My Genealogy Hound

JOHN L. WIGTON was promoted to be general foreman of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad car-shops of Sedalia in 1890, since which time he has discharged his duties with marked ability and fidelity. He is quite prominent as a Republican politician, and in 1891 was elected to the City Council from the Third Ward (noted for its usual strong Democratic proclivities), by a majority of forty-five votes, serving for two years. He was Chairman of the Sanitary Committee, and was a member of the Committee on Waterworks, Electric Lights and Supplies. He has also been a Republican Committeeman, and is in high favor with those of his own political faith.

Josiah Wigton, father of J. L., was born in New Castle, Pa., and was of English descent. By occupation he was a stone contractor, and about 1861 went South, where he engaged in taking contracts for railroad work in Mississippi. When the war broke out he became a Captain of a Confederate company, and died while in the service. His wife, Rosanna, who was a daughter of Philip Lamm, a farmer of German ancestry, was born in Pennsylvania, and died in that state in 1887. She had two children, the one besides our subject being Lawrence P., who is a farmer of Lawrence County, Pa.

J. L. Wigton was born in New Castle, Lawrence County, Pa., December 5, 1850, and grew up on his maternal grandfather’s homestead. When only eleven years old he commenced working on the Pittsburg & Erie and the Pennsylvania & Ohio Canals. He worked for one man five years, and finally was placed in command of a boat running between Pittsburg and Cleveland, being thus employed until 1870. That year he came West and settled on a farm near Sedalia, where he began raising broom corn. He had learned to manufacture brooms during the winters in his youth, and now succeeded very well at the business. The first farm which he leased was that belonging to Mr. McVey, a tract of four hundred acres, where, in addition to raising grain and cereals, he planted one hundred and twenty-five acres of broom corn. The manufactured articles he shipped to the city markets, there finding ready sales.

It was in 1881 that Mr. Wigton had his initial experience in railroading. He commenced at the bottom of the ladder as a truck repairer, and four years later was made wrecking foreman and coach-yard foreman, at that time attending to all the wreckage for the Missouri Pacific Railroad from Kansas City to Chamois. In 1890 he was given his present position, and now has over two hundred men under his supervision. He attends to the manufacture of new cars, and to the repairing of old ones, being thoroughly acquainted with the business in every detail.

In this county, in 1872, Mr. Wigton was married to Maggie Briscoe, who was born in Cass County, Mo. The couple have two children, a son and daughter: Ernest T., a graduate of the high school, and a clerk in the Treasurer’s office of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad at St. Louis; and Fay, who is still at home.