My Genealogy Hound

James Novinger, a farmer and stock raiser of Nineveh Township, was born in Dauphin County, Penn., in 1840, and is the third of the thirteen children of Isaac and Christena (Shoop) Novinger, natives of Pennsylvania, and born in 1815 and 1816, respectively. His parents were married in 1838, and in 1847 came to Adair County, and located in Nineveh Township where Mr. Novinger owned a good farm and where he spent the remainder of his life, dying in December, 1885. He was one of the early pioneers of that county, and an honorable and upright man. They successfully raised eight sons and four daughters, ten of whom are still living. The mother still resides upon the old farm. Both were members of the Lutheran Church. James was reared at home, having but few opportunities to obtain an education, and all that he did acquire was by his own perseverance and application after reaching his majority. In August, 1862 he enlisted in Company D, Twenty-Seventh Missouri Volunteer Infantry and entered the Army of the Tennessee, participating in the siege of Vicksburg, battles of Mission Ridge and Murfreesboro, and was with Gen. Sherman during his Georgia and Atlanta campaigns. He was mustered out at Washington City, D. C., in 1865, after which he returned home, and resumed his labor on the farm. In 1876 he was married to Miss Louisa, a daughter of Michael and Margaret (Shoop) Snyder. Mrs. Novinger is a native of Nineveh Township, and they have five children, all living, viz.: Solomon, Israel, Edward, William Henry, Harvey Sylvester and James Grover. He has since his marriage been a resident of his present farm of 200 acres situated nine miles northwest of Kirksville, all of which he has acquired by his own hard labor. Mr. Novinger is a Democrat, but cast his first presidential vote for Lincoln in 1864, at which time he was in service. He and his wife are members of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church.