John R. Cassingham Biographical Sketch

John R. Cassingham was born in Dresden, Muskingum County, Ohio, May 7, 1849, being a son of John P. and Rebecca Cassingham, natives respectively of England and the state of Delaware. After completing the common school course in his native county, young Cassingham entered Decamp Institute, in the county of Meigs, from which he was graduated in 1868, and the following year he taught school in Ohio. In the fall of 1869 he came to Carroll county, Missouri, and located in Rockford township, of which he was one of the earliest settlers. During the fifteen years ensuing, he taught school in the winter time and devoted the spring and summer seasons to farm labor, the meanwhile, in 1876, purchasing forty acres of land in Ridge township, to which he added an adjoining tract of forty acres two years later. In 1882 he sold the above lands and purchased one hundred and sixty acres in Rockford township, on which he made a number of improvements and on which he lived the life of a prosperous farmer for a period of twenty-eight years. In the meantime, 1896, he purchased another eighty-acre tract, which he still owns, and in 1909 sold his former farm and the following spring took up his residence in Bosworth where, as before stated, he is now living in retirement.

Mr. Cassingham owns two houses and five lots in the town and with the ample competence which he accumulated during his active years, he is well situated to enjoy his present mode of life and now has no cares or misgivings concerning the future. He has been quite successful financially and is today rated among the well-to-do men of the county, besides providing liberally for his children as one by one they leave the parental roof to establish houses of their own. Not caring to spend all of his time in inactivity and thus rust out, as so many retired farmers do, he is at present engaged in buying and selling real estate, devoting special attention to land in Oklahoma, and also does a thriving business loaning money. He has been an influential factor in the public affairs of his township and county for many years and from time to time has held various local offices, having served as school director, township trustee and was collector several terms, in all of which and other positions he displayed business ability of a high order and a fidelity to trust which earned him the reputation of a capable official and true friend of the people. In politics he is a Prohibitionist and a firm believer in the principles of the party, looking on the liquor traffic as the greatest evil of the times and the saloon as a public menace. Years ago he united with the Christian church, of which he has since been an honorable and devout member, being an elder of the church in Bosworth, superintendent of the Sundav school and a member of the board of trustees.

Mr. Cassingham, in 1872, was united in marriage with Amanda F. Staten, of Trimble county, Kentucky, where her birth occurred on January 29, 1853. The following children have blessed this union: Bertha, Harvey, Arthur, Mary, John, Carl, Grace, Lura and Roy. Mrs. Cassingham, like her husband, is a zealous member of the Christian church and her high character and consistent religious life have won for her the high esteem of her many friends in Bosworth and elsewhere. Mr. Cassingham has long been before the people and has steadily grown in popularity. He enjoys the respect and confidence of the community in which he lives. By honestly fulfilling the duties of life, he is now receiving his rightful reward, and he may truly be entitled one of the representative men of Carroll county.