My Genealogy Hound

David Headrick. Among the prominent features of Watkins Township stands the farming and stock dealing interests, which have developed within the last few years in an extraordinary manner, and no one has aided in developing this interest more than the gentleman whose name heads this sketch. He was born in North Carolina in 1825, and is the son of Francis and Elizabeth (Smith) Headrick, and grandson of Francis Headrick, who was a native of Pennsylvania, and served as fife major for six years and nine months in the Revolutionary War. He died in North Carolina, at the almost unheard-of age, one hundred and five years. The maternal grandfather of our subject, David Smith, was a native of North Carolina, where he spent all his life. Francis and Elizabeth (Smith) Headrick were born in Davidson County, N. C., where they passed their entire lives. The father died in 1857, and the mother ten years previous. The father was of Pennsylvania Dutch descent, was a Democrat in politics, a well-to-do farmer, and a member of the Baptist Church. David Headrick was the younger of two children, a son and daughter, born to his parents. The daughter, Margaret, married Mr. Leonard Beck, who now resides in North Carolina. David Headrick was the only one of his father’s family to leave the native State. His education was rather limited, and at the age of twenty-one he began business for himself, in the gold mines in the winter and on the farm in summer. In March, 1847, he married Miss Mary B., daughter of Philip and Mary Frank, who were natives of Pennsylvania, but who immigrated to North Carolina at an early date. The father died in that State, but the mother came to Dent County, where she also died. Mrs. Headrick was born in Davidson County, N. C., and to her marriage were born nine children, three sons and three daughters now living. In 1857 Mr. Head rick and family moved to Dent County, Mo., settling in a shanty on his present farm when the same was covered with dense woods. He has now 320 acres of land, with about 160 cleared, all the result of his own efforts. He is a successful farmer and stock raiser. He has been postmaster at Celina since Grant’s first term. During the war he served about three months in the Confederate army, with Capt. Coleman, in Arkansas, in 1863, as forage master. Politically he has been a Democrat all his life, and his first presidential vote was for Gen. Cass in 1848. He has voted for every Democratic candidate since. Mrs. Headrick has been a member of the German Reformed Church from early girlhood, and they are classed among the best citizens of Dent County.