was not ashamed to own his allegiance to his God; he was, however, very unostentatious and unobtrusive. His profession of religion was made in 1851, and steadfastly maintained until death. For many years, he was a ruling elder in the Presbyterian Church. The internal evidences of the truth of Christianity sank deeply into his mind, and his faith, strengthened from year to year by careful study and reflection, only added to the strength of his convictions. "Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return," with him is fully realized. He died May 16, 1879, at Richmond, Missouri, aged seventy-one years.

JOSEPH S. HUGHES.

Joseph S. Hughes is a native of Jessamine county, Kentucky, and was born January 11, 1820. He is the sixth son and seventh child of John Hughes and Elizabeth (Berry) Hughes. His grandfather, Joseph Hughes, whose father settled on the eastern shore of Maryland at an early day, was of Welch descent. He married Sarah Swann before the revolution, and afterwards served gallantly in that war. In 1777, he moved to Pennsylvania, and settled in the old Red Stone Fort (now Brownsville), on the Monongahela river, where John Hughes was born on the 26th of November, 1777. The family remained at that place till 1779, when they removed to Kentucky, and for a number of years lived at Bryant's station. After the Indian troubles subsided, they settled in Jessamine county, Kentucky. The father of the subject of this sketch, as well as his maternal grandfather, Samuel Berry, were soldiers in the war of 1812, and served with becoming bravery under General Harrison. In 1822, when Joseph was but two years old, his father emigrated to Missouri, and located in Boone county, becoming one of the pioneer farmers of that section. Joseph S. Hughes remained with his father on the farm until he was eighteen years of age, when, in 1838, he came to Richmond, Ray county, Missouri, where he now resides, and engaged as salesman in a dry goods store, and continued to act as clerk and salesman until the year 1844. In that year, by patient industry, self-denial and economy he had acquired sufficient means to begin merchandizing on his own account. He continued the business alone until 1849, when he and George I. Wasson, Esq., of Richmond, formed a copartnership for the purpose of carrying on a general mercantile business, under the firm name of Hughes & Wasson. This copartnership existed till 1859. March the 1st, 1856, Joseph S. Hughes was elected secretary of the Richmond Insurance Company, and continued to fill that position until June 23, 1859, at which time he was elected cashier of the branch of Union Bank, located at Richmond and served as such till the national banking law supplanted the state banks. The parent bank, organized under the national banking law virtually closed the branches, and on the first day of January, 1866, the subject of our sketch and Geo.

I. Wasson, Esq., became the purchasers of the assets of the Richmond branch bank, and organized a private banking house, under the style of Hughes & Wasson, which continued till January 1, 1877, when George I. Wasson sold his interest to James Hughes and his son, Burnett Hughes. Since that time the business has been conducted under the firm name of J. S. Hughes & Co., private bankers and exchange dealers.

In 1869, when the St. Louis & St. Joseph railroad (now St. Joseph branch of the Wabash, St. Louis & Pacific), was completed to Richmond, Joseph S. Hughes, with Messrs. John Gibson and William Wilson, commenced sinking a shaft for the purpose of developing the coal interests in the vicinity of Richmond. The undertaking was quite successful, and by energy, unyielding perseverance and close attention to business, they have built up a trade of exceeding magnitude, which greatly augments the business and material wealth of Richmond and surrounding country. It is individual effort, industry and enterprise that most largely contribute to the growth and prosperity of the entire country. While personal energy, incited by a laudable ambition, enhances one's individual interests, it, at the same time, promotes the welfare of the community. This being true, it is safe to say that there is not a more useful citizen in Ray county, than the subject of our sketch. Messrs. J. S. Hughes & Co., are now operating three mines, and employ upwards of one hundred miners. Their coal is shipped to St. Joseph, whence, through their house at that place, it is distributed in large quantities to southern Nebraska and northern Kansas.

