serve efficiently as a member of the school boards of AVhitesville and
Bolckow, having acted in this capacity almost from the time he attained
his majority. His political support is given to the democratic party.
Mr. Saunders is a member of the Christian Church at Bolckow, and for
a number of years has served as superintendent of the Sunda}- school.

In December, 19U2, Mr. Saunders was united in marriage to Miss
Kate L. Bartholomew, who was born at Wkitesville, in 1881, daughter
of Henry and Martha Bartholomew. Mr. Bartholomew, who was an early
settler of Whitesville, and one of the first harness makers at that place,
died after mam- years of industrious labor there, Mrs. Bartholomew
surviving. Four children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Saunders,
namely : Mary Olive, Vincent Henry, Leonard Clayton and Harry Irving,
all residing at home.

James E. Etherton. Born in one of the pioneer homes of Ray
County, James E. Etherton has for many years been identified with the
farming community of Davis Township in Caldwell County. By good
judgment and industry he has provided his declining years with a
comfortable home and a sufficient prosperity, and he and his good wife
have reared a family who do them honor. Mr. Etherton has a farm of
eighty acres, and lives in peace and comfort. His house contains seven
rooms, surrounded by lawns, shade trees and fruit orchard, and under
his management his fields have been regularly producing the staple crops
of Caldwell County for an entire generation.

James E. Etherton was born six miles northeast of Knoxville in Ray
County in 1848. His father, William Etherton, was born in Kentucky,
October 2, 1818, and was brought to Ray County in 1832 by his father,
William Etherton, Sr. The last named was one of the first settlers in this
section of Missouri, and built and operated the first water power grist
mills in northern Ray County. William Etherton, Jr.. married in Ray
County, Mary Ann Thogmartin, who was born in Tennessee, and came
with her father, Joseph Thogmartin, from that state to Ray County in
1833. Thus on both sides of the house Mr. Etherton is connected with
some of the earliest families who helped to make history in Ray County.
William Etherton and wife were the parents of the following children:
AVilliam, who enlisted in the Confederate army in the Civil war and was
killed while fighting with Gen. Sterling Price in the battle of Frank-
lin in 1861 ; Thomas, who is also deceased ; Mary J., who lives in Topeka,
Kansas ; Henry, who died at the age of fourteen ; James, of this review ;
and Warren, who died in October, 1914, leaving a widow and children.
Mr. Etherton 's mother died at the age of thirty-two, and his father later
married Margaret Watson, and that union resulted in five children:
Thomas, deceased ; John, deceased ; Mary Ann ; Sally, deceased ; and
Dr. William C, who practices at Millville, Missouri. The father of these
children died at the age of eighty-eight years. He was a democrat in
politics and a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.

James E. Etherton grew up on the old farm in Ray County, and
had his experiences in the log cabin days of this section. He attended a
school kept in a log cabin, but his career is only one of many illustrations
that prove how such primitive schools did not fail to produce useful men
and women and the citizens who bore the brunt of progress during the
last century.



HISTORY OF NORTHWEST MISSOURI 1887

At the age of twenty-seven, on January 10, 1877, Mr. Etherton mar-
ried Hannah P. Davis, of one of the oldest and most prominent families
in Caldwell County. She was born in Davis Township April 10, 1S59, a
daughter of John T. Davis and a granddaughter of Dennis Davis, the
pioneer in whose honor the township was named. John T. Davis married
Margaret Moore, who was born in Illinois, and they became the parents
of the following children: Rose, deceased; Mary A., of Kansas City;
Elizabeth, deceased; George W., a prominent Davis Township citizen;
Dennis, deceased; Joanna, deceased; John T., Jr.; Margaret H., of Bald-
win, Kansas ; Walter S., deceased ; and Mrs. Etherton. Mr. Davis died at
the age of eighty-four 3-ears. He was a democrat and a member of the
Methodist Church.

Mr. and Mrs. Etherton have lived on their present farm for thirty-
seven years, and in that time have won prosperity from the cultivation
of its acres, have had a happy and contented home life and are now in
a position to enjoy the comforts of declining years. Their first child,
Henry C, has followed a career as an educator and married a popular
teacher of St. Louis, and both have made a name in educational affairs.
William F. died at the age of three years. Margaret E. lives at home.
John Luther, an active farmer of Taney County, is married and is the
father of one child, Morris C, aged three years. James T. farms at home
with his father. Mr. Etherton is a democrat, and has served on the
home school board.

