Springfield-Greene
County LibraryEarly and Recent History and Genealogical Records
of Many of the Representative Citizens
MANSEL PUTMAN. The social, business and political history of this section is filled with the deeds and doings of self-made men, and no man in the pioneer period of Greene county was more deserving of the appellation than was Mansel Putman, who has long been sleeping the sleep that knows no waking, like the Scottish hero of "The Lady of the Lake," for Mr. Putman marked out his own career in his youth and steadily followed it to the final ending of his mortal career, his success having been attributed to his earnest and persistent endeavor, and to the fact that he consistently tried to follow the teachings of the "Golden Rule."
Mr. Putman was born on January 12, 1822, in Marshall county, Tennessee, and there he grew to manhood and resided until 1842 when he immigrated to Greene county, Missouri, at the age of twenty years, with his parents, John and Polly (Garrett) Putman. The family located seven miles north of Springfield, Where John Putman bought a claim on which he farmed until his death, September 27, 1867, at the advanced age of eighty-four years. The land was mostly in the rough, but he was a hard-working man and cleared most of it. Politically he was a Benton Democrat, and religiously he was a member of the Primitive Baptist church, being a member of the Zion congregation.
Minerva James, wife of Mansel Putman, was born on August 8, 1820, in Madison county, Tennessee, and she and Mr. Putman were married February 15, 1849. She came to Greene county, Missouri, with her parents, Thomas and Nancy (Gately) James, and her death occurred on the homestead farm in this county, November 27, 1905. Mary Jane Putman was their only child. She is the wife of Ammon Knighten, a sketch of whom appears on another page of this work.
The death of Mansel Putman occurred on, November 9, 1895, on a farm in Franklin township, where Mrs. Knighten was born and reared and has lived all her life, having succeeded to the ownership of the homestead upon the death of her mother in 1905. She was educated in the rural schools.
Politically, Mr. Putman was a Republican, and he was in sympathy with the Union during the Civil war. He was a member of the Home Guards, and while the war was in progress he was taken from his home and shot by a band of General Price's soldiers, but he finally recovered from his wounds.
He belonged to the Union League and the Grange. He was a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian church at Mt. Comfort. His wife also held membership there, and they were both active in the affairs of the church, liberal in their support of the same.
Mr. Putman was a very successful farmer and a highly, respected citizen. He was one of a family of fourteen children, all now deceased but John G. and Joseph Edward Putman. The former is engaged in farming in Franklin township; he was born in Marshall county, Tennessee, and came with his parents to Missouri in 1842. After devoting his active life to general farming he is now living in retirement, and has reached the advanced age of eighty-six years. His son, Seth Jerome Putman, operates the home farm. John G. Putman has seven children, namely: Mrs. Mary C. Porter lives on a farm in Greene county; one son died in infancy; Mary S., who was the wife of William Clark, died in 1913; Mrs. Nellie Saltsgaver, Seth Jerome, Norma Alice and Nancy Ellen.
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