My Genealogy Hound

Marion Dale, judge of the probate court of Barton County, was born April 14, 1843, in Hamilton County, Ind. His father, Samuel Dale, was born in Woodford County, Ky., in 1798. Samuel Dale spent four years of his early life serving an apprenticeship to the cabinet-maker’s trade. It was in 1817 that, growing weary of working as an apprentice, he left his employer, went to Noblesville, Hamilton County, Ind., where he engaged in, and successfully prosecuted, the business for himself. In 1821 he was united in marriage to Miss Artamissa Sample, of which union five sons were born. Mrs. Dale died in 1836. He afterward married Miss Mary Messick, of Noblesville, and the subject of this sketch was the second of the five sons born of this marriage. Miss Mary Messick was born, reared and educated at Wilmington, Del. She graduated from the old town school in 1832, and in 1834 went to Noblesville, Ind., and was engaged in teaching until 1838, when she married Mr. Dale. During Samuel Dale’s residence in Hamilton County, Ind., he was extensively engaged in farming, besides prosecuting his trade with good results; he was also honored with the office of justice of the peace for twelve years. In 1855 he moved to Taylor County, Iowa, and engaged in merchandising and farming. During the years 1857 and 1858 he served in the State senate as a representative for the senatorial district composed of Taylor, Page, Union, Fremont, Mills, Montgomery and Adams Counties. He moved to Lykins (now Miami) County, Kan., in 1859, and remained there during the Civil War, leaving and coming to Cass County, Mo., in 1866, where he lived to the time of his death, 1878. Mrs. Mary Dale died in 1876, at the age of sixty-four, a consistent member of the Methodist Church, South. Samuel Dale was a good business man, and in politics was a Jacksonian Democrat. Of his ten sons, seven were in the Union army, two were killed in the battle at Kansas City, October, 1864, when Price made his last raid in Missouri; one was killed accidentally in Louisiana in 1863 by the cars running over him; one died from lung disease caused by exposure, and, of the three that were mustered out, one was severely wounded at Springfield in 1863. Judge Marion Dale, the subject of this sketch, was educated at the common schools, and, at seventeen years of age, learned the carpenter’s trade, and worked at it for several years. During the war he was in the Kansas State militia, and at times saw service. He was engaged with his father in the merchandise business in Cass County, Mo., from the time of his father’s removal there until the spring of 1870, when he went to La Cygne, Kan. While in Cass County, in 1868, he married Miss Jennie Sloan. He did not remain long in Kansas, but came, with his stock of goods, to Nashville, Barton County, Mo., in the following fall, and remained in his merchandise business until 1874. Here he lost, by death, his first wife in 1871, no children having been born to them. Judge Dale devoted himself to farming after 1875. He was collector for Nashville Township in 1877 and 1878, and postmaster at Nashville for four years. In 1874 he was married to Miss Amanda J. Thompson, of Jasper County, Mo. Six children have blessed their union, of whom three are now living, two boys and one girl. The Judge came to this county when her population was about 4,500, and has grown up with her increasing population, and devoted his means and talents toward hastening her growth. The county, in 1886, in recognition of his services, awarded him with the office which he now holds, judge of probate. Judge Dale is a painstaking, conscientious officer, and, since coming into the probate judgeship, has overhauled, classified and indexed all the papers in the office. He is always kind, courteous and attentive to those who have business in his court. In religion he and his wife are of the Holiness faith.