Person:John Esteb (6)

Biography

History of Caldwell and Livingston Counties, Missouri (1886) p. 278 John T. Esteb (Farmer, Section 21, Post-office, Kingston) The parents of Mr. Esteb, J. M. and Nancy J. (Fisher) Esteb, went to Indiana at an early day and there reared a family of seven children, of whom the subject of this sketch was the fourth child. His father was a native of North Carolina, but the mother was a Kentuckian by birth. Young Esteb was born in Wayne county, Ind., on the 4th day of May, 1837. His youth and early manhood were passed in the State of his birth, and after attaining his majority he engaged in the mercantile business, becoming connected with his father, and in which he continued for about nine years under the firm name of McKinnie & Esteb. In 1864, disposing of his mercantile interests, Mr. E. Sr. removed to this county, and located where his son, John T., now resides--a place of 160 acres. The latter now owns this tract, which is well improved, and, in fact, a valuable piece of property, besides having an undivided interest in the Esteb estate. Careful and painstaking in the cultivation of his land and thorough in everting connected with its management, it is, perhaps, not to be wondered at that he is meeting with good success. His marriage occurred August 9, 1865, at which time Miss Alice O. James, a native of this county, became his wife. She was the daughter of John P. and Melcena A. (Butts) James, both of whom died when she was an infant. Mr. and Mrs. Esteb have a family of six children: Mary F., John M., Hattie, Cora, Edith L. and Thomas O.

Funeral Home Record

Bailey Funeral Home Record, Polo Missouri ESTEB, John [May 4, 1837] May 13[17], 1926 [Alice Ophelia James]

