My Genealogy Hound

The Thrasher family. Salt River Township, Adair County, can boast of many estimable families, the pioneer members of which figured honorably and prominently in the early history of Northeast Missouri. These brave people endured many hardships, dangers and privations, wrestling the hunting ground from the native red man, and preparing it for future usefulness, that their descendants might enjoy all the educational, religious and political advantages of their times, with greater facility. Conspicuous among these early immigrants of Missouri was John Thrasher. He was of German descent, and, during the Revolutionary War, when but eighteen years old, tendered his services to the thirteen American States in that memorable struggle for liberty, serving until the close of the war. After that he located in Pendleton County, Ky., and about 1816 immigrated to Marion County, Mo., where he resided for about ten years. He then moved to Monroe County, where he died about 1840. One of his sons, John F., was born in Pendleton County, Ky., and there married Elizabeth Rush, then about 1816 came with his wife’s parents to Marion County, Mo., where they reared their family of four sons and six daughters; two of the sons and three of the daughters are still living. In 1839 he entered 160 acres adjoining the present town of Brashear on the south, now a part of the home place of his son, John R., who purchased it in 1845, and has resided thereon since October 29, of that year. John F. Thrasher died in Marion County, May 9, 1875, his wife having preceded him about 1847. Her father, John Rush, was engaged in grist milling in Marion County, until his death. John R. Thrasher, of whom mention is made above, was born in Marion County, in 1821. About 1849 he entered eighty acres adjoining the original 160 acres, on the east, and has since successfully farmed both tracts of land. He pays considerable attention to fine stock, making Shorthorn cattle and Clydesdale and Norman horses specialties. About 1855 he received a commission to open a post-office at his house, Paulville being then established, which existed for about two years. In 1844 he married Ann J. Hendricks, a native of Marion County, and daughter of Daniel Hendricks, also of Marion County, who died of pneumonia, November 4, in the sixty-seventh year of his age, while visiting at the home of John R. Thrasher, in Adair County, Mo. Father Hendricks emigrated from Kentucky to Missouri in the fall of 1819, and settled in what was then the territory of Pike, afterward Ralls, now Marion County. He was useful in his generation, having served twenty-five years as justice of the peace, several years as county judge, forty-eight years as an acceptable member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and for a considerable part of that time as class-leader; in all of which relations he proved to be acceptable and useful. He was a man of firmness, of uniform piety, and was often heard to say, “I am ready;” so death found him patient in his afflictions, calm in death. He bade adieu to toil and pain, and entered into rest. “There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.”

Oh! weep not for the friends that pass
Into the lonesome grave,
As breezes sweep the withered grass
Along the restless wave;
For though thy pleasures may depart,
And darksome days be given,—
And lonely though on earth thou art,
Yet bliss awaits the holy heart
When friends rejoice in Heaven.

John R. Thrasher’s union was blessed with four sons and four daughters, all the girls reaching womanhood and two of the sons arriving at maturity. Of these, one son and three daughters still live. Mr. J. R. Thrasher is a Free Mason, and he and his family are united with the Methodist Episcopal Church South. John W. Thrasher, a grandson of the pioneer, John F., was born in Adair County, May 18, 1846, and married March 24, 1868, Nancy Jane Conkle, a daughter of Peter Conkle, another of the pioneers of Adair County. Two daughters were given them -Olive E. and Dora M. After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Thrasher located on a farm of 220 acres three-fourths of a mile south of Brashear, where they have since spent their days. He also is a Free Mason, and worships at the church of his fathers. His father, Thomas R., was a native of Marion County, being born there in 1819, and married Frances Ducker, of Pendleton County, Ky. About 1843 they came to Adair Comity, locating two-and-a-half miles north of the present site of Brashear. Here he reared a family of seven sons and seven daughters, of whom John W., four brothers and four sisters survive.