My Genealogy Hound

GREENBURY B. WEATHERS was born in McMinn county, Tenn., Dec. 18, 1820, but was raised in Lauderdale county, Ala., near the city of Florence. He went to Christian county, Ky., and resided there from the year 1837 to 1841, removing soon to Morgan county, Ill., where he lived until 1862. Mr. Weathers has been a great traveler, having visited nearly every state in the West, and the wilds of the territories when yet unused to the foot of the white man. When the war broke out he was living in Montana Territory, and was employed as a scout by the government to conduct soldiers among the mountain passes and fastnesses, a work he was peculiarly fitted for, having explored the gorges and mountain glens in prospecting for mineral. In 1866 he went to Sarpy county, Neb., and in 1871 he went to Jewell county, Kan., and in 1876 came to Jasper county, Mo., Mineral township, where he now resides. The subject of this sketch has been twice married. His first wife’s maiden name was Elizabeth Christman, of Morgan county, Ill., and the names of their children are John, James, Maryettie, and Albert. The date of his wife’s death is Oct. 21, 1867, in Sarpy county, Neb. He was again married at Council Bluffs, Iowa, March 25, 1868, to Mrs. Sarah A. Thompson, a native of Ohio, with whom he now lives. Mr. Weathers is a representative type of the self-made man, having never seen the inside of a school-house. As he expressed it, “whatever schooling and success I had I owe to grasping circumstances.” The fire in his eye clearly shows that he has been a man of wonderful energy and vigor, and yet there remains enough to compete with many younger men. He may be styled the father of the lead and zinc mines known as the Vivion mines. He went into a deserted shaft, and, after working for four months, found ore of zinc blende which pays from $40 to $50 per day, developed by two good engines and a crusher. He has thrown out at a blast pieces of ore as large as a warming stove, and the mineral promises better the farther it is worked. He has a fine farm of 160 acres, and the wheat crop the past season netted him $1,817.60. Mr. Weathers has led an eventful life, and now, though his eye is dimmed and his locks gray, his vigor and good nature still make him as ever the “boon companion.”