My Genealogy Hound

William Jarvis, one of the substantial farmers of Liberty Township, was born in Madison County, Ill., in 1803, and is a descendant of two well-known and respected families of Virginia, named Jarvis and Hurin. His parents were reared and married in Virginia, and reared a family of three children. They were both members of the Christian Church: the mother died in Madison County, and the father in Sangamon County, Ill. At the age of twenty-five our subject enlisted in the Union Army, in Company B, Third Missouri Cavalry, under John B. Glover, and participated in the battles of Bee Ridge, Wilson Creek, Prairie Grove and Saline River. To the latter fight Mr. Jarvis attributes the cause of his ill-health, being ruptured while on a raid through Texas to the Red River. On this account he now draws a pension of $12. In 1805 he was honorably discharged, and then settled in Myrtle Township, Knox County, Mo., where, in 1800, he married Miss Emiline, a daughter of John Burk, a resident of Knox County, but a native of Indiana. To this union five children have been born (four of whom are living): Thomas, Sarah J. (deceased), Melvin, Albert and Pearl. Mr. Jarvis has been a resident of Knox County about twenty-one years, and, as he has owned a threshing machine the greater part of his time, has done a great deal of work in that line. He owns a farm of 120 acres, well improved.