Springfield-Greene
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MARSHALL ROUDEBUSH. The business of the farm and the business of farming, while in many points analogous, are in reality quite distinctive. The former carries with it the consideration of dollars and cents in the employment of labor, the outlay of capital on buildings and improvements, the cost of raising crops as against the revenue received after harvesting and sale, the maintenance and repair of machinery and implements, and the saving to be made possible if newer and improved machinery is installed on the farm. In short, the business of the farm is to make the farm produce the utmost possible at the lowest cost, and to be certain of a ready cash market for all that is produced.
One of Greene county's farmers, who looks well to the general business of farming and is therefore succeeding is Marshall Roudebush, of Brookline township. He was born near Vernon, Jennings county, Indiana, October 14, 1856. He is a son of William S. and Nancy (Walker) Roudebush. The father, who was one of a family of twenty-two children, was one of the first settlers in Jennings county, Indiana, having located there about the year 1830 when the country was sparsely settled and little improved, but he worked hard and developed a good farm. The mother of our subject was born in Kentucky from which state she removed with her parents to Jennings county, Indiana, about 1830 and there she grew to womanhood and married. To William S. Roudebtish the following children were born: Daniel, who served in the Civil war as corporal in the Union army was taken prisoner and died of starvation at Andersonville prison; Charles L., who resided in Kansas, died in 1887; Marshall, of this sketch; Elizabeth, who married a Mr. Anderson, lives at Lebanon, Indiana; Jennie lived at North Vernon, Indiana, and has been deceased for fifteen years; Ophelia Boggs lives in Vernon, Indiana.
Marshall Roudebush was reared on the home farm in Indiana where he worked when a boy, and there he received his education in the district schools. He was thirteen years of age when his father died, and he started out in life for himself, since which time he has made his own way in the world unaided and is deserving of a great deal of credit for the large success which has been his. He has been engaged in general farming for the most part but has devoted considerable attention to buying, raising and shipping live stock and he owes no inconsiderable portion of his success to the latter business. He is regarded by his neighbors as one of the best judges of various kinds and grades of live stock to be found in this part of the county. He remained in Indiana until the winter of 1883 when he came to Greene county, Missouri, and located in Brookline township, purchasing forty acres in section 14 where he still resides, and prospering with advancing years he has acquired additional acreage until he now owns one of the valuable and choice farms of the township, consisting of two hundred and forty acres, which he has brought up to a high state of improvement and cultivation. He recently erected a commodious pressed brick residence of the bungalow type, modern in its appointments and surrounded on all sides by a fine grove of walnut and oak. It is on an eminence commanding a splendid view.
Mr. Roudebush was married on December 26, 1880, to Olive Spencer, a daughter of Major Samuel A. and Sarah (Ewing) Spencer. The father served with much credit through the Civil war as a major of the Eighty-Second Indiana Volunteer Infantry. Our subject's wife was born in Jennings county, Indiana, in 1855 and there she grew to womanhood and received a common school education. She has borne her husband the following children: Bessie, born on November 30, 1884, is unmarried and living at home; Everett A., born on July, 1886 is unmarried and is engaged in farming in Kansas; Harry M., born on March 20, 1889, is single, and is living at home assisting his father operate the home place; Charles S., born on August 3, 1893 is single, and is now employed by the United States government on irrigation work at Phoenix, Arizona.
Politically, Mr. Roudebush is a Republican, but has never been active in politics, although taking a good citizen's interest in. public affairs. He has served three years on the local school board. Fraternally he is a member of the Masonic Order.
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