My Genealogy Hound

George Griesel, farmer and miller at Climax Springs, Mo., was born in Germany in 1826, and is a son of Adam and Anna E. (Sharp) Griesel, who were also Germans, born in 1774 and 1789, and died in 1840 and 1867, respectively. The father was a farmer, and served as justice of the peace and city appraiser, and was captain of a company of Home Guards in his native land. He was in the war from the time he was sixteen until he was thirty-two years of age, with Napoleon Bonaparte, and was at the battle of Waterloo, under command of Gen. Blucher. Five of his six children came to America, but only two are now living, George and Jacob, of Sacramento, Cal. The grandparents, Jacob and Anna E. Sharp, were also Germans. George Griesel received a good education in his native land, and in his boyhood days learned the millwright’s trade. When twenty years old he was mustered into the army, and was discharged at the age of thirty, having participated in the war between Germany and Denmark in 1850-53. In 1854 he was married in his native land to Catherine E. Leidheiser, who was born in 1834, and is a daughter of John A. and Ann E. (Tibmar) Leidheiser, who were tillers of the soil, and the parents of eleven children, three of whom crossed the ocean to America, and four are yet living: John A.; Conrad, Martha E. and Catherine (Mrs. Griesel). Mr. and Mrs. Griesel are the parents of the following family: Ann E. (Darnell), Sophia C., Lou, John A., William A., George K., Mary M., Antulf and Delia May. Since 1859 Mr. Griesel has been a resident of Camden County, Mo., and was first engaged in operating the mill for Mr. Arnholdt, but when it was burned during the war he rented land and engaged in farming, and since 1867 has resided on his present farm, and has been occupied in milling. He is a Republican in politics, and cast his first presidential vote for Abraham Lincoln in 1860. He and wife belong to the Lutheran Church. James Harvey Hall, one of the successful agriculturists of Osage Township, Camden County, is a native of Laclede County, Mo., born October 12, 1861, being a son of James and Mary (Porter) Hall, the father a native of Virginia, and the mother of Kentucky. The father, with his brother William, immigrated to Laclede County Mo., quite early, and located twenty miles south of Lebanon. They entered land which was wild and unbroken, and remained there until the breaking out of the late Civil War, when the father enlisted, and while in service took a fever and died, as did also his brother. The mother came to Laclede County with her parents when about eight years of age, and, when grown, was married in that county to Mr. Hall, by whom she had two sons: William Edgar, who died February 3, 1888, and James Harvey. The mother was again married, to John Frieze, who is also deceased. By the last marriage she had four children: Louis, George, Ina B. and Arty. The widow now resides near Lebanon. James H. Hall was reared and educated in Laclede County, Mo., and in 1881 he took a trip to Texas, where he worked on a cattle ranch. In 1885 he moved to where he now lives, and is the owner of 200 acres of good land, with about seventy-five under cultivation. He was married May 5, 1886, to Miss Edna Selby, who was born in Camden County February 16, 1869. They have one child, Thomas E., born October 7, 1887. Mrs. Hall’s parents were Legrand and Rebecca E. (Neal) Selby, natives of Ohio, but now deceased. She is their only living child, and was reared by her paternal grandparents, Thomas and Huldah Selby. Mr. Hall is a wide-awake, stirring young man, is a successful farmer, and deals quite extensively in stock, especially hogs.