Biographical Sketch of R. E. Martin, Johnson County, Missouri,
Jackson Township.

>From "History of Johnson County, Missouri," by Ewing Cockrell,
Historical Publishing Company, Topeka, Cleveland, 1918.
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R. E. Martin, a member of a well known and influential pioneer family
of Johnson county, Missouri, is one of the prosperous and progressive
farmers and stockmen of Jackson township.  He was born in 1863 at the
Martin homestead in Johnson county, a son of Joseph M. and Eliza 
(Hunter) Martin.  R. E. Martin's paternal grandfather came to Missouri
in a very early day and entered one hundred sixty acres of land from
the government, a tract which was located in Johnson county.  Joseph 
M. Martin came later and just in time to enter a tract of land from
the government.  He and Mrs. Martin came West immediately after their
marriage and they with all their earthly possessions had plenty of 
room in the one horse cart in which they came to Johnson county.  Mr.
Martin was poor, very porr, he had not one dollar capital, and during 
the first hard years while he was trying to get a start in the new
western home he had to work as a hired laborer by the day in order to
obtain food for his ten little ones.  He built a small log cabin on 
the farm and there all their children were born.  Joseph M. and Eliza
Martin were the parents of the following children: Mrs. Jane Star, of
Kansas; J. P., of Oklahoma; Isaac, Liberty, Missouri; R. E., the sub-
ject of this review; and Reverend Monroe, a prominent pastor residing
in Pittsville, Missouri.  Death has broken the family circle and five
of the family of ten children are now deceased.  The mother, Eliza
(Hunter) Martin, was a daughter of David Hunter, an honored pioneer
of Johnson county.  In this most modest and humble way, the Martin's
began life in this county.  In after years, when Mr. Martin had accum-
ulated a comfortable competence, was the owner of two hundred acres of
the choicest land and a pleasant country home, his financial rating in 
the business world assured, Mr. and Mrs. Martin were want to look back
in retrospection to the days spent within the four walls of their
primitive dwelling as among their happiest experiences, for then the
family circle was unbroken.  The record of Joseph M. Martin is that of
a man of entergy and ambition who began life in the West under the
embarassing conditions which poverty entails and by his own unaided
efforts struggled upward from a lowly position to one of high standing
in the community, a citizen honored and respected by all who knew him.
During his boyhood, R. E. Martin attended the school held at Pleasant
Grove school house and there obtained a good, practical education.  He
recalls his first instructor, Mr. VanAusdol, and one of the pioneer
preachers, whom he frequently heard in his youth, Reverend Smith, an
olden-time Baptist minister.  Mr. Martin's first investment was in a 
few calves, which did well and were sold at a reasonably good profit.
From his father's estate, R. E. Martin inherited forty acres of land
and to this he has added and is now the owner of one hundred acres.  He
resides at the old homestead of the Martin's.  Mr. Martin has never 
lost his youthful interest in livestock and now has on his farm high
grade Shorthorns and ninety head of Poland China hogs.  He owns a brood
sow which in three and a half years has produced eighty-nine pigs, a 
record hard to equal.  Mr. Martin has had excellent success in general
farming and in the autumn of 1917, harvested sixteen hundred bushels
of oats, thirty tons of hay, and in addition had seventy acres of the
farm in corn.  R. E. Martin and Alice Hedge were united in marriage.  
Mrs. Martin is a daughter of Joshua Hedge, a prominent citizen of 
Johnson county.  To Mr. and Mrs. Martin have been born four children,
three sons and one daughter: Fred; Lena, who is now married; Manard;
and Ivan, all of whom reside near Pittsville, Missouri.  Mr. Martin 
has been successful in all his undertakings far above the average and 
he and Mrs. Martin are planning and looking forward to the time when
they shall retire from active farm work and quietly and contentedly
pass their declining years in the society of their children and 
friends.  All things considered, farming is the only reliable source
of a nation's true prosperity and the only known calling that assures
a certain return for the necessary expenditure of time, muscles, and
brain.  There are no strikes, bread riots, or trade unions in agricul-
tural sections.  No farmer or stockman receives orders from a delegate
to "walk-out" and as age comes on the yeoman who has always done his
best, as has Mr. Martin, can retire to comfortable home surrounded 
with all the necessaries of life and in a village, town or city near
his farm spend the eventide of life in complacent peace and happiness.
Mr. and Mrs. Martin have well merited all the success which has come 
to them and they are numbered among the county's most highly valued
citizens.

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