Pettis County, Missouri - Biographical sketches, 1919 (part 14 of 14)

On October 2, 1883, Charles W. McAninch and Miss Leonora Walker were united in marriage. The children born of this union are: James F., a farmer, Hughesville, Missouri; Walter, died at the age of twenty years ; Paul V., was born in 1892 and enlisted in the aviation depart¬ ment of the National Army in July, 1918, and is stationed at the Brooks aviation field, near San Antonio, Texas; Mildred C. is at home with her parents.

Mrs. Leonore McAninch was born in Pettis County, five miles south of Sedalia. She is a daughter of Austin and Pernetha J. (Fowler) Walker, natives of Kentucky. When the Walkers first emigrated from their native State they settled in Callaway County, Missouri. After a resi- dence there of some years they came to Pettis County. Austin Walker died in this county in 1865. Mrs. Pernetha Walker departed this life in 1895. Of six children bom to Austin and Pernetha Walker, five are liv¬ ing: Mrs. Samantha Redd, Mrs. Ella Reid, Mrs. Belle Funk, Thomas E., and Mrs. Charles W. McAninch.

Judge McAninch and the members of his family worship at the Christian Church. He is a Democrat, and stands high in the councils of his party. He served as presiding judge of the County Court from January 1, 1907, to January 1, 1911. Many important inno¬ vations and public improvements were placed under way and completed during his term, and the public finances of Pettis County were never better managed. His court inaugurated the system of work¬ ing the county prisoners upon the public highways, and thus they were made to pay for their keep. The plan of building concrete culverts was inaugurated during this regime, and many wooden structures were replaced, outside of the limits of the twelve-mile rock road districts. Concrete floors were placed in all bridges thirty feet or less in length. This court also had charge of the erection of 150 bridges, varying in length from sixteen to 150 feet.

In the November election of 1914 Judge McAninch was elected Rep¬ resentative from Pettis County to the Missouri State Legislature, and he was again elected in 1916. He served as a member of the Forty-eighth and Forty-ninth General Assemblies, and made a distinguished record. He served on the committees of Agriculture, Banks and Banking, Con¬ stitutional Amendments, Criminal Courts and Labor, and was chairman of the Committee on Justices of the Peace. During the session of the Forty-ninth General Assembly he held membership on the following com¬ mittees: Agriculture; Banks and Banking, of which he was vice-chair¬ man ; Penitentiary and Reform Schools, being vice-chairman of this committee also; Clerical Force, serving as chairman of this committee; Schools and Labor, and he served as chairman of the Committee on Normal Schools.

It was during his last term as Representative that Judge McAninch achieved State-wide prominence because of his authorship of several important educational measures which were passed during the session.

member of the original board of directors elected at the organization of the bank. He is now serving as vice-president of the bank. He was the first treasurer of the State Fair Board, filling this post from 1901 to 1906. Judge McAninch is a citizen of worth and influence among his fellow-men.

Isaac Warren, who now resides in Sedalia, Mo., is a native of Pettis County, having been born in Flat Creek township, December 18, 1843. He is a son of Ervin and Elizabeth (Petty) Warren, both natives of Kentucky. The Warren family were very early settlers in this section of Missouri. Ervin Warren was a son of Hedgman Warren, who settled in Pettis County, Mo., about 1835, and both he and Ervin Warren entered gov¬ ernment land in this county. When Ervin Warren first entered govern¬ ment land the nearest United States land office was at Warsaw, Mo. He also filed on land later, after the land office was moved to Clinton. Ervin Warren died in 1871, and his wife departed this life about ten years later. Their remains are interred in the Warren Cemetery, together with other members of the Warren family. This is one of the old burial grounds in the vicinity of Sedalia.

To Ervin and Elizabeth Warren were born the following children: Mrs. Melinda C. Higgins, deceased; J. W., deceased; Isaac, the subject of this sketch ; Mrs. Sarah Shy, deceased ; Mrs. Lydia A. Parberry, deceased ; Milton E., deceased ; Mrs. Mary Elliott, who lives in Pettis County, and Robert E., who resides on the old Warren place. Isaac Warren was reared amid the pioneer surroundings of the early days in Pettis County, and was educated in the subscription schools, principally. He was attending public school when the Civil War broke out. He then entered the employ of the government as a teamster, hauling supplies for the Union Army, and was thus engaged about one year. He then went to Montana, driving a team of mules across the plains; and when the war ended he was at Helena, Mont. He then returned to Missouri, and for forty years was engaged in farming. He retired in 1908, and since that time has resided in Sedalia.

Mr. Warren was united in marriage December 31, 1868, with Miss Mary Gentry, a native of Pettis County, and a daughter of B. J. and Mollie (Ellison) Gentry, both natives of Kentucky. The Gentry family settled in Pettis County in the thirties and many members of that family have been successfully identified with the development of Pettis County up to the present time. A more extensive history of the Gentry family is given elsewhere in this volume.

Isaac Warren has spent nearly seventy-five years of his life in Pettis County, and during that time he has witnessed the transformation of a wild, unsettled country into a populous, industrial and prosperous com¬ munity. Men who have seen Pettis County in its primitive state are rapidly passing away, and in a few short years all will have joined the great host of silent witnesses, and leave only tradition and history to tell the story of Pettis County in the early days.