Macon County, Missouri - Biographical sketches, 1910 (part 1 of 20)

Biographical sketches

Thomas Wardell, senior, the pioneer coal operator of Macon county, was born in the eounty of Durham, England, July 4, 1835. His father was John Wardell and his mother's name was Jane Trumble. Mr. Wardell came to America in 1844 and here he was married to Miss Ann Surtees, daughter of Theopolus and Jane Surtees. Mr. Wardell's first occupation in America was that of a miner. He came to Macon county in 1861 and located at Bevier. He worked as a coal miner until the age of 30, which was three years after he settled at Bevier. But not long did he work as an ordinary hand. He soon developed that business ability whieh in later years was destined to make him one of the most successful coal operators in the West. He began supplying coal to the railroad company from a mine he operated himself, and gradually extended the capacities of his plants until he controlled a large traet of valuable eoal land and was employing 600 men. During his aetive life Mr. Wardell was also interested in coal mines in Wyoming. Being a praetieal miner and knowing the business thoroughly, he was an aeeurate judge of values and of men. He foresaw that all of the land to the south of Bevier would some day be utilized in supplying eoal for the market, and when he died he had aequired enough of this land to operate for many years. It is now in the possession of the Central Coal & Coke Company, successor to the Kansas & Texas Coal Company, and a railroad line, the property of the eoal eompany, runs through the heart of the district. Mr. Wardell died October 12, 1888, leaving his wife and four children: Thomas E., Elizabeth, Mary and Jane. Elizabeth is now Mrs. Harry M. Rubey; the next oldest, Mary, married Harry Wilkinson, of Chicago, and the youngest daughter, Jane, is now Mrs. Sidney Brock.

Mr. Wardell was one of the most energetie men that ever operated in the Macon county coal fields, and those who knew him predicted, had he lived, that great things would have been accomplished in this county through his enterprise. He died in the prime of life. Right in the midst of his business activity and full of plans for the development of a great ambition. His son, Thomas E. Wardell, has shown a great deal of his father's public spirit in the encouragement of enterprises about Macon.

Y Charles O. Barnes

Thrown on his own resources at the early age of thirteen, and having in addition to the burden of supporting himself that of contributing to the necessities of the rest of the family, Charles O. Barnes, of Bevier, for some years past the deputy sheriff of Macon county, has made his way in the world through difficulties and gained every step of his progress by arduous effort and a strict relianee on his own resources, which were nothing but his natural ability and determined spirit. His is not, however, the only story in the family history that is darkened with trial and has the element of the dramatic in it in large measure. His grandparents were pioneers in this state and dared all the dangers and endured all the hardships of frontier life.

Mr. Barnes was born in the eity of Macon, Missouri, on August 27, 1866, and is a son of Kit and Sophronia (Seney) Barnes, also natives of Missouri and the children of pioneers. The paternal grandfather, James Barnes, was born and grew to early manhood in Virginia. He eame as a young man to this state and located in Boone county. Even though he was a preacher of the Baptist seet, and went about doing good, especially ministering to the spiritual welfare as well as the physieal eomfort of the Indians, he was obliged to build himself forts to protect himself and his family from the occasional fury of the savages, for their peaceful attitude and promises were by no means to be relied on. He preached in Boone and Macon counties for many years, in the early days, and was one of the best known and most highly esteemed men in the region, meeting all the requirements of his often perilous eareer with heroie courage and performing its always trying duties with fidelity.

His son, Kit Barnes, the father of Charles O., was born in Boone county in 1833, and grew to manhood amid the constant perils of the border. In 1852 he was married to Miss Samantha MeGhee, and by this union became the father of four sons. In 1856 he moved to the eity of Macon and during the next three years was engaged in mercantile business there. He then became a farmer, and for several years he tilled the soil with industry and profit. But the bent of his mind was toward mechanieal pursuits, and he learned the trade of plasterer, and to this occupation he adhered to the end of his life, which came at Bevier, Missouri, on November 15, 1879. His first wife died in 1860 and 1862 he married a second, being united on this occasion with Miss Sophronia Seney. Three sons and five daughters were born of this union, and by the early death of the father were left as a eharge to their mother, who gave herself up to rearing and caring for them with all her fidelity and ability. Yet the task beyond her powers and each of the older children was obliged to take a hand in helping to provide for the household as soon as a suitable age for the purpose was reached.

Charles O. Barnes attended the district school in his native city during the winter months of a few years, but, owing to the circumstances of the family, his education was necessarily limited. By the loss of his father, when he was but thirteen years of age himself, he had io go to work in the coal mines at Bevier at that age and work laboriously for some time as a track boy at 50 cents a day, giving his earnings to his mother to help her along. He was, however, industrious and frugal, and in a few years got a little start in life, and was able to begin a career for himselí. He continued to work in the mines and at other occupations until 1900, and then, because of his great interest in political affairs and his demonstrated ability for official duties, he was elected a member of the board of aldermen of Bevier. So satisfactory to the people were his services in this office that he was re-elected in 1902, 1904 and again in 1907. He had not given up the claims of industrial life on his energies and capacities, but having entered publie life it has been difficult for him to break away from it, as the people have continued to demand his services. In 1908, when J. D. Hall was elected sheriff of Macon county, he appointed Mr. Barnes his deputy, and the latter has been serving the county in that capacity ever since. His duties have often been very trying and exaeting, but he has been faithful to the limit in the discharge of them, and has made a number of very important and daring ests in the state during his term in the office, and has aided in bringing back for trial a number of dangerous characters from other states.

Tn polities Mr. Barnes is a firm and loyal Democrat, always ardent and effective in the service of his party, and several times has been elected a member of the county, ward and city central Democratic committees. His religious alliance is with the Methodist church. On May 13, 1887, he was united in marriage with Miss Martha Whitaker, a native of Macon county, Missouri. They have had six sons and one daughter. Three of the sons died in infancy. The other four of the children are living. As a publie official, as a citizen of progressive spirit, deeply interested in the welfare of the county, and as a man of probity and uprightness, Mr. Barnes is highly esteemed. It is well known all over the county that he can always be relied on to do whatever is right in every relation of life, and he has the confidence and regard of the people in all parts of the county and throughout a large extent of the surrounding country, as well as in other states where he is known.

Y Dr. Edward B. Clements

This eminent physician and surgeon, who has employed his activities and devoted his energies and acquirements in the service of the people of Macon county for a period of twenty-eight years, stands deservedly high in the estimation of the public as a professional man and a citizen, and holds an elevated rank among his professional brethren throughout Northern Missouri. He was born in Washington, D. C., on May 10, 1861, and was brought by his parents to Macon county when he was four years old. He is a son of John T. and Mary S. (Brush) Clements, the former a native of the District of Columbia and the latter of Virginia.

The father was an architect in Washington, D. C., and during the Civil war was an ardent supporter of the Union. Carrying his convietions into what was then a far western locality, he moved his family to Macon county, this state, at the close of the war and founded the Maeon Journal, which was the first Republiean newspaper ever published in this part of the country. He conducted this paper for some years, and also published for three years an independent daily whieh was known as the Macon Pilot. These were not his first ventures in the field of journalism. Prior to the Civil war he edited the Louisiana Journal for a number of years. But when the war began, taking the Union side, as has been noted, he sought again his native heath in our federal district, and there joined the military organization known as "The National Rifles," which was soon afterward hurried to the front and was kept in active service throughout the memorable seetional contest that so awfully tore asunder and desolated our country. The command took part in the first battle of Bull Run and in many other engagements of the war, most of which made history and all of which established on imperishable records the valor of the citizen-soldiery of America, whether it fought under the Star Spangled Banner or the Bonnie Blue Flag. Mr. Clements rose by ability and fidelity in the army to the rank of captain and was breveted major for conspicuous gallantry on many a hard fought field.

At the elose of the war he was appointed pension agent for Missouri and the adjoining states, and in aeceptance of the appointment became a resident of Macon in this state. After ten years of faithful serviee in this loeality, he returned to Washington and received an appointment in the pension department of the government, which he is still filling with acceptability. He and his wife are residents of Washington and stand high in its social circles, being firmly established in the regard and good will of both its official and its civilian population. They are the parents of two sons and three daughters, all of whom are living. The family is of English and German ancestry, but both sides of it have long been resident in this country. Its American progenitors were prominent in the Revolution, which freed our land from foreign dominion, in the War of 1812, which gave us the same freedom on the high seas, in the Mexican war, which added vastly to the glory of our arms and the extent of our publie domain, and in all other sanguinary struggles in which our people have been engaged.

