Warren E. Danley, M. D. Among the well-established medical
practitioners of Avenue City is Df. Warren E. Danley, who is also prom-
inent in business circles as a member of the important firm of W. E.
Danley & Co., conducting a large milling and mercantile enterprise, hav-
ing substantial trade connections over a wide territory. Warren E.
Danley was born at Red Bud, Randolph County, Illinois, December 25,
1865, and is the only child of Harley E. and Rosamond (Swift) Danley.
Harley E. Danley was born in Washington Count v, Ohio, November
28, 1842, the eldest son of J. W. and Elizabeth (Fairchild) Danley, the
former of whom was born in Washington County, Ohio, in 1822. He
was a son of John Danley, and a grandson of Benjamin Danley, who
was a Revolutionary soldier, who was killed at the battle of the Brandy-
wine, just before the birth of his son. The family preserves the old
powder horn that he wore in his last battle. In the Civil war the grand-
father of Doctor Danley proved that he possessed the same patriotic spirit
that belonged to his grandfather, enlisting for service in Company I,
One Hundred and Forty-eighth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, with his son,
Harley E., and died in the long siege that preceded the capture of
Petersburg, Virginia. The grandmother of Doctor Danley survived him
many years, dying in Avenue City, Missouri, March 17, 1913. They had
three sons: Harley E., Joseph W., and Chauncey, the last named dying
at the age of five years.
Harley E. Danley grew to manhood on the home farm in Ohio and
taught school for some years. When the Civil war became a fact he
enlisted for service, entering the same company and regiment as his
father, and was promoted to the rank of sergeant, and during his term
1796 HISTORY OF NORTHWEST MISSOURI
of enlistment was stationed for four months in front of Petersburg,
Virginia. He then returned to Ohio, and in 1865 moved to Illinois, and
from there, in 1867, to Johnson County, Kansas, and for seventeen years
was a traveling salesman in that state for the William Deering Harvester
Company and was also in the milling and mercantile business for three
years. In 1900 he came to Avenue City and is now a partner with his
brother, Joseph W. Danley, and his son, Dr. Warren E. Danley, in
the firm of W. E. Danley & Co. He was married in Washington County,
Ohio, to Rosamond Swift, who was born there January 21, 1812.
Warren E. Danley was carefully reared and liberally educated. After
his boyhood school days he spent two years in the Baptist University
at Ottawa, Kansas, and two years more in the Kansas State University,
where he was graduated with his medical degree in 1887, nevertheless
he then entered the medical department of the Northwestern University
at St. Joseph, where he was graduated two years later. He decided to
locate at Avenue City, and came here on March 6, 1889, and is the only
one of his class of twenty-five doctors who has never changed his field
of practice since beginning. He has been very successful in his pro-
fession, has shown exceptional business capacity along other lines and
personally stands high with his fellow citizens. A close attachment pre-
vails between himself, his father and his uncle, and as they are united
in a business relation they are equally so in many of their tastes. H. E.
and W. E. Danley belong to the Masonic Blue Lodge at Saxton, in Bu-
chanan County, and J. W. has his membership in Olathe, Kansas, and
all are Shriners. Doctor Danley is a member of the county, state and of
the American Medical Association.
Joseph W. Daxley. Associated with his brother. Harley E. Danley,
and his nephew. Dr. Warren E. Danley, in the milling and mercantile
firm of W. E. Danley & Co., at Avenue City, Joseph W. Danley is one
of the representative business men of this place. He was born in Wash-
ington County, Ohio, February 18. 1862, the third son of J. W. and
Elizabeth (Fairchild) Danley. He resided with his widowed mother
and his brother for a number of years, and up to the time of his mar-
riage, December 16. 18^6. to Miss Mattie Berryman. She was born at
Hudson. Illinois, and died October 21. 1896, at Olathe. Kansas, survived
by two children: Royal C. and Faye E. The former is a practicing phy-
sician at Hamburg. Iowa, having graduated at Bennett Medical College,
Chicago, in the class of 1911. Mr. Danley was married June 7, 1899. at
Fairfax. Virginia, to Miss Oneita G. Wakefield.
Mr. Danley is quite prominent in Masonic circles and is past com-
mander of Olathe Commandery. Olathe. Kansas, and served four times
as high priest of Olathe Chapter. Both he and brother are members of
Sesostin Temple, Lincoln, Nebraska. The entire male membership
of the family is affiliated with the republican party.
