My Genealogy Hound

WILLIAM P. RALSTON, farmer, sections 5 and 11, post-office Carthage. The subject of this sketch was born in Illinois, April 23, 1837. When an infant of three months old his parents immigrated to southwest Missouri, and settled on Center Creek, in what is now Union township, Jasper county. His father, Nathan Ralston, was born near Lexington, Ky., March 24, 1811. During the war, for the safety of his family, he went to Kansas; from there to Illinois, where he died in July, 1864, in the fifty-fourth year of his age, and is buried by the side of his parents in Salem cemetery. Wm. P. spent his youth in assisting his father in the farm duties and acquiring an education by the limited means at his disposal. He was married Nov. 15, 1860, to Miss Meecy J. Whittaker, a native of Tennessee, and engaged in farming. Like his father he was a strong Union man, and a Democrat in politics. At the breaking out of the war he opposed by voice and vote the ordinances of secession, and went with the rest of the family to Illinois, where he staid until peace once more dawned upon the country, when he returned to Jasper county and resumed his farming operations. His wife died Jan. 11, 1866, leaving two sons. He was married the second time to Miss Sarah A. Ross, a native of Tennessee; of this union there are three children. Mr. Ralston is now possessed of 270 acres of good land, is well and favorably known in the county as a good citizen. He has held various offices of public trust; he is a member of the Methodist Church and an active worker in the sabbath-school, and is regarded in the community as one of Jasper county’s prominent citizens.