USA > Missouri > Ray County > History of Ray county, Mo. > Part 61
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HISTORY OF RAY COUNTY.
1859, and Virginia Elizabeth, born September 11, 1870. Mrs. Woodson ยท was a refined and amiable lady, but she is not now among the living- having died April 11, 1871. Mr. Woodson is a devout and consistant member of the M. E. Church South. His name is untarnished; his friends are legion; and his life not in vain.
PHILIP J. WOODSON.
The subject of this sketch, a brother of Thomas I). Woodson, was born in Woodsonville, Kentucky, January 6, 1823. In the spring of 1849 he went across the plains to California, spending five months on the way. He passed about twelve years in the mining districts of California, most of the time engaged in mining, in which he was quite successful. In the spring of 1861 he returned by the overland stage route, traversing Lower California, Arizona, and Texas, and traveling 2,800 miles in twenty-three days, reaching his home in Kentucky in May. In the spring of 1863 he returned to California, and remained one year, looking after his mining interests. In 1865 Mr. Woodson located permanently in Richmond, Mis- souri, where he is now a respected citizen. He was engaged in mer- chandizing in Richmond, in partnership with his brother, T. D. Woodson, Esq., until 1878, when they sold out their stock of goods, and since that time our subject has not been actively engaged in business on account of ill health. He is the owner of a fine farm, containing about five hundred acres, as well as some valuable city property. He was married October 25, 1865, to Miss Hallie J. Jackson, a most accomplished lady, of Bow- ling Green, Kentucky. He is a member of the regular Baptist Church, while his wife is united with the M. E. Church South. For genealogy of Mr. Woodson reference is made to the biographical sketch of his brother, Thomas D. Woodson, Esq.
JOHN C. BROWN.
John C. Brown was born near Richmond, Ray county, Missouri, Janu- ary 29, A. D. 1835. His father, William, was born in Rutherford county, Tennessee, October 6, 1809, and was raised and educated in the county of his nativity, and emigrated to Missouri with his parents in 1829, living on a farm during his life. He was a Baptist of the old school type; never desired office at the hands of the people, but has been content to live the life of a farmer, and a Christian gentleman. He was married to Miss Sarah J. Ralph, in 1832. She was born in Guilford county, North Caro- lina, January 6, 1813, and came with her parents to Ray county, at an early day. By the marriage of William Brown to Miss Ralph, there were born seven children, one of whom died in infancy; James H. went to Oregon, and died there in 1873; Mary F. died at sixteen years of age; Isaac R.
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HISTORY OF RAY COUNTY.
resides in Carrollton, Missouri, and is clerk of the circuit court in the seventeenth judicial district; Charles W., salesman with McWilliams, Crooke & Co., wholesale hats and caps; Jennie, married to Samuel V. Endsley, of Ray county. John C. the subject of this sketch, was raised on a farm, and finished his course of study at Carrollton, Missouri, in 1856, acquiring a good English education and some knowledge of the Latin. He left school, and followed teaching in Carroll, Saline and Ray counties, always giving satisfaction as a teacher. In April, 1857, he was employed as salesman in the store of Messrs. Hill & Ely, of Carrollton, Missouri, and left in the spring of 1861, with the confidence and approval of his employers; went to farming and dealing in stock till 1872. In November, 1872, he was elected sheriff of Ray county, and having filled the office to the satisfaction of the people, was in November, 1874, re-elected by an increased majority, receiving the largest vote cast for any candidate at that election. At the end of his second term, December, 1876, he retired from the office of sheriff, and commenced the practice of law in partnership with Judge Wm. A. Donaldson, having been admitted to the bar in February, 1877. He was married September 27, 1860, to Miss Hattie A. George, of Caldwell county, Missouri, who is a native of Anderson county, Kentucky, and was born November 22, 1842; and emi- grated to Caldwell county with her father, David George, and died August 24, 1872. To this union were born six children, one of whom died in infancy. Of the others, Wm. D. was born July2 7, 1861; Eugenie, August 5, 1864; Anna Bell, March 4, 1866; John Dudley, January 23, 1868, and Charles Oscar, April 29, 1871. On May 6, 1874, Mr. Brown was married to his second wife, Miss Olive E., daughter of Felix G. Miller, Esq., of Ray county, born November 2, 1851. With his father's consent, Mr. Brown left home when seventeen years of age, and without means, principally educated himself, as his parents were unable to give him much pecuniary aid. He attributes his success to the prompt man- ner in which he always met each and every engagement. Through life he has made it his determined aim to come promptly to time, thus proving the truth of the adage, " punctuality is the soul of business success." Mr. Brown is a member of the Masonic fraternity, and is a Royal Arch Mason; he is also a member of the Missionary Baptist Church, and contributes liberally to the building of churches, and to the support of the ministry. In politics he is an unswerving democrat, and has been so from his early manhood. He is at present engaged in the mercantile business in Rich- mond, where he is respected and esteemed by every one.
