Ripe Old Age in Madison Missouri

A Town of 1,000 Has 33 More Than 80 Years Old

William Norton at 102, Walks Six Miles To Fish

In One Family of Five The Youngest Is 76

Thirty-three of Madison, Monroe County Missouri's one thousand inhabitants, have done their three score and ten, have added ten for good measure and are now going right ahead for the century mark.

Most of the other 967 Madisonians are children, grandchildren, et cetera, ever unto the third and fourth generation.

If priority on the job is to govern Madison's Never-Grow-Old Club, William Norton, who passed the century mark two years ago and is now waiting for others to catch up, will have to be president. Mrs. Mary White, who is 99, will probably be secretary.

A foot race at 81

J. M. Cottingham, superintendent of Benton School in Kansas City, was in Madison Saturday attending the eighty-first t birth anniversary of his father Robert Cottingham. "Heigh-ho," the elder Cottingham sighed, "I'm getting to be an old man”. "That's right, father, you are," the son agreed. The old gentleman stopped abruptly and looked up at his son "Oh, I am, am I? Is that so? Well, let me tell you right now I can outrun Davy Crockett Enochs here, for money, marbles or chalk."

They were walking along the street when the discussion arose, and come upon David Crockett Enochs, 76 years old, who scoffed at the boast.

Uncle Billy, 103, Walks 6 Miles

"Bob," be retorted, "I wouldn't run you. I'd get Uncle Billy Norton to do it, but uncle Billy walked three miles to go fishing this morning. By the time he walks three miles back he'll most likely be too tuckered to run a foot race.”

Uncle Billy is 102, He makes the 6-mile fishing trip afoot frequently.

Mr. Cottingham attributes his hearty condition to the fact that he never used tobacco. David Crockett Enochs and his brother, A. J. Enochs, 79 years old, say they'll reach 100, because they've chewed and smoked ever since they can remember.

Here is the over 80 list

The roster of the Never-Grow Old Club will Include these:

Mrs. Elizabeth Overfelt, 98

Mrs. Virginia Calloway, 93

John Holloway, 88

Mrs. Elizabeth Mason, 87

James Galloway, 87

Mrs. Jane Walker, 86

Mrs. Thompson, 86

C. C. Evans, 86

George Allen, 86

Mrs. Emily Swindell, 86

Mrs. Martha Davis, 85

William Houch, 85

Mrs. Elizabeth Gwynn, 81

John T. Noel, 81

William Delaney, 84

James Young, 81

Mrs. Mary Atterbury, 83

Charles B. Philpott, 83

Mrs. Minerva Ferrell, 83 and Mrs. Martin Houchius, 82 sisters

S. S. Bassett, 83

Mrs. Fannie Marcy, 82

Robert Yeager, 82

Sam Ferrell, 82

Joe Gwynn, 82

Elkana (Doe) Ferrell, 82

Mrs. June Brodus, 81

Wash Abbott, 80

Then there are some who are very close to 80, among them:

Capt. Hugh Stewart and James Maupin, both 79

Susan Baker and Mrs. Elizabeth Todd, 70, are young things who really shoudn't be out.

Mrs. Nannie Love, 75 and Henry Bell and Peter H. Bassett, 77.

Youngest Of A Family Is 76

Mrs. Emily Swindell 86; Mrs. Eliza J. Mason, 87; Mrs. Grath Ross, 78; A. J. Enochs, 79, and David Crockett Enochs, 76, are sisters and brothers.

Mrs. Mary White, 89, was born February 25, 1816, in Marion County, Illinois. She came to Knox County, Missouri, in August, 1841. Her father George Hunsuker, died at 96 years, and her maternal grandfather at 99 ˝  years. She was the mother of twelve children, ten of whom lived to raise familes. Six sons and one daughter still live and she has fifty-four grandchildren, 123 great grandchildren and eleven great-great grandchildren.

 Kansas city star - April 21, 1915

Local Opinon In Madison County

Prosecuting Attorney Tells The Story

Dives Thrive Best in the Shadow of the Saloons, he Declares— Fallacies Exposed.

The experience of Madison County, Missouri, with local option is told in the following letter from Emmett Williams of Fredericktown, prosecuting attorney of that county, to a Chillicothe friend.

Mr. Williams says: 'In reply to your questions I shall say:

"First: Dives thrive best in the shadow of the saloons. Remove the saloons and you have a better opportunity to get at the dive, for its effects can be seen and the dive located.  This holds good in practical experience.

"Second: The farmers do not go to the wet towns to trade, except in rare cases. I have heard of but one in this county who did that and he is very wet and is said to be so stingy that he never spent any money anywhere. On the other hand a dry town is more inviting to the better class of people.

"Third: The town does not go to the bad for the lack of license money. That is the biggest farce under the sun. When this city had saloons, three of them, the city marshal and the light plant often had to carry their warrants from month to month for the reason that there was not enough money in the treasury to pay them. Now the city pays her bills without delay, is out of debt, has reduced her tax rate 10 cents on the hundred dollars, put in granitoid crossings and has more and better streets than ever before.

