Biographical Sketches

Biographies from Cole County People



H. S. Parker

H. S. Parker, for more than twenty-seven years Missouri Pacific yardmaster at Jefferson City, came here from New Franklin to take that position in March 1910. He retired July 1, 1937.

Mr. Parker was born at Villa Ridge, Pulaski County, in southern Illinois, January 31, 1858. His mother died when he was three years old. She was of Irish descent, her maiden name Jennie Hoff. His father was Joseph F. Parker, first lieutenant, Eighteenth Illinois Infantry during the Civil War.

Mr. Parker was reared on a farm to the age of eighteen when he began railroading. Coming to Missouri in 1898, he worked for the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railway, being located in Sedalia. From there he was transferred to New Franklin whence he entered the employ of the Missouri Pacific at Jefferson City.

June 9, 1888, Mr. Parker was married to Miss Lou Atherton. She died at New Franklin February 9, 1909, leaving two sons, Guy H., who was in the fruit and vegetable business at Stockton, and Roy W. who lived in Jefferson City and worked for the Missouri Pacific.

September 23, 1913, Mr. Parker was married to Miss Della Guinn, a native of Moniteau County. Her parents were George and Mary Rebecca Hale Guinn, of pioneer Moniteau County families. Her father died when she was a small child. Her mother, who during her later years made her home with Mr. and Mrs. Parker, died January 6, 1928.

The Parkers were active members of the Christian Church. Mr. Parker, while never an office seeker, was influential in local Democratic politics. He served as chief of police in 1929-1930.


Lester S. Parker

 Lester S. Parker
Lester S. Parker was born in Worcester, MA and moved from there to Lexington, KY at the age of three. After five years the family moved to Chicago where his father, George C. Parker, engaged in the manufacture of shoes for the firm of Phelps, Dodge & Palmer. His home was the first house consumed by the great fire of 1871, after Mrs. O’Leary’s famous cow kicked over the lamp.

Soon after, the family moved to Baltimore where Lester attended Worcester College. He later entered Baltimore College, graduating with a background in law in 1879. He moved to the Salina, KS area where he was engaged in the practice of law as well as teaching, farming, sheep and cattle raising.

In 1894 he moved to St. Paul, MN where he was employed for one year as foreman in the shoe factory of Kellog & Johnson. He then moved to Chicago and worked with C.M. Henderson & Co, organizing the Jefferson Shoe Company for the purpose of manufacturing shoes in Jefferson City, and was made Superintendent and General Manager.

In 1895, just before the death of Mr. Henderson, the plant was moved to Dixon, IL. Mr. Parker disposed of his interest and organized his own company, incorporating under the name of The L.S. Parker Shoe Co., his associates being F.N. Chandler, Vice-President and Manager of the factory, and George Elston, Secretary.

Mr. Parker was married in 1882 at Salina, KS to Miss Katie Lockard and they had a daughter, Grace and son, Dan. Katie died in 1890 and he married a second time in May 1895, to Miss M. Sue O’Bannon, daughter of Capt. O’Bannon, a prominent farmer of Cass County and a former Representative of that commonwealth in the State Legislature. She was the mother of two children, Alice and Lester before her death in 1899.

The L. S. Parker Shoe Company manufactured exclusively workingmen’s shoes, selling to jobbers. Mr. Parker also owned mining property near Joplin and a summer resort at South Haven, MI.

Mr. Parker was a member of the First Baptist Church of Jefferson City where he was trustee and Superintendent and teacher of the Sunday school. He was also one of the Board looking after Baptist State Missions and Sunday Schools. He made his home at 124 W. McCarty.


Jacob P. Peltason

Jacob P. Peltason was born in St. Louis, September 8, 1875. He was a merchant in that city fifteen years, moving to Jefferson City in 1915 when his brothers, David and Arthur, bought the Walker Dry Goods Company and established the Peltason Store. He was at first buyer and department manager, and later a partner in this leading Jefferson City concern. After the death of his brothers, Mr. Peltason disposed of this business in January 1938.

Jacob Peltason married Miss Fannie Rice, who was born in New York March 21, 1881. Jacob’s father, Pelta Peltason, a native of Germany, was a pioneer wholesale milliner of St. Louis, and was operator of a system of chain stores in Colorado. The family records checked through five generations indicate German and Spanish origin. The name is from the Latin Pelta, translated Peltate.

Jacob’s son, Stanley, was born in St. Louis July 8, 1906. He was married September 15, 1930, to Miss Marian I. Newman of Little Rock, Arkansas.


