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tives from justice. Among the most noted ones were, James Devvers, whom he captured in Madison county, Kentucky, the reward being $1100. James Devvers was one of the bank robbers in Richmond, May 23, 1867. Another was William McDow, who killed Ben Houston near Knoxville, Missouri. He was caught at Lone Jack, Missouri, reward being $500. He also captured Abe Lee, who had killed his man in Mandeville, Carroll county, Missouri. In April, 1877, he was appointed as postal clerk in the railway mail service by Postmaster General D. M. Key, a position which he now holds. He moved to the city of St. Louis at the time he was appointed, and still resides there. He was at one time a stockholder in the Ray County Savings Bank, and a director of the Ray County Agricultural Association. By his energy and close attention to business and the duties of his office, he acquired a large amount of property. He at one time owned the fine brick mansion east of Richmond, and four hundred acres of land near and adjoining the city. In the great financial crash of 1873, that involved so many men of capital and business talent, he lost the great bulk of the fortune he had amassed. His great energy and capacity for whatever he turns his attention to, are rapidly elevating him to a high position in the prominent circles of business men of the country. His career, so far, is a fine example of what pluck and peseverance will do in overcoming all the unfavorable surroundings and obstacles of early life.

HOLLAND VANDERPOOL.

The early pioneers of our county are rapidly passing away; ere long the last of them will have been "gathered to their fathers." Among the few who yet survive is Holland Vanderpool, a native of Campbell county, East Tennessee. He was born December, 24, 1806. His father, John Vanderpool, was the very first settler in Ray county. He came in the summer of the year 1815, and located on Crooked river, in the southeastern part of the county, and the early years of our subject's life were those of the pioneer. School advantages were meagre-in fact there were no schools-and Mr. Vanderpool's literary training is, in consequence, limited to such as he acquired at home, with no further assistance from others than the teaching him of the alphabet by his parents. August 28, 1828, Mr. Vanderpool was married to Miss Leah Linville, also a native of Tennessee. The result of this union was ten children, only four of whom are now living, as follows: Franklin, James K., George W. and Martha. Holland Vanderpool has spent almost his entire life in Ray county, and now that his head is blossoming for the grave, he is sustained and blessed by the reflection that he has "lived honorably, hurt nobody, and rendered every man his due." For more than forty years he has been a faithful, consistant member of the Old School Baptist

Church. A man of proverbial kindness, he has done much to relieve the sufferings of others-ministering to the distressed, healing the sick and dispensing charity to those truly in need, whenever and wherever he could. Mr. Vanderpool took no part in the civil war. He remained at home, pursuing his life-long vocation of farming. He has made it the ruling principle of his life "to do unto others as he would be done by," and has therefore the respect of all who know him. A worthy citizen, a warmhearted, obliging gentleman. We are happy to pay this tribute to a character deserving a more extended notice than the plan of this work will allow.

ALEXANDER OLIPHANT.

Alexander Oliphant was born at Marlfield, near Kelso, county of Roxborough, in Scotland, in 1806, and died from the effects of injuries received from a fall in Leavenworth, Kansas, September 22, 1878. He married Mrs. Martha Nisbet, widow of John Nisbet, December 7, A. D. 1837, in the county of Armagh, in Ireland. His wife survives him. He had two children, Mary G. Oliphant, now Maitland, wife of Alexander Maitland, and Ralph Oliphant, both of whom survive him. Johanna H. N. Nisbet was a daugher of Mrs. Martha Oliphant by her first husband, who married James W. Black, of Richmond, Missouri. She died October 3, A. D. 1860. In 1838, Mr. Oliphant left Scotland for the purpose of making his future home in the United States. In the same year he settled on his farm, seven miles north of Richmond, in Ray county, in the state of Missouri, where he remained until the day of his death. Mr. Oliphant having become a citizen of this country, always took a lively interest in its prosperity. In all the issues peculiar to a new country constantly springing up, he displayed a clear judgment and great thought in forming his conclusions. As a farmer he was active, enterprising and successful. His farm was a model of enterprise. Always ready to encounter the risk of the adoption of modern appliances and methods, he kept pace with the great progress in agricultural pursuits. In the raising of fruit and culture of the grapes, he displayed great art, and brought to bear a knowledge of botany that only intense observation and study can supply, and in whatever direction he turned his attention in the raising of staple productions, the introduction of improved quality of cereals, the raising of stock or culture of fruit of every character, he was not satisfied to tread the trodden path, but sought from observation and science, and treatises upon the subject that knowledge which would enable him to keep fully up with the greatest advance of science. His dwelling, surrounded by plants and flowers, indigenous and exotic, displayed his culture and taste and rendered his home a bower of beauty which a Shenstone or a Rogers might have envied. Amidst all his busy and active pursuits he still retained his love

