Kathryn.
Arthur D. Davidson, the oldest, was born in Worth County, Missouri,
July 30, 1873, and died August 18, 1905, at the age of thirty-two. His
boyhood days were spent in Missouri and Kansas, and in the latter state
he attended high school and at the age of twenty took a commercial
course in a Denver business college, graduating, and then returning to
Hoxie, Kansas, and was employed for two or three years as bookkeeper
in a bank, finally went to Oklahoma and was manager of a company
store at that place, and the last year of his life was spent as cashier of a
bank in Oklahoma. Phebe E. Davidson, who is the wife of Russell Green,
of Midfields, Texas, was born in Worth County, spent her early life there,
attended school at Hoxie, Kansas, and at Omaha, and after graduating
from the normal school at Emporia, Kansas, engaged in teaching until
her marriage. Chase E. Davidson, who is now a merchant at Worth and
married Lucy Wilson, spent his boyhod days in Missouri and Kansas,
attended a Kansas high school, later acquired a commercial training, and
after returning to Worth was employed for a time as manager of a
lumber company and finally engaged in the hardware trade. The son
William C. Davidson is now a civil engineer with R. J. Windrow, of
Waco, Texas, engaged in the building of public highways. He was
HISTORY OF NORTHWEST 'MISSOURI 1419
graduated from the University of Missouri in 1905 in the civil engineer-
ing course, took post-graduate studies in the same department, and was
an instructor in the engineering department and was finally offered an
assistant professorship. For two years he was connected with the office
of the state highway engineer at Columbia (as deputy highway engineer)
and from there went to Fort Worth, engaged in highway construction,
and finally to Waco. The daughter Grace L. Davidson was born in
Missouri, graduated from the Hoxie High School in Kansas, attended
the Emporia Normal School, and for several years was a successful
teacher. September 10, 1914, she married Mr. M. P. Hudson, of Grant
City, Missouri. Frank L. Davidson, also a native of Missouri, received
his education in Kansas and Missouri, graduating from the commercial
college at St. Joseph, and is now identified with farming and stock
raising. Elmer S. graduated from the St. Joseph Veterinary College
and is now engaged in his profession and also in farming. Muriel David-
son, who is now the wife of Fred Burnham, of Jourdanton, Texas, was
born in Kansas, graduated from the Grant City High School, attended
the normal at Warrensburg, Missouri, and after her return home taught
school until her marriage. The youngest child, Kathryn, was born in
Kansas, is a graduate of the Grand City High School, attended Chris-
tian College at Columbia, and is now at home. The sons Frank L. and
William C. are both members of the Masonic order, while Elmer and
Chase are affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. The
daughters, Phebe E., Grace L., Muriel and Kathryn, are members of the
Eastern Star.
D. Harfield Davis. One of the builders of Gallatin from the time
it was a village sixty years ago, D. Harfield Davis is best known as a
successful druggist, and has sold goods to a widening circle of patronage
in this locality for nearly six decades. A merchant who stays in one
community and succeeds through such a period of time necessarily pos-
sesses the best qualities of the business man — integrity, a settled policy
of square dealing, and the ability to win and keep the confidence of his
custom. The "good will" of such an establishment as the D. H. Davis
Drug Company is worth more than capital and stock of many concerns.
Along with the responsibilities of private business affairs, Mr. Davis has
borne many of the burdens of citizenship and in the early days held such
important offices as county treasurer and postmaster at Gallatin.
D. Harfield Davis was born in Clark County, Virginia, one mile from
the famous Lord Fairfax estate and near the city of Winchester, April
26, 1836. His parents were Baalis and Eliza (Timberlake) Davis, both
natives of Virginia, where the mother died. The Davis family is of
English and Welsh extraction. Baalis Davis was a merchant in Vir-
ginia and in 1855, accompanied by his son, D. Harfield, came out to
Missouri. There are comparatively few men still living who have an
accurate recollection of conditions in this state sixty years ago. All of
Northwest Missouri was then isolated from railway communication and
the only methods of transportation were by river and by the crude over-
land wagon or horseback travel. In leaving Virginia the father and
son traveled along the old Baltimore & Ohio Railway, the pioneer line,
as far as Wheeling, West Virginia, and there embarked on a river boat,
descending the Ohio River to Louisville, thence to St. Louis, and came
up the Missouri by boat as far as the old river port of Waverly. At
that point The New Lucy, on which they had traveled from St. Louis,
lost her rudder and the rest of the trip to Gallatin was made with horse
and wagon. On reaching Gallatin Baalis Davis and his son, D. Harfield,
engaged in the drug trade, and with that line the son has been almost
1420 HISTORY 'OP NORTHWEST MISSOURI
continuously identified every subsequent year. Such a record in mer-
chandising is rare in Missouri.
