My Genealogy Hound

Frank Headrick, farmer and stock raiser of Watkins Township, and son of Christopher C. and Margaret (Billings) Headrick, was born in Davidson County, N. C., in 1830. His parents were born in Davidson County, N. C., in 1799 and 1801, respectively, and came to Haywood County, Tenn., in 1834. The next year he moved to Dent County, Mo., on Dry Fork, then near Victor Mills, on the farm now owned by his son Silas, and there he and his faithful companion passed their last days. He died in 1868, and the mother in 1873. The country was a wilderness when they first settled in Dent County, and the nearest post-office was Meramec Iron Works. Both were members of the Missionary Baptist Church. Frank Headrick was the third of four sons and one daughter, and came with his parents to Missouri when about eight years of age. He received a limited education in the schools of the woods, and attended one term of school in Tennessee, his parents having stopped one season in that State on their way to Missouri. In 1853 he crossed the plains to California, and assisted in driving a drove of 700 cattle, being nearly six months in making the trip. He spent nearly seven years in the gold mines of California, and during that time experienced all the hardships incident to mining life. He then returned to Missouri, by way of the Isthmus, and arrived home March 3, 1860. He served during the entire war in the Confederate army, Company C, of a battalion of sharp-shooters, in Arkansas and Louisiana, skirmishing over nearly all of Arkansas. He was in the fight at Helena, Ark., Pleasant Hill, La., Jenkins’ Ferry, Ark., and others. He surrendered at Shreveport in June, 1865, after over four years of hard service, without being captured or wounded. He then returned to Dent County, and in 1869 was united in marriage to Miss Mary E. Burkitt, a native of Phelps County, Mo., and the daughter of Thomas W. and Catherine Burkitt. Thomas W. Burkitt came to Phelps County at quite an early date, and when quite young worked at the Meramec Iron Works, where he learned the blacksmith trade. He died when Mrs. Headrick was a little girl. Mrs. Burkitt is still living, and is a sister of Dr. John Hyer, whose sketch appears elsewhere in this work. To Mr. Headrick and wife were born five children, three now living. Mr. Headrick lived on the old home farm until 1880, and then purchased the old Anderson Johns farm on Dry Fork, which consists of 420 acres, 100 under cultivation and well improved. He is a Democrat in politics, and his first presidential vote was for Pierce in 1852. He is a Master Mason of Salem Lodge No. 225.