of the muses. Every department of knowledge received his attention. Mathematics never palled upon his taste, and in their varied applications, he took intense interest. Surveyor of the county in which he resided for a number of years, and subsequently undertaking large contracts of surveying under the government of the United States in the territory of Kansas, he made himself thoroughly master of the most complicated instruments and system of surveying used in surveying large tracts of country. He made a specialty of chemistry, ornithology and pyrotechny. He had a rare and valuable collection of birds of the various species peculiar to the west, and studied with care their habits and peculiarities. A devoted lover of chemistry, he spent a portion of his time in its experiments and applications; and pyrotechny furnished a means for some of its most striking illustrations as well as amusement for his leisure hours. Turning from severer pursuits, music would relax his overstrained faculties, and as the airs adapted to ballads and lyrics familiar to his youth welled from his favorite instrument, he would live over his life again and roam amidst the forests, and hills, and mountains and lakes of his native land. Mr. Oliphant graduated at Edinburgh College. He possessed a mind thoroughly disciplined by the most laborious and intense study. Possessing a fine natural capacity, and aided by every facility for acquiring information, he explored a wide field of science and stored up a vast amount of knowledge. He was gifted with a memory strong, vigorous and grasping, which retained, even in his old age, a tenacity of retention truly wonderful. His conversation was a rich and varied feast. Mr. Oliphant was member of the Episcopalian Church, enjoying full membership until the day of his death. He was distinguished for his social qualities. His society was sought by all. All would leave his social reunions not only feeling they had been pleased and entertained, but instructed. He was a kind friend, a devoted husband and an affectionate father; and his family mourn him as one whose place can never be filled.

PEYTON T. SMITH.

Peyton T. Smith, a native of Missouri, was born in St. Charles county, May 3, 1820. His parents, James W. and Lucy H., about the year 1824, removed with their infant son, Peyton, to this county, locating about seven miles southwest of Richmond, on what is known as Rollins' Branch. Nearly two years later they again removed to the farm now owned and occupied by the subject of this sketch. Here, in later years, the elder Mr. Smith, assisted by his son, operated a tannery, in connection with the farm. Peyton T. Smith was married January 19, 1843, to Miss Lucy H. Bates, a native of Virginia. The marriage ceremony was performed near where they now reside, by the Rev. Zachariah Quesenberry. This

union was blessed by the birth of six children, five of whom still live. The other, born March 3, 1847, died in infancy. The names of the surviving children, with dates of birth, are as follows, viz: Cleopatra S., born May 19, 1844; James W., born May 7, 1848; Mary S., born April 21, 1850; Nancy F., born May 22, 1852. Although Mr. Smith has met with severe reverses in business, great destruction and loss of property by fire, at different times during life, his well known industry and close attention to business, and his indomitable pluck in battling against adversity, have won for him an enviable position among his neighbors. He owns a highly improved farm of 172 acres. One hundred and sixty acres of it, comprising pasture lands, orchard and tillable fields, are in a high state of cultivation, well watered and stocked. Mr. Smith, despite the obstacles he has been obliged to combat, is to-day a successful business man, and as an evidence of the esteem in which he is held as a financier, he has been successively elected to the responsible position of director in the Ray County Savings Bank.