In 1855, when they arrived, Gallatin had less than three hundred
population, had one brick house and three stores. The entire county had
only one other center of population boasting a name, and the inhabitants
were very thinly scattered over this section. Most of the land was still
owned by the Government. There were as yet no railroads, and Daviess
County had no railroad, properly speaking, until 1878. About the time of
the Civil war the old Hannibal & St. Joseph Railway was constructed
across the northern part of the state, but that was some twenty miles
or more south of Gallatin. In the early days all goods brought to Galla-
tin were hauled in wagons drawn by oxen from Camden, on the Missouri
River, a distance of seventy-five miles.
In politics Mr. Davis has been a democrat, with continuous affiliation
through nearly fifteen presidential campaign periods. While his party
allegiance has been the same in fundamental principles, Mr. Davis was
always a strong Union man and a supporter of the Federal Government
during the time before, and during and after the Civil war, when differ-
ences of opinion were very marked in this locality. During the war Mr.
Davis served as treasurer of Daviess County. At one time more than
forty-six thousand dollars were in his keeping. A report came to him
that bushwhackers were liable to make a raid on the town at any time,
and in anticipation of such a raid he took the money from the treasurer's
vault and concealed it in the county jail, where it remained until all
danger had passed. It is interesting to recall the times of Mr. Davis'
service as postmaster of Gallatin. His first commission in that office
was given by President Buchanan, who, it will be remembered, was
elected President in 1856. During Lincoln's term Mr. Davis was con-
tinued in office, and also held office for a part of Grant's administration.
Mr. Davis was a member of the first Gallatin Common Council and
for many years served as a member of that body and also of the school
board. Another means of important service to the community was his
purchase in 1869 of the local newspaper known as the Torchlight, the
name of which he changed to the Gallatin Democrat. That journal is
now one of the oldest publications in Northwest Missouri, has been con-
tinuously under the name of the Democrat for forty-five years, and is
perhaps as widely read and as influential as any weekly paper in North-
west Missouri. Mr. Davis conducted the paper for three or four years,
and then sold it and returned to the drug trade, with which he has been
identified to the present time. His company is now the D. H. Davis
Drug Company, but its management he has turned over practically to
others.
There is no merchant in Daviess County who has so long continuously
been identified with business as Mr. Davis. His business record covers
fifty-nine years, and his acquaintance is probably more extensive than
that of any other man living in the county. He knows not only the
greater part of the people, both young and old, who are now active, but
his recollections teem with memories of men and women long since called
to their reward and who were conspicuous actors in the early days.
Practically every important change in the transformation of this country â–
from a wilderness has been witnessed by Mr. Davis, and he may properly
be referred to as one of the human landmarks of the county. Mr. Davis
is a bank director and owns considerable real estate in Gallatin.
In 1858 Mr. Davis married Miss America Osborne, of Gallatin, a
native of Covington, Indiana. She came to Daviess County, Missouri,
with her father, Jesse Osborne, who was one of the pioneers. The five
HISTORY OF NORTHWEST MISSOURI 1421
children of Mr. and Mrs. Davis were: Robert and William, now
deceased ; Madora, Frank and Virgie.
John C. Leopard. When the institutions of law and order were all
fresh and new in Daviess County, the name Le*opard became identified
with the local bar at Gallatin, and for practically sixty years the name
has been associated with the best ability and achievements of the profes-
sion. Father and son, the men of this name have practiced law, and
during his time the older Leopard was considered from many quarters
to be the ablest legal figure in this part of the state. The present John
C. Leopard has spent all his life in Gallatin, and for many years has
represented the best in his profession, both so far as private success and
accomplishment in the broader fields of citizenship are concerned.