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HISTORY OF RAY COUNTY.
GEORGE I. WASSON.
George I. Wasson was born September 19, 1819, in Wilson county, Tennessee, where he lived, assisting his father on the farm, till he was twenty-one years of age. In 1840, he moved from Tennessee to Mis- souri, and located in Richmond, Ray county, a stranger, young, without friends, without money, and with no resource, save his indomitable energy, pluck, perseverance, and habits of sobriety and economy. The young Tennesseean was not long in making "troops of friends;" his affability, good nature, and generous, obliging disposition, soon gained for him the esteem of all around him, and he was not long in finding employment, at once congenial, responsible and remunerative. Shortly after his arrival, he was appointed deputy sheriff of Ray county, and after holding this position, discharging its duties with credit to himself and to the entire satisfaction of his principal and the people, he entered a dry goods store as clerk, and continued this occupation about two years. He was then elected constable of Richmond township, and held the office continuously till the year 1846, when, appreciating his steady habits, honesty, capacity and fidelity, the people elected him to the responsible office of sheriff of the county; and at the close of his term, two years afterward, chose him as his own successor.
In 1849, in connection with Joseph S. Hughes, he opened a dry goods. store. He continued in this business, meanwhile conducting a fine farm of six hundred acres, near Richmond, and dealing extensively in leaf tobacco, till in 1866. In -- he was elected president of the branch of Union Bank of Missouri, located in Richmond, and served with efficiency in this capacity till 1865, in which year he embarked in the private bank- ing business. He continued in this business about twelve years, or until 1877, when he sold out, and engaged in the leaf tobacco trade, packing, pressing, and shipping, in which he was quite successful; but after about one year he resumed the mercantile business. In September, 1879, he exchanged his store for the hotel formerly known as the Shaw house, which same he has changed to Wasson house. Mr. Wasson is now owner and proprietor of the Wasson house, which he has greatly improved. He is a man of great versatility, of strong natural ccmmon sense, quick to comprehend, and of far-seeing sagacity. Knowingly, he never wounds the feelings of any man; he is ever the friend of public enterprise, of education, and of whatever he believes to be conducive to the good of his friends, of the town in which he lives, or of his county, In whatever department of industry he is engaged, he is the same genial, courteous, and accommodating gentleman, of generous impulses, warm- hearted, sympathetic, and kind-hundreds of his fellow-citizens, less fortu- nate than himself, are indebted to him for deeds of charity. In 18- he 34
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HISTORY OF RAY COUNTY.
was elected a director of the branch of the Union Bank of Missouri, located at Lexington, Missouri, and in 1868 he was elected a director of the Union National Bank, of St.Louis, and remained an officer thereof till 1874, at which time the bank having failed, he was appointed to wind up its business. October 22, 1842, George I. Wasson was married to Miss Angeline B. Child, a native of Madison county, New York. Mrs. Was- son is a refined and intelligent lady, amiable, benevolent, and affectionate, and much of the success attained by her husband is due to her cheerful disposition, good judgment, and womanly virtues. They have had two children, but both of them died in infancy. George I. has been one of the most active, energetic, and enterprising business men Ray county ever had, and no individual has done more for its advancement, or is now more closely identified with the county, in all that pertains to its pros- perity, wealth, and development.
CHRISTOPHER T. GARNER.
Christopher Trigg Garner, son of Colonel Jesse W. and Docia (Trigg) Garner, was born March 25, 1825, in Fayette, Howard county, Missouri. Colonel Jesse W. Garner, a native of Virginia, was born in Northumber -- land county in 1791, and when a boy removed to Winchester, Clark county, Kentucky. He married Docia Trigg January 15, 1810. In 1819 he moved to Missouri, and settled in Old Franklin, Howard county. About a year afterward he removed to Fayette, and from 1820 to 1841 lived in that town and in the vicinity thereof. In the year last mentioned he moved to Ray county, and in 1848 to near Liberty, Clay county, where, in June, 1850, he died. He was one of the Missouri pioneers, a carpenter by trade, and built the first court house and college buildings at Fayette. He was a leading Mason, and was present at the organiza- tion of the Masonic Grand Lodge of Missouri. He was a man of integ- rity of character, decision, energy and enterprise, good judgment, and strong, practical, common sense, highly esteemed and universally respected, kind and affectionate in his family relations, generous and phil- anthropic. Docia Garner was the daughter of Gen. Stephen Trigg, and was born January 21, 1782, in Bedford county, Virginia. She was a descend- ant of the Trigg family that emigrated from England and settled in Spott- sylvania county, Virginia, the sons of which distinguished themselves as soldiers in the revolutionary war, in the war of 1812, and in the Indian wars of a later period. They were in the siege of Yorktown, the battle of King's Mountain, and in the Indian battle at the Blue Licks, Kentucky. C. T. Garner, the subject of this sketch, until he attained his majority, worked at daily labor for his father, attending school irregularly, for short intervals, in the log school-houses of that day. His education was obtained mainly by his own exertion. He taught school about a year,
539
HISTORY OF RAY COUNTY.
