Aaron McPike was born on 16. Mar. 1814 at Henry County, Kentucky. He was the son of
Edward McPike and
Sarah Van Cleave. Aaron McPike removed to at Missouri in 1838. He married
Phebe Susan Pritchett in 1845.
Aaron McPike was shown in the census on 31. Jul. 1850 as a farmer.
Aaron McPike and
Phebe Susan Pritchett appeared on the census of 31. Jul. 1850 at Cuivre Twp., Pike County, Missouri,
; real estate value 2,200.00.
Aaron McPike was shown in the census on 15. Jun. 1860 as a farmer.
Aaron McPike and
Phebe Susan Pritchett appeared on the census of 15. Jun. 1860 at Cuivre Twp., Pike County, Missouri,
; real estate value 17,000.00, personal property 27,315.00. Aaron McPike married
Lucretia Porter, daughter of
Lewellin Porter and
Elizabeth Vardeman, on 1. Dec. 1862 at Marion County, Missouri.
Aaron McPike was shown in the census on 18. Aug. 1870 as a farmer.
Aaron McPike and
Lucretia Porter appeared on the census of 18. Aug. 1870 at Spencer Twp., Pike County, Missouri,
; real estate value 38,300.00, personal property 12,700.00. Aaron McPike and
Lucretia Porter were divorced. Aaron McPike married
Eleanor Ferguson, daughter of
James Ferguson and
Mary Jane Hughes, on 5. Dec. 1875 at Audrain County, Missouri.
Aaron McPike was shown in the census on 28. Jun. 1880 as a money broker.
Aaron McPike and
Eleanor Ferguson appeared on the census of 28. Jun. 1880 at Vandalia, Audrain County, Missouri.
Aaron McPike married
Mollie (Unknown). Aaron McPike died on 10. Feb. 1904 at Pike County, Missouri, at age 89. He died at Vandalia Cemetery, Vandalia, Audrain County, Missouri.
McPike, Aaron, farmer, banker and man of affairs, was born in Henry County, Kentucky, March 16, 1814. His father was Edward McPike, a soldier in the Revolutionary War. His mother was Sallie Van Cleave, a descendant of one of the pioneer families of Kentucky. She, with two of her brothers, removed in an early day to Washington County, Indiana. Probably no man in northeast Missouri has done more, or even as much, toward the development and upbuilding of that section of Missouri as Aaron McPike. He began life absolutely at the foot of fortune's ladder, being left an orphan at the age of fifteen years, the sole support of three sisters. For many subsequent years it required more than one-third of his earnings for their support until they reached an age and stage where they became self-supporting. He immigrated to Missouri from Kentucky in 1838, settling first in Marion County, about seven miles. from Palmyra. Here he resided until 1843, when he moved to Pike County and became an overseer on the large farm or plantation of his cousin, Mrs. Alcy McPike. This plantation was located near Ashley, and its conduct required the employment of a large number of hands. He remained in this employ two years, when he married Miss Susan Pritchett, daughter of Abraham Pritchett, of Pike County. After his marriage he returned to Marion County, where he engaged in farming for two years, when he sold out his possessions in Marion County, and, returning to Pike County, purchased a small. farm near Ashley. He soon, however, became dissatisfied with this small estate, so selling it, he became the purchaser of a larger farm, eight miles south of Bowling. Green, where he continued to reside during the six years following. This farm consisted of 800 acres of land, which at the time of his purchase was unimproved. Within five years he 'had it in a splendid state of improvement, and when he sold the farm it was at sufficient profit to enable him, with the funds thus obtained and other moneys he had been able to accumulate, to put .$10,000 at interest, and with the remainder of his capital he purchased 800 acres of prairie land about one mile south of Curryville. This $1000.00 which Mr. McPike loaned proved to be the nucleus of the great fortune which in later years he acquired. From that 'date to the present time he has never had a less amount of money than the original investment earning interest for him, and a large portion of the time more than ten times that amount. He improved the farm which he had purchased near Curryville, and two years later sold it at considerable profit, and bought a well improved tract of 800 acres located about four and a half miles southeast of Curryville. This was in about 1858, and he resided on this farm until 1864, during which time he was extensively engaged in the mule business, and sold and furnished to the government many thousands of mules, shipping them by water to St. Louis or driving them overland. At one time during this period he advanced for the government $50,000, for which he had sold it mules, taking simply the certificates of purchase therefor, and which were afterward promptly redeemed. He continued to handle mules as long as he was activity engaged in farming business, and a large percentage of his money was made in this way. In 1864 he sold this. farm and purchased another, four miles south of Bowling Green, on which he resided only from the spring until the following fall, when he sold it at a handsome profit, and purchased what was known