John C. Leopard was born in Gallatin July 20, 1862, a son of John
A. and Caroline (Cravens) Leopard. His father was born in Morgan
County, Virginia, December 25, 1828, a son of Jacob Leopard, who spent
all his life as a Virginia farmer. John A. Leopard died at Gallatin July
30, 1905. Caroline Cravens was born in Rockingham County, Virginia,
November 24, 1824, and died at Gallatin February 13, 1913. Both
branches, both the Leopards and Cravens, were people of foremost ability
and of distinguished influence in Northwest Missouri.
The late John A. Leopard was graduated in law from Princeton
University in 1850 and was one of the few college-bred men in the
ranks of the early bar in Missouri. For two years following his gradua-
tion he was associated professionally with a member of the Schley family,
related to Admiral Schley, at Frederickstown, Maryland. In 1852 John
A. Leopard set out for the West, having chosen Missouri as the state in
which he would gain the honors and perform the services connected with
his profession. By river boat chiefly he made his way to Lexington,
Missouri, and thence crossed the country to Gallatin, which was then a
small village chiefly conspicuous as a county seat, He established a law
practice in the same year and followed his profession very actively
until after the war. He finally retired to a tract of land two and a
half miles northeast of Gallatin, built a log house in the woods, improved
the land and continued to live there until his death.
Fortunately it is not necessary to dismiss the character and career of
this pioneer lawyer without a more adequate recognition of his attain-
ments. At the time of his death in 1905 many tributes were paid to
his memory by old friends and associates, and one that perhaps best esti-
mates his position as a lawyer and his general character was that con-
tained in a letter written by Judge H. C. McDougal of Kansas City, but
formerly probate judge and one of the distinguished lawyers of Gallatin,
and the essential paragraphs of this communication to the son of the late
Mr. Leopard are herewith quoted :
' ' The beautiful and touching tribute to his memory by his old friend
and mine, D. Harfield Davis, printed in the Gallatin papers, inadvert-
ently omitted the mention of your father's splendid scholarship, iron
logic and rare powers as an eloquent, forceful, persuasive speaker before
courts, juries and people.
"When I came West and located in Gallatin nearly forty years ago,
John A. Leopard was the ripest scholar, the widest, deepest, and best read
member of the North Missouri bar. His diction, whether in private talk
or speech, was always couched in- strongest and clearest English, while
his iron logic in its irresistible force and power was like unto that of
John C. Calhoun. Then there was a musically rhythmic ring and swing
to his lofty eloquence and pathos, his classical and poetical reference, that
charmed every thoughtful listener.
1422 HISTORY OF NORTHWEST MISSOURI
"I have since heard many able lawyers, in many courts, but have
always believed that the most pleasing, eloquent and instructive law
argument to which I ever listened was one made by your father in a
land case before Judge Robert L. Dodge, then presiding in the old
Common Pleas Court at Gallatin, back in '69. To me the marvel of it all
was that his subject was that dryest of all dry legal questions, 'covenants
running with the land,' and I do not yet understand how his wisdom,
learning and logic enabled him to make so much out of it, but I can
never forget the effect of that argument on court and bar.
"The last public address I heard your father deliver was on the
4th of July, '71, in front of the old court house at Gallatin. The bitter-
ness of the Civil war still rankled in the hearts of the people, but by his
charming personality, musical eloquence and fervent, patriotic appeal
for peace and good will, he won the hearts of all and made each hearer
feel that he was a better citizen. Soon after this he retired from the
activities of life, quit the town, went to the farm and there amid the
quiet of the home and family, the books, the magazines, the woods, flowers
and birds he loved so well, like the sage and philosopher that he was,
he calmly and fearlessly awaited the closing scene.
"His heart and his manners were as simple and unaffected as those
of a little child, yet he was a most unconscious and unambitious intellec-
tual giant whose like has seldom come to gladden the soul and brighten
the pathway of his friends."
