My Genealogy Hound

JOHN W. TRADER, M. D., has been a practicing physician and surgeon of Sedalia for the past thirty years, and enjoys the distinction of being one of the oldest members of his profession in the city in point of years of service. Since 1889 he has been County Physician, and from January, 1866, until 1893 was Examining Surgeon for the United States Pension Board, and would probably have continued longer in that office had it not been for the change of administration. During the last few years of that period he was President of the board, and for five years has been Surgeon of the Second Regiment of Missouri National Guards, with the rank of Major.

Dr. Trader comes from a very patriotic line of ancestors, and has had relatives in all the important wars of the United States. His paternal great-grandfather was killed in the Colonial struggle for independence; his father served in the War of 1812, and several of his own brothers were in the Union army during the Civil War, and fought nobly in defense of the Old Flag. His paternal grandfather was a farmer by occupation, and died early in life. The Doctor’s father, Rev. Moses Trader, was born in Virginia, as was also his first wife, whose maiden name was Elizabeth McDonald. Mr. Trader moved to Ohio at an early day, settling in Greene County, and cleared a farm on the Little Miami Bottoms. He did a noble work throughout northwestern Ohio in organizing congregations and in doing pioneer work for the Methodist denomination. In 1839 he settled in Sheridan County, where he bought and improved Government land, and, as was the custom in those early days, occupied the pulpits free of charge. He was Presiding Elder of the St. Joseph and Northwestern Missouri Conference, and until the last was active in the ministry. He died while in the harness, at the close of the Sunday services held in the Walnut Schoolhouse, in Daviess County, Mo., in 1854, aged seventy years. His first wife, Elizabeth, died in Xenia, Ohio, and he afterwards married Rebecca R. Wells, our subject’s mother. She was born in Maryland, and was a daughter of Joshua Wells, a native of the same state. She was reared and educated at Wellsville Academy, in Steubenville, Ohio. Her death occurred in 1843, when she was only thirty-two years of age, and of her three children two now survive. The father was married for a third time and had four children by that union, all of whom survive. Of the four children born of his first marriage, all have passed to the silent land.

Dr. Trader was born in Xenia, Greene County, Ohio, March 6, 1837, and was but three years of age when his father moved to this state. At first his home was in Chariton County, but in 1844 the family moved to a point three miles west of Linneus, Linn County, Mo., where he received a good education in the common branches. Then taking up the study of medicine, he graduated from the Missouri Medical College in 1860, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. He refused to be enlisted in the State Militia under Governor Jackson (who was a Confederate), but later joined Company B, First Battalion of Major Dickson’s militia, to fight for the Union, and was made Captain of his company in Putnam County, Mo. He saw service throughout the state, and April 11, 1862, went with the battalion to St. Louis, Mo., where he passed an examination and was commissioned Assistant Surgeon of the First Battalion, First Regiment of Missouri Cavalry. For a year and a-half the duties of his position called him to many points along the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad and south of the Missouri River, between that and the line of Arkansas. Later he was commissioned Surgeon of the First Regiment of the Missouri Cavalry for gallant services on the battlefield, with the rank of Major, and was also Surgeon of the First Brigade, under General Pleasanton’s army corps. After being mustered out and honorably discharged at St. Louis, April 11, 1865, he re-enlisted and was made acting Assistant Surgeon in the United States Medical Corps, being stationed at Jefferson Barracks, and for some time on the steamboat “Baltic,” running on the Mississippi River south of St. Louis. In May, 1865, they brought the last of the poor Andersonville prisoners up the river, attending to their injuries and health as best they could. At Mine Creek our subject was wounded by the falling of a timber and sustained a fracture of the skull. In various engagements he met with slight injuries. He was finally mustered out June 1, 1865, in St. Louis, and since that time has been successfully engaged in practice in Sedalia, where he has built up an enviable reputation. The “boys in blue” have always had a warm place in his heart, and he is now connected with Gen. George R. Smith Post No. 53, G. A. R., of which he is surgeon. Following his honored father’s example, he is very active in the Methodist denomination, and belongs to the First Church of this city.