was elected a director of the branch of the Union Bank of Missouri, located at Lexington, Missouri, and in 1868 he was elected a director of the Union National Bank, of St.Louis, and remained an officer thereof till 1874, at which time the bank having failed, he was appointed to wind up its business. October 22, 1842, George I. Wasson was married to Miss Angeline B. Child, a native of Madison county, New York. Mrs. Wasson is a refined and intelligent lady, amiable, benevolent, and affectionate, and much of the success attained by her husband is due to her cheerful disposition, good judgment, and womanly virtues. They have had two children, but both of them died in infancy. George I. has been one of the most active, energetic, and enterprising business men Ray county ever had, and no individual has done more for its advancement, or is now more closely identified with the county, in all that pertains to its prosperity, wealth, and development.

CHRISTOPHER T. GARNER.

Christopher Trigg Garner, son of Colonel Jesse W. and Docia (Trigg) Garner, was born March 25, 1825, in Fayette, Howard county, Missouri. Colonel Jesse W. Garner, a native of Virginia, was born in Northumberland county in 1791, and when a boy removed to Winchester, Clark county, Kentucky. He married Docia Trigg January 15, 1810. In 1819 he moved to Missouri, and settled in Old Franklin, Howard county. About a year afterward he removed to Fayette, and from 1820 to 1841 lived in that town and in the vicinity thereof. In the year last mentioned he moved to Ray county, and in 1848 to near Liberty, Clay county, where, in June, 1850, he died. He was one of the Missouri pioneers, a carpenter by trade, and built the first court house and college buildings at Fayette. He was a leading Mason, and was present at the organization of the Masonic Grand Lodge of Missouri. He was a man of integrity of character, decision, energy and enterprise, good judgment, and strong, practical, common sense, highly esteemed and universally respected, kind and affectionate in his family relations, generous and philanthropic. Docia Garner was the daughter of Gen. Stephen Trigg, and was born January 21, 1782, in Bedford county, Virginia. She was a descendant of the Trigg family that emigrated from England and settled in Spottsylvania county, Virginia, the sons of which distinguished themselves as soldiers in the revolutionary war, in the war of 1812, and in the Indian wars of a later period. They were in the siege of Yorktown, the battle of King's Mountain, and in the Indian battle at the Blue Licks, Kentucky. C. T. Garner, the subject of this sketch, until he attained his majority, worked at daily labor for his father, attending school irregularly, for short intervals, in the log school-houses of that day. His education was obtained mainly by his own exertion. He taught school about a year,

then went into a store as clerk for a few months. Desiring to study the law, he entered the law office of Honorable George W. Dunn, of Richmond, Missouri, in 1845, and read law continuously for nearly three years. In May, 1848, he received license to practice his profession from Judge Austin A. King, afterward governor of Missouri. The judge, on handing him his license, advised him to locate permanently at Richmond and engage in the practice of his profession. He yielded to the suggestion with great reluctance, as the bar of Richmond was then composed of such eminent lawyers as Philip L. Edwards, George W. Dunn, Ephraim B. Ewing, Charles E. Bowman, Mordecai Oliver, and E. A. Lewis. Without any money, library books, or office furniture, he was allowed the privilege of occupying a table in a drug store for his office; a copy of the revised statutes of Missouri, kindly lent him by a friend, was the extent of his library. The first earnings of his profession were applied to paying his legal preceptor for board and instruction while studying his profession. Afterward he purchased such books as his limited means would allow. Sympathizing friends gathered around him, and his prospects for a living practice began to brighten. He soon acquired a remunerative practice, which he has retained at the same bar for a period of thirty-two years. He has traveled his own circuit and practiced in the courts of ten counties. On the 5th day of November, 1850, in Callaway county, Missouri, he was married to Miss Elizabeth B. Mosby, an estimable and accomplished lady, the daughter of Major James Mosby. Mr. Garner was a whig. His judicial circuit, during the existence of that party, was composed of the counties of Ray, Clay, Carroll, Clinton, De Kalb, Harrison, Daviess, and Caldwell, which were then, by a large majority, democratic in politics. In 1852 he became a candidate for circuit attorney, and was elected by a handsome majority over his opponent, who was a good lawyer, a popular man, and a democrat. He discharged the duties of the office until the expiration of his term, in 1856, with success and ability, when he declined a candidacy for re-election. In his prosecution he met such distinguished lawyers as Colonel A. W. Doniphan, Colonel James H. Moss, Governor Willard P. Hall, and Honorable H. M. Vories. Mr. Garner was chosen to draw up the charter for the city of Richmond and secure its incorporation. In 1858 he advocated, by a thorough and energetic canvass, the proposition submitted to the people of his county for voting $200,000 to aid in building a railroad through the county. In 1861 he was strongly and decidedly for the Union, doing all he could to resist the wave of secession, which threatened to involve his native state in civil war. With unfaltering firmness he remained loyal to the government until the end of that memorable struggle. In 1864 he organized a company for the purpose of defending the town and people against the depredations of bushwhackers, by whom they were threat

