Biographical Sketch of Col. R. Boone Palmer, 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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Col. R. Boone Palmer.  Prominent among the enterprising and successful
citizens of Wright County, Mo., and among those deserving special
recognition for their long residence in the county, stands the name of
the above mentioned gentleman, who was born in Pickens District, S. C.,
in 1816.  He is the son of John and Nancy (Boone) Palmer, and the 
grandson, on his mother's side, of Ratcliff Boone, a realtive of Daniel
Boone.  The paternal grandfather was a native of Virginia, and one of 
the pioneers of South Carolina.  John Palmer, so far as known, was a 
native of South Carolina, and in that State was married to Miss Nancy
Boone, who was also a native of South Carolina.  After marriage he 
moved to Georgia, where he farmed until his death.  They were the 
parents of eight children, six now living, of whom Col. Palmer is next
to the eldest in order of birth.  He moved with his parents to Georgia,
there grew to manhood, and there, at the age of nineteen, was united in
marriage to Miss Sarah Nix, who bore these children: William, Benjamin
and Joseph; three died, two in infancy.  One, Lucinda, was married to
Noah Claxton, and before her death bore him two children.  Col. Palmer
moved to Missouri in October, 1840.  He intended going to Texas, but
finally located in what is now Wright County, where he purchased land,
and was one of the pioneers of the place.  Early in 1840 he was elected
associate judge of the county court, and finally elected president.
During one of his terms of office county warrants were raised in value
from 50 to 95 cents on the dollar.  He served as county judge for a 
period of four or five years.  In the spring of 1849 he left Hartville
and went overland to California, there following mining, and made 
$3,000 cash.  He also followed ranching in that State, and in 1853 he
returned by Panama and New Orleans to his family in Wright County, Mo.,
where he farmed until the opening of the war.  He was then appointed
colonel of the Seventy-third Enrolled Missouri Militia, to guard home
property.  In 1862 he was elected to the Legislature, and was re-
elected in 1864 for two years more.  He remained with that body until
the close of the war.  After that event he made a race for State
Senator, but was counted out.  In 1870 he ran for the State Senate on 
the issue of enfranchisement, and was elected, serving four years.  He
was a member of the committee on education, and visited Kirksville
Normal, and School of Mines and Metallurgy at Rolla.  He is the author
of the original bill in Missouri for the regulation of carrying con-
cealed or exposed weapons.  In 1879 Col. Palmer was elected as an
Independent Democrat to the State Legislature, and served two years.
He is official reporter for Wright County to the Agricultural Depart-
ment of the United States.  He is independent in his political views as
well as in his religion, and is one of the leading men of the county.
He has sold $5,000 worth of land, and has much on hand still.  He is a
member of the Wright County bar, being the oldest member, with one
exception, in the county.  In June, 1888, he traveled through Illinois,
Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana, and visited Lexington and the monument and
homestead of Henry Clay, and although his early education was rather
deficient, he has, by experience gained in traveling, and by his close
application to study between business hours, become a well informed man
on any subject.  He is now seventy-two years of age, is hale and hearty
and occasionally goes on hunting expeditions with his pack of hounds.
 
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