CHAPTER XXVII (Part 71)
BIOGRAPHICAL
John B. Wehmeyer, of Bogard township, is one of the successful farmers and stockmen and leading citizens of Bogard township, which has been his home for over half a century. He was born in Germany in 1838 and when four years of age (1842), was brought to this country by his parents, who settled in Warren County, Missouri. In 1867, John B. Wehmeyer came to Henry County and shortly afterwards bought his first land in Bogard township, which consisted of seventy acres, for which he paid seventeen dollars and ten cents per acre. He prospered and from time to time, as the opportunity presented itself, he acquired more land.
His next purchase was one hundred sixty acres at ten dollars per acre, then eighty acres at nine dollars per acre, eighty acres more at nine dollars per acre, and forty-two acres at twenty dollars per acre. In recent years, Mr. Wehmeyer has divided most of his land between his children, although he now owns one hundred ninety acres of some of the best land in Henry County. For a number of years, he was extensively engaged in feeding cattle and was very successful in this branch of the stock business. He has also generally been engaged in stock raising and farming and is regarded as one of the successful men of the county.
On March 6, 1867, Mr. Wehmeyer was united in marriage with Miss Mary Single, a native of England. She was the widow of Samuel Studley. To John B. Wehmeyer and Mary (Single) Studley Wehmeyer were born the following children: William H., a farmer in Bogard township, married Pearl Forsythe and the following children were born to this union, Mary, Ruth, John, Fred and Robert; George S. Wehmeyer, farmer in Bogard township, married Etta Schnorf, and the following children were born to them. Glen, Harmel, Wilbur and LeeRoy; Robert W. Wehmeyer, a farmer in Bogard township, married Jessie Schnorf and they have two children, Clarence and Chester; and Anna, married George Wisely and died in Texas, leaving two children, Ruth and Fred.
On January 25, 1862, Mr. Wehmeyer enlisted in Company F, 3rd Missouri Cavalry and was engaged in the service until February 8, 1865, when he was honorably discharged. During the course of his military career, Mr. Wehmeyer participated in eighteen battles and skirmishes. The most of his service was in Missouri and Arkansas. He was a good soldier and always did his duty faithfully and well and earned a military record without a blot upon it.
Mr. Wehmeyer is truly one of the pioneers not only of Henry County but of the state of Missouri. He was in the city of St. Louis before there were any street cars, and when a young man he clerked in a store in that city for twelve years. During his boyhood days in Warren County, Missouri, railroads were unheard of there and in fact there were none in the State when the Wehmeyer family settled here.
Everett Single, a grandson of Mr. Wehmeyer, is now serving in the National Army in France. Mr. Wehmeyer was a member of the Grand Army of the Republic at Blairstown.
James T. McKee, now deceased, the founder of McKee's Book Store was a pioneer merchant of Clinton, and prominently identified with the interests of Henry County for many years. He established the McKee's Book Store in 1870, and conducted this business for forty years, until the time of his death. The store is still owned and conducted by his estate under the management of his daughter, Miss Inez L. McKee, who took charge of the business at the death of her father in 1909.
This business which is now in the forty-eighth year of its existence, is one of the oldest mercantile establishments in Henry County, and during all this time, McKee's Book Store has never permitted its methods to grow old. The stock and store is kept up to date, and everything usually found in a first-class, well-conducted book store in any city is within reach of the customers of this store.
James T. McKee was a native of Darke County, Ohio, born in 1845. He grew to manhood in his native State and received a good education. In 1867 or 1868, he came to Missouri, driving most of the way with a team and wagon, and settled at Clinton. He taught school here for a time, teaching at the old Union school district. Later, he served as assistant postmaster, under Postmaster Fike. In 1870, he established McKee's Book Store, and was engaged in that business until his death as above stated.
In 1873, James T. McKee and Frances Ricketts were united in marriage. She was a native of Findlay, Ohio, born in 1845. She died in 1895. To James T., and Frances (Ricketts) McKee were born the following children: Dr. Ralph H., a graduate of Clinton Academy, and Wooster College, Wooster, Ohio, University of Chicago, and is now professor of chemistry in Columbia University, New York City; Inez, L., a graduate bf Wooster College, Wooster, Ohio, and was engaged in teaching until her father's death, when she took charge of the business in Clinton, and has conducted it since; Charles Romney, chemist with the United States Glue Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin; he is a graduate of Lake Forest College, Chicago, Illinois.
George S. Holliday, president of the Citizens Bank of Clinton and a well-known abstracter and man of affairs in Henry County, is a native of Illinois. He was born at Carlinville, Illinois, October 12, 1854, a son of George H. and Cinderella (Chisn) Holliday, the former a native of Conneaut, Ohio, and the latter of Kentucky. George H. Holliday, the father, was a highly educated man and a civil engineer by profession. He followed civil engineering in early life and later engaged in newspaper work, and for several years published a newspaper at Carlinville, Illinois. He took an active part in politics, and for a number of years served as county clerk in Ohio. He died in 1870, at the age of forty-eight years. His wife, after his death, removed to Clinton, where her son, George S., the subject of this sketch, had preceded her. She died in 1915, aged eighty-three years.
