In the books' own words, not ours, with obvious scanning errors fixed. The later printing (1915) is folded below the first. Families often supplied these stories to the publisher, so check key dates.
Born 1835, Champaign County
From A history of northwest Missouri (1915), The history of the bench and bar of Missouri : With reminiscences of the prominent lawyers of the past, and a record of the law's leaders of the present (1898)
DAVID JACKSON HEASTON,
01' (k-rman and FngHsh extraction and an Ohioan by birth, David Jackson Heaston naturally combines in his character industry, stability and enterprise. His father. Christian Heaston, who married Sarah Lasley, was born in Virginia, where he pursued the avocation of a farmer. Christian's father settled in Virginia before the War of the Revolution and was a soldier in the Continental Army under Col. William Morgan, of Virginia. He was also a farmer. He and his son emigrated to Ohio in 1805. In 1839 Christian removed to Indiana, and was one of the hardy pioneers of the Hoosier State. The forefathers of the Heaston family were Germans. The Lasleys are of English descent. Like the Heastons, they came to America previous to the Revolution. They settled later in Ohio, and were all tillers of the soil.
David Jackson Heaston was born May 22, 1835, in Champaign County, Ohio. Beginning in the common schools of Randolph County, Indiana, he next went through a thorough scholastic career in Asbury University, known to-day as De Pauw University of Indiana. He studied law in the office of Judge Jere Smith, of Winchester, Indiana, and was admitted to the bar in 1858, at Winchester, by Judge J. T. Elliott, who afterwards became Supreme Judge. Removing to Missouri in 1859, Mr. Heaston those the beautiful town of Bethany, in Harrison County, as the scene of his future toils and triumphs, and there he has practiced law continuously for thirty-nine years. During this long period he has had but three partnerships. In 1859 and 1860 he was associated with Thomas J. Brady, afterwards of "Star Route" fame; in 1867 and 1868 with John C. Howel, afterwards Judge of that Circuit; and later, for three years, with Oscar Butler, who is now dead. Since 1884 Mr. Heaston has worked alone.
He has been much in politics since settling in Harrison County, but like all excellent lawyers, he does not feel at home away from the court. A test of the people's confidence came when they elected him Probate Judge of Harrison County, in 1861, for two years. As a lawyer Mr. Heaston has two valuable accessories — the dauntless integrity and the sturdy common sense he inherited from the old pioneers, and these are most solid attributes on which to bi:ild any career.
Mr. Heaston can look back on his political career with feelings of pride, because his honors came spontaneously and voluntarily. He was Presidential Elector in 1876, and assisted in casting Missouri's electoral vote for Tilden and Hendricks. He was elected to the State Senate in 1878 for four years, being a member of the Ways and Means Committee. During the first session, in 1879, he helped to revise the probate and administration laws of the State and the laws governing Justices of the Peace, and other portions of the statutes. He was Chairman of the Committee on Public Printing, and defeated the bill for the election of a Public Printer. He is a straight Democrat.
During the war he was not in active service, but when the Enrolled Militia of Harrison County were organized into a regiment, he was commissioned as Colonel, and served as Colonel of what was known as the Fifty-seventh Regiment of Enrolled Missouri Militia. The regiment was only called into active duty a few times in the summer, and their principal service was in guard duty along the railroads and river in Northwest Missouri.
Mr. Heaston is a bright star in the Masonic order. He was made a Master Mason in Indiana in 1857, and has passed through all the Masonic bodies up to and including that of Knight Templar. He has filled all the chairs, having been Master of Blue Eodge, High Priest of the Chapter and Eminent Commander of the Commandery. He has also been District Deputy Grand Master for several terms.
At Bethany, on January 17, 1861, he married Margaret E. Monson, daughter of Thomas Monson, a pioneer farmer of Harrison County. He has four children living — Kate, the wife of Edwin E. Dunn, of Oklahoma City, where he is Clerk of the United States Circuit Court; Eeonard, a member of the milling firm of A. McClure & Co., of Bethany; George W., assistant cashier of the Harrison County Bank, of Bethany, and Warren E., a bright young Bethany lawyer. For grandchildren he has two on the Heaston side and one in the Dunn family.
