CHAPTER XXVII (Part 76)
BIOGRAPHICAL
Lawrence P. Young of Honey Creek township, is a Union veteran of the Civil War and an interesting pioneer of Henry County. He was born in Athens County, Ohio, August 16, 1843, and is a son of Dr. William, Young, and Judith (Boyles) Young. Doctor Young was also a native of Athens County, Ohio, and removed to Illinois in 1845, when Lawrence, the subject of this sketch, was two years old. In 1867, he came to Henry County, and located at Calhoun, and practiced medicine there and in that vicinity for a number of years. He was one of the pioneer doctors of Henry County; he died in 1882 and his remains are buried at Cardville, Missouri. His wife was also a native of Ohio, and she departed this life in 1872, and her remains are buried at Brownington, Missouri. They were the parents of the following children: Lawrence P., the subject of this sketch; William, deceased; Walter, lives at Blue Jacket, Oklahoma; Charles.
Lawrence P. Young was educated in the public schools of Illinois and spent his boyhood days not unlike the average boy of that time. After the Civil War broke out, he enlisted in the spring of 1862 at Clinton, Illinois in Company E, 117th Illinois Infantry, and served in the Union Army for three years, lacking nine days. His regiment was with Sherman's army when they started on the memorable campaign to the sea, but the 117th Regiment was ordered back to St. Louis for the defense of that city. Mr. Young saw much hard service during the course of his military career and participated in a number of important engagements and skirmishes. At the close of the war, he was mustered out by general order of the War Department at Springfield, Illinois.
In 1867, Mr. Young came to Henry County, Missouri, and first settled at Brownington, his mother having bought land prior to this time, adjoining the townsite of Brownington. Here he resided until 1874, when he removed to Big Creek township and in 1883, purchased a farm in Honey Creek township, upon which he now resides. He has a valuable farm of one hundred thirty acres, located a short distance southwest of Garland.
Mr. Young was united in marriage in 1885 to Miss Anna Eli, daughter of William and Margaret Eli, pioneer settlers of Big Creek township, who settled in Henry County in the forties. The father was a native of Indiana and the mother of Kentucky. He died in 1874 and his wife died in 1872, and their remains rest in the family cemetery in Big Creek township. They were the parents of the following children: Anna, the wife of Lawrence P. Young, the subject of this sketch; Aaron, lived in Kansas: Mrs. Nancy DePew, Bogart township; Mrs. Mary Shideler, lives in California, and Mrs. Sarah Trent, Moberly, Missouri; Edwin, Banning, Colorado; and Reuben, Dalton, Missouri. To Mr. and Mrs. Young have been born the following children: Edna, deceased; Ethel, resides at home with her parents; Henry, married Lena Howard, resides at Clinton, Missouri; Monti, married Bessie Middaugh, Honey Creek township.
Lawrence P. Young is well entitled to be classed among the pioneers of Henry County. When he first came to Honey Creek township, which was long after he settled in the county, there was not a railroad in that township, nor a bridge. He has frequently hauled goods from Warrensburg, the nearest railroad point, to Clinton, for fifty cents per hundred, and when he hauled goods from Sedalia to Brownington, he received $1.25 per hundred. During the early days, he did a great deal of freighting. He recalls when Cook's Old Mill and Jackson's Mill were the only places in this section where the settlers could get their flour and meal ground. He says that the early settlers came from great distances to get their grinding done at Jackson's Mill and frequently the mill was so crowded with work that settlers would have to camp and wait two or three days to get their grinding done.
Mr. Young is now in his seventy-fifth year and he says he does "not remember of ever taking a dose of medicine in his life." He is one of the few Union veterans of the Civil War now living in Henry County, and the only one left in Honey Creek township, and he says he can recall only one Confederate veteran now living in that township, Thomas Cowden. Mr. Young and Mr. Cowden have been what he terms "old cronies" for many years.
