that state to Tennessee and some time afterwards to Wayne county, Kentucky. Later he located in southern Illinois, following general farming in all the different places of his residence, He was a soldier in the War of 1812, serving in a Kentueky regiment. His family eonsisted of four sons and five daughters, all of whom are now deceased. He died in southern Illinois.

His son Joseph, the Captain's father, was a earpenter and also a farmer. He moved to Randolph, Missouri, about 1835, and two years afterward became a resident of Macon county, entering a tract of government land seven miles southwest of what is now the city of Macon. On this farm he and his wife passed the remainder of their days, and finally laid down their trust in life on the land that was hallowed by their labors, which redeemed from its wild condition and transformed it into a eomfortable and valuable country home. Here they reared to maturity nine of their children, of whom they are now living four of the sons and two of the daughters.

Captain Stone found life strenuous work as soon as he entered upon its duties as a man. In the fall of 1861 he enlisted in Company K, Tenth Missouri volunteer infantry in defense of the Union. The regiment was under the command of Col. Samuel A. Holmes and soon became a part of the Army of the Cumberland. The young soldier made a gallant record as long as he was in the service, participating in the battles of Iuka and Corirtth, Mississippi, and numerous other engagements, and becoming corporal of his company. On October 4, 1862, he was shot through the right elbow, the wound resulting in the toss of his arm, in consequence of which he was discharged on account of his disability for further service in February, 1863.

After this serious disaster he returned to Macon county and for a time engaged in teaching school. He then studied law under the direction of B. R. Dysart of Macon and was admitted to the bar in 1867. Previous to this, however, he was appointed county school commissioner in 1866 and filled the office acceptably for a period of six months. In 1868 he was elected county treasurer for a term of two years, and was then ehosen recorder of deeds for one of four years. In each of these offieial positions he made an excellent record and held the confidence and regard of the people for his ability, fidelity and high character.

At the end of his term as recorder of deeds he bought theMacon 'Times, which he edited and published two years, then, in company with J. M. London, consolidated it with the Macon Journal under the name of the Maeon Examiner. Two years later he bought his partner's interest in the paper and some time afterward sold it to J. A. Hudson, who changed its name back to **'The Macon Times,'' and continued its publieation under that name. During the Captain's connection with the paper it rose to considerable influence and was noted for the ability and force with which it was conducted, its strong independence and unwavering devotion to the best interests of the county and state.

When Captain Stone abandoned the field of journalism he turned his attention to the real estate business and during a number of succeeding years contributed essentially and extensively to the improvement of the city, putting up many residence, business and publie buildings, among them the Jefferson hotel, which is still a popular hostelry and bears the name he gave it. During the last thirty years he has been in business as an abstractor, building up an extensive industry in this useful line of effort and becoming known all over the county for the excellence and accuracy of his work and the high and broad intelligence with which he has eondueted it.

Captian Stone was maried in Macon county in 1875 to Miss Mittie Powell, a half sister of Henry Powell, a sketch of whom appears in this work. They have five children living: Dr. Frank P. Stone, who was a dental surgeon in the United States army and saw service in the Philippines, and who is now engaged in a general practice of his profession at Hobart, Oklahoma; Mary M., the wife of Dr. Bridgeford of Macon; Mabel S., who was for years a teacher in the schools of Macon, and is now attending the State University, and Hattie C. and Harry B., who are still living with their parents. All the members of the family belong to the Methodist Episcopal Church South, and in politieal relations the father has been a life-long Democrat, strong in his convictions and influential in the councils of his party. Macon county has no better citizen and none more worthy of the confidence and esteem of the people, all shades and elasses of whom hold him in high regard.

During the last forty-seven y nearly two-thirds of his whole life to the time of his death, March 20, 1910, Martin V. MeKenzie, of Independent township, was a resident of Macon county and the locality in which he died. He came here a young man of twenty-six years of age, and the region in whieh his produetive aetivities were employed was then young, too. While he passed on to middle age and beyond it the region has grown into advanced development, industrial importance, commercial force and political influence, and will go on in its career of progress. The end of effort came with the end of life for him, but the forces he helped to put in motion and the agencies for good he helped to ereate and strengthen will still augment in power and continue expanding their usefulness. This is one instance in which the good a man has done wil! live after him, and Mr. MeKenzie was fortunate in being able to see already an abundant harvest enriching the world from seed he helped to sow. He was the oldest inhabitant of the village of Barnesville, and what that is and the country around it has come to be is largely the fruit of his labor and the produet of energies awakened by his example.

born and reared in that state. They were well-to-do farmers and pursued the even tenor of their way through life in daily usefulness and unostentatious worth. They had nine children and of these only three are living, Harriet, Alice and Addison. The mother died in August, 1865, and the father in June, 1867, highly respected by all who knew them.

