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Below is a family biography included in The History of Polk County, Missouri published by Goodspeed Publishing Company in 1889.  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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John Benton Wann, M. D., a native Missourian, was born in Lawrenceburg, Lawrence County, on the 27th of December, 1847, and is a son of Daniel and Sarah (Hague) Wann, who were born, reared and married in Tennessee. In 1824 they made a settlement in Lawrence County, Mo., where the father engaged in tilling the soil. He served as a soldier from Tennessee in the Mexican War. His father, William Wann, was a Virginian, who after the Revolutionary War settled in Tennessee. The Wanns were presumably of Scotch extraction, and were of large stature, strong physique, and long lived. Dr. John B. Wann was the fifth child and second son of seven children, and grew to manhood in Cass County, where he obtained a good common school education, and farmed until his twenty-third year. He then gave up farming for a time, and spent several years in traveling, trading, and otherwise occupying himself throughout the Western States and Territories. In 1876 he returned from Oregon to his home, and began giving his attention to the study of medicine, graduating from the Kansas City Medical College as an ad-eundem from the Missouri Medical College, at St. Louis. He had, in the meantime, practiced medicine, and after graduating located at Humansville, Polk County, where he is regarded as one of the leading members of the medical fraternity. He is a member of the Polk County Medical Society, is a stockholder in the Highland House property, and a member of the Blue Lodge in the Masonic fraternity. He was married to Miss Julia McFall, in Lawrence County, Mo., but she died in Oregon in full communion with the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, leaving him a son and daughter: Addie and Elmer. He married his second wife also in Lawrence County. Her maiden name was Miss Susie A. Wilkerson, and she was born in Arkansas, being a daughter of James and Lydia (Messick) Wilkerson. They have one son, Homer. Doctor, and Mrs. Wann and their two eldest children are members of the Christian Church, in which he is an elder.

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This family biography is one of 132 biographies included in The History of Polk County, Missouri published in 1889.  For the complete description, click here: Polk County, Missouri History, Genealogy, and Maps

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