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MADISON CAMPBELL VINTON. Although the business of farming requires, in its operations, constant industry and the exercise of thought and study in its every detail, in order to make it successful, yet it affords greater opportunities for the best and right living and the achievement of happiness than any other business. Realizing this fact, Madison Campbell Vinton, one of the leading agriculturists and stock raisers of Jackson township, Greene county, left the city of Springfield, where he had become a successful merchant, and turned his attention to farming many years ago. In the country he has found not only a large degree of material success, but health and contentment. He has no desire to return to the commercial world and the city.
Mr. Vinton was born three miles south of Springfield on the Campbell street road on September 18, 1855. He is a son of Samuel S. and Margaret Eugenia (Campbell) Vinton, one of the well-known and highly esteemed old families of this locality. The father was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on January 28, 1828, and the mother was born in Tennessee. Samuel S. Vinton came west with Major Barry when fourteen years of age, and he finally became owner of a fine farm of three hundred and twenty acres south of Springfield, where he engaged in general farming and stock raising and trading on an extensive scale. He, was a very successful man of affairs. For some time he followed merchandising in Springfield, where his death occurred, January 16, 1890. His wife died when the subject of this sketch was four years old. To these parents three children were born, namely: Mrs. Juliet R. Williams lives in Springfield; Madison C., of this sketch; and Samuel S., Jr., of Springfield.
Madison C. Vinton was taken to St. Louis by his father when he was six years old, where he lived until he was fourteen years old, when he returned to his native county. He received a good education. He began his business career by clerking in a store in Springfield, going to Marshfield, Webster county, about a year later, and worked in a store for seven years, later went into the grain business for himself. He subsequently returned to Springfield, where he engaged in merchandising in 1880. Selling out he started a shoe store and for a number of years enjoyed a good business on the south side of- the public square, under the firm name of Vinton-Baxter Shoe Company, "The jumbo Shoe Store." Selling out in 1887, he bought the farm in Jackson, township where he now lives, which contains two hundred and eighty acres, which he has brought up to a high state of improvement and cultivation and which ranks among the best farms of Greene county. He has a beautiful home, and large and convenient barns and other buildings, and he carries on general farming and stock raising on an extensive scale, paying particular attention to the raising of a good grade of live stock, handling a large number of mules annually. For some time he operated a dairy on his place.
Mr. Vinton was married, first, in 1878, to Elizabeth McGinty, by whom four children were born, namely: Harry C., who lives in Texas, working for the National Lumber Company; James K. lives in Denver, Colorado, and works for the Colorado Southern Railroad Company; Walter B. lives in Greene county; William A. is at home. The mother of these children died December 8, 1893, in Springfield, Missouri, and Mr. Vinton married Bessie Dabbs by whom one child has been born, Juliet Lee Vinton, whose birth occurred July 24, 1904. His first wife was a daughter of A. C. McGinty and wife, and the present Mrs. Vinton is a daughter of William P. Dabbs and wife.
Politically, Mr. Vinton is a Democrat. Fraternally, he is a member of the Royal Arcanum lodge. He is a self-made man, well informed and a pleasant gentleman to meet.
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