Springfield-Greene
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J. W. CROW. That the products of the farm will continue to find a reasonably safe market is indicated by a constantly increasing consumption within our own country, to say nothing of America's rapidly growing export trade; that the business of farming and handling live stock as a business compares favorably with any other vocation in stability; that the security of farm investment assured invites and encourages the inclination landward. With all these influences working in one direction supported by the incalculable forces of the agricultural schools and colleges, the press, and vast aggregation of brains identified with the vocation, it would seem that the most radical predictions of the present day may prove far too conservative before another decade has passed. One of the most progressive and extensive agriculturists and stockmen of the great Southwest is J. W. Crow, familiarly known as "Wess" Crow, whose valuable interests in both Polk and Greene counties, including the famous Percy Cave, near Springfield, have made him a well-known man in the Ozarks.
Mr. Crow was born on February 13, 1866, in Polk county, Missouri. He is a son of J. W. and Louisa Jane (Frieze) Crow. The father was born in Tennessee, and the mother was born in Polk county, this state. J. W. Crow, Sr., grew to manhood in his native state, and when about twenty years of age immigrated to Missouri, locating in Polk county, where he became a prominent and influential man. He was a lawyer by profession, and a good one for those early days. He was for a period of twenty years a justice of the peace, was a county judge, and was a leader in Republican politics. He was one of the two first men to vote for Abraham Lincoln in Polk county. He also devoted much of his time to farming and handling live stock. He was married in Polk county, and he became the father of ten children, all still living but one. They were named as follows: Elvira, Sigel Fremont, Louise (deceased), J. W., Jr., of this sketch; Mandy, James Alfred, Mathew Woodson, Minnie, Eva and Tennessee. The parents of these children were among the oldest settlers of Fair Play, Polk county, and there spent their latter years, the father dying in 1904, the mother's death also occurring in 1904.
J. W. Crow of this sketch grew to manhood on his father's farm in Polk county and he received a common school education. In his earlier years he followed farming, but the major portion of his attention during the past fifteen years he has directed to buying and shipping live stock, doing an average annual business in this line of two hundred thousand dollars, and he enjoys the distinction of being one of the largest shippers into Kansas City and St. Louis, the world's greatest live stock markets. He has bought and sold more cattle than any other man in Polk county, if not the entire southwestern part Of the state. He is owner of four thousand acres of land, in various localities between Polk county and the Panhandle, Texas. His holdings in Greene, county consist of four hundred acres constituting a valuable farm in the vicinity of Percy Cave. He spends a great deal of time here, but maintains his home at Fair Play, Polk county, where he is a heavy stockholder in the Farmers Bank of Fair Play.
Mr. Crow married Sarah G. Akins, who was born in Cedar county, Missouri. She is a daughter of Nathan and Mary (Tindle) Akins, a well-known old family of that section of Missouri. To our subject and wife eight children have been-born, namely: Pearl is at home; Buel is also at home; Zula married Emmett Thompson, and they live in Kansas; Jerley, Willard, Elsie, Gale and Joe are all at home. These children have been given excellent educational advantages.
Politically, Mr. Crow is a Republican, and fraternally he belongs to the Knights of Pythias and the Woodmen of the World at Fair Play.
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