"Fourth: This county, including Fredericktown, voted dry in March 1904. We had the usual deluge of 'scrip doctors', 'blind tigers' and whiskey drug stores but a few stiff prosecutions put them out of commission. The local option law can be enforced. The law does not prohibit a physician from issuing a bona fide whiskey prescription, neither does it prevent a man from ordering whiskey for his own use, but it stops the greater part of the social drinking and keeps the temptation of the saloon and the whiskey business away from the great majority of the boys and young men in the community.

"Fifth: There are numbers of prominent men in this county who doubted the good effects of local option and voted against it who are now its enthusiastic supporters. The leading newspaper in this county came out two weeks ago in an editorial acknowledging that the editor had favored saloons in days gone by but declaring that the vote would never be taken again in this county for the reason that the saloon would be covered up so deep that it would take Gabriel and his trumpet to resurrect it. Local option helps business and it can be proved by some of our leading merchants who formerly voted wet. That is what some of the antis think about the law and there is not, to my knowledge any person of any standing in this county who favored the law who would now vote for its repeal. Local option is all right."

The Cillicothe Constitution, Chillicothe, Missouri, Thursday, February 13, 1908

Highly Refined Product Flowing From Operation Astounding

Special to the news

Fredericktown, Mo.. April 4.—Fredericktown's oil well continues to be the wonder of South­east Missouri, as mystifying today as on that other day, a month ago when a slight earthquake opened a crevice in Joe Shrum's cistern and released from the bowels of the earth a product so highly refined that oil men who have investigated it are astounded.

"Within the last two weeks the owner of the well has made more definite arrangements for saving the oil and measuring the daily production, and it is now apparent that the output increases daily in proportion to the number of times the cistern is emptied. For the last week twenty to twenty-five gallons of the almost pure product has been taken out each morning and smaller quantities during the day. The total daily quantity has been accurately gauged, but plenty of men, are to found who will wager that as mush as fifty gallons can be taken, out each twenty-tour hours, or at the rate of a barrel a day.

Shrum is retailing the product at 20cents a gallon and numerous auto­mobiles are now running on the oil, the only refinement given being: a straining through a cloth. Drivers claim they get as much mileage and more ""kick" than when using gasoline from ordinary filling stations.

In the meanwhile several analyses have been made by chemists, some of them from oil companies. All agree that the product is substantially two-third's gasoline and one-third kerosene, with a very small part of residue.

Opinions continue to vary as to the origin of the substance. Samples sent to oil men at Ponca City, Oklahoma elicited an opinion that the product could not have originated from a natural deposit of petroleum. Then Judge W. P. Mc Canns of Fredericktown took a sample to the Gillland Oil Company at Tulsa and chemists of that company reported that "it is improbable that it represents a natural petroleum product.   On the other hand, there have been numerous visitors to Fredericktown by oil men, some of them men whose opinions are regarded highly, who are equally positive that the product of the cistern is being forced to the surface from an oil pool located somewhere in the vicinity".

The Ethyl Oil and Gas Company has  had representatives here, but these men are also mystified as to the phenomenon. This company has taken leases on 2,000 acres of land as a result of the showing, and the drill will be used in solving the riddle.

Dallas Morning News Historical Archive - April 4, 1925

Fredericktown Is Booming

War Brings  Great  Prosperity To Lead Mining Town

Fredericktown, Mo., July 27—While the European war, in the words of one of the current crop of war ballads, is:

"Making widows out of mothers," and "Butchers out of brothers"

in a way that rhymes conveniently, it is doing things for Fredericktown in the way of prosperity that Fredericktown never before dared dreamed could be done.

Fredericktown is just one of the hundreds of "lead towns" in Missouri and its case is typical.

Before war was declared Fredericktown was voted a good town to avoid.  Lead was "dropping like lead" in all markets.  By the ton the product sold for less than $60. There was no big demand and there was a whole lot of the mineral already brought to the surface waiting to be used. Stores closed up, boarding houses reduced their demands on the markets and gradually were closed, patches of vacant houses  appeared and gradually enlarged until they merged.   Fredericktown was so nearly dead that nearby towns facetiously inquired of the coroner when he was going to hold the Inquest.

.

Then it happened. The soldiers used up all the bullets they had and there was demand for Fredericktown's product.   Laborers flocked back to the city. The shutters were removed from store and boarding house windows. Machinery began to move again, creaking at first and then developing a business like Industrious hum.  Lead  jumped from less than $60 a ton to $90 in leaps of from $2 to $5 and most of  the men underground produced the death dealing metal for shipment to Europe.

Now Fredericktown is thinking of sending to some big city for a civic expert to develop the beauty of the city.

The war has boomed the lead country.

Aberdeen Daily News - July 27, 1915

Home