then went into a store as clerk for a few months. Desiring to study the law, he entered the law office of Honorable George W. Dunn, of Rich- mond, Missouri, in 1845, and read law continuously for nearly three years. In May, 1848, he received license to practice his profession from Judge Austin A. King, afterward governor of Missouri. The judge, on hand- ing him his license, advised him to locate permanently at Richmond and engage in the practice of his profession. He yielded to the suggestion with great reluctance, as the bar of Richmond was then composed of such eminent lawyers as Philip L. Edwards, George W. Dunn, Ephraim B. Ewing, Charles E. Bowman, Mordecai Oliver, and E. A. Lewis. Without any money, library books, or office furniture, he was allowed the privilege of occupying a table in a drug store for his office; a copy of the revised statutes of Missouri, kindly lent him by a friend, was the extent of his library. The first earnings of his profession were applied to paying his legal preceptor for board and instruction while studying his profession. Afterward he purchased such books as his limited means would allow. Sympathizing friends gathered around him, and his pros- pects for a living practice began to brighten. He soon acquired a remun- erative practice, which he has retained at the same bar for a period of thirty-two years. He has traveled his own circuit and practiced in the courts of ten counties. On the 5th day of November, 1850, in Callaway county, Missouri, he was married to Miss Elizabeth B. Mosby, an estima- ble and accomplished lady, the daughter of Major James Mosby. Mr. Garner was a whig. His judicial circuit, during the existence of that party, was composed of the counties of Ray, Clay, Carroll, Clinton, De Kalb, Harrison, Daviess, and Caldwell, which were then, by a large majority, democratic in politics. In 1852 he became a candidate for cir- cuit attorney, and was elected by a handsome majority over his opponent, who was a good lawyer, a popular man, and a democrat. He discharged the duties of the office until the expiration of his term, in IS56, with suc- cess and ability, when he declined a candidacy for re-election. In his prosecution he met such distinguished lawyers as Colonel A. W. Doni- phan, Colonel James H. Moss, Governor Willard P. Hall, and Honorable H. M. Vories. Mr. Garner was chosen to draw up the charter for the city of Richmond and secure its incorporation. In 1858 he advocated, by a thorough and energetic canvass, the proposition submitted to the people of his county for voting $200,000 to aid in building a railroad through the county. In 1861 he was strongly and decidedly for the Union, doing all he could to resist the wave of secession, which threatened to involve his native state in civil war. With unfaltering firmness he remained loyal to the government until the end of that memorable struggle. In 1864 he organized a company for the purpose of defending the town and people against the depredations of bushwhackers, by whom they were threat-
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HISTORY OF RAY COUNTY.
ened. In 1862 he was elected a member of the general assembly from Ray county, and became a wise, prudent legislator, a prominent leader of the conservative element of that body, and exerted a propitious influence over its deliberations. In 1866 he assisted in procuring the stock and organizing the Ray County Savings Bank, was elected a director, and has been annually re-elected to the present time. Upon the organization of the St. Louis, Kansas City & Northern Railroad Company and the St. Joseph & St. Louis Railroad Company, he was retained as one of their attorneys, and is still so employed. There is not a public enterprise in his section to which he has not contributed by his talents and influence, having been, and still being, a liberal contributor to the building of churches and institutions of learning, and to the support of churches, schools, and all movements for the public good. Though not a member of any church, his life has been exemplary, temperate, and moral. He is a Mason, but belongs to no other charitable organization. He is identi- fied with the democratic party, though originally a strong whig. Mr. Garner has an interesting family of seven children: James W., Chris- topher T., Jr., Elizabeth B., William H., Sarah J., Mary V., and Jessie C. His three eldest children are well educated, being graduates of Rich- mond College. His wife, Elizabeth B., was born February 6, 1832, in Callaway county, Missouri, and is a most excellent Christian lady, having united with the Christian Church before her marriage.
