Holt County, MO Biography
Henry C. LONG, Justice of the Peace for the people of Bigelow
Mr. LONG'S father was from North Carolina; he emigrated to
Tenn. where he married a lady of Tenn. birth. (neither the name
of the father or mother is given in the atlas.) Henry C. LONG
was born in Powell's Valley, Claiborne Co., Tenn. Jan. 20, 1819.
Available schooling was of ordinary quality and the old-fashioned
subscription schools furnished the rising generation of that period
the only chances to secure an education.
He lived there in Claiborne Co. until 1832, then emigrated
with his father to Morgan Co., Ill. where they settled on a farm
near Jacksonville. Henry LONG married Susanna MATTHEWS on June
4, 1840. She was born in Chillicothe, Ohio. He farmed in Ill.
until 1855, not following his father and younger brother to Texas
in 1850. He moved to Mo., arriving in Holt Co. April 6, 1855.
He settled in Benton township 4 miles south of Mound City along
the bluffs above the Mo. River bottomland. He was in the militia
during the Civil War and assisted in the organizing of one of
the first companies of militia ever raised in Holt Co. for co-operation
with the Federal forces.
In 1864 he returned to Morgan Co., Ill., but returned to Holt
Co after 6 months. He settled on the Mo. river bottomland 5 miles
south of Bigelow and bought an interest in a steam mill which
he ran from 1866 to 1867. He farmed after selling his interest
in the mill. In 1869 he moved to his present residence 3/4 of
a mile west of Bigelow. His first wife died Feb. 28, 1866. He
married Mrs. Ruth TITUS in Oct. 1868; she died in the fall of
1871. The people of Bigelow township elected him to magistrate
in 1870 and again in 1874. His decisions have invariably been
upheld in higher courts. He is also postmaster at Bigelow, receiving
his commission April, 1875 under the administration of President
Grant. In politics, he was raised a Democrat; he acted with the
Democrat party up to the time of the Civil War and has since been
a Republican.