In the books' own words, not ours, with obvious scanning errors fixed. The later printings (1901 and 1915) are folded below the first. Families often supplied these stories to the publisher, so check key dates.
Born 1835
From Encyclopedia of the history of Missouri (1901), A history of northwest Missouri (1915), The History of Grundy County, Missouri : an encyclopedia of useful information, and a compendium of actual facts. It contains a condensed history of the state of Missouri and its chief cities ... ; it (1881)
HON. A. H. BURKEHOLDER.
Abraham Hudson Burkeholder was born at Dillsbury, York county, Pennsylvania, June 27th, 1835. When he was four years of age his parents moved to Perry county, and settled on a farm near Newport, where he enjoyed the advantages of the neighborhood common school until his nineteenth year, when he began the battle of life for himself. He went on the Juniata Canal as a boat driver and soon became a bowman and steersman. In a few months, however, he was taken down with a malarial fever, from which he did not recover for nearly a year, and this event was the turning point in his life, as he entered the Markleville Normal Institute in his twentieth year, where he graduated, receiving the second honors of his class, in his twenty-fourth year. He had no capital but his love of knowledge and a determination to obtain it by his habits of industry and economy.
By teaching school and other labor, he paid for his own education. After graduating he entered the law ofbce of Mclntire & Son at Blooralield. Pennsylvania, in April, 1860, where he read law, and at the April term of the Common Pleas Court, in 1862, was admitted to the bar. In the meantime his father had moved to Ohio, near Toledo, and he immediately followed him. He had been a Democrat up to this time and had voted the Douglas ticket in 1860, but here he cut loose from old party lines and afterward acted in harmony with the administration of Lincoln, and made speeches against the rebellion. On December 25th, 1862, he married Miss Rebecca Ada "Waltner, of Putnam county, Ohio. They have a family of two children living, Poe and Xorton. He taught school during the fall of 1862 and winter of 1863, at the close of which he took the field and made recruiting speeches for the Union army, and in June, 1863, enlisted as a private soldier in the Eighty-eighth Ohio volunteer infantry. He was successively promoted till he became quartermaster of the One Hundred and Seventy-ninth Ohio volunteer infantry. He served till the close of the war, receiving his discharge at Kashville, Tennessee, when he returned to his home in Ohio, but immediately turned his eyes westward and moved to Missonri with his family, and settled in Trenton, where he at once began the practice of his profession. In the year 1866 he was elected as a Republican to the office of probate judge and ex officio president of the County Court, for the term of four years. In 1872 he was elected prosecuting attorney of the county, and in 1876 was elected to the State senate from the Fifth district, on the Republican ticket. On entering the senate Mr. Burkeholder at once took hold of legislation with a w-ill and determination to make himself felt, introducing a number of important measures the first session and carrying several through successfully He was a member of the committee on criminal jurisprudence and four other standing committees, and during the first session was i-regarded as a hard-working, zealous member, but as a member of the Thirtieth General Assembly, with the expe_ rience of the first session, he took rank above the average senator. In addition to other committees, he was made chairman of the committee to revise all the taxation and assessment laws relating to railroads. He is the author of the law relating to the right to increase the levy for the support of schools and erecting school-buildings, and of the act of 1879 directing the State board of equalization to make a back tax assessment on all the railroads in the State for the year 1873, but the law was not enforced and the State lost from seventy-five to one hundred thousand dollars in taxes that the railroads owed the State. Passing by a number of his bills that became parts of the statutes, his services in procuring the charter of the Quincy, Missouri & Pacific Railroad extended for the term of three years and were invaluable. His incessant labors saved the bill from defeat and thereby enabled the railroad company to go on building the road west from Kirksville, and the people of Grundy now enjoy the completion of the road to Trenton, which will before long become a fijreat through line. He possesses an enterprising spirit, always working in the interest of good society, and to build up the cmnmunity and for the spread of education. He became president of the board of trustees of Grand liver College in 1876 and he still fills that position.
As printed in The History of Grundy County, Missouri : an encyclopedia of useful information, and a compendium of actual facts. It contains a condensed history of the state of Missouri and its chief cities ... ; it (1881). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.
