Lafayette County MO

Biography of Waller W. Graves

Waller W. Graves, of Jefferson City, judge of the supreme court and recognized as a peer of the ablest members who have sat upon the bench in the court of last resort in Missouri, was born in Lafayette county, this state, December 17, 1860. His parents, Abram L. and Martha Elizabeth (Pollard) Graves, were natives of Missouri and Kentucky, respectively. The father, a farmer by occupation, was also actively interested in public affairs, particularly in relation to the schools and for many years served as a member of the board of education. He was also a Justice of the peace … Read more

Missouri Atlases and Plat Books

Sample Missouri Plat Book closeup

198 online plat books and atlases organized by county and ordered by date for the State of Missouri. At the bottom of the page are two items that can help you use these documents in your genealogy research. The first is a blog post Plat Books Revealed: Mapping Generations of History and the second a video where Ben Clark explains what plat maps are used for, how to navigate them, and pulls out a few interesting stories from them.

Biography of Benjamin Franklin Strong, M. D.

Benjamin Franklin Strong, M. D. Now engaged in practice as a physician and surgeon at Chautauqua, Doctor Strong had a wide acquaintance in the two states of Kansas and Missouri, had practiced medicine in both states and had also a successful business record to his credit prior to his entrance into the medical profession. He was born in Sabula, Iowa, June 4, 1861. He represents an old American family. His first American ancestor was Elder John Strong, who was the founder of Northampton, Massachusetts. The Strong family originated in Scotland but this branch of it came from England. Many generations … Read more

Biography of Joseph C. Wilson

Joseph C. Wilson. Aside from the prominance which is his in the business world by reason of his position as sales manager for the Burroughs Adding Machine Company, at Topeka, Joseph C. Wilson had the distinction of belonging to a family which for three generations have been active in the business, civic and moral development of Kansas. The name had always stood for honorable and public-spirited citizenship and for participation in progressive movements, and Mr. Wilson is proving himself a worthy representative of this old and respected family. Mr. Wilson was born in the City of Topeka, Kansas, June 28, … Read more

Biography of Edward Cockrell Hoffman

Statistics show that more than ninety per cent of men are failures in business and investigation brings to light another fact that too many are prone to make constant changes in business instead of concentrating along a single line and developing a thorough mastery of the work undertaken. A notable example of this rule is Edward Cockrell Hoffman, who is now engaged in the line of business in which he started out as a young tradesman, being the secretary, treasurer and manager of the Hoffman-Speed Printing Company of Muskogee. He has been instrumental in building up a substantial business at … Read more

Biography of J. H. Stephens, Mrs.

Mrs. J. H. Stephens. As president of the City Federation of Women’s Clubs, an active factor in the Current Club and a member of the Carnegie Library Board, at Coffeyville, Mrs. J. H. Stephens occupies a prominent position in the social, civic and intellectual life that has made this city one of the centers of cultural interests in the state. Mrs. Stephens (Esther Logan) comes of an old colonial family of English origin. The Logans were pioneers in Kentucky, in which state Mrs. Stephens’ grandfather was born and died. Her father, G. H. Logan, was born in Somerset County, Kentucky, … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Ray E. Frazier

Ray E. Frazier, the elder son of Nathan F. and Emma (Crook) Frazier, was born at El Dorado September 15, 1876. He received his education in the public schools of El Dorado and at Wentworth Military Academy, Lexington, Missouri, from which he was graduated in 1895, and began his financial training in a minor position in the Merchants National Bank, or which his father was president. There he evinced a marked aptitude for banking and applied himself so earnestly to his duties that upon the organization of the Citizens State Bank he was made assistant cashier and later vice president. … Read more

Biographical Sketch of James C. Harrah

James C. Harrah was born in Daviess county, Missouri, November 29, 1844. He is the son of Robert H. Harrah a native of Greenbrier county, West Virginia. His father came to Missouri in 1840, and died in Holt county in February, 1865. His mother’s maiden name was Elizabeth Nation, and she was a native of East Tennessee. Our subject was reared and educated in his native county and has spent his life thus far here. He began farming on his own account at an early age and continued (except during the war) in that avocation until the winter of 1872 … Read more

Biography of Thomas Harper Cobbs

Thomas Harper Cobbs, lawyer and senior member of the firm of Cobbs & Logan, 1111-1116 Third National Bank building, St. Louis, Missouri, was born August 26, 1868, on a farm in Fairview township, Lafayette county, about six miles southeast of Napoleon, Missouri. His father, Thomas T. Cobbs, was a native of Tennessee. His grandfather, Thomas Cobbs, was a native of Virginia and a descendant of EnglishWelsh parents. His grandfather was among the pioneer settlers of Lafayette county, having come to that county in 1830, and having built the first gristmill in that section. After his grandfather’s death, his father operated … Read more