as the "Crow farm," a tract of 800 acres, lying about one-half mile south of Curryville. After a residence here of three years, he sold one-half of this 800 acres to Mr. William K. Biggs for as much money as he had paid for the entire farm. On the remaining half he built a large dwelling, together with extensive feed barns and other necessary structures and improvements, purchased some adjoining land, and made this his residence until 1874. In the summer of 1868, however, he laid out the town of Curryville, which is now a prosperous village. He also built a fine school house there. In 1874 he gave the Curryville farm, then consisting of 800 acres, to his oldest son, J. E. McPike, and took up his residence at Vandalia, in Audrain County, which town he had laid out in 1870, and which by this time was becoming a prosperous and thriving village. When the Louisiana & Missouri River Railroad Company was formed Mr. McPike, being a stockholder and active promoter of same, was elected a director, and gave much of his time and more money than any other one man to the carrying forward and completion of this enterprise. In recognition of his activity and interest in this direction, the directory of the road voted him the privilege of locating two town sites on the line between Louisiana and Mexico, Missouri, and thus had come about the locating and building of the two towns of Curryville and Vandalia. Previous to the location of Vandalia, Mr. McPike had purchased a large tract of land surrounding what he afterwards made the site of the town. After his removal to Vandalia he gave his active and almost undivided attention to the building up of the town and the improvement of the farm lands surrounding it, most of which belonged to him. He built many residences and store houses in the town, and a number of residences, with the necessary outbuildings and improvements, on farms adjacent. These lands, at the time of their, purchase by Mr. McPike, were wild prairie lands, but after a few years' cultivation in cereals he began testing their worth for bluegrass, timothy and clover, and the fact was soon developed that they were equally good for the production of all kinds of grasses as were the timbered lands which he had formerly owned and improved. He has always taken a great pride in the growth and building up of the town of Vandalia. It was his pet enterprise, and he always called it the "Queen of the Prairie." It is to his energy, enterprise and unstinted expenditure of money in beautifying, developing and improving that the town owes its rapid growth and almost unexampled prosperity. No resident of Vandalia enjoys, perhaps, to an equal extent, certainly to any fuller extent, the confidence, esteem and good will of all Vandalians than "Uncle Aaron McPike," as he is familiarly and fondly called by his numerous friends. Mr. McPike has reared to adult age six children, all of whom are married, except one son, who at the present time (1900) is twenty years of age. Their names are James E. McPike, Sallie A. Chamberlain, Mrs. C. G. Daniel, Thomas J. McPike, Mrs. Dr. R. L. Alford and Charles Harden McPike. To each of these children he has given in lands and money $40,000. He has seventeen grandchildren, to each of whom he gave, in 1898, $1,000. He sent his check to the Orphans' Home in St. Louis for $1,000. In 1880 when the Baptists were building their new brick house of worship in Vandalia he gave $1,000, and to Stephens Female College and Hardin College each considerable amounts. To the Louisiana Baptist Female College he gave from $2,500 to $3,000. Notwithstanding these large gifts to his children, the bequests above mentioned and others not herein enumerated, he is yet the owner of a large number of the best business houses in Vandalia, and takes the most lively interest in the growth and development of the city which he had the honor to found and to name. Since 1860 Mr. McPike has been a director in one or more of the banks in Pike or Audrain Counties, and is now the president of the Vandalia Banking Association at Vandalia, Missouri, and one of its directors. While in the natural order of things he is not as active at the age of eighty-seven as formerly, yet he still looks after, in person, many of his business affairs, and not only superintends, but also attends to the details thereof. The career of Mr. McPike, as will be seen at a glance, is that of a most remarkable man. Starting in life handicapped by the burdens he had to bear in the support of others even more helpless than himself, when at the age of fifteen this condition confronted him, he has step by step pushed forward with never a serious reverse, never a turning backward of fortune's wheel, until he has accomplished more than usually falls to the lot of one human being to achieve this along lines which will for all time redound to the use and benefit and betterment of the people among whom his life has been passed, and which has added, in a wonderful degree, to the permanent wealth and prosperity of the land in which he lives.
Missouri History Encyclopedia, 1901 Volume 4.