Dr. Edward B. Clements grew to manhood in Macon and obtained his scholastic education in the publie schools of that city. He had further preperation for usefulness in life through a course of special training which he pursued at a business college in the city of St. Joseph. He began the study of medicine under the direction of Dr. Thomas B. Hood, of Washington, D. C., and entered the medical department of Howard University, in that city, in 1877. He was graduated from that institution in 1881 with the degree of M. D. and immediately began ihe praetiee of his profession at Macon, where he has ever since resided and been actively engaged in his helpful serviee to the people of this and adjacent counties.

Dr. Clements has always been a close student of his profession and taken advantage of every means at his command to keep abreast with its latest discovery and thought. He has long been active and prominent in the county and state medical societies, and in 1886 took a post-graduate course of special instruction in the New York Post Graduate Medical School. For a number of years he was associated with Colonel Blees, an extensive manufacturer in this county, as the private physician for his family and employes, but at the same time continued his general practice with steadily increasing reputation and a steadily expanding body of patients. He is still in active practice and practically at the head of his profession in this part of the state.

The Doctor served some years as one of the directors of the First National Bank of Macon and is now one of the directors of the State Exchange Bank of the same city. He is also vice-president and general manager of the Blees Buggy Company, which does an extensive business and has enjoyed great prosperity under his direction. In polities he is a pronounced Republican and for eight years served on the state central committee of his party. So efficient were his serviees in the councils of the party that he was recognized as having great capacity for publie affairs, and was in consequence elected a member of the lower house of the Forty-second General Assembly of the state, in the deliberations of which he took a prominent and very effective part. In fraternal life he is a Free Mason of the Knights Templar degree and also belongs to the order of Elks and the Knights of Pythias.

In December, 1883, Dr. Clements and Miss Elizabeth Barclay were united in marriage. Mrs. Clements is a native of Ohio who came with her parents to Missouri in 1866. She and her husband stand high in the esteem of all the people of the county and are recognized as among its most useful and estimable citizens. They are active in all works of publie improvement and energetic in promoting every intellectual and moral agency at work in the community. The public weal is dear to them, and their work in all worthy attempts to advance it is on perpetual record to their eredit and the advantage of the people all around them, and they are esteemed in aecordance with their worth and usefulness. $ BENJAMIN R. DYSART.

This Nestor of the bar of Macon county and venerable citizen of the state, who has been connected with its progress and advancement in many leading ways, has passed the whole of his seventy-six years of life to this time within its borders and given all his energy and ability to the service of its people. As a professional man he has high rank; as a public-spirited and progressive potency in all that pertains to the welfare of the state he has been an important factor in its development; as a valiant soldier in a short and disastrous military career during the early stage of the Civil war he sealed his devotion to its eause in the great conflict between the sections with his blood; and in all the duties of citizenship in every relation in life he has well illustrated the best attributes of its elevated and progressive manhood and the characteristics for which its people are distinguished.

Mr. Dysart was born in Howard county, Missouri, on April 13, 1834. His father, John Dysart, was a native of Tennessee and came to Missouri in his boyhood with his parents, who located in Randolph county some time prior to 1820, before Missouri was a state, and while yet a great part of its wide domain was under the dominion of its savage denizens of plain and forest. The grandfather, James Dysart, was also a native of Tennessee, and, although his life in Missouri searcely passed beyond the pioneer period, he rendered good service to the region of it in which he lived in helping to found its government and bring about the lasting benefits of its later civilization. The father was a farmer, and in the early days of the state's history was the county judge of Howard county.

His wife, the mother of Benjamin R. Dysart, whose maiden name was Matilda Brooks, was a daughter of William and Susan (Pyle) Brooks, who eame from Kentucky to Missouri, where she was born and reared. She and her husband became the parents of nine children, all of whom grew to maturity except the two last born. Those now living are: Benjamin R., the immediate subject of this brief memoir; Martha, the widow of the late Rev. James B. Mitchell; and Elizabeth, the widow of the late Dr. T. P. Parkinson, of Chariton county. The father died in Howard county in 1869 and the mother in 1873.

Benjamin R. Dysart began his scholastie training in the publie schools of Randolph and Howard counties. From them he went to Central College at Fayette, Missouri, and later MeGee College at College Mound. His preparation for his professional work was made at Cumberland University, which is located at Lebanon, Tennessee. He was admitted to the bar in 1858 and began his practice at Bloomington, at that time the county seat of Macon county, associating himself with George W. Sharp, the firm name being Sharp & Dysart. The partnership lasted until the beginning of the Civil war, when Mr. Sharp entered the Christian ministry. He is now a Cumberland Presbyterian clergyman and located at Kirksville, Missouri. When the partnership was dissolved Mr. Dysart obeyed the call of Governor Jackson and enlisted in Price's army for the defense of the state against armed invasion. He was severely wounded at the battle of Springfield, and this ended his military career. After recovering from his wound he returned to this county and located at Macon, which was made the county seat in 1863.

Here he resumed the practice of law and in this he has been actively engaged ever since. In March, 1891, he formed a partnership with the late Robert G. Mitchell, which lasted until the death of Mr. Mitchell on March 6, 1909. In polities Mr. Dysart has always been a Democrat and an important factor in the councils and activities of his party. In 1875 he was eleeted a member of the convention which formulated the present constitution of the state, and in that body of distinguishel men his general and comprehensive intelligence and breadth of view gave him prominenee and enabled him to render the people service of great value in determining some of the essential features of their organie law.

On March 27, 1866, Mr. Dysart was united in marriage with Miss Emma V. Turner, a daughter of William and Elizabeth (Bell) Turner, and a native of Pike county, Missouri, although her parents were born and reared in Kentucky. Mr. and Mrs. Dysart have two children, their daughters, Maude and Pearl. The parents are members of the Cumberland Presbyterian church. For more than forty-two years Mr. Dysart has been an active practitioner of the law in this county. He has, in that long period, been connected with many leading eases and had both a busy and a highly creditable career. In all his practice he has upheld lofty ideals of citizenship and professional life, and, while giving all his energies and all his ability to his clients, has never lost sight of the highest duty of an advocate, which is to aid in promoting the cause of justice and securing right results in court proceedings. He is highly esteemed in and out of his profession, and richly deserves the universal regard and good will of the people which they so freely bestow upon him in all parts of the state.

With a praetice of seventeen years in the legal profession in Macon county to his credit, and extensive farming and live stock operations, also, to engage his attention and contribute to the wealth and commercial importance of the county, Ben. Franklin, one of tlie leading citizens of Macon, is justly regarded as one of the most useful and progressive men in this progressive section of the state of Missouri, and a true representative of its upright, enterprising and serviceable manhood.

Mr. Franklin is a native of the state, born in Putnam county on September 14, 1861, and is a son of John N. and Sarah E. (Lucas) Franklin, the former a native of Ohio and the latter of Virginia. The father passed his boyhood in Ohio and came to this state in 1855, locating in Putnam county. He was a farmer's son in Ohio and a progressive and successful farmer in Missouri. He was a Democrat in polities and took a very active interest in publie affairs, but never accepted a politieal office, either by eleetion or appointment. He died in June, 1896. The mother, who was a daughter of James and Margrite Lucas, the former a Kentuckian and the latter a Virginian by nativity, is still living and has her home in Unionville, Putnam county, Missouri. They

Ben Franklin, as he is ealled by everybody, and as he prefers to be called, began his scholastie training in the publie schools of his native county, continued it at the Stanberry Normal school, and completed it at the state university, located at Columbia, where he pursued the literary course. After leaving that institution he studied law under the direction of Hon. Andrew Ellison, judge of the Cireuit Court at Kirksville, Missouri. He was admitted to the bar in June, 1889, and began the practice of his profession at Unionville in Putnam county, remaining there until 1893. In that year he moved to Macon, and there he has been practicing ever since, with a steady rise in rank in the profession and a constantly inereasing body of clients. He is recognized as one of the leaders of the Macon county bar and has been connected with a large number of the principal cases tried in the county since his practice in it began.

In 1896 he was elected prosecuting attorney for Macon county and in 1898 was re-elected, serving four years consecutively in the office. Tn 1900 and 1902 he was chairman of the county central committee of his party in the county and proved himself of great value as an organizer and party manager. He was also one of the presidential electors on the ticket of his party in the campaign of Hon. Alton B. Parker for the presidency. He is a pronounced Democrat in political faith and at all times takes a very active part in the campaigns of his party. He has been twice elected president of the local school board, and is now (1910) serving in that capacity. In religious faith he is a Baptist.

