My Genealogy Hound

Below is a family biography included in The History of Miller County, Missouri published by Goodspeed Publishing Company in 1889.  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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Silas Brickey, farmer, was born in Monroe County, Ill., in 1829, and is one of seven children born to the marriage of Preston Brickey and Millie Balls, natives respectively of Kentucky and Pennsylvania. When a small boy the father immigrated to Illinois, and was there reared and married, and spent the remainder of his days, his death occurring in 1848. He was a soldier in the War of 1812. His wife died in 1856. Silas Brickey, their son, was educated in the schools of Miller County, Mo., and afterward received private instruction. He purchased a farm in his native county, on which he resided long enough to nicely improve it, then sold out, and in 1870 took up his abode on his present farm, which consists of 400 acres, and on which he has made some valuable improvements. Since making his purchase he has platted the town of Eldon; gave fifteen acres to the town, and has a number of lots to sell. A road has been surveyed from Kansas City to St. Louis, a portion of which extends across Mr. Brickey’s farm. He has always taken great interest in building up the county, and has assisted in building a number of churches, and gave one acre for the mill site. He is one of the heaviest tax-payers in his district, and has acquired his property by his own good management and industry. In politics he is a Democrat. He was married in Randolph County, Illinois, in 1854, to Ollevia Evans, a native of that county, and by her became the father of two children: Lydia (Mrs. Taylor), who resides in Morgan County, and Elias, who died January 25, 1881, aged seventeen years. They have an adopted son, Ben Poston, and are also rearing a grandson, William Adolphus Cruse. Mrs. Brickey’s parents, Emanuel and Sarah (Skillinger) Evans, were born in Virginia and Tennessee, respectively, and immigrated to Illinois at a very early day. The father was a ferryman on the river for many years, and then followed farming until his death, in 1878, in Illinois. On June 2, 1882, his widow came to her daughter’s, Mrs. Brickey, and here died October 9, 1888, aged eighty-one years and eight months; she died in fall assurance of a better world above where all is love and joy for evermore.

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This family biography is one of 120 biographies included in The History of Miller County, Missouri published in 1889.  For the complete description, click here: Miller County, Missouri History, Genealogy, and Maps

View additional Miller County, Missouri family biographies here: Miller County, Missouri Biographies

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