David W. Peters

David W. Peters, Jefferson City attorney and Republican political leader, traced his Missouri ancestry to Samuel Peters who was born in Culpepper County, Virginia, in 1769 and established a home four miles north of the present site of Bunceton in Cooper County in 1816. Four of Samuel Peters’ older brothers served under Washington in the Revolution. On leaving Virginia he lived for a short time in Buncombe County, western North Carolina, moving from there to Bedford County, Tennessee whence he came to Missouri in 1816, selected a home in the present limits of Cooper County and entered the land when it had been surveyed. He was a member of the first grand jury of the first term of court held in Cooper County after the organization of that county in 1819. He was a soldier under Andrew Jackson in some of the latter’s Indian campaigns. He died in 1858. His wife’s maiden name was Byler.

David B. Peters, son of Samuel Peters, was born in Buncombe County, North Carolina, April 16, 1805, being eleven years old when the family came to Missouri. With little opportunity for schooling, he was an excellent penman and mathematician and was the first public administrator of Moniteau County after that county was organized in 1845. He had married Caroline Kelley in 1825 and in 1836 entered a farm in what was then Cole County, now Moniteau, where he spent the remainder of his life. He died in 1869.

Dr. Scott Peters, son of David B. and Caroline Peters, was born in Cole County (now Moniteau) January 4, 1841. He taught school prior to the Civil War. While he had been opposed to secession, he joined his younger brother, David W. Peters in the Confederate army. At the battle of Champion Hill near Vicksburg a bullet passed through his left arm and pierced a hundred and forty-three pages of a bible which he carried in the left pocket of his blouse. He was first sergeant in Company A of the Third Missouri Cavalry. After the war he resumed teaching, moving to Alabama in 1868 where he taught for several years. In 1877 he graduated in medicine from Vanderbilt University in Nashville and practiced his profession in Alabama until 1881 when he moved to Tennessee where he continued the practice of medicine until 1911 when he retired, returned to Missouri and bought a part of the old homestead where he was born. He died June 7, 1917.

David W. Peters, son of Scott and Mary Peters, was born in Jackson County, Alabama, March 25, 1870. On finishing the public school course he attended Cumberland University at Lebanon, Tennessee. From 1893 to 1899 he was a railway mail clerk except during the Spanish-American War in which he served. He became a post office inspector in 1899, resigning in 1909. For four years of this time he was in charge of the investigation of the fraudulent use of the mails in the City of New York. Beginning in 1909 he practiced law in Jefferson City. He was Republican floor leader of the legislature in the session of 1925. He was twice the nominee of his party for congress, once for circuit judge, and in 1916 was delegate to the Republican National Convention in Chicago when Charles Evans Hughes was nominated for President. He was district census supervisor in 1930, president of the Cole County Bar Association, and held many other positions of political and civic responsibility. He was a Knight Templar Mason and an Elk.

Mr. Peters was married in 1891 to Miss Lucy Taylor by whom he had two children: Scott Peters, Jefferson City attorney, and Lettie May who married Frank W. Bailey of Nashville, Tennessee. October 14, 1917, he was married to Mrs. Opal White who had one son by her first marriage, William W. White.


Rev. J. P. Pinkerton

 Rev. James Parrish Pinkerton
Rev. James Parrish Pinkerton, pastor of the Christian Church of Jefferson City, was born in Woodford County, KY, March 6, 1845. His father, Dr. Louis L. Pinkerton, D.D., a native of Baltimore, MD, was a distinguished minister of the same denomination and one of the most prominent educators of the blue grass state. He founded the Female Orphan School at Midway, KY and was Professor of Belle Letters at Kentucky University.

J.P. Pinkerton acquired his education in the private schools near his home and Baconian Institute, of which his father was principal, until the age of fifteen when he entered Kentucky University. The school was greatly disrupted by the Civil War; Gen. Bragg, the famous raider in charge of the southern forces, using the building as a hospital.

At the age of 19 he taught for two years in Clark and Fayette counties, during which time he studied law in the office of Judge William Kincade of Lexington, KY, where he was admitted to the bar. He later graduated from the Indianapolis law school class of 1868 and returned to Lexington to teach for one year. In 1870 he moved to Emporia, KS where he practiced law and worked in real estate for two years.

He moved to Connersville, IN where he engaged in banking with his cousin, J.N. Hustin who later became U.S. Treasurer under President Benjamin Harrison. He returned to Lexington to assist his brother-in-law in the furniture business, and at his death in winding up his estate.

Rev. Pinkerton had been impressed that it was his duty to preach the gospel. He was not ordained to preach until 1879, by the Christian Church, Greenup, KY, where he continued as pastor for four years. He was pastor in Grayson, KY two years, then Terrell, TX two years and McKinney, TX three years. He served in Austin, TX two years before moving to Springfield, MO where he remained for 6 years. During his pastorate in Springfield there were 500 additions to the church. He came to Jefferson City at the request of the State Board who felt the denomination should have a strong representative in the pulpit of the Capital City.

