Isaac Warren, who now resides in Sedalia, Mo., is a native of Pettis county, having been born in Flat Creek township, December 18, 1843. He is a son of Ervin and Elizabeth (Petty) Warren, both natives of Kentucky. The Warren family were very early settlers in this section of Missouri. Ervin Warren was a son of Hedgman Warren, who settled in Pettis County, Mo., about 1835, and both he and Ervin Warren entered government land in this county. When Ervin Warren first entered government land the nearest United States land office was at Warsaw, Mo. He also filed on land later, after the land office was moved to Clinton. Ervin Warren died in 1871, and his wife departed this life about ten years later. Their remains are interred in the Warren Cemetery, together with other members of the Warren family This is one of the old burial grounds in the vicinity of Sedalia.
To Ervin and Elizabeth Warren were born the following children: Mrs. Melinda C. Higgins, deceased; J. W., deceased; Isaac, the subject of this sketch; Mrs. Sarah Shy, deceased; Mrs. Lydia A. Parberry, deceased; Milton E., deceased; Mrs. Mary Elliott, who lives in Pettis County, and Robert E., who resides on the old Warren place. Isaac Warren was reared amid the pioneer surroundings of the early days in Pettis County, and was educated in the subscription schools, principally. He was attending public school when the Civil War broke out. He then entered the employ of the government as a teamster, hauling supplies for the Union Army, and was thus engaged about one year. He then went to Montana, driving a team of mules across the plains; and when the war ended he was at Helena, Mont. He then returned to Missouri, and for forty years was engaged in farming. He retired in 1908, and since that time has resided in Sedalia.
Mr. Warren was united in marriage December 31, 1868, with Miss Mary Gentry, a native of Pettis County, and a daughter of B. J. and Mollie (Ellison) Gentry, both natives of Kentucky. The Gentry family settled in Pettis County in the thirties and many members of that family have been successfully identified with the development of Pettis County up to the present time. A more extensive history of the Gentry family is given elsewhere In this volume.
Isaac Warren has spent nearly seventy-five years of his life in Pettis County, and during that time he has witnessed the transformation of a wild, unsettled country into a populous, industrial, and prosperous community. Men who have seen Pettis County in its primitive state are rapidly passing away, and in a few short years all will have joined the great host of silent witnesses, and leave only tradition and history to tell the story of Pettis County in the early days.