Biographical Sketch of Gabriel M. Pike, Texas County, MO

>From "History of Laclede, Camden, Dallas, Webster, Wright, Texas,
Pulaski, Phelps & Dent Counties, Missouri, from Earliest Times to the
Present" Published by Goodspeed Publishing Company, 1889.

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Gabriel M. Pike, farmer and stock man, was born in Grainger County,
Tenn., in January, 1825, and is a son of Benjamin and Mary (Hooker)
Pike, who were born, reared and married in the "Old North State,"
moving to Tennessee soon after the celebration of the latter event,
where they spent the remainder of their lives.  The father was a 
Democrat, and he and wife were members of the Methodist Church.  
Gabriel M. Pike was the fifth of their seven children, and although
he has a fair English education his early educational advantages
were very limited.  He worked with his father as a collier until
1843, then drove a team for his passage to Missouri, but after work-
ing two years in Pulaski County he found himself but little better
off than when he came to the State, and he engaged in rafting on the
river for ten years, working on the Piney, Gasconade, Missouri and
Mississippi Rivers to St. Louis, making in all some forty trips, and
traveled homeward on foot most of the time.  He then purchased a 
tract of land on Piney River and engaged in farming, but during the
war served six months in the State Militia, and then kept a grocery
in Rolla for about seven months, returning to his farm in 1865.  On
June 25, 1876, he was married to Miss Mary Truesdell, who was born
in Texas County December 19, 1845, and by her is the father of four
children: Alva E., Benjamin M., Nancy T. E. and Robert.  By good
management and industry Mr. Pike has become the owner of about 500
acres of land, 150 of which are under cultivation, and besides this
has other property, which makes him one of the heaviest tax payers
in the county.  He deserves much credit for the success which has
attended his efforts, as he came to the county without any capital
whatever, and has been, in every respect, the architect of his own
fortune.  He is a Democrat politically, and is a member of the 
Masonic fraternity.

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