Biographical Sketch of Joel Johns Penick, St. Joseph, Buchanan County, MO

>From "History of Buchanan County, Missouri, Published 1881, St. Joseph
Steam Printing Company, Printers, Binders, Etc., St. Joseph, Missouri.
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Joel Johns Penick, was born in Prince Edward County, Virginia on April
19, 1808, and was consequently in the seventy first year of his age at
the time of his death.  He went to Kentucky at the age of nine, and 
was raised in Greene and Breckenridge Counties.  He came to Missouri
at the age of nineteen, and was married May 1, 1828, in Boone County,
to Miss Sophia B. Ridgeway, who survives him.  Mr. Penick came to the
Platte Purchase, July 10, 1837, and settled at West Point, a small
village fourteen miles due south of St. Joseph.  There were then not
more than a half dozen families in the Purchase, and soon afterward
Mr. Penick was made postmaster at West Point, the first appointment,
by the way, in the Platte Purchase.  He was engaged in merchandising
at West Point for twelve years, and removed thence to St. Joseph. Mr.
Penick was reared a farmer, but for the past forty or fifty five years
had been engaged in mercantile pursuits.  For sixteen or seventeen 
years immediately previous to his death he was associated with his son,
William R. Penick, in the drug business in St. Joseph.  He was one of
the oldest citizens of that city, and none were held in higher esteem
than he.  He was never a politician, but, for a term or two, was a
member of the town council.  He ever bore the character of an exemplary
citizen, and the reputation of a moral, christian gentleman.  During
the year previous to the death of Mr. Penick, which occurred in St.
Joseph, Sunday, January 12, 1879, he and his wife celebrated the 
occasion of their golden wedding anniversary.  He left a wife and four
children: General William R. Penick, of St. Joseph; Sarah Anne Bell,
of Jackson County; Robert Thomas Penick and Mattie W. Riley, of St.
Joseph.

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