CHAPTER XXVII (Part 34)
BIOGRAPHICAL
L. E. Grant, retired merchant and live stock dealer of Deepwater, Missouri, was born in Knox County, Missouri, July 25, 1855. He is the son of Samuel Russell, born in 1818 and died in 1871, and Elizabeth (Sharp) Grant. His father was a native of Zanesville, Ohio, and was a son of Samuel F. Grant, a native of Ohio. Mrs. Elizabeth Grant was born in Kentucky June 27, 1818, and died in September, 1910, and her parents were early settlers of Knox County, Missouri, where Samuel Russell Grant removed in 1831. They were married in that county, settled permanently upon a farm and spent the remainder of their lives in agricultural pursuits. Samuel R. and Elizabeth Grant reared a family of six children: Samuel R., deceased; G. W. Grant, Tulsa, Oklahoma; Abram S., Seattle, Washington; Mrs. Sarah Maria Hicks, Pleasanton, Kansas; Mrs. Margaret Malvila Bryant, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; L. E. Grant, subject of this review.
Born, reared and educated in Knox County, Missouri, L. E. Grant resided there until 1885, when opportunity beckoned to him and he came to Deepwater, Missouri, and engaged in business pursuits in which he achieved more than ordinary success. For a period of twenty-one years, he was engaged in the grocery and hardware business in that city and became well and favorably known throughout Henry County as a reliable and able business man. From his boyhood days, he had always been interested in live stock and is an excellent judge of farm animals. Along with his other business, he has been engaged in the buying and shipping of live stock and probably holds the record as a livestock shipper in Henry County in the number of livestock he has bought and shipped from this section. Mr. Grant's shipments from Deepwater would aggregate from 100 to 150 carloads of stock yearly and his dealings with the live stock raisers were so fair and honest that he was kept busily employed in taking care of the business. He retired from active business pursuits in 1917, but is looking after his farm of 290 acres, situated within two and a half miles of Deepwater, and he is also owner of another farm located five miles south of Deepwater in St. Clair County.
February 9, 1881, L. E. Grant was united in marriage with Miss Martha Gorman (born June 17, 1852, died January 7, 1915), a native of Darksville, Berkeley County, Virginia, a daughter of Edwin and Matilda (Vyse) Gorman, the former of whom was a native of Ireland and the latter of Virginia. Edwin Gorman came to America with his parents when a child. The Germans moved to Edina, Knox County, Missouri, from Virginia in 1857. Mrs. Grant was a true and faithful wife to her husband, devoted to her family, a kind mother to her children and a worthy helpmeet in every sense the word implies. She was an inspiration to her husband during the many years of their married life. She became a member of the Methodist Church, South, when but a child, and was a devout Christian woman whose activities and interests outside of her home were mainly in religious works.
Three children were born to L. E. and Martha Grant, as follows: Russell Lee and Mary Leta, twins, and L. Elmer, Jr. Russell Lee Grant is a successful real estate operator at Tulsa, Oklahoma. Miss Mary Leta Grant is her father's housekeeper in Deepwater. L. Elmer, Jr., is engaged in the real estate business with his brother at Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Mr. Grant has always been a worker in the ranks of the Democratic party in Henry County and has served as treasurer of his home city. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows of Deepwater and the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks of Clinton. He is a well preserved, genial, hospitable citizen who is well iiked and highly esteemed by his many friends and acquaintances throughout Henry County.
Rev. William Perry Armstrong - "Hollyhock Place." - Unselfish devotion to duty and the cause of humanity has characterized the lives of the late William Perry Armstrong and his devoted wife, Mrs. Laura Avery Armstrong. Their beautiful suburban place in the northern part of the city of Clinton is noted the country over as "Hollyhock Place," because of the profusion of hollyhocks and flowers of all kinds which are blooming during the spring, summer and autumn. It is one of the show places of Henry County and western Missouri, and Mrs. Armstrong devotes the greater part of her spare time to caring for her flowers just to see them grow and have plenty for her friends.