Mr. Franklin was married in 1895 to Miss Grace M. Simmons, a native of Missouri and a daughter of George E. and Emily (Pepkin) Simmons, the former a native of Massachusetts and the latter of this state. Five children were born of this union, all of whom are living. They are: Emily V., Frances E., John N., Amy L. and Mary Guthrie. It has been stated that Mr. Franklin is one of the leading lawyers of Macon county. He is also prominent as a farmer and stock man, owning and cultivating a total of 340 acres of first-rate land, divided into two farms, each well improved and completely equipped for its work, and carrying on an extensive live-stock industry, according to the most approved and progressive modern methods known to the business.

ing and stock interests are never allowed to interfere with his legal practice, but they are carried on with vigor and intelligence and in their way and to the full measure of skillful cultivation minister to his welfare. His practice, although it is extensive and exacting, on the other hand, is not allowed to absorb his energies or his time to the exclusion of other affairs of moment, and so he is successful and enterprising in whatever he turns his attention to. In the duties of citizenship, and attention to whatever helps to improve the township and county of his home, or minister to the substantial advantage of its people, he is always zealous, energetie and leading. No good projeet for the benefit of the region in which he lives goes without his active and intelligent aid, and he not only puts his own shoulder to the wheel of progress of the county, but stimulates others by his influence and example to do the same. No citizen of Macon county stands higher in the regard and good will of its people, and none is more worthy of their respect and high esteem, from whatever point of view the observer may take.

Measured by its beneficence, its rectitude, its productiveness, its altruism, and its material success, the life of this honored citizen and representative business man of Macon has counted for much. He is a scion of one of the sterling pioneer families of Missouri, which has been his home from the time of his birth, and he has not only been, in the most significant sense, the architect of his own fortunes, implying the winning of a large and worthy success in connection with the practical activities of life, but he has also, through his welldirected efforts, contributed materially to the civie and industrial progress and prosperity of his native state. His life has been an eventful one and through the legitimate application of his own powers and talents he has risen to a position as one of the substantial capitalists and essentially representative citizens of Missouri. He is at the present time president of the State Exchange Bank of Macon, one of the strong and popular financial institutions of the state, and he is one of the veteran newspaper men of this commonwealth, in which conneetion he has wielded much influence in the directing of publie thought and action.

John Scovern was born on a farm in Clark county. Missouri, on the 7th of March, 1845, and is a son of Samuel G. and Elizabeth (Gillins) Scovern, both of whom were born in England. The father came to America with his parents in 1829, and it is known, however, that the paternal grandparents of the subject of this review settled in Ohio, where they passed the residue of their lives, their remains being interred in an ancient cemetery at Zanesville, that state. The mother was brought to the United States and was married in Augusta, Kentucky. It is presumed that Samuel G. Scovern was a boy at the time of the family immigration to the United States and that he was reared to manhood in Ohio. He was a millwright by trade and followed this vocation prior to his removal to Missouri, to which state he came in the pioneer epoch of its history, making the journey by boat down the Ohio river and thence up the Mississippi and Des Moines rivers. He located in Clark county, Missouri, where he forthwith grappled with the wilderness in his labors of reclaiming a farm, having secured a tract of government land. He gave his attention to the improvement and cultivation of this farm until 1851, when he disposed of the property and removed to Alexandria, Clark county, which was then the most thriving and promising town in Northeast Missouri. A number of years later he removed to Lee county, Iowa, where both he and his wife passed the residue of their lives. He died in 1899 and she was summoned to the life eternal in 1897. They were folk of sterling integrity of charaeter and the father was a man of industrious habits and strong individuality. While conditions were such that he never attained to a large measure of temporal prosperity, he exerted a helpful influence in the various communities in which he resided and ever held the confidence and good will of his fellow-men. He was a Republican in polities and he and his wife held membership in the Episcopalian church. "They became the parents of eight sons and one daughter, and of the number three of the sons and the daughter are living at the time of this writing, in 1909. Loeating in Missouri at a time and in a section marked by the manifold disadvantages ever characteristic of pioneer life, the family endured the full tension of the incidental hardships, deprivations and arduous labor of life on the frontier, and the names of Samuel G. Scovern and his noble wife merit an enduring place on the roll of the honored pioneers of the state of Missouri.

John Scovern, the immediate subject of this review, was, by the very nature of conditions in the days of his boyhood and youth, denied more than the most meager of educational advantages, but, like many another valiant soul, he has well overcome the handicap of early years. He attended private schools of the primitive order common to the locality and period in which he was reared, but while still a mere boy he became largely dependent upon his own resources. At the age of twelve years he "accepted" the dignified and inviolable office of **devil in the office of the Alexandria Reveille, the first Free Soil paper to be published in Missouri, and in this establishment he served an effective apprenticeship in connection with the ''art preservative of all arts," becoming a skilled compositor and familiarizing himself with all incidental details of the trade. It has well been said that the discipline of a printing office is equivalent to a liberal education, and this was significantly justified under the condition that obtained at the time when Mr. Scovern was thus gaining his knowledge of the business. He amplified his knowledge in a practical way and none who have known him in the years of his maturity can doubt his having well profited by the education he received while thus identified with the printing and publishing business. To the foreman of the office in which he served his apprenticeship he has ever felt a debt of gratitude and appreciation for the kindly consideration accorded and the assistance given in the securing of the educational training which would otherwise have been denied him. He has kept in close touch with the thought and action of the times, has read widely and with discrimination, and is today a man of broad and definite culture, though never given the benefit of direct academie training.

Mr. Seovern continued to be employed in the office of the Reveille for a period of four years, and from 1861 to 1864, the elimaterie period of the civil war, he was identified with steamboat transportation on the Mi ippi, Missouri and Cumberland rivers, serving in various minor ollices on various boats. "These river vessels were largely in service for the transportation of supplies for the United States government, and during his association therewith Mr. Scovern encountered many thrilling adventures, as the boats were traversing the greater portion of the time the water highways along which the conflict between the north and south waged fiercely. It is needless to say that he has a plethora of interesting reminiscences in regard to his experiences during this period, and when conditions favor he ean be drawn upon for tales of marked historieal interest in eonnection with the period when the dark cloud of fratrieidal war east its gruesome pall over the national horizon. He was on the steamer, **Sunnyside," at the time when the same was burned, at Island No. 16, in the Mississippi river, in September, 1863, and this disaster entailed the loss of ninety lives, among those sacrificed being sixteen women and a number of children. He was in service on one of the first boats to pass Vieksburg after its surrender, and on another vessel he made a hazardous trip in the transportation of government supplies up the Cumberland river. In 1864 he was on the steamer, ** Benton," which ascended the Missouri river to Fort

Benton, Montana, then the head of navigation. This boat was engaged in trading with the Indians, and those on board met with many adventures on this eventful voyage into the great wilds of the northwest. From data furnished by Mr. Scovern, Edgar White, a representative literary and newspaper man of Macon, has written a very interesting artiele concerning this trip.

In 1865, after the close of the war, Mr. Seovern resumed his connection with newspaper work, but at this time in the position of editor and publisher of the True Flag, which he established at Alexandria, this state, and which became a power in moulding publie sentiment in that seetion. At a later period he admitted to partnership the late Noble L. Prentiss, who was for many years before his death associate editor of the Kansas City Star, being one of the leading newspaper men of Missouri. It was while conducting the True Flag that Mr. Seovern was enabled to aceumulate his first appreeiable capital and to lay the foundation of his later and pronounced success as a business man. This finaneial return was that gained from the publieation of legal notices of sheriff's sales in Clark county, from which source he realized more than $5,000. These were the first official notices of the kind to be published in the county mentioned after the close of the war. In 1869 Mr. Scovern disposed of his interest in the True Flag and removed to Kirksville, Missouri, where he engaged in the general merchandise business, in eonneetion with which enterprise he achieved a substantial success. In Kirksville, also, he was primarily instrumental in the founding of the newspaper known as the North Missouri Register, and it finally devolved upon him to assume control of the paper, which he thereafter reluetantly condueted as editor and publisher for one year, at the expiration of which he disposed of all his interests in Kirksville and removed to Glenwood, Sehuyler eounty, where he was successfully engaged in the general merchandise business until his removal to Macon, in the spring of 1882.

Soon after establishing his home in this city Mr. Scovern initiated his identifieation with the banking business, by becoming a member of the private banking firm of Scovern, Logan & Wilson. In March, 1883, Mr. Scovern and his associates organized the First National Bank of Macon, and these private banking interests were merged into that bank. Mr. Seovern acted as president and eashier of this bank for twenty-five years, when it was liquidated for the purpose of consolidating with the State Exchange Bank, of which he is now president. The interested principals in this institution then purchased the interests of Webster M. and Harry M. Rubey and others in the State Exchange Bank, and upon the reorganization of the latter at that time Mr. Scovern was chosen president, of which chief executive office he has since remained in tenure. His personal reputation and financial standing have contributed materially to the success of the bank, as have also his executive and administrative talents. The bank is now one of the solid and popular financial institutions of the state, basing its operations upon a capital stock of $100,000, with deposits over $500,000, and undivided profits of about $20,000. The bank building in its architecture and appointments is one that would be creditable to a metropolitan center, and its facilities for handling effectively all details of a general banking business are of the best. The executive officers besides the president are as here noted: Thomas E. Wardell, vice-president; Charles A. Wardell, cashier, and Christopher R. Maffry, assistant cashier. In addition to the president, vice-president and cashier, the directorate of the bank also includes John T. Doneghy, Edward B. Clements, Ben Eli Guthrie, William E. MeCully, Thomas S. Watson and Herman V. Miller.

