trade while living in Pennsylvania and followed the old-time custom of
making boots and shoes to order, and traveling first from one home to
the next, doing all the cobbling required by one family before passing
on to the next place in his itinerary. After removing to Indiana he
took up a farm in the midst of the timber and cleared it up and fol-
lowed farming for the most part. He and his wife were members of the
United Brethern Church. There were five sons and one daughter : John
B., who died at Hagerstown, Indiana, in 1906 ; Josiah, who died in An-
drew County, Missouri, in 1912; Elizabeth Covalt, who died in Henry
County, Indiana, in 1911; George W., now living in California, who
served four years in the Thirty-sixth Regiment of the Indiana Infantry
during the Civil war, having been chiefly under the command of General
Rosecrans, and Isaiah, who a number of years ago took up a homestead
near Wichita, Kansas, and still lives there.

David Gebhardt grew up in Indiana, received his education in the
public schools of Henry County, and in the spring of 1870, when about
nineteen years old, came to Andrew County, Missouri. Since then his
best energies have been devoted to farming and stock raising. He is the
owner of 160 acres in section 10 of Platte Township, located partly in
the bottoms of the Platte River. This land he operates through a tenant.



1828 HISTORY OF NORTHWEST MISSOURI

His home place, comprising forty-two acres, adjoins the little Village
of Whitesville on the south and is located in section 27. The house
stands on an elevation which is the highest point of land in this vicinity.
Many people in this part of the state associate this farm with the name
Jersey Stock Farm. Until he sold out about two years ago Mr. Geb-
hart was a successful raiser of high grade Jersey cattle, and kept a herd
of about twenty-five head.

Politically Mr. Gebhart acts with the republican party, is a member
of the Baptist Church and has fraternal affiliations with the Masonic
Order and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. On January 2,
1876, he married Emily M. Crockett, who was born in Andrew County,
Missouri, October 1, 1857. Her parents are Milton and Sarah E. (West)
Crockett. Some of the chief facts in this family's history will be found
on other pages of this work. Mr. and Mrs. Gebhart have two children :
Oliver C, who was born January 14, 1879, was educated for the pro-
fession of medicine at St. Louis, and is now a well-known practicing
physician in St. Joseph, being a specialist in tuberculosis cases. The
son, Ezra, born February 25, 1887, is also a resident of St. Joseph, and
by his marriage to Nell Howitt has one child, Helen, born February
10, 1912.

John W. Howitt. Though Mr. Howitt has recently retired from
the Village of Whitesville to his farm in Platte Township he has made
his chief record of success and achievement in Andrew County as a
banker. For eleven years he held the position of cashier and was prac-
tically in executive management of the Farmers Bank of Whitesville.
While capital and resources are always considered an important ele-
ment in banking, an even more important factor is the personality of
the men in active charge. Under the progressive administration of
Mr. Howitt the Farmers Bank of Whitesville is now one of the most
substantial institutions in Andrew County. When he took charge it
had a capital stock of $10,000 and a surplus of $1,200. He left it with
the capital stock the same but with a surplus of $10,000 and undivided
profits of like amount. Mr. Howitt retired from active banking on
account of ill health, but still has a block of stock in the bank and is one
of its directors.

John W. Howitt was born in Waukesha County, Wisconsin, Feb-
ruary 21, 1868, but has spent practically all his life in Andrew County,
where his parents were early settlers. His parents were James and
Elizabeth (Weaver) Howitt. His father was born in Ayrshire, Scot-
land, December 27, 1823, was brought to America by his parents at the
age of twelve years in 1835, and from New York State moved out to
Wisconsin about the time he reached his majority. He lived in Wis-
consin until 1858 and then came to Missouri and located on the
prairie five miles east of Whitesville. That was his home until his
death in 1899. He was a practical farmer and owned and directed the
management of about three hundred acres. He always took a keen in-
terest in local affairs, was a republican voter, and though reared in
the Presbyterian Church belonged for many years to the Methodist.
His wife was born December 27, 1831, in Oneida County, New York,
and went with her parents to Wisconsin in 1839, and was married there
December 25, 1851. She died in Andrew County in 1908. Of the five
children two died in infancy, and the other three are : A. J., of Platte
Township ; Agnes E., widow of James Colville of Platte Township ; and
John W.

