Oklahoma, and Gay R., who was graduated at the University of Missouri,
is a mechanical engineer by profession and is now in the employ of the
Atlanta Ice & Coal Company, of Atlanta, Georgia. In 1883 was sol-
emnized the marriage of Mr. Robertson to Miss Eppie Davidson, of
Gainesville, Texas. They have no children.

Robert J. Ball. In his rise from the position of ' ' devil " in a print-
ing shop to that of postmaster of Gallatin, Daviess County, to the half-
ownership of the Gallatin Democrat, the presidency of the Commercial
Club of this city, and various other positions of trust and importance,
Robert J. Ball has given a notable illustration of the exercise of American
energy, ability, integrity and superior mental attainments. While it has
been his fortune to be identified with Gallatin during the period of its
greatest growth and development, much of this development has come
as a result of his contributions to its interests. At any rate, he fills a
large and influential place in the community.

Mr. Ball was born at Gallatin, Daviess County, Missouri, May 25,
1873, and is a son of Alonzo Conrad and Elizabeth Frances (Boggs)
Ball, natives of Kentucky. Alonzo Conrad Ball was born March 8, 1823,
at Lexington, Kentucky, and in 1854 came to Missouri, settling in Boone
County, where he resided one year, his advent in Gallatin occurring in
May, 1855. His ancestors on his father's side were of Irish descent,
while his mother was of German descent and bore the maiden name of
Sheeley. Mr. Ball's grandfather, the great-grandfather of Robert J. Ball,
was a Revolutionary soldier, enlisted under Washington in Virginia,,
and General Washington's mother was a Ball and of Irish ancestry.
Alonzo C. Ball was married at Richmond, Kentucky, in 1849, to Elizabeth
Frances Boggs, and the trip to Missouri was made partly by boat and
partly overland. Mr. Ball was a carpenter and contractor, and one of the
first of his vocation to come to Daviess County, his shop for many years
being located on the southwest corner of the square, where the Fitterer
grocery now stands. That he was highly esteemed in the community
in which his home was made for many years is evidenced by a tribute
by one of his friends, which appeared in the newspapers of Gallatin,
and which said, in part, as follows: "Our friend Ball, with the impetu-
osity of the Celtic race and breathing the chivalric air of the blue grass
of Kentucky, could not be anything else than a unique character. Whilst
Mr. Ball has occupied no public positions of trust, in his sphere of action
he has been an independent, fearless character, having ideas and views
of his own, a strong will and inflexible purpose to do and say what he
believes to be right, regardless of all consequences. For us to know a
man we must meet him upon a common plane and get in close com-
munion with him and in touch with his aspirations and trend of mind.
We have known A. C. Ball forty-nine years, always found him to be
frank and outspoken. If a friend, a true one, and always ready to punish
an enemy and had no compromise to make. A typical Kentuckian,
strong in his likes and dislikes." Mr. Ball died May 1, 1908, and inter-
ment was made at the Brown Cemetery, his comrades of Surgeon John
Cravens Camp, U. C. V,, acting as honorary pallbearers. Mrs. Ball
passed away October 19, 1901, having been the mother of nine children,
as follows : Mollie, Sallie, Frank C. and Willie, who are deceased ; John
H., who is engaged in contracting and building at Bridgewater, Massa-
chusetts; Mrs. Lydia Thomas, a resident of Gallatin; Mrs. Maggie B.
Edwards of Quincy, Illinois; L. D., who is proprietor of the hotel at
Trenton, Missouri; and Robert J.

Robert J. Ball received his education in the graded and high schools
of Gallatin and in 1887 entered upon his career as "devil" in the office



1426 HISTORY OF NORTHWEST MISSOURI

of the Gallatin Democrat, of which Wes L. Robertson was owner and
editor. From the time of his first connection with this paper a warm
regard between employer and employe has been maintained. Mr. Ball
rose to be foreman on the paper, then superintendent of the plant, and
in 1898 bought a half-interest. As his partner, Uncle Wes Robertson,
expresses it: "Mr. Ball reached the point in salary where he (Mr.
Robertson) figured it would be better for him to sell a half interest and
let Ball help foot the bills. ' ' With the exception of a short period when
Mr. Robertson was identified with other ventures, the partnership has
continued uninterruptedly to the present.

