My Genealogy Hound

JOSEPH A. STARR holds the very responsible position of foreman of the freight department in the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad shops of Sedalia. He has worked his way up by his own merits and has won the confidence and esteem of his superiors. At present he has under his supervision about seventy-five men, who are employed in building new cars and in repairing old ones. He is a practical workman, and by years of experience has gained a thorough understanding of the business.

The parents of our subject are James and Margaret (Stroude) Starr, natives of Oldtown, Md., and Washington County, Pa., respectively. The father was of German descent, and was a millwright by trade. In early manhood he moved to Washington County, where he died shortly before the war, aged fifty years. His wife, a daughter of Joseph A. Stroude, came from a good old family of the Keystone State, and died when but thirty-seven years of age. Of their five children, only two are now living. One son, James W., who was in the same regiment as Joseph A., belonged to Company I, and met his death on the battlefield at Winchester.

Joseph A. Starr was born in Washington County, Pa., June 29, 1844, being the eldest in his father’s family. He remained at home, receiving the benefits of a good education, until the war. In the fall of 1862 he left the harvest field and volunteered as a bugler in Ringgold Battalion, composed of the First Battalion of Pennsylvania Cavalry. He was sent to West Virginia, where the troops were engaged with Mosby and McNeal’s cavalry. Thence they were sent on several raids and proceeded up and down the Shenandoah, going with Hunter when he made his raid to Lynchburg. Later Mr. Starr was transferred to Company C, Twenty-second Pennsylvania Cavalry, and served until the close of the war, being mustered out at Wheeling, in the summer of 1865.

For two or three years after the war, Mr. Starr was employed in farming in his native county, but in 1868 came westward, and going to Topeka, Kan., was employed as a civil engineer in surveying the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad between Burlingame and Topeka. Some seven months afterward he engaged in the first survey for the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad; then was employed by the Sedalia & Rockville, and the Tebo & Neosho Railroad, in the construction survey department until the completion of the work. Next for two years Mr. Starr engaged in farming in Pettis County, but ultimately returned to the employ of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad Company. From the spring of 1881 until 1886 he worked as a car-repairer, then being promoted to the position he now holds.

In 1891 Mr. Starr built a handsome residence at the corner of Twelfth Street and Lafayette Avenue. He was first married, in Smithton, Mo., to Mrs. Shellie White, who was born in Kentucky and who died in Smithton, leaving one child, Shellie, now Mrs. William Franklin, of Murfreesboro, Tenn. In 1876, in this city, Mr. Starr married the lady who now bears his name, and who was formerly Miss Ella Mathews, a native of Ohio. Three children have come to bless the union of our subject and wife, namely: Frank, who is a high school student and a member of the Class of ‘95; Goldie and Lou. The family are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and enjoy the esteem of a host of friends.

Mr. Starr is a past officer of Equity Lodge No. 26, A. O. U. W., is a member of the Woodmen of the World, the Knights of Honor, and is a Master Mason. In addition to the orders mentioned he is identified with George R. Smith Post No. 53, G. A. R., and had the privilege of attending the national encampments at Pittsburg and Indianapolis. In his political affiliations he is an ally of the Democracy.