JAMES W. BLACK.
James Witherspoon Black, son of Rev. James Black and Nancy (Mc- Murran) Black, was born in Jefferson county, Virginia, about seven miles from Harper's Ferry, January, Sth, 1828. His father was born in Adams county, Pennsylvania, in 1777. He was a highly educated gentleman, being a graduate of Washington College, Washington county, Tennessee. He is well known in the annals of the Presbyterian Church, having been a devoted, faithful minister of that church for more than fifty years. His labors extended over a wide field, embracing in their limits the states of Tennessee, Maryland, Virginia, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. He married Miss Nancy McMurran, of Shepherdstown, Jefferson county, Virginia, in 1820. After a long, useful, and active life, he died at his home in Shep- herdstown, Virginia, in the eighty-fourth year of his age. Colonel Black's mother was born in Shepherdstown, Virginia, in 1792. She was the daughter of Mr. Joseph McMurran, a native of the County of Down, Ireland, who emigrated to Jefferson county, Virginia, at an early day. He married a Miss Lowrie, of Virginia, who survived him many years. Colonel Black's mother, after the death of his father, continued to live in Shepherdstown till in 1863, when she removed to Richmond, Missouri, and lived with her son, Joseph E. Black, until her death, March 16, 1869.
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HISTORY OF RAY COUNTY.
The subject of this sketch received a portion of his early education in his native county. On the removal of his parents to Cambridge, Guern- sey county, Ohio, in the spring of 1837, he was entered a student at Cam- bridge Academy, and made some progress in the branches pertaining to an English education. He afterwards attended for a short time a select school in Belmont county, Ohio. In 1844, his parents moved from Ohio to Washington county, Pennsylvania; thence, in 1845, to Somerset county, same state; and finally returned to Jefferson county, Virginia. In the fall of 1846, he entered, as a student, Washington College, Washington county, Pennsylvania, and there commenced the prosecution of his classical studies. While at this institution he gave preference to the Washington Literary Society. Hon. James G. Blaine, now secretary of state of the United States, and Hon. James H. Hopkins, democratic member of congress from Pennsylvania, in 1876, were students at Wash- ington College at the time our subject attended that school. On leaving Washington College in 1847, he pursued his classical studies under the tutilage of Prof. Joseph J. Stutzman, of Somerset, Pennsylvania. His course of classical studies with Prof. Stutzman embraced Latin, Greek and German. In 1848, he began the study of law in the office of Messrs. Cox & Stutzman, of Somerset, and was admitted to the bar on motion of Colonel J. R. Edie, February 5, 1851, after a rigid examination by a sworn committee, appointed by Hon. Jeremiah S. Black, then on the bench. Judge Black presided over the committee on examination, and took an active part in propounding questions to the young applicants. On receiving his license as an attorney, young Black returned to his home in Virginia, first visiting, however, a number of the eastern cities, and spending some days in Washington City, where he visited the capitol while congress was in session, and had the pleasure of seeing and hearing in debate such illustrious statesmen as Clay, Cass, Corwin, Chase, Ben- ton, Butler, Douglas, Davis, (Jefferson) Hale, Houston, Foote, Soule and Seward. After receiving license to practice his profession, he remained at home but a short time, till he left for the great west, his destination being St. Paul, Minnesota. After a long trip, mainly by steamboat, he reached that city about the 10th of April, 1851, and was cordially received by Hon. Alexander, governor of the territory. St. Paul, at that time, was a small place, and for a great portion of the year cut off from the pleasures of the more civilized country farther southward. The prospect of acquiring a lucrative practice in St. Paul was not very encouraging hence he concluded to return to St. Louis, and decide there upon some other point at which to establish himself in the practice of his profession. After remaining in St. Louis a short time, he concluded to go to western Missouri, and took passage on the steamboat Isabel, for Independence, having with him a young friend named George S. Hupp, who had accom-
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HISTORY OF RAY COUNTY.