Martin V. McKenzie attained his manhood in his native county and secured his education in its publie schools. After leaving school he engaged in farming there until 1863, prospering moderately in his undertaking and steadily advancing in the race for supremacy among men. In April of the year last mentioned he eame to Missouri and took up his residence in Macon county. Farming had been the oceupation of his years from boyhood, and in this promising agricultural region he naturally turned to it again and with a quickened interest bern of the new conditions with whieh he was surrounded. He added stock-raising to his enterprise in this locality, and he pushed his interests with all his skill and power and built them up to considerable proportions.

Mr. MeKenzie was engaged in mercantile life at Barnesville for fourteen years. He conducted his business with spirit, energy and breadth of view, and attained rank as a wise and progressive merchant throughout the business world around him. He took a great interest and a leading part in the development and progress of the township and county, giving his aid eheerfully and liberally to every worthy enterprise involving the welfare of the people and helping to guide with wise counsel the general advance along lines of the most wholesome growth and toward the most praetieal and enduring expansion. For more than twenty years he served on the school board and was one of its most energetic and useful members. He was a Democrat in polities, and, during his years of activity, was one of the wheel-horses in the service of his party. In 1864 he was joined in marriage with Miss Nancy Biswell, who was born and grew to maturity in this county. "They had two children, their daughter, Alice, and their son, Arthur B. The mother of these ehildren died in 1874 and in 1876 the father contracted a second marriage, uniting himself with Miss Anna Hull, a native of Kentucky. They became the parents of two children, James G. and Sallie. From the dawn of his manhood he made his own way in the world, and so conducted his affairs that he made every advance in life a stepping-stone to higher achievements, and, at the same time, advanced the interests of the community in whieh he lived along with the prog-

John W. Waddill

Enterprising in many lines of business and successful in all, making every faculty he possessed and every day of his time tell to his advantage, John W. Waddill, of Elmer, was a worthy representative of the progressiveness and business eapaeity of the people of Macon county. And as he gave to the welfare of the township and county of his home tlie same eareful attention and to the promotion of their interests the same energetic and resourceful activity that he devoted to his own affairs, in contributing so essentially to the growth and development of his community he won the high regard of its people as a representative, also, of their publie spirit, breadth of view and elevation of tone in referenee to loeal publie affairs and the general advancement of this portion of the state. In this behalf he was aetive himself and was very serviceable in the activities his influence and example awakened and direeted in many other members of the community.

Mr. Waddill was a native of Tennessee, where he was born in 1854. His father, Thomas G. Waddill, was also a native of that state and oue of its enterprising farmers until 1857, when he moved to Missouri and took up his residence in Macon county. Here he renewed his farming operations and continued them until his death, which occurred in 1899. He was married to Miss Mary Hanley, who was also born and reared in Tennessee. Of the nine children born to them, six are living: Mary, the wife of Henry Nelson; Samuel; George D.; James; Richard and Sylvester. The mother died in 1897.

John W. Waddill was bred to farming and followed it all his life. He grew to manhood on the parental homestead and took his first lessons in the principal pursuit that engaged his powers in helping to perform its useful and necessary labors. When he could be spared from these he attended the distriet school in the neighborhood and thus acquired all he had opportunity for in the way of academie instruetion. When he left school he eontinued to assist his parents on the farm until the time eame for him to assume the burden of life for himself, and he then started on his own account the farming industry which ever oceupied him and gave him consequence as a man of substance, and enabled him to win an exalted place in publie esteem as a good farmer and an excellent citizen. He owned and farmed 120 acres of land and carried on, in connection with his general farming, an extensive business in raising stock for the markets. He was also proprietor of the Hotel Elmer in the town of that name, and in other ways was connected with the business and social life of the community.

