buildings; and has Macadamized nearly two miles of streets. A bill is now before Congress asking for an appropriation of $50,000 for the erection of a Postoffice building; a project is on hand for the construction of thirty-five miles of railroad to connect the city with the Chicago and Alton Railroad, which will produce a competition in freight and passenger rates with the Missouri Pacific line; hundreds of buildings are in course of construction, and with the present prospects of bountiful crops the general business of the city will be greater than ever before in her history.

What the city now has and what it has done in the past year is a sufficient evidence of its present condition and capacities.

Let the thoughtful reader and the clear headed business man consider first what the city has in general:

Sedalia has more business houses doing trade in their own store-rooms and upon their own unencumbered, unborrowed capital, than any other city of the same size in the State.

Sedalia has to-day a less number of untenanted buildings than any other city in the State of the same size.

Sedalia is already a railroad center, and by the legislation of the late Constitutional Convention, she is likely to continue so, without a rival:

Because hereafter no county can issue bonds to railroads for more than five per cent. of the value of her taxable property, which amounts to this: that railroads will only be aided by private subscription, consequently there will be few or no more roads built, and there will be no more railroad centers.

The charter of the Pacific Railroad, which passes through Sedalia, provides that no machine shops of the company can be located anywhere else in the State than along the line of their road. Now the property on which the vast machine shops, round houses, coal chutes, etc., of the Pacific Road are now situated in St. Louis, is becoming. of such enormous value, that the company has for several years past been seriously agitating the removal of these enormous works to Sedalia.

Taking into account the unencumbered real estate, the small public debt of the city and county, the unborrowed capital invested in business, the moderate taxation, and this county has more real wealth than any other in Central Misouri.

Sedalia has not yet reached the highest point of prosperity, but is rapidly moving towards it, because new people are coming in every day, new farmers and mechanics, and more capital is being put into business houses and manufacturing interests, new banks are being started and additional newspapers founded.

Now let those who are interested in the city as property holders and business men, and those who are seeking new homes, new fields for busi

ness and new scenes of happiness, consider what the city has actually done in the past year of 1881.

Sedalia aspires to be the Capital of the State. She asks the honor, not as a beggar, but as one that demands her just rights. Her geographical position, her enterprise, wealth, beauty of location and accessibility by railroad, are all just and acknowledged facts in favor of this city, and the citizens seem inclined to continue to present their claims for the removal of the Capital until the question is submitted by a vote to the people of the State.

After the capital removal scheme, the next great purpose of the city is to enlarge and increase the manufacturing business, and make Sedalia a source of supplies for all the country within her business territory. The building of a railroad north to connect with the C. & A. R. R., is a project to be carried out in the near future. The erection of a great institution of learning comes next in importance.

Biographical Sketches.

All men cannot be great; each has his sphere, and the success of his life

is to be measured by the manner in which he fills it. But men may be both true and good, may be morally great, for in true living there are no degrees of greatness-there is no respect to persons. It is not intended. in the following pages to include all the several. and separate acts of a man's life, important or otherwise. The design is to give the merest outline, for a complete review of the life and character of the person named, would be both unwarranted and without general value. The names which follow, for the most part, are those of men who have been or are now closely identified with the interests of the county and their respective townships. The sketches of many of the early settlers are found elsewhere in this volume; but to have given a sketch of every man in Pettis County would have been utterly impossible. If any have been omitted, who should have been represented, it was more the fault of themselves or their friends than the publishers of this work. For the most part these have contributed to the enterprise which the publishers have been able to furnish the people. Great care has been taken to give the facts in these sketches as they were given to the historian, and if an occasional error is found, it is largely due to the incorrect statement of the one who dictated the sketch.

DR. D. T. ABELL.

Was a native of Brookfield County, Pa. His parental ancestors were natives of Massachusetts. His father, Daniel H., died in 1877, at the age of eighty-two years. His mother is still living and has attained the eightieth year of her age. Young Abell was educated at the Susquehanna Collegiate Institute, and took his medical course at Homoopathic Medical College, Philadelphia, graduating in 1860. Dr. Abell, as an able and competent practitioner of medicine, is too well known in Pettis County to need special comment here. Commencing his practice in Athens, Pa., from thence he moved to Darlington, Wis., where he was appointed examining surgeon for pension applicants, a position which he now holds in Sedalia. He has an extensive practice, both in the city and country-one of the largest in the County or even Central Missouri. Dr. Abell is a member of the Knights of Pythias of Sedalia.