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Below is a family biography included in the book, Portrait and Biographical Record of Johnson and Pettis County Missouri published by Chapman Publishing Company in 1895.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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MOSES H. AVERY. A high place in the regard of the railroad men residing in Sedalia is held by the gentleman named, who is one of the oldest engineers in the employ of the Missouri Pacific Road. For more than twenty years he has been on the road and for five years ran the fast mail train between Sedalia and Kansas City, using two engines, No. 258, an eight-wheeler, and No. 267, ten wheels. He is now engineer on the fast mail train, the run being between the two cities named. Considering the long period of his railroad service, he has been especially fortunate in having had no serious accidents, though at one time, through a mistake on the part of the train dispatcher, his train was derailed in a collision, and he was severely wounded in the left shoulder. At another time, through the breaking of a side rod, he was injured to such an extent that he was unable to work for four months.

The Avery family is of Spanish descent. The grandfather of our subject, David Avery, followed the occupation of a farmer in New Hampshire, and was a soldier in the Revolutionary War. His maternal grandfather, Moses Avery (who though having the same name was not related to David Avery), was an agriculturist of New Hampshire, and served in the Colonial army during the Revolution. The parents of our subject, Samuel and Temperance (Avery) Avery, were born in Plymouth and Ellsworth, N. H., respectively, the former September 14, 1788, and the latter June 12, 1791. His father devoted his entire time to agricultural pursuits, with the exception of the period of his service in the War of 1812; he died in New Hampshire, July 4, 1857.

Six of the nine children of Samuel Avery still survive, of whom the eldest is seventy-eight, and the youngest (our subject) sixty-two. Moses Avery was born in Plymouth, Grafton County, N. H., December 8, 1832, and was reared on a farm, attending the common schools three months of each year. In 1852 he went to Ohio, and helped to build the railroad now known as the Marietta & Cincinnati, after which for a year he was employed as fireman between Chillicothe and Blanchester. November 17, 1854, he was promoted to be engineer on the same road and between the same points, remaining in that capacity until 1858, when he accepted a position as engineer on the Terre Haute & Alton, between Terre Haute and St. Louis. During the war he was employed by the railroad company, and conveyed thousands of soldiers and large supplies of firearms and ammunition to the front, using for that purpose an eight-wheel engine.

Retiring from the service of the Terre Haute & Alton Railroad in 1862, Mr. Avery went to Leesburg, Ohio, and soon afterwards proceeded to Chicago, where he accepted a position on the Illinois Central, between Chicago, Cairo, Centralia and Amboy. For six months he was conductor, but with that exception continued as engineer for the company until 1874. During that year he came to Sedalia, and became engineer for the Atlantic & Pacific, now the Missouri Pacific. After one year on a freight train, he was given a passenger run, which he retained, as before stated, for more than twenty years.

In Leesburg, Ohio, in 1856, Mr. Avery married Miss Matilda D. Bentley, a native of that city, and a daughter of C. M. and Margarey (Dorsey) Bentley, natives, respectively of Leesburg, Va., and Hagerstown, Md. Her paternal grandfather, who was a Virginian by birth, removed in an early day to Ohio, and settled in Highland County, where he founded and named the village of Leesburg. Her father died at seventy-seven, and her mother in October, 1894, when eighty-four years of age. Five of their ten children are now living, and two of their sons, William and John, were soldiers in the Civil War. The union of Mr. and Mrs. Avery was blessed by the birth of three children, all daughters, namely: Mrs. Harriet Lay, of Sedalia; Maggie, wife of Charley Humphreys, who is a general foreman in the Missouri Pacific shops; and Annie, a graduate of the Columbia College of Music, and an accomplished young lady.

Socially Mr. Avery is a Royal Arch Mason. He belongs to the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, holding membership in Sedalia Division No. 178, which he represented as delegate to the Atlanta Convention in 1892. In 1890 he was elected Alderman from the Third Ward, on the Republican ticket, and served in that capacity until 1892, meantime rendering efficient service as a member of various important committees. During those two years great progress was made in the city, many new enterprises were established, and improvements made of the greatest value to the people. Mr. and Mrs. Avery attend services at the Episcopal Church, and are popular in the best circles of the city. In the Woman’s Relief Corps the latter takes an active part, and at present holds the office of Past Junior Vice in the lodge at Sedalia.

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This family biography is one of the numerous biographies included in the Pettis County, Missouri portion of the book,  Portrait and Biographical Record of Johnson and Pettis County Missouri published in 1895 by Chapman Publishing Co.  For the complete description, click here: Pettis County, Missouri History, Genealogy, and Maps

View additional Pettis County, Missouri family biographies here: Pettis County, Missouri Biographies

View a map of 1904 Pettis County, Missouri here: Pettis County, Missouri Map

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