My Genealogy Hound

JOHN CATHER Among the names of the early settlers of Jasper county, appears that of John Cather, who was born in Guernsey county, Ohio, Sept. 30, 1831, where he was reared and educated. In November, 1848, his father, William, set stakes in Jasper county, Mo. His father was a native of Virginia and came to Ohio in an early day and died in Jasper county, Mo., in 1850. They opened up a home in the northern part of Mineral township near the banks of Spring River, where John Cather now resides. Being of rather an uneasy disposition, John Cather started for El Paso, Mexico, in July, 1854, from Kansas City, with six yoke of oxen, consuming two months in the trip. There is much of interest in this freighting trip space will not permit. He acted as guide and scout for a mail contractor, from El Paso, Mexico, to San Antonio, Texas, a distance of 748 miles. He freighted in the Indian Territory, Texas, and the West, meeting with numerous hairbreadth escapes with “Greasers” and Indians, until 1861. He was at the battle of Carthage, July 5, 1861, and met his old mail route employer, Captain “Big Foot” Wallace. During the war the family removed to Kansas, and returned to the farm in 1865, to find the country almost as desolate as twenty years previous. He was married in November, 1863, to Kittie A. Proffit, a native of Jasper county, Mo. Their children are Maggie E., Joseph H., Rhoda A., and Nettie J. Few men have seen more of frontier life than John Cather and his wife; is familiar with many of the incidents of the early history of the county. He is a man of great composure, strength of purpose, and unbounded endurance. Mr. Cather has been across the plains and seen and experienced events that would make the “tenderfoot” blanch and the cowardly quail; of a generous nature, genial and obliging, he has no enemies, and commands and deserves general respect.