During the last five years of his life Mr. Waddill was one of the leading members of the school board. In this position he rendered the town unquestioned service of a high order and enduring value. The schools have felt the influence of his vigorous and progressive spirit and have nobly responded to it in increased efficiency and praetical usefulness. He was a Republican in politics and one of the earnest and fruitful workers of his party. In fraternal life he was connected with the Woodmen of the World, and that order, too, has had the benefit of his enterprise in action and his wisdom in counsel. In 1875 he was united in marriage with Miss Elva E. Craig, a native of Iowa, They had two children, but now have only one living, their daughter, Mary E., who is the wife of Thomas Banning, of Elmer. Mr. Waddill died February 15, 1910.

Y Joseph Nickell

This enterprising merchant and influential citizen of Nickellton is a scion of a distinguished family in this part of the world, and in his career to the time of this writing (1909) he has nobly exemplified the eharaeteristies and elevation of manhood that gave his ancestry distinetion, and which in him have won him a high place in the esteem of the whole region in whieh he is known. Although comparatively young in years he has risen to high rank in the business world of Northwestern Missouri, and is looked upon as a man destined to win statewide prominence and influence.

Mr. Nickell was born in this eounty in 1873. He grew to manhood in the neighborhood of his present home and obtained his education at its publie schools. After leaving school he devoted himself to farming and raising stock for a period of four years. In 1895 he turned his attention to merchandising, and ever since then he has been engaged in this line of endeavor, with gratifying success for himself and decided benefit to the community of Nickellton, in which his store is located, and all the territory tributary to it in the way of trade. His store is a popular resort and rallying place for the whole region and is regarded with the utmost friendliness and good will by all who frequent it or know it and its proprietor. Mr. Nickell has a genial and accommodating manner, which leads him to make himself serviceable to his associates and patrons, and he has also a considerable fund of general information, which he knows how to dispense judiciously for the entertainment and profit of all who come in contact with him. No citizen of the township is more popular, and none better deserves the universal esteem of the people. lt is not to be inferred, however, that his efforts to please are due to thrift or a desire to inerease his business. They are the natural expression of his manhood, the outpourings of his spirit of genuine good-fellowship, and as spontaneous as the sunlight, and they are appreciated in accordance with their own value and this faet.

In the affairs of the community Mr. Nickell takes a good eitizen's full and helpful interest, supporting with ardor every eommendable undertaking for its advancement and considering all matters involving the enduring welfare of the people with excellent judgment and comprehensive breadth of view. He is a Republican in politics, an Odd Fellow in fraternal life and a member of the Methodist church in religion. But he is non-partisan where the good of his township and county are concerned, holds all the world in fraternity in all benevolent considerations, and is without seet or ereed in contributions to help the moral agencies around him to greater power and usefulness. He was married in 1900 to Miss Gertrude M. Linson, a native of Macon county. They have one child, their daughter, Alba.

The pioneers of Macon county, like those of every other part of the great West in this country, and those of the East, also, in their day, were of heroie mold and seem to have been fashioned by nature for the great work they were ealled upon to do. They were beings forged on the anvil of war, and by the process were specially fitted for conflict and conquest. The foes they had to fight and conquer were not, as a rule, well diseiplined and aceoutred armies, of whose movements they might make calculations with some degree of certainty, but the savage forces of nature, wild beasts and wilder men, the rugged massiveness of the mountains, the stubborn glebe of the plains, deprivation of all the of the elements before the climatic conditions were known and could be prepared for. Some of these foes were always with them and others attacked them unawares, at the most unexpected times and places, and often when the hardy adventurers were least prepared to eneounter danger or opposition.

But they met their responsibilities firmly, endured their hardships resolutely, faced their foes courageously, and triumphed over all opposing forces gloriously. The stake for which they fought was an empire, and they deemed it worth any sacrifice, a recompense for any hardship, a sufficient reward for every trial. In the heroie band which founded the prosperity, established the civil polity, laid out the boundaries and began the history of Macon county, few, if any, among them all are entitled to a higher rank or have left a more enduring monument to his manhood and his efforts to aid in planting civilization in a new region than the late Davidson Nickell, of Jackson township, whose name survives him in that of Nickellton, a village baptized into being in his honor.

Mr. Nickell was born in 1829 in that part of Virginia that was torn from her bleeding side by the stern arbitrament of the Civil war and has since been known as West Virginia. He came to Missouri with .his parents when he was but nine years old. The family located near whére the village of Nickellton now stands, and there the parents underwent the privations, dangers and arduous labors necessary to redeem a traet of land from the wilderness and make it over into a productive farm and a comfortable home. "They farmed and raised live-stock, and, in a homely way, the only one available to them under the cireumstances, reared their ehildren, giving them to the world strong in traits of character, ereditable alike to themselves and their ancestry.

