Pictorial and Genealogical Record
of Greene County, Missouri • 1893

Together with Bibliographies of Prominent Men of Other Portions of the State, Both Living and Dead


JOHN T. GREENWADE. The social, political and business history of this section is filled with the deeds and the doings of self-made men, and no man in Greene County, Mo., is more deserving the appellation than Mr. Greenwade, for he marked out his own career at an early day and has steadily followed it up to the present, his prosperity being attributable to his earnest and persistent endeavor as well as to the fact that he always consistently tried to do as he would be done by. He was born in Hampshire County, Va., October 14, 1839, a son of Moses T. and Mary Ann (Long) Greenwade, natives of Allegheny County, Md., where they were reared, educated and married, residing for a few years thereafter in Virginia where Mr. Greenwade owned some land. They later returned to Maryland and there the mother died when John T. was about fourteen years of age, after which his father was married to Miss Rhoda Allen, who survived him. Mr. Greenwade was a very successful farmer and stock raiser, was industrious and enterprising and was a public- spirited man and an active politician but by no means an office seeker. He was independent in his religious views, but the soul of honesty and morality. He died in 1858. His father, Moses Greenwade, came to this country with his parents from England when about six years old and settled in Maryland about ten miles east of old Fort Cumberland. It is supposed that he spent is life in that State, where his death occurred in 1852. His wife, Rachel, was of Pennsylvania Dutch stock. Their children were: John, who died in Maryland a few years ago, leaving a family well provided for; Nancy (Cheney), who has been a resident of Scotland County, Mo., for nearly fifty years; Mary (Parker), who died in 1893, in Hampshire County, Md.; Sallie (Miller), who died while visiting in Indiana, in 1883; Rebecca (Welch), who died in Maryland, in 1892; Daniel, who died many years ago, and Moses T. The wife of the latter was a daughter of Adam Long, who was a German by descent, but was probably born in Allegheny County, Md., and died in Harrison County, W. Va., to which place he had removed some fifty years ago. He was a farmer and left a fair property to be divided among his sons and daughters, whose names are as follows - George, who died in Harrison County, W. Va., in 1891, a farmer; Jacob, who also died there; John, who died in the same county, in 1892; William was a soldier in the late war, and died in that county; Jesse died there in 1892; Mary Ann (Greenwade); Sallie (McCray), who died before the way and soon after her marriage. Mrs. Greenwade became the mother of five-children: John T., the immediate subject of this sketch; Sarah C., wife of A. P. Race, of Greens County, Mo.; Mary Ellen, wife of John F. Dayton, of Mineral County, W. Va.; William. a farmer of Allegheny County, Md.; and Nancy, who was a twin with William, died young. John T. Greenwade spent his youthful days on a farm receiving a common school education, and after the death of his father he began doing for himself, and when only nineteen years of age rented a piece of land and began farming. In January, 1860, he was married to Ruhamah, daughter of Nimrod and Elizabeth Pugh, natives of Virginia, where they spent all their lives, Mrs. Pugh being still a resident of that place. She was of Irish, and Mr. Pugh, of Welsh descent, and they reared a large family. Mrs. Greenwade was born in Hampshire County, Virginia, and died, after becoming the mother of seven children: Edward Everett; Josephine, wife of John Brady; Jennie, wife of Dewitt Murray; Sallie, wife of Dr. J. I. Greves; Robert, Claude and Porter. In 1879, Mr. Greenwade was married to his second wife, Maggie Johnson, a native Kentuckian and a daughter of Samuel and Lucy Johnson who came from the Blue Grass State to Greene County, Mo., about 1870, and are now residing near Springfield. This wife died in ---, after having borne her husband three children: Mollie, Weldon and Ralph. On the 29th of June, 1892, Mr. Greenwade's third marriage was consummated, Nellie, daughter of Robert and Lizzie Shepherd, becoming his wife. Her parents came from England about five years ago and are now farming in Greene County, Mo. Mr. Greenwade lived in Maryland during the war and was not subject to military duty, owing to ill health. He was in sympathy with the South, but all the rest of his people were stanch Unionists. In the fall of 1866 he came to Greene County, Mo., and since 1867 has resided on his present farm of 162 acres, one mile east of Willard, all of the improvements on which have been made by himself. He was a Democrat until 1867, when he joined the Greenback party and is now a Populist. He has frequently been on that ticket for offices, and in 1878 came near to being elected treasurer of the county. He has been a justice of the peace, was a candidate for county judge and one for representative. He is a prominent Alliance man, having held nearly all the offices in that order.. He is of a decidedly public spirit, and being a successful organizer is an active worker for public good in every way.

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