My Genealogy Hound

William J. Slaughter, of the firm of Pugh & Slaughter, lumber merchants in Edina [see preceding sketch], was born in Lewis County, Mo., August 19, 1848, and is a son of Andrew H. and Mary A. (Willett) Slaughter, natives of Virginia and Maryland, respectively. The father was an early settler in Lewis County, Mo., coming to that county in the thirties, and entering land extensively in Lewis eight miles from La Grange. In 1850, having gone to Kentucky, he returned to Lewis County, and lived upon his farm near LaGrange, and again returned south, locating permanently in Lewis County in 1856, where he practiced the medical profession until his death, which occurred later in the same year. The mother still resides in La Grange. But four children were raised to maturity: Fannie E., wife of C. H. Howe of La Grange; Nannie M., wife of E. L. Carrick; Robert C, who died at the age of twenty-five in 1868, and our subject. Our subject was educated at La Grange College. He also attended the Springfield (Illinois) Institute. He clerked in the mercantile business in Edina for two years, and was the postmaster at La Grange in 1870, after which he returned to Edina and located here permanently. He was the assistant cashier and bookkeeper of Knox County Savings Bank for seven years; was then engaged in the drug business for two years, and then returned to the bank for a couple of years. He conducted a private banking business for himself for two years at Clarence, Shelby Co., Mo., being a member of the banking firm of Hunolt, Slaughter &Irwin, and in July, 1886, engaged in the present lumber business in this county with Maj. Pugh. October 24, 1871, he married Miss Adella Agnew, a native of St. Louis, by whom he has had five children: James A., William P., Mary A., Hallie B. and Bobbie. Mr. Slaughter is a Republican in politics; was deputy county clerk under Enoch Rinehart a short time, and was the Republican candidate for the county clerkship in 1886. He is a R. A. M. and a member of the A. O. U. W. and K. of H. Himself and wife are Presbyterians. He enlisted in Company A, Sixty-fifth Illinois Infantry, April 5, 1865, while in Springfield, Ill., and was discharged in October of the same year. He was appointed ordnance sergeant, and was assigned special duty a few days after, joining his regiment in the Twenty-third Army Corps, Gen. Schofield commanding, at Raleigh, N. C., being little over sixteen years of age.