pany at Blythedale is a Northwest Missouri citizen whose career has illus-
trated the best elements of substantial accomplishment. The man who
has a willing industry and some readiness and versatility in adapting
himself to the changing circumstances of life is always sure of success.
The world always has something for such a man to do, and he will be
certain to use each successive position as a stepping stone to better things.

James F. Scott was born in Floyd County, Indiana, April 18, 1852.



HISTORY OF NORTHWEST MISSOURI 1535

His childhood was spent in the country and his education such as the
country school gave him. His father had a farm and country blacksmith
shop, and in the latter this son learned a trade, and for about three years
ran the shop. Just before twenty years old he married, and supported
his life household chiefly by his trade. In 1876 he came west, landing in
Davis City, Iowa, worked as a journeyman for a time, and then did a
drayirig business between Davis City and Leon. Without capital, he
bought the line on time, and at the end of two years was induced by its
former owner to turn his attention to merchandising. This substantial
benefactor in his business career was J. E. Teale, a merchant and man
of wealth in Davis City. He had acquired a very favorable impression
of young Scott, and one day told the latter it was to his interest to take
up the line for which he was best fitted by nature, since he would un-
doubtedly succeed. His offer was accepted by Mr. Scott, who worked four
years on a salary and in that time gained a thorough knowledge of
merchandising. Then a working interest in the store was given him,
and he managed the firm of J. F. Scott & Company two years.

In the meantime his acquaintance in the county had brought him a
popularity that caused the democrats to nominate him for the office of
auditor of Decatur County. Entering the race in the face of a normal
republican majority of 600, he justified the faith of his friends and sup-
porters and was elected in 1883 and made an excellent record in the
courthouse for the next two years.

Leaving Davis City after about ten years, he for four years was in
the real estate business at Independence, Missouri, and next enjoyed the
keen competition of business in a big city, and for about four years was
identified with the Metropolitan Hotel Company of Kansas City, Missouri,
as its manager. During the last thirty-five years, with few interruptions,
he has been in active business affairs. On leaving Kansas City and
identifying himself with the Blythedale country, his first work was as a
farmer. For three years he conducted a farm three miles south of town,
and then in 1897 became a hardware merchant. The scope of his enter-
prise as a merchant has been greatly expanded since he started here
seventeen years ago. The beginning was with a stock valued at $1,500 on
the site of the corner building of his present headquarters. Mr. C. B.
Neville subsequently became associated with him, but after a few years
his interests were acquired by Mr. Scott and sons, and they also bought
out W. H. Scott, a brother, who had previously been one of Blythedale 's
leading dry goods merchants. There were several separate enterprises
under joint management at first, but gradually the proprietors have
worked a consolidation, and now have a single store building of two
rooms with a frontage of seventy-five feet, besides another large room
which is occupied by the furniture store. Under its present title of
Scott Mercantile Company it is in every sense of the word a department
store and carries the largest stock of any department store in Harrison
County, and the only one of its kind in Blythedale. Everything in gen-
eral merchandise is handled, including dry goods, clothing, shoes, fur-
niture, hardware, automobiles, groceries, etc.

Besides the upbuilding of this enterprise, Mr. Scott has in other ways
identified himself with the substantial improvement of the town, notably
in the erection of the best home, a twelve-room modern residence, con-
structed in 1909. For a number of years a member of the school board,
it was largely his aggressive fight for better school facilities that gave
the town its present school edifice. Twice he led the progressive citizens
in elections and twice was defeated, but the third time his cause won,
and now the four-room brick building is one of the attractive features
of the town. During his residence in Harrison County, he has been com-



1536 HISTORY OF NORTHWEST MISSOURI

paratively inactive in politics except so far as local interests could be
served. He is a past noble grand of the Independent Order of Odd
Fellows, and his family have long been identified with the Christian
Church.

Mr. Scott's grandfather was John A. Scott, a native of Virginia and
a minister of the Christian Church. In young manhood he located in
Kentucky, and married Annie Reasor, whose people lived about Shelby-
ville. From Kentucky he became a pioneer in Indiana, and died near
New Albany. His children were : Reasor, who spent his life in Indiana ;
James G., who lived and died in Indiana ; Robert, whose career was lived
in the same state ; Rev. Harbert, mentioned below ; Vardeman, who lived
in Indiana ; John, of the same state ; David, a cooper, whose work was all
done in the same state; Moses R., also a cooper, and a resident of one
county all his life; Emily, who married Samuel McCutcheon and died
in Pawnee, Missouri ; Elizabeth, who married Thomas Akers and died in
Indiana.

