CHAPTER XXVII (Part 106)
BIOGRAPHICAL
Elmer O. McCann - A man's life work is the measure of his success, and he is truly successful who has made the most of his opportunities and accomplishes the object of his endeavor. E. 0. McCann is among the leaders of agricultural success in Henry County. He lives on the Clinton-Warrensburg road eleven miles north of Clinton, which is one of the finest highways in the county, made so because of the individual efforts of the men in Shawnee township. Mr. McCann's home is one to be noted in the neighborhood for its beauty. Its owner is one of the leading cattle feeders of Henry County. He owns three hundred twenty acres of land in Shawnee township, one hundred forty acres northwest of his home place, and five hundred sixty acres in Prairie township. Bates County.
Elmer O. McCann was born January 28, 1864, near Decatur, Illinois, the son of John Harvey and Eliza (McKee) McCann. John H. McCann is living on his farm in Shawnee township which he purchased in 1867. He was born in Muskingum County, Ohio, November 4, 1835, the son of Samuel and Caroline (Irvin) McCann, the former a native of Ireland and his father, John McCann, was a native of Scotland and settled in North Ireland. The latter, Caroline McCann, was born in New Jersey of Scotch ancestry. Mr. and Mrs. Samuel McCann established their home in Ohio when it was still overrun with the Indians. They had thirteen children. John Harvey was the second born to them. They died in Ohio.
John Harvey McCann received his education and early training in the rude log cabin school house, where the rod was more in evidence than the books. He received an education beyond the ordinary opportunities of his day and went to Illinois in 1857, where he taught school until 1867, when he came with his family to Henry County and purchased his land from Mr. Kimsey, who had entered the land in 1844. Mr. McCann paid $9.66 an acre for his land and is still making his home upon the soil which sheltered him upon his arrival in Henry County, so many years ago. He was married on September 27, 1857, to Eliza McKee, of Cadiz, Ohio. She died December 2, 1879, leaving four children, as follows: W. Edgar Allen, born in Macon County, Illinois, now lives in Routt County, Colorado; Elmer O., of this sketch; C. R., born in Pettis County, Missouri, a druggist at Eldorado Springs, and Mrs. A. C. Bradford, Mountain View, Missouri.
Mr. McCann's second marriage was with Sarah Galloway, who is now deceased, and also an infant daughter born to them. John McCann was judge of the County Court for two terms in Henry County.
Elmer O. McCann, since his infancy, has lived on Henry County soil and has made a life business of raising and feeding cattle and hogs. December 30, 1897, E. O. McCann and Mattie Culley were united in marriage, and they have two sons: Stanford C, born May 30, 1899, a graduate of Clinton High School and the Warrensburg Normal School, and is at home with his parents, and Elmer O., Jr., born October 8, 1903.
Mrs. Mattie (Culley) McCann was born in Johnson County, the daughter of W. R. and Louisa Caroline (Perry) Culley. Mrs. Culley is a cousin of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, of the battle of Lake Erie fame. W. R. Culley was born in Howard County, Missouri, in 1824 and died in 1899. His wife was born in Tennessee and died in 1891. They had five children, as follows: Mrs. Lizzie Hinston, born 1858, living in Shawnee township, Henry County; Silas Perry, deceased; Mrs. Jennie C. Ridley, whose husband is a rural mail carrier at Chilhowee, Missouri; Mattie McCann, and Oliver, in the service of the United States at Chicago.
Mr. McCann is a Democrat. He is a member of the Modern Woodmen of America of Shawnee Mound, Missouri. He is indeed one of the men who have made the name of Henry County, Missouri, stand for agricultural prosperity because of his individual, painstaking efforts in his line of work.
L. D. Powers - Among the rich agricultural districts of Missouri, Henry County must ever take a prominent place with regard to the importance and values of its farm products. This is due not only to its natural resources, but to the painstaking efforts of its citizens. Among those who have helped in developing this great agricultural county L. D. Powers holds a prominent place. He was born May 8, 1869, on the farm where he now resides, the son of John R. and Clarissa I. (Benson) Powers.
John R. Powers was born in Troy, New York, in 1827 and his wife was born in the same State in 1837. They met and were married in 1867 in Minnesota. In 1868, they settled in Shawnee township, on the farm where they reared their family and spent the greater part of their own life. Mr. Powers was a large land owner, owning over six hundred acres at the time of his death, in 1895. His wife passed away in 1898. They had two children: Linden D., of this sketch, and Mrs. Etta Wolf, of Waukomis, Oklahoma. By a former marriage to a Miss Williams, Mr. Powers had four children, as follows: Charles E., of Lawrence, Kansas; Mrs. Carrie L. Barker, deceased; Erectus, deceased, and Dr. John, of Kansas City, Missouri.
Mr. Powers was reared and educated in the schools of Shawnee township, also attending the University at Columbia, Missouri. After leaving school, he came to his father's farm and has confined his efforts to a successful farming business. Mr. Powers is fanning two hundred forty acres of land, which is well improved with new buildings which he built.
In 1895, L. D. Powers and Mary Alice Eagleson were united in marriage and they have three children: Ralph, Mary Alice and Minnie May, at home with their parents. Mrs. Powers was born in Henry County, the daughter of James and Adaline (Eager) Eagleson. James Eagleson was born in Sherman, Ohio, and settled in Henry County in 1866. He farmed for many years but is now laid to rest. He passed away in 1916. The mother of Mrs. Powers makes her home with her daughter. She had three children, as follows: Mrs. C. H. Kensinger, Rockville, Missouri; Luther, of Shawnee township, Henry County, and Mary Alice, now Mrs. L. D. Powers.
Mr. Powers is township trustee and has served his friends and neighbors for the past three years in that capacity. He belongs to the Masonic Lodge and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks No. 1043, Clinton, Missouri.