John W. Howitt received his education in the common schools, and
in 1891 was graduated from the Gem City Business College at Quincy,



HISTORY OF NORTHWEST MISSOURI 1829

Illinois. While he was reared on a farm and has always had some in-
terests in the country, his active career has been spent mainly along
commercial lines. He had a general merchandise store at King City
until it was burned out, and he then returned to a farm in Andrew
County. For a year and a half he gained some valuable experience as
a clerk in St. Joseph and then returned to Whitesville and became
cashier of the bank. He is now living on a well improved small farm of
sixty acres 4% miles north of Whitesville.

Mr. Howitt is a republican, a citizen of influence in his part of
Andrew County, and has long been identified with the Baptist Church,
having served as superintendent of Sunday school and teacher of a
class. Fraternal matters have made a strong appeal to him and he is
affiliated with the Masonic Order, the Independent Order of Odd Fel-
lows, the Modern Woodmen of America, the Woodmen of the World
and the Order of Yeomen.

On May 1, 1889, Mr. Howitt married Jennie McAllaster of Gentry
County, Missouri. They have one daughter of their own, Stella, who is
the wife of V. L. Townsend, living 2y 2 miles south of Whitesville. Mr.
and Mrs. Townsend have two children, Francis Marion and Josephine
Victoria, both of whom are the pride and delight of their grandparents.
Mr. Howitt is also rearing an orphan boy, named Raymond Howitt,
who was taken from an orphan home in St. Louis at the age of thirteen
months and is now eight years of age and attending school.

Ralph Stinson. A life of quiet effectiveness, marked by a record
of many duties well done and many responsibilities faithfully fulfilled,
has been that of Ralph Stinson, one of the venerable citizens of Andrew
County, and still living on his fine old farm on section 10 of Platte
Township, in his eighty-third year. Mr. Stinson was one of the men
who developed and made Andrew County what it is. As an early set-
tler, a soldier, a farmer, and in the round of commonplace accomplish-
ments which fill every life, he has given a faithful and intelligent per-
formance of each task, and has a record which may well be admired by
the generations that follow him.

Ralph Stinson was born in Sandusky . County, Huron Township,
Ohio, December 11, 1832, and much of his life was spent in new coun-
tries and close to the western frontier. His parents were Seth and
Elizabeth (Stull) Stinson, his father a native of New York and his
mother of Pennsylvania. His father died December 19, 1885, aged
seventy-five years, ten months and twenty-eight days, and the mother
passed away June 13, 1890, aged seventy-nine years, eleven months and
fourteen days. Both died at Marion in Linn County, Iowa. They were
married in Sandusky County, Ohio, moved to Williams County in the
same state, and out to Iowa about 1843. Seth Stinson bought a claim
in Iowa and entered a large amount of land in Linn County, and spent
the rest of his career as a pioneer farmer. There were eight children
in the family, briefly mentioned as follows: Ralph; Robert, who still
lives at the old home place near Marion, Iowa, and saw three years of
service in the Civil war as captain of an Iowa company ; George, a resi-
dent of Oklahoma, was also three years a soldier and in his brother's
company ; Franklin, of California, spent three years with an Iowa regi-
ment; Marion is now deceased; Mary Jane is the wife of Mr. Mills of
Tama, Iowa ; Mrs. Sarah Black, now deceased ; and Laura, who died after
her marriage to Wane Leuts.

Ralph Stinson lived with his parents, first in Williams County, Ohio,
and later in Iowa, until 1854. In that year he came to Andrew County.
Missouri, and identified himself actively with the work of improvement



1830 HISTORY OF NORTHWEST MISSOURI

that was then converting the wilderness into a landscape of farms. He
improved two farms on the prairie in Andrew County, and since 186-1
has lived on his present estate in Platte Township, all of which he
cleared and put under cultivation. A residence of half a century in one
community is in itself a distinction, and in the case of Mr. Stinson it
has been accompanied by much effective service both in his own interests
and for the benefit of the community. His farm in section 10 in the
north half comprises 327 acres, and is known as the Forest Home Farm.
General farming has been the feature of his industrial efforts, and
he has also long been identified with the milling interests. He
operates a sawmill and a sorghum works. Mr. Stinson is an all round
mechanic, and by trade i is a millwright and. patternmaker. For a
number of years he kept on his farm a fine herd of Angus cattle. His
sorghum mill is the best equipped in the state with a capacity of 500
gallons daily, and good years the output is about five thousand gallons.
The average output of his sawmill is about five thousand feet daily.

