Jefferson County Historical Society

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Arthur L. Eshbaugh was born in Niagara County, N. Y., in 1858, and 
is a prominent farmer and stock dealer in Joachim Township.  He is the
youngest of two daughters and one son, born to Henry and Mary A. 
(Snell) Eshbaugh, natives of Northumberland County, Penn., and Niagara
County, N. Y., respectively.  Mr. Eshbaugh was born in 1822, and his
wife seven years later.  They were married in Niagara County, N. Y., 
in 1851, and there remained until 1867, when they removed to Ogle 
County, Ill., and in 1869 to Jefferson County, Mo., settling in Joachim 
Township, one mile southeast of Bailey, where he died in 1886.  He
was educated in the public schools of Pennsylvania and at Ewingsville
Academy, Penn.  He then studied law and made a successful practice of
the same at the Niagara County bar for five years; he was compelled to
abandon it on account of his health.  He then turned his attention to
farming, and held various prominent offices in Niagara County, and at
the opening of the Grange movement took a very active stand for the
success of the same.  He was master of the Missouri State Grange for
eight years, and was lecturer of the National Grange for six years. He
was president of the State Board of Agriculture at the time of his
death, and was one of the prominent men of Missouri, where he was 
familiarly known. In 1884 his name was placed on the Prohibition ticket
for lieutenant-governor with John A. Brooks.  Although an active worker 
for the cause of temperance, he did not canvas the State in his behalf, 
and was not in favor of a third party movement.  At his death the State 
lost one of its most active and enterprising citizens.  He was always 
interested in all public meetings, and did all in his power to promote 
the welfare of the country, at the sacrifice of his personal interest.  
A Republican in politics, he served in the New York militia during the 
war as captain, but was familiarly called colonel. His father, Solomon 
Eshbaugh, was also a native of Pennsylvania and his father, the great 
grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was also an American by birth, 
but of German descent.  He served as paymaster in the Revolutionary War, 
and when the continental money was republished, he had barrels in his 
possession, some of which our subject still has.  The mother of young 
Eshbaugh is still living.  Her father, Anthony Snell, was an Englishman, 
and of a very aristocratic English family.  A. L. Eshbaugh received a 
common school education, and at the age of seventeen began teaching, 
and followed this occupation two terms in Ste. Genevieve County.  He 
then farmed until 1879, when he spent one and a half years in the Black 
Hills, after which he returned to Jefferson County, and has since 
devoted his attention largely to stock dealing, selling principally to 
Western feeders.  In October, 1884, he married Miss Carrie Parker, who 
is a native of Jefferson County, and who was left an orphan at an early 
age.  One child was the result of this marriage, Henry P.  He lived on 
his father's farm until 1887, when he removed to his present farm, two 
miles northeast of Hematite, where he has 190 acres under a good state 
of cultivation, all the result of his own exertions as he started on 
borrowed capital.  He is one of the prominent and enterprising young men 
of the county, is a Democrat in politics, casting his first vote for 
Hancock, in 1880, and he and wife are prominent and active members of the 
Presbyterian Church.