SOURCE: page 517-18-19 "History of Grundy County, Missouri" printed in 1881 Judge G. A. Spickard George A. Spickard, eldest son of John and Mary M. Spickard, nee Deeds, natives of West Virginia, was born near Hillsborough, Highland County, Ohio, September 29, 1823. He lived with his parents, residing successively in Greene County, Ohio, and in Warren County, Indiana, removing to the former county in 1825, and to the latter in 1829, where he received his education by a three months' attendance at the district school. In 1837 his mother died, and three years later his father followed her to the grave. He remained in Warren County with his one brother and three sisters four years, and then migrated to Missouri, settled in Grundy County, and secured work as a field hand upon the farm of Larkin Field in Washington township, in whose employ he remained three years. In 1847 he removed to Franklin township, entered a claim of eighty acres, which lie improved and afterward purchased. On the 24th of August 1847, he was joined in marriage to Miss Elizabeth Cantrell, of Grundy County. His eldest son, Charles, was born March 14, 1849. April 14, 1850, he sold his farm, and accompanied by his wife and son, packed their household goods in a wagon drawn by an ox team, and joined the anxious throng of treasure hunters who sought fortunes upon the "golden shores " of far-off California. Over the plains he and his young wife and baby-boy, traveled for five long months and eleven days, when, in the "Pleasant Valley," on the Carson River, within ten miles of their journey's end, on the 21st of September 1850, after two week's illness of "mountain fever," Mrs. Spickard closed her eyes in that long, last sleep that knows no waking, and there. in Pleasant Valley, in the early days of autumn, she was tenderly placed beneath the sod, and the ox team and its occupants moved sadly on. He settled at a small place known as "Miner's Home," near Coloma, El Dorado County, California, where, on October 23, 1851, he married Mrs. Mary Ann Ervin, of that place, a daughter of Rev. Thomas Thompson, the pioneer preacher of Grundy County, Missouri. Mr. Spickard engaged in mining upon Canon Creek for several months, and then removed to San Francisco, which city he left June 3.1854, via the Nicaragua route for Grundy County, and arrived in Franklin township July 10, 1854. He bought three hundred and sixty-nine acres of wild land, near the farm he sold in 1850, upon which he has since resided. On the breaking out of the civil war he espoused the cause of the Union, enlisting August 28, 1862, in the Missouri State militia, and received his commission as captain of company C, to date from the 28th of the previous July. His company was stationed at Chillicothe and his services were chiefly north of the Missouri River. July 6, 1865, he was commissioned major, and still holds his commission, never having been discharged. November 6.1866, he was elected one of the three judges of the Grundy County Court, for a term of six years, but resigned after four years service, during which time the Chicago & Southwestern Railroad was built. Judge Spickard has converted the wild land which he purchased, on his return from California, into one of the most fertile farms in the county, upon which he has a pleasant home a mile and a half from Spickardsville, a town named in his honor, which he located in 1871. He has nine children living, six sons and three daughters, and a son and a daughter dead. Their names are as follows: Charles S., born March 14, 1849, married Melissa Evarts, and died February 12, 1880, leaving a wife and five children; Eldorado 0., born April 29, 1853, died July 16.1854; John Thomas, born October 14, 1854; George I. D., born March 29, 1856; Sarah Frances, born February 6, 1858; William Warren, born November 9, 1859, Alexander L.,born May 6, 1862; Benjamin F., born May 1.1864; Mary M., born February 7, 1866, Edward A., born February 12, 1869, and Melissa M., born April 21, 1871. Mrs. Spickard has one daughter by her first husband, Delilah Ervin, born August 26, 1847. NOTE: I have about 45 pages of his descendants. Also please not these bios have been scanned. If you see spelling mistakes they have slipped by my proofreading. JJ