1882 History of Linn
County, Missouri
BIOGRAPHY (S)
NORTHCOTT
COLONEL BENJAMIN F.
Benton Township, page 771
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, January 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 the 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 a well a 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, 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 R. 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 is 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, as 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: R. 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.
* * * * * * * *
BENJAMIN JOSEPH Linneus / Lotus Creek Twp.,
page 457
This gentleman was born in
Menard county, Illinois,
January 7, 1842. He is the son of Rev.
R. F. Northcott, of the M. E. Church, who came to
Linn county in 1854, and who still resides at
Browning. Mr. Northcott’s
mother was Elizabeth M. Christy, and there were nine children born to his
parents, of whom he, Joseph, is the eldest.
One five of these are living now.
Joseph had a spell of
fever when he was but three years old, which produced a paralysis of the left
leg, and necessitated his going on crutches all his life. He was a puny child, but as he grew older and
took more exercise, he became robust and has enjoyed good health most of his
life. In 1854 he came with his father to
Missouri, and lived in Linn county
till February, 1857, and then moved back to Adams county, Illinois,
and remained till April, 1863, when he again moved to Linn and settled in the
north part of the county near Enterprise,
where the Rev. Northcott had entered large bodies of
land. In the spring of 1865 Mr. Northcott came to Linneus, then acting as clerk of the
probate court under Judge James F. Jones.
His literary education was received principally at Quincy College, Illinois. His legal education was acquired under the
able preceptorship of Maj. A. W. Mullins, of Linneus,
and he was admitted to the bar in October, 1866. Immediately he began the practice in Linneus
and has been thus engaged ever since.
Mr. Northcott was the first superintendent of
schools appointed in Linn county when the legislature
created that office in 1866, and he organized the first teachers’ institute
ever held in the county. He was elected
to serve a second term after the expiration of his appointed term. He served as magistrate by appointment in the
years 1869-70. In 1870 and again in
1880, he assisted in taking the census enumeration of the county. The first law partner he ever had was his
father, and his next was Mr. Charles W. Bigger, with whom he is still
associated. Mr. Northcott
was married March 3, 1867, at Miami,
Missouri, to Miss Lida C. Ball, daughter of John G. Ball, Esq. They have three sons and one daughter, all
living.
Mr. Northcott belongs to the I. O. G. T. and the A. O. U. T.
lodges at Linneus. Politically, he is a
Republican, and has received his official positions at the hands of that party.
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Transcribed, in total, by kkfitch © 2008. All Rights Reserved.