Long an active worker in democratic politics, in 1913 Mr. Ball was
chosen postmaster of Gallatin by Hon. J. W. Alexander, and since May
1st of that year has ably discharged the duties of that office. His admin-
istration has been marked by much improvement in the service, and he
is proving one of the most efficient and popular officials that Gallatin
has known. For some years Mr. Ball was secretary of the Democratic
County Committee. Fraternally he belongs to the Royal Arch Masons,
the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Modern Woodmen of
America and the Woodmen of the World. He is a member of the
Northwest Missouri Press Association and its first vice president, and in
January. 1915, will become its president by succession. He also holds
membership in the Young Men's Christian Association and the Gallatin
Commercial Club, and in 1914 was appointed president of the latter
organization. The following is quoted from the Gallatin North Missou-
rian, issue of November 19, 1914: ''From the 'devil' in a print shop to
the presidency of the Gallatin Commercial Club. That is what we call
making good, and such was the sentiment of every member of the club
at the 6 :30 luncheon on Tuesday evening, when Robert J. Ball, post-
master and junior editor of the Gallatin Democrat, was chosen the
active head of the Gallatin Commercial Club, succeeding C. M. Harrison.
The committee is to be congratulated upon their selection, as a better
man could not have been chosen. Ball is a live wire, energetic, a tireless
worker and a splendid fellow. The club can rest assured that their
interests will be carefully safeguarded and that the organization will
move along with plenty of the right kind of enthusiasm and spirit. Mr.
Ball is a 'gingery' man and whatever he undertakes he puts 'ginger' into
it and makes it a success. Then, too, he is self made and has come up
the line through his own efforts. ' '

On March 5, 1896, Mr. Ball was married to Miss Theo M. Welden, of
Gallatin, a daughter of C. H. Welden, a pioneer, ex-county official and
prominent citizen of Daviess County. Four children have been born to
Mr. and Mrs. Ball : Marjorie, Eleanor, Robert Welden and Conrad
Luckey. Mr. Ball is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church South.

Too much credit cannot be given to Mr. Ball. He started at the
bottom, without means, and through thrift, intelligence, perseverance and
clean living has risen to a place high in the esteem of his fellow citizens.
It is to such men that the community must look for its further devel-
opment.

John AY. McClaskey. In the spring of 1914 the citizens of Gallatin
chose to the office of mayor a local business man who for upwards of
thirty years had been known for his integrity and energy in pushing his
individual enterprises, and it was on the basis of his thorough fitness for
the office rather than any activity in polities that he was chosen to give
Gallatin a thoroughly businesslike administration of its municipal
affairs. Mayor McClaskey has spent practically all his life in Daviess
County, represents families that were associated with pioneer things in



HISTORY OF NORTHWEST MISSOURI 1427

this locality, and his own career has added some important particulars
to the family record.

John W. McClaskey was born at Auldberry Grove, in Daviess County,
October 4, 1851, a son of Albert and Martha (Koger) McClaskey. Both
his parents were natives of Kentucky. When Daviess County was still
a wilderness, in 1838, there arrived as one of the pioneers James Koger,
grandfather of the Gallatin mayor. He stopped at a place five miles
north of Gallatin, in the midst of the woods, and made entry to and
purchased 160 acres of land from the Government. Then followed the
building of a log house in the midst of the timber, the felling of count-
less trees to make an area for his plow, and gradual improvement along
one line and another until he had perfected a homestead sufficient to
provide all the material wants of the family. James Koger was a good
business man, increased his land holdings, and lived in that locality until
his death about 1859, his wife having died in 1856. The old Koger home-
stead is now owned and occupied by a grandson. All the twelve children
in the Koger family are now deceased except Joseph Koger, of Gallatin,
and Mrs. Martha McClaskey died November 30, 1906. The McClaskey
family has an interesting origin. Two brothers came from Scotland and
crossed from the Atlantic seaboard over the mountains into Kentucky
about the time Daniel Boone led the emigration into the western wilder-
ness. It is believed that nearly all the McClaskeys in America are
descended from either one or the other of these two brothers. Students
of genealogy have come to the conclusion that the original name was
Claskey, who were established in the lowlands of Scotland, and later &
branch of the stock went into the Scotch highlands and in order to dis-
tinguish themselves from the lowlanders took the prefix "Mc" and thus
the American McClaskeys are descended from a highland clan of Scot-
land. It was about 1845 that Albert McClaskey, with his brother, Joseph,
emigrated from Kentucky to Daviess County, Missouri. These McClas-
key brothers were millers rather than farmers, and they added to the
pioneer industry of Daviess County by establishing a sawmill at Auld-
berry, while later Albert operated a mill in Livingston County and lived
there several years. In 1853 he went out to California as a gold seeker,
making the trip overland, and died there about eighteen months after
he left Missouri. Albert McClaskey and Martha Koger were married in
Daviess County, and the latter lived continuously in this county from
the arrival of her parents in 1838 until her death in 1906. The Gallatin
mayor was the second of three children. His sister, Eliza Jane, first
married Mr. Duskin and is now the wife of Joseph Lee, of Gallatin.
His brother is James M. McClaskey, of Gallatin.