In September, 1854, the late John A. Leopard married Caroline
Cravens. She was a daughter of Dr. John and Ruhama (Douden)
Cravens, both natives of Virginia, where they were married. From
Virginia they emigrated with their eight children in 1836 to the Far
"West. In a covered wagon they arrived in Saline County, Missouri, in
the vicinity of Marshall, and Doctor Cravens lived there for two years,
farming and practicing medicine. In 1838 he brought his family to
Daviess County and entered land formerly occupied by the Mormons,
2!/2 miles northwest of Gallatin, in the beautiful Grand River
Valley. A part of that land is still owned by his descendants. It was
then a wilderness, a scene of great natural beauty, with wild game in
the woods in superabundance, and with Indians still common and familiar
visitors. Doctor Cravens lived at a little locality where he established
a village known as Cravensville. He was the prominent figure there,
and in the early days Cravensville was a rival with Gallatin for the
honors of the county seat. The question was settled in favor of Gallatin,
and Cravensville has long been only a memory. In 1850 Doctor Cravens
himself moved to Gallatin, and built there the first brick dwelling, and the
only one in the little village for several years. That house stood on the
corner where the Farmers Exchange Bank is now located. Doctor
Cravens practiced medicine until the close of the Civil war and then
moved to a farm north of town, where his son, E. H. Cravens, now lives,
and resided there until his death in March, 1882. His wife died in
November of the same year. Doctor Cravens was a whig in politics and
active as long as that party existed. During the '40s he served as a
member of the Daviess County Court.
John C. Leopard was fifth in a family of seven children. Oscar is
now deceased, also Frank B., while Charles W. and Holmes D. are both
bachelors living on the old home farm, and two died in infancy. John
C Leopard received his early education in the country and in the Galla-
tin schools and for three years was a student in the Normal College at
Kirksville. Under the distinguished direction of his father he took up
the study of law, and in 1883 continued his studies with J. F. Hicklin.
In October, 1885, he was admitted to practice after examination before
HISTORY OF NORTHWEST MISSOURI 1423
a committee appointed by the judge of the local courts, and in 1886
entered a law office at Pattonsburg. Mr. Leopard practiced with growing
success at Pattonsburg for ten years, and in 1896 his election to the office
of prosecuting attorney of Daviess County caused him to remove to
Gallatin, where he has since lived and practiced. He was reelected
prosecuting attorney in 1898 and again in 1902 and served three terms.
From 1908 to 1912 he gave a capable administration of the office of mayor
of Gallatin, through two terms. In politics he has always been aligned
with the democratic party. Mr. Leopard is affiliated with the Independ-
ent Order of Odd Fellows and is a member of the Gallatin Commercial
Club.
On December 10, 1891, Mr. Leopard married Miss Mary E. May, of
Pattonsburg, a daughter of Gabe May. Mr. and Mrs. Leopard have
two children : Buel is now a teacher in the Jamesport High School, and
Dean, who completed the classical course at the University of Missouri,
is now in his second year in the law department of the State University,
and has stood at the head of his class each year and is one of the edi-
torial staff of the Missouri University Law Bulletin.
Wesley L. Robertson. In Daviess County not to know "Wes"
Robertson, the able and popular editor of the Gallatin Democrat, is
virtually to argue one's self unknown. Mr. Robertson has been identified
with the newspaper business from his boyhood days, when he gained
admission to the fraternity through dignified and indulgently arbitrary
incumbency of the exalted post of "printer's devil," in which capacity
he doubtless manifested the usual independence and unconscious malevo-
lence ever associated with the office. He is familiar with all practical and
executive details of the business and as a publisher and editor has been
concerned with the issuing of newspapers in various Missouri towns and
cities, and few representatives of the "art preservative" have a wider
acquaintanceship in this state. Mr. Robertson has been engaged in the
newspaper business for more than forty years and is consistently to be
designated at the present time as one of its most progressive and effective
exponents in Northwest Missouri, the while his attitude is significantly
that of a loyal and public-spirited citizen who is every ready to exploit
local interests and to lend his influence in the support of measures and
enterprises tending to advance the general welfare of the community.
Mr. Robertson is a scion of staunch old American ancestry, and though
his parents were natives of the State of New York he himself claims.
