Biographical Sketch of Frank Behm, Johnson County, Missouri,
Chilhowee Township 

>From "History of Johnson County, Missouri," by Ewing Cockrell,
Historical Publishing Company, Topeka, Cleveland, 1918.

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Frank Behm, a prominent farmer and stockman of Chilhowee township, is 
the owner of one of the beautiful country places in this section of
Missouri.  He is a native of Illinois, born in Chicago in 1858, a son
of Henry and Lena Behm.  Henry Behm was a skilled cabinet maker and for
21 years followed his trade in the city of Chicago.  In 1870, he moved
with his family to Nebraska, where he homesteaded 160 acres.  Here the
Behm family endured countless hardships and misfortunes.  During the
grasshopper visitation, 1874 and 1875, their entire crops were destroy-
ed and the Behms were left in destitute circumstances.  They wore tow
sacks for clothing and the father made wooden shoes for each member of
the family.  Supplies could be obtained at a place 36 miles distant 
from their dugout, provided, of course, that one had the money, for no
one sold on credit.  The family, in consequence, really suffered from
lack of food many, many times in the new Western home.  The father and
mother died there and later, their son, Frank, left for Nebraska and 
moved to Iowa, where he engaged in farming for 28 years.  In 1881, 
Frank Behm and Phoebe Schwertley, a native of Harrison county, Iowa,
born in 1860, and a daughter of Fred and Mrs. Schwertley, of Iowa, were
united in marriage.  To this union have been born eleven children: 
Fred, Modale, Iowa; Clara, at home, Denton, Missouri; Henry, Modale,
Iowa; Louis, Los Angeles, California; Frank, Jr., Modale, Iowa; Leo, at
home; Frances, at home; Salome, the wife of Mr. Laudbender, Glencoe, 
Iowa; Paul, John B. and Marie, at home with their parents at Denton.
Three of the Behm boys are engaged in farming in Harrison county, Iowa,
on their father's farm of 560 acres.  In 1910, Mr. Behm moved to Miss-
ouri and purchased a farm in Johnson county at Denton, in Chilhowee
township.  This place comprises 640 acres of land, well watered, splen-
didly equipped for handling a large number of stock, and conveniently
located.  Four hundred acres of the Behm farm are in grass and pasture
land and last season Mr. Behm had 40 acres in oats and 40 acres in 
wheat.  He annyally harvests about 150 tons of hay.  Mr. Behm is not a
graduate of a school of agriculture, but he has learned much in the
hard school of experience and there is no more capable, intelligent, 
progressive farmer in this state than he.  He is a strong advocate of
crop rotation and of the manure spreader.  At the present time, Mr. 
Behm has 150 head of Red Polled cattle and the same number of Duroc
Jersey hogs.  He was milking 13 cows at the time of this writing, in
1917.  In 1911, Mr. Behm built a handsome residence, a structure of
nine rooms, which is generally considered to be the finest home in
Johnson county.  It is well constructed, conveniently arranged, and 
nicely lighted.  The owner said, at the time the residence was in the
process of construction, that after spending nine years of his life in
a dugout in Nebraska, he believed he deserved a "real, sure enough 
house" in which to live, and it is the concensus of opinion that for
many other reasons Mr. Behm richly deserves his beautiful home.  Mr. 
and Mrs. Frank Behm are worthy and consistent members of the Catholic
church.  Politically, Mr. Behm is affiliated with the Democratic party.
The Behms are numbered among Johnson county's most substantial citizens.

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