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| The first 124 pages of this book were published in the summer
of 1907. Some friends have joined the publisher in believing that
the book should be brought up to date and that the history of the county
should be kept in book form. We want no Dark Ages in the history
of Morgan County and her people. Of course it is almost impossible
to record in a history of this character all of the doings of the people
that count in the upbuild and uplift of the race, but the leading events
can be gathered while they are happening and this is sufficient for the
purpose of keeping a record of the county’s development.
History is a record of what man has done, and the current history is a record of what he is doing. Basing our historical record on these definitions we devote most of the following pages to Biographical history. After recording the main events that have occurred in the county since 1907 I will add a number of biographies, a phase of the History of Morgan county that has pleased and interested many. I shall give the county election results for the years 1908, 1910, 1912, 1914 and 1916. A. G. BAKER, Publisher B. Versailles Mo., November, 1916 |
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| ELECTIONS 1908 TO 1916
County Officers Elected in 1908 – L. C. Legere, representative; T. F. Oneal, county judge, eastern district; W. C. Tagtmeyer, county judge, western district; Lewis Lumpee, county clerk; R. M. Livesay, prosecuting attorney; C.H. Goodman, sheriff; L. M. Schannep, treasurer; Fred Monsees, assesor; W. R. Stevenson, surveyor; F. M. Napler, public administrator; Dr. John A. Braden, coroner. These officers were all Republicans except the prosecuting attorney who was a Democrat and was elected by seventeen majority. The rest of the county ticket was elected by majorities ranging, in the main, over 300. To the present time this was the high water mark year in Republican majorities in Morgan County. Elections in 1910 – L. C. Legere, representative; R. M. Livesay,prosecuting attorney; W. H. Olney, county clerk; John A. Hannay, collector; John J. Jones, circuit clerk; H. E. Neville, probate judge; W. C. Tagtmeyer, county judge,western district; T. G. Snorgrass, county judge, eastern district; W. T. Bowen, presiding judge. Four of these were Democrats: Hannay, Levesay, John J. Jones and T. G. Snorgrass. The Republicans were elected on slim margins all the way through. The party went to pieces in 1910 over the “wet” and “dry” question, causing the defeat of a number of Republicans who were classed as “dry.” The campaign of that year left scrs in the Republican party that it has not outlived. Election of 1912 – J. W. Kauffman, representative; August Schupp, county judge, western district; D. A. Fairley, county judge, eastern district; W. J. Williams, sheriff; Orville Mew, treasurer; Harry McDonald, assessor; Frank Napler, public administrator; Dr. B. F. Bowline, coroner; W. R. Stevenson surveyor; W. T. S. Agee, prosecuting attorney. McDonald and Fairley were Democrats. Election 1914 – The following county officers were elected in November 1914: J. W. Kauffman, representative; R. A. Norfleet, presiding judge of the county court; E. Bl Blackman, circuit clerk and recorder; J. Forna Berkstresser,, county clerk; Louis C Siegel, collector; Warren Boles, rosecuting attorney; John S. Boyce, probate judge; George Carpenter, judge cunty court, eastern district; August Schupp, county judge, western district. These are all Republicans, but Carpenter and Boles. Elections 1916 – Henry K. We.pman, representative; Samuel P. Willson, sheriff; Orville R. Mew, treasurer; Ed H. Boeschen, assessor; J. W. McClelland, prosecuting attorney; Dr. J. A. Brockman, coroner; George Carpenter, county judge, eastern disrict; August Schupp, county judge western district. These are all Republicans but Carpenter. Morgan County at this election went Republican on state and national tickey byabout 325. |
| SOME EVENTS IN COUNTY SINCE 1907
