Gaither, J. W.
Submitted by Carolyn
Crawford county, Indiana, was the birthplace of Mr. Gaither and his home
until he came to Pemiscot county in 1896. His wife, too, was born and reared
in Indiana. Her maiden name was Harriet C. Myers, which she changed to Mrs.
J. W. Gaither in 1876. After his marriage Mr. Gaither worked at the
carpenter’s trade and ran a flat boat between Louisville and New Orleans on
the Mississippi river for twenty years and then he came to this county.
When Mr. Gaither arrived at this present place of abode his worldly
possessions consisted of twelve dollars and he had a wife and five children.
The first year he worked at his carpenter trade and at wagon-making, and was
able to buy forty acres of land, which he sold for cash. The third year he
purchased twenty acres and two years later added a forty to his farm. The
sixth year he bought forty acres more and on this eighty he now resides. In
1910 Mr. Gaither bought an eighty acre tract adjoining his home place and he
now has nearly all of the one hundred and sixty acres cleared and under
cultivation. One farm was not half cleared and the other in poor condition
when he took charge of it, but he has put both places in good order.
To have started with twelve dollars and to have acquired one hundred and
sixty acres of hundred-dollar-an-acre land in fifteen years is an
accomplishment of something like a miracle. Mr. Gaither has an orchard of
apples, peaches and pears on his second place and he has built a stock and
hay barn fifty-six by one hundred and twelve feet on the place, besides
improving another barn. The fertility and the levelness of this part of
Pemiscot county, as well as the good roads make the farms here among the
most valuable in the whole country.
At the World’s Fair at St. Louis in 1904, Mr. Gaither took the fold medal
for the finest and longest alfalfa, which was seven feet one and one-half
inches in length, eleven inches longer than any other exhibited. In 1911 he
sold from forty-five acres, over two hundred tons besides having fed to his
stock some twenty tons. The market value is from eighteen to twenty dollars
per ton.
Mr. Gaither is a Republican in political matters but he devotes his time to
his farm interests. He is numbered among the members of the Masonic
fraternity’s Blue Lodge of Hayti. When he was a boy his father lost most of
his money, so he had little chance for schooling. However, he is able to
instruct the five men he employs to work on his farm, so he has profited by
the lessons of one valuable schoolmaster, said to be at once the best and
most expensive - Experience.
Of his five children, Harry, the youngest is at home. The twins, Nettie and
Hattie, born in 1891, are attending normal school. Ida, Mrs. Andrew Newsom,
lives on a farm near her father’s home, and Bessie, who married Ernest
Lawrence, also lives in Pemiscot county.
From: History of Southeast Missouri by Robert Sidney Douglas, A. B., LL. B.
Publishers: The Lewis Publishing Co., Chicago and New York, 1912