Rev. Harbert Scott, father of the Blythedale merchant, was one of
seven brothers, all of whom were preachers except one, who was a deacon
in the family denomination. As already indicated, Harbert Scott was
also a farmer and blacksmith, and was born near New Albany, Indiana,
January 25, 1829. His life was one of great industry and with a sense
of responsibility to his fellow men which he fulfilled by devoted service
to the ministry while providing for the material wants of his family by
hard labor. He lived on one farm half a century, until his death in 1911.
He was a democrat in politics. He married Nancy McKinley, who died
in 1911, just thirty days after her husband. Her father, James Mc-
Kinley, who married a Miss Packwood, came from Virginia, and was a
farmer and tanner at Borden, Indiana. Reverend and Mrs. Scott had the
following children: James F.; Jincy, wife of T. J. Bell, of Pawnee,
Missouri ; Miss Eliza, of Jeffersonville, Indiana ; William W., of St.
Joseph, Missouri; Carter, of Davis City, Iowa; Winfield H., of Eufaula,
Oklahoma; John R., now treasurer of Clark County, Indiana; Samuel
L., superintendent of schools in Clark County; Emma and Lizzie,
twins, the former Mrs. Henry Temple of Jeffersonville, Indiana, and
the latter Mrs. Charles Emery, of New Albany; Zenas E., principal of
schools at Asbury Park, New Jersey; Eva, wife of Harry E. Pickens,
of New Albany; and Glenn E., superintendent of schools in Floyd
County, Indiana.

Mr. James F. Scott has a fine family of his own. He was married
April 14, 1872, to Miss Olivia Taylor, daughter of Jonathan Taylor,
whose wife was a Miss Horner. Mr. Taylor was a boat carpenter on the
Ohio River. His children were: Goodrich, of Bloomington, Indiana;
Laura E., wife of Albert Scott, of Greenville, Indiana; Olivia, wife of
James F. Scott, born September 30, 1852 ; Susie, who married Joseph
Scott, of Kansas City ; and Henry, of Blackwell, Oklahoma.

Mr. and Mrs. Scott's children are: Cortez A., who married Norah
Morgans, is general salesman for Kansas for the Wlieeler & Motler Mer-
cantile Company, of St. Joseph, Missouri, and a stockholder in the above
concern and also a stockholder in the Scott Mercantile Company of
Blythedale, Missouri, his home being in Topeka, Kansas; Archie E., who
is a member of the Scott Mercantile Company and president of the
Farmers and Merchants Bank of Blythedale, married Bessie Canady;
Winnie E. is the wife of Elza Jones of Blythedale, a prosperous farmer;
Miss Dee Etta, of Kansas City ; Ralph F., of the Scott Mercantile Com-
pany, married Winnie Craig; and Susie E. is the wife of Glenn H. Dale,
a practicing lawyer at DeQueen, Arkansas. Mr. and Mrs. Scott have
seven grandsons and four granddaughters.



HISTORY OF NORTHWEST MISSOURI 1537

Ezra H. Fbisby. The entire career of Ezra H. Frisby, one of the
substantial business men and public-spirited citizens of Bethany, and
one who has taken an active part in the upbuilding of this locality, has
been spent in the community in which he now lives, he having been born
near Bethany, in Harrison County, October 17, 1862, a son of Capt.
Jonathan C. and Sarah J. (Briggs) Frisby.

The grandfather of Ezra H. Frisby was born in Pennsylvania, where
the family was located in the Pennsylvania Dutch settlement, and during
the pioneer days, prior to the War of 1812, moved to Muskingum County,
Ohio. In his latter years he was a Baptist minister, and his death oc-
curred near Bloomington, Illinois, the grandmother passing away in
1871, in Harrison County, Missouri. They were the parents of two
children: Jonathan C. and Russell. By a former marriage the grand-
father was the father of a son, James M., who died at Centerville, Iowa,
and a daughter, Sarah, who married a Mr. Smith and died near Oska-
loosa, Iowa.