Mr. Seovern is a man of broad and liberal views and distinctive publie spirit, and he has naturally been marked by the people as an eligible candidate for offices of trust. Thus he served as councilmanat-large in the city council of Macon, and in 1889 he was elected mayor of the city, as the candidate on both the Republican and Democratie tickets, a fact that indicates beyond peradventure the tenacious hold he has upon the confidence and esteem of the community. He gave a most progressive and businesslike administration as chief executive of the municipal government. He was a member of the board of education for six years, during the last four of whieh he was president of the same. Within his ineumbency of this position was erected the present fine school building, which would be a eredit to a city many times greater in population and wealth than is Macon. In polities Mr. Scovern is admirably fortified in his convictions, and he has rendered important and effective serviee in advancing the cause of the Republican party in his native state. He and his family are communicants of the Protestant Episcopal ehurch, holding membership in the parish of St. James church, in whose affairs they take the deepest interest. Mr. Scovern has been a communicant of the church for half a century, and for the past eighteen years he has served as senior warden of his parish. He is affiliated with the Masonie fraternity, in which he has attained the chivalric degrees, being identified with Emmanuel Commandery, No. 7, Knights Templar. His life has been one of consecutive and welldirected endeavor, and his life has not been hedged in by self-interest, but has been marked by an abiding sympathy and tolerance, and appre- ciation of the well-springs of human motives, so that he has, with a sense of stewardship, endeavored to aid and sustain the efforts of **all sorts and conditions of men." He has an inviolable hold upon the esteem and confidence of the community with whose interests he is so closely identified, and none may retain this without just desert.

In the year 1870 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Seovern to Miss Emma Haywood, who was born in Clark eounty, Missouri, and who is a daughter of William and Elizabeth Haywood, both of whom were natives of Virginia and Kentucky, whence they eame to missouri in the pioneer days and numbering themselves among the earliest settlers of Clark county, where the father reclaimed a valuable farm and where he and his wife passed the residue of their lives. Mr. and Mrs. Seovern have one daughter, Lulu May, who remains at the parental home and who is a popular figure in connection with the social activities of her home city.

Goodding Brothers

Isaae Willard and Edward F. Goodding, to whom these paragraphs are especially dedicated, and whose lives they briefly record, are among the leading farmers, stock-breeders and most esteemed citizens of Lyda township, Macon eounty. They have met the requirements and performed the duties of life in accordance with the spirit of a distinguished ancestry, and at all times and in every relation of life have upheld the family name and reputation by their own worth and elevated manhood.

These gentlemen are the sons of Richard P. Goodding, who was born in Randolph county, Missouri, in 1826, and was reared and edueated in the place of his nativity, obtaining his education in the primitive country schools of his boyhood and youth, eharaeteristie of the frontier, and the best that were available in the wild condition and sparsely populated state of the region as it was then, and amid the scenes and exactions of pioneer life he acquired the qualities of selfreliance and readiness for every emergeney which life on the frontier begets, and which are a necessary part of the equipment for its duties.

Richard P. Goodding's father was Capt. Abraham Goodding, a native of Tennessee who became a resident of what is now the state of Missouri in 1816. He was a valiant soldier in the war of 1812 and fought well under General Jackson at the battle óf New Orleans, where the hardy citizen soldiery of our then unpruned wilderness confronted and eonfounded all that valor, discipline, extensive experience and practically unlimited resources could give the flower of the British army. He was also captain of a company in the Black Hawk war, and in that brief but sanguinary contest saw the red braves of the forest fall like autumn leaves before the unerring rifles of the backwoodsmen of the period, who never faltered in the presence of any danger, or failed to make their mark in any conflict. He married with Miss Nancy Rogers, a native of Kentucky, who was imbued with the same heroie spirit that distinguished him. Coming to this state in 1816, he located in Howard county, where he lived six years. In 1823 he moved to Randolph eounty and built the first house erected on the east side of the East Fork of the Chariton river. His life ended there on May 26, 1877.

His son, Richard P. Goodding, located in Macon county in 1860, and in June of that year married Miss Nancy J. Ayers, a daughter of Joseph and Charlotte (Shelton) Ayers, who was born in Morgan county, Tennessee, and eame to Missouri with her parents when she was but eleven years of age. She and her husband and six children, four of whom are living, Isaae Willard, Lucinda Frances, Edward F. and Herschel M. The other two were Mary B., who died in 1889, and was at that time the wife of Albert J. Crawford, and John R., who died in 1907 in New Mexico. The father died on April 3, 1905. The mother - is still living and has her home with her two sons, Isaae W. and Edward F. Her advanced age of seventy years has not much lessened her netivity, and her genial and generous disposition has grown stronger in its admirable traits through all the trials and hardships she has been ealled upon by force of eireumstances to suffer. She is well and favorably known throughout a large extent of the surrounding country and is everywhere highly esteemed and venerated.

Isaae Willard Goodding was born in Macon county on March 26, 1865, and obtained his education at the schools in the vicinity of his home. Since leaving school he has been engaged in farming and raising stock, in which he is associated with his brother, Edward F. He is an elder in the Presbyterian church, and has always taken an earnest and serviceable interest in church work. He has also been zealous in all the duties of citizenship, and been partieularly aetive in his efforts to advanee the best interests of his township and county and promote the welfare of their people in every possible way.

Edward F. Goodding is also a native of this county and was born on October 4, 1873. He, too, obtained his edueation at the schools near his home in its preparatory stage, but finished it at Missouri Valley college. As soon as he left college he joined his brother, Isaac, in the farming and stock-breeding enterprise, which they have ever since conducted together. He, like his brother, is warmly interested in church work and has for some years served the congregation in the Presbyterian church, to which he belongs, as a deacon. He is also a member of the Order of Odd Fellows and K. of M., and is much interested in the improvement and advancement of the region in which he lives as any other citizen.

The Goodding brothers own a fine farm of 260 acres and have all of it under regular cultivation, except what they reserve for grazing purposes. Their stock interests are extensive and are looked after with all the energy and intelligent study, experience and intelligent observation have given them. They are Demoerats in political faith, but have never sought or desired political positions of any kind, although attentive to the interests of their party and effective in its service. The honorable post of private citizenship fully satisfies them and they prefer to serve the public as well as they can from that station. But they are widely known and have the confidence and esteem of the people in all parts of the county.

William Joseph Boulton

Combining in his parentage the sturdy qualities of the manly and self-reliant yeomanry of England and the eavalier spirit of Virginia, William Joseph Boulton, who is one of the prosperous and progressive farmers of Jackson township, Macon county, has well exem. plified in his successful career the characteristics of his ancestry and done credit to the place of his nativity as well as to the places in which his parents were born and reared. He was born in the township in which he now lives, and in which the whole of his life to the present time has been passed, on March 25, 1877, and is a son of Charles William and Emma Dee (Ellyson) Boulton.

The father was born March 12, 1844, and reared in England and eame to the United States and Missouri in 1868. He loeated in Jackson township, this county, and here passed the remainder of his days actively and profitably engaged in farming. The mother was a daughter of Davis and Ruth Ellyson, of Virginia, and descended from families long resident in that state. The father was also a newspaper correspondent of prominence and won as much reputation by his pen as he did success by his plow. He and his wife were the parents of three children, but two of whom are now living, their son, William Joseph, and their daughter, Ruth, who is the wife of Albert Harrison. The mother died in 1886 and the father in August, 1893.

his native township, and while attending them learned the praetieal requirements of the work he has been connected with during al! the years of his maturity by making a full hand, as soon as he was able, on his father's farm. After leaving sehool he began farming for himself and has been connected with the same industry in a leading way ever since. He had the qualities that command success and progress, and he has achieved them in a very gratifying manner. He now owns 160 acres of excellent land, left him by his father, which he farms with intelligence and skill, reserving from cultivation only what is required as pasturage for his stock. For, in addition to being a vigorous and progressive farmer, he is also engaged in raising live-stock for the markets on a scale commensurate with his facilities for the business and his extensive practical knowledge of it.