Their son, Davidson, grew to manhood, on the frontier and bravely took his plaee and did his part in the great work of improving and eivilizing it. His education in the learning of the schools was necessarily limited, but field and forest were his instructors and the manifold voices of Nature taught him self-knowledge and the habits of his life gave him skill in the requirements of the locality. As soon as he was able he began farming and raising stock on his own account, and he so managed his affairs that he succeeded in aequiring'a competency and establishing himself firmly in the esteem of all the people living around him, far and near. He was married to Miss Fannie Snell, a native of Virginia. They had nine children and five of them are living: Jennie, the wife of J. B. Crawford; David; Viola, the wife of W. E. Naylor, of Clarence, Shelby county; Davidson, and Gertrude, the wife of W. H. Howard. The mother is still living and has her home with one of her daughters. The father died on May 27, 1891, and his remains were laid to rest with every manifestation of popular esteem.

Orphaned by the death of his mother when he was but three years old and that of his father when the son was but six, Wilbur F. Van Pelt, now one of the prosperous and progressive farmers of Lyda town- ship, Macon county, was obliged early in life to face a cold and unsympathetie world, with little to depend on but his own native force, capability and determined spirit as his capital for the struggle before him. He had resolution and self-reliance, however, and met his task bravely, with the goal he aimed to reach glimmering afar, but still plainly in view. How fully his hopes were justified and how energetically and earefully he used his powers ean easily be inferred from his present state of worldly comfort and the universal esteem which is bestowed upon him.

Mr. Van Pelt was born in Jersey county, Illinois, on February 17. 1851, and is a son of R. H. and Penelope (Stout) Van Pelt, natives of New Jersey, and farmers in Illinois. They had seven children and four of them are living: Adam Clark; Charles E., who lives in Oregon; Winfield S., a resident of Illinois, and Wilbur F. The mother died in 1854 and the father in 1857. They made a comfortable living for their family while life lasted, but left little for the support of their offspring when death ended their labors. For, while they prospered as farmers, they were unable to continue their operations long enough to accumulate much under the eireumstances surrounding them and the conditions of the new state of Illinois when they moved into it and made it the base of their operations.

Their son, Wilbur F., received a common Ecol education and, on leaving school, at once went to work in the farming industry, toiling for others at meager compensation. But he was frugal and industrious, and little by little accumulated a small sum of money, and as soon as he was able began farming on his own account. By this move his responsibilities inereased and his burden grew heavier. But he rose to the requirements and found within him new powers for every new exaetion. His gains inereased more rapidly and his feeling of independence also grew greater. He came to Missouri in 1875 and located in Macon county. Here he has ever since resided and been engaged in farming, raising stoek and 'dairying. He has a fine and well-improved farm of 160 aeres, which is well supplied with everything needed for its vigorous eultivation, and he farms it with skill and excellent judgment, giving careful attention to every detail and applying the most approved modern methods to all his work. He conducts his other business with equal intelligenee and eare, and the results of all his undertakings are commensurate with the labor bestowed upon them and the wisdom with whieh they are managed.

getieally in promoting all worthy undertakings for their advancement and the welfare of their people. He is a stockholder in the Macon creamery and connected in a serviceable way with other enterprises of value to the loeality of his home. In polities he is a pronounced Republiean, with a cordial interest in the success of his party and entire willingness at all times to do all he ean to bring it about. He served on the school board for nine years or longer and was road overseer for two. His religious connection is with the Methodist church. In everything with which he is connected he is useful, and in all his services are highly appreciated. Mr. Van Pelt has been very successful in the management of his own affairs, and the qualities which have won him triumphs in them have also been potential for good to the region around him in all matters of public import.

On November 2, 1875, Mr. Van Pelt was married to Miss Isabella Martz, a native of Pennsylvania. Five of the eight children they have had are living, Carrie E., George F., Elmer, Ella and Penelope. The career of the father strikingly illustrates what can be accomplished by industry, thrift and a faithful discharge of duty, and shows that, although cireumstances may have their weight in determining the course of usefulness, they do not control it, and can be commanded to service in a man's advancement if he be resolute and self-reliant. Of such a man they are the servants, although of others they may be the masters. Mr. Van Pelt's career and present high-standing in the estimation of the people show also that character is an asset of great value in any condition of life, and that fidelity and straightforwardness in every relation are always elements of great power.

