Ezra H. Frisby

Ezra H. Fbisby. The entire career of Ezra H. Frisby, one of the substantial business men and public-spirited citizens of Bethany, and one who has taken an active part in the upbuilding of this locality, has been spent in the community in which he now lives, he having been born near Bethany, in Harrison County, October 17, 1862, a son of Capt. Jonathan C. and Sarah J. (Briggs) Frisby.

The grandfather of Ezra H. Frisby was born in Pennsylvania, where the family was located in the Pennsylvania Dutch settlement, and during the pioneer days, prior to the War of 1812, moved to Muskingum County, Ohio. In his latter years he was a Baptist minister, and his death occurred near Bloomington, Illinois, the grandmother passing away in 1871, in Harrison County, Missouri. They were the parents of two children: Jonathan C. and Russell. By a former marriage the grandfather was the father of a son, James M., who died at Centerville, Iowa, and a daughter, Sarah, who married a Mr. Smith and died near Oskaloosa, Iowa.

Capt. Jonathan C. Frisby was born in Muskingum County, Ohio, April 19, 1817, and was given but little schooling, attending the district schools two terms of four months each, and walking six miles for that meager training. From Zanesville, Ohio, he went to Bloomington, Illinois, and in 1858 came to Harrison County, Missouri, where he engaged in farming and established a place for himself among the modestly substantial agriculturists of his locality. During the Civil war he was a captain in the Missouri militia, being identified with the Home Guards, and furnished a son for the Union army, James 0. Frisby, who served three and one-half years and was honorably discharged after a valiant service, without wounds or capture. Captain Frisby was once county judge of Harrison County, from 1868 to 1870, and was a member of the republican party from the time of its organization. Fraternally he was a Master Mason. He was widely known throughout Harrison County, and was particularly noted for his strong physique. In addition to general farming, he was engaged in buying and shipping stock at an early day, driving it to Chillicothe, Missouri, and Burlington, Iowa, for shipment. Captain Frisby married Sarah J. Briggs, a daughter of John Bowles and Catherine (Eveland) Briggs, natives of Muskingum County, Ohio, and she died August 4, 1894, Captain Frisby surviving her until June 20, 1903. They were the parents of the following children: James 0., who died at Bethany, Missouri, December 25, 1894, leaving a widow and two sons; Aclnah H., of Supply, Oklahoma; Catherine, who became the wife of Dr. Jackson Walker, of Bethany; Perry, who died in New Mexico; and Frank, who died at Bismarck, North Dakota, both leaving families; Jennie, who married Asa M. Wood, of Overland Park, Kansas; and Ezra H.

The boyhood of Ezra H. Frisby was passed in the vicinity of Bethany, where he secured his early education in the public schools, following which he graduated from Bethany High School and entered the law department of the University of Michigan, where he was graduated with his degree of Bachelor of Laws in 1883. Having completed his education, he was admitted to the bar of Michigan in the fall of 1882, and to the bar of Missouri in 1883, the latter upon examination before Judge Goodman. He was admitted to the bar in Marion County, Kansas, in 1886, but never practiced his calling except in Missouri. Mr. Frisby associated himself with Judge S. W. Vandivert, as Vandivert & Frisby, which combination was dissolved by the judge's removal to Kansas, and for some years Mr. Frisby practiced alone. His second partnership was with Judge Daniel S. Alvord, as Alvord & Frisby, which covered a period of twelve years and was dissolved by the death of Judge Alvord, and

Mr. Frisby's present partnership with his son, Frank M., was formed in 1911.

Mr. Frisby's first important law ease was his prosecution and conviction of Freeman J. Cochran for the murder of Stanbrough, the prisoner being convicted and sent to the gallows. Another murder case which he prosecuted was that of Mrs. Frances M. Linthicum for the killing of her child, but the jury brought in an acquittal. In his political life Mr. Frisby is a republican, and his first presidential vote was cast for James G. Blane, since which time he has never lost an opportunity of voting for presidential candidates of his party. He was secretary of the county central committee for several years and his campaign work comprises speeches in local campaigns. He attended the national republican convention at Chicago in 1908, when Taft was nominated, and was present as a spectator at the St. Louis convention in 1904, when Colonel Roosevelt was nominated for President. Mr. Frisby was elected county attorney of Harrison County in 1888 and again in 1890, and succeeded in office George W. Barlow. He was elected to the State Senate in November, 1904, at a special election to fill the term of Lieutenant-Governor McKinley, and filled this term with one session of the Legislature, his district comprising the counties of Harrison, Mercer, Grundy, Putnam and Livingston. His entry of the Senate marked his service in a democratic body and a republican house, and he served just the one term and then retired. Mr. Frisby was made a member of the Committee on Education, the Committee on Penitentiary and Reform, which started the work on the new buildings at Jefferson City, and the investigating committee which was sent to St. Louis to investigate the Kerns-Niedringhaus senatorial contest.

Mr. Frisby was one of the organizers of the Harrison County Bank and has been a director thereof since its inception, acting in a like capacity with the Bethany Savings Bank, was one of the incorporators of the Bethany Hardware Company, and president of the Bethany Printing Company, also holding large shares of stock in various other corporations of the town. He has had farming interests all of his life and at the present time has six different properties in Harrison County, being also extensively interested in wheat raising near Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, where he is cultivating some 4,000 acres of land. As a builder of Bethany he erected his residence on the corner of Brush and East streets, and also is the owner of eight business houses here. In various ways and in numerous positions he has assisted in the material, industrial and civic development of this town. During four years he was city attorney, and from 1886 until 1890 he served in the capacity of mayor, but during this time nothing more was done beyond the routine business, although his administration was an exceptionally able and prosperous one. Fraternally Mr. Frisby is a Knight Templar Mason and belongs to the Knights of Pythias. His boyhood was passed under the influence of Christian parents of the Presbyterian faith.

On April 20, 1885, Mr. Frisby was married at Eureka Springs, Arkansas, to Miss Eva M. Tucker, a daughter of James G. Tucker, formerly of Harrison County, Missouri, and a native of Bethany. Mr. Tucker married Rhoda J. Howell, and both now reside at St. Joseph. Mr. Tucker is a native of Virginia and passed the active years of his life as a farmer. His children. were four in number: George M., Thomas O., Mrs. Frisby and Lee. Three children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Frisby, namely: Miss Lane, a graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music, attended Northwestern University, Chicago, and Randolph- Macon College, Macon, Virginia; Frank M., schooled in Missouri University, where he took a literary course, and the LTniversity of Michigan, where he graduated from the law department in 1898, since which time he has been engaged in practice, with his father since 1911; and Miss Lottie, who died in 1912, while attending the Bethany High School.

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.