panied him from St. Paul. Meeting on the boat Dr. Thomas King, a member of the legislature from Ray county, they were induced by that gentleman to visit Richmond, in Ray county. They arrived at Richmond, May 7, 1851, and being pleased with the country, concluded to remain, and formed a co-partnership for the practice of the law. The following August, however, Mr. Hupp was summoned home and Mr. Black con- tinued the practice alone till October, following, when he engaged as teacher in the Richmond Academy. The next spring he established the Richmond Herald, mentioned elsewhere in this volume. In 1852, he sold the Herald and resumed the practice of law, and continued it till the spring of 1853, when he established a school at Liberty school district in Ray county. He followed teaching at Liberty, Wakanda and Camden, until the commencement of the civil war. The fall of the year 1855, however, was spent in traveling through the eastern states. On the
organization of the militia in Ray county, in July, 1862, he was appointed enrolling officer of Ray county, and after enrolling the militia of the county was appointed by General Loan, mustering officer, and organized and mustered into service ten companies of militia, which formed the 51st regiment of Missouri enrolled militia, and in October, 1862, he was commissioned by Governor Gamble lieutenant colonel of this regiment. In December, 1862, he was appointed by General Vaughan, commander of the military post of Richmond, Missouri, with full command of all the military forces in the county, which position he held till the spring of 1863. While in command of the 51st regiment, he frequently performed active service in Ray, Lafayette, Jackson and other counties of western Missouri.
In 1863, as provost marshal of Ray, he enrolled the county, agreeably to the conscription act. In 1864 he was elected, on the democratic ticket, to represent Ray, in the general assembly, and served in that body from 1864 to 1866. In the summer of 1866, he was one of the delegates from the sixth congressional district of Missouri, to the democratic national convention at Philadelphia; and was, also, one of the delegation that called on President Andrew Johnson, after the adjournment of the con- vention, Hon. Reverdy Johnson being chairman of the delegation and delivering the address to the President at the White House. In 1866 he received the appointment of United States revenue collector for the sixth district of Missouri, from President Johnson. His headquarters were St. Joseph. In January, 1867, he made a tour of inspection of the entire sixth revenue district, by order of the revenue department, and made a full and complete report of all the distilleries in the district. On making such report he received a very complimentary letter from the commis- sioner of internal revenue, and was by that officer strongly recom- mended to the United States senate for confirmation. He was, on Feb-
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HISTORY OF RAY COUNTY.
ruary 26, 1867, unanimously confirmed by the senate collector of the sixth district, on motion of Senator B. Gratz Brown, of Missouri. In 1868 he again resumed the practice of law in Richmond, entering into co-partnership with his brother, Judge J. E. Black. In 1870 he was elected, as a democrat, mayor of the city of Richmond. He has served as member of the city council five years, having been first elected in 1874. In the fall of 1876, he was appointed mayor of Richmond by the city council, Vice William S. Seymour, resigned, and served till April, 1877. He has been a director of Richmond College since 1879; and since the fall of that year president of the board of directors. Colonel Black strongly opposed secession, and was a firm advocate of the Union. He deplored the necessity of civil war, clearly foreseeing its desolating results; yet he was of the opinion that secession was wrong, and if successfully accomplished would weaken and ultimately ruin a nation, which, united, is the most prosperous and powerful on the globe; hence, he was for maintaining the Union, even at the cost of internecine conflict. While in the general assembly during the winter of 1865-66, a bill was introduced by the member from Caldwell, for the purpose of changing the northern boundary of Ray county, and depriving it of all the land in townships fifty-four, commonly known as the " six mile strip." The bill, through the exertions of himself and his colleague, Hon. John Grimes, was defeated. In 1872, he was secretary of the democratic central committee and in the fall of that year, received the support of the Ray county delegates for con- gress. Colonel Black has been married three times. His first marriage was with Miss Joey H. Nisbet, of Ray county, a native of Armagh county, Ireland, May 28, 1857. His first wife, who was a lady of exceeding grace, culture and refinement, died October 3, 1860. June 15, 1863, he married Miss Florence E. Menefee, of Booneville, Missouri, an accom- plished lady, who died January 29, 1866. His third marriage, October 15, 1874, was with Miss Sue T. Child, of Richmond, a native of Phila- delphia, but for several years a resident of Richmond, Virginia. She was in the latter city most of the time, while it was beleaguered by the Federal forces. In 1864, she succeeded in getting through the lines, and passing up the valley of Virginia, via Winchester and Martinsburg, reached Philadelphia in March, 1864. She is a sister of Hon. Jacob T. Child, editor of the Richmond Conservator, and is an intelligent, amia- ble and affectionate lady, attractive in person, and refined in manners. Colonel Black has two children living, issue of his first marriage, viz: James Black, a promising young man in his twenty-first year, who has recently graduated first in class-of which he was chosen valedictorian- from the State University, at Columbia, Missouri; and Mary G. O. Black, who lives with her uncle and aunt, Mr. and Mrs. Alexander Mait- land, of Ray county. The only child of the second marriage, Henry
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