Biographical Sketch of George A. Head, Dent County, Missouri

>From "History of Laclede, Camden, Dallas, Webster, Wright, Texas, 
Pulaski, Phelps and Dent Counties, Missouri" The Goodspeed Publishing
Company, 1889.
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George A. Head, farmer and stock dealer, and a prominent citizen of
Norman township, was born in Warren county, Penn., in 1843, and is the
son of George W. and Zannetta M. (Smiley) Head, natives of Tompkins 
County, N. Y., born in 1812 and 1820, respectively.  They were married
there in about 1836, and afterward removed to Warren Co., Penn., where
the mother died in 1845, and the father in about 1856.  Both were 
members of the Methodist Church, the father being a millwright by 
trade.  William Head, grandfather of subject, was born in New Jersey,
and was of English parentage.  When a small boy his father's house was
attacked by Indians, who murdered and scalped the entire family with
the exception of William, whom they thought they had killed.  As he 
grew to manhood he naturally had a strong hatred for the red race, and
soon became one of the greatest Indian fighters of the East.  He at 
last followed them into Michigan, where it was supposed he was roasted
by the reds.  William Smiley, the maternal grandfather of subject, was
born in New Jersey, was of Scotch descent, and was a soldier in the
War of 1812.  He died in Dent county, in 1875, after haing lived here a
few years.  George W. Head was married three times, his first wife,
subject's mother, bearing him four children.  George A. Head was the 
third child in order of birth.  He was educated in the common schools,
and remained at home until the death of his father, when he began for
himself, as a hand in the lumber woods, until the opening of the war.
He then joined Company D, One Hundred and Eleventh Pennsylvania Infan-
try, in the Potomac army, and remained with the same until the fall of
1863.  He then joined the Army of the Cumberland, and was mustered out 
at Washinton City.  He was in the fights at Chancellorsville, Second
Bull Run, Cedar Mountain, Gettysburg, Lookout Mountain, and all through
the Atlanta campaign to the sea.  He was at the grand review at Wash-
ington, D. C.  He was never captured nor wounded, and was never in the
hospital but a few days.  He served over four years, and was never
absent but fifteen days, when he went home on a furlough.  He was
married in 1866 to Miss Margaret S., daughter of William and Eliza
Porter, natives of New York and Ireland, respectively.  Her parents 
came to Dent county, Mo., in 1870, and here the father died in 1882,
at the age of sixty-six, but the mother is still living.  Mrs. Head 
was born in Chautauqua county, N. Y., and by her marriage became the
mother of four children, three now living.  In 1866 Mr. and Mrs. Head
moved to Den county, where, some time later, they settled on their
present farm, which consists of 243 acres, at the head of Norman Valley
with about 160 acres under cultivation.  Mr. Head deals largely in
stock; has some fine Durham cattle, Berkshire and Chester White hogs
and Merino sheep.  He is a stanch Republican in politics, casting his
first presidential vote for Lincoln in 1864.  He is a member of the
A.O.U.W., Salem Post of the G.A.R., and is also a member of the Grange
order.  Mr. Head is a live and thorough going farmer, and has done 
much to raise the standard of agriculture and intelligence in his
neighborhood, having been reared in a country of good schools, where
farming was made a science.  Mrs. Head is a cultured and refined lady,
and although almost an invalid for some years, her influence in the
family is wielded in the direction wherein only a mother's is felt and
remembered.

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