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EDWARD FORREST RACE. Some farmers who have cropped their soils from year to year, taking everything off and returning nothing, when their crops fall off until there are no profits, sometimes conceive the idea that they can have their soils analyzed and have a fertilizer mixed for them that will furnish all the needed elements of plant food, so that by applying that fertilizer to their lands they should grow bumper crops. They are doomed to disappointment. The chemist can tell the amount of plant food in a sample of soil, but he cannot tell how much of it is in available form for plant food, and another sample a few yards away would in all probability show a very different amount of plant food. Knowing this, Edward Forrest Race, a successful farmer of Campbell township, has always tried to keep his land up to the standard of fertility by employing the best modern methods, therefore rendering an analysis of his soil unnecessary.
Mr. Race is a native of Greene county, Missouri, born on November 6, 1869. He is a son of Alfred P. and Sarah C. (Greenwade) Race, the latter a daughter of Moses Greenwade and wife, whose family consisted of ten, children, six sons and four daughters. Alfred P. Race was born in Hampshire county, Virginia, and was of Scotch descent. He was probably the eldest in a family of ten children. He received his early education in the district schools and devoted his life to general farming. He was married in Maryland, in which state his wife, mother of our subject, was born and reared. To this union ten children were born, five of whom are deceased. Those living are: Mrs. Laura Moore, who resides at Willard, this county; Edward F., of this sketch; Sarah M. lives in Nebraska; William T. makes his home in Polk county, Missouri; Albert lives in Kansas. The parents of these children left Maryland not long after their marriage and located in Illinois, subsequently coming to Greene county, Missouri, purchasing a farm, which, however, they later sold and moved back to Illinois, and after a year's residence returned to this county and bought back the farm near the village of Willard which they had previously owned, and here they continued to reside, engaged successfully in general farming until Mr. Race's death, in the fall of 1909, and there Mrs. Race still makes her home. Politically, Alfred P. Race was a Democrat, but was never active in public life. He stood high in his community and was well liked by all who knew him.
Edward F. Race grew to manhood on his father's farm, and he received his education in the district schools of Greene county. He has farmed all his life, and has been very successful in general agricultural pursuits and stock raising. He located on his present well improved farm of one hundred and forty-two acres in 1904. His residence and outbuildings are substantial and convenient, and he has made the excellent improvements now to be seen on his place. He takes much pride in his home and farm, and everything denotes close attention to details.
Mr. Race was married on March 1, 1899, to Lular Gillespie, a daughter of William S. and Martha M. (Horn) Gillespie, natives of North Carolina, in which state they grew to maturity, were educated and married, and soon after the latter event they moved to Tennessee, and from there to Missouri about thirty-five years ago, and bought a farm in Greene county, near the town of Strafford. After living there five years they moved to a good farm near Willard, where the family still resides. There are seven children ,of this family, named as follows: C. Plato, of Willard; S. Ciscero of Willard; O. Sular, the wife of D. C. Knox, of Willard; Lular C., wife of our subject; O. Dexter lives at Willard; Willie T., of Springfield R. Eddie, of Willard. William S. Gillespie, father of these children, served all through the Civil war in the Confederate army, taking part in many important engagements, including the battle of Richmond and those in the vicinity of that city. He was only sixteen years of age when he enlisted.
To Edward F. Race and wife four, children have been born, namely: Pearl Madalene is attending the Willard high school; Ester Naomi, Lloyd Franklin and Orville Edward.
Politically, Mr. Race is a Democrat, but he has never been an aspirant for political office. He is a member of the Grand Prairie Presbyterian church at Willard and is an elder in the same and an active church worker.
[1865-1867]
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