A. L. Lewellen. In some communities are found men hard to class-
ify except as prominent and representative, because their activites are
so numerous and useful, and they have achieved success in all their
undertakings. Such a man is A. L. Lewellen, merchant and banker and
formerly mayor and assistant postmaster, who is also a well-known jour-
nalist, through editorial connection with the Rosendale Signal for a
number of years. At present Mr. Lewellen is vice president of the Rosen-
dale Bank and has high standing as a financier all over Andrew County.
He was born in Preble County, Ohio. September 19, 1851, and is a son
of Baford and Nancy (Peters) Lewellen.
Baford Lewellen was born in Kentuckv in 1820 and died on his
HISTORY OF NORTHWEST MISSOURI 1797
farm, near Rosendale, in February, 1899. He married Nancy Peters,
who was born in Pennsylvania in 1821, and from Ohio they moved to
Andrew County, Missouri, in 1866. They lived one year in Rochester
Township and then located on the farm three miles from Rosendale,
where they passed the rest of their lives, Mrs. Lewellen surviving until
August, 1900. Baford Lewellen was a substantial farmer, owning 500
acres of land, and also was a lender of money before his neighbors could
get bank accommodations. There were nine children in his family:
Caroline, who is the. wife of Z. T. Wells, of Springfield, Missouri; Eliz-
abeth, who is the widow of R. P. Bell, of Rosendale ; A. L. ; Joseph, who
is deceased; Andrew M., who is a resident of Florence, Alabama: Am-
brose, who lives at Gaylord, Kansas ; John, who is a resident of Rosen-
dale; Sarah F., who is the wife of G-. W. Wells, of Prineville, Oregon;
and Charles, who lives at Shenandoah, Iowa.
The public schools of Preble County, Ohio, provided the early edu-
cation of A. L. Lewellen, his training since then having been given by
farm work and the business activities into which his energy and enter-
prise have led him. He accompanied his parents when they came to
Andrew County and assisted his father on the farm until 1882, since
when he has been a resident of Rosendale and a leader in its business
and public affairs. For sixteen years he was associated with his brother,
A. M. Lewellen, in a general mercantile business, under the firm name
of Lewellen Brothers. Under the administration of President Harrison,
A. M. Lewellen was appointed postmaster of Rosendale and A. L. Lew-
ellen was made assistant and continued in that capacity under other
postmasters for eighteen years. He has always been very active in repub-
lican politics and at one time, in the old convention days, before the
adoption of the primary system, he was made his party's candidate for
probate judge. Subsequently he was elected mayor of Rosendale and
in that position served his fellow citizens ably, many improvements being
undertaken and completed during his administration. He has always
been a friend of education and Jias served on the school board with
patience and wisdom. Mr. Lewellen is one of the original stockholders
of the Rosendale Bank, one of the soundest institutions of the county,
and for ten years served as vice president. For the last six years he
has been very active in this connection.
In 1896 Mr. Lewellen was united in marriage with Miss Yerna C.
Holmes, who was born in Iowa, in February, 1866, and was reared in
her native state. They have two sons: Maurice and Everett. Mr. Lewel-
len belongs to Lodge No. 414, Ancient, Free and Accepted Masons, Rosen-
dale, and also to the Odd Fellows at Rosendale.
For about four years Mr. Lewellen was associated with J. I. Bennett
as editor of the Rosendale Signal, and during this period became a
member of the Missouri Press Association, being recommended for mem-
bership by Dean Walter Williams, at Warrensburg. Mr. Lewellen has
not made journalism his career, but he recalls with lively pleasure the
acquaintances he made while in harness and can never forget the enjoy-
ment he found during numerous trips, including one down the Missis-
sippi River, as a member of the above organization.