He was married October 7, 1869 to Miss Katherine S. Patterson of Lexington, KY. They had seven Children: Margaret Bell who became the wife of E.N. Ferguson, cashier of the Springfield Savings Bank. William Ward engaged in the cattle business and farming in New Mexico. Louis L. was a plumber at Springfield, MO. John S. a bookkeeper in the Springfield, MO Savings Bank. Three daughters were still at the home and attending school in Jefferson City in 1900—Helen Garfield, Mabel Allen and Ella Lee.


C. J. Pollock

C. J. Pollock was born in Boone County, Missouri in 1887, the son of John and Rosa J. Pollock, both natives of Boone County. In the college of agriculture at Columbia he specialized in dairy work. For eleven years he was in charge of the college herd and did special work in a number of states before coming to Jefferson City where he became city milk inspector.

He was a veteran of World War I, entering services in the first mobilization and serving overseas in the Eighty-ninth Division. He was married in 1935 to Miss Lilliam Hammett of Hannibal, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. H. Hammett.


Winfield Scott Pope

 Hon. Winfield Scott Pope
Hon. Winfield Scott Pope, the son of Thomas Pope and Mary Ann Hale Pope, was a native of North Carolina. He was born on a farm in Davidson County in that state, July 20, 1847, and died in Jefferson City, Missouri, April 13, 1921.

In his youthful days he attended the Davidson Academy and became a student at the Hillsboro Military Academy at Hillsboro, North Carolina, where he was a cadet during the Civil War period. About the close of the war he started west and traveled by rail to Rolla, Missouri, afterwards across the country to Marshfield, Webster, County, where many former residents of North Carolina had settled. He taught school there during the time he read and studied law.

In February 1867, he was admitted to the bar and entered upon the active practice of law at Hartville, Wright County, where he was elected to the Missouri House of Representatives from that district in 1872. While in Jefferson City serving in the Legislature he met Miss Lucy Miller, and on June 19, 1873, they were married in Jefferson City at the home of her father, Hon. George Wear Miller (see sketch), at that time judge of the circuit that included Cole County. Soon after Mr. Pope’s marriage and the expiration of his term of office, he moved to Jefferson City where he entered the practice of law which he continued during his entire life. In Jefferson City were born and reared his three daughters, Mrs. Horace B. Church, Jr., former Mary Louise Pope, died September 2, 1938. Mrs. Winfield Pope Hawkins (formerly Lucy Winfield Pope) lived in St. Louis. The youngest daughter, Mrs. Frances M. Cockrell, Jr., (Miller Chappell Pope) died in 1919. Mr. and Mrs. Pope were married for thirty-seven years, Mrs. Pope’s death occurring in 1910.

Mr. Pope again served in the lower house of the legislature in 1897, being elected from Cole County, and was a member of the Commission that made the revision of the statutes in 1899. He was active in the pioneer times and in his younger days rode the circuit on horseback, attending the various sessions of court with the contemporary lawyers and judges. He was both a criminal and civil lawyer, but in later years, as law became more specialized, his practice was mostly civil.


George Porth

 George Porth
George Porth was born on a farm near Mascoutah, IL, May 9, 1859. When he was eight years old the family moved to Mascoutah where he received his early education in the public schools. At the age of fifteen he went to Belleville where he learned the trade of watchmaker and jeweler under Joseph Wehrle, where he remained for four years.

He moved to St. Joseph, MO where he worked two years for Joseph Goodlive as manager of the repair department. Coming to Jefferson City in May 1879, he purchased the stock of jewelry of Robert Gross located at 210 East High Street. He continued the business at several locations in the city until 1898 when he, in connection with John Vogt and J.H. Edwards, purchased the old Tennessee House block at 110 East High Street. It was razed in the spring of 1899, and a new building erected.

December 6, 1881, he was united in marriage to Mary Helen, daughter of James and Charlotte Meador of Jefferson City. This union was blessed with six children: George, Hilda, Clifford and Edgar survived; Roy and Eugene were deceased. Mrs. Porth died July 3, 1898.

He was a member of numerous civic organizations and represented the city in the Third Ward as Councilman and as City Treasurer. He was President of the Jefferson City Sanitarium (see commerce sketch), incorporated under the laws of Missouri in 1898. He worked actively for cheaper ferriage prior to the building of the bridge, and was a stockholder of the Jefferson City Bridge & Transit Company.

He resided with his family at 210 West High Street.


Dr. Joseph P. Porth

Joseph P. Porth was born in Osage County January 15, 1865. His father was a native of Germany, his mother, whose maiden name was Elizabeth Wolters, was born in Florida. Doctor Porth was married to Miss Ellie Nitchie. Their daughter, Elsie married E. C. Baldwin.