Mr. Boulton was married on August 26, 1908, to Miss Vada Mansfield, a native of Missouri, and a daughter of Isaac and Lyddie (Smith) Mansfield, who have resided in the state for many years. Mr. Boulton is an active, working Democrat in politieal relations, always zealous and effeetive in the service of his party, and regarded with great respeet by both its lenders and its rank and file in his township and county. His wife is a member of the Christian church, in which he also takes an active interest. In the publie affairs of the county he is energetie and useful, giving special attention and the most effective support to every worthy enterprise in which the enduring welfare of the region of his home is involved, or which ministers to the advancement or comfort of its people. He is esteemed as one of the leading eitizens and most representative farmers of Jackson township, and is held in high regard in other parts of Macon county, where his sterling worth and elevated manhood are known.

Charles O. Brownson

This successful and progressive farmer and stock man of Jackson township, in this eounty, became an orphan at the age of three years by the death of his father, and it became necessary for him to begin making his own way in the world at an early age. For, while his mother, who survived her husband thirty years, was true and faithful to her trust in striving to rear her children, it was impossible for her to care for them as she wished and they were thrown on their own resources to a considerable extent, while they were still young. "They met the responsibility with energy and zeal and have proved that the Jessons and example given them by their faithful surviving parent were not lost upon them in any degree.

Charles O. Brownson was born at Prairieville, Barry county, Michigan, on November 9, 1856. He is a son of Oscar F. and Deborah A. (Steele) Brownson, the father a native of Riehmond, Vermont, and the mother of Allegany county, New York. The father moved to Michigan with his parents when he was a young man, and there he met with and married his wife. They had four children, two of whom are living: Sarah E. the widow of the late Alfred Wyatt, of Kansas City, Missouri, and Charles O., the immediate subject of this brief review. The father died in 1859 and the mother in 1889. Their son, Charles, with his sister, Sarah E., was brought to Missouri by his mother when he was a small boy, arriving in this state and Macon county in 1864. He attended the distriet schools from the age of seven until twenty years old.

On leaving school he turned his attention to farming and raising stock, and these have been his steady occupations ever since. He now owns ninety-five acres of first-rate land, which he has improved with good buildings and provided with everything required for its vigorous and profitable cultivation. His stock industry is extensive and managed with great enterprise, so that it, also is profitable and flourishing. He has been very successful and has to his credit the fact that all his acquisitions are the results of his own direct efforts, ability and good business capacity.

In the publie affairs of the township and county of his home he has always taken an active and very serviceable interest, aiding in the achievement of every worthy undertaking in whieh the welfare of the people and the development of the region around him were involved. He served on the school board four years, was road overseer two years and road eommissioner three years. He has also been a judge of the elections many times, and in numerous other capacities has rendered excellent service to the people. In polities he is a zealous Republican, always foremost in supporting the interests of his party and helping to promote its success. In church relations he is a Methodist, and for many years has been an ardent and successful worker for the good of the eongregation to which he belongs. He is now one of its stewards and the treasurer of its Sunday school.

On January 1, 1890, Mr. Brownson was united in marriage with Miss Amanda A. Worth, a native of Missouri and a daughter of Andrew and Sarah (Gloyd) Worth, prominent residents of Carroll county, in this state. Mr. and Mrs. Brownson have had three children, but the only one living is their daughter, Bertha C. All the members of the family stand well in the community in which they live and enjoy the respect of the people in a high degree. They are recognized as very exemplary citizens, who perform all the duties of life with fidelity and meet every requirement in a spirit of entire devotion to what is right.

Although himself born and reared in this country, this prosperous and highly successful farmer and stock man of Jackson township, this county, is of Holland parentage, his father, John Mettes, and his mother, whose maiden name was Gasenia Holofskopl, having been born and reared in that country. They had the characteristic energy and progressiveness of the wonderful nation from which they sprang, whose people enlarged their country by building it out into the sea and made it fruitful as a garden, and the son inherited from them the same qualifieations for success in life.

The parents came to this country in 1850 and located in Oceana county, Michigan, where their son, John S., was born in 1855. He was one of their seven children and is the second born of the six who are still living. They are Nicholas, John S., William, Martin, Mary and Anna. The father also is still living and has his home at Leasburg, Missouri. The mother died August 22, 1904. The parents have been industrious and frugal farmers and prospered at the industry. They moved to Missouri in 1867, and at onee became active and produetive factors in the agricultural interests of Macon county, in which they took up their residence and the mother passed the remainder of her days.

John S. Mettes obtained his limited education in the district schools of his native county, which he was obliged to leave at an early age and go to farming. He accompanied his parents to this state when he was but twelve years of age, and ever since has been actively engaged in farming and raising stock in a general way. His progress was slow at first, for his undertaking was an arduous one and he was not fully equipped for it either by age or available capital. But he had a fortune in his energy and perseverance, and he studied the requirements of his work, in order to reap the largest and speediest returns. He soon got a good start and since then his progress has been steady and well maintained. He has been very suecessful and won high rank among the best farmers of Jackson township, in which his operations are conducted. He owns an excellent farm of 300 acres and carries on an extensive and profitable stock industry in connection with his farming. To all departments of his work he gives the most careful and intelligent attention and makes every week of his labor tell to his advantage,

In 1879 Mr. Mettes was united in marriage with Miss Mollie Lynch, a daughter of William and Katharine (Healey) Lynch, and a native of Illinois. Six children have been born of the union, all of whom are living. They are: Frances Grace, John William, James H., Joseph B., Katie Bess and Mary Anna. The father is an active working Democrat in his political relations and always gives his party good and faithful service, although he seeks none of the honors it has to bestow for himself. Fraternally he is connected with the order of Modern Woodmen of America and in his church relations is a Catholic. His interest in church work has always been cordial and helpful. He was chiefly instrumental in building the church of his faith whieh is located in Jackson township, and in many other ways has given earnest and serviceable attention to the welfare of the sect to which he belongs.

He has shown deep and abiding interest in the welfare of the township and county in which he lives, also giving earnest and effective support to all good projeets for their advancement and the enduring progress and prosperity of their people. No citizen of the township stands higher in the good will of the inhabitants and none is more deserving of the regard he enjoys from all classes of the citizens among whom he has so long lived and labored.

State Exchange Bank

The State Exchange Bank of Macon was founded on March 1, 1894, and in 1896 it was consolidated with the Bank of Macon. Two years later it absorbed the First National Bank, and this move brought to its coffers $300,000 in deposits. The absorption took place in January, 1908, and after it occurred the reorganization necessitated by the change of conditions resulted in the choice of the following directorate: President, John Scovern; vice-president, Thomas E. Wardell; cashier, Charles A. Wardell; assistant cashier, C. R. Maffery; directors, John Scovern, Thomas E. Wardell, J. T. Doneghy, Ed. B. Clements, Ben Eli Guthrie, R. G. Mitchell, T. S. Watson, H. V. Miller and Charles A. Wardell. Mr. Mitchell died in 1909 and was sueceeded by W. E. McCulley.

The capital stock of the bank in 1908 was $100,000, and it is the same now. Under the present management the deposits and volume of business have steadily inereased until at this time (1910) the bank is the strongest financial institution in Macon county. But its progress toward this distinetion has not been remittent or jerky. It has been steady, continuous and along lines of wholesome development, growing out of the progress and improvement of the city and the increasing prosperity of its people. The president and eashier of the institution have had the clearness of vision to see and the alertness of action to seize the opportunities presented for its advancement, and it is mainly through their foresight and enterprise that the bank has made such substantial progress. But they have done nothing speeulative or experimental. They have simply met the requirements of the situation in a masterly way, providing for the wants of the community as it has kept growing, and have made the most of the cireumstances.

Under a management so progressive and up-to-date it was to be supposed that every provision for the most approved modern banking business would be made, and it has been. The banking house, which is on Vine street, is modern in every way, equipped with everything necessary for its purpose and the convenience of its patrons, so far as office furniture and fixtures are concerned, and supplied with fireproof vaults and safety deposit boxes which can be rented at a moderate rate. The institution does a general banking business, including every feature of modern banking, paying 3 per cent interest on time deposits, and exerting its whole energy for the accommodation of its patrons. In order to be of the greatest possible service to the community in which it operates, it confines its loaning operations to the people of Macon county.

Operating on safe and wholesome lines, keeping its activities at work to the full measure of the requirements, watching with sleepless vigilance every avenue of approach that might endanger the interests of its patrons and its own reputation, and exhibiting the utmost liberality in business consistent with safety and good management, this bank has been a fruitful source of help to the eity of Macon in the onward march of its progress and an invineible bulwark of defense to its people against financial disaster in times of trouble. In periods of fiscal depression, stringeney in business and panie in the industrial world, when other banks, in this and all other parts of the country, have been temporarily paralyzed or even permanently wrecked, this institution has shown itself to be as strong as Gibraltar, and against it all the assaults engendered by such conditions have been employed in vain.