David Williamson is a successful breeder of Duroc Jersey hogs and Shorthorn cattle, living in Shawnee township. Mr. Williamson, who for the past twenty years has weeded out the unproductive and worthless cattle in his herd, has by so doing evolved a strain of cattle eligible for registration and made for the advancement of profit and pleasure in their care. Mr. Williamson, who is a native of Washington County, Ohio, was born near Marietta in 1850. His parents were Robert and Catherine (Hosteller) Williamson. They had a family of five children as follows: David, of this sketch; Sarah, living in Oklahoma; Clara, of Morgan County, Missouri; Alice, of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Ida, of Kansas City, Kansas.
Robert Williamson was born in Scotland and came to the United States in early manhood and settled in Ohio, where he met and married Catherine Hosteller, a native of that State. With their young family in 1859, they left their home and friends in Ohio and started out to build for themselves a home in the West. Morgan County, Missouri was their objective, and they came as far as Jefferson City, Missouri, by steamboat. From there they were drawn across country in a rude ox wagon and located near Versailles, Missouri. They reared their family on the farm. Mr. Williamson, when the call came from Lincoln, answered and for two years fought the battles of freedom for a great principle. Mr. and Mrs. Williamson have answered the call of the great reaper and are laid to rest in Mount Carmel Church Cemetery, Morgan County.
David Williamson, a lad of nine upon his arrival in Morgan County, Missouri, remembers the days of struggle necessary to win a livelihood from the soil. After receiving his education and starting in life for himself and chose farming as his vocation. In 1888, he purchased his present farm in Shawnee township, after spending six years as a farm laborer in this locality. He built a house of ten rooms and the necessary farm buildings.
Mr. Williamson was married in 1888 to Miss Elizabeth Sharp, who was born in 1854. Her parents, Joseph and Helen Sharp, who were natives of Scotland, settled in Illinois in 1850. Nine years later, in 1865, the wife and mother died and Mr. Sharp with his family came to Henry County, settling on the farm which his daughter, Mrs. Williamson, now owns. He remained on this farm for a number of years until he went to California and died there. There were three children of the Sharp family: Mrs. Elizabeth Williamson; Frank, of Howell County, Missouri, and Jennie, died in California. Mr. Williamson, for the past twenty years, has been a breeder of the Shorthorn cattle and Duroc Jersey hogs, which are registered and of the highest class stock.
A granary, built of stone over fifty years ago, is still on the Williamson farm. It was originally built by Mr. Sharp, the father of Mrs. Williamson. Mr. and Mrs. Williamson have made their homes in Shawnee township so many years that they have been instrumental in much of the progress of their immediate surroundings, being influential citizens of the community.
S. R. Benson - The family tree of the Benson family has its roots in the earliest history of our Nation, members of which have given their lives to evolve this great democratic Government. S. R. Benson was born in 1844 in Jackson County, Iowa, the son of John and Almeda (Green) Benson. John Benson and his wife were among the pioneers of Iowa, settling upon her broad prairies when men laughed at the mere possibility of it ever being an agricultural country. John Benson was born in 1796 in Cattaraugus County, New York, and his wife was born in Green County, New York, in 1810. Mrs. Almeda Green was the daughter of a Revolutionary soldier who was captured by the British and taken into Canada, a prisoner of war. He effected his escape and crossed the Niagara River back into his own country. For many days, he was dependent upon nature for food, eaitng the berries and bark of the trees. Such privations were endured by the men who fought for liberty.
John and Almeda (Green) Benson are both deceased and are buried in Grundy County, Iowa. They were the parents of twelve children: Ursula, married Edwin Parker in Hardin County, Iowa; Sylvia, wife of J. Linley, Bloomington, Illinois; Matilda, Bloomington, Illinois; Effie Swayne of Harding County, Iowa; Solon F., a banker of Pierson, Iowa; Horace J., lives in Kentucky, and S. R., the subject of this sketch.
S. R. Benson was reared and educated in Delaware County, Iowa, where his parents lived for some time. In 1864, when only a lad of twenty and the fire of adventure burning high within his breast, he left the parental roof to explore the western lands. He crossed the Missouri at Omaha, Nebraska, and followed the Platte river until he reached his destination in Montana. The slow and steady ox team was his conveyance and the stars by night his shelter. S. R. Benson and his brother, Edwin, started on this trip across the plains together. The brother died on the plains and S. R. was left alone. He continued on alone, taking his brother's body with him until he came upon a party of campers who helped him make a rough coffin out of a wagon box and assisted in the burial. Leaving the lone grave of his brother by the side of the trail on the desert, Mr. Benson continued his journey westward until he reached Virginia City, Montana. Four years and eight months later, he returned to Hardin County, Iowa, where he was married to Lucinda Griffith and again they left their home to visit the state of Colorado. His wife died in Colorado, leaving two sons: Lester S. and Charles W., who reside at Stewart, Wyoming. Mr. Benson remained in Colorado until 1884, when he went to Washington County, Kansas, and farmed until in 1903, when he came to Shawnee township, Henry County.
September 29, 1886, S. R. Benson married Mary Catherine Woods, a native of Jewell County, Kansas, and a daughter of Richard and Mary J. Woods, both deceased. Her father died in 1860 in Iowa and her mother, who married Obed Hastings after her first husband died in Jewell County, Kansas. Mr. and Mrs. Benson have two sons: R. H. and Vernon B., both serving in the United States Army in the World War.
Mr. Benson is the owner of four hundred forty acres of well improved land on which he has made wonderful improvements since his possession of same. A portion of his land is farmed by a tenant, who has a new home and buildings built for him. Mr. Benson is a Democrat and one of Henry County's foremost citizens.