Burkeholder, Abraham H., lawyer, was born June 27, 1835, in Dillsburg, York County, Pennsylvania, son of Joseph L. and Barbara (Halmon) Burkeholder. His father was a farmer and freighter in Pennsylvania in the early days, during which time freight of all kinds was transported by teams in that portion of Pennsylvania in which he lived. Later in life he removed with his family to Ohio, where he died. Abraham H. Burkeholder was educated in the common schools of Pennsylvania and at the State Normal School in Perry County of that State. At the Normal School he fitted himself for school teaching and thereafter taught school in the winter and devoted himself to other employment during the remaining months of each year. After the family removed to Ohio, hie taught school for a time in Pennsylvania and studied law in the meantime. At the end of two years' reading, he was admitted to the bar in 1862, but joined the Union Army before beginning practice. He enlisted in 1862 in the Eighty-eighth Regiment of Ohio Volunteer Infantry and was made sergeant of Company I of that regiment. Later he became first lieutenant and quartermaster of the One Hundred and Seventyninth Regiment of Ohio Volunteer Infantry, in which he served until the close of the war, being mustered out in June of 1865 at Nashville, Tennessee. When the war was over, he returned to Ohio, but shortly afterward came west, and after some persuasion on the part of a friend who was then living at Chillicothe, Missouri, he located at Trenton, the county seat of Grundy County. There he began the practice of his profession, in which he has ever since been actively and successfully engaged, except while holding official position to which he was called by the peo-
As printed in Encyclopedia of the history of Missouri (1901). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.
Hon. Abraham H. Burkeholdee. On July 12, 1865, a new member was added to the bar of Trenton and Grundy county. He had many competitors then, all more or less acquainted with the community by virtue of some residence. Not one of those lawyers with whom he had his first associations is longer in practice, a fact which leaves Abraham Hudson Biirkeholder as the dean of the legal profession at Trenton. Previous to his location in Trenton he had acquitted himself worthily as a soldier and in minor capacities, and since then many honors and important services have come within the scope of his years and attainments.
Abraham H. Burkeholder was born on a farm in York County, Pennsylvania, June 27, 1835. His father was Joseph Latshaw Burkeholder, born also in York County in 1797, while Grandfather Abraham was likewise a native of that portion of Pennsylvania. However, it is believed that the head of tie next previous generation was from Lancaster County, and of early German stock. Abraham Burkeholderowned and cultivated a farm about five miles from Petersburg in York County, and lived there till death. His wife was named Brown and was of English and French stocks.
[This passage is too damaged in the scanned book to reproduce. See the original book.]
The veteran Trenton attorney had the training of an average Pennsylvania farm boy during the '40s and '50s. When the strength of his body was sufficiently mature, he was given plenty of work on the farm, but his studious nature and strong inclination for learned pursuits caused him to make the most of his educational opportunities. When nineteen he entered the Marirvdlle Normal Institute, paid his own tuition and the most of his living expenses, and on graduating in 1859 was well qualified for a position as teacher. While teaching in Perry County he also studied in the law office of Mclntire & Son at New Bloomfield, and at the April term of the Court of Common Pleas in Perry County, in 1862, obtained admission to the bar. He then went to Ohio, following his father, and the winter of 1862-63 was spent in teaching in Putnam County. Then in June, 1863, the interests of the school and of his profession were put aside, and he became one of the many units who were fighting for the union of states. He enlisted in Company I of the Eighty-eighth Ohio Infantry, and soon afterward was sent south. After fifteen months of service he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant, and later became quartermaster of the One Hundred and Seventy-ninth Ohio Regiment. He remained with his command and in active service
Google until peace came between the North and South, and was granted his honorable discharge at Nashville, Tennessee, on June 30, 1865.
Though he went back to Ohio, he almost at once took leave of his home folks and on the 12th of July arrived at Trenton. Opening his office as a lawyer, he has since been in continuous practice except so far as his official duties have interfered. Mr. Burkeholder brought his wife with him to Trenton. In 1862 he had married Rebecca A. Waltner, who was born in Wayne County, Ohio, July 3, 1840, a daughter of Jacob and Rebecca Waltner, and who died December 20, 1912. Of their marriage are two sons and one daughter still living, namely: Foe, Norton and Bliss. Poe married Laura L. Hubbell, and has two children, Wolcott Hudson and George Waltner. Norton married Sarah Wolz, and their three children are Elizabeth N., Martha B. and John Hudson. Bliss is munarried.
While as a lawyer Mr. Burkeholder has long been one of the leaders of the Grundy County bat, he has given many years of his career to unselfish public service. He was ten years president of the board of trustees of the Grand River College and for a similar period a member of the Trenton Board of Education. In 1866, the year following his arrival in Trenton, he was elected judge of probate, an office which he filled admirably four years. In 1871 occurred his appointment to the office of prosecuting attorney, tind in the following year his. administration was endorsed by a popular election. In 1876 he was elected to represent the fourth district in the Missouri Senate. In that body he was a member of the committee on criminal jurisprudence and others, and in the thirtieth assembly was chairman of the committee to revise all tax and assessment laws relating to railroad property. He was author of the law permitting an increased levy for the support of schools and for the erection of school buildings, and a number of other acts that became laws of the state.
