My Genealogy Hound

Pugh & Slaughter, dealers in lumber and building material, Edina, Mo., is a firm comprised of Jacob M. Pugh and William J. Slaughter. This business was established in 1871 by Bradford & McCoy, of Quincy, Ill., and they were succeeded about 1873 or 1874 by the late F. M. Gilford, who afterward became a member of the Canton Saw Mill Company. This company bought the recent grounds near the depot, and conducted a large and lucrative business, which they sold to the present firm in July, 1886. The grounds consist of about eight acres and some 600x20 feet of sheds. The firm handles lumber, gates, sash, doors, blinds, lime, cement, tarred paper and building material generally, very extensively, and controls the leading trade in this line in the county, having the only lumber yard in Edina, and there being but two others in the county. Maj. Jacob M. Pugh, the senior partner, was born in Randolph County, N. C., November 11, 1821, and is a son of Isaac and Mary (Varner) Pugh, both natives of North Carolina, and of Welsh and German descent, respectively. The father and family immigrated to Indiana about 1822, locating on a farm near Indianapolis. There the father spent the remainder of his life, dying in 1861, the mother dying ten years previous. Before his death the father married a second time, the lady being a Mrs. Slawson. By his first wife there were five sons and five daughters, all of whom lived to maturity, except one son. Our subject and Rebecca (widow of John Fox of Hurdland) reside in Missouri; the rest in Indiana, viz.: Mary (wife of Rainey Fox), Elizabeth (widow of Jeremiah Guion) and Lucinda (wife of Nero Hollingsworth). Our subject was reared to manhood on a farm in Indiana, and came west in 1839, and spent one year in Knox County and Edina. He then returned to Indiana, and farmed until 1854, when he permanently located in Edina, and clerked for John Dougherty seven years. The first year of the war he engaged in business for himself, which he conducted successfully until 1881. Mr. Pugh then gave attention to his farm of over 400 acres, near Edina, which he kept well-stocked and still owns, and in 1886 became connected with the lumber business in Edina. In 1845 he married Lucinda Martindale, of Indiana, who died leaving one child who still survives, Edwilda (wife of James Dunham). Our subject married his present wife July 20, 1856. She was Anne S. Biggerstaff, and to this union the following children have been born: William, born April 27, 1857, died July 30, 1858; Werter D., born December 17, 1858; Mary M., born February 21, 1861 (wife of Arthur Smith, of Indianapolis); Ada H., born November 1, 1864, (wife of Edward C. Eyman), of Columbus, Ohio; Eva B., born October 14, 1866, (wife of Ethelbert Dowden, of Texas). Mr. Pugh was a Whig during the early days of that party, but since the war has been a Republican. During the late war he was major in the Fiftieth Regiment, East Missouri Militia, and was discharged by a superior officer owing to a conflict of authority with said officer [see history of Fiftieth Regiment], but was soon after appointed colonel of the same regiment by Gov. Gamble, and served as such until the close of the war.