John H. Virden, one of the well known farmers and stockmen of
Harrison County, Missouri, is a native of the community in which he now
resides, his birth having occurred December 6, 1854, and the old birth-
place now being owned by his sister, Mrs. Naomi Kinkade. The tradi-
tional history of the Virdens is that they came from England, the direct
progenitor being the great-grandfather of John H. Virden, who took
up his residence in the State of Delaware.

John W. Virden, the father of John H. Virden, came to Missouri from
Ohio, where he was temporarily located for two years. He was born
in the little Commonwealth of Delaware, and was a country boy with
the usual educational and business training, and was perhaps thirty-two
years of age when he came to Missouri, entering 160 acres of land in
Harrison County, which he improved into a good farm, and on which he
carried on agricultural operations during the remainder of his life.
He was rather past the age to take part in the Civil war, but was a
Union man and a strong republican. A Presbyterian in his religion,
he was an officer of his church and aided in the building of the Foster
Church, the first one erected in this locality, to which he was a large
contributor. He also gave more than any other man to the building of
the church of that faith at New Hampton. Mr. Virden was a quiet,
reserved man, taking but little interest in business matters beyond his
control, but was at all times known as a good and practical farmer and as
a public-spirited and dependable citizen. Mr. Virden married Miss Caro-
line Black, who was born in Surry County, North Carolina, a daughter of
a farmer, and she came to Missouri with her widowed mother and a
brother, Valentine Black. They settled just west of the Virden farm
and she married John W. Virden during the '40s and made him a faithful
and helpful wife until her death in 1902. Their children were as follows :
William M., who spent his life in Harrison County and died in 1900,
unmarried ; Eliza, who died in childhood ; John H., of this review ; Naomi,
the wife of James Kinkade. of Harrison County ; and Amy, who married
Frank Pruden, also of this county.

John H. Virden was reared in the vicinitv of his birth and there re-



1888 HISTORY OF NORTHWEST MISSOURI

ceived his education in the country school which bore the family name.
He was reared as an agriculturist and began his career as such, remaining
under the parental roof until he reached his majority and then settling on
a farm adjoining his present home in section 21. Two years later he
moved to his present place in section 16 and erected the first house ever
built on this place, the two main rooms of his present home comprising
the original dwelling. Here he has resided since the '70s, and as a farmer
he has engaged in grain growing and stock feeding, and in the early days
in dealing and shipping, while he still ships what he feeds. He owns land
in sections 15, 16, 17, 20, 21 and 22, aggregating nearly twelve hundred
acres, through which the Inter-State Trail passes, as well as two other
laid-out trails.

Mr. Virden became identified with the banking business of New
Hampton when it started as a stockholder of the Farmers Bank, and
has continued as a director of this institution ever since, also spending
several years as its president. As a builder of New Hampton he aided
in the erection of one of the leading mercantile houses of this thriving
community. Mr. Virden has not been identified with the politics of
his locality, save as a voter, and, having been brought up under a
republican roof supports the principles and candidates of that party.
He is one of the directors of the New Hampton school and served his
country school efficiently in a like capacity prior to becoming a resident
of the town.

Mr. Virden was married to Miss Angie Chipp, a daughter of John
W. Chipp, an ante-bellum settler of Harrison County from Indiana.
The following children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Virden : Lizzie,
who is the wife of Curtis Larmer, of Albany, Missouri, who died in
1910, and has three children,, Louise, John and Margaret; Stella, who
married Charles A. Rowland, of New Hampton; Amy J., who married
Lewis T. Gibbs, of Kosse, Texas; and Paul H. These daughters were
educated beyond the public schools, Mrs. Larmer attending the Albany
Institute and the female college at Liberty, Missouri, where her sister
Stella attended later, while the other daughter acquired a liberal educa-
tion in different schools at home and elsewhere.

Ben F. Wood. In the thriving little community of Laredo in Grundy
County no one family has had more intimate and active relations dur-
ing the past thirty years than the Woods, who were among the early
settlers. Ben F. Wood has been particularly prominent in this locality,
has been a teacher, a farmer, a banker and business man, and many
times has accepted the responsibilities and honors of public position.