John A. Overbey, a prominent newspaper man of western Missouri who is now editor and proprietor of the Urich Herald, is a native Kentuckian. He was born in Trigg County in 1853, a son of Stephen N. and Margaret C. (Reed) Overbey. The father was a veteran of the Civil War, having enlisted in Company D, 8th Regiment, Kentucky Cavalry, and later served as captain of Company C, 17th Regiment, Kentucky Cavalry. He came to Henry County in October, 1867, and located three miles east of Urich in Henry County. He spent the remainder of his life in this vicinity and died April 10, 1913; his wife departed this life January 15, 1905. They were the parents of the following children: John A., the subject of this sketch; William W., Mineral Wells, Texas; Eugene R., died August 3, 1914; Mrs. Alvin C. Giltner, Creighton, Missouri; Robert A., Creighton, Missouri; and Mrs. Maggie Starkey, Sedalia, Missouri.
John A. Overbey was reared amidst pioneer surroundings and received his education in the public schools. From boyhood days, he was in a position to get a practical view of real life and by his natural inclination for close observation he laid the foundation for his future newspaper career. In 1889, he purchased the Urich Chronicle and published this paper for three years. Later, he was interested in the banking business in Urich, and has also been interested in the insurance business. In 1913, he bought the Urich Herald, which is one of the live newspapers of Henry County. A newspaper merely reflects the individuality and ability of the editor, and those who read the Urich Herald cannot help but be impressed by the ability of the man who published it. Mr. Overbey is thoroughly alive to every movement for the best interest of his town and county and for seventeen years he served as mayor of Urich.
Mr. Overbey was united in marriage August 23, 1874, with Miss Serapta A. Redford of Henry County, a daughter of A. B. and Hannah Redford. To Mr. and Mrs. Overbey have been born the following children: Mrs. Van W. Hall, Urich, Missouri; William N., foreman of the Herald office; John A. Jr., Wooster, Massachusetts, in the employ of the United States Government as an inspector of army equipment; Dick R., born May 15, 1886, a sergeant in the United States Army with the 110th Ordinance Automobile Repair Company; Clinton S., born December 14, 1887, a second lieutenant in the United States Army, trained at Camp Doniphan, Oklahoma. Both Dick R. and Clinton S. are now in France with the Thirty-fifth Division. Dick R. first enlisted in July, 1916, with the Missouri National Guard and first trained at Nevada, Missouri as a member of the Sedalia Machine Gun Company. Clinton S. enlisted in May, 1917, and was called to service August 5, 1917.
Mr. Overbey is one of the progressive citizens of Henry County and may justly be proud of his family.
Herman Schmidt - The Schmidt farm in Clinton township, bordering on the Grand River, is one of the most fertile and the best improved tracts in western Missouri and embraces 450 acres. For the first five years, Herman Schmidt, the proprietor, rented the land and in 1895, bought a tract of thirty acres as a modest beginning. To this was added eighty acres, then forty acres and a little later he bought another eighty acres.
Still he prospered and added another 160 acres. The last two additions to the estate were forty acres and twenty acres, respectively. In 1908, the Schmidts erected a beautiful residence of seven rooms, the grounds surrounding which are very attractive and dotted with evergreens and locusts. The home sets well back from the highway. Upon the Schmidt land, are three sets of improvements. The crops for the year of 1918 are as follows: twenty-nine acres of wheat which yielded 320 bushels; ninety acres of corn; forty-five acres of oats, which averaged twenty-five bushels to the acre; seventy-five acres of grasses and forage crops. The balance of the large farm is in pasture and timber land.
Herman Schmidt was born in Baden, Germany, December 4, 1864, the son of Herman and Minnie Schmidt, the former of whom died in 1865. His widow then married Rudolph Bratzler and the family emigrated to America in 1884 and made a settlement south of Clinton in Henry County, Missouri. The mother of the subject of this sketch died in Clinton, March 23, 1918, at the age of seventy-seven years. Mr. Schmidt has two half brothers: Alex and Rudolph Bratzler, living in Clinton.
