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Below is a family biography included in The History of Jefferson County, Missouri published by Goodspeed Publishing Company in 1888.  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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Arthur L. Eshbaugh was born in Niagara County, N. Y., in 1858, and is a prominent farmer and stock-dealer of Joachim Township. He is the youngest of two daughters and one son, born to Henry and Mary A. (Snell) Eshbaugh, natives of Northumberland County, Penn., and Niagara County, N. Y., respectively. Mr. Eshbaugh was born in 1822, and his wife seven years later. They were married in Niagara County, N. Y., in 1851, and there remained until 1867, when they removed to Ogle County, Ill., and in 1869 to Jefferson County, settling in Joachim Township, one mile southeast of Bailey, where he died in 1886. He was educated in the public schools of Pennsylvania, and at Ewingsville Academy, Penn. He then studied law and made a successful practice of the same at the Niagara County bar for five years; he was compelled to abandon it on account of his health. He then turned his attention to farming, and held various prominent offices in Niagara County, and at the opening of the Grange movement took a very active stand for the success of the same. He was master of the Missouri State Grange for eight years, and was lecturer of the National Grange for six years. He was president of the State Board of Agriculture at the time of his death, and was one of the prominent men of Missouri, where he was familiarly known. In 1884 his name was placed on the Prohibition ticket for lieutenant-governor with John A. Brooks. Although an active worker for the cause of temperance, he did not canvass the State in his behalf, and was not in favor of a third party movement. At his death the State lost one of its most active and enterprising citizens. He was always interested in all public meetings, and did all in his power to promote the welfare of the country, at the sacrifice of his personal interest. A Republican in politics, he served in the New York militia during the war as captain, but was familiarly called colonel. His father, Solomon Eshbaugh, was also a native of Pennsylvania and his father, the great grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was also an American by birth, but of German descent. He served as paymaster in the Revolutionary War, and when the continental money was repudiated, he had barrels in his possession, some of which our subject still has. The mother of young Eshbaugh is still living. Her father, Anthony Snell, was an Englishman, and of a very aristocratic English family. A. L. Eshbaugh received a common-school education, and at the age of seventeen began teaching, and followed this occupation two terms in Ste. Genevieve County. He then farmed until 1879, when he spent one and a half years in the Black Hills, after which he returned to Jefferson County, and has since devoted his attention largely to stock dealing, selling principally to Western feeders. In October, 1884, he married Miss Carrie Parker, who is a native of Jefferson County, and who was left an orphan at an early age. One child was the result of this marriage, Henry P. He lived on his father’s farm until 1887, when he removed to his present farm, two miles northeast of Hematite, where he has 190 acres under a good state of cultivation, all the result of his own exertions as he started on borrowed capital. He is one of the prominent and enterprising young men of the county, is a Democrat in politics, casting his first vote for Hancock, in 1880, and he and wife are prominent and active members of the Presbyterian Church.

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This family biography is one of 224 biographies included in The History of Jefferson County, Missouri published in 1888.  For the complete description, click here: Jefferson County, Missouri History, Genealogy, and Maps

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