My Genealogy Hound

Dr. Thomas J. Grace, physician and surgeon of Bourbois Township, was born in Spartanburg District, S. C., in 1843, and is the only child born to Robert L. and Isadore Ann (Stewart) Grace, natives of Spartanburg, S. C., and Portland, Me., respectively. They were married at the latter place, settled in South Carolina in 1853, but removed to Perry County, Mo., where they both died soon after. Mr. Grace was a soldier in the War of 1812, was a wagon and carriage manufacturer by occupation, and was of Irish descent. His father, John Grace, came from Ireland to serve in the Revolutionary War. The mother of Thomas J. was of Puritan, New England stock, and a member of the Presbyterian Church. The father was a member of the Methodist Church. Dr. Thomas J. was left an orphan at an early age. His guardian, E. L. Ellis, of Perry County, owned slaves, which did not please our subject, and at the age of sixteen he left and went to Chicago, where he was educated. In 1861 he enlisted in Company E, Ninth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, and operated in Kentucky, Tennessee, South Missouri, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia. He was in the battle at Belmont, Fort Donelson, Second Corinth, Shiloh, through the siege of Vicksburg as dispatch bearer to John A. Logan, Marietta, Ga., and from Atlanta to the sea with Sherman. He was mustered out at Louisville, Ky., in May, 1865, was breveted major, but never received the commission; was five times wounded, but only slightly. He then returned to Chicago, finished his schooling, and soon after began the study of medicine. He attended two terms at Rush Medical College, Chicago, and spent three months, in 1871, at Louisville, Ky., Medical College, Hospital Department, and began the practice of his profession at Powhatan, Ark., but since 1873 has practiced in Gasconade County. He was married, in that county, in 1873, to Miss Elizabeth, daughter of William and Margaret Hoffman, formerly of Pennsylvania, where Mrs. Grace was born, and since his marriage Mr. Grace has lived in Bourbois Township, four miles northwest of Red River, where he has 320 acres. A life-long and stanch Republican, his first presidential vote was for Lincoln, in 1860. He and wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church.