My Genealogy Hound

Elisha Liston, nurseryman and fruit-grower, established his business in 1869, and has nearly eighty acres in standard orchard, largely young trees, and a full and complete stock of home-grown nursery trees. He also makes a specialty of raising bees and honey. He has the most extensive nursery in the county, and raises 1,000 to 2,500 bushels of apples per annum. He is also engaged in farming. Mr. Liston was born in Preston County, W. Va., in October, 1835, and is the son of Abraham and Elizabeth (Smith) Liston, natives of Preston County, W. Va., where they have spent all their lives. Mr. Liston died eighteen or nineteen years ago, but Mrs. Liston is still living. He was a farmer by occupation, and was captain of the militia in the days of muster. His father, John Liston, was a native of Delaware, and an early settler of Virginia. John Smith, the maternal grandfather of Elisha Liston, spent the latter part of his life in Indiana. Elisha Liston is the eldest of three sons and six daughters. He was educated in the common subscription schools, worked on the farm, and, in 1858, was united in marriage to Miss Martha Matheny, a native of Preston County, W. Va., and the daughter of Isaiah Matheny. She died in 1875, leaving five children: Dr. E. B.; Thankful Lurretta, wife of Rev. J. M. Galbraith, a Methodist minister; Prof. George M., a graduate of Warrensburg Normal School, and school commissioner and teacher of Cedar County; Emma A., and E. Herman. Mr. Liston’s second marriage was in 1878, to Miss Nettie Fittsjarrell, daughter of Levi Fittsjarrell, of Illinois. Her parents came to Cedar County, Mo., in 1874, and here her father now resides. The mother died in Illinois. Mr. Liston was a lieutenant in the militia in 1859 and 1860, and served about fifteen months in the Union Army, Company A, Seventh West Virginia Volunteer Infantry, as corporal, enlisting in 1861, but was discharged on account of disability. In 1856 and 1857 he was with his uncle in the mercantile business in Indiana, and followed it by himself from 1864 until 1869, when he came to Cedar County to engage in fruit growing and stock raising, but, not being able to obtain the kind of trees he desired, he at once began to grow his own, and has been in the nursery business ever since, meeting with considerable success. He is one of the most active educational workers in the county, and has spared no pains to give his children good education. He is a Democrat in politics, having affiliated with that party almost all his life, and his first presidential vote was for Douglas, in 1860. He has been an active Prohibitionist for some years. He and Mrs. Liston and three children are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. They are temperance and Sunday-school workers. He has been an active officer in the church since his membership. He has real estate of 240 acres near Virgil City, with about 125 acres under cultivation, all the result of hard labor and good management. He was postmaster at Willow Branch Post office, Hancock County, Ind., for five years, from 1864 to 1869.