GEORGE FRANK.

Was born in Clarion county, Pennsylvania, September 26, 1849. His father, John Frank, died there, and his mother subsequently married Phillip Burrell. They removed to Lawrence county, Ohio, afterward to Boyd county, Kentucky, and after vibrating between these two states for some time, they finally found a permanent residence in the latter county and state. The old people yet live there. George Frank left them at the age of seventeen, to go out into the world and fight the battle of life alone. After visiting different sections of Ohio and Virginia, in all of which he lived awhile, at different times, he was married at Carbondale, Ohio, by the mayor of Athens, to Miss Dorothea Hayson, in September, 1872. They became the parents of two children, named respectively Ella and Jennie. Mr. Frank and family immigrated in 1876 to Missouri, settling in Ray county. Two years later he went to Leavenworth, Kansas, returning again here, after an absence of about fifteen months. He has followed the occupation of mining all his life, which accounts for the somewhat nomadic life he has led. He is a member of both the orders of Odd Fellows and Knights of Pythias.

HENRY PAGE.

Was born in April, 1826, in Howard county, Missouri. In the autumn of 1835 he came to Ray county, where he has ever since made his home. A year later, by the death of his father, he was compelled, at the early age of ten years, to commence to labor for the support of the family. He was thus denied the privileges that even those primitive times afforded for the acquirement of an education. When only twenty years old, he

enlisted as a soldier, under General Sterling Price, and did good service in the war against Mexico. After his discharge, allured by the hope of finding a short road to wealth in the gold fields of California, he crossed the plains, in the year 1850, with a train of ox teams. After spending four years of privation and toil in the mining camps of the west, he returned home, bringing a goodly quantity of the precious metal with him. Mr. Page was married November 8, 1859, to Miss Emma Thompson, of Ray county. Six children were born to them, named as follows: Joseph T., Sallie A., Nellie, Margaret S., Henry, and Elizabeth. This gentleman, as the result of his habits of industry and economy, is the owner to-day of fourteen hundred acres of good, rich land. Besides being a successful farmer, he is also extensively engaged in stock-raising, usually feeding all the grain he produces at home. His farm, one of the finest and best in the county, is situated four miles north of Richmond.

THOMAS B. HEWLETT.

The subject of this sketch was born August 16, 1815, in Hanover county, Virginia. He is descended, on the paternal side, from Scotch. ancestry; his mother's people were English. When he was but a year old, his parents removed with him to Washington county, Kentucky, where he grew up to manhood's estate. In the fall of 1836, he emigrated to Palmyra, Missouri, but, after remaining only a year, went back to Kentucky. Again, in 1842, he came to Missouri, and chose Ray county as the place for his future and permanent residence, settling, at first, seven miles north of Richmond, where he continued to reside until 1857, at which time he sold his farm and bought the one where he now lives. Here, he built Hewlett's saw mill, and in 1859, also a grist mill, which he operated, as miller, for eighteen years. In 1878, he sold his mill, and since that time, has devoted his attention altogether to farming. Mr. Hewlett was, in 1880, a successful candidate for judge of the county court of Ray county. This honorable position he has since filled, to the entire satisfaction of the people. Judge Hewlett was married, before he left Kentucky, in April, 1836, to Miss Nancy Flournoy, a native of that state. They had four children, two of whom, John P., born July 3, 1839, and Emily, born April 23, 1847, still survive. Mrs. Hewlett died August 15, 1847, and he married again April 4, 1852. The second Mrs. Hewlett is a native of Missouri. Her maiden name was Miss Rhoda A. Trigg. The fruit of the last union is four children, living: Thomas B., Jr., born January 18, 1853; Pocahontas, born May 5, 1854; Elizabeth, born August 8, 1859; Alexander D., born March 30, 1861. Judge Hewlett's father, Terry Hewlett, was a Virginian, born about 1770, and died in 1820. He served valiantly under the American flag in the war of 1812. The gentleman whose name heads this article is well and widely known, and

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