Ben F. Wood was born in Grant County, Indiana, November 17,
1856. His father, William Wood, was born in Kentucky, August 15,
1827, and married Marinda Braffett, who was born in Ohio, October
30, 1834. The paternal grandparents were Joseph Wood and wife, and
the maternal grandparents were Silas and Mary (Woods) Braffett.
William Wood had an unusual military record. Early in his career
he enlisted for service in the Mexican war in the army under General
Scott, and some years later while living in Indiana entered the service
of the Union army in 1861 as second lieutenant in Company I of the
Twelfth Regiment, Indiana Volunteers. At the end of one year he was
honorably discharged and afterward reenlisted in Company I of the
One Hundred and First Indiana Regiment, and was promoted from
second lieutenant to captain, and commanded a company until his final
discharge from service in 1865. He was in the battle of Chickamauga,
and in the historic fight at Missionary Ridge on September 6, 1863, was.
wounded. From Indiana he moved out to Grundy County, Missouri, in



HISTORY OF NORTHWEST MISSOURI 1889

1871, went back to the old state in 1872, but in 1874 located permanently
in Grundy County and bought a farm of 179 acres two miles east of
the present site of Laredo.

Ben F. Wood received most of his education in country schools in
Indiana, and was about fifteen years of age when the family first came
to Grundy County, and was eighteen when they located here perma-
nently. In 1874 Mr. Wood began teaching school in Grundy County,
and for seventeen years followed that vocation in this and surrounding
counties and there are many people now in mature years who recall
him as one of their instructors when children. In 1891 Mr. Wood was
elected cashier of the Bank of Laredo, and for practically a quarter of
a century has been one of the vital factors in the growth and develop-
ment of this little town. He is at present a member of the board of
directors of the Citizens Bank, of Laredo. In 1894 he established
an insurance and loan business, and in 1896 bought the Laredo Tribune,
and continued in active newspaper work for fourteen years and still
owns a third interest in that paper.

Mr. Wood has always been a stanch republican, and for twelve
years served as a member of the Republican County Central Committee,
and during ten years of that time was secretary' of the committee.
He has held a commission as notary public for twenty-eight years,
served as a justice of the peace sixteen years, and for the past ten
years has been mayor of Laredo. He was also township clerk and
assessor for six years, and has been a member and secretary of the
local board of education for nineteen years. This is an unusual record
of public service, and indicates how high in the esteem of the com-
munity Mr. Wood stands. Fraternally he is identified with the Masons
and with the Modern Woodman of America, having affiliation with
Lodge Xo. 253, A. F. & A. M., and is now the secretary of this lodge.
For thirty-nine years he has been an active member of the Baptist
Church, and is now serving as trustee and deacon in the church at
Laredo.

On May 8, 1878, Mr. Wood married Miss Mary McKay, a daughter
of Moses and Roxana (Fenn) McKay. Her father was born in Switzer-
land County, Indiana, August 28, 1833, and her mother was born in
Fairfield County, Ohio, September 7, 1836. Mr. and Mrs. Wood are
the parents of six children : Althea, Orion, Claud, Icy, Susan and
William McKay Wood. The son Claud died in infancy. Althea mar-
ried George Snyder of Colorado, and now lives at Long Beach, Cali-
fornia. Orion married Margaret Hill, daughter of Andrew J. and
Katie Hill of Worth County, Missouri, and they have four children,
Lemuel, Mary K., James L. and Buford N. The daughter Icy married
Dr. Charles Nair of Pennsylvania, and now living in Linneus, Missouri.
Susan is the wife of William B. Schweizer of California, and has one
child, Mary M., and they too live at Long Beach, California.

Charles Bennett. Long life and prosperity have been given to
Charles Bennett, of Andrew County, who has already passed the
seventy-fifth milestone of life's journey, and while on the way has
accumulated more than an average share of this world's goods, repre-
sented in substantial lands and farm improvements in section 15 of
Platte Township. His home has been in this one locality since the
spring of 1867, and in all these years he has succeeded not only in
living peaceably with his neighbors but in making himself a positive
factor for good to others as well as his own family, from whom he enjoys
all the honors of old age.