Dr. Porth acquired his early education at St. Louis University. In later years he studied at Berlin, Greifswald, Paris and Vienna. He began the practice of medicine in 1888. He was a charter member of the Cole County Medical Society. Dr. Porth was keenly interested in city and state government as well as in the practice of medicine. He became mayor of Jefferson City in 1903, and served as representative of Cole County in the Forty-first, Forty-fourth and Forty-fifth General Assemblies. He died September 30, 1923.

 Porth House

Porth House, 681 West Main Street
As it originally appeared before the addition of the mansard roof.


 Porth House Remodeled

Following remodeling

Mrs. Porth was the daughter of H. C. and Henrietta Geisberg Nitchey. Their other children included Hattie, who died in childhood; Walter; Mrs. Anthony Culkin of Colorado Springs; Hilda of Tulsa, Oklahoma; and Frank Nitchey, shoe manufacturer of Evanston, Illinois. Henrietta Nitchey’s father was Franz Geisberg, a pioneer merchant of Westphalia and of Jefferson City who arrived in 1834, and who married Gertrude Stieferman. On the discovery of gold in California in 1849, he joined the rush of adventurers to that place. His other children were Casper Geisberg who was killed in the Civil War, and Henry Geisberg, clerk of the federal court, banker and building and loan officer.

Henry C. Nitchey was an attaché of the state auditor’s office in the years immediately following the Civil War. He was later assistant postmaster, and superintendent of the Jefferson City Gas Company.


James A. Potter

James A. Potter was born on a Cedar County farm October 28, 1880. The family moving to Mt. Vernon in 1885, he entered public school there and graduated from the Mt. Vernon Academy in 1898. That fall he entered the state university where he received the AB Degree in 1902 and his LLB in 1905. He located at Aurora for the practice of law and until 1911 was associated with Edward J. White, a prominent lawyer from that area. From 1911 to 1922 he was associated with Congressman I. V. McPherson. He was city attorney of Aurora from 1906 to 1916; prosecuting attorney from 1919 to 1923. In 1925 he was appointed assistant Attorney General by Robert W. Otto, then Attorney General of Missouri, and served until December 31, 1926, when he formed a law partnership with General Otto, with headquarters in Jefferson City. Judge W. T. Ragland joined this firm January 1, 1933.

Mr. Potter was a Republican in politics, and a member of the Presbyterian Church. He was president of the Chamber of Commerce at Aurora, and a member of the school board. He was a member of the Masons, Rotary Club, Board of Curators of the State University and served as secretary of the State Bar Association.

James A. Potter was the son of James Thomas Potter who was born in Warren County, Kentucky, March 16, 1836; he was a soldier in the Civil War, member of Company L, 6th Missouri Cavalry. He died at Mount Vernon September 25, 1905. James Thomas Potter was married to Mary Jane Dunaway in Dade County, December 10, 1857. Shortly after their marriage they went to Cedar County where he engaged in farming until December 1885, when they moved to Mt. Vernon. He organized the Mt. Vernon Bank, and was its president for a number of years. He continued in the farming and livestock business in Cedar County and in the banking business in Mt. Vernon until his death.

James Thomas Potter was the son of James Thomas Potter and Matilda Ann Garland, who were married in Bowling Green, Kentucky, in 1831. His wife was the daughter of Jacky Garland who came to Missouri in 1856, accompanied by his sons and son-in-law. James Thomas Potter, Sr., born in Warren County, Kentucky, March 3, 1808, died of tetanus in 1859. His wife was born about 1810 and died of typhoid in 1840.

James A. Potter’s mother was born in Dade County October 11, 1839, and died at Mt. Vernon in June, 1911. She was the daughter of Louis Tarwater Dunaway who owned 1700 acres of land in Dade County and was engaged in extensive farming until his death in 1861. He was born September 11, 1808 and married to Mary Jane English in 1832, in Ray County, Missouri.

Mr. Potter’s paternal great-grandparents were William Potter, born October 29, 1772, and Nancy Kirby, born October 23, 1781, who were married February 14, 1798, and became the parents of twelve children. Nancy Kirby’s father, Jesse Kirby, was born in October 1757; he served as a soldier in the Revolutionary War, and received a land grant of several thousand acres in Kentucky for distinguished service. Jesse Kirby’s wife was Sophia Choice, who was born September 23, 1760. His maternal great-grandparents, Samuel Martin Dunaway and Eva Ann Tarwater, were natives of Pennsylvania and Tennessee, respectively, and came to Ray County, Missouri at an early date. Jane English, Mr. Potter’s maternal grandmother, was the daughter of Thomas English and Letitia Campbell, the latter a cousin of Alexander Campbell, founder of the Christian Church. Jane English was born May 12, 1909.