Biography of Andrew Henderson

Andrew Henderson, sheriff of Washington county, Oklahoma, was born at Bates City, Missouri, May 2, 1878, a son of A. J. and Katherine (Ferguson) Henderson. The father, who was a native of Illinois and a highly educated man, was a farmer and stock raiser. He left his native state when eighteen years of age and on removing to Texas he located in Limestone county, where he engaged in the cattle business for many years, driving his cattle to the market at Kansas City, Missouri. He then obtained a lease on the entire site where the town of Dewey now stands, … Read more

Biography of O. H. P. Catron

O. H. P. CATRON. Few men in the county are better known or more popular than O. H. P. Catron, who is one of the proprietors of the Daily and Weekly Gazette of West Plains, Missouri This is the only daily published in this section, and although the weekly has been known here for many years, the daily has only known an existence of six years. The Gazette is one of the brightest, newsiest sheets published in southwest Missouri, and commands an ever widening circulation. Mr. Catron came to West Plains in March, 1882. He was born in Lafayette County, … Read more

Biography of George Schmadeka

History was at one time almost entirely a record of wars, a tale of conquest in which armed hosts went forth to capture, pillage and destroy, but with advancing civilization it has become a very different chronicle, being now more particularly the story of the onward march of progress, the upbuilding of towns and the establishment of those enterprises and interests which contribute to man’s happiness and welfare. In pursuing the study of Idaho’s history we find that the flourishing town of Grangeville owes its existence in part to the gentleman whose name heads this sketch. He arrived on Camas … Read more

Slave Narrative of Harriet Ann Daves

Interviewer: T. Pat Matthews Person Interviewed: Harriet Ann Daves Location: 601 E. Cabarrus Street, Raleigh, North Carolina Date of Birth: June 6, 1856 My full name is Harriet Ann Daves, I like to be called Harriet Ann. If my mother called me when she was living, I didn’t want to answer her unless she called me Harriet Ann. I was born June 6, 1856. Milton Waddell, my mother’s marster was my father, and he never denied me to anybody. My mother was a slave but she was white. I do not know who my mother’s father was. My mother was … Read more

Biography of Forrest M. Hartley

Forrest M. Hartley’s talents made him foremost in the activities of college life while he was a student in Baker University. For a number of years he was actively identified with Kansas journalism and then returned to Baldwin City where he is now one of the leading merchants. Mr. Hartley was born at Indianola in Vermillion County, Illinois, July 26, 1874. He is one of the three children of George S. and Caroline (Vayhinger) Hartley. George S. Hartley, now a resident of Arkansas City, had for many years been a conspicuous figure in the political, banking and civic life of … Read more

Biography of Johnson Mulkey

JOHNSON MULKEY. – This prominent pioneer of Oregon was born in Knox County, Kentucky, in January, 1808. His father, Philip Mulkey, and mother (whose maiden name was Margaret Miller), were natives of Germany. In the year 1818 they moved with their young family to Missouri, settling in Lafayette County, where the father soon after died, leaving his widow with nine children. Johnson was married in 1835 to Mrs. Susan Roberts, née Brown. In the summer of 1845 he crossed the plains to Oregon, and on arriving took up a land claim in Benton county three miles west of what is … Read more

Biography of Otto F., Dierker, M. D.

Otto F. Dierker, M. D. Among the well-established physicians and surgeons of Lincoln County, Kansas, no one is held more trustworthy than Dr. Otto F. Dierker, who had been suecessfully engaged in the practice of his profession at Sylvan Grove, Kansas, since 1905, coming here shortly after his graduation from college and the securing of his degree. It is creditable both to Doctor Dierker and to the people of this pleasant little city that the cordial relations established at this time have never been severed, there being warm friendship, trust and appreciation on both sides. Doctor Dierker had built up … Read more

Biography of James A. Masterson

JAMES A. MASTERSON. – It now becomes our pleasant privilege to outline the interesting career of the estimable gentleman, whose name is at the ehad of this article, and who stands as one of the prominent and representative men of Union county, being also aheavy property owner, and having manifested since an early day here ability that was master of the situation and has acuumulated his holdings from the raw resources of the county, while also he has maintained an untarnished reputation and has done much for the advancement of the county, being really one of the builders of Union … Read more

Biography of Hon. Samuel F. Taylor

Hon. Samuel F. Taylor was not a pioneer of Idaho Falls simply. He was one of a very few who were pioneers at that locality before the town had a beginning, and was active in an enterprise which was influential in locating a town at that point on the Snake river. He came to the place in 1870 with his cousin, J. M. Taylor, who with the firm of Taylor & Anderson, built the bridge across the Snake river at the falls. It was the first bridge in this part of the state, was a great aid to immigration and … Read more

Biography of Benjamin E. Bradley

Benjamin E. Bradley, general manager of the Star of St. Louis and widely known in newspaper circles throughout the country, was born in Lafayette county, Missouri, October 13, 1869, and is a son of Benjamin A. and Martha R. (Briggs) Bradley. The father died August 30, 1919, at the venerable age of eighty-seven years, being then the oldest living native-born resident of Johnson county, Missouri. The family has been represented on American soil through many generations and the forebears of Benjamin E. Bradley have fought in all the different wars from the Revolution, while his son Philip was a soldier … Read more