ened. In 1862 he was elected a member of the general assembly from Ray county, and became a wise, prudent legislator, a prominent leader of the conservative element of that body, and exerted a propitious influence over its deliberations. In 1866 he assisted in procuring the stock and organizing the Ray County Savings Bank, was elected a director, and has been annually re-elected to the present time. Upon the organization of the St. Louis, Kansas City & Northern Railroad Company and the St. Joseph & St. Louis Railroad Company, he was retained as one of their attorneys, and is still so employed. There is not a public enterprise in his section to which he has not contributed by his talents and influence, having been, and still being, a liberal contributor to the building of churches and institutions of learning, and to the support of churches, schools, and all movements for the public good. Though not a member of any church, his life has been exemplary, temperate, and moral. He is a Mason, but belongs to no other charitable organization. He is identified with the democratic party, though originally a strong whig. Mr. Garner has an interesting family of seven children: James W., Christopher T., Jr., Elizabeth B., William H., Sarah J., Mary V., and Jessie C. His three eldest children are well educated, being graduates of Richmond College. His wife, Elizabeth B., was born February 6, 1832, in Callaway county, Missouri, and is a most excellent Christian lady, having united with the Christian Church before her marriage.

JAMES W. BLACK.

James Witherspoon Black, son of Rev. James Black and Nancy (McMurran) Black, was born in Jefferson county, Virginia, abcut seven miles from Harper's Ferry, January, 8th, 1828. His father was born in Adams · county, Pennsylvania, in 1777. He was a highly educated gentleman, being a graduate of Washington College, Washington county, Tennessee. He is well known in the annals of the Presbyterian Church, having been a devoted, faithful minister of that church for more than fifty years. His labors extended over a wide field, embracing in their limits the states of Tennessee, Maryland, Virginia, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. He married Miss Nancy McMurran, of Shepherdstown, Jefferson county, Virginia, in 1820. After a long, useful, and active life, he died at his home in Shepherdstown, Virginia, in the eighty-fourth year of his age. Colonel Black's mother was born in Shepherdstown, Virginia, in 1792. She was the daughter of Mr. Joseph McMurran, a native of the County of Down, Ireland, who emigrated to Jefferson county, Virginia, at an early day. He married a Miss Lowrie, of Virginia, who survived him many years. Colonel Black's mother, after the death of his father, continued to live in Shepherdstown till in 1863, when she removed to Richmond, Missouri, and lived with her son, Joseph E. Black, until her death, March 16, 1869.