       P:  [John Montgomery & Nancy Jane [Fisher] Esteb]	Kingston Cemetery

News Account July 1899

The Kingston Times: Extra Edition Kingston, Caldwell County, Missouri; Friday, July 14, 1899 THE RAID OF THE WOMEN How the W.C.T.U. Expect to Drive out a Joint at Kingston The Kansas City Star of yesterday evening gives the following account of the affair Kingston MO., July 13—This little town of 700 inhabitants, unusually so peaceable, is now the field of a war between the forces of the W.C.T.U. is backed by Colonel C. J. Holt, the temperance lecturer of Chicago; on the opposing side are the patrons of the ostensible drug store, which is really a saloon and poker den. There have been two pitched battles during this war. The women have raided both the gambling room and the drug room. Two of them were forcibly thrown out of the drug room by employees of the proprietor; but the women surprised the gamblers and drove some of the frightened men out of a second story window to a roof, from which they jumped twelve feet to the ground. For two years C. B. Miller and Sam Bridgewater have kept the “White Elephant.” It is on the main street of the village. The front room is a drug store, but back of the prescription case is a small bar, over which beer and whiskey are sold. The citizens of Kingston will give no license for a saloon, so the “drug store” has been doing a thriving business against the law. Immediately above the little bar is a room where a poker game is kept running day and night. Between this room and the bar below there is a dumb waiter, which carries dainties up to the gamblers. HOW IT BEGAN The women of the W.C.T.U. have known of this for some time and the first event of the temperance war took place before Colonel Hold arrived here. Last Thursday afternoon Mrs. Cora Stiles, whose father, a retired farmer, was suspected of visiting the “White Elephant,” slipped quietly up stairs from the street to the room where the poker game was running. On approaching the door she was delighted to see a large key hole and through this she peered into the room. She saw men sitting around a table playing cards, with little piles of money and poker chips in front of them. She knocked at the door and her father, John Esteb, appeared. Mrs. Stiles took her father home, but the very next day, Friday, he returned to the poker room. Mrs. Stiles, who is a young, woman, slender, but apparently very determined, decided to go again to the “White Elephant.” So, Friday afternoon, she started out, in company with Miss Lulu Loomis. Miss Loomis has an interest in the game, too, because she had heard her sweetheart, Ol Clevenger, a blacksmith, played there. Again the keyhole revealed men at the card table. The father was there and so was the sweetheart. Mrs. Stiles had learned the mysterious sign that gained admission to the poker room. It was three raps and a scratch with the finger nails on the door. She rapped thrice on the door and rubbed her nails across the wood. The door opened wide and lo! there sat the horrified father and the deeply ashamed sweetheart and several other men with cards in their hands, money and poker chips before them and beer glasses and bottles on the table, and there in the doorway stood the two young women. Then followed a great scuffle. In their haste to escape from the wrath to come the men broke the table and scattered the chairs and cards about the room. Two of the guilty ones climbed out of a back window and down to the roof and dropped to the ground twelve feet below. The father and sweetheart were taken prisoners and led home by the two young women. THE EVANGELIST TO THE ATTACK That same Friday afternoon Col. Holt, the temperance lecturer came to town. He spoke that night in the Methodist Church. “You have in your town,” he said, “an example of the worst evils of intemperance. You see old men deprived and robbed; you see young boys starting on the way to misery and sin. You have a dive here that is a disgrace to your pretty little city, but you have the best and strongest set of women in the world and the best material to blot out the incorruption that is among you.” He had heard about the raid which the two young women had made on the “The White Elephant.” Col. Holt spoke twice on Saturday and twice last Sunday, and the sentiment against the dive grew to a white heat. Early Monday morning Col. Holt, with a committee of ladies visited the poker room. He says the door was open and he walked in without interruption, but others say that the lock was broken, the dumb elevator was a wreck and the floor of the little room was covered with the remains of half a dozen decks of cards. That afternoon the temperance agitator met in the Methodist church with the women of the W.C.T.U. The excitement was intense. “I have found the hell,” he said excitedly, as he stood before them talking. “I have found the hell and I have found the elevator that runs up to hell,” with reference to the dumb waiter. “I have found what these evil men suppose is heaven. This curse has been in your town long enough. It is dragging to perdition your husbands and your children even.” Several of the women made speeches. One of them said, “This thing is going to be stopped if it takes all of our money and all our property to do it. It will be stopped if it takes bloodshed.” ON THE CRUSADE After the meeting the women held a conference in the church, at which Col. Holt was not present, but his spirit was there. A finance committee of five members was appointed; Mrs. L. M. Spivey, wife of the editor; Mrs. Gartside, Mrs. Robert Johnson, Mrs. Cora Stiles and Miss Bessie Tidball. They determined to start out to solicit funds and they called first in a body at the “White Elephant.” This was where the fiercest battle of the crusade was fought. As the women marched boldly through the drug store there was consternation among the clerks. Mrs. Stiles called for Miller, the proprietor. “Doctor” Tom Butts, a clerk, said that he was not in. Nothing daunted, the women said, “Well, we will see” They started back towards the saloon. There are two doors in the partition that separate the drug store from the bar. “Dr.” Butts jumped in one of these and Joe Dunn, the barkeeper of the place, held his arm across the doorway of the other. But they could not keep the women out. Mrs. Gartside crowded past Dunn into the bar. A Negro boy, who was drinking a glass of beer, dropped the glass to the floor and fled out the back door. Butts was fierce with anger. He grabbed Mrs. Gartside by the arm and threw her violently back and out of the bar. He caught Mrs. Stiles and pushed her towards the front of the store. “Get out of here,” he screamed. “I can whip all of your husbands.” Meanwhile the crowd increased until it was almost impossible for anyone to move inside the store. One of the invading women carried a small narrow box, containing a half dozen spoons. One of the men at the door of the store saw her enter with the box in her hand, and he shouted that the women were going to blow up the place with dynamite. When he hear this Butts was frantic. He pushed his way out into the street and crossed to the court house yelling to C. B. Miller the proprietor to whom he found there: “Come, oh come quick, They are going to blow up the place with dynamite.” THE PERSUADING HUSBANDS Finally the Mayor E. M. Prickett and Jacob Clute, the city marshal, appeared and they tried to persuade the women to go home. They begged them not to make a fight, but Mrs. Spivey was not ready to go. She sat down and said she thought she would wait awhile. Mrs. Stiles was with her and when Butts told her to go out or she would be disgraced, the little woman calmly said, “If this is a drug store as you say it is, it ought to be a decent place. Our fathers and brothers come here, why can’t we?” After an hour and a half by an effort of the mayor and marshal and the husbands of some of the women, they were persuaded to go home. There were about fifty of them in light hats and summer gowns in the store and on the sidewalks in front. The men had been crowded out. Monday night, and ever since that time the jointists have kept their place closed and guarded. Men are posted in front and in the rear of the store to give warning at approach of women. After their meeting yesterday afternoon the members of the W.C.T.U. and their friends formed in a column of twos at the church and marched up the main street and past the “White Elephant.” Warning of their approach had been given and Miller and his friends crowded into the front door of the store to keep the women out, but they did not try to make an entrance. They say they are determined to put a stop to the sale of intoxicating liquors in Kingston. The marshal and major seem to sympathize with the joint keepers, so the women say that if the police of the city will not help the they will clean out the “White Elephant” themselves, and everybody in Kingston says they are game enough to do it. Since the fight on the dive began Col. Holt’s meeting shave been crowded beyond the capacity of the church. He has had an audience which stood outside in the church yard and listened to his strong voice swept through the windows. THE HOT TIME PARODY One night four little boys sang a parody on “A Hot Time,” that made a sensation at the meeting. It was applauded vociferously. Vern Johnson sang the verses and the three other small boys joined in the choruses. These are the words of the song: Come along, get you ready, get your powder and your gun, For there’s gwine to be a racket in this good, good old town; For they know everybody, do the W.C.T.U., And they wear a white ribbon to keep away the hoodoo. Oh, you know when the women do begin. Look out for the poker rooms, the whiskey and the gin, And when you hear the temperance call, you want to jump and spin; There’ll be a hot time in the old town some night, my baby. CHORUS: When you hear dem bells go ding, ling, ling, All join round and sweetly you must sing; And when the verse am through, in the chorus all join in, There’ll be a hot time in the old town some night. There’ll be rooms for rent in this good old town. For when there’s a poker room that will soon, soon, go down; And there’s a drug store, they call it, upon our main street, Where they sell beer and whiskey to all they chance to meet. But the ladies they have formed a band. They mean business and they have the sand, For they fight for their God, their home and native land, There’ll be a hot time in the old town some night. AN ALLIGATOR IN THE JOINT Yesterday a committee of the W.C.T.U. women went through the pool room of Bert Mumpower, looking for boys who were said to playing there but they found none. They have appointed a committee consisting of Mrs. C. W. M. Love, Mrs. Parker Platt and Mrs. Kate Haley, to prosecute the joint keepers and ask for an injunction from the Circuit Court against the sale of whiskey in Kingston. The dive keepers have in the bars room an alligator about a yard long which they say will be turned loose among the temperance women the next time they raid the place. Kingston is sixty miles northeast of Kansas City, and ten miles south of Hamilton, Mo. The town has no railroad excepting a local line running to Hamilton. There has been no saloon here for four years and then it was in the building now occupied by the “White Elephant.” The village is a picturesque place with wide streets and tall, luxurious shade trees, and it is in the midst of a fine, rolling farming country. Prominent people in Kingston are all on the side of the women, and they hope they will be successful in their fight. The wise ones shake their heads and predict that if the enthusiasm keeps up the gameness of the women can not be doubted. 2