Rev. William Perry Armstrong was a real man among men whose work as a minister of the Gospel, in a religious and constructive sense, will endure for all time to come. He was revered and respected by all who came in contact with him, and he was widely known throughout this section of the Middle West as an unselfish and devoted laborer in the vineyard of the Lord. He was born in Warrick County, Indiana, October 29, 1837, the son of William and Mary (Perry) Armstrong, residents of Warrick County. The father of William, the elder, was born in Cork County, Ireland. William P. Armstrong was twice married, his first wife having been Mary Caroline Hartenburg, of Washington County, Indiana, who died in Indiana. One child, Harriet Helen, was born to that union, who died January 29, 1867. Mary Caroline (Armstrong) died February 16, 1868, at Salem Parsonage, Indiana.
Rev. William P. Armstrong's second marriage took place at Evansville, Indiana, November 1, 1876, with Mrs. Laura Avery (Knowles) Von Hiestand, who bore him children as follows: Ellen May, born at Manhattan, Kansas, and is the wife of George A. Taylor of Green street, Clinton, Missouri; William Earl, born November 8, 1883, at Pierce City, Missouri, and died Tuesday, September 22, 1908.
Rev. William Perry Armstrong became a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church when a young man and devoted the greater portion of his life to spreading the Gospel and in religious works of a practical and enduring order. He was not only successful in his profession but achieved a success in a business sense so that during his later years, he was relieved from any dependence upon the church and could devote his time and talents to the building up of small, struggling churches without need or desire of recompense. He followed the ministry, mainly, for the love of the work and not as a necessity. He served in the Evansville, Indiana, Conference until called upon to devote his time to various weak churches in different localities of the West which were in need of a strong, able man to lift church debts, erect new edifices, and place the congregations in a state of financial well being. Several years of his life were devoted to this arduous work and he felt well repaid for his successes as a builder and church financier. He built up a splendid church at Pierce City, Missouri. He came to Clinton, Missouri, in 1881 and built the present Methodist Episcopal Church and at the same time purchased a permanent abiding place consisting of a farm just on the northern edge of the city, embracing 165 acres of valuable land. From Clinton he was called to Springfield, Missouri, where during the second year of his work his health failed and he returned to his home to recuperate. For nine years, after regaining his health, he confined his religious and ministerial activities to purely local work and served the churches of Neosho and Pierce City, Missouri, building the Nevada Methodist Church. He built up many poor churches during his later years of active ministerial work purely for the love of doing good for the cause of Christianity. Rev. William Perry Armstrong departed this life on November 22, 1916, deeply and sincerely mourned by thousands of people who had known and loved him as an upright man of God.
Mrs. Laura Avery (Knowles) Armstrong, widow of Rev. William Perry Armstrong, was born on Catalpa Plantation on the shores of the Tennessee River, Mississippi, and when but a few hours old was taken to Glen Marion Plantation, Arkansas, a beautiful tract which had been cut out of the heart of the forest and transformed into a magnificent country estate by her older brothers. She lived on this plantation until sixteen years of age. Laura Avery Knowles is a daughter of Doctor David and Emily (Avery) Knowles, the latter of whom was a member of the old Avery family of Mystic, Connecticut, which numbers among its members many famous men and women in America. Doctor Knowles was a finely educated physician and was born in Connecticut. After his marriage, he first moved to the Johnson and Bradish plantations, nine miles from New Orleans, where his first six children were born. Later, he moved to Mud City, near Memphis, and then to Glen Marion Plantation.
After the war, he located in Mt. Vernon, Indiana, to be near his children and there built up a miniature Glen Marion in the suburbs of that city. He lived there until old age rendered him helpless and he then removed to the home of his son at Vienna, Illinois, where he died at the age of eighty-seven years. Mrs. Knowles died at the age of eighty-four years. The children of Doctor and Mrs. Knowles are as follows: Ellen, Louisa, Latham, Dudley and Henry, twins; Nancy and Amanda, twins; Emma, Adele, and Laura Avery.
Laura Avery (Knowles) Armstrong was educated by governesses in her father's home in the South and attended a finishing school for young ladies at Henderson, Kentucky. Her first marriage occurred in 1864 and was a romantic character. A house party to which the young gentry of the surrounding country were invited, was being held and she and a young man whom she hardly knew were selected to pose as the bride and groom in a mock wedding ceremony. The young man was De Witt Von Hiestand, the youngest son of a rich planter who was the owner of Adams street in Memphis, Tennessee. After the social event and the performance of the mock wedding ceremony, it was ascertained that the individual who had performed the wedding ceremony was legally authorized to do so on account of being sheriff of the county. This was in 1865, and the newly wedded couple made their home in Memphis until Mr. Von Hiestand's death in 1869. Three children were born of this marriage: Charles, at home with his mother; Elihu, and Hugh, deceased.