The subject of this sketch received a portion of his early education in his native county. On the removal of his parents to Cambridge, Guernsey county, Ohio, in the spring of 1837, he was entered a student at Cambridge Academy, and made some progress in the branches pertaining to an English education. He afterwards attended for a short time a select school in Belmont county, Ohio. In 1844, his parents moved from Ohio to Washington county, Pennsylvania; thence, in 1845, to Somerset county, same state; and finally returned to Jefferson county, Virginia. In the fall of 1846, he entered, as a student, Washington College, Washington county, Pennsylvania, and there commenced the prosecution of his classical studies. While at this institution he gave preference to the Washington Literary Society. Hon. James G. Blaine, now secretary of state of the United States, and Hon. James H. Hopkins, democratic member of congress from Pennsylvania, in 1876, were students at Washington College at the time our subject attended that school. On leaving Washington College in 1847, he pursued his classical studies under the tutilage of Prof. Joseph J. Stutzman, of Somerset, Pennsylvania. His course of classical studies with Prof. Stutzman embraced Latin, Greek and German. In 1848, he began the study of law in the office of Messrs. Cox & Stutzman, of Somerset, and was admitted to the bar on motion of Colonel J. R. Edie, February 5, 1851, after a rigid examination by a sworn committee, appointed by Hon. Jeremiah S. Black, then on the bench. Judge Black presided over the committee on examination, and took an active part in propounding questions to the young applicants. On receiving his license as an attorney, young Black returned to his home in Virginia, first visiting, however, a number of the eastern cities, and spending some days in Washington City, where he visited the capitol while congress was in session, and had the pleasure of seeing and hearing in debate such illustrious statesmen as Clay, Cass, Corwin, Chase, Benton, Butler, Douglas, Davis, (Jefferson) Hale, Houston, Foote, Soule and Seward. After receiving license to practice his profession, he remained at home but a short time, till he left for the great west, his destination being St. Paul, Minnesota. After a long trip, mainly by steamboat, he reached that city about the 10th of April, 1851, and was cordially received by Hon. Alexander, governor of the territory. St. Paul, at that time, was a small place, and for a great portion of the year cut off from the pleasures of the more civilized country farther southward. The prospect of acquiring a lucrative practice in St. Paul was not very encouraging hence he concluded to return to St. Louis, and decide there upon some other point at which to establish himself in the practice of his profession. After remaining in St. Louis a short time, he concluded to go to western Missouri, and took passage on the steamboat Isabel, for Independence, having with him a young friend named George S. Hupp, who had accom

panied him from St. Paul. Meeting on the boat Dr. Thomas King, a member of the legislature from Ray county, they were induced by that gentleman to visit Richmond, in Ray county. They arrived at Richmond, May 7, 1851, and being pleased with the country, concluded to remain, and formed a co-partnership for the practice of the law. The following August, however, Mr. Hupp was summoned home and Mr. Black continued the practice alone till October, following, when he engaged as teacher in the Richmond Academy. The next spring he established the Richmond Herald, mentioned elsewhere in this volume. In 1852, he sold the Herald and resumed the practice of law, and continued it till the spring of 1853, when he established a school at Liberty school district in Ray county. He followed teaching at Liberty, Wakanda and Camden, until the commencement of the civil war. The fall of the year 1855, however, was spent in traveling through the eastern states. On the organization of the militia in Ray county, in July, 1862, he was appointed enrolling officer of Ray county, and after enrolling the militia of the county was appointed by General Loan, mustering officer, and organized and mustered into service ten companies of militia, which formed the 51st regiment of Missouri enrolled militia, and in October, 1862, he was commissioned by Governor Gamble lieutenant colonel of this regiment. In December, 1862, he was appointed by General Vaughan, commander of the military post of Richmond, Missouri, with full command of all the military forces in the county, which position he held till the spring of 1863. While in command of the 51st regiment, he frequently performed active service in Ray, Lafayette, Jackson and other counties of western Missouri.

In 1863, as provost marshal of Ray, he enrolled the county, agreeably to the conscription act. In 1864 he was elected, on the democratic ticket, to represent Ray, in the general assembly, and served in that body from 1864 to 1866. In the summer of 1866, he was one of the delegates from the sixth congressional district of Missouri, to the democratic national convention at Philadelphia; and was, also, one of the delegation that called on President Andrew Johnson, after the adjournment of the convention, Hon. Reverdy Johnson being chairman of the delegation and delivering the address to the President at the White House. In 1866 he received the appointment of United States revenue collector for the sixth district of Missouri, from President Johnson. His headquarters were St. Joseph. In January, 1867, he made a tour of inspection of the entire sixth revenue district, by order of the revenue department, and made a full and complete report of all the distilleries in the district. On making such report he received a very complimentary letter from the commissioner of internal revenue, and was by that officer strongly recommended to the United States senate for confirmation. He was, on Feb