Charles Bennett is a native of Canada, born in the Province of



1890 HISTORY OF NORTHWEST MISSOURI

Quebec, October 17, 1838, the third of thirteen children whose parents
were Andrew and Ann (Abbott) Bennett. All the children grew to
maturity, and two of the sons and two of the daughters are now
deceased. The parents were natives of County Cork, Ireland, his
father born in 1797 and his mother in 1817. They were married in
Canada in 1833, Andrew Bennett having emigrated to America at the
age of thirty-four. His death occurred in 1865, having for many years
followed farming both in the old country and in Canada. In 1867
the widowed mother with her children removed to Andrew County,
Missouri, and some years later she removed to Gentry County, and
died at Stanberry at the home of her youngest daughter June 4, 1911,
at advanced years.

Charles Bennett grew up on a Canadian farm, and as his parents
were poor and burdened with the responsibilities of a large household,
his educational advantages were somewhat neglected, and during his
active manhood he has acquired most of his learning by close and atten-
tive reading and observation. For several years after coming to Andrew
County he and his brother Andrew worked together and engaged in
farming on a partnership basis. Mr. Bennett now owns a well im-
proved farm of 250 acres in Platte Township, but at one time his posses-
sions amounted to 500 acres, part of which he distributed among
his children. On October 1, 1912, he suffered a heavy loss by fire
which destroyed a fine barn 168 by 42 feet, with a hundred tons of hay
and all the farming implements. He carried $1,500 insurance, but
the total loss was more than six thousand dollars. Mr. Bennett is an
interesting talker, a man of broad views gained by practical acquaint-
ance with the world and with men, and possesses a philosophic turn
of mind. As a result of an accident and advancing years he has almost
lost his eyesight, and now has to see' the printed page through the
eyes of other members of the household.

In 1881 Mr. Bennett married Mrs. Susanna H. (Nugent) McComb.
She brought him one son by a former marriage, Thomas Leroy McComb,
who is now in the grocery business in Kansas City. Mr. and Mrs.
Bennett have four children of their own : Andrew, a farmer in Gentry
County, who married Flora Ingles and has three children; Anna, who
is the wife of Frank Troupe of DeKalb County, and has four children ;
Joseph Emerson, who married Ada Van Natta and has. two sons; and
Winnie, living at home.

James M. Van Meter. A successful career has been that of James
M. Van Meter of Rochester Township, Andrew County. Many things
constitute success, and it is not alone in his material possessions, ample
though they are, that the success of Mr. Van Meter is measured. When
just entering manhood he went away to the war, spent three years in
fighting for the Union, and the close of the war came with an honorable
record as a soldier but with the serious struggle of life before him.
He came out to Northwest Missouri about this time, and in face of
obstacles which few young men of the present century would willingly
face began making a home. There followed many years of unremitting
toil, often handicapped by discouragements, but with perseverance and
persistence he has several years passed that point where independence is
established, and in addition to serving his own ends has been a valuable
citizen to the community, and served as one of the county judges of
Andrew County.

James M. Van Meter was born in Pike County, Ohio, March 8, 1843,
and two years ago passed the age of three score and ten. His parents
were Noble and Helen (Cruze) Van Meter. The grandparents were



HISTORY OF NORTHWEST MISSOURI 1891

Jacob and Susan (Moore) Van Meter, the former a Virginian, and the
latter from Pennsylvania, the daughter of a man of Irish birth. The
grandparents spent their lives in Ohio farming. Noble Van Meter was
born in Pike County, Ohio, September 17, 1818, while his wife was
born in Cumberland County, Virginia, May 4, 1818, and at the age of
fifteen was brought by her parents to Ohio, where she grew up and
was married. She died in 1899, and Noble Van Meter passed away in
1901, after a long career as a farmer. In the early days he had his
share of strenuous toil, lived and made a home in a district covered
with hardwood timber, of size and quality that would now yield a
considerable wealth, though at that time the forests were considered
an incumbrance, and Mr. Van Meter as other early settlers spent many
years in the heavy task of clearing off the trees from their land. Noble
Van Meter had an exceedingly meager education, but was a man of
industry, honest and straightforward, and did well by his home" and
his community. He served in the State Militia but save as a voter par-
ticipated little in politics or public affairs. James M. Van Meter
was the oldest of eight children, the others being mentioned as follows :
Catherine Ann, the widow of Warren Miller, lives in Oklahoma ; Martha
Jane, deceased wif e of Thomas Remmel ; John, deceased ; Eliza, deceased
wife of Thomas Greenwalt; Susan, now deceased, who married Robert
Irons; Charles, deceased; America, deceased wife of Thomas Greenwalt.