Herman Schmidt immigrated to America in 1882 and located in Henry County, where he worked at farm labor for the first three years. For the next two years, he devoted his services to his parents. He then married and began his own successful career, which has resulted in placing him in a state of comparative wealth in the short period of twenty-eight years. Few men can accomplish more than Herman Schmidt, coming as he did to this country without a dollar which he could call his own, and rapidly rising to the front rank of successful agriculturists in Henry County. No country on earth offers such opportunities as America, and western Missouri seems to be the land of opportunity for the sturdy Americans of foreign birth who have settled in Henry County.
January 31, 1887, Herman Schmidt and Miss Emma Gaupp were united in marriage. To this marriage have been born children as follows: Otto, born November 17, 1887, married Lizzie, daughter of August Hoppe, and has two children, Ruth, aged six, and Clyde, aged two years; Roy, born August 3, 1895, married Cecil, daughter of Al Rhoads. Mrs. Emma (Gaupp) Schmidt was born January 31, 1866, in Henry County, the daughter of Jacob and Caroline (Cruse) Gaupp, natives of Pennsylvania and Germany, respectively. The Gaupps came to Henry County in 1866. Jacob Gaupp first came to Missouri with his parents in the early fifties and they made a settlement in Gasconade County. When the Civil War broke out he offered his service to the Union and enlisted in a Missouri regiment, serving until the close of the war.
After his marriage at Sedalia, Missouri, Mr. Gaupp came to Clinton township, Henry County, and purchased a farm which served as his home until his death, March 19, 1917, at the age of eighty-four years and five months. Mrs. Caroline Gaupp was born in 1841 and resides in Clinton. There were eight children in the Gaupp family: Mrs. Herman Schmidt; Mrs. Tumecie Bratzler, Clinton; Mrs. Nola Cale, Clinton; Mrs. Cora Minert, Oklahoma; Mrs. Lena Mullins, Kansas City; Jacob and Otto, living in Colorado; Oscar, resides in Clinton.
Mr. Schmidt is a Democrat but has never taken an active part in political matters. He and Mrs. Schmidt and the children are members of the Lutheran Church. When Mr. and Mrs. Schmidt began their married life, all the property they had in the world was two mules, one colt, one sow and seven pigs and one cow with calf. During their first year, they endeavored to pay cash rent for the farm but run $100 in debt, through crop failures. They were forced to borrow money and were compelled to pay fifteen percent, interest on the loans. It required several years of hard work, pinching economy and good financial management to start them on the road to their present prosperous situation. They are an intelligent, refined and agreeable couple who are proud of their family and love their home, which they have actually created from the very beginning.
John W. Morgan, a well-known farmer of Honey Creek township, is a member of a Henry County pioneer family. He was born on the place where he now resides, in 1864. His parents were Reuben and Amanda J. (Addison) Morgan, both natives of Kentucky. They came to Henry County in 1862, although the father had purchased land here in 1859. At one time, he owned 420 acres. He died in 1908. His wife preceded him in death a number of years, having departed this life in 1884. They were frugal and industrious people and did their part nobly and well in the opening up and development of this section and laying the foundation for the present and future greatness of Henry County. They were the parents of the following children: James, deceased; John W., the subject of this sketch; and R. M., a farmer and stock raiser who occupies a part of the old home farm in Honey Creek township.
John W. Morgan received his education in the district schools and has made farming and stock raising the chief occupation of his life. He has always resided on the old home place which his father purchased upon settling in Honey Creek township; he has a good farm of 110 acres, which is located on Big Creek, six miles east of Urich.
Mr. Morgan was married in May, 1903, to Miss Amanda Belle Hendricks, a daughter of James and Mary Hendricks. The father was born in Henry County and now resides in Big Creek township. The mother died in 1901. The following children have been born to them: Charles, John, James, Lizzie, Martha and Sarah, Millie Hendrick.
Mr. Morgan has seen over half a century of development in Henry County and few, if any, of the later generation have any conception of the marvelous changes that have been brought about within the scope of his memory and observation. He has seen Henry County grow up, and as an industrious, conscientious citizen and a good neighbor he has contributed his part to the up-building of his township and county.
