Biographical Sketch of John J. Lee, Leeton, Johnson County, Missouri

>From "History of Johnson County, Missouri," by Ewing Cockrell,
Historical Publishing Company, Topeka, Cleveland, 1918.
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John J. Lee, one of Johnson county's most distinguished pioneers, is
one of the founders of Leeton, Missouri.  He was born December 27, 1842
in Ohio, son of John N. and Eliza (Rittenhouse) Lee.  The Lee family
moved to Ohio from Virginia, thence to Missouri in 1867. General Robert
E. Lee, the great Southern leader in the Civil War, traced his lineage
back to the same ancestors as J. J. Lee, the subject of this review.
When nineteen years of age, J. J. Lee enlisted in the Civil War, serv-
ing with the Union army with Company F, Ninety-seventh Ohio Infantry.
At the time of the organization of the regiment, there was a total of
nine hundred sixty-seven men belonging and at the close of the war 
there were only three hundred twenty-eight men remaining to be mustered
out.  Mr. Lee participated in twenty battles: Perryville, Kentucky; 
Stone's River, Tenn.; Missionary Ridge, Tenn.; Adairsville, Georgia; 
Dallas, Georgia; Newhope Church, Georgia; Kenesaw Mountain, Georgia;
Peachtree Creek, Georgia; Atlanta, Georgia; Rockyface Ridge, Georgia;
Dalton, Georgia; Resaca, Georgia; Jonesboro, Georgia; Lovejoys Station,
Georgia; Springhill, Tenn.; Franklin, Tenn.; and Nashville, Tennessee.
Mr. Lee was in active and continuous service three years and was must-
ered out and honorably discharged at the close of the war in 1865.  In
1867, J. J. Lee came to Johnson county, Missouri and purchased eighty
acres of land in Post Oak Township and engaged in farming and stock
raising.  At the time of the purchase, this farm was entirely virgin
sod and driving a yoke of oxen, Mr. Lee was employed for months break-
ing the sod.  He planted forty acres of the place in wheat and raised
twenty bushels of grain to the acre, which he sold for two dollars a
bushel.  With the proceeds from his wheat crop, Mr. Lee purchased 
calves and thus entered the stock business, soon owning a large heard
of fine cattle.  J. J. Lee and Bella J. Wylie, born March 9, 1842, in
Lawrence county, Pennsylvania, daughter of Joseph Wylie, Pennsylvania,
were united in marriage June 14, 1869.  To Mr. and Mrs. Lee have been 
born four children: Mrs. Vinnie Meyer, Lexington, Mo.; Charles A.,
Greeley, Colorado; W. H., Sedalia, Mo.; and Mrs. Stella L. Race, of
Denver, Colorado.  Mr. and Mrs. Lee have twelve grandchildren.  Both
Mr. and Mrs. Lee are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, of
which Mr. Lee has been a trustee for many years.  The Lee home is a
handsome, modern residence, an imposing structure of eight rooms, which
was built in 1905 in Leeton, according to plans and specifications 
drawn by Mr. Lee.  The rooms are all large and airy and well lighted
and there is both a front and back stairway in the house.  Everything
about the home is nicely and conveniently arranged.  The Lee residence
is one of the beautiful homes in Johnson county.  Mr. Lee has just
completed a cyclone cellar, which is well constructed of concrete.  In
1895, J. J. Lee, J. Ransom Grinstead, and H. E. Fewel laid out the town
of Leeton.  The original plat of the present flourishing little city
included eighty acres of land, but within a short time, sixty acres more
were added.  Mr. Lee conducted a general store for many years at Bur-
nett Station and later, a store located one-half miles west of the 
above mentioned establishment.  He and his sons were associated in 
business at this store until 1906, when they sold the place of business
and Mr. Lee has made his home in Leeton ever since.  In addition to his
residence in Leeton, Mr. Lee is the owner of 120 acres of land adjacent
to the city, and a cotton plantation in Oklahoma, which comprises 160
acres of land.  Mr. and Mrs. Lee are highly esteemed in Johnson county 
and they are numbered among the county's best and most valuable citi-
zens.

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