History of Daviess County Missouri Collections – Page 2 of 19

Biography of Seth H. Powers

Seth H. Powers was born at Long Point, Canada, June 26, 1843. He is the son of Richard Powers, a farmer and stock-dealer of Vermont. His mother’s maiden name was Phoebe Howard, a native of Canada. His parents died when he was very young, and he then came to the United States and was educated in Ohio and New York. He served a long apprenticeship at the blacksmithing and machinist trade in Buffalo, New York, and has since followed that business in various States of the Union without interruption, except during the time he was in military service during the … Read more

Biography of Samuel P. Cox

Samuel P. Cox was born in Williamsburg, Whitley county, Kentucky, December 16, 1828. In 1839 his parents, Levi and Cynthia Cox, removed to Missouri and located in the eastern part of Daviess county, now known as Jackson township, and the subject of this sketch lived at home and worked upon the farm until 1847. In the spring of that year he enlisted in company D, Captain W. H. Rogers, Oregon Battalion, Lieutenant-Colonel Powell, commanding, for the war with Mexico. He served until November, 1848, when he received his honorable discharge at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Returning to the old homestead he … Read more

Biography of S. S. Ryan

Samuel Simms Ryan is a native of Pulaski County, Virginia, and was born April 12, 1822. His father, John Ryan, was a native of Virginia, and, his mother, Catherine Ryan, nee Fizzier, was born in Pennsylvania. His parents moved to Clinton County, Tennessee, in 1837, and in 1839 to Campbell County, Tennessee. His father was a blacksmith by trade, and about one half of the time our subject attended school, and the other half was spent in his father’s shop learning the trade. When Samuel was about twenty-one years of age his father moved to Jacksburg, Tennessee, and here Samuel … Read more

Biography of Robert C. Williams

The subject of this sketch was born in Surry (now Yadkin) county, North Carolina, December 21, 1817. He lived with his father, who was a farmer in moderate circumstances, until nineteen years of age, and than left the farm to engage at school-teaching, and thereby secured the means to complete his education. In June, 1839, Mr. Williams immigrated to Missouri and located in Ray county, where he taught school until 1842 and then removed to what is now Harrison county. After living there one year our subject came to Daviess county, and has resided here ever since. On the 31st … Read more

Biography of Rev. Robert R. Witten

Rev. Robert R. Witten is one of the pioneers of the Methodist Church in Missouri. He was born October 8, 1831, in McMinn county, Tennessee, and is a son of Rev. James Witten, who was born in Tazewell county, Virginia, January 5, 1793. The parents of Rev. James Witten with their family, moved to Sequatchie Valley, Tennessee, James then being sixteen years of age and the oldest of the family, and his father being quite feeble, nearly all the work of opening up a new farm in a heavily timbered country devolved upon him; he never attended school to exceed … Read more

Biography of Rev. John W. Black

John W. Black was born in Boone county, Missouri, February 11, 1833, His father was a native of Virginia, and migrated to Boone county when a young man, and was there united in marriage to Miss Ann, daughter of Andrew Hannah, who was from Kentucky. In 1849, with his wife and family of six sons and three daughters, he removed to Daviess county, and settled in Jefferson -township, one and one-half miles south of Victoria. The good mother died November 29, 1S51, but the children all survive. The subject of this sketch having received all the advantages of a good … Read more

Biography of Rev. A. E. Woodruff

Was born in Morris County, New Jersey, May 14, 1822. His father was born in New Jersey, and his mother in Massachusetts; she died in the year 1827, and his father died in 1845. Young Woodruff was brought up on a farm and educated at the district schools. At the age of nineteen years he learned the trade of a carpenter, and, after working in his native place two years, he went to Franklin County, Ohio, where he remained about seventeen years, then removed to Marion County, Indiana, and lived seven years, and in 1868 came to Missouri and located … Read more

Biography of Rev. A. C. Leard

A. C. Leard was born in Randolph County, Illinois, February 15, 1813; His parents were James and Margaret Leard, nee Adams. His father was. a native of South Carolina, and his mother of Georgia. During the War of 1812 his father was what was then known as a ranger, engaged in guarding the frontier from the Indians. During the time his mother was in Hill’s block-house fort in Randolph County, as most of the settlers were compelled to seek refuge there. He was educated there in St. Clair County, in a. to house where one entire end was a fire-place … Read more

Biography of Pines R. Dunn

Pines R. Dunn was born in Huntsville, Alabama, October 20, 1836. His. parents left that State in 1838, and went to Indiana, where they lived until December, 1841. In this latter year they came to Missouri and settled at Versailles, in Morgan county, where he lived with them until he reached his sixteenth year. He received his education by attending the common schools at Versailles, and at Osceola, one year after he left home. When seventeen years of age, in 1853, he began to clerk in the store of Aaron Trippet, of Osceola, and was in his employ until 1860, … Read more

Biography of Obadiah Ramsbottom

Obadiah Ramsbottom was born in Yorkshire, near Leeds, England, March 3, 1814, and reared and educated in the country of his nativity. His father was a manufacturer of clothing, and when Obadiah left school he began working with him and learned that business. Mr. Ramsbottom continued in that calling until 1840, when he emigrated to this country. After a short stay in New York City, be came to Daviess county and settled on a farm about three miles from Gallatin, where he remained until 1865. He then moved into Harrison township, where he has ever since resided. Mr. Ramsbottom owns … Read more

