My Genealogy Hound

J. C. Carothers, of the firm of Carothers & Greene, hardware and agricultural implement dealers, was born at Canton, Mo., in 1849. His parents moved to Shelby County in 1855, where he was reared to the age of maturity. In 1870 he spent a year at the State Normal, and then embarked in mercantile life. The first firm was Parcels & Carothers, which existed until 1874 and then closed out their stock. After a year and a half as salesman he became township clerk for a period of two years. The next two years he served as deputy county clerk and afterward for four years as county clerk, beginning January 1, 1879. At the expiration of that time the present firm was formed. They carry a complete stock of hardware valued at from $7,000 to $10,000 and handle a complete line of agricultural implements. He is vice-president of the Board of Curators of Kirksville Commercial College, and is also a member of the public school board. He is identified with the Masonic order. He and his family belong to the Methodist Episcopal Church, of whose Sabbath-school he is superintendent. By his union to Mary E. Parcels, to whom he was married in 1872, he has had four sons, one of whom is now deceased. His father, Louis F., was born in Allegheny County, Penn., in 1816, and at the age of maturity came to Balls County, Mo., and after three years there, his parents, James and Sarah, went to Shelby County, where they afterward died. Louis lived in Canton, Mo., from 1847 to 1855, and then returned to Shelby County, where he spent the remainder of his life. He was in the Mexican War, and was captain of a company of the Second Missouri Provisional Regiment in the War of the Rebellion. He was a cabinet-maker by trade, and before his death, in 1871, followed farming considerably. He served as county judge for ten years in Shelby County, Mo., and at one time was mayor at Canton. His wife, Angelica Miller, a native of Bourbon County, Ky., died on Christmas day in 1870. They reared to maturity three sons and seven daughters, through whose veins flows the blood of German ancestry.