James Landree

James Landree, who is one of the patriarchs of Lyda township, in this county, is now eighty-seven years of age and has lived in Macon county all of seventy-two years. During all of that long period he has been aetively connected with the leading industry of this section and has expended his efforts faithfully and diligently in helping to build it up and to provide for the substantial welfare of its people. His long record among this people has been one of uprightness and usefulness, and he is universally revered for the elevated character of his citizenship and the modest and unostentatious way in whieh he has borne himself in all the relations of life,

Mr. Landree was born in 1823 in that part of Virginia which was torn from the Mother of States and Statesmen by the stern arbitrament of the Civil war, and grew to the age of fifteen in his native place, attending the eountry schools and gaining his preliminary training for the work that was to fall to him as a planter and farmer. He is a son of Jean Baptiste and Jeannette (Taylor) Landree, the former born in the province of Quebec, Canada, and the latter in Pennsylvania. His paternal grandfather eame from France to Canada at an early period and his mother's father from England to this country, at somewhere near the same time. The father moved to what is now West Virginia as a young man and was married in Pennsylvania. In 1838 he moved his family to Missouri, locating in Macon county and engaging in farming. He and his wife were the parents of eight children, only three of whom are living, James, Ada, the wife of Thomas Burns, and Charles W. The mother died in 1864 and the father October 18, 1876, in his eighty-ninth year. They were persons of consequence and standing in the eounty and held in high regard by all who knew them. "They eame to the state when it was largely wild and unpopulated and bore their full share of the burdens and hardships of frontier life, doing all they could to improve and develop the country around them and conducting themselves as only good citizens will.

'Their son, James, beeame a farmer also on leaving school and has adhered to that line of effort ever since, although of late years he has been somewhat retired and less active than in his prime. He was married in 1846 to Miss Louisa Jane Johnson, a native of Macon eounty. Of the four children born to them only two are living, their sons, James Monroe and Walter. All the members of the family enjoy, in a marked degree, the respect of the communities in which they live and fully deserve the esteem in which they stand. For all are useful members of society and do their whole duty as citizens.

Mr. Landree, the venerable head of the household, has ever been aetive in the support of all undertakings for the good of his township and county, and has made an excellent record as an energetic and progressive man. He has been a life-long Democrat in his political adhesion, and, while he has never sought or desired political preferment, he has always given his party aetive and loyal support. He has managed his own business with vigor and prudence, and has shown the same qualities with reference to publie affairs. At his advanced age he is still hale and hearty and displays as much activity as many men who are much younger. His life is a connecting link between the early days of the county's history, its state of untamed wildness, and its present state of advanced development and progress, and he has done his part to aid in bringing about the change.

John Matthew Elsea

Uniting in his make-up the blood of Virginia and that of Ireland, and indoetrinated in the characteristies which distinguish the people of the Old Dominion and those of the Emerald Isle, John Matthew Elsea, of Lyda township, Macon county, is a fine example of elevated American citizenship with a versatility of capacity adaptable to any circumstances and a readiness in resourcefulness that enables him to meet any emergency with the spirit of a master who believes in himself and has nothing to fear. Mr. Elsea is himself, however, a native of Missouri, and was born in Shelby county on November 23, 1856. He is a son of John G. and Mary S. (Patton) Elsea, the former born and reared in Virginia, and the latter a native of Ireland, who came to this country with her parents when she was but thirteen years old.

The father came to this county when he was a young man and engaged in mercantile business for a number of years at Callao. He then tired of this pursuit and turned his attention to farming, at which he passed the remainder of his life, dying on his farm in 1887. His widow is still living and resides in Atlanta. They had six children, three of whom have died. Those who are living are John M., Willjam B. and Ila Virginia, the wife of V. D. Gordon. The father prospered as a merchant and farmer, and by his upright and useful life seeured the respect and good will of all elasses of the people. He was a man of quiet demeanor and never sought prominence in publie or private life. It was enough for him and satisfied all his aspirations to perform faithfully all the duties of citizenship in every relation of being, and this he did in full measure. He never sought or desired official station and mingled but little in publie affairs.

His son, John M. Elsea, grew to manhood under the parental rooftree and obtained his education in the publie schools, attending those located in Callao, mainly. After leaving school he entered upon the stage of action for himself as a farmer, and this is the part he has played in the world's industrial drama ever since. And he has played it successfully, winning substantial reward for his diligence and skill for himself and helping to build up and magnify the industrial and commercial greatness of his township and county at the same time. He has a fine, well improved farm of 120 acres, which he has brought to a high state of productiveness by the vigor and intelligence with which he cultivates it, and he also carries on an extensive and flourishing live-stock industry, which is very profitable. It is conducted with the same eare and attention that mark his farming operations, and it is but a logical sequence that both pay him well, because of the labor and skill he bestows upon them. He is also a stockholder in the Union Telephone company and takes an active interest in its success and further development.

Political affairs enlist Mr. Elsea's active interest and seeure his helpful serviee. He is a firm and zealous member of the Demoeratie party, but, while he works with ardor for the success of his party, he never seeks or desires a publie office of any kind, and has always refused when asked to take one, either by eleetion or appointment. In reference to local affairs of interest and importance to the community, he is always energetie and influential, using his activities and giving his excellent example in behalf of progress and the enduring welfare of his township and county. His religious connection is with the Baptist church, in which he is deeply interested and in whose behalf he is an ardent and devoted worker. He has served many years as one of the trustees of the congregation to which he belongs a leader in all its worthy and commendable undertakings.

Suecessful in his own business and of great assistance in promoting the general interests of his community, Mr. Elsea is looked upon as one of the useful and representative citizens of the township in which he lives. He is a fine specimen of the well-to-do and progressive Missouri farmer and his whole record is highly ereditable to Macon county. On August 5, 1886, he was joined in wedlock with Miss Margaret L. Miles, a daughter of Major and Naney (Daugherty) Miles, long residents of Macon county, where she was born and reared. She and her husband are the parents of seven children who are living and have had one that died. Those living are: William Arzwell, who resides in Texas, and Grace L., Gilbert Miles, Anna Lee, Marguerite, Claudine, and Corinne, all of whom live in this state.

Wilbert Henry Brockman

Among the enterprising, progressive and suecessful farmers of Lyda township, in this county, Wilbert Henry Brockman, whose home is in the neighborhood of Atlanta, stands high and is fully entitled to the rank he holds. The story of his life, as told in plain and simple narrative, would seem commonplace and uneventful, for its record is one of fidelity to daily duty and the conscientious performance of every task belonging to him with the utmost of his capaeity and zeal. This savors of the commonplace and presents few spectacular features to the analysis of history. Yet it is by no means without significance in the eye of a true discernment. *'*Contentment, like the speedwell, blows along the common beaten path." And the career of Mr. Brockman displays the beauty and fragrance due to a peaceful and unruffled course of steady progress, and the strength and virility of the manhood that ean pursue it without turning aside amid the clamors and contentions of our rushing and all-daring American life. In the success he has achieved by his method, his life also shows how potential the quiet and unostentatious forces are when concentrated on a single worthy purpose, and how much they ean aecomplish by standing aside and attending to duty while the noisy world rushes by them or roars and strives around them.

It is not to be supposed, however, that Mr. Brockman has been indifferent to the developing and improving potencies at work among the people amid whom he lives and labors. He has been one of the most active and energetie promoters of every undertaking in which the substantial welfare of his township and county has been involved, but he has not expended his efforts in this behalf, or any other, in a way that has been showy or intended to attract attention. He has labored for results and left to others the work of making displays and winning commendation. His life has been that of a plain farmer, and he has met every requirement of his station completely and in a masterly manner.

Mr. Brockman was born near where he now lives in 1873. His life began in Atlanta, and he is a son of John Wesley and Sarah E. (Hamilton) Brockman. He obtained his education in the distriet schools of Lyda township and as soon as he left school began his life work as a farmer. He has held to this occupation with unwavering devotion ever sinee he started in it, and his fidelity to the temple of industry in which his devotion has been exhibited has poured out upon him abundant rewards. He now owns and farms 120 aeres of fine land, which he has improved with good buildings and provided with all that is necessary for conducting his farming operations with vigor and according to the most approved modern methods. He is also interested in raising live-stock for the markets and his industry in this line of effort is a flourishing and profitable one.

In polities he is a consistent and zealous member of the Democratie party, but while he is earnest in his attachment to the principles for whieh it stands he has never been a very aetive partisan or in any sense desirous or willing to accept a political office. In fraternal life he is a Modern Woodman and in religion is connected with the Baptist church. In 1895 he was united in marriage with Miss Nevada Bunch, a daughter of Perry L. and Martha (Cook) Bunch, and a sister of Henry Bunch, a sketeh of whom will be found in this volume. Mrs. Brockman was born and reared in this eounty. She and her husband have one child, their son, Paul, who is still a member of the parental homestead and an ornament to its family circle.