John W. McClaskey grew up in the country district of Daviess
County, and has some interesting memories of the first schoolhouses that
he attended. The first temple of learning in which he was a pupil was
a log cabin, at one end of which was a broad fireplace, and at the other
end a log was left out of the wall to admit light and air. The floor was
covered with puncheons, and the boys and girls sat on benches which
were heavy slabs supported by pins driven into the under side. All the
furnishing was crude, and he wrote his first copy lesson with an old-
fashioned quill pen. During his school days and early youth he lived
at home with his mother, who owned a farm, and when not in school was
active in performing the chores and doing the work in the fields and at
planting and harvest times. When he had learned all the local schools
could supply in the way of education, he secured a certificate and took
up the work of teacher, which he followed during the winter seasons,
and continued to lend a hand at the farm during the summers.

Mr. McClaskey established a home of his own by his marriage on



1428 HISTORY OF NORTHWEST MISSOURI

August 22, 1876, to Miss Virginia A. Smith. She was a daughter of
George A. Smith, a resident of West Virginia, and was visiting relatives
in Daviess County when she met and married Mr. McClaskey. After
his marriage Mr. McClaskey began farming as a renter, and for several
years continued to combine the vocations of agriculturist and school
teacher. In 1881 he bought a farm four miles northwest of Gallatin, and
conducted his own place until 1886. In that year he sold out. moved to
Gallatin, and after one year in the lumber business, began buying and
shipping live stock. In 1893 he established a bus and transfer line and
was in that business until 1910. For the past five years Mr. McClaskey
has been in the grain, feed and milling business.

Mrs. McClaskey died September 20, 1888. She was the mother of four
children : Forest D., Holly, Everett C. and Cloris. Holly and Cloris are
now deceased. On January 8, 1909, Mr. McClaskey married Mrs. Fannie
Estis Smith. By this marriage there is a daughter, Martha Y., born in
January, 1910. Mr. McClaskey is a member of the Methodist Church,
while his wife is a Baptist. He has been associated with the Masonic
fraternity since 1883.

While in politics his support has been regularly given to the demo-
cratic party since casting his first vote forty years ago, Mr. McClaskey
has never in any way indicated a desire for office, and it was only at the
solicitation of his many friends that he consented to become a candidate
for mayor, and all citizens have reason for congratulation on his election
for a term of two years.

Samuel Rathbun. Almost a lifelong resident of Caldwell County
and for many years a progressive farmer in Davis Township, Samuel
Rathbun has enjoyed the best elements of success, having acquired a good
home, having given his family the comforts of living and education, and
having steered an honorable and straightforward course throughout his
own career. Mr. Rathbun owns and occupies a fine homestead of 222
acres in Davis Township, and it is land on which he was born, and which
his father entered from the Government, paying 12i/ 2 cents an acre. A
fair valuation of the land at the present time would be over a hundred
dollars an acre. Mr. Rathbun has the distinction of having been born in
a log cabin, and that was the typical home in Caldwell County sixty or
seventy years ago. The log cabin has long since disappeared, and in its
place is now found a handsome modern country home of six rooms, fur-
nished and equipped with taste and comfort. A beautiful lawn, with
shade and evergreen trees and flowers are among the attractive features
which are at once noted by the passing traveler. Other features of the
equipment are commodious barns and sheds, and the farm is divided
between pasture, meadow and grain fields, with thirty acres of good
native timber, furnishing abundance of fuel. It is a model rural home,
and there Mr. Rathbun and his good wife enjoy the comforts of life. As
a farmer he has paid much attention to the raising of high grade hogs
and cattle, and his success illustrates what can be done by the agriculturist
in Northwest Missouri.