Edgar White

The publishers of this work, while always willing to respect a worthy man's modesty, and treat it with due consideration, feels that they cannot, with propriety withhold a just tribute to merit which has been made manifest to them through great patience, perserevanee and conspicuous ability in the preparation of what they have undertaken to do in the presentation to the people of Macon county and the state of Missouri of a suitable and interesting history of what those people have accomplished in the development and improvement of this part of the country.

The publishers have had the very valuable assistanee of Mr. Edgar White in the eompilation of this volume, and they feel that it is their duty to themselves and their patrons to make this publie acknowledgment of the debt of gratitude and appreciation they owe Mr. White for the great help he has given them. Mr. White prepared and edited the general history of the county which this book contains, and in doing so laid everybody connected with the enterprise, patrons, publishers and the people generally, under a lasting obligation for the excellence of his work, the fine literary taste he has displayed in it, the sparkle and vivacity of his narrative, his skillful grouping of faets and his masterly treatment of them. His accuracy of statement, his comprehensive breadth of view, and his laborious and long-continued efforts to get everything in the history just right, are worthy of all commendation. But all these things are amply shown in the narrative itself, and the publishers rely with all confidenee on that to justify whatever of encomium this sketeh of Mr. White may contain. They have no idea that either Mr. White himself or any of the brillant produets of his facile and trench-pen are in need of praise from them in the presence of the people of Macon county, or any other portion of Missouri, where his literary work is so well known and so highly appreeiated. Their primary purpose in calling attention to the faets as stated is that he may have full eredit for what he has done to make the history so acceptable, and to unite with those who know him better than they do in doing justice to the merit of his work in this connection, and also to put on record, in a compact and pleasing form, the interesting story of his useful life and varied achievements as a literary gentleman and newspaper writer of high attainments and great talents.

Mr. White grew to manhood in St. Louis, Missouri, and obtained his scholastic training at the Elliott school on Sixteenth street in that eity. After leaving school he turned his attention to printing as a vocation and worked at the trade two years in St. Louis. Early in the eighties the whole family moved to Moberly, Missouri, and there Mr. White secured employment with the Moberly "Daily Monitor," first at delivering papers and later setting type and doing job work. He remained with the "Daily Monitor" about three years, then went to Linneus, the county seat of Linn county, where he continued to set type, and, when he had opportunity, studied shorthand, paying a boy ten cents an evening to read to him for praeice. In a short time he became very proficient as a shorthand writer and was called on to report politieal speeches and politieal eonventions throughout the state.

In 1889 he was appointed court reporter by Judge Andrew Ellison for the Twenty-seventh judicial district, which is now known as the Second. His appointment to this responsible position was largely the result of chance, as his first visit to Macon was made at the request of the attorney of the Burlington Railroad company, who wished him to report a case for the company that was about to be tried in this court. His work on this case was so satisfaetory that Judge Ellison at once appointed him official court reporter for the district, and he filled the office with great acceptability for a period of ten years.

At the end of that time he resigned in order to give his whole time to the literary work and high class newspaper work which have made him famous all over the state and in many others as a writer of choice fiction, discriminating criticism and other productions of superior merit. His work as court stenographer proved to be a valuable schooling for him in his later efforts in the literary field. It broadened his views, gave him a keen and comprehensive knowledge of human nature, brought him into contact with many phases of human life, and taught him selfknowledge in addition. During his service in that capacity he reported many of the noted cases tried in the state and was generally considered the most accurate and accomplished stenographer in Missouri.

As n writer of varied talents and attainments Mr. White's reputation is almost worldwide. The people of this county were therefore prepared for a history of rare interest and value from his pen, and he has not disappointed them. On the contrary, he seems to have achieved in his history of Macon county the most signal triumph of his life in the way of a literary production. And this is all the more remarkable because he has given his pen during most of the years of his use of it to lighter fabries and more delicate fiber that the rise and progress of a struggling people from insignificance to consequence, from feebleness to greatness and all-conquering power. Or it would be remarkable if the keenness of his vison and his skill in analysis, combination and comment were not so well trained and so highly developed.

