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BIOGRAPHIES.
History of Linn County,
Missouri
An Encyclopedia of Useful Information, and A Compendium of
Actual Facts.
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It Contains
A Condensed History of the State of Missouri and Its Chief
Cities -
St. Louis, Kansas City and St. Joseph;
A Reliable History of Lynn County -
Its Pioneer Record, War History,
Resources, Biographical Sketches and Portraits of
Prominent Citizens; General and Local Statistics of great
Value, and a Large Amount of Miscellaneous
Matter, Incidents, etc. Etc.
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ILLUSTRATED
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Publ. Kansas City, Mo.
Birdsall & Dean.
1882
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Bucklin & Bucklin Twp. -
ALLEN NICKERSON, a farmer and
stock-raiser, six miles north of Bucklin, was born in
Madison county, Kentucky, 1824. He is the son of
John and Ruth Nickerson both natives of Kentucky, who
came to Missouri in 1835, and settled in Howard county,
where the subject of this sketch was raised on a farm, and
was educated in the common schools of the country. His
mother died in Howard county in 1832. In 1842 Mr.
Nickerson came to this county and settled in Bucklin
township, where he has since resided. His father moved
to this county in the spring of 1847, and died in the fall
of the same year.
Mr. Nickerson was married in 1844, to Miss
Emma Long, of this county, but a native of Howard.
By this union they have six children living. His wife
died in 1866. He was again married in 1868 to Mrs.
Frances R. Speece, a native of Virginia, by whom he has
one child, He and wife and most of his family are members of
the Missionary Baptist Church. His paternal
grandfather was a soldier in the Revolutionary War.
He had three brothers in the Mexican War, one of whom died,
and one was killed.
Mr. Nickerson is an industrious, energetic
farmer, as his premises indicate. He is a man highly
respected in his community, and one which the community may
well be proud of. He has raised a family of children
who are an honor to their parents.
Source: History of Linn County,
Missouri -
Publ. Kansas City, Mo. by Birdsall & Dean -
1882 - Page 663 |
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Benton Twp. -
COLONEL BENJAMIN F. NORTHCOTT.
Colonel Northcott was born in Fleming county,
Kentucky, May 29, 1817, and is the son of the Rev.
Benjamin Northcott, who was born in Chowan county, North
Carolina, Jan. 16, 1770, and was for many years a prominent
and active Methodist preacher of that State. The
mother of the subject of this sketch, Martha Odell
Northcott, was the daughter of a Methodist preacher, who
removed from the State of Virginia and settled in Kentucky
in an early day. She was a second wife of the Rev.
Benjamin Northcott, by whom she had five sons and seven
daughters. By his first wife Benjamin had three
daughters, making fifteen children in all. Many
persons now in Linn county recollect Rev. Benjamin
Northcott, of Kentucky as a man of more than ordinary
powers in the pulpit.
The subject of this sketch, Colonel Northcott,
received a common school education in Kentucky, but
subsequently his courses of study as a minister, and still
later as a lawyer, gave him a good stock of knowledge as
well as the mental discipline usually secured by a liberal
education.
Colonel N. removed to Menard county, Illinois,
in 1840, where he followed farming till the fall of
1850,when he followed farming till the fall of 1850, when
he, as a preacher in charge, went to Mount Sterling,
Illinois, where he remained two years; thence to Barry,
Illinois, for two years, where he preached; thence to Linn
county, Missouri, in November, 1854, where as presiding
elder of the Hannibal district of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, he traveled the northeast portion of the State until
February, 1857. This district then extended from
Hannibal west to Trenton. In 1857 he returned to Adams
county, Illinois, where he traveled as a Methodist preacher
until the summer of 1862, when in connection with Col. J.
F. Jacquess, then president of Quincy College, he
organized the Seventy-third Illinois Volunteers, of which he
was commissioned lieutenant-colonel. They traveled,
made recruiting speeches, authorized men to raise companies
for their regiment, and when the time came for mustering in
their regiment, over twenty full companies were ready and
sixteen of them were present at Camp Butler, near
Springfield, Illinois. Six of them were turned over to
Colonel (now General) J. H. Moore, who was another
preacher-colonel.
Colonel N. served with the regiment in the fall
campaign of 1862 in Kentucky and Tennessee, participating in
the battles of Perryville and Murfreesboro, after which his
health failed. He was attacked by a dropsical
affection of the feet and legs, accompanied by general
debility, when he resigned his commission and returned to
Linn county, Missouri, in April, 1863. He cultivated
his farm till the close of the war, when he removed to
Linneus and engaged in the practice of law with Hon. W.
H. Brownlee, as partner. Afterwards was in
partnership in the law business with his son B. J.
Northcott, who still resides and practices law in
Linneus. He was one of the earliest advocates of the
north and south railroad through Linn, Sullivan and Putnam
counties, and in his capacity as managing director and
president of the local company known as the North Missouri
Central, he was perhaps, more than any other man,
instrumental in securing its completion. It was to his
exertions and influence that the company was indebted for
securing the charter privileges of the St. Joseph & Iowa
Railroad Company and the consolidation with the Burlington &
Southwestern. He was married, in 1840, in Botts
county, Kentucky, to Miss Elizabeth Ann Christy, a
sister of the Hon. A. D. Christy of Unionville,
Missouri, who is still living and the mother of nine
children, five of whom are still living: B. J. Northcott,
lawyer, Linneus, Missouri; C. W. Northcott, teacher,
Enterprise, Missouri; Mrs. D. W. Barclay, and Mrs.
G. G. Alexander, of Enterprise; and Miss Nellie
Northcott, teacher, Browning, Missouri. The only
office of a political character held by Colonel Northcott
which will be mentioned here is, that he was a member of the
Constitutional Convention of Illinois of 1848, from Menard
county, to which he was elected as a Whig, when the county
had a Democratic majority. Honorable William Engle
was spoken of as the opposing candidate but declined in
favor of Colonel N. and refused to make the race.
However, he received some votes. Colonel N.
also served one term as mayor of Linneus, to which he was
elected without opposition. He served as curator of
the Missouri State University for several years during an
eventful period for that institution.
Columbia not being in accord with the party in power, the
removal of the University was agitated, but the Colonel cast
his influence into the scale in favor of its remaining at
Columbia. At this time he served on a committee of the
board of curators which located the School of Mines, which
is a branch of the State University, at Rolla, Missouri.
He has always been a zealous friend of popular education; as
a school director, as well as by his individual efforts, has
done his full share toward building up the schools and
school-houses in Linn county where he has resided.
In politics he is a Republican. He is a Mason and
Good Templar. He now resides at Browning, where he
practices law and has an interest in a mercantile
establishment. His early training as a pulpit orator
has been of great assistance to him in the practice of the
law, as there is no better school for advocacy teaching than
the pulpit, and he is able to meet other lawyers before the
apostolic twelve in the jury box with signal success.
In fact Colonel Northcott is a speaker who is always
listened to with pleasure by his acquaintances.
Horticulture has always been a favorite pursuit with him.
He has urged the planting of large orchards in this county
and set the example when farming by planting an apple
orchard of 1,500 trees.
Source: History of Linn County,
Missouri - Publ. Kansas City, Mo. by Birdsall & Dean - 1882 - Page 771 |
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