William Sanders Callaway 1847 - 1921

W. S. (William Sanders) Callaway, (John Farrar, John Farrar, Thomas, Jr., Thomas, Joseph Callaway) a Civil War veteran, now residing at Peculiar, is a native son of Cass County. He belongs to one of the pioneer families of this section of the state. Mr. Callaway was born in 1847 and is a son of John F. and Mary C. (Marrow) Callaway. The Callaway family came from Tennessee in 1844, and the father entered six hundred acres of government land in Bates County, although the family lived in Cass, which at that time was Van Buren County. Some of the early member of the Callaway family came from North Carolina to Virginia. (This probably should read Virginia to North Carolina.)

W. S. Callaway has one brother living, Hugh Callaway, who resides at Carrollton, Missouri. The date at which the Callaway family settled in Cass County was an early period in the settlement of this section and at that time the settlements were confined to streams, as the pioneers in those days were not inclined to venture out into the open prairie to make their permanent home, for various reasons. Mr. Callaway spent his boyhood days amidst the primitive pioneer surroundings of considerably more that a half century ago. As a boy he has a distinct recollection of much of the pioneer life of Cass County.

In those days the broad prairies stretched out for miles until the horizon limited the vision, and there was not a sign of a fence to be seen. Mr. Callaway has seen deer by the herds. Various kinds of small game, such as quails and prairie chickens, were so plentiful that they scarcely attracted passing notice. Most of the supplies in those days were hauled from Kansas City, or rather Westport. The neighbors would arrange to make up a six ox team and wagon and in that way haul their supplies. They hauled their wheat and corn to Hickman's Mills to have their flour and meal ground. Mr. Callaway remembers when Kansas City, the present metropolis of the west, was no larger than Harrisonville now is. He says that the years of hardship which followed immediately after the Civil War were even worse than the pioneer days which preceded that period by several years.

Mr. Callaway was a mere boy when the Civil War brke out. However he served more than two years in the Confederate army, durying that long and fearful struggle, and gallantly fought for the right as he saw it. The principles of "the lost cause" have ever beena part of his nature and dear to him.

In 1873 he bagan life for himself as a farmer and has met with success both as a farmer and stock raiser. He now owns two hundred acres of valuable land which he rents, although he and his wife reside in their old homestead and retain ten acres of the home site.

Mr. Callaway was married in 1873 to Miss Lizzie Wills, a daughter of Alpheus and Lacy Ann Wills, who were early settlers in Missouri, coming here in 1857.

To Mr. and Mrs. Callaway have been born severn children, as follows: Mrs. Mary C. Wilburn, Peculiar; John F., Peculiar; Mrs. Cora J. Funk, Alberta, Canada; T. A., Peculiar; H. T., Harrisonville; Lacy, Fulton, Missouri; and W. S., Peculiar.

Mr. Callaway is one of Cass County's substantial citizens. The members of the Callaway family are prominent in the community.

The above article from History of Cass County, Missouri, Allen Glenn, pp. 710-1, 1917.
Photo of William Sanders Callaway family submitted to CFA by Linda Ann Ford, 8/2004.