CHAPTER XXVII (Part 40)
BIOGRAPHICAL
Frank White - The accomplishment of Frank White, owner of 550 acres of land in Clinton township, Henry County, is worthy of commendation and emulation. Since the time he attained the age of sixteen years, Mr. White has been doing for himself, and he began his career in this county as farm hand working by the month. Carefully saving his earnings, he made his first investment in farm land in the nineties and has continued to buy land until he has become one of the large land owners of Henry County. Upon his farm of 550 acres are three sets of improvements.
Mr. White was born in Indiana in 1865. He is the son of Eli and Mary (Thompson) White, who were pioneer settlers of Henry County.
Eli White was born in Ohio in 1827 and died in 1880. He was the son of Henry White, a native of Pennsylvania who came to Henry County via the overland route in the early forties and entered the land where Emery Martin now resides. He was among the first pioneers of the county and was a great hunter in his day. Eli White was a crack rifleman and killed many deer in drives which the hunters made in the early days. He operated a saw mill for the convenience of his neighbors and erected the first school building in the Glenwood district. He entered the land where his son Walter now lives, erected a cabin thereon and made this place his home until the breaking out of the Civil War, when he took his family back to Indiana by wagon and remained there until after the close of the war. He was a Union soldier and served over three months in the Union Army. The wife of Eli White was, prior to her marriage, Mary E. Thompson. She was born in Ohio in 1833 and was a daughter of Robert Thompson, who came to Henry County in 1849.
There were four children born to Eli and Mary White; Mrs. Lillie Finances Gill, St. Clair County, Missouri; Walter, living in Bear Creek township; Frank, subject of this sketch; Mrs. Nellie Barnes, living in Montana.
Eli White was one of the "forty-niners" who made the long and dangerous trip to the gold fields of California in 1849, and he remained there for some years, engaged in mining. Robert Thompson organized the first Sunday school ever held in Bear Creek township. Mary E. (Thompson) White died in 1906.
Frank White, of this review, was married March 13, 1887, to Miss Zilpha H. Adkins, who was born December 25, 1868, in Clinton township, the daughter of Henry G. and Zilpha Jane Adkins, concerning whom the reader is referred to the sketch of C. M. Adkins in this volume. Eight children were born to this marriage: Alpha Adkins, a graduate of the Clinton High School and the Warrensburg Normal College, and who taught one term of school; Clara May, died in childhood; James Joseph B., married Anna Marolf and has one child, Mary Pauline; William A., formerly at home with his father, now a private in the National Army; Bernice Ellen, Alia Adair and Eleanor Lucille, at home. The mother departed this life June 6, 1910. She was a woman of high and noble character, a devoted wife and a kind mother. She was a member of the Clinton Methodist Episcopal Church and took a great interest in church work when the family resided in Clinton for six years. She died while the family were living in Clinton and Mr. White and the children then returned to the farm. Mr. White is a Democrat, but he takes little active interest in political matters other than to cast his vote.
James A. Moyer - For over sixty years James A. Moyer, pioneer farmer of Clinton township, has resided on his homestead and has improved his farm from prairie and wilderness into a rich and productive country estate. During this long period he has seen a great county and State in the making and has witnessed all of the wonderful changes that have taken place in this western country. "Uncle Jim," as he is affectionately known, has likewise improved with time and has kept pace with this great development. He was born in Illinois December 25, 1841, and is the son of Frederick and Polly (Hall) Moyer, natives of North Carolina and Virginia, respectively.
Frederick Moyer was born in 1794 and died in 1856. He was the son of John Moyer, who was of North Carolina German stock. Polly Hall was born near Jamestown, Virginia, and was the daughter of a Revolutionary soldier who served seven years in the Army of Independence. Frederick Moyer was a pioneer in Edgar County, Illinois, and his father settled on Tiger Creek in Pike County, Illinois. Frederick Moyer died in Illinois and after his death the widowed mother and family came to Missouri in 1858. While the war was raging she took her family and returned to the home folks in Illinois. She was accidentally killed by a threshing machine in 1863.
