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HOWARD RAGSDALE. In the list of present day lawyers of Greene county, the name of Howard Ragsdale, of Ash Grove, must not be overlooked. He has passed the half-way house along the thoroughfare of the human years, and has rapidly risen to an influential and prominent place in his profession in both Greene and. Dade counties. He is a well-read lawyer, a ready debater, an industrious, indomitable worker, and a skilful tacticians The mighty Julius pleading at the bar was greater than when thundering in the war. He conquered nations with his invincible legions: "'Tis of more renown to save a client than to save a town." Mr. Ragsdale's arguments to the courts embody no, surplusage, but are direct, terse and incisive; to the jury they are plain, logical, matter of fact, compactly presented. He cares more for a rod of truth than for a mile of rhetoric, more for a principle than for a thrilling climax, more for a fact than an acre of verbal felicities and gems. He has a clientage in the courts that older practitioners would be pleased to command. He is a man of firm and decided convictions, whether in law, politics or in any department of thought or action employing his time and attention.
Mr. Ragsdale was born in Dade county, Missouri, August 16, 1869. He is a son of Benjamin F. and Nancy E. (Buckner) Ragsdale. The father was born in Greenfield, Missouri, in October, 1843, and was a son of Joshua and Sarah Ragsdale. Joshua Ragsdale emigrated from the Carolinas in a very early day, the early thirties, and located in Dade county, where he entered twelve hundred acres of land from the government and here he followed general farming the rest of his life, and became a prosperous and influential citizen. He had married before leaving his native country, a woman who also first saw the light of day under Dixie skies. Benjamin F. Ragsdale grew up on his father's broad acres, which he assisted in getting ready for cultivation and he helped with the general work of the farm when a boy. He was given the usual educational advantages of the times. During the war of the states he enlisted in a Dade county company in the Union army and was captured by the Confederates but subsequently paroled. He spent his life in Dade county, successfully engaged in agricultural pursuits and was known there. His death occurred on November 25, 1899. Politically he was a Republican. He and Nancy E. Buckner were married in 1867. She was born in Lawrence county, Missouri, in 1852 and her death occurred in July, 1910.
Howard Ragsdale grew to manhood in his native county and received a good common school education; later was a pupil at Ozark College, Greenfield, Missouri. He began life for himself by teaching school a few terms with satisfaction, then began studying law with E. P. Mann, of Greenfield, with whom he remained two years, and in 1897 was admitted to the bar of Missouri, and soon thereafter he began the practice of his profesion at Everton, Dade county, where he remained thirteen years, enjoying a large patronage and ranking among the leading attorneys of that county. He served a term as prosecuting attorney of Dade county in a manner that reflected credit upon himself and to the satisfaction of all concerned. In 1909 he located in Ash Grove and has remained here to the present time and has from the first enjoyed a satisfactory and growing practice, throughout this locality.
Mr. Ragsdale was married in September, 1899, to Ellen Finley, who as born in Greenfield, Missouri, February 1,1879, and there grew to womanhood and received a good education. She represents one of the old families of that town, and is a daughter of Milton Finley and wife.
Politically, Mr. Ragsdale is a Republican. Fraternally, he belongs to the Masonic Order, the Blue Lodge at Everton, and the Royal Arch Chapter at Ash Grove. He is also a member of the Knights of Pythias. He is a man of excellent mental endowments and commanding personality, a man who has ever stood well in this locality.
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