George S. Holliday had the advantages of a very good education. After receiving a thorough common school education, he took a course in Blackburn University at Carlinville, Illinois, and later attended Sanders Institute, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He then studied law at Carlinville, Illinois, under the preceptorship of Hon. William R. Welch, and was admitted to the bar at Mt. Vernon, Illinois, in 1878. He was then employed in the abstract office of J. L. Plain, Carlinville, Illinois, for a period of two years. Then, in 1880 he came to Clinton, Missouri, and purchased the abstract books and business of Cheek & Kimbrough, and since that time has been engaged in the abstract business in Clinton, a period of thirty-eight years. There is no better posted man in the abstract and title business in Henry County than George S. Holliday. In addition to his busy career as a professional abstracter, Mr. Holliday has successfully directed his energies to other financial and industrial channels. He was one of the organizers of both the Cottage Building & Loan Association and the Henry County Building and Loan Association, and has been actively identified with both of these enterprises since their organizations, and served as president of both organizations for a number of years. He is also interested in the banking business, having been identified with the Citizens Bank of Clinton for sometime, and is now the president of that well-known and substantial Henry County bank.
Mr. Holliday has given much thought and study to the subject of civic improvement, and has been an active factor in all matters for the betterment and up-building of Clinton and Henry County. He served as president of the Clinton Commercial Club for a number of years, and it was through his efforts and co-operation that Clinton secured such a splendid Federal building, which is perhaps better than in any other town the size of Clinton in the southwest.
Mr. Holliday was united in marriage January 16, 1887, to Miss Alice Eay, a native of Berry, Illinois. She is a daughter of James W., and Virginia A. (Gregory) Ray of Parsons, Kansas.
Mr. Holliday is a Democrat, although he takes no particular active part in politics. He is a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He is one of the substantial citizens of Henry County and for nearly forty years, his interest and those of Clinton and Henry County have been mutual. He is of the type of citizen who has given Henry County the appropriate title of the "Banner County of Missouri."
Robert Lewis Covington, general insurance, Clinton, Missouri, the son of Robert W. and Lucy B. (Lewis) Covington was born in Honey Creek township, April 7, 1874. He is a descendant of a pioneer family of Henry County, his father, Robert W. Covington, having been born in Big Creek township September 30, 1846, died July 9, 1910.
Robert W. Covington was the son of John 0. Covington, native of Delaware, who settled in Henry County in 1840. When he came here he entered a large tract of land consisting of about three thousand acres in Shawnee, Big Creek and Honey Creek townships. When the Civil War broke out he was a stanch supporter of the Confederacy, giving practically all he had to the support of the lost cause. At the beginning of the war, he went South to what was then known as Indian Territory, and died at what is now McAllister, Oklahoma, and his remains were buried there.
The wife of John 0. Covington bore the maiden name of Eliza A. Barker, and her parents were among the very first settlers in what is now Henry County. They came here in 1832 and settled near Calhoun. She died October 25, 1907, in Henry County, and her remains were buried in Englewood Cemetery. Robert W. Covington and Lucy B. Lewis were married December 30, 1869. To this union were born four children, Edwin S., farmer and stockman, Deepwater, Missouri; John O., merchant, Cockrell, Missouri; Daisy, now the wife of Morris Lane, Garland, Missouri; and Robert L., the subject of this sketch. Lucy B. Lewis Covington was born in St. Louis County, Missouri, November 13, 1848. She was the daughter of Robert Lewis. Her grandparents, having settled here as early as 1811, her family is related to familiar names, among the first settlers of Mississippi Valley, as the Bacons, Longs, Bates and Woodsons.
Robert Lewis Covington was educated in the district schools of Henry County, and Clinton Academy, and in early life engaged in farming and stock raising. Mr. Covington was united in marriage May 20, 1896, to Miss Sarah Elizabeth Gilmer, a daughter of Robert and Anna Alexander Gilmer, natives of Kentucky. Mrs. Covington was born May 18, 1876, at Columbia, Adair County, Kentucky, and moved with her parents November, 1884, to Henry County. She was educated in the district schools of Henry County, and Clinton Academy. Her parents now reside near Texhoma, Oklahoma.
To Mr. and Mrs. Covington have been born five children, Helen E., Robert Merritt, now serving in the United States Navy; Louise O., Lucy Lewis and Anna Gilmer. Mr. Covington is the owner of a valuable farm in Honey Creek township.
Neither John O. Covington or his son, Robert W., ever held office, but both in their time were among the leading influential citizens of this county, strong men of robust, vigorous individuality. Robert Lewis Covington, the subject of this sketch, is a Democrat of influence and was Circuit Clerk for eight years, and filled that office with faithfulness and ability. He is now engaged in insurance business and is one of the prominent men of Clinton, aiding in the public welfare and especially active and useful in all patriotic work.
This pioneer stock of these generations mentioned represents faithfully the highest type of the moral and civic virtues of the old-time citizenship of this county.
