My Genealogy Hound

Below is a family biography included in the book, The History of Adair County, Missouri published by Goodspeed Publishing Company in 1888.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of 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.

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Maj. Andrew H. Linder, an old pioneer, was born in Hardin County, Ky., February 28, 1812. He lived there until maturity, when the family came to Coles County, Ill. February 20, 1834, be married Sarah Morris, a native of Illinois, Two years later he started to Texas, but located, for one year, about eighty miles west of Little Rock, Ark. The following year he returned to Illinois, where he remained until August 12, 1840. This was the date of the removal to his present home. At the beginning of the war he organized a company for the Home Guards, and afterward enlisted in the Twenty-second Missouri Infantry. He became major of this and also of the Seventh Cavalry, into which this and the Black Hawk Cavalry were merged. He resigned in 1862. In 1853 he became commissioner to locate swamp lands, and has also been a member of the county court several terms. Besides several hundred acres of land given to his children, he now owns 319 acres. He had four sons and two daughters by his first marriage, five of whom were reared to maturity. After his first wife’s death, in 1846, he married Nancy Samuels, a native of Harrison County, Ind., by whom he had five sons and six daughters, and eight of whom were reared to maturity, Three sons by his first wife were in his command in the army. Our subject is a member of the G. A. R., and his entire family are Universalists. The paternal great-grandfather, Lawrence, with his two brothers, Simon and George, came from Germany. Simon’s posterity settled in Pennsylvania and Ohio, and the descendants of George went to the South. The grandfather married, in Virginia, a German lady by the name of Van Meter. He helped to make the fort on the site of Elizabethtown, Ky. He and his brother were among the Rangers. He died in Hardin County, Ky., at the age of ninety-six years. The father, Jacob, was born in the above fort about 1783. He married Jane Furgerson, a native of Virginia, whose parents were from Ireland, and in 1832 moved to Coles County, Ill. He spent his latter days with his children, and died at Andrew H.’s home in February, 1855. The mother died about eleven years later.

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This family biography is one of 150 biographies included in the Adair County, Missouri portion of the book,  The History of Adair, Sullivan, Putnam, and Schuyler Counties, Missouri published in 1888 by Goodspeed Publishing Co.  For the complete description, click here: Adair County, Missouri History, Genealogy, and Maps

View additional Adair County, Missouri family biographies here: Adair County, Missouri Biographies

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