60th Wedding Anniversary

Hamilton Advocate-Hamiltonian, Hamilton, Missouri August 13, 1925 MARRIED 60 YEARS SUNDAY Mr. and Mrs. John T. Esteb of Kingston, Celebrated with Reunion John T Esteb, 88 years old, and Mrs. Alice James Esteb, 76 years old, Kingston, celebrated their sixtieth wedding anniversary Sunday with a family reunion and dinner at the Esteb home. The couple have spent the sixty years of married lif e in and near Kingston. Mr. Esteb, a retired farmer, went to Kingston from Indiana in the early part of 1864 where he met Alice James, 15 years old, a town belle. A year later they were married. Six children of the Estebs are living; T.O. Esteb, 104 South White Avenue; Mrs. D.E. Jones, 617 Indiana Ave., K.C.; J.M. Esteb, Denver, Col.; Mrs. W.A. Bradley , Lincoln, Ark,; Mrs. Hattie Orr, Polo, Mo., and Mrs. E.C. Stiles, Des Moines, Iowa. There are nineteen grandchildren and ten great grandchildren.

Obituary

Hamilton Advocate-Hamiltonian, Hamilton, Missouri May 20, 1926 JOHN T. ESTEB DIED SUDDENLY Well known Resident of Kingston Since 1861 Passed Away at His Home Monday Afternoon. John Esteb, 89 years old died suddenly and without a struggle early Monday afternoon a t his home in Kingston. Mr. Esteb had been up town during the forenoon and was feeling as well as usual. After dinner he went out to look over his garden and coming into the house he lay down to rest. A few minutes later members of the household found that life was extinct. Funeral services for Mr. Esteb were held Wednesday afternoon and the burial was conducted by the Freemasons of Kingston and other parts of the county. The deceased was the oldest member of the Kingston Lodge. Mr. Esteb was a native of Wayne county, Indiana, where he was born May 4, 1837. He was engaged with his father in the mercantile business in Indiana, but the senior Mr. Esteb sold his business and moved to a farm to this county which ever since had been his home. He was a farmer during the active years of his life and continued the ownership of the farm until the last. Mr. Esteb and Miss Alice O. James of Caldwell County were married on August 9, 1865. Mrs. Esteb and the six children survive Mr. Esteb. The children are Mrs. Mary F. Bradley, who resides in Oklahoma, John M. Esteb of Denver, Col., Mrs. Cora E. Stiles of Iowa; Mrms. Hattie (Charles) Orr of Polo; Mrs. Edith (D. E.) Jones and Thomas O. Esteb of Kansas City.

1. ↑ History of Caldwell and Livingston Counties Missouri. (St. Louis: National Historical Company: 1886)
   278, 11/4/06.
2. ↑ Missouri State Board of Health: Bureau of Vital Statistics Certificate of Death
   Certificate of death, file no. 15637, 12/26/06.
3. ↑ Missouri State Board of Health: Bureau of Vital Statistics Certificate of Death
   Certificate of death, file no. 15637, 12/26/06.
4. ↑ U.S. Federal Census
   Series: M653 Roll: 277 Page: 244, 12/31/06.

   ESTEB, JOHN (1860 U.S. Census)
   INDIANA , MADISON, ANDERSON
   Age: 23, Male, Race: WHITE, Born: IN