Mr. Stinson can recall many of the interesting experiences of pioneer
times. As a boy he lived in the heavy woods of Williams County, Ohio,
where it was necessary to construct buildings to protect live stock from
the bears and other wild animals. The nearest neighbors at one time
were nine miles away. After his experience in Ohio he had some more
pioneer life on the prairies of Iowa Territory. At one time he and his
brother George were looking after a sugar camp in the woods of Iowa,
and one night they were awakened when a panther rummaging about,
got on them as they lay asleep on the ground, with their heads under
cover. The Indians killed the panther, strung its nails and put them
around their necks. Panthers and wolves and other animals were
numerous in those days, and particularly dangerous to live stock.
During the war Mr. Stinson was a member of a regiment of Missouri
State Militia. He is independent in politics, but it may be recalled that
in 1861, during the presidential campaign of that year, he made a
speech at Richmond, in Rea County, before his regiment, favoring the
election of Mr. Lincoln, and helped to win over most of his comrades to
support the republican candidate. His prosperity as a farmer has not
been kept all to himself, but it is known that any undertaking for the
general good in Andrew County will have his support and liberal dona-
tion. He gave money for the building of the hall at Whitesville for the
Interstate Corn and. Poultry Show, and has donated to the cause of many
churches and other purposes.

In 1854 at Marion, Iowa, Mr. Stinson married Ruann Tomlinson.
She was born in Scioto County, Ohio, September 13, 1835, and died in
Andrew County, October 25, 1912. They were the parents of a large
family of children: Warren lives in St. Joseph; Worth died in child-
hood; Minerva is the wife of John Whetsel of King City, Missouri;
Anna, now deceased, married John Whetsel ; Bell is the wife of Evert
Goforth of Flagg Springs, Andrew County; Franklin died January 18,
1871, in childhood; Minnie is the wife of John Potts of Guilford, Mis-
souri ; Katie is the wife of John Redkey, now deceased ; and Scott lives
in Platte Township, on his farm adjoining the home place.

Norton Burkeholder. The cashier of the Bank of Spickardsville
at Spiekard, Mr. Burkeholder is a prominent business man and land
owner in Grundy County, and represents one of the old and prominent
families of this section of Northwest Missouri, his father being the Hon.
Abraham H. Burkeholder of Trenton.

Norton Burkeholder was born at Trenton, Missouri, March 2, 1870.
His father. Abraham H. Burkeholder, was born June 27, 1835, in York



HISTORY OF NORTHWEST MISSOURI 1831

County, Pennsylvania, and is now in his eightieth year. The maiden
name of the mother was Rebecca A. Waltner, who was born July 3,
1810, in Putnam County, Ohio. Abraham H. Burkeholder was a soldier
of the Union army during the Civil war, being quartermaster lieutenant
of the One Hundred and Eighty-eighth Ohio Infantry, and was in the
army three years. During a considerable part of his service he was sta-
tioned at Nashville, Tennessee, and after the war was for a time in the
Tod Barracks at Columbus, Ohio. He was a lawyer by profession, and
in 1865 moved from Putnam County, Ohio, to Trenton, and engaged in
•the practice of law at which he continued many years until his retire-
ment. Abraham H. Burkeholder was elected on the republican ticket as
prosecuting attorney and also as judge of the Probate Court in Grundy
County, served two terms as state senator, and in 1892 was a candidate
for Congress from the Second Missouri District. He was also president
of the Trenton Board of Trade, and took an active and influential part
in getting the Rock Island to locate its shops and division point in Tren-
ton, and later was one of the leaders in the movement which also secured
the location of the shops of the 0. K. Railway at the same place.

Norton Burkeholder acquired his early education in the Trenton
schools, graduating from the high school in 1888, and in 1891 com-
pleted a commercial course at the Gem City Business College at Quincy,
Illinois. His first work was with the Rock Island Railway as chief
timekeeper of the Southwestern Division, extending between Kansas
City and St. Joseph and Davenport, Iowa. He was in the railway serv-
ice until August, 1903, at which time he was elected and took charge of
the Bank of Spickardsville, as cashier. This bank has a capital stock
and surplus of $30,000, and its other officers are Michael Wolz, presi-
dent, and Henry Waltner, vice president.

