RICHARD VINSANT
For many years our subject was a well-known and highly respected merchant of Knoxville, Ray County, and conducted
his business quite profitably, meanwhile commending himself to the favorable consideration of all by his strict
honesty and up-right dealings. After a life of activity in business, he has retired from the enterprises in which
he formerly engaged. Our subject is the son of George and Mary (Hall, nee Worth) Vinsant. The father, who was
reared in Maryland, removed to Tennessee in 1812, where he resided until his death in 1843. His occupation was
that of an agriculturist and he engaged in general farming and stock-raising upon his farm of hundred acres in
Tennessee. The five children born of his first marriage were: Our subject, Daniel, Emily, James and Morris. The
mother of our subject died in 1823, and one year later his father married Sallie Cannon, by whom he had four children,
viz: Lena, William, Washington and Jack.
Our subject came to Missouri in the fall of 1859, and farmed upon his tract of one hundred and twenty-seven acres
until twenty years ago, when he embarked in a general merchandising business at Knoxville, in the meantime renting
his farm. In January, 1893, he retired from business. The first marriage of Mr. Vinsant occurred about 1832,
his wife being Margaret Hartley, who bore him twelve children, of whom the following survive: George, Hiram, John,
Emily and Louisa. The wife and mother dying in 1854, Mr. Vinsant was again married in the spring of 1859, choosing
as his wife Martha Sparks, who died February 13, 1891. In politics, our subject is a Republican and can trace
his membership to the beginning of that party, away back in 1854 or 1855, and his loyalty to it has had no varying
or turning, but has been true as the needle to the pole.
When the Sons of Temperance flourished, Mr. Vinsant was a very active leader in that organization and frequently
held office therein. He has a natural antipathy for whisky, has no use for it in any shape or form, and those
who know him do not need to be assured of the fact. His voice is raised whenever the occasion will warrant in
denunciation of alcoholism. In church and Sunday-school work, he has been very prominent for many years; his membership
is in the Methodist Episcopal Church South, in which his piety and zeal are recognized, and his example stands
as a constant reminder to others to follow in his footsteps.
PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD of Clay, Ray, Carroll, Chariton and Linn Counties, Missouri, Page 361 |
