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Below is a family biography included in The History of Camden County, Missouri published by Goodspeed Publishing Company in 1889.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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J. W. Vincent, editor of the Reveille, at Linn Creek, was born in Jackson, Miss., May 14, 1859, and is the son of Joshua S. and Susan (Williams) Vincent, the former a native of New York and the latter of the Emerald Isle. The father has had quite a notable career. He was a printer by trade, entering his apprenticeship at the age of fourteen years, and was at work on the New York Tribune, under Horace Greeley, at the time of the Mexican War. He abandoned his business and enlisted in Company I, First Regiment, sailed around Cape Horn, and in 1848 landed in California, where he served two years and a half, being discharged at San Diego. He was wounded twice in a skirmish with the Indians; was a sergeant, and after being discharged remained about seven years in California, being engaged in mining. He bought the Clear Lake property, near San Francisco, which is now quite extensive property. There he ran a public inn or resort, which he carried on for three years. This property was purchased under a Mexican Government grant, and he was in litigation over this for some years, as there was an opposition grant, which was a forgery, being afterwards proven as such. An assassin was hired to put him out of the way, and a load of buckshot was fired into his neck one morning while he was sitting in his hotel, seriously wounding him. However, he recovered, sold out in 1856, and returned to New York State, where he worked on several of the leading papers in the cities of that State, also being foreman of the Milwaukee Sentinel for some time. He was sent south as a correspondent of this paper, finally locating in Mississippi, and at the time of the breaking out of the war was at work on the Jackson Mississippian, and set up the Mississippi ordinance of secession when first issued. In 1861 he left and went to Wisconsin, and from there to Jackson County, Ill., where he founded the New Era at Carbondale, which he ran for about three years. In 1868 he came to Linn Creek and founded the Reveille, which publication he continued until 1880, when his son, J. W., purchased the office, and has since continued its publication. The father was married in Milwaukee, Wis., and has but two children: Joshua W. and Henry M. The father is a resident of Linn Creek. J. W. Vincent was about nine years of age when he came to Linn Creek with his parents. Here he completed his growth, received a common-school education, and learned the printer’s trade of his father. In 1880 he purchased the paper of his father, as before stated, and this sheet is edited in the interests of the Republican party, and is a spicy journal. Mr. Vincent was married first, in 1880, to Miss Mary E. Shoop, who bore him one child, Mary Ida, and died in 1883. In September, 1884, Mr. Vincent chose for his second wife Miss Elizabeth M. Foster, by whom he had three children, one now living, Mabel. Mr. Vincent is a Past Master Mason, and was Master of the late Grange lodge.

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This family biography is one of 46 biographies included in The History of Camden County, Missouri published in 1889.  For the complete description, click here: Camden County, Missouri History, Genealogy, and Maps

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