My Genealogy Hound

JOHN H. GORDON, one of the wealthy agriculturists of Pettis County, owns two hundred and forty-six acres of fine land lying on section 6, township 43, range 23. He is a native of the Old Dominion, and was born in 1849. His parents were Robert and Sarah (Coles) Gordon, natives also of Virginia, and John H. was their eldest son.

The parents of our subject were reared, educated and married in their native state, and in 1855 bade adieu to their old home and friends and moved to Ohio. There the father carried on agricultural pursuits until old age warned him to cease from active labor, and he is now living with his good wife on a fine estate in that state. He has been prosperous in life, and has sufficient means to enable him to pass the remaining years of his life in comfort.

John H. of this sketch had the advantages of a common-school education, attending the institutions of learning near his home until his services could no longer be spared from the farm. In 1871 he came to Missouri, locating in Henry County. His stay there was of short duration, for shortly afterward he returned to the Buckeye State, thence moved to Illinois, and later to the state of Kansas. In 1880 he returned to Missouri, and for the succeeding eleven years lived in various portions of Pettis County, at the end of that time locating on his present estate. He is a man of practical and progressive ideas, using the latest and most improved methods in the management of his broad acres. Industrious and persevering, he has met with unusual success, and is now numbered among the substantial residents of the county.

In 1882 John H. Gordon and Miss Alice Swisher were united in marriage. The lady was the daughter of Samuel and Sarah Swisher, natives of Virginia. To them has been granted a family of six children, named as follows: Perl, Saddle, Emery, May, James and John. Socially Mr. Gordon is a Mason of high standing, and in politics never fails to cast a ballot in favor of Republican candidates. He has never aspired to hold office, but, being a peaceable and law-abiding citizen, is just to his neighbor and of kindly spirit. He is greatly respected by those about him, being pointed out as a fine example of the self-made man.