Capt. Jonathan C. Frisby was born in Muskingum County, Ohio,
April 19, 1817, and was given but little schooling, attending the district
schools two terms of four months each, and walking six miles for that
meager training. From Zanesville, Ohio, he went to Bloomington, Illi-
nois, and in 1858 came to Harrison County, Missouri, where he engaged
in farming and established a place for himself among the modestly sub-
stantial agriculturists of his locality. During the Civil war he was a
captain in the Missouri militia, being identified with the Home Guards,
and furnished a son for the Union army, James 0. Frisby, who served
three and one-half years and was honorably discharged after a valiant
service, without wounds or capture. Captain Frisby was once county
judge of Harrison County, from 1868 to 1870, and was a member of the
republican party from the time of its organization. Fraternally he was
a Master Mason. He was widely known throughout Harrison County,
and was particularly noted for his strong physique. In addition to
general farming, he was engaged in buying and shipping stock at an
early day, driving it to Chillicothe, Missouri, and Burlington, Iowa, for
shipment. Captain Frisby married Sarah J. Briggs, a daughter of John
Bowles and Catherine (Eveland) Briggs, natives of Muskingum County,
Ohio, and she died August 4, 1894, Captain Frisby surviving her until
June 20, 1903. They were the parents of the following children : James
0., who died at Bethany, Missouri, December 25, 1894, leaving a widow
and two sons ; Aclnah H., of Supply, Oklahoma ; Catherine, who became
the wife of Dr. Jackson Walker, of Bethany; Perry, who died in New
Mexico; and Frank, who died at Bismarck, North Dakota, both leaving
families ; Jennie, who married Asa M. Wood, of Overland Park, Kansas ;
and Ezra H.

The boyhood of Ezra H. Frisby was passed in the vicinity of Bethany,
where he secured his early education in the public schools, following
which he graduated from Bethany High School and entered the law
department of the University of Michigan, where he was graduated with
his degree of Bachelor of Laws in 1883. Having completed his education,
he was admitted to the bar of Michigan in the fall of 1882, and to the bar
of Missouri in 1883, the latter upon examination before Judge Goodman.
He was admitted to the bar in Marion County, Kansas, in 1886, but
never practiced his calling except in Missouri. Mr. Frisby associated
himself with Judge S. W. Vandivert, as Vandivert & Frisby, which
combination was dissolved by the judge's removal to Kansas, and for
some years Mr. Frisby practiced alone. His second partnership was
with Judge Daniel S. Alvord, as Alvord & Frisby, which covered a period
of twelve years and was dissolved by the death of Judge Alvord, and



1538 HISTORY OF NORTHWEST MISSOURI

Mr. Frisby's present partnership with his son, Frank M., was formed
in 1911.

Mr. Frisby's first important law ease was his prosecution and con-
viction of Freeman J. Cochran for the murder of Stanbrough, the
prisoner being convicted and sent to the gallows. Another murder case
which he prosecuted was that of Mrs. Frances M. Linthicum for the
killing of her child, but the jury brought in an acquittal. In his political
life Mr. Frisby is a republican, and his first presidential vote was cast
for James G. Blane, since which time he has never lost an opportunity
of voting for presidential candidates of his party. He was secretary of
the county central committee for several years and his campaign work
comprises speeches in local campaigns. He attended the national re-
publican convention at Chicago in 1908, when Taft was nominated, and
was present as a spectator at the St. Louis convention in 1904, when
Colonel Roosevelt was nominated for President. Mr. Frisby was elected
county attorney of Harrison County in 1888 and again in 1890, and
succeeded in office George W. Barlow. He was elected to the State
Senate in November, 1904, at a special election to fill the term of
Lieutenant-Governor McKinley, and filled this term with one session of
the Legislature, his district comprising the counties of Harrison, Mercer,
Grundy, Putnam and Livingston. His entry of the Senate marked his
service in a democratic body and a republican house, and he served just
the one term and then retired. Mr. Frisby was made a member of the
Committee on Education, the Committee on Penitentiary and Reform,
which started the work on the new buildings at Jefferson City, and the in-
vestigating committee which was sent to St. Louis to investigate the
Kerns-Niedringhaus senatorial contest.