New England, that cradle of much of our national history, as the place
of his nativity. He was born at South Coventry, Tolland County,
Connecticut, on the 30th of June, 1850, and is a son of David and Caro-
line (Mitchell) Robertson. He was but seven years of age at the time
of the death of his father, who was a farmer by vocation, and his early
education was acquired in the country schools of his native state, this
being supplemented by effective individual application and by the disci-
pline of the newspaper office, — a training that has consistently been
termed the equivalent of a liberal education. In 1865, at the age of
fifteen years, Mr. Robertson accompanied his widowed mother on her
removal to Missouri, and after passing one year on a farm in Putnam
County they removed to Centerville, the judicial center of Appanoose
County, Iowa, where, in 1868, Mr. Robertson gained his initial experience
in connection with the mysteries of the "art preservative of all arts"
by assuming the position of "devil" in the office of the Centerville Citi-
zen. He became a skilled compositor and general workman, and in 1872
he gave inception to his independent career as a newspaper editor and
publisher, by purchasing the plant and business of the Princeton
1121 HISTORY OF NORTHWEST MISSOURI
Advance, at Princeton, the county seat of Mercer County, Missouri.
There he remained until 1881, when he sold the business and removed
to Bethany, Harrison County, and became editor and publisher of the
Bethany Broadaxe. In 1881 he disposed of his interests at that place
and purchased the New Century, at Unionville, Putnam County. Of
this property and business he later disposed and in 1886 he established
his residence at Gallatin, Daviess County, where he purchased the Galla-
tin Democrat, of which he continued editor and publisher until 1891,
when he sold out and again indulged his itinerant journalistic proclivi-
ties by removing to Plattsburg, Clinton County, where he appeared as
editor and publisher of the Plattsburg Jeffersonian until 1897, when
another sale and change was made by him. He purchased the "West
Plains Gazette, at the judicial center of Howell County, but only three
weeks later he retired from this association, and in 1898 he returned to
Oallatin, where he formed a partnership with Robert J. Ball, the present
postmaster of this city, and effected the purchase of the Gallatin Demo-
crat, of which he had previously been editor and publisher, as already
noted in this context. With this paper he has since been identified as
editor and publisher and he has brought the same up to high standard
as an exponent of the interests of the city and county and of the prin-
ciples of the democratic party, of which he has long been a prominent
and influential representative in Missouri, each of the papers with which
he has been identified having been published at a county seat, and no
publisher of weekly newspapers in the state having been more zealous
in the effective advocacy of the party cause. The Gallatin Democrat is
one of the leading organs of the party in Northwest Missouri, is modern
in letterpress and general makeup, is ably edited and receives a consistent
advertising patronage, the value of which is fortified by its circulation,
which is now fully three thousand copies. The news and job departments
of the plant have an excellent and up-to-date equipment, including a
recently installed typesetting machine, and the business has been made
distinctly prosperous and profitable under the able management of Mr.
Robertson, whose personal success and advancement have been won
entirely through his own ability and efforts, as he has been dependent
upon his own resources from boyhood. In this connection it should be
noted that his mother passed the closing years of her life at Centerville,
Iowa, and was about sixty years of age when she was summoned to
•eternal rest.
Mr. Robertson has been an appreciative and valued member of the
Missouri State Historical Society from the time of its organization and
is at the present time a member of its executive committee. He is
specially prominent and popular among the representatives of the news-
paper fraternity in his home state, this being indicated by his service as
president of the Northwest Missouri Press Association and as president
of the Missouri Press Association, in each of which bodies he is still an
active and influential figure. For five years Mr. Robertson was secretary
of the Missouri State Board of Charities, as a member of which he was
appointed by Governor A. M. Dockery. He is sincere, earnest, broad-
minded and genial, resolute in the upholding of his convictions, and
tolerant in his judgment, so that he naturally has gained and retained a
host of friends in the state that has so long represented his home. Mr.
Robertson is a prominent member of the Gallatin Commercial Club, is
affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and both he and
his wife hold membership in the Methodist Episcopal Church South.
In 1872 Mr. Robertson wedded Miss Martha Mitchell, who died in
1880. They became the parents of three sons, one of whom died in
infancy; Albert M. is editor of the Capital Democrat, at Tishomingo,
HISTORY OF NORTHWEST MISSOURI 1425