Mr. Burkeholder is a stockholder in six different banks in this section
of Missouri, and is also well known in Grundy County as a farmer and
stockraiser, being the owner of 620 acres of fine fertile land. Politically
he is a progressive republican, is president of the Spickard school
board, secretary of the Chautauqua Association, and is a deacon in the
Baptist Church. His fraternal associations are with the Independent
Order of Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias, and he is a past grand
of Grand River Lodge No. 52 of the Odd Fellows at Trenton.

On June 11, 1903, Mr. Burkeholder married Miss Sarah J. Wolz,
daughter of John F. and Sarah (Evans) Wolz. Her father was one of
the largest land owners in this section of Missouri, and the family is
still prominently represented here. Mr. and Mrs. Burkeholder are the
parents of three children: Elizabeth Nadeen, Martha Bliss and John
Hudson.

Edgar M. Harber. During an active practice at Trenton for nearly
forty years Mr. Harber has won a position through his ability and re-
peated^ successes which ranks him among the leading lawyers of Missouri.
Much of his practice has been in corporation work, and he is regarded
as pre-eminent in this sphere. While devoted to the jealous mistress of
the law, he is hardly less prominent as a democratic leader. It has been
his lot to reside in a republican county of a democratic state, and while
official honors have been consequently restricted he has for a number
of years been recognized as one of the strongest and most eligible men
in the party for the larger honors. His friends have again and again
urged him 'as a candidate for governor, and his name is spoken with
favor in every district of Missouri and through the press has become
well known in many quarters where he is personally unacquainted.

Edo-ar M. Harber was born on a farm three miles from Richmond,



1832 HISTORY OF NORTHWEST MISSOURI

Madison County, Kentucky, a region which sent more sturdy pioneers
to early Missouri than came from any other part of the United States.
His father, Thomas B. Harber, was born in the same county in 1829,
and was a son of Thomas Harber. The latter was a planter and slave-
holder and spent all his life in Kentucky. About 1856 Thomas B.
Harber, who had been reared and educated in Kentucky, migrated to
Northwest Missouri, and was one of the first men to engage in mercantile
business at the little village of Osborn in DeKalb County. He sold
general merchandise to his friends and neighbors in that country until
the breaking out of the war, when he moved out to the Territory of
Nebraska, locating in Nebraska City. The Seymour Hotel of which he
was proprietor was in that day one of the largest and best-known houses
of public entertainment in Nebraska. Returning to Missouri at the close
of the war, he bought a farm on the north line of Clinton County. 2^2
miles south of Osborn, and was engaged in its cultivation until 1872,
when he moved to Trenton. He was first known to the people of that
town as a landlord, but being a man well versed in politics and public
affairs was appointed by Governor Phelps presiding judge of the County
Court and later held the position of postmaster at Trenton until his
death. Judge Harber married Mildred A. Phelps, who was also a
native of Madison County, Kentucky, a daughter of George T. Phelps.
She departed this life in Chicago, July 27, 1914. For years she spent
her summers with her daughters, Mrs. Rella H. Wright and Bessie
Hough in Chicago, and her winters were usually passed with her daugh-
ter, Mrs. Witten, in Okmulgee, Oklahoma, also spending a goodly por-
tion of her time with her son, Edgar, in Trenton. Her nine children
were named as follows: George T., now deceased; James B., of Butte,
Montana ; Edgar M. ; Tevis S., of Leavenworth, Kansas ; Nannie L., wife
of Judge W. W. Witten, Okmulgee, Oklahoma ; Kate, who married
Frank H. Glover, and both are now deceased ; Bessie, the wife of Millie
Hough, of Kansas City and Chicago; Rella Wright, a widow living in
Chicago; and Charles C, of Leavenworth.

Edgar M. Harber partly with the aid of his father and partly
through his own efforts acquired a substantial education. He attended
school in Nebraska City, also the Trenton high school, and then took up
the study of law with H. J. Herrick. With his admission to the bar in
1875 he opened an office at Trenton, and in a very short time was mak-
ing a living and winning recognition for an alert ability and thorough-
ness of knowledge and preparation of cases which made his success a
certainty. . Much of his practice has come as the attorney for the Rock
Island Railroad Company, and until he resigned in 1911 he also rep-
resented the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Road.