John H. Van Brunt. Few cities may boast of a street railways sys-
tem as complete and well operated as that which furnishes transporta-
tion for the citizens of St. Joseph. The second city in the United States
to operate cars by electricity, and the first in the world to use the trolley
pole under the wire, it has long been proud of the facilities granted to
the public, and its example has been followed by the progressive munic-
ipalities in every state in the Union. It would be neither just nor cor-
1798 HISTORY OF NORTHWEST MISSOURI
rect to give the credit for the desirable state of affairs to any man or
any gathering of men, but it is only equitable to place an appreciation
upon the signal services of John H. Van Brunt, who has been connected
with the management of this important enterprise since 1890. A man
of wide experience and intricate knowledge of transportation, in the
capacity of vice president and general manager *he has brought to his
work a wealth of enthusiasm, a multiformity of ideas and a conscientious
regard of the public welfare that the people of St. Joseph have not been
slow to appreciate.
Mr. Van Brunt is an easterner and came to Missouri only when his
business called him here, but since that time St. Joseph has been his home.
He was born at Red Bank, New Jersey, September 7, 1867, and is a son
of Peter S. and Mary H. (Thomas) Van Brunt, natives of Perth Amboy,
New Jersey, the father being a wholesale oyster dealer on the Shrews-
bury River. Educated in the public schools, Mr. Van Brunt was grad-
uated from the high school at Orange, . New Jersey, and immediately
entered upon his business career in the employ of I. B. Newton & Co.,
bankers, Wall Street, New York. He rapidly rose in this firm, and in
1887, when the concern purchased the St. Joseph Street Railways, he
was given the responsibility of, taking charge of the receipts of the busi-
ness. The firm had acquired the Frederick Arc Line and the Citizens'
Line, operating as the People's Street Railway, Electric Light and Power
Company, and in 1888 built the Jule Street line and in 1889 the Messanie
Street line. In 1890 the Union line was absorbed and subsequently the
Wyatt Park line, and in 1895 the People's Street Railway, Electric Light
and Power Company was reorganized, at that time becoming the St.
Joseph Railway, Light, Heat and Power Company. This was owned by
the Harriman interests until 1902, when it was purchased by E. W.
Clark & Co., of Philadelphia, and in February, 1913, again changed
ownership, the purchasers being Henry L. Doherty & Co., of New York,
the present owners. William T. Van Brunt, a brother of John H. Van
Brunt, was president and general manager of the company from 1890
until 1902, when he retired and went to New York. He had been
brought to St. Joseph from Scranton, Pennsylvania, originally to man-
age the system at the time of its purchase and development. John H.
Van Brunt became the superintendent of the system in 1890, and in
1902 was made vice president and general manager. Mr. Van Brunt's
masterly management of the affairs of his company has made him widely
known all over the state. He has made a close study of the science of
transportation, has a broad knowledge of the principles governing the
operation of railways and all the rules and regulations pertaining to
traffic. The duties and responsibilities of the positions which he has held
have demanded a large share of his attention, yet he has found time to
give other enterprises the benefit of his broad knowledge and abilities
and is president of the St. Joseph & Savannah Interurban Railway Com-
pany, running from St. Joseph to Savannah, and is a director in the
Empire Trust Company and the Provident Building and Loan Associa-
tion, both of St. Joseph. He has also found leisure to mingle with his
fellow men, and is a popular and valued member of the St. Joseph
Country Club, the Benton Club of this city, the St. Joseph Commerce
Club and Elks Lodge No. 40. His pleasant residence is situated on
Asylum Road.
On April 27, 1892, Mr. Van Brunt was married to Miss Pearl Dough-
erty, daughter of Alexander M. Dougherty, of St. Joseph, and they have
three sons: John H., Jr., Frederick C. and Alexander D.
John H. Hurst. Born on the fine farmstead in the ownership and
active management of which he is associated with his brother Absalom,
HISTORY OF NORTHWEST MISSOURI 1799
John H. Hurst is numbered among the progressive young agriculturists
and stockgrowers of Holt County, the well-improved farm being situated
southeast of Oregon, the judicial center of the county. Here Mr. Hurst
was born on the 14th of November, 1884, a son of John Hurst, and both
of his parents are now deceased, the two sons mentioned in this paragraph
being the surviving children, and one having died in early childhood.
John Hurst was one of the early settlers of this section of Holt
County, where he established his residence on the farm now owned by
his sons and where he devoted himself earnestly and effectively to its
reclamation and development, the homestead comprising 160 acres and
the permanent improvements being of substantial order. John Hurst
was a citizen of sterling character, was a republican in his political
allegiance, as are also his sons, and he commanded the high regard of
all who knew him, the while he achieved independence and prosperity
through his own well-ordered efforts.
