My Genealogy Hound

John Henry Meyer, farmer, of Gasconade County, Mo., was born in the county where he now resides, April 22, 1844, and is the eldest child born to John Henry and Margaret Catherine (Peaper) Meyer. The father was a native of Hanover, Germany, born about May 9, 1810. The mother was born in Westercappenn, Prussia, and is now about seventy-four years of age. Mr. Meyer served in the regular army of his native country about six years and then came to the United States, and for two or three years worked as a laborer in St. Louis, Mo. He then sent for his father’s family and with them came to Gasconade County, settling in Boulware Township. Here the mother died a few years after. The father married again and died in this county in 1875. John Henry Meyer was educated in both English and German. At the breaking out of the late war he joined Company A, Third Missouri State Militia, and six months later joined Company E, Enrolled Missouri State Militia, and was in various skirmishes during that time. December 23, 1869, he was united in marriage to Sophia, a daughter of Henry and Henrietta Bierwirth, native Germans, and immigrants to the United States in 1851. The father died in 1878 and the mother in 1851. Mr. Meyer and his wife became the parents of nine children, seven of whom are living: William H., Catherine, Fred William, Mary, Louisa, Henry and John Logan. The first two years after his marriage Mr. Meyer lived with his father-in-law, while he cleared some land on his present farm and built his house. He is now the owner of 298 acres of land, of which seventy-five acres are improved, principally by his own efforts. He held the office of registrar of the county court from 1872 until 1878, and in 1880 was appointed to fill a vacancy as justice of the peace, and in 1882 was elected to the same for four years. In 1884 he was elected public administrator for Gasconade County, and has since held the office with credit to himself and to the satisfaction of all. He is a Republican in politics, and his first presidential vote was cast for Grant. He is a member of the A. O. U. W., which he represented in the Grand Lodge in St. Louis in February, 1888. He and wife are members of the Evangelical Church.