County Cole, MO, Adam Routszong Bio

Adam Routszong

Adam Routszong was born near Frederick City, Md. He is of Saxon origin, his great ancestor having come from Saxony to America many years before the Revolutionary War, and is, on a direct line, the seventh generation born in America. The name was originally spelled Rautzahn, the definition of which was rough-tooth: raut—rough, zahn—a tooth. He is the great-grandson of Conrad Routszong, the grandson of Christian and Barbary (Sheffer) Routszong, who were born, he in 1771, she in 1774, and the son of Levi Routszong, born in 1805, all of Pennsylvania. When Levi was a boy his father moved to Maryland, where, in 1832, he married Sarah Mentzer, daughter of Samuel and Catharine Mentzer, of Hagerstown, Md., and resided until 1840, then emigrating West, his father having preceded him. He went by steamer to Jefferson City, working his way for himself and family, and landed at that place when the State capitol was being built. He rented Henry Paulsel's mill, just outside the city limits, on the Versailles road, which at that date was considered a fine mill, being run by two horses, and this he successfully managed for two years. The authorities of the State Penitentiary would often send out an ox team, under the supervision of two convicts, with a load of corn, and they would grind the meal for their fellow-prisoners, Mr. Routszong purchased a farm at the end of two years, but sold out some time after and came to Marion Township, Cole Co., Mo., and settled on a farm on the Moreau, where he resided until 1868, when they made their home with their son, Adam, and died in 1883, within three months of each other, the father being seventy-eight and the mother eighty-one years of age. Christian Routszong and wife came to Missouri about 1837, and died in Jefferson City in their eighty-third year. Adam Routszong, whose name heads this sketch, was born in 1836, and was married in 1867 to Miss Harriet C. Peninger, a daughter of William and Elizabeth Peninger, of Cole County, formerly of Shenandoah County, Va., and by her is the father of six children : William Levi, who is a young man nineteen years of age, and is at present attending his father's farm, but expects to enter college in the fall of 1889; Sarah Elizabeth, who is attending the Otterville College; John H., Harriet Leona, Susan Ellen and James P. About 1856 Mr. Routszong began working in the store of C. F. Lohman, but in 1860 entered into partnership with A. W. Morrison, then treasurer of the State of Missouri, and opened a store at Morrison's Station, in Gasconade County, continuing one year, when he sold out and came back to Cole County, and during the war served a considerable portion of the time in the State Militia. He was unable to join the regular service, owing to being crippled from boyhood by a white swelling, but did some hard service with the State troops in fighting the bushwhackers and raiders. At one time he had his horse shot from under him, but secured a horse from a bushwhacker shortly after. After securing his discharge he went to work for Mr. Lohman again, and in the winter of 1865 was elected by the House of Representatives to the office of folder. In May, 1865, he again began merchandising, this time in what is now known as Cedar City, continuing there until the fall of 1867, when he purchased a farm of 200 acres near Elston, on which he has since resided and made some important improvements, among which is a fine orchard of eight acres. On his farm, near the railroad, is a forty-foot vein of cannel coal and an eight-foot vein of bituminous coal, which are yet undeveloped. In politics he is of old-line Whig stock, and is a thorough-going Republican. He and family are Cumberland Presbyterians.

Transcribed from:
History of Cole, Moniteau, Morgan, Benton, Miller, Maries, and Osage Counties, Missouri, Goodspeed Publishing Company (1889).

 

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