Judge Van Meter grew up in Pike County, Ohio, lived with his
parents and received the advantages of the local schools, and at the
age of nineteen volunteered his services to help put down the rebellion.
He enlisted August 6, 1862, at Bainbridge in Ross County, Ohio, in Com-
pany H of the Eighty-ninth Ohio Volunteer Infantry. Senator Foraker
was a sergeant in the regiment, and Mr. Van Meter and this distinguished
Ohio statesman have many times stood picket duty together. He
continued in the war until its close and was mustered out at Columbus,
April 11, 1865. He had many narrow escapes, and can relate many
interesting incidents of the war, particularly in the campaigns involv-
ing the subjugation of Tennessee and Northern Georgia, during 1863-64.
In the battle of Chickamauga he was wounded in the left leg, but only
a flesh wound, and was not out of service on that account. At Eutaw
Creek in Georgia a ball passed through his right thigh on August 6,
1864, and this sent him to the hospital for four months, and after he
was able to be up and around but still convalescent he was placed in
charge of a ward in the hospital, and the war was over before he was
able to resume active duty. Mr. Van Meter participated in the Tulla-
homa campaign, was at Chickamauga, Lookout Mountain, Missionary
Ridge, at Ringgold, Georgia, and until wounded and disabled was in
the famous Atlanta campaign under Sherman, involving ninety days
of almost continuous fighting from Dalton to the capital city of Georgia.
At the close of the war his blanket had thirty-two bullet holes, and
on one occasion while he was asleep a bullet pierced his knapsack
under his head.

On November 24, 1865, a few months after his honorable discharge
from military duties, Mr. Van Meter landed in St. Joseph, Missouri,
and there took a stage to Albany, where he remained until the following
March. He then came into Andrew County, and with the exception
of a short time spent in Colorado working in the mines he has been a
resident of this county ever since. For forty years he has lived in
Rochester Township, and his, home has been at his present farm thirty-
one years. Until a few years ago Mr. Van Meter owned 420 acres in
one body, but has since given his son 207 acres, and now has only
190 acres under his active control. This farm is located on the east



1892 HISTORY OF NORTHWEST MISSOURI

side of Platte River, and under his management has had a splendid
record of production through many years. He has raised mules, cattle,
horses and hogs, has specialized in the Hereford cattle and the Duroc
red hogs. A considerable part of his land is in the river bottoms,
especially valuable for cjorn, and the uplands have been utilized for
stock pasturage. "When Mr. Van Meter came into Andrew County he
started with exceedingly modest resources, on ten acres of ground
and with a two-room house built from the native lumber. He had no
place for his cattle, tied his cows up in the night, and had a rough
log shelter for his mules. The experiences of his early boyhood in the
timber districts of Ohio stood him in good stead when he came to
Northwest Missouri, and all the extensive clearing and improvements
on his home farm and those of his sons constitute a splendid testimonial
to his efforts and enterprise. He cleared up 200 acres, and removed the
stumps from the fields.

Naturally Mr. Van Meter has affiliated with the republican party
since casting his first vote while with the army in the South. He served
with efficiency in the office of county judge one term, and for thirty
3'ears has been, clerk of the district school board. He is a member of
the Masonic order and of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and
has interested himself in Grand Army organizations. Mr. Van Meter
is a director of the Peoples Bank at Union Star.

April 9, 1871, he married Charlotte Jane Courter, who was born in
Delaware County, Ohio, June 2, 1855, and came to Andrew County with
her parents September 6, 1864. Her parents were Edward S. and Mary
Elizabeth (Rolson) Courter. Her father was born in New Jersey and
her mother in Delaware County, Ohio, and both died in Andrew County.
Her father was born May 16, 1833, and died January 20, 1891, and her
mother was born April 29, 1833, and died April 20, 1884. Mrs. Van
Meter's father was a carpenter and shoemaker by trade, which he
followed in Ohio, but was a farmer after coming to Missouri. In 1861
he went out to California, accompanying a freighting outfit from St.
Joseph. Mrs. Van Meter is one of three children, the other two being
deceased, named Eliza and Wingenand Courter.

Mr. and Mrs. Van Meter have special reasons to be proud of their
family of children, ten in number, mentioned briefly as follows: Gor-
don C., who is a progressive young farmer on a part of the old home-
stead; Alonzo F., also on the home farm; Mary Ethel, wife of Robert