My Genealogy Hound

J. M. McDow, a farmer residing on Section 20, Moreau Township, is one of the old settlers of Morgan County, having settled here as early as 1852, and is the owner of 831 acres of land, 400 acres under cultivation. He was born in Boone County, Mo., in 1836, and is the son of John and Alpha M. (Mash) McDow, natives of North Carolina and St. Louis County, Mo., respectively. The father was of Scotch-Irish descent. He came to Missouri in 1815, when but a boy, settled in Boone County, and entered 200 acres of land, which he improved. He and wife were the parents of six children: Lucinda, wife of David Runyan, of Morgan County, Mo.; Mary (deceased), wife of John Easly, of Boone County, Mo.; Sarah, Robert C. (deceased), J. M., and Ann, wife of A. W. Modall, of Morgan County. The father was a Democrat politically. J. M. McDow left home at the age of twenty-three years, enlisted in the Second Missouri, Confederate States Army, served four years, and participated in the following battles: Carthage, Lexington, Pea Ridge, was in Gen. Price’s entire campaign, was at Granada, Helena, Little Rock, Camden, and was on the famous Price raid, a continuous skirmish from Camden through Kansas, Indian Territory and Southern Missouri. He was discharged in March, 1865, after Lee surrendered. He then went to Texas, remained there until August, 1865, when he bought forty acres of land in Moreau Township, settled on it, and kept adding land until he owned 120 acres. He sold this farm in 1880, and bought 560 acres where he now lives. He was married in January, 1867, to Miss Keziah Kirkpatrick, a native of Tennessee, and a daughter of Thornton Kirkpatrick, also a native of Tennessee. To Mr. and Mrs. McDow have been born seven living children: Joseph, at home; Thomas, assistant doorkeeper of the House of Representatives at Jefferson City; Charley, engaged in mining at Hailey, Idaho; Alpha L., Talley, Bird and Barnum. Mrs. McDow is a member of the Presbyterian Church. Mr. McDow is a member of the Masonic fraternity. He is a general stock-raiser and farmer; is a self-made man financially, as he started a poor boy and earned his first money as a farm laborer. He is now one of the leading men of the county.