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HE lawyer who can gain a high position in the bar of his county before the age of
1 twenty-si. mast be gifted with ability above the ordinary Esca Williard Henry, of Glasgow, Missouri, enjoys this unusual distinction. He was born at Boonsboro, Missouri, on June 8, 1872. The great grandfather of Mr. Henry on the paternal side was James Henry, an Irishman who gained some notability in Ireland's struggle for freedom during the stormy days that marked the close of the last century. While a student at college he and other Irish students read essays that favored the freeing of their native land. Arrests followed, and several students were executed. Young Henry escaped the doom intended for him, and marrying a Miss Law, they sailed to America, where he lived for a time in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, afterwards emigrating to Ohio and settling in Columbiana. Here Mr. Henry's father, Michael Wesley Henry, was born. He taught school for a livelihood, and, coming to the young State of Missouri, located in Howard County, where he married Nancy Jane Hackley. It is interesting to trace the descent of Mr. Henry from Patrick Henry, the famous American orator and statesman. This ancestry comes through his father's side of the house. The mother of his paternal great grandfather, John Henrys, was a.sister of the mother of the great patriot. That is to say, the daring young Irish student of 1798 was a cousin of Patrick Henry. Nancy Jane Hackley, the mother of the subject of this memoir, was a daughter of William E. Hackley, who was a native of Kentucky and of German extraction. He left his old home early in the century and came to Missouri, where he settled in HoM'ard County. He pursued the avocation of a farmer, being one of the pioneers of the county. It was here that the mother of Mr. Henry was born.
After a substantial education in the common schools of Glasgow, Missouri, Mr. Henry studied law under the able preceptorship of Hon. Charles D. Dickinson, at Leetonia, Ohio. After a thorough and systematic legal course, he returned to his native State, where he was admitted to the bar at Fayette, in Howard County, by Judge John A. Hockaday, on November 30, 1895. The committee appointed by the court to examine the young aspirant found him unusually apt and clever, and he passed a most excellent examination. He then opened a law office in Glasgow, where he still practices.
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As printed in The history of the bench and bar of Missouri : With reminiscences of the prominent lawyers of the past, and a record of the law's leaders of the present (1898). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.
Hon. David J. Heaston. In the death of Judge David J. Heaston, which occurred July 21, 1902, at Bethany, there passed from life's activities one of the unique and forceful characters of Harrison County and one who had been a resident here from the year 1859. He was an eastern man, having been born in Champaign County, Ohio, March 22, 1835, and in 1839 was taken by his parents to near Winchester, Indiana, where he grew to manhood and received his education in the public schools. In addition to the elementary schools, he attended Asbury University, at Greencastle, Indiana, and owing to his limited means was obliged to teach school to secure the funds with which to pursue his higher education. In 1857 he entered college at Oxford, Ohio, and spent a year there, and prior to this time had read law for about a year with Judge Jeremiah Smith, of Winchester, Indiana, continuing his legal studies while he taught school. In 1858 he was admitted to the bar in the Circuit Court at Winchester and was prepared to enter his profession with credit and with confidence of success.
It was in the spring of 1859 that Judge Heaston decided to come into the great valley of the Mississippi, and accordingly, in that year, established himself at Bethany, where he was shortly afterward licensed by Judge McFerran. During the Civil war he was commissioned colonel of the state militia, having always been a great Union man and wielding great influence for the flag. In 1861 he took editorial charge of the Weekly Union, of Bethany, at the request of its owners, and through this connection his influence 'for the Government was made felt. He was a clear, terse and energetic writer and soon placed the paper at the head of journalistic efforts in this section. Judge Heaston was elected captain of the first company organized in response to the call of the governor, and when the enrolled militia of the county was formed into the Fifty-seventh Regiment he was commissioned colonel of the same.
