CHAPTER XXVII (Part 16)
BIOGRAPHICAL
Albert Dunning - The oldest pioneer in Fairview township and probably the oldest settler in the southern part of Henry County is Albert Dunning, one of the largest land owners in Henry County, who began his career as a plain farmer after his war service ended, with just three dollars in money. He made his first purchase of land in 1883, when he bought one hundred twenty acres. Mr. Dunning formerly owned 2,100 acres of rich farm land but has been giving land to his children until his ownership now claims but 1,700 acres. Almost in the exact center of his large tract (the home place), he erected a splendid country home of imposing appearance to which he added two rooms in 1893 and again remodeled in 1916. Mr. Dunning leases some of his land, but the greater part of it is cultivated by his sons.
Albert Dunning was born in Trigg County, Kentucky, January 15, 1838, and is the son of Shadrach and Ada (Morris) Dunning, the former of whom was a native of Kentucky and the latter of Virginia. Shadrach and Ada Dunning were married in Kentucky and made their home in the Blue Grass State until 1840, when they left Kentucky and moved to Missouri. Leaving his family at Springfield, Greene County, Missouri, Shadrach Dunning came to Henry County, entered land and then returned for his family, who came here the following year. He died at his home in this county at the age of fifty years.
The following children were born to Shadrach and Ada Dunning: Freeman, deceased; Mrs. Martha Glass and Mrs. Eliza Nichols, deceased; Mrs. Malinda Arnold, aged eighty-eight years, lives in Texas; Mrs. Amanda Reed, aged eighty-six years, lives in North Dakota; John Henry, aged eighty-four years, lives near Carthage, Missouri; Albert, subject of this review; Mrs. Sarah Elizabeth McFarland, lives at Porterville, California, aged seventy-six years.
The original Dunning home was located in Fairview township, just four miles east of Albert Dunning's home place. Shadrach Dunning built a double log cabin, southern style, with two rooms below divided by a passage way, and a sleeping loft above. A big fireplace at the end of each room cheered and comforted the family in the winter time. Shadrach Dunning brought his slaves with him from Kentucky, and one old darkey, "Uncle Ben," was especially favored each Christmas. It was a custom in the family to give the old darkey a holiday as long as the Christmas back log would burn. The old fellow would range the timber and cut the biggest and toughest log he could possibly handle and would be resting easy for days as a consequence of the log burning for a long time. Deer were plentiful in those faraway days and fish swarmed in the streams. When a boy, Albert Dunning had no difficulty in catching one hundred pounds of fish in a day's fishing with hook and line. He has shot deer and wolves without number and frequently caught young wolves and deer and trained them. He recalls that a panther was killed down on the Osage after the brute had terrorized the neighborhood for days.
Indians were numerous and they frequently came to the Dunning home on begging expeditions, but gave little trouble to the white folks. When the Southern States rebelled against the Federal Government, Albert Dunning enlisted in the Southern Army and fought for the cause which he believed with all of his soul to be just and right. He enlisted in 1861 in Company K, 16th Regiment Missouri Infantry and fought at the battles of Lone Jack, Carthage, Oak Hill, near Springfield, Missouri, where he was dismounted. He served in General Price's army and was in the engagements of Cane Hill, Arkansas, and took part in the defeat of General Banks on the Red River. His service extended in all parts of the Southern States and he was severely wounded in the upper left cheek by a shell at the battle of Helena, Arkansas. He was laid up in a hospital for several weeks and during the period of his illness, Uncle Joe Davis came to the camp and took him home, where he could get better treatment. After the close of the war, he came to St. Louis, and thence home by railroad to Sedalia, Missouri, walking to his home in Henry County from that city, almost destitute and with exactly three dollars in his pockets.
After returning from the war, Mr. Dunning lived on the home place of the family until he began for himself. He saved his first money by buying calves, growing them and selling them for good money. In this way, he managed to save enough to buy a piece of land. Since his first purchase, he has continued to buy land and more land and has always been an extensive feeder of livestock.