Albert Jacob Crawford

Among the early settlers of Ralls county, Missouri, in fact, one of the pioneers of that section, was Wilks Stark Crawford, the grandfather of Albert J. Crawford, now one of the prosperous and progressive farmers and stock men of Jackson township, Macon county, and the subject of this brief memoir. Helping to lay the foundation of civilization and government in this state, and to redeem its wide and rich domain from the wilderness and its savage elaimants, nomadie men and beasts of prey, he was a very useful man and aequired prominence and influence among its people of that early day. In Ralls county he lived and labored, laying down his life at last amid the scenes of his toil and endurance and the substantial triumphs of progress he had helped materially to win. It was in that county he located on his arrival in this state from Virginia, where he was born and reared, and it was there, also, that his son, Jonathan, the father of Albert J., was born in 1834.

Jonathan Crawford grew to manhood on the frontier and became an extensive farmer and raiser of live-stock, keeping pace with the progress and development of the country around him and under all eireumstances taking a leading part in whatever was attempted for its advancement. Soon after attaining his majority he married with Miss Susan Killinger, a native of Virginia, whose parents were also early settlers in that part of the state. Seven children were born in the household of Jonathan Crawford and five of them are living: ~ Wilkes S.; Jefferson D.; Mary Ann, the wife of John Hollyman; Albert J., and Ada, the wife of D. Q. Flinchpaugh. The parents are also living, although practically retired from active pursuits. The father has been a lifelong Demoerat in his political faith and allegiance, and has at all times given his party loyal and effective support.

Albert J. Crawford obtained his education in the distriet schools and at Oak Lawn College, which is located at Novelty, in Knox county, this state. On completing his edueation he at once began farming, and having put his hand to the plow in this way he has never looked back, but has steadily gone on in his chosen occupation. His progress has not been startling or speetaeular, but regular and steady. It was slow and, perhaps, at times, painful at first, but he had the mettle for determined perseverance, and the business capacity to use all his opportunities to advantage, and soon had a fair start. Since then he has gone onward with accelerating speed and steadily inereasing prosperity. He has a fine farm of 866 acres and has it all under vigorous and judicious cultivation except the portion necessarily reserved as a grazing ground for his stock. He feeds and raises large numbers of cattle and quantities of other live stock, giving the industry close and eareful attention and making every element of it minister to his benefit, while his business adds also to the commercial importance and power of the county and state.

As a Democrat of firm conviction and zealous loyalty to his party Mr. Crawford takes an active interest in public affairs and is an ardent and effective political worker, although he has never sought a political office of any kind. Without regard to polities he has served as a member of the school board for a period of twenty-one years and has given the schools under his direction the most careful and helpful supervision. In religious connection he belongs to the Presbyterian church, and is a very active worker in the congregation of which he is a member, For years he has been one of its elders and the clerk of the session, and during the last twelve years the energetic, efficient and appreciated superintendent of its Sunday-school.

Mr. Crawford has been married twice. His first union was with Miss Mollie B. Goodding, a native of Macon county, and the marriage occurred in 1888. They had one child, their son, Finis B. The mother of this child died on January 30, 1889, and in September, 1891, the father married again, his choice on this occasion being Miss Fannie Goodding, a sister of his former wife. They have four children, Carl Herbert, Eunice Mary, Herschel Goodding and Herman Harold. Mr. Crawford is in the prime of life and has excellent health. He is comfortable in a worldly way, and has the means to gratify his desires, so far as his personal comfort is concerned, and also to develop any ambitions for his own advancement or the benefit of his township and county he may have. He is firmly established in the regard and good will of the people and accounted one of the most worthy and representative men among them. He would seem from all the eireumstances to have before him many years of usefulness to his section of the state and the way open to still greater prominence and influence, if he should desire it. He has the best wishes of the people for his advancement, and his widespread popularity will give him their active support in any distinction he may seek. For he is truly representative of their best aspirations and characteristics and would do them eredit in any position or capacity.

Gallant, intrepid and skillful as the leader of his host in war, when "Red Battle stamped his foot and nations felt the shock''; patient, persevering and knowing as a teacher in the humbler temples of Cadmus and the higher avenues of scholastie training; resolute, resourceful and masterly as an advoeate and counselor, a veritable sunbeam, gilding and warming everything he touches in social life, and in every relation an elevated «citizen, cultivated gentleman and man of sterling worth, Capt. Ben Eli Guthrie, of Macon, has dignified and adorned the citizenship of Missouri in every walk in life into which duty has called or inclination has led him. He is the leading member of the Macon county bar, and is not outranked in his profession in the state, even though his well-known modesty may cavil at these statements and object to their being made in this work.

Captain Guthrie was born near Keytesville, Chariton county, Missouri, on May 31, 1839. He is a son of Rey. Allen W. and Elizabeth (Young) Guthrie, natives of middle Tennessee. The father came from his ancestral home to Missouri an orphan boy at the age of seventeen, and passed the remainder of his days in this state actively engaged in farming and ministering to the spiritual welfare of the people as a minister of the gospel of the Presbyterian sect during the greater part of his mature life. He was the youngest son of Rev. Robert Guthrie, who was born in Maryland in 1773, his parents having emigrated from the North of Ireland to that state before the Revolutionary war. Rev. Robert Guthrie removed to North Carolina later, and still later to middle Tennessee. The father died in 1843 and the mother in 1846, in Missouri, having come to Missouri in 18° Two of their sons, Rev. Eli Guthrie and the father of Captain Ben, were the first members of the family to become residents of Missouri, coming to this state in 1830, The older brother, Eli, was drowned in the Missouri river at Dewitt, Carroll county, in 1837, while trying to rescue persons who had been

That generation of the Guthries belonged to the Cumberland branch of the Presbyterian church, and three of its members were ministers of the gospel, ordained by that branch. "They were men of ability and daring, and were widely known throughout Northeastern Missouri, the portion of the state in which their services were rendered to the pioneers. They came into a region still largely given up to the dominion of savage wildness of man and beast and called it to a higher state. The wilderness hearkened to their eloquence and became milder because of their presence.

Rev. Allen W. Guthrie, father of the Captain, was ordained in 1838, and during all of the next ten years preached throughout Chariton, Macon, Monroe, Randolph, Howard, Boone, Audrain and Callaway counties. He was married on September 6, 1838, to Miss Elizabeth Young, a daughter of Hon. Benjamin Young, of Callaway county. Ten children were born of the union, of whom four grew to maturity and two are now living. The mother died in 1855 and the father in 1891. As pioneers, they had the spirit of daring and endurance the conditions of the region required. As moral agencies at work among the people they were widely and practically useful. As man and woman they were highly esteemed, and as important factors in founding the civilization of this part of the state their memory is held in reverence. Capt. Ben Eli Guthrie began his scholastie training in the distriet schools and continued it at Chapel Hill college in Lafayette county, attending that institution in 1855 and 1856. During a part of 1856 and all of the succeeding year he was a pupil under the tutorship of the late Col. Alonzo W. Slaybock of St. Joseph, Missouri. In 1858 he matrieulated at MeGee college at College Mound, in this county, for the regular course of academic study. He remained at that institution until the beginning of the Civil war, and was but two weeks from his graduation when Governor Jaekson's call to the people for volunteers to defend the state against armed invasion sounded through the commonwealth with trumpet tone, and, moved by the firmness of his political opinions and n sense of devoted loyalty to his state, Captain Guthrie, young man of twenty-two as he was, and on the very verge of academic honors, flung everything else to the winds and obeyed the call.

He mustered a company of which he was chosen captain and was soon at the front with his muster under the command of General Price. The company took part in all the activities of General Price's campaign in the fall of 1861, then took his company over to the Confed- erate army in December of that year, it becoming Company I of the Fifth Missouri Infantry, and a part of the First Missouri brigade. He remained in the service to the close of the memorable conflict and, although participating in many historie battles and countless minor engagements, escaped without disaster except what grew out of the hardships and privations incident to all war, and partieularly experienced by the armies of the Confeder: He was mustered out of the service at Jackson, Mississippi, in May, 1865.

** When the war drum throbbed no longer, and the battle flags were furled," Captain Guthrie taught school in Mississippi until 1867. In that year he was elected professor of languages in McGee college, College Mound, Macon county, and he filled this position until the summer of 1874. At that time he resigned and at the succeeding election was chosen school commissioner for Macon county, an office which he filled with great acceptability for two terms. In the meantime he had studied law, and in September, 1875, he was formally admitted to practice at the Macon county bar. In 1878 he was eleeted prosecuting attorney of the county, and at the end of his first term was re-elected for a second.