Samuel Rathbun was born in Caldwell County, October 20, 1847.
His father. Allen Rathbun, was one of the earliest pioneers, having come
to Caldwell County in 1837, about the time the Mormons were driven out
of this section of Missouri. He took up a tract of Government land, and
the title to that farm has never been changed in name since it was deeded
direct from the Government. Allen Rathbun was born in Cayuga
County, New York, and comes of a family of mingled Scotch and English
descent. Members of the Rathbun family have participated in practically
all the wars of the American nation, beginning with the Indian troubles




MR. AND MRS. SAMUEL RATHBUX AND DAUGHTER. MRS. LULU HUDSON



HISTORY OF NORTHWEST MISSOURI 1429

and in the Revolution, the War of 1812, the Mexican war, and the Civil
war. From New York the family moved to Ohio spent some years there,
where the father of Allen Rathbun died and is buried. Allen Rathbun
married in Ohio for his first wife Mary Ann Edmonds, and the four
children of that union are all now deceased. His second wife was Eliza-
beth Anderson, a woman of much strength and nobility of character,
who became the mother of five children. The. son, John, was a soldier
in the Thirty-third Missouri Infantry, and gave up his life for his country
in 1863, when only eighteen years of age. The daughter, Martha Phillips,
is now deceased. The son, Robert, is also deceased, leaving Samuel the
only survivor. Allen Rathbun was born in 1805 and died on May 17,
1862, and his second wife, Elizabeth, was born in 1819. Allen Rathbun 's
third marriage was to Mary Mann, on August 16, 1855. The one daughter
of this union, Sarah L. Phares, is still living, and twin boys died in
infancy. Allen Rathbun was a man of intelligence and good judgment ;
his word was regarded as sacred as his bond, and in the early community
of Caldwell County, where he lived, he enjoyed the highest esteem of all
who knew him.

Samuel Rathbun grew up on the old homestead, was taught the value
of hard work, and has always been a useful and independent member of
the community. Mr. Rathbun recalls the first school he attended, which
was kept in an old log house, with slab benches, a puncheon floor, and a
fireplace at one end. There he received instruction in the three R's,
and has since advanced his education by generous reading and by dealings
with men and affairs. Mr. Rathbun has been frequently honored with
positions of trust and responsibility in his community, and served for
several years as a justice of the peace and kept a court before which all
men were equal and treated with absolute impartiality and fairness. In
1866 Mr. Rathbun left Caldwell County and spent a couple of years in
farming in Dallas County, Iowa, but with that exception his residence has
been practically uninterrupted in Caldwell County.

In 1871 Mr. Rathbun married Miss Martha F. Thompson. Her father
was Samuel Thompson, who came to Missouri from Indiana and made
a fighting record as a soldier of the Mexican war. He also had two sons
who were soldiers in the Civil war, named Samuel and William A. Mr.
and Mrs. Rathbun are the parents of a daughter, Lulu, who was married
October 29, 1914, to Ernest Hudson, and they now reside at the Rathbun
homestead. A son, William Albert, was born September 1, 1873, and
died November 20, 1878.

Mr. Rathbun cast his first presidential vote for General Grant in
1868, and has never deviated from the strict party lines maintained by
the grand old party. He has throughout his life believed in and practiced
the golden rule, and his home has always been a. center of attractive
hospitality. He is a member of the Methodist Church, while his wife
and daughter belong to the Christian denomination.

George W. Lockridge. Probably no man in official service has done
more for Daviess County during the last fifteen or twenty years than
George W. Lockridge, who is the county surveyor and highway, engineer.
From early youth he showed a genius for mathematics, and is a thor-
oughly grounded and practical engineer, and is able not only to plan but
to execute the construction of any work from a modern highway to a
complex river bridge. He is a past master in his profession, and through
it has contributed much to public improvement, especially in that
important department, first-class highways. His home is at Gallatin.