Mr. Dunning was married October 10, 1880, to Miss Ellen Ann Fudge, who was born July 22, 1863, in Illinois, the daughter of Adam and Martha Fudge, who came to Henry County not many years after the close of the Civil War. The children born to Albert and Ellen Ann Dunning are as follows: Mrs. Martha Strickland, Fairview township, has two children, Albert, aged thirteen years, and Donald, aged five years; John, Fairview township; Albert, a farmer in Fairview township; Shadrach, at home with his father; Lillian, a high school teacher at Areola, Missouri, who was educated in the Warrensburg Normal School; Robert L., Earl and Archie, eleven years, all at home. Robert L. was born January 26, 1895, and is now a private in the National Army, drafted July 22, 1918.
This section of the State was called Rives County during the younger days of Albert Dunning, and it was very thinly settled. Cattle had free range and few people had any idea that the land would ever be valuable and that the country would become so thickly settled. Between the Dunning home and Clinton, the only house was one built by Colonel Tutt, a noted old pioneer. Albert Dunning has seen this entire section of Missouri settled up and where once the deer, wild turkey and other wild game ranged at will there are now fertile farms and prosperous cities and towns. On the State line of Kansas and Missouri, there were herds of buffalo and elk, and each season some of the settlers would journey to Kansas and kill a winter's supply of meat. Albert Dunning is a Democrat and is a member of the Pleasant Valley Baptist Church.
Kindly disposed, at peace with the world and satisfied with his accomplishments as a pioneer of Henry County and the great state of Missouri he is spending his declining years in comfort and east with the knowledge that his work on this earth is done. The verdict of the Recording Angel will undoubtedly be: "Well done, thou good and faithful servant."
R. C. Grigsby - The La Due Hardware Company, operated by R. C. Grigsby, La Due, Missouri, and owned by Mr. Grigsby and H. Welling, is one of the flourishing business concerns of Henry County. The store was established February 17, 1912, when Mr. Grigsby took active charge of it. During the past six years, the business has increased and broadened. A general stock of hardware, oils, paints, agricultural implements, harness, buggies, wagons, etc., is carried and sold to the people of the surrounding country. The firm has the agency of the Buick automobiles. The business is housed in a large business room and two implement rooms which are filled with high grade stock of the best makes.
R. C. Grigsby was born in Licking County, Ohio, November 24, 1869, and is the son of Alfred and Sarah (White) Grigsby, both of whom were natives of Licking County, Ohio. Alfred Grigsby was a son of Harry Grigsby, a native of England. Sarah Grigsby was the daughter of John White, also a native of England. The Grigsby family migrated from Ohio to Missouri in 1870 and located on a farm situated three miles southwest of La Due, in Henry County. Mr. Grigsby hauled the first ties used in the building of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas railway in the neighborhood of La Due. His farm was located in Bear Creek township. He successfully tilled his acreage until old age came upon him and he then removed to California in 1911. His death occurred at the home of his son in that State in 1913. Mrs. Grigsby died in Henry County in 1908.
They were parents of the following children: Mrs. Ella Strieker, deceased; Henry, living in California; Mrs. Lizzie Strieker, residing in California; George, deceased; Nelson, living in California; Mattie, deceased, and R. C., the subject of this sketch.
R. C. Grigsby was ten months old when he came with his parents to Henry County and here he was reared and educated. He attended the Willow Branch school and the Franklin school in his youthful days and received his higher education in the academy at Warsaw, Missouri. Mr. Grigsby qualified for the teaching profession, but took up farming and followed this vocation until 1910. For a period of two and a half years, he was located in California, going to that State in 1906, and being employed in the orchard district as manager and also was engaged in the real estate business for a time. After returning to Henry County, he farmed for one year and then took charge of the hardware business in La Due. Mr. Grigsby disposed of his farm in 1915.
