My Genealogy Hound

Below is a family biography included in the book, The History of Clark County, Missouri published by Goodspeed Publishing Company in 1887.  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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G. G. Childers’ (Kahoka, Mo.) autobiography boiled down; being a concise account of the life of G. G. Childers as dictated by himself: My parents were Oliver P. and Catherine Childers. To begin the boiling down process with my name, I am called by my friends, by its middle and shortest third, Guy. I first discovered the Christian era when it was 1853 years, two months and fourteen days old. The world, therefore, had a big start of me, but I have managed (at the expense of some hard knocks) to hold my own with it since. Taking Winchester, Clark Co., Mo., as a starting point in the race of life, I proceeded, in the first four years, as far as Waterloo, then the county capital of Clark County. Here eight more uneventful years of my early career were passed, and in my twelfth year I removed to Fort Madison, Iowa. I lost my mother there when near the sixteenth year of my age, and the family of six boys, of whom I was the eldest, being broken up, we boys were equitably distributed among our friends. I fell to the lot of Col. Peter A. Hitt, a lumberman of Alexandria, Mo., and the biggest man (weight 375 pounds) ever in Clark County. Being once again on my native heath, and in most excellent hands, I enjoyed a flourishing period of three years, during which I acquired a limited knowledge of lumber, Latin and life. I had been sent to school more or less every year from childhood, but to that time had made study a mere mechanical routine. I now became suddenly enamored of science and the classics, under the vigorous training of that model educator, Rev. Thomas J. Musgrove, and his excellent assistants, Profs. Ellery and Farmer. I here attained that highest pinnacle of literary eminence since Cicero—that which David Copperfield worshiped in his youth—the position of head boy in school. When in my nineteenth year I lost my benefactor. Col. Hitt, by death, and launched out upon life on my own account. Several years of unassisted toil were next colored with impracticable visions of fame. Vague ideas of being a self-made man left the point undetermined whether the finished product should be a president of the United States or a professor in a college. Yet, with all the latent egotism implied in this state of mind, practically a lack of self-confidence was the source of more difficulty than any real obstacle. For ten years I worked at a variety of callings—in lumber yards, in the school room, and on farms—but never lost a spare moment from poring over the college curriculum, which I was destined not to finish. In my twenty-eighth year, becoming tired of this mixed menu of life, I fell out with the classics, and in love at the same time; became engaged to Miss Cordelia T. Wood of Clark County; took to the law at the lady’s suggestion, and was admitted to the Kahoka bar after six months’ study. I never practiced a day, but immediately bought a newspaper without money; got married the same week, and have prospered ever since, being at this time the editor and proprietor of the Kahoka Herald, and the father of two fine boys: John Julian, born September 24, 1882, and Lapsley McKee born January 21, 1884.—Moral: When you find difficulty in paddling your own canoe, get a good sensible woman to hold the helm.

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This family biography is one of 232 biographies included in the Clark County, Missouri portion of the book,  The History of Lewis, Clark, Knox and Scotland Counties, Missouri published in 1887.  For the complete description, click here: Clark County, Missouri History, Genealogy, and Maps

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

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