A. A. Mahan was born and reared in Cole County, Mo., his birth taking place on the 15th of December, 1840. His father, George Mahan, was a Virginian, and came west in 1838, stopping one winter in Kentucky, where he had a son born. In the spring he came on to Missouri, and opened up a farm nine miles south of Jefferson City, but afterward sold out and moved to a farm near Brazito, where he lived until his death, March 27, 1877, at the age of sixty-six years, leaving a family of six children. His wife was a Miss Frances Jefferson, a daughter of Capt. Samuel Allen Jefferson, a first cousin of Thomas Jefferson, President of the United States. When A. A. Mahan, our subject, reached manhood he was married to Miss Mattie Cummings, a daughter of Daniel Cummings, of Miller County, who was one of the oldest residents and merchants of Tuscumbia, having sold goods in that place for about forty years. Mr. Mahan has always resided in Cole County, with the exception of about three years, which were spent in Montana Territory, whither he went in 1863 with an ox team, the journey taking about four months. He was engaged in ranching and mining, and in 1866 returned to Cole County, and was married June 1, 1881. He and wife have two children: Mary Cummings and Francis Jefferson. They reside on the old homestead of eighty acres of fine bottom land, which he purchased in 1880. He is a Democrat in politics, and has held the office of public administrator for four and a half years, and is now serving his second term. He belongs to the Masonic fraternity, Hickory Hill Lodge No. 211, and served as master for six years. He and family attend the Methodist Church.

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