Mr. Frisby was one of the organizers of the Harrison County Bank
and has been a director thereof since its inception, acting in a like
capacity with the Bethany Savings Bank, was one of the incorporators of
the Bethany Hardware Company, and president of the Bethany Printing
Company, also holding large shares of stock in various other corporations
of the town. He has had farming interests all of his life and at the
present time has six different properties in Harrison County, being also
extensively interested in wheat raising near Regina, Saskatchewan,
Canada, where he is cultivating some 4,000 acres of land. As a builder of
Bethany he erected his residence on the corner of Brush and East streets,
and also is the owner of eight business houses here. In various ways and
in numerous positions he has assisted in the material, industrial and civic
development of this town. During four years he was city attorney, and
from 1886 until 1890 he served in the capacity of mayor, but during this
time nothing more was done beyond the routine business, although his
administration was an exceptionally able and prosperous one. Fraternally
Mr. Frisby is a Knight Templar Mason and belongs to the Knights of
Pythias. His boyhood was passed under the influence of Christian
parents of the Presbyterian faith.

On April 20, 1885, Mr. Frisby was married at Eureka Springs,
Arkansas, to Miss Eva M. Tucker, a daughter of James G. Tucker,
formerly of Harrison County, Missouri, and a native of Bethany. Mr.
Tucker married Rhoda J. Howell, and both now reside at St. Joseph.
Mr. Tucker is a native of Virginia and passed the active years of his
life as a farmer. His children. were four in number: George M., Thomas
O., Mrs. Frisby and Lee. Three children have been born to Mr. and Mrs.
Frisby, namely : Miss Lane, a graduate of the New England Conserva-
tory of Music, attended Northwestern University, Chicago, and Randolph-
Macon College, Macon, Virginia; Frank M., schooled in Missouri Univer-
sity, where he took a literary course, and the L T niversity of Michigan,



HISTORY OF NORTHWEST MISSOURI 1539

where he graduated from the law department in 1898, since which time he
has been engaged in practice, with his father since 1911 ; and Miss Lottie,
who died in 1912, while attending the Bethany High School.

James Kennish. One of the successful farmers of Holt County and
a citizen always held in high esteem 'is James Kennish, who has spent
most of his life in the vicinity of Mound City. Mr. Kennish is a man of
thorough industry, has applied his energies to the complicated tasks of
farming with the best results, and in all his relations stands honorably
toward his community.

Mr. Kennish is a Manxman, that is, a native of the Isle of Man,
where he was born June 8, 1862. His parents were William and Catherine
(Kello) Kennish, and their family comprised thirteen children, one of
whom died young. When James was a child they emigrated to America,
and first lived near Oregon, Missouri. They possessed exceedingly modest
means, and in 1872 acquired a tract of 240 acres about six miles north-
west of Mound City. It was unimproved land, excepting a small acreage
under plow, and the father showed great enterprise and determination
against obstacles in providing for his family and improving his farm.
That was the home of the parents as long as they lived.

James Kennish acquired a country school education, and worked for
his father a number of years. Finally he and his brother, Thomas, rented
the home place on shares, and finally Mr. Kennish bought a quarter
section of land east of Mound City. In 1897 he married Gertrude Strat-
ford Saunders. They have two children, Lois and Johnnie, both of whom
were born in Holt County.

Mr. Kennish lived on his first farm until 1900, and then rented a half
section for two years and then bought 240 acres of this half section. He
now has a farm of 240 acres, all in a body, and he is one of the representa-
tive and prosperous farmers of Holt County. His work has been along
general farming lines, and there are few men in Holt County who have
surpassed him as a producer of regular staples, and as a breeder of
Poland China hogs he stands in the front rank. He has also handled
Shorthorn cattle, and makes a practice of breeding and raising only the
best grade stock. Mrs. Kennish is a member of the Methodist Episcopal
Church. In politics Mr. Kennish is a republican. Of Mr. Kennish 's
family, his brother, John, is a member of the Utilities Commission, having
been appointed by the governor, and lives in Jefferson City, Robert is
deceased, Thomas lives on a part of the home farm, Edward is a farmer in
Arkansas, Anna and Maggie live in California, Christian is a resident of
Colorado, Catharine lives in Mound City, Ellen resides near Mound City,
Jennie resides on a part of the home farm, and Alice lives with her
brother, Edward, in Arkansas.

William Lorin Webb. In Harrison County, on the road between
Bethany and Cainsville known as the Coal Valley Trail, is a farm home
that suggests the solid comforts of country life and the enterprise of a
successful citizen. For the past six decades there has been no family
whose general position and activities have been more useful in the com-
munity than the Webbs. The farm just referred to belongs to William
L. Webb, who has lived in this section all his life, having been born on
the old Webb homestead two miles south of Mount Moriah, December 19,
1856.