On the 2d day of October, 1844, Joseph S. Hughes was married to Miss Ann Laura Hughes, step-daughter of the late Major John H. Morehead, of Richmond, Missouri. They have an interesting, intelligent family of six children, four sons and two daughters. Their oldest son, George A. Hughes, is book-keeper in the banking house of J. S. Hughes & Co., and is also interested with his father in the Richmond coal mines. Charles B., the second son, is also clerking in the same bank. Their elder daughter, Martha S. (Hughes) Ferguson, is the wife of James M. Ferguson, Esq., a merchant of Columbia, Missouri. Their younger daughter, Mary E., now at school at Christian College, Columbia, Missouri, and their two youngest sons, Robert L. and John, are living with their parents and attending the public schools of Richmond. Mr. Hughes has lived in Richmond many years. He has seen the town grow from a rude hamlet to a business place of considerable importance; and to him, and such gentlemen as he, that growth, as well as the corresponding progress of the county, is largely due.

JAMES HUGHES.

James Hughes was born March 30, 1814, in Jessamine county, Kentucky. He was the fifth son, sixth child, of John and Elizabeth Hughes. His mother was a daughter of Samuel Berry, who served as a soldier in the war of 1812. His father was born in the old Red Stone Fort, (now Brownsville) in Pennsylvania, in the year 1777, whence he was taken with the family to Bryant's station, Kentucky, where they lived for several years. Afterwards, for many years, his father resided in Jessamine county, Kentucky. In 1822, when James was eight years old, his father removed with his family to Missouri, and settled in Boone county, where he was a pioneer farmer. James Hughes' father was a soldier in the war of 1812, and served under General Harrison. His maternal grandfather served under the same distinguished officer. His grandfather, Joseph Hughes, was a soldier in the revolutionary war. James Hughes spent his boyhood days in working with his father on the farm, and received his education at a country school, which was subsequently known as Bonne Femme Academy. When he was sixteen years old, he came, in 1830, to Richmond, Ray county, Missouri, and engaged as clerk and salesman in a dry goods store, continuing as clerk and salesman for different leading mercantile firms in Richmond until 1837, when he engaged in merchandising on his own account, in partnership with his brother, Willis Hughes. The firm continued to do an extensive, profitable business, till 1845, when, closing his career as a merchant, our subject removed to the country, and engaged in farming and dealing in live stock, which pursuit he followed steadily, energetically and successful for more than thirty years. During all that period he occupied the front rank among the best farmers in the state. He was even more successful as a farmer than as a merchant. In January, 1877, he returned to Richmond and entered into the banking business in partnership with his brother, Joseph S. Hughes and his son, Burnett Hughes. His two sons, Ami and Allen Hughes, are farming and dealing in live stock on the old homestead in the country. This is a model farm of eight hundred and eighty-two acres, improved on the most modern plan, and well stocked with the finest breeds of stock of all kinds. Mr. Hughes is also largely interested in other real estate in different parts of the county.

James Hughes was married in 1842, to Miss Elvira Smith, of Ray county, Missouri, formerly of Pittsylvania county, Virginia. His wife died on the 16th day of January, 1877. They raised a family of eight children, six sons and two daughters. Their oldest child, Elizabeth V., is the wife of William H. Mansur, cashier of the Bank of Salisbury. Their son, Newton Hughes, is a clerk in the same bank. Henry Clay Hughes, their oldest son, is a successful farmer, in Carroll county. Berry Hughes,

another son, is a farmer, and resides near Richmond, Ray county. Their youngest child, a daughter, Louisa R. Hughes, is living with her father, in Richmond. In politics, James Hughes was a Henry Clay whig, but since the death of the great Kentuckian, and the dissolution of the whig party, he has been, and continues to be a firm, but consistent, democrat. He feels, as he has ever felt, a deep interest in the welfare, prosperity, and future greatness of his county, state, and country. Such men are the bulwarks of free government. James Hughes, in all the avocations of life in which he has been engaged, has displayed energy, integrity, and a just regard for the rights of his fellow-man. He, therefore, enjoys the confidence of all who know him. He is spending even his declining years in active business, as a banker, and in promoting the comfort, competence, and happiness of his children. Estimating James Hughes by the good he has done, he deserves to be more highly eulogized than many whose names have been emblazoned in history. The same honorable career our subject has pursued is open to thousands of young men everywhere. The name of James Hughes will be a rich heritage for his children, when he shall have ceased from his earthly labors, and his good deeds shall be embalmed in their memories.