James A. Potter was married to Miss Mena Proctor, daughter of James M. and Ella White Proctor, at Sturgeon, Boone County, Missouri October 24, 1906. Mrs. Potter received her education at Central College, Fayette, Missouri. They had one daughter, Mary Louise, born at Aurora, October 15, 1907; she married James E. Kunkler.

Mrs. Potter’s father was born in Macon County, February 12, 1842, and died at Sturgeon July 26, 1912. Her mother was born at Mexico, Missouri, December 3, 1846, and died October 26, 1911. She was the daughter of William White and Elizabeth Shugart, natives of Pennsylvania. The former was born August 10, 1802, and died November 2, 1865. The latter was born March 10, 1812, and died December 25, 1867. The former was a son of Joseph White, born June 1, 1755, Sergeant Light Dragoons, U. S. Service in the Revolution. Mrs. Potter’s great-grandmother, Elizabeth Shugart, born 1784, died 1863, was the daughter of Zackariah Shugart, Jr., whose father, Zackariah Shugart, Sr., was a lieutenant in the Revolution. He was born in Germany and died in Pennsylvania in 1790.


Frank W. Prather

 Frank W. Prather
Frank W. Prather was born in North Vernon, Jennings County, IN and moved to Boone County, Arkansas when he was two years old. His family moved to Kansas then to Missouri when he was nine. His education was primarily on the job training and he apprenticed in a printing office in Appleton City, MO.

At the age of seventeen he started his own weekly publication at Forsyth in Taney County, and in 1891 established the Springfield Republican as a weekly. It became a daily and was one of the most influential Republican journals outside the large cities. He sold the plant in 1892, and after spending four years in Texas, returned to Missouri where he was employed by the Tribune Printing Company of Jefferson City. Due to changes resulting from the death of Mr. Ewing, he went into partnership with Mr. Ed Hagan publishing the Capital City Weekly Journal. They disposed of the plant in 1900.

He was married June 1897 to Miss Mollie Brumley of Springfield. He moved to Washington, D.C. where he accepted a position with the Government Census printing office.







Ben Prenger

Ben Prenger, former sheriff of Cole County, was the son of Albert Prenger who was born in Hanover, April 24, 1836. In 1842, Albert Prenger came to America with his parents, John and Rosina Walkin Prenger, by way of New Orleans, and in that year John Prenger entered land in Liberty Township. John and Rosina Prenger reared a family of seven children in this county. John Prenger died in 1864, his wife in 1872.

Albert Prenger in 1868 bought a farm in Osage Township on which he lived for the remainder of his life. In 1860 he married Helena Stephens of German descent, by whom he had thirteen children. He served in the Home guards during the Civil War.

Ben Prenger was born November 13, 1868. Until his election on the Democratic ticket as sheriff in 1928 his life was spent in farming. He bought a farm adjoining that on which he was born. He was married at the age of thirty to Miss Dora Swallow, daughter of Pete Swallow, a pioneer citizen of this county.

Mr. and Mrs. Prenger had twelve children and twenty-two grandchildren. Their daughter, Helen was the wife of Emil Van Loo of Wardsville. The Van Loo’s had two sons and three daughters: Lavinia; Charles; George; Amelia; Aline; Marie who married Roy Van Loo and lived in Wardsville; Leona, the wife of Fred Markway; Lucille, the wife of L. F. Landwehr, the dairyman. All of Mr. Prenger’s children and grandchildren lived in Cole County.


Mrs. Ada C. Price
(Mrs. Thomas Benton Price)

Daughter-in-law of General Thomas Lawson Price, and niece of General Price's second wife, Caroline V. Long Price

Ada Catherine Bear Price (9 April 1851-14 Dec.1946) was the daughter of Susan Long and Adam Clark Bear, Elkton, Rockingham County, VA, whose home place was called Bear Lithia Springs. Her mother's sister, Caroline V. Long, became the second wife of General Thomas Lawson Price on 25 April 1854. Therefore, Ada C. Bear's aunt, when she came from Virginia to Jefferson City to visit, was also her future husband's step-mother.

The Old Fort Long Estate in Virginia was acquired in 1720 from the English Crown by Philip Long, an ancestor. Elizabeth W. Schuyler Long, mother of Caroline V. Long Price and Susan Long Bear, grandmother of Ada C. Bear Price, was a descendant of Gen. Philip Schuyler of Revolutionary War fame.

Ada C. Bear and Thomas Benton Price (19 May 1949-7 Nov. 1890) were married 28 Nov. 1872, at her family home in Virginia. Thomas Benton Price was the son of Unionist General Thomas Lawson Price (19 Jan. 1809-16 July 1870) and his first wife, Lydia Bolton Price, the mother of General Price's four children. She was born 24 April 1807 and died 27 May 1849, eight days after the birth of Thomas Benton Price.