In 1892 he was nominated by his party for Congress from the second district, made a canvass of six weeks, but was defeated by his democratic opponent.
Mr. Burkeholder still lives in Trenton, and is in his eightieth year.
Henry A. Crawford. What Henry A. Crawford has accomplished in acquiring a home and building up substantial prosperity as a farmer may well prove a stimulus and incentive to others. He is an Indiana man who a little more than thirty years ago found himself possessed of a family but no capital and with restricted opportunities for getting ahead in the world. He accordingly determined to come out to Northwest missouri. He had to borrow money to ship his household effects, and arrived in Andrew county with no special credentials except a willingness to work and an ambition which has steadily propelled him forward to better things. His first attempt at getting a home of his own was the buying of half an interest in four acres, with two years to pay for it at ten per cent interest, then a prevailing and not unusual rate for the use of money, but before the note was due he bought out his partner. By thrift, hard work and close economy he managed to pay for the four acres, and by repeating the same process bought two acres, later buying another four acres. He has never been afraid to assume liability, having the courage and the self-reliance necessary to meet obligations as they fall due. After getting ten acres he bought another tract of land of twenty-five acres nearby, and then followed that with the purchase of eight acres. He next bought 91 acres, and then bought fifteen acres. His transactions included at that time 67 1 acres and he later bought 100 acres, and after selling sixty acres two
Google years ago he still has a farm of 107 acres, all paid for with a surplus in the bank, and with a credit carefully maintained that entitles him to the trust and confidence of every business man in Andrew County. Mr. Crawford spent a number of years in the heavy task of clearing up brush land, since practically all his acreage when he secured it was raw land and had to be cleared before it could be cultivated. His first home was a small box house unplastered, and hardly worth $25. Mr. Crawford is a mechanic, having built all of his buildings, which are modern. He now owns a fine home with all the conveniences of good living, has provided liberally for his family, has at different times been a factor in community enterprise, and has also helped several of his relatives to get started in the same section of Missouri.
Henry A. Crawford was born in Jefferson County, Indiana, May 8, 1860, a son of John R. and Joeta (Cox) Crawford. His father was born in Thomastown, Maine, April 2, 1832, and his mother was born in Gallatin County, Kentucky, February 26, 1838. His father grew up in Maine and Massachusetts, and was married in Frankfort, Kentucky, April 20, 1854. From Kentucky they removed to Indiana, and spent the rest of their lives there on a farm. John R. Crawford served three years in the Civil war, having enlisted in the Sixth Indiana Infantry, and after his term of service was over he reentered the service as a veteran. He lived to a good age and died in January, 1901, while his wife passed away in February, 1889. They were the parents of six sons: Adalbert, of Platte Township; James S., of Parnell, Missouri; Henry A., of Platte Township; George A., who was born September 3, 1865, and died at the age of ten years; Samuel, of Columbus, Indiana; and Edward, who died at the age of five years.
Henry A. Crawford grew up on the Indiana farm, received the training of a country boy, and in country schools, and lived there until 1882. He was the first of his family to come to Andrew County, Missouri, and has been at his present, location in Platte Township since 1883. His farm is one of exceptional improvements, and is well deserving the title of West Lawn Farm. It is noted as a breeding farm for Poland China hogs, though Mr. Crawford is also a general grain raiser and stock farmer.
In affairs outside his home place, he has taken an interest in several business enterprises. For the past nine years he has been on the board of directors of the Andrew County Mutual Fire, Lightning and Tornado Insurance Company, and for several years served as a director of the Andrew County Mutual Telephone Company. For nine years he was a member of the local school board. Politically he gives his support to the republican party.
February 7, 1877, Mr. Crawford married Amelia Jane Bivens, who was born in Jefferson County, Indiana, October 11, 1859, and grew up and was married there. Her parents were James and Lydia Bivens. Mr. and Mrs. Crawford have a fine family of children, there having been eight births, the three first in Indiana and the others in Andrew County. Edward M., the oldest, is a farmer in Platte Township, and by his marriage to Lulu Beatie has three children; John 0., who was born October 3, 1880, was murdered in Lewistown, Montana, November 8, 1913, leaving a widow and two children by his first wife; Frank A., a resident of Minneapolis, married Minnie Bryant and has one child; Orpha is the wife of George Silvers of Platte Township, and has three children; Archie B. married LiUie Beattie, and has one child by a former marriage; Goldie M. is the wife of Earnest Deal of Platte Township, and has one child; Elsie died in infancy; and Freeman, the youngest, lives at home.
As printed in A history of northwest Missouri (1915). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.
Their biographies name Abraham H. Burkeholder: Norton Burkeholder (b. 1870)
The printed record stops around 1901. We trace your line from there down to you, with every source cited.