My Genealogy Hound

James Starr was born in Berks County, Penn., March 3, 1805, and his father and mother were natives of the same county and State. The father, whose name was also James Starr, was of remote Irish descent. The mother’s maiden name was Eleanor Davis, and she was of Welsh descent. James Starr, Sr., and wife were married in Berks County, Penn., in the year 1792, he being twenty-three years of age at that time. Previous to his marriage he was apprenticed to the tanner and currier’s trade, and followed this the greater part of his life in his native county. He had retired from active employment previous to his death, which occurred at his old home where he had resided for nearly half a century. He was an old line Whig in politics, and in religion was a member of the Society of Friends. He was seventy-four years old at the time of his death. The mother was also a member of the Society of Friends, and was sixty-two years of age at the time of her death. They were married under the marriage rules of Friends. Our subject, James Starr, is the only living child of a family of ten children. He received a limited education in Berks County, Penn., and followed the trade of his father up to 1855. In the spring of that year, he, with his family, crossed the Alleghany Mountains, and settled in Stark County, Ohio, where he followed farming and dairying. Two years later he moved to Mahoning County, Ohio, and here followed the same pursuits for two years. Many years previous to this (in 1828) he married Miss Phebe Hilles, also a member of the Society of Friends, and by her became the father of eleven children, six of whom are now living, and all of whom live within thirty miles of this place, except one son who lives in Kansas. Two years after his first wife’s death Mr. Starr married Miss Lydia Boyle, a native of Philadelphia, Penn., and to them three children were born, two of whom are married, and reside in the village. After living in Ohio for some time our subject moved to Lewis County, Mo., and from 1859 to the spring of 1862 he engaged in various business transactions at Deer Ridge, Mo. The latter year he moved to Fairmont, Mo., where he kept tavern up to the year 1879, when Mrs. Starr was so afflicted with rheumatic trouble, that they retired to private life, only Mr. Starr opened up a small saddlery and harness store with his son. At the end of two years he left his son to run the business alone, while he began to take life easy. He is living in the village of Fairmont, boarding at his hotel. Besides owning this hotel, he also owns a lot and stables in connection with it, also other real estate. While running the hotel he was postmaster, and also justice of the peace. He is a Republican in politics, a member of no church, but is what he justly terms himself, a “Free Thinker.” Mr. Starr is an honorable citizen and a social gentleman, and although he is now eighty-two years of age he is a good conversationalist, a close reader, and is vigorous in mind and body. His wife is seventy-five years of age, and also enjoys good health, although afflicted somewhat with rheumatism.