My Genealogy Hound

Dr. Samuel H. Headlee. Among the men of Phelps County, Mo., who have attained prominence in the healing art, and who are worthy of special mention, is Dr. Headlee, who was born in Maury County, Tenn., in 1826, and is the eldest of eleven children born to the marriage of Judge Elisha Headlee and Rachel Steele, who were born in North Carolina in 1801 and 1803, respectively. Elisha immigrated with his parents to Tennessee after becoming grown, and there married and lived until 1836, when they located in Greene County, Mo., when the country was in a very wild and unsettled state. They improved a good farm, and here the father died in 1876, having lived a long and useful life. He served as justice of the peace, public administrator and county judge, and was at one time candidate for the Legislature on the Democratic ticket, but owing to that party’s minority was defeated. His father was probably born in New Jersey, of Welsh descent, and was a soldier in the Revolutionary War. He died in Greene County, Mo., in the 30’s, his wife having previously died in Tennessee. The maternal grandfather of Dr. Headlee, Samuel Steele, removed from his native State of North Carolina to Tennessee at an early period, and in 1836 came to Greene County, Mo., where he died at a ripe old age, his wife also having died in Tennessee. Dr. Headlee resided in Greene County from the age of ten years up to manhood, and received a common and high-school education. His clothing until he reached manhood, even to the buttons, was made at home. About 1848 or 1849 he began the study of medicine, continuing three years, and then entered the Missouri Medical College at St. Louis, from which institution he graduated in 1857, after having practiced in the meantime to some extent. He first entered upon his practice in Wright County, and in 1863 located in Lebanon, and the following year came to St. James, which was then situated almost in the wilderness, and has since been actively engaged in practice. He served a short time as surgeon in the Confederate army during the late war, and was one of the curators of the University of Missouri for some years, but resigned the position in 1878, being that year elected to represent his senatorial district, which then consisted of Phelps, Crawford, Dent, Pulaski, Maries, Miller and Camden Counties, in the State Senate, and served one term of four years. He has also been a member of the town council and school board. He is a Democrat in politics, and is a member of the Masonic and I. O. O. F. fraternities, having held all the offices in both lodges.