Biographical Sketch of W. H. Zion, Holden, Johnson County, Missouri

>From "History of Johnson County, Missouri," by Ewing Cockrell,
Historical Publishing Company, Topeka, Cleveland, 1918.
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W. H. Zion, an efficient carpenter residing at Holden, Missouri, is one
of the best known and most capable workmen in Johnson county.  Mr. Zion
is a native Virginian but practically all of his long life of seventy-
three years has been spent in this part of the country so that he seems
more to be one of Missouri's own sons.  He is a member of one of the 
leading pioneer families of Cass county, Missouri.  Mr. Zion was born
September 11, 1844, in Lee county, Virginia, and in 1851 came with his
parents and brothers and sisters to Missouri.  The Zions settled in the
western part of Cass county, where most of the earliest pioneers locat-
ed.  The children born to the parents of W. H. Zion were as follow: 
W. H., the eldest, the subject of this review; George; Mrs. Martha 
Stark, who is residing on a farm located in Cass county, two miles 
south of Freeman, Missouri; Harvey, who is interested in the oil busi-
ness in Oklahoma; and Mrs. Mollie Parker, who died in July, 1917.  The
family and an uncle came through from Virginia to Missouri in emigrant
wagons and after seven weeks on the way came to the land upon which 
they built their permanent home.  The elder Zion, father of W. H.,
owned a tract of land in Cass county, comprising two hundred eighty
acres, a part of which he purchased and a part entered from the govern-
ment.  For the prairie soil, he paid seven dollars and for the timbered
land five dollars an acre and now this same tract is worth at the 
lowest figure ninety dollars an acre.  The father died in 1859, just a
short time before the outbreak of the Civil War, which was destined to
play an important and disastrous part in the lives of his loved ones.
When "Order Number II" was issued, the mother moved with her children
to Boone county, Missouri, and there they remained nearly three years.
After the war had ended, they returned to the old homestead in Cass
county to find their home burned to the ground, everything on the place
destroyed, and all the stock stolen.  One who has passed through such
an experience knows the meaning full well of truly "hard times."  In 
the autumn of 1873, W. H. Zion and Carolina Virginia Reeves, daughter
of Mr. and Mrs. Reeves, of North Carolina, were united in marriage and 
to this union have been born five children: John A., a prominent 
merchant of Holden, Missouri; Lulu, who is now married and resides in
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Mrs. Mary Gray, Kansas City, Missouri; George,
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; and Ione, who died in infancy.  Immediately
after their marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Zion came to Johnson county and 
located on a farm, which is located a short distance due north of 
Kingsville, a place that Mr. Zion owned for five years.  When he sold
this tract of land, he purchased a place southeast of Kingsville and
resided on it for three years and then disposed of the farm and moved
to Kingsville, where he worked at his trade as carpenter and for 
several years was employed in construction work at that place.  After
about ten years of residence in Kingsville, Mr. Zion came to Holden,
Missouri, where he now lives, and continued to follow his vocation of
carpentering.  He succeeded well in farming and stock raising, but
enjoys more the work of his trade.  Mr. and Mrs. Zion are members of 
the Baptist church.  Mr. Zion is affiliated with the Ancient Free and
Accepted Masons and the Eastern Star.  He has always been keenly 
interested in politics and he has never missed once casting his vote.
In spite of his age of seventy-three years, W. H. Zion is still an
excellent workman, as active and skilled at carpentering as he ever
was and no one enjoys his work more than he.  He has ever taken much
pride in his trade, a vocation that was dignified about all others
more than nineteen hundred years ago.

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