A daughter of General Price and Lydia Bolton Price, Celeste, married a distant cousin, Celsus Price, son of Confederate General Sterling Price. She died 27 Sept 1867. On that same day her baby was born and died, also her father-in-law, General Sterling Price, former governor of Missouri.

In 1873 General Price's widow, Caroline V. Long Price, married his cousin, James B. Price, a widower with five children.

Ada C. Bear Price and Thomas Benton Price had two children, Lawson Clark Price (15 July 1873-24 March 1941) whose name was changed to Thomas Lawson Price in Cole County, MO Circuit Court around 1910, and Celeste Bolton Price (2 July 1878-10 April 1953).

Thomas Lawson Price, grandson of General Price, married Mary Johnson, daughter of William and Juliet Trigg Johnson of Boonville, MO, on 8 Dec. 1898. She died 20 May 1958. They had one daughter, Juliet Price Idol (25 March 1900-14 Sept. 1976) and two grandchildren, Gaverne Gibson Mead and Thomas Price Gibson.

Celeste Price, granddaughter of Gen. Price, married Cecil Warren Thomas, a distant cousin on Thanksgiving Day in 1902, the last social function in the Price mansion. The Thomases made their home with her mother, Mrs. Ada C. Price, on Capitol Avenue, Jefferson City, MO.

Mrs. Ada C. Bear Price's younger sister, Gertrude Bear, also a niece of Carolyn V. Long Price, married Dr. Charles Loring Turner, grandfather of Loring Bear Turner (11 Oct. 1907-14 Oct. 1985) and great-grandfather of Charles Loring Turner (9 May 1947-).

Prepared for the Cole County Historical Society, Jefferson City, MO, and updated 4 March 1987.

Lucille Richey Turner
(Mrs. Loring Bear Turner)


John Price

 John Price
John Price was born near Canterbury County of Kent, England, April 5, 1817, and immigrated to the United States when eleven years of age, with his parents, who first settled in Albany, N.Y. They came over in a sailing ship and were seven weeks crossing the ocean.

John Price received his education in the public schools of Albany, N.Y. and in Rutland, Vermont. He went to Rutland when 16 years of age to learn carriage painting from Jared C. Burdick, a carriage manufacturer, harness-maker and also a dealer in fine horses, and with whom he made his home as a son. While living with Mr. Burdick he married the second of his three daughters, Lydia Elizabeth, on July 22, 1840, she being seven years his junior. Mrs. Price was born in Rutland, Vermont, November 23, 1824.

At the death of his father-in-law he took charge of the business, conducting it successfully until the shop was destroyed by fire, which was a complete loss, the insurance having expired three months previous. After the fire he accepted a position in the shops of the Rutland and Burlington Railway Company in Rutland, painting engines and cars; He later worked in the shops of the Western Vermont Railway and Saratoga Railway Companies. He continued at his trade until his health failed and he moved to Castle Rock, Osage County, MO and settled on a farm, later engaging in the business of merchandising.

During the Civil War he had three mail contracts, one between Jefferson City and Rolla, one between Jefferson City and Little Pina on the Gasconade River, and the other between Jefferson City and Castle Rock. He recruited for the 26th Missouri, under Col. Boomer, who was afterward killed at Vicksburg, and while recruiting stopped one night with a man named Getty, who was killed the following night by the Bushwhackers. These same men were after Mr. Price a number of times, and he had several narrow escapes.

Mr. Price came to Jefferson City in December 1863, soon after which he joined the Home Guards, and was forced into service as guide for two regiments from Jefferson City to Rolla. He, with Dr. Peabody, acted as Trustees and started the first public school in Jefferson City after the war. At the close of the strife he again engaged in his old trade, painting, in Jefferson City. There was one other painter here at the time, John Ross, with whom he formed a partnership, and continued several years, when the partnership was dissolved, and he worked alone until l897, when he retired at the age of 80.

Mr. and Mrs. Price were the parents of nine children: John Jared, made his home in Des Moines, Iowa and traveled for Heath and Milligan of Chicago; Emma Amelia married James E. Ross and lived in Bunker Hill, Ill.; Lillie married Robert Cruikshank of St. Louis, MO; William; Mrs. Julia Davis; Mrs. Elizabeth Ross; Mrs. Jennie Ross; Mrs. Lucy McComb; and May.

Mr. Price was a member of the I.O.O.F. He and his wife lived at 308 Madison Street. They were members of the Presbyterian Church.


The Price Family

Thomas Lawson Price, business man of Jefferson City, was the son of Thomas Benton Price and the grandson of General Thomas Lawson Price who was the first of the Price family in Jefferson City and one of the outstanding characters in the history of the city.