John H. Hurst was reared to the sturdy discipline of the home farm
and is indebted to the public schools of Holt County for his early educa-
tional discipline. He has never faltered in his allegiance to the indus-
trial enterprise under whose influence he was reared, and as a progressive
farmer and loyal and public-spirited citizen he is well upholding the
prestige of the name which he bears. He is a zealous supporter of the
cause of the republican party, but has not been ambitious for public
office, which was likewise true in the case of his honored father, whose
civic loyalty, however, prompted him to serve in the early days as a
member of the school board of his district, Mr. Hurst still permits his
name to be enrolled on the list of eligible young bachelors in his native
county.
James Collins. Few men in Northwest Missouri have had a more
interesting and instructive experience in the acquisition of the material
fruits of prosperity, particularly in the buying and selling of land, than
James Collins. A native of HoLt County, where his people were early
settlers, he had to work from the time of childhood, and by hard expe-
rience knows how to estimate the value of every dollar he has earned.
Experience and honest toil taught him cool judgment in his transactions,
and in the past thirty or forty years he has bought, improved and sold
land all over this quarter of the state. His present position is one of
well-established prosperity and esteem in the fine country community of
Hickory Township.
Born in Holt County, March 10, 1855, James Collins was a son of
J. Mason Collins, who came to Northwest Missouri at the pioneer year
of 1833, and secured his first land from the Government. He was mar-
ried in Missouri to Rebecca Stevenson, and their family consisted of
eleven children altogether, five of them by a second marriage. His second
wife was Achsah Robinson. The father died at the age of fifty years.
His first location was near the Nodaway River, southeast of Oregon. He
went out as a soldier to the Mexican war, and died in 1862, about a
year after the outbreak of the Civil war. He was an industrious citizen,
a man of good habits, and though beginning life poor was able to pro-
vide for his family and interest himself in the general welfare of the
community. He served for a time as justice of the peace, when that
office was the highest in the community, where practically all the diffi-
culties and litigation of the neighborhood was tried. Though his school-
ing was limited, he had a hard, practical wisdom which availed him for
good service in that office.
James Collins was about seven years of age when his father died,
and he was reared in the home of his grandmother. With a common
1800 HISTORY OF NORTHWEST MISSOURI
school education, he began work for his board and clothes at an early
age, and in 1865 started out for himself. His first employer was a man
named Price in Atchison County ; in 1867 he went to Fremont County,
Iowa, and worked for an uncle named Stevens, then returned to Holt
County and did farming for himself as a renter. In 1872 Mr. Collins
located nine miles north of Craig, in Atchison County, and in 1873
bought sixty acres at $7 an acre. His next important step in life was
his marriage to Julia Chainer, daughter of Andrew. Mr. Collins lived
on his first sixty acre until the death of his wife, about 1877. Their
one child was Delia, who married Peter Souer, and they became the
parents of two children, Esther and Edith, who now live in Atchison
County. After the death of his first wife Mr. Collins married Anna
Noble. That was in 1879.
His home was on his first farm for about nineteen years, and in
the meantime he had increased his land to about three hundred acres.
When he sold the price secured for his property was $40 an acre, sev-
eral times what he had paid for it. Mr. Collins next moved to the
vicinity of Tarkio, bought half a section, and was the first man in
that part of the country to pay as high as $40 an acre for land. It
was a well-improved farm, and by the improvements he placed upon
it and by the general increase in land values, when he sold in 1900 it
brought $50 an acre. Mr. Collins then returned to Fairfax and bought
two farms, paying about $45 an acre for one and for another paid
$100 an acre. That purchase likewise set a high mark in real estate
transactions, since it was the first time anyone had paid $100 an acre
for land in that vicinity. Later Mr. Collins bought an adjoining quar-
ter section for $62.50 an acre, but while his' first purchase was thor-
oughly improved, with excellent buildings, the second lot of land had
no buildings. It was on his farm at Fairfax that his second wife
died. When Mr. Collins sold his land it brought $125 an acre. Mr.
