DANIEL
BIXLER is one of the most extensive stock-raisers in Saline
County, owning a fine farm in section 15, Salt Pond Twp. He is
an enterprising and successful man, a good financier, with a
superior head, which is full of progressive ideas. He is
Republican nominee for County Treasurer, a position wholly
unsolicited by him, and the nomination to which came to him as a
complete surprise.
Mr. Bixler is a native of Holmes County, Ohio,
where he was born April 27, 1845. His father, George Bixler,
who is now a resident of Homes County, is a native of Maryland,
having been born at Baltimore in 1806, but removed to Ohio with his
parents at the age of seventeen. The grandparents of the
subject of this sketch, John and Elizabeth Bixler, were from
Maryland and Pennsylvania, respectively; the great-grandfather was a
native of Germany, from which country he emigrated to Maryland;
while the grandfather, John, was a farmer and an early
settler in Holmes County. He died at about the age of ninety,
and his wife at about eighty years of age.
The father of Daniel has always been a farmer.
He has been a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church for many
years. The mother, Elizabeth (Close) Bixler, was born
in Pennsylvania and is of German descent. She is still living
and is eleven years younger than her husband.
Daniel is the only son left of the three that
were born to his parents, although he has three sisters. He
was reared a farmer, attending the common schools until sixteen
years of age, with the exception of a period at the Vermillion
Institute, of Hayesville, Ohio. When he was sixteen he went to
Springfield, Ohio, and entered the Wittenburg College there.
At the age of eighteen Mr. Bixler commenced
teaching school, which occupation he followed during the winter
seasons for thirteen years, in the fall of 1865 coming to Illinois
and teaching one term in Champaign County. In September, 1866,
he came to Missouri and located near Sweet Springs, purchasing land
in the fall of that year in section 15, Salt Pond Township.
His purchase consisted of two hundred acres of partly improved land,
upon which he settled, teaching school winters and farming summers.
He has done nearly the whole of the improving of his property,
showing much ability in the work. His postoffice is Elmwood.
May 22, 1878, Mr. Bixler married Miss Lybbie
J. Houston, who was born in California. Her parents,
John and Ellen Houston, are of Irish descent. The father
was born in Columbus, Ohio, moved to Illinois when quite young, and
subsequently to California, where he remained for a time, coming to
Saline County, Mo., in 1870. He is now a farmer of Elmwood
Township and does quite an extensive business.
Mrs. Bixler is a member of the Methodist
Episcopal Church. Mr. Bixler is a Mason, and in
politics a Republican, as suggested before. That he is a
popular man, is shown by the fact that his fellow-Republicans of the
County have chosen him to act for them in a public capacity, and
that they have done so independently of any effort on his part to
win the appointment. He is no office-seeker, but being
elected, there is no doubt that he will do well and faithfully the
duties the devolve upon him.
Mr. Bixler is very successful in stock-raising, which he
makes his specialty. It is interesting to visit his farm, and
note the flourishing condition of everything that meets the eye.
A fine stock farm presents a scene of animal life that is
instructive to him who wishes to learn, and that is beautiful to one
who views it simply from an artistic standpoint; both of these
conditions are fully met on the farm of Mr. Bixler, and in
that his work and judgment are clearly and characteristically shown.
Source: Portrait & Biographical Record of Lafayette & Saline
Counties, Missouri - Chicago: Chapman Bros.: 1893 - Page |
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