Biographical Sketches
CAPTAIN MAURICE M. LANGHORNE
Deputy sheriff of Jackson county, Missouri, is of eastern birth. His early life was filled with extensive travel and frontier experiences throughout various portions of the west, followed by a war record, and that in turn by 30 years as a respected citizen of Independence, and consequently the life history of this gentleman is one worthy of consideration on the pages of this work.
Maurice M. Langhorne was born in Buckingham county, Virginia, July 22, 1834, and there spent the first 8 years of his life. Then he was brought by his parents with the rest of the family to Lexington, Missouri, where he attended school 4 years and worked in a printing office two years. Early in 1849 he came from Lexington to Independence. Here he went to school a few months, and May 15 started overland for California, he and his party being 5 months in accomplishing the journey. Landing on Feather river, they mined there two weeks, then proceeded to what was known as �Hangtown�, now Placerville, where they continued mining until the following spring. Next he mined at Georgetown. In the meantime his father joined him in California, and together they went to Carson Valley, Nevada, taking with them a load of flour for the starving emigrants. While in Nevada they traded for a band of cattle and horses, which they drove across the mountains into California, and which they sold in the spring of 1851. After disposing of their stock, they returned to Missouri by way of the Isthmus of Panama. These early travels had interrupted young Langhorne's studies to a great extent, and on his return home he again started to school, and remained in school at Independence until the next spring.
In the spring of 1852 his father moved with the family to San Jose, California. That same year Maurice M. returned to Missouri, coming by way of Nicaragua, purchased a number of cattle and drove them across the plains to California. This band of cattle he kept on the ranch near San Jose from 1853 until some time the following year. Again anxious to try his luch in the mines, he went in 1854 to Columbia, California, where he mined one year. The next year he was employed as compositor in a printing office, at the end of the year purchased the plant and had charge of it until 1858, when he returned to San Jose and shortly afterward went to the Fraser river mines in British Columbia, where he mined during the summer and fall, after which he returned to San Jose, and in December of that same year left the Golden State for his old home in Independence, Missouri, this time making the return trip by way of Tehuantepec.
Early in 1859 Mr. Langhorne opened a book and stationery business in Independence, which he conducted successfully until after the civil war broke out. Then, like thousands of men all over the country, true to the principles in which he had been reared, he closed his store and joined the Confederate army, entering the ranks as a private. He served as a private until 1863, when he was promoted to the rank of captain, his promotion being in recognition of his true bravery on the field. His company - Company E, second Missouri cavalry - was detailed for escort duty to General Shelby. At the same time, however, it participated in several engagements, among them being Springfield, Prairie Grove, Helena, Newtonia and Westport. On three different occasions Captain Langhorne was wounded. His first wound was by a minie ball in the right leg, this being at Springfield. Later he was again wounded at Springfield, but not seriously like the first time, and his other wound was at Westport.
At the close of the war Captain Langhorn went to the city of Mexico, where he worked in a printing office until November, 1865, when he returned to Independence and engaged in the drug business, this occupying his time and attention until January, 1872. That year he sold his drug store and established the Independence Herald, which he conducted for several years, or until he was made deputy county marshal and jailer, in which capacity he officiated for 6 years. In 1886 he was appointed deputy sheriff, the office he has since filled most acceptably.
October 13, 1859, Captain Langhorne married Miss Annie M. Wallace, a native of Independence and a daughter of the late Reuben Wallace, of this county. They have 4 children, Mary, John Shelby, Samuel W. and Annie M. Mary is the wife of Mr. William Leitch, of Kansas City, and has 4 children, Mary, William B., Virginia F., and Anna W.
The Captain is a member of the Methodist church, south.
This page was last updated August 2, 2006.