Mr. Harber in 1881 married Miss Lizzie D. Austin, a native of
Trenton and daughter of Col. James Austin. She died September 23,
1907. Mr. Harber has been prominent in the Knights of Pythias Order,
having been grand chancellor of the state lodge and is now in his third
term as supreme representative. His interest in public affairs began be-
fore he was qualified by age for the exercise of the franchise. His in-
fluence has always been directed to the support of democratic principles
and candidates, and as a campaigner, a forceful and convincing speaker
he has few equals in his part of the state, and has filled engagements in
nearly every district of the state. Mr. Harber holds a high place of es-
teem in his home community, and his popularity led to his choice as city
solicitor of Trenton and also as prosecuting attorney of Grundy County.
For nearly twenty-five years he has been chairman of the Central Dis-
trict Democratic Committee, has been a delegate to numerous county and
district conventions, and was honored as a delegate to every state con-



HISTORY OF NORTHWEST MISSOURI 1833

vention from 1878 until the primary law took effect. In the national
convention of 1888 he supported Cleveland, and went to Baltimore in
1912. In 1880 he was the youngest member of the electoral college, and
was an elector in 1892 when he cast his ballot for Cleveland for the
latter 's second term. While possessing the strength requisite for gub-
ernatorial candidate, Mr. Harber has never found it possible to enter
actively upon a campaign for the nomination. In 1907 he would prob-
ably have received the nomination had not sickness in his family caused
him to refuse to have his name considered. In his private life Mr.
Harber, like many successful professional men, finds diversion from his
vocation in outdoor life. His interest in agriculture has been keen
and practical since his youth, and he is the owner of extensive farming
property, which he operates chiefly through renters, but to his favorite
country estate of nearly three hundred acres, near Trenton, he gives
his personal attention, and farms both for pleasure and profit. His
herd of Jerseys is one of the best in Grundy County. On the 16th
of December, 1914, Mr. Harber was appointed collector of internal
revenue for the Sixth District of Missouri and shortly thereafter unani-
mously confirmed by the Senate and is now in charge of this important
office at Kansas City, Missouri.

Luther Collier has been a member of the Grundy County bar
more than forty years. Success and official distinctions have come
to him in the course of his long and honorable career. He fought
for the Union in the Civil war, and the duties of patriotism and
good citizenship have always been conspicuous features of his character.
His is a pioneer stock in that part of Northwest Missouri. His father
built the first courthouse at Trenton, and in many other ways the family
have earned a proper place in the history and regard of this quarter of
the great commonwealth.

Though he was born in Howard County, Missouri, June 19, 1842,
Luther Collier has lived in Grundy County practically all his life, and
his memories cover practically 4he entire course of local history and
development, His father, William Collier, was born on a farm in Madi-
son County, Kentucky, in 1790. James Collier, the grandfather, was an
early settler in the Bluegrass State, owned and operated a plantation in
Madison County, where his life came to a close. His widow, who was a
Miss Easton, survived him, married a Mr. Mills, and came to Missouri to
end her days. The four children of her first marriage were William,
Lewis, Stephen and Millie.

In his native state William Collier grew up and married. In 1827,
accompanied by his wife and six children, he came to Missouri. This was
then the newest of all the states in the Union, and it was a long journey
from Kentucky to Howard County. Wagons and teams conveyed the
family and all their goods from one stage to another, and at night they
often" camped by the wayside. The Mississippi River was crossed at St.
Louis, and from there they followed up the valley of the Missouri to
Howard County, which received a great bulk of its early population from
Madison County, Kentucky. William Collier was a building contractor
and brickmaker, a business in which he found much employment in the
new country. His contracts took him far beyond the borders of Howard
County. Grundy County was organized in 1841, and soon afterward
the local officials awarded William Collier the contract for constructing
the courthouse. In 1842 he came to Trenton and set up a plant for the
manufacture of the brick. In the following year his family followed.
The courthouse was finished in 1844, and stood, a venerable reminder
of early days, until it was replaced a few years ago by the present mod-



1834 HISTORY OF NORTHWEST MISSOURI

ern building. After that Mr. Collier continued his business headquar-
ters at Trenton, and altogether was in active business as contractor and
builder for nearly half a century. His death occurred at Trenton
October 10, 1870. When a young man he had seen service in the War
of 1812, and the Government gave his widow a pension during her last
years.

Her maiden name was Susan Higbee. She was born in Jessamine
County, Kentucky. Joseph Higbee, her father, was a soldier of the