Since the first 124 pages of this book were published, in 1907, the following events are noted, taken from the files of the Versailles Statesman: Judge R. E. Dornan, who had been sheriff and collector and presiding Judge of the county court, died July 13, 1913. William Porter Tooley whose picture is given on page 64 of this book, died September 18, 1907. Dr. Henry Buck, an old physician of Versailles, died October 11, 1907. The cornner stone of the new brick Methodist church in Versailles was laid by the Masons October 28, 1907. Martin V. Duff, plasterer, died in Versailles in November 1907. William French, father of Mesdames E. W. Williams, Samuel Daniels and A. G. Baker, died November 27, 1907. Saloons left Versailles Monday night, February 10, 1908, and no more have appeared in the city. They were voted out by local option. The first local option electin in Morgan county was held in 1907 when the county went dry. The second local option election was held in December 1911 when the county went wet, but Versailles remained dry, and without saloons because petitioners could not get the required number of signers for their petitions. Stover had two saloons from 1912 to 1916 when the third local option election removed the saloons from the county. Under this local option law there can be no more local option elections in the county till 1920. The Hirsch wholesale grocery store first started inVersailles in the spring of 1912, in the Odd Fellow building. After retiring from the postoffice in April 1911, J. W. Mills bought W. W. Moore’s interest in the First National Bank, of Versailles,whichhe kept one year and served as the bank’s president. At the end of one year, or in the spring of 1912, he sold his interest to W. A. Buell, and moved his family to Portland Oregon where he went into the printing business. Mr. Mills died there in August, 1914. On selling his interest in the bank to Mr. Mills, Mr. More soon moved to La Pryor, Texas, where he now lives. Dressie Brothers sold their telephone system in Versailles to e. M. Carter & Sons in 1912 and moved to Kansas. Peter harms died January 24, 1909. His biography will be found on page 93. John F. Gibbs, lawyer, died February 16, 1909. Mrs. P. G. Woods died April 6, 1909, in Florida while they were there for her health. D. P. Taylor died April 16, 1909. Judge Henry Wagenknecht, former presiding judge of the county court from Little Morgan, died January 10, 1910. John Freebairne, captialist, died in Versailles February 14, 1910.. Max Joachimi, Sr. father of M. L. and Arthur Joachimi, and for several years, a leading merchant here, died January 6, 1911. John M. Williams, ex-sheriff, died March 12, 1911. Judge W. H. Martin, judge of the circuit, died suddenly at the City Hotel while holding court here, April 20, 1911. Governor Hadley appointed John M. Williams of California, Mo., to fill the vacancy. In the next election Judge Williams was defeated for election by J. G. Slate of Jefferson City, who served four years and was re-elected in 1916, for a term of six years. J. W. Livingston died June 5, 1911. J. M. Duff, carpenter, known as “Mitch”, died June 19, 1911. Judge J. P. Daugherty, former district and presiding judge of he county court, died June 10, 1911. Biography, page 104. George P. Clark died in August 1911, after being an invalid over two years. John P. Sullens, the blind man, died September 28, 1911. Jasper Parks died November 1911. A. Popper retired from the mercantile business in November 1911. G. W. Petty died November 20, 1911. He was long in the lumber business in Versailles. Rev. Jerry Gabriel died December 16, 1911. Judge I. H. Earnest, of Proctor, died January 1918. Conway Jones died October 18, 1913. He was a former representative of Morgan County. See his biography in this bood, page 101. H. T. Talbott died March 11, 1912. Judge Geeorge W. Sanford died March 17, 1912. J. R. Slocum died April 7, 1912. Jess Ashton died in July 1912. Dr. T. R. Bridges, of Syracuse, died August 1, 1912. Judge Thomas C, Snorgrass, member of the county court from the eastern district, died October 15, 1912. Governor Hadley appointed Daniel V. Igo to fill the vacancy in the court. J. C. Rutherford died July 11, 1912. Probate Judge Harvey E. Neville died January 14, 1912, and Governor Hadley appointed I. M. Schannep, lawyer, to fill the vacancy. Schannep left the state before his term expired about twenty days and Governor Major appointed J. S. Boyce, probate judge elect, to fill the vacancy of twenty days and then mr. Boyce became probate judge in his own right, and is now in the middle of his four year term. James P. Hatfield died January 16, 1913. John G. Carpenter, former assessor of Morgan County, died at his home in Syracuse February 28, 1913. C. C. Meriott died March 21, 1913. Hobart Ripley died September 6, 1914. Peter Hinken died in August 1914. E. K. Buck, county clerk, died in March 1908. W. S. Gibbs died Friday, November 2, 1915. See biography on page 66. S. P. Hunter died Friday, December 25, 1915. The last Morgan county bonds were pain April 