While a member of the Evansville Conference, the Rev. Armstrong saw Mrs. Von Hiestand's photograph on the wall of a home in Evansville where he was a guest, while attending the conference meeting and then and there decided and declared that if he ever married again he could be happy with the original of the picture for his wife. Strange to relate, ten years later, when Mrs. Von Hiestand was called to Evansville from her Southern home to attend the burial services of her sister, the twain met, loved at sight, and were married. The marriage was a happy and prosperous one and each was in perfect accord during the many years of their married life.
Mrs. Armstrong has always been active in literary and charitable works and devotes a great part of her time and her income to assisting unfortunate and dependent women who are in need of a sister's or a mother's care. She and Mrs. Delavergne started the first reading room in Clinton, which was the beginning of the present splendid public library. She was the instigator of the first Women's Christian Temperance Union in Henry County and has always been interested in good works of a civic character. Mrs. Armstrong has two grandchildren, Margaret Ellen and Jane Taylor. She has one great grandchild, Merry Christmas, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Walter Christmas of Cleveland, Mississippi. She is a remarkably intelligent and well-read lady who is well preserved for her age. Her beautiful home is filled with curios, and a splendid library through which one could browse for hours and be entertained. Mrs. Armstrong takes a keen interest in every-day affairs and is devoted to her home city.
J. E. Adkins, proprietor of "Violet Vale Farm" in Bear Creek township, Henry County, is making a success as a breeder of Leghorn poultry. The principal output of this farm is eggs and poultry and Mr. Adkins keeps only the purest bred Leghorns. At this writing (April, 1918), Mr. Adkins has a flock of 425 hens, the average egg production of which will exceed twenty-one dozen daily, an output which brings in a substantial income each year. The Adkins farm consists of sixty acres and is well improved with a pretty residence, good buildings and fencing. Mr. Adkins is also engaged in the breeding of Holstein cattle, a department of animal husbandry in which he has just begun.
J. E. Adkins was born June 11,, 1880, on a farm in Clinton township, northeast of La Due, and is the son of H. Burt and Nannie (West) Adkins, natives of Missouri and Kentucky, respectively.
H. B. Adkins, who now lives retired at La Due, Missouri, was born October 8, 1860, in Davis township, Henry County, and is the son of John D. and Eliza (Hutchinson) Adkins. John D. Adkins was the son of John Adkins, a pioneer settler of Henry County. John D. and Eliza Adkins were parents of seven children of whom three are living: Tilden, Kansas City, Missouri; Mrs. Alice May Laver, Joplin, Missouri; and H. B. Adkins.
After the death of John D. Adkins in 1878, his widow married Thomas Botkins, and bore him a daughter, Mrs. Kate Stevens, living near La Due. When he became of age, H. B. Adkins began doing for himself and purchased his first farm in 1883. He is owner of 230 acres of land in Clinton township which he cultivated until his retirement in 1912.
H. B. Adkins was married in 1880 to Miss Anna West, who was born in Kentucky, in February, 1862, the daughter of Felix and Letitia West, who located in Henry County in 1868. To H. B. and Anna Adkins have been born five children: J. Edward, of this review; Mrs. Nettie May Cromer, Fairview township; Archie Lee, died in infancy; Fred, a farmer in Clinton township; Mrs. Pansy May Wilson, on the home place in Clinton township.
J. E. Adkins received his education at Independence district school and began farming on his own account in 1900. For seven years, he operated rented land successfully, and then purchased his present home place of sixty acres. He was married in 1900 to Miss Iva Selby, a daughter of Thomas Selby. Six children have been born of this marriage, three of whom are living: Thora, Vera Glendella and Vernon Glendon (twins), two died in infancy; Retha died at the age of six years.
Mr. Adkins is a Democrat in politics and is a member of the local school board and the County Council of Defense. He and Mrs. Adkins are members of the Baptist Church. He is fraternally connected with the Woodmen of the World, La Due, Missouri.