CHARLES J. HUGHES.

Charles J. Hughes was born near Paris, Bourbon county, Kentucky, June 27, 1822. His father, William Hughes, was a native of Culpepper county, Virginia, and with his parents moved to Kentucky, and was one of the early settlers of that ståte. He had no advantages of education, having early in life enlisted as a soldier in the United States army for the repression of Indian hostilities, where he served with due devotion and gallantry under General Arthur St. Clair. In the Indian fight, known as St. Clair's defeat, which took place near where Cincinnati now stands, November 4, 1791, he was wounded. He moved with his family to Boone county, Missouri, in 1827, and settled two and a half miles south of Columbia. Throughout his life he was esteemed for his high moral character, and his home was ever the seat of hospitality and a place of social enjoyment. In the year 1840 William Hughes died, respected by all his acquaintances. The maiden name of Charles' mother was Lucy Neal. She was born in Fauquier county, Virginia, and was of highly respected parentage. She died shortly subsequent to the death of her husband. The subject of this sketch had five brothers and three sisters, all of whom are now dead, except the youngest brother, Julius C. Hughes, of Colorado; Laura (Hughes) Sickles, widow of the late Doctor Sickles, of St. Louis, and Catherine, wife of Doctor A. M. Robinson, of Clinton county, Missouri. Charles received a good education from

Columbia College, but pecuniary embarrassment compelled him to quit school. He, however, continued to be a close student. He was noted during his boyhood years as a bright and thorough scholar, so far as he had advanced in the college curriculum. After leaving school he hired out by the month, and was engaged six months with a surveying party on the Great Chariton river, in Adair county, Missouri. After his return home he entered the law office of Honorable J. B. Gordon, of Columbia, then regarded as among the most prominent lawyers of the state. After a severe course of some eighteen months' study in this office, he went to Monticello, and for some time studied law in the office of Honorable James S. Green, when he settled down to the practice of his profession, in Kingston, Caldwell county, Missouri, a stranger, without money and without friends. He soon acquired a good practice, being retained on one side or the other of all important litigated cases in the courts of his county, besides having a respectable practice in other counties of the fifth judicial circuit. Shortly after becoming a citizen of Caldwell he was appointed county seat commissioner of Kingston. In 1844 he was elected to represent his county in the lower house of the general assembly, and in 1846 was re-elected, and again in 1848, but resigned, and devoted his time and attention diligently to the practice of his profession till 1856, when he was again elected to the same position, and served faithfully and efficiently for two years. During his terms of service in the general assembly, he occupied prominent positions, being appointed a member of many of the most important committees. He was chairman of the committee on federal relations, a member of the judiciary committee, and of the committee on constitutional amendments, etc. When the cloud of civil war hung like a pall of darkness over the country, he, like others, hoped in vain for compromise. He desired that bloodshed should be avoided, if possible, and consistent with the honor and dignity of the union.

In 1863, Charles J. Hughes, with his family, moved to Richmond, Ray county, Missouri, and after what was known as the test oath was required of lawyers, preachers and teachers, he looked upon it as a deep and dangerous scheme to subvert the rights of the people; refusing to take such oath, he removed to Kansas City in the fall of 1865, and engaged in the real estate business, which he continued till the spring of 1867, when the supreme court having declared the test oath unconstitutional, he returned to the city of Richmond, and resumed the practice of law, soon re-establishing himself in an extensive lucrative practice. In the spring of 1871, he was elected mayor of Richmond. In 1872 he was elected by the Democratic voters of Ray county, judge of the court of common pleas. This court was abolished in 1874, and Judge Hughes was, that year, elected judge of the county and probate court. In 1878 he was elected