The story detailed by Mr. White was in: the facts, but they require the talent of a brilliant chronicler to fully interpret them, show their trend and give full expression to their essential meaning. Mr. White has adhered to them with religious fidelity, but he has arranged them with proper subordination and proportion, given them color according to their character and importance, and blended them into a harmonious and consistent construction, which has strength, fine wearing quality and plentiful but not excessive ornamentation. The amusing phases of the life of the people and the seetion of country he portrays sparkle with wit, radiate mirth and glow with the light of genuine humor. And the tragical events and incidents are set forth with great pathos and power, in periods as strong as the struggles they sprang from, tints as somber as their gloom, and lines as harsh as their hardships, whether they were the difficulties, privations and dangers of the early settlers, or the cruelties and often merciless brutalities of the dark days and starless nights of the Civil war period. While all the poetry, romance and sentiment of every period run like veritable threads of gold through the warp and woof of his brilliant reeital. "The material progress and triumphs of this people are also delineated with due attention to their magnitude and real majesty.

Mr. White's parents, Benjamin and Louisa (Humphreys) White, were natives of Missouri and died in the eity of Macon. He has two brothers living, Herbert and Malcom. They are residents of Macon, Missouri, and Miamiaburg, Ohio, and gentlemen of prominence and influence in business and social life, highly esteemed wherever they are known and well deserving of the regard bestowed upon them by all classes of the people.

Thomas Edward Lincoln Beal

This wide-awake and enterprising farmer and stockman of Lingo township, who is in the front rank in the two industries which engage his attention among the men who follow them in this locality, is a native of West Virginia, where he was born on March 5, 1861. He is a son of William and Elizabeth (Thompson) Beal, a brief account of whose lives will be found in a sketeh of his brother, Robert R. Beal, which appears in this volume.

Mr. Beal was reared much as other farmers' sons in this part of the country. He obtained a limited education at the distriet schools of Macon eounty and aequired a knowledge of farming and raising stock on his father's farm and under the direetion of that gentleman, with whom he remained and for whom he worked until he started out in life for himself. He chose the pursuits in which he had passed all the years of his minority as his occupation when he left school, and was soon afterward engaged in them with all his foree and all the means at his command. The ascent to prosperity and independence looked long and steep to him, but he began it with all the more ardor because of the diffieulties it presented to his vision. He had no favors to expeet from the smiles of Fortune, and eireumstances did not minister to his advancement except as he compelled them to. His sole reliance was on himself, and he devoted all his energies to the work before him. His progress was slow and painful at first, but every step of it was on solid ground and a permanent advance. When his start was secured and his margins began to widen, he found the way more easy and his movement toward the goal of his hopes more rapid. Beginning his struggle with next to nothing, he now owns 120 acres of choice land, on which he carries on a general farming, stock and fruit industry, which is condueted with vigor, managed with skill and developed to the highest degree of produetiveness and profit.

Realizing in full measure the diffiuculties in the way of struggling young men whose start in life is like his own, Mr. Beal is always ready to extend a helping hand to them and give them eneouragement. Especially is he zealous in promoting the progress and development of the county and thereby increasing the opportunities for all classes of the people and improving the general conditions of life. His political allegianee js now given to the Republican party, but during the active life of the Greenback party he was an ardent member of that organization. Still, he is not desirous of holding a politieal office of any kind, and has never accepted one except membership on the school board, on which he has served for a number of years. His farm, his stock and his orchards afford him enough to oceupy his time and engage his faculties, and he devotes himself exclusively to them, reserving only what is necessary of time and energy to perform all the duties of citizenship with reference to the general welfare of the region in which he has his home and conducts his business.

In 1882 Mr. Beal was married to Miss Isabella Turner, a native of Ohio. Of their nine children seven are living, George, James, Sylva, Mildred, Oscar, Stella and Raymond. Those of them who have reached maturity are good citizens, too, and practice in their daily lives the lessons learned at the family fireside and enforeed by the excellent examples furnished by their parents. The latter stand high in the esteem of all elasses of the people and are regarded as among the best citizens of the eounty. They have hosts of friends wherever they are known and deserve to have them.