On April 14, 1897, R. C. Grigsby and Miss Nannie E. Reavis of Bear Creek township were united in marriage. Mrs. Grigsby is the daughter of Mrs. Marian (Hunt) Reavis, widow of Edwin Reavis, a pioneer of Bear Creek township. Mr. and Mrs. Grigsby have a son, Cecil, born December 12, 1902.
Mr. Grigsby is aligned with the Democratic party and is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He is affiliated, fraternally, with the Woodmen of the World.
Samuel A. Vansant - For fifty years, Samuel A. Vansant has resided upon his splendid form of 160 acres in Davis township and has prospered as the years have passed. He has reared a fine family of children and he and his faithful wife have lived to celebrate their golden wedding anniversary surrounded by their children and grandchildren. No man is more universally respected and admired for his sterling qualities than this old settler whose first home, when he came to Henry County in September of 1868, was a tent in which he lived until his modest frame house, 16x24 feet in dimension, could be erected. In the year 1883, he erected a nice home of six rooms which is surrounded by cedar and deciduous trees, which have grown during the time of his residence on the place.
Samuel A. Vansant was born in Madison County, Illinois, April 8, 1841. He is a son of Abner B. and Susan (Christ) Vansant, natives of Pennsylvania and Ohio, respectively. Abner B. Vansant was born in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, removed to Zanesville, or Muskingum County, Ohio, and was there married to Susan Christ, who was born in that county. During the early thirties, he removed to Madison County, Illinois, and purchased a farm near Collinsville, which he developed into a fine property. He died in 1856. There were four sons and two daughters in the Vansant family, as follows: Mary Ellen and Elizabeth Ann, deceased; Samuel A, subject of this review; George, deceased; Joel, Cedar County, Missouri; William, Pittsburg, Kansas.
Samuel A. Vansant was reared to young manhood in Madison County, Illinois, and was there married to Elizabeth Boyles on October 16, 1862. Mrs. Elizabeth (Boyles) Vansant was born on July 11, 1842, "and is a daughter of Henry and Sarah (Funderburg) Boyles, who were early settlers of Madison County, Illinois. Mr. Vansant was engaged in farming in Illinois, until 1868, and during that year, he disposed of his Illinois farm with the intention of coming to Missouri, where land was much cheaper and just as productive as the high priced land of his native county.
When he came to Henry County, he was possessed of the snug sum of $3,000, quite a fortune in those days. This amount enabled him to pay half cash for his quarter section at a cost of $8.50 an acre, and erect a comfortable residence on his prairie land. One year later, he succeeded in paying the balance of the money due on the land, and as the years have passed, he has grown prosperous and well contented with his lot in Henry County.
To Mr. and Mrs. Samuel A. Vansant have been born nine children, all of whom have been reared to maturity and useful citizenship: George Franklin, a farmer on Bear Creek township; Mrs. Emma Isabel Barr, died in 1884, leaving two children, one of whom, Howard, is living; Joel Henry, a carpenter and contractor in La Due, Missouri; James A., born August 11, 1869, is operating the home farm and is a director of the Bank of La Due, and is fraternally affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows; Mrs. Bertie Gale Grider, living at Pontiac, Livingston County, Illinois; Thomas, a tanner in Davis township; Arthur, a farmer living in Bear Creek township; Mrs. Mattie Fellhauer, La Due, Missouri; Mrs. Ida Lawson, Clinton, Missouri.
Politically Mr. Vansant is aligned with the Democratic party. He and his family are members of the Christian Church. Fifty-five years have passed since Samuel A. and Sarah Vansant were united in marriage and time has served to mold them into comfortable and respected old age, admired and valued as friends by all who know them. Hospitable to the core, they are ever ready to share with their friends and acquaintances that which they have. This splendid Henry County pioneer couple have twenty-six grandchildren and three great-grandchildren who were gathered at the old home on the occasion of the golden wedding anniversary. May the years to come deal kindly with them and bring them continued prosperity and well-being.