In politics Judge Heaston was always a democrat, and died in the faith. He canvassed the County of Harrison in 1860 in behalf of Stephen A. Douglas for President and did a like service for every democratic candidate for that office until he died. He was a delegate to nearly all the democratic state conventions from the war on, and in 1872 was a delegate to the national democratic convention at Baltimore, assisting in the nomination of Greeley and Brown, the standard-bearers of that year. In 1876 he was the elector for his congressional district on the democratic ticket and, being elected, he attended the electoral college and aided in casting the electoral vote of Missouri for Tilden and Hendricks for President and vice president.
In 1870 Judge Heaston started a democratic paper at Bethany, known as The Watchman, and conducted it with success for three years. In 1877, in connection with B. F. Meyer, he started a democratic paper in Harrison County — the county being without such a paper at that time — known as The Broad-Axe. This he edited with his accustomed vigor until 1884, and under his editorial management the paper acquired a
Google state reputation as a fearless and able exponent of democratic doctrines and principles.
In 1878 Judge Heaston was elected a member of the state senate from the fourth district by a large majority, his counties being Ray, Caldwell, Daviess and Harrison, and served as chairman of the committees on Public Printing and Federal Relations, in addition to doing other important committee work. His qualifications as an able attorney brought him forward prominently as one of the revisionists of the state statutes in 1879, and in the special session of 1882 he presented a bill for the redistricting of the state into congressional districts which, after a warm struggle, was adopted in the democratic caucus decisively and became a law as he introduced it. He became a candidate for congress upon his record in the senate and his other public work, and after a lively and interesting campaign came within a very few votes of the nomination.
During all this time, notwithstanding his heavy and important editorial labors, his of&cial duties and political work and aspirations, he read law assiduously and practiced his profession vigorously. He was longer in the practice than any other member of the profession when he left it, and was honored with the title of **The Father of the Bar."
Judge Heaston was made a Mason at Winchester, Indiana, where he grew up, taking the master's degree in June, 1857. He received the Royal Arch degree at Gallatin, Missouri, in 1866, and the order of Knight Templar at Trenton in 1882, while the Council degree was conferred upon him at St. Louis in 1885. He served as worshipful master, as high priest and as eminent commander, and frequently represented the lodges in the grand bodies of the state as a delegate. He was for many years district deputy grand master for his Masonic district and spent much time delivering lectures and building up the order.
In September, 1866, Judge Heaston joined the Christian Church at Bethany, and became a member of the committee which was in charge of the building of the new church. In all walks of life he was always an exemplary citizen and did much to build up the religious, educational, moral and industrial phases of his county and town. No man was held in higher esteem than he and when he passed away his sterling advice and kindly counsel were greatly missed by those who had benefited thereby and who knew the man, his great mind and his earnest heart.
On January 17, 1861, Judge Heaston was united in marriage with Miss Margaret E. Monson, a daughter of Thomas Monson, then sheriff of Harrison County, Missouri. Of the six children of this union who grew to mature years, Sarah Catherine is the wife of Ed L. Dunn, of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and has one child, Ed L. Dunn, in the real estate and loan business in Oklahoma City; Truman; Heaston; Leonard who is a resident of Oklahoma City and register of deeds there, married May McClure in 1888, and has two children, Bert, a dealer in automobiles, and Victor, in high school; George W. died unmarried, February 14, 1902; and Warren L. married Allie Crickett and died December 27, 1900.
For over forty-three years Judge Heaston was a resident of Bethany and in all that time his honesty and probity of character were never questioned. In all matters pertaining to the material prosperity of his city and county his assistance, financially and otherwise, could always be counted upon and he was also an earnest advocate of all movements tending to elevate humanity and make society and home better and happier.
As printed in A history of northwest Missouri (1915). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.
Named in this biography: Oscar Butler Thomas J. Brady (b. 1836) Thomas Monson (b. 1819)
The printed record stops around 1915. We trace your line from there down to you, with every source cited.