My Genealogy Hound

Thomas Winslow Rackerby is a native of Princeton, Caldwell Co., Ky., son of John H. and Georgiana (Dudley) Rackerby, the former being a native of the Old Dominion, and a merchant by profession. Mrs. Rackerby was a daughter of Benjamin Dudley, who served in the Revolutionary War, and also in the War of 1812, under Gen. W. H. Harrison, a colonel of a Kentucky regiment. In 1854 John H. Rackerby removed with his family to Wisconsin, and spent four years in Grant County. He then removed to Dubuque, Iowa, and there remained seven years, after which he removed to St. Louis, whence, after three years’ residence, he came to Lawrence County, Mo., and here passed the remainder of an eventful life. He died in 1882, and was buried with Masonic honors, an organization with which he had been connected from his twenty-first year. He had reared and educated his children well, and his five sons are now active and useful business men. He was also the father of six daughters. Thomas W. Rackerby grew to manhood with his father in his different locations, and obtained a good common-school education. At the age of nineteen he engaged in the merchandising business in Peirce City with the firm of White & Co., with whom, after six years of clerical work, he purchased the mercantile interest of White & Co. and continued the business for some years. He then engaged in the grocery business, at which he has been quite successful. He was married here to Miss Sallie Constable, of St. Louis, a lady of estimable attainments, who has blessed their union with two children, Maudie and Lillie. Mrs. Rackerby is a member of the Christian Church, being an active worker in the same, and upon the organization of the W. C. T. T. U. she took an active part, lent material aid in its establishment, and has been recording secretary of the same for the past five years. Mr. Rackerby has been a member of the city council as alderman of the Third Ward. Nathaniel and Elizabeth (Stevens) Constable, parents of Mrs. Rackerby, are natives of Surrey County, England, and the father was a manufacturer by occupation. He located at St. Louis, and made the first fire-proof and burglar safe west of the Alleghanies, receiving a high premium for his work at the First Mechanical Industrial Exhibition in St. Louis. He died in this city in 1880, in full communion with the faith of the Christian Church. The firm of Beard & Bro., safe manufacturers at St. Louis are his successors.