Biography of Nathaniel G. Cruzen

Nathaniel G. Cruzen was born in Jefferson county, Virginia, October 14, 1826, and is the son of Richard R., and Aurelia W. (North) Cruzen. His father was born in Loudoun county, Virginia, and for thirty years filled the position of inspector of the National Armory at Harper’s Ferry. His mother was born in Fairfax county, Virginia. Our subject was educated at Harper’s Ferry and worked under his father’s instructions in the armory until he was twenty years of age, and then immigrated to Missouri and settled upon a farm in Saline county, where he remained until 1849. Then becoming imbued … Read more

Biography of N. G. Dillon

N. G. Dillon was born in Benton township, Daviess county, Missouri, January 27, 1845. His father, William Dillon, was born in Ohio, but removed to Illinois when quite young and in the year 1838 came to Missouri, and located about six -miles north of Pattonsburg: thus he stands entitled to the honor of being one of the first pioneers of Daviess county. His mother, Lydia Dillon, nee Poe, was born in Tennessee, but married William Dillon in Illinois, and shortly afterwards the young couple came to Missouri and located in this county and selected for themselves out of the then … Read more

Biography of N. B. Brown

N. B. Brown was born in Logan county, Virginia, in 1833, and moved with his parents to Daviess county, Missouri, in 1843, settling three and one-half miles west of Pattonsburg. He was educated in the country schools of his native county in Virginia, and of Daviess county. When he came to Daviess county there were few settlements in the northern part of the county. The county then, and for several years afterward, embraced what is now Harrison county. Mr. Brown came to Salem township, then known as Benton, in 1857, and built the first store-house in Salem. When he first … Read more

Biography of Moses G. Netherton

Moses G. Netherton. The gentleman whose name heads this sketch is another citizen who can boast of having been to the ” manor born,” being a native of Daviess county, born February 27, 1845. He received his education in this county and. on leaving school, began farming and has been a farmer and stock-dealer ever since. In February, 1864, he enlisted in Company L, of the Twelfth Missouri Cavalry, and served till the war closed, and was honorably discharged in July, 1865. He participated in the battle of Nashville, Tennessee, under General George H. Thomas, and was in several other … Read more

Biography of Michael W. Young

Michael W. Young is a native of Europe, and was born August 17, 1831. He is a son of Michael Young, a native of Germany, born May 11, 1804. The mother of Michael W., whose maiden name was Dorothy Wander, is also a native of Germany, born in 1802. Our subject remained in his native. country until he was about four years of age when he came with his parents to the United States and first settled in Stark county, Ohio. After a short time his. mother died and he was hired out to work for his clothes and schooling. … Read more

Biography of Martin Scott, Elder

Martin Scott is a native of Jackson county, Tennessee, and was born March 14, 1807. His father, John Scott, was a soldier of the Revolutionary War. When the subject of our sketch was a child his parents moved to Indiana, where he was reared upon a farm, and received his education in the common schools of that State. He is one of a family of fourteen children, four of whom are ministers in the Christian Church. When he was fifteen years old, his parents moved to Sangamon county, Illinois, and at that time there were but three houses in what … Read more

Biography of Major Joseph H. McGee

Joseph H. McGee was born in Clermont county, Ohio, July 6, 1821. His grandfather, Peter McGee, in company with seven brothers, emigrated from Ireland to the United States prior to the Revolutionary War, and settled in New Jersey. Peter McGee was a major under Washington and participated in the celebrated battle of Monmouth, New Jersey, at which place he now lies buried. Charles McGee, the father of our subject, was born near Monmouth, where he lived until 1815, when he removed to Ohio and settled in, Clermont county. The family lived in the Buckeye State until 1837, Joseph then being … Read more

Biography of Joseph H. Mallory

Joseph H. Mallory was born in Grayson county, Virginia, July 11, 1819. His parents were born, reared and died in the same State. Our subject came to Daviesso county, Missouri, in 1841, and settled upon the farm where he now resides. This farm covers 250 acres of good land, 170 of which are under cultivation, but thirty-one years ago when he first staked off his claim, the county was new and nature seemed clothed in robes of primitive beauty, while wild animals roamed the unbroken prairies and birds of many kinds flitted from branch to branch in the dusky shadows … Read more

Biography of Jonathan Smith, Elder

Elder Jonathan Smith, the subject of this sketch takes high rank among the early pioneer preachers of Daviess county. To such men as he, who endured the hardships and privations of the early days, and lightened ‘the labors of himself and neighbors by the cheerful rays of scriptural light, much of the progress of the county is due. Jonathan Smith was born in Washington county, Tennessee, December 9, 1805. His father, Richard Smith, was a native of Virginia, and served his country in the War of the Revolution; he died in Franklin county, Indiana, in July, 1840, aged eighty-nine years. … Read more

Biography of John W. Casebolt

John W. Casebolt was born in Fayette county, Ohio, December 29, 1819; a son of John and Prena Casebolt, nee Harrison. His father was a native of Greenbrier county, Virginia; and his mother of Kentucky; she was a first cousin to General Harrison. His parents came to Ohio at a very early day and were pioneers in Ross and Fayette counties. His father died when the subject of our sketch was but an infant, and his mother died 1868. At the age of four-teen years, John W. Casebolt left his native State and went to Fountain county, Indiana, and there … Read more