Energetie, progressive and successful in two of the leading industries of Maeon county, and bearing a hand of some weight and influence in the mereantile world, Willis A. MeNeal, of Easeley township, with his farm not far from the village of Elmer and his mercantile interests located in it, represents well the people of Macon county in his activities and is well worthy of the position they assign him as a representative man among them in character and citizenship. He embodies and exemplifies their enterprise and progressiveness and, at the same time, moves toward the same high ideals in government and civil and social life they aim to attain to.

native of Missouri, born in Sullivan county in 1875. His father, William MeNeal, was born and reared in Scotland, whose people have been sung into immortality by Burns and Seott, and in every field of human endeavor and in almost every elime have shown themselves worthy of the tributes paid to their qualities of head and heart by those gifted poets. He was brought to Missouri when he was but one year old, and here he was reared and educated. Here, also, he has passed his life since leaving the distriet sehools, in whose humble temples of learning he aequired his scholastie training, as an industrious and well-to-do farmer. In 1873 he was married to Miss Melinda Palmer, and they became the parents of eleven children, ten of whom are living: Willis A. Alpha, Pearl, Grace, Lessie, Charles, Mattie, Emmett, Cecil and Opal. Both the father and the mother are still living and actively carrying on their useful industry.

Their son, Willis, grew to manhood on the parental homestead and obtained his edueation also in the publie schools. "Then, following in his father's eourse in another way, he began the farming operations which have been his chief occupation ever since. In connection with them, he has carried on an extensive and flourishing business in raising stock and shipping it to the eastern markets. He owns and eultivates something over 120 acres of land, and, in its state of advanced improvement, its manifest fertility and its generally clean and attractive appearance, his farm does him great credit and fully justifies his reputation as an excellent and very enterprising farmer who knows what to do to secure the best results, and does it.

In 1904 Mr. MeNeal took on another engagement which has added greatly to his eares and labors, but which in return for the additional burden it laid upon him has brought him popularity and prominence as a merchant and given a considerable increase to his revenues and resources. In that year he entered the hardware trade as a retailer with J. H. Montgomery as a partner, and during the last five years they have together conducted one of the most complete and satisfactory hardware stores in this part of the state.

The fraternal life of the community has enlisted Mr. MeNeal's interest in an engrossing way and he has shown his devotion to it by active membership for many years in the orders of Woodmen and Yeomen. In polities he is a pronounced Republican, and, while neither an office-seeker nor.an active partisan, he is loyal to his party and renders it good service in a quiet but effective way. He was married in 1901 to Miss Rose Montgomery, of this county. They have one child, their daughter, Letha, who is the hope and promise of the house and a general favorite with the numerous friends of her parents who make their home a center of social life and enjoyment as the inmates have made it popular and locally distinguished as a center of genuine and generous hospitality.

E William J. Richardson

The son of two of Macon county's venerated pioneers, and himself . subjected to many of the privations and.dangers of a newly settled country, William J. Richardson, one of the prosperous and progressive farmers of Round Grove township, is well prepared to realize and rejoice in the improvement and progress of the county from the state in which he first knew it to its present advanced development. And if his modesty did not forbid he might also feel satisfaction over his own part in bringing about the great and gratifying change. As it is, he rejoices in having had the opportunity to contribute, even in a small way, as he may think, to what has been achieved.

Mr. Richardson was born in the township in which he now resides on September 21, 1852, and is a son of James and Jane (Grimes) Richardson, natives of Virginia, who came to Missouri and settled in Macon county in 1534. They were reared and educated in their native state, where the father was born in 1805, and were married there in 1832. Buoyed up with high hopes, and of a disposition to dare anything in the discharge of duty, the young couple, after passing two years of their married life in the neighborhood of their parental homesteads, determined to cast their lot in the distant West, where the boundless opportunities of life were as yet almost untouched. Nor did they hesitate because the experiment they were about to try was full of peril, and embodied a surrender of nearly everything they had been accustomed to in the way of comfort and social enjoyment. They believed in themselves, and in the end they found their faith fully justified. On arriving in this county the husband entered 160 acres of government land in what is now Round Grove township, and on this he passed the remainder of his days, gradually breaking it up and improving it until it beeame a very fruitful, well-improved and valuable farm, yielding good harvests and other profitable returns for the labor bestowed upon it and providing all the comforts of a good country home. On this farm the father died in 1877, after rearing a family to enrich the county and spending forty-three years of faithful industry upon it. He and his wife were the parents of seven children, but three of whom are living at this time. They are Jack J., a resident of Macon county; M. D., who lives in Kansas City, Missouri; and the interesting subject of these paragraphs. The father was a Demoerat in polities and took an active part in local and general politieal work. He died at the age of seventytwo, with general recognition of his worth and estimable qualities as a eitizen from all who knew him attending him to his last earthly resting place.

