|
Home
Up
Search
Multi-County DVDs
Missouri Counties
Southeast Missouri
Ozark Region
Arkansas Counties
Illinois Counties
Indiana Counties
Iowa Counties
Kansas Counties
Kentucky Counties
Louisiana Parishes
Massachusetts Vital Records
North Carolina Counties
Ohio Counties
Pennsylvania Counties
Tennessee Counties
Texas Counties
Historic Map Reprints
Plat Map Books
Census Records
State County Maps
New Titles
Coming Soon
Questions Answers
Customer Quotes
Wholesale
Conferences
Missouri Journey
Iris Median
Contact Us
Genealogy History News
Special Offers
County History Books
| |
Below is a sample of a family biography
included in The History of Greene County, Missouri published by A. W.
Bowen & Company in 1915.
These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing
ancestors or filling in the details in a family tree. Family biographies often
include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.
Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place
of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including
maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if
married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service,
church and social organization affiliations, and more. There are often
ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical
record.
JAMES THOMPSON CANTRELL. As an agricultural region of which
Greene county, Missouri, forms a part is not surpassed by any state in the
Union. It is indeed the farmer's kingdom, where he always reaps an abundant
harvest of one kind or another. The soil, in most portions of Greene and
adjoining counties, has an open, flexible structure, quickly absorbs the
excessive rains, and retains moisture with great tenacity. This being the case
it is not so easily affected by drouth. The prairies are covered by esculent,
luxurious grass, equally good for grazing and hay: grass not surpassed by the
famous Kentucky blue grass, the best of clover and timothy in raising live
stock. This grass is now as full of life-giving nutriment as it was when
cropped by the buffalo, the elk, antelope, and the deer. One of the
enterprising men of Greene county who took advantage of the naturally
favorable conditions for agricultural purposes in this locality and was
adequately repaid for his pains is James Thompson Cantrell, now living in the
town of Walnut Grove, Greene county, after a long, active and successful
career as general farmer and stock raiser. He has also a good record as a
public servant, having filled a number of county offices in an adjoining
county, and he is also a veteran of the Civil war, and a citizen who has ever
enjoyed the respect and confidence of his fellow men. Mr. Cantrell was born in
DeKalb county, Tennessee, on a farm, October 29, 1842. He is a son of Peter
and Elizabeth (Cantrell) Cantrell. Peter Cantrell was a native of Tennessee
also, where his parents located in an early day, having removed from South
Carolina. After spending his earlier years in his native state, Peter Cantrell
came to Dade county, Missouri, arriving there November 3, 1848: and entered
two hundred and forty acres of land from the government, one hundred and
twenty acres of which his son, James E., of this sketch now owns. Here he
worked hard developing his raw land into a good farm, the work of clearing and
improving being an arduous task, but he was not a man lacking grit and
courage, and here he farmed successfully until his death on June 24, 1874.
Politically, he was a Republican and was quite active in political affairs,
was always ready to defend his position on any public question. Religiously he
was a Baptist, and active in the work of the church. He married his cousin,
Elizabeth Cantrell, in Tennessee, where she was born and reared. Her death
occurred in 1862. To them a large family, fifteen children, were born, two of
whom died in infancy. Seven of the sons were all soldiers in the Union army
during the Civil war, and all survived the conflict except one who was killed
by a guerrilla near Dadeville, Missouri. James T. Cantrell grew to manhood on
the home farm, being six years old when his parents brought him to Dade
county, this state. He assisted his father clear and develop the homestead,
and he received what education he could in a few books at home by the old
fire-place, school advantages of those days being very limited in his
locality. On August 8, 1862, when but eighteen years of age, he enlisted in
the Missouri State Militia in which he served a year. then enlisted in the
Fifteenth Missouri Cavalry, and was continuously fighting guerrillas while in
this regiment. While in the service he contracted rheumatism from which he has
never recovered. He was honorably discharged on June 30, 1865, in Springfield,
after which he returned home and resumed work on the farm, and continued
farming in Dade county, which joins Greene county on the west, until 1890 when
he was elected recorder of Dade county, which office he held four years, then
returned to farming, which he continued with his usual gratifying results
until 1911 when he retired from active life and located in Walnut Grove,
Greene county. He always kept his farm in Dade county under a high state of
cultivation and improvement and was regarded as one of the leading farmers of
his community. He served as clerk of his township for some time, and was also
assessor of his township for two years. Politically, Mr. Cantrell is a
Republican and has been more or less active in the affairs of his party for
many years. He attends the Baptist church, and he belongs to the Grand Army of
the Republic. James T. Cantrell was married on December 8, 1867, to Mary E.
York, who was born in Kentucky, April 15, 1852, a daughter of Greenberry and
Elizabeth (Hardcastle) York, and when young in years she came to Dade county,
Missouri. Ten children have been born to our subject and wife, three of whom
are now deceased, namely: Alva B. is the wife of William Carlock and they live
in Dade county; Louis E. is practicing dentistry at Everton, Dade county; Nora
E. is the wife of T. J. Drisdel, and they make their home in Dadeville,
Missouri; Benjamin F. is practicing dentistry in Walnut Grove; Homer A. lives
on the home farm; Henry C. lives in San Pedro, California, and Kate B. is the
wife of F. A. Wheeler, of Walnut Grove.
This family biography is one of 666
biographies included in The History of Greene County, Missouri published
in 1915. For the complete description, click here:
Greene County, Missouri History, Genealogy, and Maps
Additional
Free Genealogy and Map Resources
|