Since retiring from the office of prosecuting attorney, Captain Guthrie has been continuously engaged in the practice of his profession and has been very successful in it, rising to the first rank in the bar of the state and being a very important faetor in the management of many important cases. In 1888 he was appointed reporter for the appellate court of Kansas City, and during the next twenty years he rendered exceedingly valuable and highly appreciated service to the

. State in that capacity, retiring voluntarily in the summer of 1909. During the greater part of his service as court reporter he was also associate counsel, with Hon. Gardner Lathrop, of Kansas City, for the Santa Fe Railroad Company, and was conspicuous in the defense of many noted cases for the company. In 1909 he was the leading counsel of the people of Macon county in the celebrated M. & M. bond ease, (See General History for a more extended account of the bond issue).

Of Captain Guthrie's extensive and accurate knowledge of the law, both as written and as interpreted by the courts, of his eloquence as an advocate, his skill and alertness at the trial table, his wisdom and common sense as a counselor and his mastery of analysis and argument before the courts, this is not the place to speak. "They are well known to the people of Missouri, and any attempt to enlarge upon them here would be inappropriate. They will pass into history with his name, and

On August 31, 1872, he was united in marriage with Miss Susie A. Mitchell, eldest daughter of Robert C. Mitchell of College Mound. Two children have been born of the union, but only one is living, a son named Allen, who is connected with Theodore Gary in the telephone business and is a man of force and influence in his community. The Captain and his wife and son are members of the Presbyterian church, and for many years he was an officer in the church organization of the eongregation to which he belongs, and the superintendent of its Sunday-school.

We have the wisdom of antiquity in the admonition to call no man happy until after his death. But if the respect and esteem of the whole people of the state, if high character and elevated citizenship, if commanding eminenee in one of the leading professions, if clean living and domestie peace, if a long and unbroken record of usefulness to mankind - if all these, or any of them contain the elements of happiness, we might waive the admonition in the case of Captain Guthrie, for they are all his. He has good health and continuing vigor also, although he has passed the Scriptural limit of human life, and all his faculties are in full flower and fragrant with the odors of high vitality. In prospect he has the reward of his upright life, and in retrospect, the satisfaction of an unsullied and servieeable past. And all who know him rejoice over both. 'The elements are so mixed in him that Nature may stand up and say to all the world "This is a man!" "

James William Farmer

This worthy and highly esteemed citizen of Lyda township, in this eounty, who is a farmer both by name and occupation, has every incentive to feel the earnest and intelligent interest in the welfare of his township and Macon county which he manifests in every way, and is altogether sincere in his devotion to them. For he is a native here and has lived in the same locality all the years of his life to this time, drawing his stature and his strength from the soil on which he was born, obtaining his education in the schools hard by, mingling in the activities of the region from his youth as an individual producer on his own aecount, associating with the people living now around him in all the relations of life, and seleeting his partner for life from among the daughters of their households.

natives of Kentucky and the latter a daughter of Francis Kelly, a man of influence in that state. (For a more extended notice of the parents see sketch of John T. Farmer, brother of James William, to be found elsewhere in this volume.) The father was a farmer, and was suceessful and prosperous in his work. He was a Republican in polities, but never became an active partisan or held a political office. He died on December 5, 1905. The mother is still living and has her home in Lyda township. Although she is x years of age, she supervises and directs the operations of a farm of 240 acres. She and her husband were the parents of six children and four of them are living: James William, the immediate subject of these paragraphs; John T., the postmaster of Atlanta; Frances, the wife of Henry Bunch, of Lyda township, this county; and Edgar, who lives in Macon county.

James W. Farmer's experiences as a child and boy were in nowise different from those of other ehildren and lads who were reared with him in this portion of the country. He attended the distriet school near his home and, when he was well enough developed to do so, began to assist his father on the farm. He grew to the age of seventeen in this way, a plain and useful farmer's son, doing well his part as a farm hand and meeting all the obligations of society which rested upon him. But as a youth his experiences were different from those of many, if not all, of his associates. For at the age of seventeen he began farming for himself, and he has been actively and profitably engaged in this industry ever since. He owns a fine farm of 180 acres on which he conducts a general farming enterprise of magnitude and importance, and also carries on a flourishing and extensive industry in raising livestock for the markets. His farm is well improved, completely equipped with the necessary up-to-date implements for its vigorous and intelligent eultivation and has been brought by his skillful husbandry to a high degree of productiveness.

Mr. Farmer is a progressive and public-spirited citizen and takes a leading part in all matters pertaining to the development and advancement of the township and county in which he lives. He has served as a member of the school board during the last eighteen years, and as such he has rendered the community excellent service by his intelligence and breadth of view with reference to the cause of publie education, and his vigor and energy in the administration of his office. Fraternally he is conneeted with the Modern Brotherhood of America, and in his political allegiance is allied with the Republican party. Although by no means an office-seeker, or even an active partisan in the usual sense of the term, he takes an earnest interest in the welfare of his party and gives it the best service his circumstances allow in all its campaigns. But party spirit and party claims never obscure his vision as to the best interests of the people, and with him those interests always come first, partisan considerations and personal desires being at all times secondary and subordinate.

On Oetober 10, 1888, Mr. Farmer united in marriage with Miss Alice Brockman, a native of this county and a daughter of John W. and Sarah E. (Hamilton) Brockman, prominent citizens of the county and reckoned among its most useful residents. Four children were born of this union and three of them are living, Clella, Bessie and Damon. All the members of the family enjoy in a marked degree the regard and good will of the people on all sides and in all classes, and they well deserve the high esteem in which they are held wherever they are known.

Working industriously on his farm of eighty acres in Lyda township from day to day and year to year, steadily pushing forward his own interests without reference to the affairs of other people, yet never neglecting his duty as a citizen or withholding his support from all worthy undertakings for the benefit of the locality in which he lives, Henry Bunch is one of the most estimable citizens of Macon county, and in his way one of the most useful. He ought to have a deep and abiding interest in the welfare of Macon county, for it is the place of his birth and has been his home all his life so far. He ought also to feel an earnest and helpful desire for the comfort and advancement of its people, for he has been living and laboring among them ever since his childhood. His local patriotism meets these requirements and is manifest and ardent.

Mr. Bunch's life began in Independence township in 1864. He is a son of Perry L. and Martha (Cook) Bunch, natives of Kentucky, the former a son of Henry Bunch and the latter a daughter of Valentine Cook, and both belonging to families long resident in that state. The father came to Missouri in 1837 and located in Independence township of this county. At the time of his arrival in this part of the state it was still wild and unpeopled to a large extent, and all the hardships and exactions of frontier life had to be borne by its few scattered inhabitants. The elder Bunch accepted the situation, with all that it involved, and throughout all the early history of the region he faithfully performed his part as a pioneer and promoter of the best interests of the people. He was of a retiring disposition, and never sought publie office or mingled much in the management of publie affairs. But he met every duty of citizenship with fidelity and never shirked a task that belonged to him, however disagreeable it might be. In polities he inelined to the Republican party, after it was formed, but he never became an active partisan.

He and his wife became the parents of six children, all of whom are living. They are: Henry; Ida, the wife of Charles Howell, of Atlanta; Dora, the wife of Elwin George, of Oklahoma; Rose, the wife of A. A. Saunders, of La Plata; Nevada, the wife of W. H. Boockman, and Alta. The father died on February 3, 1897. He was a farmer all his life, and in his day was a prosperous one. The mother was married in 1906 to J. H. Saunders and now lives in La Plata.

"Their son, Henry, obtained his education in the schools near his home, and as conditions at that time were much disturbed, owing to the lingering agonies engendered by the Civil war, his sehooling was necessarily very limited. On leaving school he began farming for himself as soon as he was able, and this has been his steady occupation ever sinee, He has eighty aeres of good land, whieh is well improved and highly cultivated, and he also carries on a flourishing business in raising live-stock for the markets. In both lines of endeavor he has been very successful, making a competency for himself and helping to raise the produetiveness and wealth of the township. Like his father, he is a Republiean in polities, but not an aetive partisan, and has refused all overtures made to hini to become a candidate for public office, either by election or appointment. He is an earnest and devout member of the Baptist church and an ardent worker in its interest, taking a leading part in all its benevolent and other worthy undertakings. Fraternally he is connected with the Modern Woodmen and the Maceabees, and he is active in his membership and devoted to the welfare of both organizations.

While Mr. Bunch has not helped in an official way to direct the destinies of the township or county, and has left to others the functions of government and the responsibilities attached to them, he has not failed in the full performance of his duty as an excellent citizen. He has given the people around him a fine example of industry and thrift, and has shown how essential they are to success, even in this land of plentiful opportunities and practically boundless resources. He has also lived an upright and useful life in social and general relations, and has won by his worth the generous and appreciative regard of all who know him. In 1897 he was united in marriage with Miss Frances