Biographical Sketch of Capt. John T. Riley, Crawford Township, Buchanan 
County, MO

>From "History of Buchanan County, Missouri, Published 1881, St. Joseph
Steam Printing Company, Printers, Binders, Etc., St. Joseph, Missouri.
**********************************************************************

Capt. John T. Riley, school teacher, postoffice St. Joseph, is a native
of Missouri, and was born in Clay County, February 16, 1830 and raised
on a farm.  In early life he received a good common school education,
and was afterwards graduated at Bethany College, West Virginia, in the
year 1856.  He read law under Hon. Thomas E. Turney, of Clinton County,
and was admitted to the bar in 1858.  He practiced in Maryville, MO.
until 1861.  On the breaking out of the civil war he first joined the
Missouri State Guards under Colonel Slayback, serving three months.
January, 1862 he enlisted in the regular Confederate service, Company
H, First Missouri Cavalry, and remained until the close of the war.
He was taken prisoner twice, confined at Camp Morton, Fort Delaware,
Point Lookout, and Elmyra, New York.  Principle and love of country
caused him to enlist.  After the war he remained in Mississippi and
married Miss Lucy A. Small, a native of Alabama, August 17, 1867. She
was born May 2, 1844.  By this marriage he has had five children.  He
returned to Missouri in 1869, since which time he has followed teaching
for a living, and preaches to exercise his talent.  In 1872 he was 
elected county superintendent of schools of Buchanan County for two
years.  In 1878 he was nominated and elected a Representative from the
Third District of Buchanan County as a Democrat, with 400 majority over
his opponent.  He was re-elected in 1880 over another Greenbacker by
over 800 votes.  He is a Master Mason, and has been teaching school for
over twenty years.  During the war he was orderly sergeant and never
absent from any battles, participating in every engagement with his 
regiment.  He has always been a Democrat, but never an ultra one; can
always see good wherever it may exist.  As a member of the legislature 
he voted for all measures tending toward economy, education, and temp-
erance.  He took an active part in securing to St. Joseph the rebuild-
ing of Lunatic Asylum No. 2, the former building having been destroyed
by fire in 1879, and strenous efforts were put forth to have it re-
built elsewhere.

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