BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES
Of Citizens of Jasper County, Missouri
Pages 18-19
Copied from 1876 Jasper County Historical Atlas
Published by Brink, McDonough & Co.
WILLIAM A. DAUGHERTY (cont. from pages 16-17)
DR. H. H. WALE
Kentucky is a state which her children are always proud to claim as their birth-place. Her sons have formed a considerable proportion of the pioneer element of western life, and have been influential in molding the institutions and customs of several states. The first population of Kentucky was largely from Virginia. After the war of the revolution the resolute and hardy Virginians crossed the mountains, settled Kentucky, and the impress of their personal courage, manly honor and chivalrous bearing may still be traced in the Kentucky type of character.
The paternal ancestors of the subject of this sketch were Welshmen who emigrated to Virginia in the former part of the eighteenth century. His father was born in Culpepper county, Virginia, in the year 1769. Two of his uncles, George Wale and William Wale, fought in the war of the revolution. The latter was killed at the battle of Guilford Court-House, North Carolina. The former fought throughout the entire war, but before he could reach his home in Virginia, after the conclusion of the struggle, died from disease contracted during his long years of service in the American army. Martin Wale, Dr. Wale’s father, was married in Bedford county, Virginia, January 4, 1791, to Nancy Buford. She was the only daughter of Capt. Thomas Buford, an officer in the Virginia militia, who was killed at the famous and sanguinary battle with the Indians fought at Point Pleasant, on the Ohio, at the mouth of the Kanawha river, in the year 1774. The Buford family was of French Huguenot descent, and from South Carolina. Martin Wale emigrated to Kentucky in the year 1803. He settled in Breckenridge county, and was one of the early pioneers of that part of the state. He was a soldier in the war of 1812, and fought under Harrison. He had eight children, of whom the youngest was H. H. Wale, born in Breckenridge county, Kentucky, May the 5th, 1813.
He was raised in Breckenridge county. The earlier settlers of that part of Kentucky were, in a large measure, emigrants from the agricultural districts of Virginia, Maryland and North Carolina. They had a wilderness to subdue without the many aids which now facilitate such undertakings. These necessities both demanded and developed the highest physical and mental energies. They, as a rule, were poor, and their fortunes came in the future growth of the country. Luxuries were unknown, and the art and dissimulations of traffic had neither been learned nor practiced. Candor, honesty and mutual confidence were the bonds of society. When in the progress of society, literary culture was superadded to these elements of manhood, a majesty of character was developed which marked and adorned the public men of Kentucky in her earlier history. Dr. Wale was brought up amid such surroundings. He obtained an English education in the ordinary subscription schools of the day, and for one session attended an academy at Cloverport, Kentucky, where to some extent he studied the classics.
He studied medicine at Cloverport, Kentucky, with Drs. Sebastian and Holmes, prominent physicians of that part of the country. July 2, 1840, he married Mary J. Woolfolk, a native of Meade county, Kentucky, born September 20, 1820. Her father was Joseph Woolfolk, and was from Louisa county, Virginia. Her maternal grandfather was Jacob Van Meter, who was born in Berkeley county, Virginia, in the year 1761, and when quite young removed with his father to Pennsylvania. In the fall of 1779, or the spring of 1780 Jacob Van Meter with his whole family descended the Ohio river to the Falls (now the city of Louisville), and in the autumn of 1780 made a settlement in Severn’s valley which now embraces Elizabethtown in Hardin county, Kentucky. He was one of the very first pioneers of that country, and settled there at a time when the Indians were numerous, and the few settlers were compelled to live in forts for protection against them. He was one of the founders of the Baptist church in that part of Kentucky of which for many long years he was a devoted member.
Dr. Wale first began the practice of medicine in Breckenridge county, Kentucky, in the year 1839. In 1851 he removed to Hardin county of the same state, and had a large and lucrative practice for several years. Besides practicing medicine there, he was partly occupied in farming, and carried on a store, the business of which, however, was managed almost entirely by a clerk.
He first visited Missouri in 1858. From Boonville he proceeded to Warrensburg, and thence journeyed to Jasper county, where he was highly pleased with the country, and believing it would develop into a rich agricultural region he purchased eight hundred acres of land in Dry Fork in Preston township. He returned to Kentucky, but after the war purchased a tract of land composed of 1,350 acres, of which his present farm forms a part. In the fall of 1870 he became a permanent resident of the county and has since been engaged in practicing medicine and in farming. He was unanimously elected president of the Jasper county Medical Society at its organization in 1872. He was succeeded by Dr. Wilson, of Carthage, in 1873, but was re-elected president of the society in 1874, and again in 1875. In 1876 he was succeeded by Dr. Brooks of Carthage. He was the contributor to the society of several papers on medical literature, whose reading generally elicited considerable discussion and commendations from other members of that body. He is now the proprietor of about one thousand acres of land, having sold some and given other tracts to his children. His children are seven in number. His oldest daughter, Nannie B., is the wife of H. C. Nall, of Joplin. David V. Wale, the oldest son, is a graduate of Louisville Medical University, and is practicing medicine at Webbville. Junius W. Wale is also living at Webbville and in business there. Sue married William Lewis; and Laura and Luella are living at home. The youngest daughter, Virgie, died on the 25th of June, 1853, nine years of age.
In the old days when the Whig and Democratic parties occupied the political field and their candidates attracted the attention of the country, Dr. Wale was a Whig. He took an active interest in affairs relating to the party organization, and while living in Kentucky was often elected a delegate to the Whig conventions. He cast his vote for Harrison in the famous “log-cabin and hard cider” campaign of 1840, when the Whig enthusiasm swept everything before it; and for Henry Clay, whose name was dear to every Kentucky Whig, when he made his spirited, but unsuccessful, contest against Polk four years later. Since the disruption of the Whig organization he has supported the principles and policy of the Democratic party. Both he and his wife have been members of the Baptist church for more than a quarter of a century.
|