29, 1915. In the seventies the county issued bonds to build a railroad that was never built, but it had to pay the bonds amounting to $135,000, and the interest, which, all told, amounted to more than the principal. The first bond was paid in 1898. There had been no money with which to pay the bonds before this time. John Rankin, a pioneer citizen of Versailles, died in May, 1915, Aged 80 years. The total valuation of Morgan county, as reported by Harry McDonald, county assessor, in 1916, was 3, 310, 735 A.W. Burns, former collector of Morgan couty died March 22, 1916. See biography on page 79. R.F. (Dick) Williams, an old settler in Morgan county, died at his home in Syracuse March 27, 1916. Preston B. Young, farmer near town, died Friday night April 14, 1916. On the night of April 19, a cyclone struck the western part of Morgan county, destroying many buildings of all kinds in the village of Stover. Many dwelling houses were completely destroyed and the depot and many other buildings were blown down and totally destroyed. That damage was estimated at between fifty and eighty thousand dollars. Much damage was also done in the surrounding county. The buildings have nearly all been replaced with new ones or the old ones patched up. Dr. V.O. Williams, son of the late Dr. O.A. Williams, died suddenly at his home in Nevada, Missouri, in June 1916. James McNair, a pioneer citizen of Morgan county and Versailles, died at Ashland Oregon, August 6, 1916. He had gone there a few years before to live with his children. Governor John P. St. John, who had been governor of Kansas, came to Versailles in about 1900 and made his home here most of the time till 1910 when he moved back to Olathe, Kansas, where he died August 31, 1916, at the age of 81 years. G.W. Miller, farmer, died September 10, 1916, of heart trouble. B.S. Barnett, farmer, four miles west of town, took poison by mistake September 28, 1916, and died ten days later Judge John E. Price died in August 1916. He was an early day settler in Morgan county. James B. Spurlock who had been postmaster of Versailles during the Cleveland administration, and who had been circuit clerk and recorder of Morgan county, as well as a useful man in other public affairs, died September 26, 1916; almost suddenly. Mr. Spurlock had been a cripple in his legs for many years. He was the son of James Spurlock Sr. an early day lawyer here. Mrs. H. S. Thornhill, wife of Rev. H. S. Thornhill, pastor of the Versailles Baptist church, died October 25, 1916. A month later the pastor resigned and the family moved to Pleasant Hill, Missouri, where he became pastor of the Baptist church. A. N. Greenway, an early day settler in Morgan county, died November 22, 1916, at his home twelve miles east of Versailles. He was 69 years old. John E. Porter, farmer of north Morgan, near Syracuse, died November 6, 1916. He was 68 years old. Rev. Lycurgis J. Baughman, an early day Baptist preacher in Morgan county, died at his home in Sedalia November 25, 1916, aged 75 years. See biography on page 91. |
| BAR CHANGES SINCE OCTOBER 1907
John F.Gibbs, lawyer, died February 16, 1909. Judge Harvey E. Neville, lawyer, died January 14, 1912. I.M. Schannep, lawyer, moved to San Diego, California, in December 1914, and then moved to Pendleton, Oregon, where he now lives. A.A. Knoop moved to Kansas City where he is now practicing law. A.B.Knipmeyer moved to Memphis, Tennessee, where he is now practicing law. William forman moved to Tonapah, Nevada, where he is practicing law. George F. Booth is practicing law in Sedalia. James McNair moved to Oregon and died there in the summer of 1916. The remains were brought to Versailles for burial. W.E. McVey moved from Versailles to Eldon where he practiced law a year or more and now lives in Sedalia. Joel D. Hubbard who was elected to Congress in this district in 1894, defeating Dick Bland, was admitted to the bar after his term in Congress,, practiced here a few years, and then moved to El Paso, Texas, where he is now engaged in the practice of the law. |
| THE BAR AT PRESENT, 1916.
The following gentlemen constitute the Versailles bar at the present time, 1916: D. D. Wray, the oldest member of the bar. See his biography on page 111. Samuel Daniels, R.M. Livesay, R.H. Woods, John J. Jones, Price Jones, W.T. S. Agee, J.W. McClelland, just elected prosecuting attornery, A.L. Ross. See his biography on page 119. Warren Boles, present prosecuting attorney whose term expires January 1, 1917.
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