The first Thomas Lawson Price was born near Danville, VA, January 19, 1809. In 1831 he came west, intending to locate in St. Louis; but because of the cholera epidemic there, came on to Jefferson City where he engaged in business. He invested his surplus earnings in Jefferson City and St. Louis real estate and in farm lands. In 1838 he established the first stage line between Jefferson City and St. Louis, later extending stage lines over various routes from Jefferson City. He was elected the first mayor of the city in 1839 and served two terms. He was one of the incorporators of the Capital City Bank, and president of the Jefferson Landing Company.

 Price Mansion, corner of High and Washington streets

Price Mansion, corner of High and Washington streets

In 1847 Thomas L. Price was commissioned brevet major general of Missouri militia by Governor Edwards. At the outbreak of the Civil War he was commissioned brigadier general by President Lincoln, resigning to accept a seat in congress. Prior to his election to congress he was elected representative from Cole County in the state legislature and served in the stormy session under Governor Claiborne Jackson.

Always interested in transportation, General Price was one of the promoters of the Pacific Railroad, and was one of the largest contractors of the road. Later he was active I the building of other railroads.

General Price was lieutenant-governor of the state from 1849to 1853. He was a personal and political friend of Thomas H. Benton, and was loyal to the Union cause. In 1864 he was the Democratic nominee for governor of Missouri, but owing to the disfranchisement of the majority of Democratic voters, was defeated. He died July 16, 1870.

In 1830 General Price was married to Miss Lydia Bolton, a native of North Carolina who died in 1849. She left a daughter, Celeste, who married Captain Celsuo Price, son of General Sterling Price; and an infant son, Thomas Benton Price. In 1854 he married Caroline V. Long, daughter of Isaac Long, of Page County, Virginia.

 Thomas Benton Price
Thomas Benton Price, born in Jefferson City May 19, 1849, was educated in Jefferson in a select school in Pennsylvania, and in St. Louis University. As a member of the transcontinental surveying corps under General Palmer, he spent the year 1867 in the west where his party skirmished with Indians and chased buffalo. November 18, 1872, he married Miss Ada C. Bear of Virginia, daughter of Col. Adam C. Bear and Susan Long Bear. Isaac Long, maternal grandfather of Mrs. Price, owned a large plantation in the Shenandoah Valley. Thomas Benton and Ada Bear Price had two children, Lawson Clark Price (July 15, 1873-March 24, 1941) whose name was changed to Thomas Lawson Price in the Cole County, Missouri Circuit Court around 1910, and Celeste Bolton Price (July 2, 1878-April 10, 1953). Celeste married Cecil Thomas. See her sketch under “Thomas.”

Thomas Benton Price established a beautiful country estate, Avondale, Pettis County, Missouri, on which he lived. Its acreage was devoted chiefly to blue grass and forest, with only enough land in cultivation to supply its needs. Here he created a fine herd of Shorthorns and a famous line of saddle horses. He loved the country and had large real estate interests in this and other states. He died in an accident November 8, 1890, and his wife moved to Jefferson City.

The father of General Thomas Lawson Price was Major Price, 1779-1829, a Virginia tobacco planter and large slave owner. Major Price was the son of William Price who entered the Revolutionary War a lieutenant and advanced to the rank of major. The founder of the Price family in America was John Price, born in 1584, who left England for Virginia in 1610 or 1611.

 Thomas Lawson Price
Thomas Lawson Price, son of Thomas Benton and Ada Bear Price, was married to Miss May Johnson, daughter of William and Juliet Trigg Johnson of Boonville, Missouri on December 8, 1898. They had one daughter, Juliet (March 25, 1900-Sept. 14, 1976), who married John Guy Gibson. Mr. and Mrs. Gibson had one daughter, Gavern Price Gibson Mead, and one son, Tom Price Gibson.

Mr. Price was for nineteen years a member and for eight years chairman of the Library Board. He served as director and vice-president of the Exchange National Bank; a director and president of the Country Club. He was president of the Capital City Oil Company which he founded in 1922, the stock of which was owned by him and his family. He was a colonel on the staff of Governor Stark, and was also on the staff of Governor Park and Governor Gardner. He was chairman of the Cole County Special Road District Number 1, which included Jefferson City and had some eighty-five miles of gravel and asphalt roads.

Mr. Price devoted considerable time to farming and operated about 1900 acres in Pettis County for himself and his family.





August Priesmeyer

 August Priesmeyer President and founder of the A. Priesmeyer Shoe Company, was born on a farm near Westphalia, Prussia, December 17, 1832. At the age of 17 he immigrated to America, stopping first near Cincinnati, Ohio, where he worked on a farm several months. He learned the shoemaking trade in Cincinnati where he served a two year apprenticeship. He then moved to St. Louis where he worked in a shoe store.