William J. Richardson obtained a limited education in the primitive country schools of his boyhood and youth, going to school in the winter and working on his father's farm during the rest of the year. After leaving school he continued to work on the farm and assist the family until 1876. During the next two years he farmed rented land on his own account in this county, and at the end of that period went to Kansas, where he remained one year. Returning to Macon county, he passed another summer on the homestead, and during the twelve sueceeding years was located at Clarence and engaged in teaming and other oceupations. In 1897 he came back once more to this county and bought eighty acres of land, on which he has ever since carried on a flourishing industry in farming and raising stock.

On June 9, 1876, Mr. Richardson was married to Miss Sarah C. Graves, a daughter of William R. and Permelia Graves, highly respected citizens of Macon county, and numbered among its most worthy and progressive people. Ten children were born to this marriage and five of them are living: Permelia, the wife of Ira Barton of this county ; Mamie, the wife of Geo. W. Bogart of Kansas City, Missouri; and Newton, Nazo and Cuba, all of whom are still members of the parental household. Following the politieal principles in which he was trained at home, and with his convictions strengthened and established by his own reading, reflection and observation, Mr. Richardson is a staunch and zealous Demoerat, working in all campaigns for the success of his party, and at all times helping to guide it forward in straight lines of integrity and fidelity to duty. In religious affiliation he and his wife are earnest and active working members of the Christian church, seeking by all means at their command to promote its welfare and enlarge its usefulness. In social life they stand high, and in a general way they are everywhere esteemed for their enterprise, usefulness and elevated eitizenship, whieh has been helpful both in its own aetivity and in the forces for good it has awakened and set in motion in others.

With good blood of old Virginia coursing through his veins, and with immediate ancestors, in the persons of his parents and grandparents, who dared the dangers of the wilderness and endured the hard conditions of frontier life, as high examples for imitation in heroic undertaking and achievement, John W. McGhee, one of the leading citizens of Middlefork township, Macon county, when he entered upon the stage of action, had every incentive to diligence and daring that the historie renown of his ancestral state and family records could give him, and he has not contemplated their suggestions in vain, or in a superfieial manner.

Mr. MeGhee was born in the township of his present home on January 20, 1861, and is a son of Joseph A. and Martha (Harris) McGhee, natives of Smith county, Virginia, where, also, his grandfather, Wyatt McGhee, was born and reared, and where the families from which he is descended lived and flourished for many generations. The father was born in 1812 and was brought to Missouri by his parents when he was but a boy. The family located in Boone county and lived there until 1833. In that year Joseph A. McGhee attained his majority and moved to Pettis county to make his own way in the world. He became a farmer, following the oceupation to which he had been trained on the parental homestead, and continued his operations in Pettis county until 1850. In that year the gold fever struck him hard, and he went with others across the trackless waste to California, making the trip with ox teams and meeting with many interesting and some thrilling adventures on the way. During the next three years he mined and teamed in California with suecess and profit, then returned to Missouri and bought a farm in Macon eounty on which he passed the remainder of his life.

For nearly thirty years he carried on a prosperous industry in farming his land, raising live stock, and doing the other things which pertained to what he had in hand, making steady progress in substantial aequisitions and maintaining himself well in the regard and good will of the people all around him. He died in 1882, leaving a comfortable estate of 200 acres of land, well improved and highly cultivated, and as the better heritage for his heirs, an excellent reputation and a stimulating example of duties well performed and long years of usefulness wisely and profitably employed. 1

In polities he was a pronounced and active Democrat, and in church relations he and his wife were zealous working members of the Southern Methodist Episcopal sect. They were prominent in the congregation to which they belonged and could always be relied on to do their full share in the promotion of any worthy enterprise undertaken by it. The mother's maiden name was Martha Harris. She was of the same nativity as her husband. They became the parents of nine children.

Philip Gansz

Five of these are living: Sarah Elizabeth, the wife of H. C. Wine of this county; John W., of whom these paragraphs are written prineipally ; Amie J., the wife of Finis Tedford of Clarence, Missouri; and Austin H. and Walter G., both residents of Macon county.