James A. Moyer migrated to Missouri in 1858 and first settled upon a rented farm and lived in a small log cabin which the previous owner had erected. He eventually settled on the Levy place, which had been entered from the Government by his brother, John S. Moyer, who returned to Illinois in August, 1861, and came back to Henry County in 1865. James A. returned to Henry County, Missouri, in 1866 and settled upon his present home place in 1867. During the many years in which Mr. Moyer has resided on his place he has constantly been improving it in different ways. A fine growing orchard planted in 1905 is his special pride. Mr. Moyer's farm embraces 300 acres in all.
July 21, 1867, he was united in marriage with Miss Margaret A. Flecker, who was born in Augusta County, Virginia, June 22, 1845. The history of the Flecker family and an account of the parents of Mrs. Margaret Moyer appears in the sketch of James F. Flecker in this volume. Six children were born of this marriage, three of whom are living: Hattie, wife of W. Scott Mitchell, a sketch of whom appears in this volume; Mrs. Grace Ringo, living in Oklahoma, mother of two children, Caroline and Eugene; Mrs. Viola Romine, Clinton, Missouri, mother of one child, Frank Romine.
Mr. Moyer is a pronounced Democrat and has firmly and consistently supported the Democratic party since attaining his majority. He is a well preserved gentleman for his age, but has turned much of the farm work over to younger heads who are tilling his acreage for him.
Walter Scott Mitchell - For half a century the Mitchell family have been prominently identified with the history of Henry County. Walter Scott Mitchell, prosperous and progressive farmer and stockman of Clinton township, is one of the best known citizens of the county. He was born in Perry County, Ohio, not far from the city of Zanesville, in June, 1867, and is the son of John and Eliza (Evans) Mitchell, the latter of whom is a daughter of one of the oldest pioneer women of western Missouri, now being past ninety-two years of age.
John Mitchell was born in Perry County, Ohio, and was the son of George Mitchell. Both father and son came to Henry County in search of homes in 1868, the former settling two miles north of Clinton on what is known as the Keck farm. John Mitchell resided in Henry County on his farm near Clinton until 1879, when he located in St. Clair County, dying there in 1882. He was father of six children: Walter Scott, subject of this sketch; Charles H., Kansas City, Missouri; Edward, deceased; Frank, Cedar Rapids, Iowa; George, Brownington, Missouri; Lee, a butcher of Deepwater, Missouri. The mother of these children is seventy years of age and resides in Deepwater. Her mother is Mrs. Lovina (Evans) Hopkins, who resides in Deepwater, Missouri and is well past the age of ninety-two years.
W. Scott Mitchell was reared and educated in Henry and St. Clair Counties and he returned to Henry County after the death of his father in 1882. He first located near Deepwater and purchased his first land in Clinton township in 1914. Mr. Mitchell is owner of 180 acres of land but is farming a total of 230 acres, a part of the Moyer land being in his charge. He erected a handsome farm home in 1917 which is located on one of the main highways leading directly north to Clinton, but a few miles distant.
In 1890, Mr. Mitchell was married to Miss Hattie Lee Moyer, a daughter of James A. Moyer, pioneer settler of Clinton township, a biography of whom appears in this volume of Henry County history. The following children have been born of this marriage: John Arthur, is now a private in the National Army, stationed at Camp Fremont, California; Violet, wife of Henry Braun, mother of one child, Mildred; Uel Francis, named in honor of the author of this history, at home with his parents; Ora Lee, Margaret E., Wade Sherman or W. S., Jr., at home.
Mr. Mitchell is a thorough Democrat who has generally taken an active part in Henry County political affairs and is now serving as county judge. He and Mrs. Mitchell and the four oldest children are members of the Baptist Church.