His father was the late pioneer Joseph Webb, who came into Missouri
in 1844 and a dozen years later settled in Harrison County. The grand-
father was Jonathan Webb, who was born in Connecticut while the
Revolutionary war was in progress, and whose activities were identified



1540 HISTORY OF NORTHWEST MISSOURI

with the tilling and management of the soil. After his marriage he was
crippled by a fall from a loft onto a cook stove, and remained so for life.
His career was spent in several states of the Middle West, and from
Iowa he moved to Harrison County not long before the war and lived
there with his wife until his death at the age of eighty-nine. He married
Elizabeth Henisey, of English stock, and she lived to eighty-two, and both
are buried at Mount Moriah. Of their children one daughter married a
Mr. Smith and lived in Iowa ; Catherine married Henry Levan and lived
in Nevada ; Mrs. Millie Warnock had her home in Iowa ; Ephraim, whose
home was in Columbus, Ohio, was a preacher and for many years in the
employ of the railroads at the union station there, and was so well thought
of that the company built him an overhead room for holding his preaching
services; Jonathan was a farmer whose life was spent about Mount
Moriah ; and Edward, who lived and died on a farm at Warren, Missouri.

Later generations in Harrison County will do well to remember and
honor the memory of such men as the late Joseph Webb. He was born
in Wayne County, Pennsylvania, June 24, 1820, and during his youth,
which was spent partly in his native state and partly in Ohio, all his
schooling was compressed in not more than three months. He came to
know several states and many localities along the frontier, and was living
in Iowa when he became of age. There he bought twenty acres of land,
paid for it from his wages of $8 a month as farm hand, and after
locating his parents there and thus giving them the means of providing
for themselves, he set out to make his independent fortune. Working
here awhile and there awhile, he finally reached the vicinity of St. Louis.
Out of his earnings he bought a horse to transport himself from place to
place, and when near St. Louis loaned this animal to a stranger to drive
cattle and as he was sick at the time that was the last he saw of his
horse. When he recovered he began chopping cordwood at 25 cents a
cord, and in this way began working back to financial independence. He
remained for some time in St. Louis County, working for farmers, and
eventually acquiring a team and some other property. An interest in a
threshing outfit proved the most profitable venture so far. During the
several years he operated the machine he showed such industry and
application that even his marriage called him away from his duties only
one evening, when he drove to St. Charles and was back in the following
morning.

His first visit to Harrison County was made on horseback, and during
an inspection of the country about Mount Moriah he discovered the knoll
upon which he subsequently settled, and then rode to Bethany to enter
the land. Collins Hamilton, a carpenter on the river nearby, was hired
to build his first house, a log building, with a very few comforts and
conveniences, and with only a dirt floor the first winter. Most. of his
children, if not all of them, were born in that home. On moving from
St. Charles County, he headed a considerable cavalcade, consisting of two
yoke of cattle, a horse team and an extra horse pulling a phaeton, with
a darky and an Irishman as drivers of the teams. He also had $500 in
money, and during the first winter Mr. Webb and the Irishman split out
rails and hauled them sufficient to fence in 100 acres. This land having
been enclosed and broken up the following spring, he planted his first
crop of corn and began a successful career of farming in the new country
of Northwest Missouri. The range was then open and a large part of
his profits came from the cattle and other livestock that he kept in
increasing numbers on the pastures. He employed system and con-
servatism in the management of his business affairs, but usually bought
any kind of stock that his neighbors offered for sale, and in this way his
dealings became extensive. His first important venture was the buying of



HISTORY OF NORTHWEST MISSOURI 1541

100 head of work steers, which he fattened and drove to Osceola, Iowa,
as the shipping point. He continued feeding and shipping his own stock,
and buying and fattening others, and was a regular and large shipper to
the Chicago market for a number of years. The profits which came to
him he invested in land, and as fast as he added a farm to his holdings
he rented it. He loaned a large amount of money, and some land came to
him through mortgages. On the whole, he was a buyer more frequently
than a seller. One of his policies was to buy all the corn offered by his
neighbors, and he frequently had rows of rail pens piled high with corn
that cost him 10 cents a bushel, and this he either kept until better prices
could be secured or fed to his hogs and cattle. In his granary was always
a supply of wheat for his bread, and so far as known there was never
a time when he did not have an ample margin of corn beyond the needs