My Genealogy Hound

Elder J. B. Box, of the Baptist Church, and dealer in nursery stock, etc., was born in Jackson County, Mo., January 8, 1826, and is the son of Muke and Eleanor (Ashcroft) Box, natives of North Carolina and Kentucky, respectively. Muke Box was born in 1787, and when about three years old came with his parents to Kentucky. His father died, and when he was an infant he and his mother moved to Missouri, and located in what is now Howard County. During the War of 1812 the family was located at Fort Hemstead for some time, and later at Cole’s Fort, near the present site of Boonville. Sometime later the mother died. She had been twice married, and became the mother of one child by each marriage, Muke Box being the elder. He was reared in Missouri, and was a great lover of hunting and fishing, having devoted the greater portion of his life to the former pursuit; was brave and fearless, was a good shot, and continued his favorite occupations of hunting and fishing and farming up to the time of his death, which occurred in 1852 in Cedar County, Mo. His wife was born in 1790, and came to Missouri when a girl. She located in Howard County with her parents, and there lived until married. In 1833 sixteen members of her family died of cholera, her mother and father being included in that number. After the death of her husband, in 1852, Mrs. Box started to Texas with one of her sons, and died in Granby, Southwest Missouri, in 1856, a consistent member of the Baptist Church. To them were born ten children, all of whom lived to be grown, and four are now living: Mary, Sarah, Elizabeth and Elder J. B. Those deceased were named David, William, Otha, Charles B., Nancy, Charlotte and Mary. Elder J. B. Box attained his majority in Cedar County, and when sixteen years of age started out to learn the stone-mason’s trade, which he afterward followed for some time. About this time he made profession of religion at a Methodist Episcopal camp-meeting in Cedar County, Mo., and became a member of the Methodist Episcopal class. Later he was baptized in the Baptist Church, in which he was ordained to preach November 10, 1850. After this he was engaged in his ministerial duties, but at the same time followed his trade. He had at one time seventeen of the southwestern counties assigned him as a missionary field. In October, 1862, he came to Cooper County, Mo., remaining until 1883, when he came to Clarksburg. For the past twenty years he has been occupied in the nursery business, with the exception of a short time spent on the farm. He was first married in 1847 to Miss Charlotte Wingfield, a native of St. Charles, Mo., born August 2, 1836, who died in Cedar County, Mo., in 1861. She was a member of the Baptist Church. To them were born two children: Sarah E., wife of William Hammell, and David, who died at the age of five years. Elder Box took for his second wife Miss Lucy C. Holland, a native of Kentucky, who came to Missouri when a child. Eight children were born to this union, two deceased. The living are: Thomas N., Charles L., James G., Mary L., Lucy G., Mabel C., and those deceased died in infancy. Mr. Box is a Prohibitionist in his political views; is a strong advocate of schools and public enterprises; is a very able man, and is one of the leading lecturers in the county. He and Mrs. Box are active workers in the Baptist Church. The former has baptized with his own hands about 2,000 persons, and has witnessed about 4,000 professions of faith in Christ. He has preached as pastor and missionary in Southwest and Central Missouri since 1850.