Joseph Rountree

As printed in 1883

JOSEPH ROUNTREE.

Joseph Rountree was the son of Thomas and Eva (Sturgess) Rountree, and was born in Orange county, North Carolina, in April 1782. He was the youngest of a large family, and received a good education for that early day, being very proficient in mathematics, and a good scribe. He taught school for many years in North Carolina, Tennessee and Missouri. He moved to Maur\- county, Tenn., in 1819, where he lived for about ten years, and then with several friends came to Missouri, and traveled about for nearly a year, looking for suitable lands upon which to locate. They finally selected Greene county as their future homes, and in 1830 Mr. Rountree brought his family and located three miles south of Springfield, upon the afterward famous Wilson's creek. He owned several hundred acres of choice lands in different parts of the county. He and another gentleman went to Boonville, Cooper county, and got a lot of fruit trees and set them out, and grew the first orchards in the Southwest. He next built a large store-house and stocked it with general merchandise in 1833, and sold goods for three years. He then sold the building to some parties at Springfield who moved it to where the court-house now stands. It was used for many years as a land office. Mr. Rountree taught school in the old log school house, three miles southwest of Springfield for two sessions, and it was probably the first school house built in this part of the State. Mr. Rountree was married in Caswell county, North Carolina, in 1806, to Miss Nancy Nichols, by whom he had ten children, six boys and four girls, two of whom died in infancy. Those who lived to be grown or nearly so, were Junius M., living in Greene county, aged seventy-three; Zenas M., Lucius A., Louisa A., wife of Dr. Slavens, of Dallas county, Mo.; Caroline, who died when quite young; Judge M. J., Almus L., of California, who has been sheriff of Santa Cruz county for many years; Allen J., who died in his twenty-second year, and Almarinda C, the late wife of Wm. Massey, of Springfield. Mr. Rountree died upon the 26th of December, 1874, at his home on Wilson's creek, near Springfield.

As printed in History of Greene county, Missouri, ... including a history of its township, towns, and villages, together with a condensed history of Missouri ... biographical sketches and portraits of prominent cit (1883). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.