Biographical Sketch of James A. Claxton, Wright 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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James A. Claxton, farmer and stock raiser of Gasconade Township, Wright
County, Mo., was born in Bedford County, Tenn., in 1826; son of James
and Temperance (Ratcliff) Claxton, and a grandson on the mother's side
of Joshua Ratcliff, who was a soldier in the Revolutionary War, where
he was wounded, and when he died, at the age of ninety, the scar was to
be seen upon his breast.  The paternal grandfather was a native of 
North Carolina, and one of the first settlers of Tennessee.  He was of
Dutch descent, and lived to be eighty years of age.  James Claxton,
father of our subject, was born on the road from North Carolina to 
Tennessee in 1801, and grew to manhood in the last named state, where
he was married, and where he followed farming until the fall of 1853.
He then moved to Missouri, located in Greene County, and in 1858 came
to Wright County, Mo., where he died on the 6th of October, 1871; he 
was the owner of 600 acres of land, and was in quite comfortable 
circumstances.  He was allowed a pension for services rendered under 
Jackson in the Black Hawk War, but did not draw it.  Temperance (Rat-
cliff) Claxton was a native of North Carolina, and died in Missouri on
November 23, 1877.  They were the parents of eleven children, James A.
Claxton being the fourth child in order of birth.  He was reared on a 
farm in Tennessee, and married Miss Eliza Jane Harrison, daughter of
Edward Cannon and Eliza Jane (McClane) Harrison, who were married in
Bedford County, Tenn.  The former, a resident of Northern Missouri, was
born in North Carolina in 1799; his wife in South Carolina in 1800.
Mrs. Claxton bore her husband eleven children, nine now living: James
Cannon, born January 20, 1849; William Calvin, June 16, 1853; Newton
Cyrus, February 15, 1855; Dudley C., May 12, 1857; Margaret A., Febru-
ary 26, 1859; Henry C., April 21, 1861; Hepsey B., August 12, 1864;
John R., February 27, 1870; and Edward D., December 28, 1871.  Those
deceased are: Manday M., born September 21, 1851 and died December 24,
1863; and Jasper, born January 16, 1863, died March 27, 1863.  James A.
Claxton came to Missouri in the fall of 1852, and remained in Pulaski
County one year, in Greene County five years, and then moved east of
his present farm, where he remained for some time before he moved on 
the farm where he now resides.  He has been on this farm for twenty-one
years, and has 698 acres of good land.  During the Civil War he was in
the State Militia.  He is a Democrat in his political views, and a good
citizen.  All his children are married with the exception of two.

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