Springfield-Greene
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EDWIN WIGGINS ELSON. Edwin W. Elson was reared on the home farm, where he worked when a boy. He received a good education in the public schools and Mt. Union College in Alliance, Ohio, after which he turned his attention to general farming in Ohio, where he remained until 1878, getting a good start in the meanwhile, and in that year came to Greene county, Missouri, where his brother, William P. Elson, (a sketch of whom appears on another page of this work) had preceded him shortly after the close of the Civil war. Upon reaching his new locality our subject bought a farm of one hundred and sixty acres in Boone township and was soon actively engaged in general farming and stock raising, and, prospering with advancing years by his close application and good management, he has added to his original holdings until he now owns six hundred and forty acres of productive and highly improved land, all under cultivation, constituting one of the most valuable and desirable farms in this section of the state. He has an attractive and commodious home in the midst of pleasing surroundings, and nearby may also be seen a group of convenience outbuildings. He is an excellent judge of all kinds of live stock, and is one of the best known stockmen in the western part of the county. He makes a specialty of jacks and Percheron horses, and at present owns seven jacks and one Percheron registered. His annual sales will average twenty mules, and he has now sixty mules on hand and ten brood mares. He also feeds large numbers of hogs for the market, and each year sows a vast acreage of wheat.
Mr. Elson was married January 29, 1880, to Mary Belle Jones, who was born in Greene county, Missouri, August 31, 1860, and here she grew to womanhood and received her education. She was a daughter of Benjamin G. W. and Kittura (Cossey) Jones. The father was born in Tennessee, February 26, 1822, and died in this county July 27, 1898. Mrs. Elson's mother was born in Indiana, and also died in this county. The father was a farmer all his life. This union was blessed with thirteen children, six of whom are still living.
To Mr. And Mrs. Elson nine children have been born, named as follows: Benjamin F., born February 20, 1881, is farming in Walnut Grove township, this county; Edna Myrtle, born February 28, 1883, died when three months old; Thomas E., born June 8, 1884; Nora, born June 12, 1886, is the wife of William marsh, and they live in Fair Play, Missouri; Sherman, born April 5, 1888, is farming in this township; Joshua C., born August 7, 1890; Mae, born December 2, 1893; Ruth, born August 24, 1897; and Helen, born December 2, 1900. The younger children are at home.
Politically, Mr. Elson is a Republican and has been more or less active in local political affairs. He has been school director in his district for about thirty years. Religiously, the family attend the Methodist church. Among those in whose midst he has so long resided he is held in the highest esteem by reason of his public-spirit, his upright life and his obliging and neighborly disposition.
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