My Genealogy Hound

John A. Pool & Sons, brokers of Lamar, Mo. Mr. Pool was born in Morgantown, West Va., December 12, 1820, and is a son of Reverend Asby and Valinda (Lanham) Pool, who were of German and Irish descent, and were born in Virginia and West Virginia, respectively. They were married in Morgantown, W. Va., and the father’s useful days were spent in preaching the gospel, being an expounder of the Methodist doctrine, but later in life he gave his attention to farming, and died at the age of eighty years. His wife died while in the prime of life. John A. is the second of their nine children, and was educated in an academy at Morgantown. At the age of twenty-one he began working by the day at fifty cents per day, and afterward turned his attention to farming, and then became a Baptist minister. After moving to Somerset County, Penn., he took charge of the Turkey Foot Baptist Church, one of the oldest churches in that State. Some years later he moved to Monroe, Greene County, Wis., where he spent ten years, and organized the First Baptist Church in that city. He next went to Indianola, Iowa, where he also organized the first church, and remained seven years. He next located at Warrensburg, Mo., remaining three or four years, then went to Neosho, where he remained about the same length of time, and then came to the First Missionary Baptist Church of Lamar. He now belongs to the Free Will Baptist Church, at Barton Center, and has retired from his ministerial duties, and has taken up his present business. He has been a successful financier, and is one of the largest landholders of Barton County, being the owner of twenty-one good farms, besides considerable town property. In the fall of 1862 he enlisted in Company I, Twenty-seventh Iowa Infantry, United States Army, and after serving one year, was discharged on account of disability. He is now a Republican in politics, and is a member of the G. A. R. In 1842 he was married to Miss Cassanda Brumage, a native of Middleton, W. Va., and by her became the father of five children, two of whom are living: Ephraim, a real estate dealer and money broker, and Cassanda. After this wife’s death in Pennsylvania, he married Miss Rebecca Spangler, of Maryland, and by her has four children: George W., a jeweler at Lamar; Kate E., wife of Rev. A. K. Wray; Charles, a harness-maker, of Lamar; and Frank, at home.