In 1857 he made a trip to Europe to visit his parents, returning in the fall. He continued to work at the shoe store until 1859 when he opened a retail store of his own, conducting a prosperous business until 1867 when he disposed of his stock and engaged in the hide and tobacco business. This business failed and in 1869 he again opened a shoe store with financial backing from a friend, F. Woesten.

In 1874 he disposed of this business and moved to Jefferson City where he engaged in the manufacture of shoes in partnership with his friend, F. Woesten, the firm being A. Priesmeyer & Co. In 1876 he bought the business interest of his partner and continued the business until the fall of 1899 when the A. Priesmeyer Shoe Co. was organized and incorporated with Mr. A. Priesmeyer as President; John Tweedie Sr., Vice-President and Superintendent of the factory, and H.F. Priesmeyer, Secretary, Treasurer and Manager of the business.r Both Mr. Tweedie and Mr. H.F. Priesmeyer had long been lieutenants in this growing manufacturing business and had been given a share of the profits for more than 15 years.

When Mr. Priesmeyer first established this plant he only employed thirty-five men, but by 1900 he employed over 250 workmen with eighteen traveling salesmen covering virtually all the united States except for New England and a few of the North Atlantic States.

In August 1860, Mr. Priesmeyer was married to Caroline Steinbruegge of St. Charles, MO. To this union were born three sons, two of whom died in infancy. The surviving son was named Eddie. Caroline died May 20, 1889.

In April 1891 he was married to Miss Minnie Meyer of St. Louis and she died in 1895. In 1899 he was united in marriage to Mrs. Emma White of St. Louis and they made their home at 1537 S. Grand Avenue, St. Louis, he having retired from the active duties connected with his business and moving to that city in 1891.

In addition to two trips to Europe in 1897, Mr. Priesmeyer made a 14-month trip around the world, visiting Japan, China, the Orient, India, Africa, Palestine and Syria.


Henry F. Priesmeyer

 Henry F. Priesmeyer
Henry F. Priesmeyer who was Secretary and Treasurer of the A. Priesmeyer Shoe Co. was born in St. Louis, MO August 16, 1857, and educated in the public schools of that city. At the age of sixteen he went to Chicago, entering the law office of Lyman & Jackson with the view of studying for the practice of law. At the age of twenty-one he resigned this position and came to Jefferson City to engage in work for his uncle, A. Priesmeyer.

After several years of working in the factory, he spent seven years on the road as a salesman in North and Southwest Missouri. In 1884 he gave up the road, taking charge of the office, and in 1892 became manager of the finance and sales departments.

In 1899 the A. Priesmeyer Shoe Company was incorporated with his uncle as President of the corporation, John Tweedie Vice-President and Superintendent of the factory and he Secretary and Treasurer.

Mr. Priesmeyer was married May 2, 1883, to Miss Julia M. Meyer of St. Charles, MO. They became the parents of five children, Mamie, Charlotte, Colette, Theodore and Jack. Mamie died at the age of sixteen.




 H. F. Priesmeyer home, 402 Madison St., 1891

H. F. Priesmeyer home, 402 Madison St., 1891

Besides belonging to many civic organizations, Mr. Priesmeyer was a stockholder and director of the Bridge and Transit Company, of which he was the first Vice-President. He was also President of the Board of Education and active and generous in developing the State Horse Show Association.

 H. F. Priesmeyer home, 1900

H. F. Priesmeyer home, 1900


William McKendree Prottsman

 William McKendree Prottsman
Rev. Dr. William McKendree Protsman was born on the state line between West Virginia and Ohio, February 19, 1815. At the time his parents time en route from Rockingham County, VA to Marietta, OH.

He entered Marietta College in 1839, being one of the first students of the institution. A constitutional provision of this college required each student to labor three hours every day at some mechanical trade, a rule to which there was no exception, it governing both rich and poor. The money earned by the students while engaged in this work was their own.

He continued here four years, completing his education in 1843 with a thorough and practical knowledge as a buggy, carriage and horse-cart builder, which included the wood work, iron work, trimming and painting. After leaving college he engaged as a clerk on what was called a store-boat, which was loaded with furniture and other merchandise. He went as far as Memphis, TN where he left the boat and engaged as clerk in a grocery store where he worked for two years, returning to Marietta, Ohio.

He was licensed to preach by the M.E. Church (South) in 1844. His itinerancy as a preacher in this church organization covered a large part of the states of Virginia, Kentucky, Missouri and California. In Missouri he was several times a presiding elder and preacher in important fields of the state including St. Louis, Kansas City, Springfield, Carthage and Jefferson City. While in California he was stationed for two years in San Francisco.

He was married to Anna Lewis, daughter of Edward Lewis, a prominent farmer and tobacco manufacturer of Glascow, MO. He and his wife lived at 121 Stewart Street in Jefferson City.




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