His family has been identified with Northwest Missouri from the time
when Daviess County was a wilderness except in the few localities



1430 HISTORY OF NORTHWEST MISSOURI

improved by the vanguard of settlers. George W. Lockridge was born
November 26, 1871, on his father's old farm three miles north of James-
port, in Jamesport Township. His parents were John and Caroline
Poage (Miller) Lockridge, both now living retired in Jamesport. The
former was born in Jamesport Township in 1846 and the latter in Rappa-
hannock County, Virginia, in 1845. The paternal great-grandfather,
Lancelot Lockridge, was a native of Virginia and of an old family of
that province, where he owned many slaves and employed them to work
his extensive plantation. Grandfather Andrew Lockridge, who was born
and married in Rappahannock County, about seventy years ago put his
possessions in a covered wagon and made the long migration over the
mountains and through the valleys and across the plains of the Central
"West to Daviess County. The land he located and secured from the
Government in section 15 of Jamesport Township, is still owned by his
descendants. There the grandparents spent their remaining years, and
both died in the same year, in 1854.

At that time John Lockridge was eight years old, and during the
following years the orphan boy lived at different times with Judge
Robert C. Williams, whose wife was an aunt, and also with his uncle.
Nathan Gillilan. To escape the turmoil and discord of the Civil war he
accompanied his sister and brother-in-law to Des Moines, returning to
Missouri when the war was over. He had then nearly reached his major-
ity, and while living with his sister made plans to take possession of the
100 acres which he had inherited from his father. The lumber for his
first house, a story and a half structure, 16 by 32 feet, he hauled by
wagon from Chillicothe, a distance of thirty-two miles. He possessed
the industry and business judgment required for success in farming, and
his prosperity is measured in part by the fact that .he increased his
original 100 acres to 600, comprising one of the best country estates in
Daviess County. A large part of this he has since distributed among his
children, and is now enjoying the fruits of a well spent career in ease.

John Lockridge married a Daviess County girl whose family is like-
wise of pioneer stock and old Virginia ancestry. Her parents, James W.
and Harriet P. (Allen) Miller, were born in Rappahannock County, Vir-
ginia, and some years after their marriage came out to Daviess County,
where their settlement was made subsequent to the Lockridges. Their
location was on wild land in Jamesport Township, but after several years
James W. Miller removed to Jamesport and became a clerk in the old
Etter store. From there he went to Gallatin, and was for years the
trusted and right-hand man in Etter 's One Price Cash Store. The only
important break in his long mercantile experience was during the years
from 1883 to 1886, when he devoted himself to the careful handling of
the county clerk's office.

Both the Lockridge and Miller families were of the old school Pres-
byterian faith, and in politics all the men adhered to the democratic
party. The seven children of John Lockridge and wife are: Charles
Sidney, a farmer in Jamesport Township ; George W. ; Harry Tate, a
farmer in Jamesport Township ; Homer, farming in the same locality ;
Mrs. Hattie Hill, of Grand River Township ; Walter, who occupies the
old homestead ; and John Franklin, who is chief train dispatcher with
one of the Northwestern railroads, his headquarters being at Pocatello,
Idaho.

On the old homestead in Jamesport Township stood a schoolhouse
attended by all the Lockridge children. The first teacher whom George
W. knew was John C. Leopard. He took the usual curriculum of a
country school, being noted for proficiency in arithmetic, and later was
a student in the Gallatin High School. At the age of nineteen he took



HISTORY OF NORTHWEST MISSOURI 1431

an examination and was granted a teacher's certificate, with which
qualification he soon afterward appeared as the master at the Cole
Springs School, and later had charge of the Griffith and Smith schools.
His experience was then varied with employment in a drug store at
Bancroft. In pursuit of more knowledge, he next entered the Grand
River College at Gallatin, then under Rev. Dr. Pope Yeman, a noted
Baptist clergyman. In the middle of his first term he definitely deter-
mined upon civil engineering as his career, and at once entered the State
School of Mines, at Rolla, where he was a student 2y 2 years, completing
the general mathematical course.

With this training, on his return to Daviess County he at once fitted
into an unexpired term of county surveyor, was elected at the next
regular election and continued in the office for eight consecutive years.
As a side line, during two years of that time, he taught mathematics in
Grand River College. His early experience in a drug store may have
influenced his next move. After passing the examination before the
state board and being qualified as a registered pharmacist, he formed
a partnership with Dr. M. A. Smith, and for about eight years con-
ducted a drug business in Gallatin, finally selling his interests in 1906.
Going to Cameron he remodeled and opened a drug store for other
parties, and was getting $20 a week for his work. In April, 1908, he
resigned the position to begin work with the Dildine Bridge & Con-