Collins then moved to Hickory Township, in Holt County, rented land
for two years, and then bought the improved farm, comprising 200 acres,
where his present home is situated. He married for his third wife Susan
Miles. Both are members of the Christian Church, and Mr. Collins is
a Mason at Fairfax. He has served on the school board, and is a
democrat in politics. It will be of interest to recall some other land
transactions, when Mr. Collins, about 1911, paid $104.50 an acre for a
large tract of 480 acres. About 1879 Tom McCoy had bought the same
land and paid only $5 an acre, and this remarkable increase indicates
how Northwest Missouri has developed in the last thirty-five years.
Mr. Collins also owned half a section of land in North Dakota, for which
he paid $12 an acre, and three years later sold it for $25. Such are
some of the more salient facts in the career of a man who began with
no capital and has made his success entirely through his own energies.
David Crider. Some of the most successful and progressive farmers
of Holt County are carrying on operations at this time on the properties
on which they were born and where they have passed their entire life.
Thus, being thoroughly familiar with conditions, they are able to make
their labors pay in full measure and have advanced beyond their fel-
lows who have had to learn within a few short years the methods best
adapted to the soil. In the former class stands David Crider, who is
numbered among the younger generation of agriculturists, and is known
as an energetic and thorough-going farmer of Hickory Township.
Mr. Crider was born May 19, 1880, on his present property, and is
one of the nine children, of whom seven are living, of John and Hannah
(Galvin) Crider. John Crider was born in Pennsylvania and there he
HISTORY OF NORTHWEST MISSOURI 1801
grew to manhood in a farming community, early adopting agricultural
work as his life's vocation. He was thus engaged in a modest way
until the Civil war called him to the front in support of the Union, when
he shouldered a musket and marched away as a member of Company F,
Two Hundred and Ninety-seventh Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer
Infantry, with which he served until the close of the war, having an
honorable record. When his military experience was completed he re-
turned to the pursuits and duties of peace, and for four years labored
faithfully in his native state. His achievements, however, did not
seem productive of great gains, and so, in 1869, he sought new fields,
turning his face toward the West and finally locating in Holt County.
Two years later he settled on the farm on which he spent the balance of
his life, and where he died in February, 1906. When Mr. Crider arrived
in Missouri he was possessed of a little capital, saved from his labors
as a farm hand and his salary as a soldier, but he had unlimited ambi-
tion, determination and perseverance, and these led him to a well-won
success, his accumulations comprising one-half section of land at the
time of his death. A man of good habits and an exemplary citizen, he
held a high place in the esteem of the people of his community, and when
he passed away there were many to mourn his loss. He was a republican
in politics and an influential man in his party, although not one to
thrust himself forward for personal preferment. Early in life he joined
the United Brethren Church, to which he belonged throughout his life,
and Mrs. Crider, who survives, is also a member of that denomination.
She is a native of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, and was married
to Mr. Crider in that state.
David Crider was educated in the public schools of Hickory Town-
ship, and following in his father's footsteps adopted the vocation of
tilling the soil in his youth. He was thoroughly trained under the excel-
lent preceptorship of his father in all matters necessary for the modern
farmer to know, and has since been quick to adopt modern methods
and ideas and to take advantage of the invention of labor-saving power
machinery. His eighty-acre tract of land, on which he has carried on
operations during the past five years, shows the beneficial results to be
obtained by good management, and under its owner's direction yields
golden harvests. , Like his father, Mr. Crider is a republican, but his
public activities have been confined to those taken by every good and
helpful citizen. With his family he attends the United Brethren Church.
Mr. Crider married Miss Alice Nichols, one of the nine children, of
whom seven are living, born to Fred Nichols, of Holt County. Three
children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Crider, all on the present farm
in Hickory Township ; Catherine Hannah, Nelson Lawrence and Virgil
Fred.
W. L. Armentrout. Success has been worthily attained in the field
of agricultural effort by W. L. Armentrout, who is today accounted one
of the energetic and progressive of the younger generation of farmers
of Holt County, and this is attributable to his energy, enterprise and
careful management. He started out in life as a farm hand, but soon
attained a property of his own and now has eighty acres of desirable
land located in Hickory Township.
Mr. Armentrout was born in Nodaway County, Missouri, October 25,
1880, and is a son of Remiger and Mary (Handley) Armentrout. The
parents were natives of the State of Virginia, where they were married
and began their life on a farm, but seeking better opportunities decided
to come to the West and accordingly, about the year 1870, made their
way to Nodaway County. Being in moderate circumstances, the father