James I. Weldon was born in Hart county, Kentucky, in 1843. His parents were Jonathan and Sallie Weldon, with whom he moved to Missouri in 1855, where he has lived since that time, in the counties of Harrison and Daviess. He received his education in the schools of these counties in Kentucky and Missouri.
Mr. Weldon has been engaged in farming all of his life, and now owns a nicely improved farm adjoining the town of Salem. He is now turning his attention to sheep-raising, as he regards it more remunerative than other kinds of stock. At the age of twenty years, in 1864, he joined Company E, Forty-third Missouri Volunteers and served until the close of the war.
Mr. Weldon was married, in 1867, to Miss Sarah M. Handy, daughter of D. W. Handy, of Salem, this county. They have two children living, Dora Alice and Maud, and one dead, a boy named Robert.