Find A Grave Thomas Jefferson Dockery

• Title	Find A Grave Thomas Jefferson Dockery
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  Thomas Jefferson Dockery Find A Grave http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=62425678 Birth: Aug. 28, 1845 Lawrence County, Indiana, USA Death: Nov. 25, 1922 Adair County Missouri, USA Civil War Veteran Pvt, Adair County Home Guards Enlisted Apr 18, 1861, Adair Co, MO Mustered in Apr 18, 1861, Adair, Co, MO Mustered out Aug 1, 1861 Office of Adjutant General Record of Service Card, Civil War, 1861-1865 Box 22 Reel s00886 ------------ widowed, son of John Dockery and Mary Bradburn, husband of Julia E. Linder Dockery d. cert 30561 Missouri Death Certificate ------------ THOMAS J. DOCKERY, a son of John and Mary Dockery, was born in Lawrence County, Indiana, August 28, 1845. He was married to Miss Julia E. Linder, September 26, 1867. Mrs. Dockery is a daughter of Rev. James H. and Salome Linder. They have three children: Ethel Ardella, now Mrs. George A. Still; Leota Lillian, and Julia Estelle. Mr. Dockery came to Adair County July 4, 1855. He owns 2,400 acres of land. He has also built and owns several of the most substantial business houses in Kirksville, including the Dockery Hotel. Responding to Lincoln's first call for troops in 1861, he served until November, 1864. Mr. Dockery taught school and lived on a farm till 1876, when he was elected County Surveyor and moved to Kirksville. He served eight years as Surveyor and Bridge Commissioner, superintending the building of the Chariton River bridges near Youngstown and Connelsville. For thirty years he has been engaged in real estate and abstract business. Prominent in Republican politics both in county and state, Mr. Dockery has been a delegate to the National Republican Convention in 1900, many times a delegate to the State Convention; has served eight years as County Chairman; several terms as a City Councilman; and was twice elected Mayor of Kirksville. He belongs to five fraternal organizations: G.A.R., Masons, Knights Templar, Elks and Odd Fellows. History of Adair County By Eugene Morrow Violette ------------ The Dockery Hotel located on the corner of Elson and McPherson Streets in Kirksville, Missouri, was originated in 1904 by Thomas Jefferson Dockery, renowned businessman in Kirksville. It was once an elaborate building that housed Kirksville's visitors. When Mr. Dockery acquired the hotel in 1895 through an unpaid mortgage, it was called the Leslie Hotel. He made plans to build on and increase the size of the hotel, then re-opened it on December 21, 1904. Around the turn of the century, a room and board problem existed in Kirksville due to patients coming to receive the new osteopathic treatments of the students of Dr. Andrew Taylor Still who invented this practice. Several hotels sprung up in Kirksville to accommodate these patient visitors. When first opened, the Dockery Hotel was a very beautiful building. The front veranda, which faced the morning sun, covered the entire front portion of the building, 150 feet, while extending from the building 14 feet. The façade, as well as the veranda, was decorated in galvanized tin. The two story structure was made of brick and had two bay windows on the second floor. In the rear, between the sides of the building, was a flower garden. The interior of the hotel was very elaborate in its design. The office in the northeast corner of the building was 30 x 54 feet and had a black and white checkerboard Tennessee marble floor. This flooring was also in the barbershop, located in the southeast corner of the hotel. The rest of the hotel floor, in addition to the mill work, was made of oak. The ground floor had two oak stairways leading to the second floor. The stairway in the front was straight and the one in the rear was spiral and led to a large glass skylight on the second floor landing. There were 75 guest rooms in the hotel. It was not common in those days for each room to have a bath, but 10 rooms in the Dockery Hotel had a private bath. Each had a coal stove for heat. Later, a boiler and steam pipe system were installed and radiators were put in each room. Mr. Dockery had a few famous guests at his hotel. William Jennings Bryan spoke at the hotel on August 2, 1907, while on his presidential campaign. A circus troop once stayed at the hotel. The camels in the show slept in the lobby. - Written by Kim Crosley & David May, Kirksville High School, Chariton Collector publication ------------ From Violette's History of Adair County, Missouri, by DOCKERY, Thomas J. I came to Adair County with my parents in July 1855. This was at the time a typical frontier country, very sparsely settled, with probably ninety percent of the land belonging to the Government. The prairies were covered with a luxuriant growth of wild grass, called blue stem, which reached a height of from two to six feet and made an excellent quality of hay. From May until frost, the landscape was dotted with wild flowers of every variety and color. In the timbered portion of the county, there was absolutely no brush. The trees were very large and the ground underneath was covered with prairie grass. The massive trees, the prairie flowers and grass all combined to make this a truly beautiful and inviting country. The county settlers at the time of my parents arrival, were people that had followed the advance of civilization from Kentucky, Tennessee and North Carolina. They were for the most part hunters and depended largely for their food on wild game. Of this there was an abundance and it was an easy matter to kill all the deer and turkeys needed. It was not an uncommon thing to see from five to ten deer in a gang, and I have seen as many as one hundred turkeys in a flock. In addition to hunting, farming was done on a small scale. Ten acres was considered a large field, and five acres was perhaps more than average in size. These pioneers were strong, healthy people, honest and fair in their dealings and very hospitable and social. Their houses were constructed of logs, and when a new one was to be built, every one for ten miles or more around would join in and lend a helping hand. Law suits among neighbors were indeed rare, but when it occurred, it was tried before a Justice of the Peace, and aroused much interest throughout the community. I remember soon after we came here, a suit was brought before a Justice of the Peace in our locality and I attended the trial with my father. There were, I think, at least seventy-five present, and to show how primitive the methods of the day were, when it was found necessary for some writing to be done, the Justice discovered there was no ink in the court room. Not dismayed, he called forth in a loud voice the constable and ordered him to mount his pony and ride, post-haste, to "Old Man Holman's" farm, which was one and one-half miles distant, and get a bunch of poke-berries to make ink. The court thereupon enjoyed a recess. A little later the constable returned with the berries, their juice was extracted for the ink, and the case proceeded. There was little money in the county in these early days. In truth, there was no great need for it. Every one wore home-spun clothes and nearly all furniture and agricultural implements were made by home workmen, whose charges were very low. All the leather used was tanned in the county. The settlers would take hides to the tanyard, where they were tanned on the shares. Nearly every family owned a set of cobbler's tools, with which the father, or some other member of the household, made and mended shoes for the family. Though this may come as a shock to present temperance advocates, practically all families kept on hand a supply of whiskey as an ague preventative. In fact, every store had a barrel of it, with a tin cup placed near by, that their customers might take a drink, if they desired. In spite of plentifulness of whiskey, there were few habitual drunkards. To illustrate on what a small scale things were done at this time, a commission was appointed by the county court to purchase furniture for Adair county's first court house. At the next term of court, a report was made that two benches and three chairs had been bought at a cost of $3.50. Very few of the best lots around the square sold in the early fifties for more than $5.00, the majority for less. The lot where the Adair County Lumber Company building now stands, was knocked off at auction to Col. John T. Smith, one of the county's first settlers and a very influential man in his day, for the sum of $1.00. He felt that he had paid too much and didn't want to take the deed, but being threatened with a lawsuit, he consented and later sold the property for $800. The two lots directly north of the Trust Company building were purchased by Harve Sloan, now deceased, for $5.00, which he paid in cord wood. It was, of course, little trouble to go west of town and cut all the wood one might want, from land belonging to the government. I well remember one of the earliest transfers made in this city. M.G. Clem and Franklin Freeman sold to E.W. Parcells two acres of ground, described as "two acres of ground where the distillery now stands." This was the only description. The transfer was made October 11, 1847. The land was not entered til three years later. Of course land values, as well as the price of all other properties have advanced many fold since those early days, yet I feel sure we have only reached the beginning of our splendid progress, and that even greater things are in store for our people. Those were times of privation and hardship in many ways, yet the people were contented and happy. I often wish I could see some of those old times again, and meet some of those old stalwart pioneers, but it is not to be. Nearly all I knew here when I came are gone and the times have passed, never to return. —T.J. Dockery Family links: Parents: John Dockery (1805 - 1883) Mary Bradburn Dockery (1810 - 1890) Spouse: Julia E. Linder Dockery (1846 - 1915) Children: Harvey Hurley Dockery (1868 - 1875)* Thomas Loraine Dockery (1874 - 1875)* Edith Julia Dockery (1876 - 1877)* Ethel Ardella Dockery Still (1879 - 1958)* Leota Lillian Dockery McCole (1882 - 1932)* Julia Estelle Dockery Stryker (1886 - 1928)* Sibling: Thomas Jefferson Dockery (1845 - 1922) Cynthia Ann Dockery Zeigler (1846 - 1916)* *Calculated relationship Burial: Forest-Llewellyn Cemetery Kirksville, Adair County, Missouri, USA Plot: FA-44 Created by: NE MO Record added: Dec 02, 2010 Find A Grave Memorial# 62425678