Judge John P. Strother, P. O., Marshall. Judge Strother was born in Henry county, Kentucky, February 16, 1837, where he was reared on a farm, and educated. His father and grandfather were ministers of the M. E. Church, South. Most of his ancestors were Virginians, and traced their lineage back to patrician origin in England and Scotland. His mother was a Bruce. The Strother family, wherever located in America, as far as known, sprang from a common source in England, where the family coat of arms was a red shield with a diagonal bar of silver, with three eagles in blue, and the shield surmounted with a yellow greyhound. On both paternal and maternal sides the Strother family has given the country many eminent men, such as Gen. D. H. Strother, (Porte Crayon) of Virginia; Wm. Preston, of Kentucky, and President Zachary Taylor whole mother was a Strother, etc., and not the least among them is Judge John P. Strother, of Missouri. Judge Strother early developed a thirst for knowledge, and received much of his education from the judicious aid of his father, who was a highly educated man. Like most imaginative youths at "sweet sixteen," he much affected poetry, and some of his early effusions found their way into the public journals. At the age of sixteen he also wrote a biography of his grandparents on the mother’s side who were pioneers of Kentucky. About the age of fourteen he united with the church of his fathers, to which he has ever since adhered; and he has been twice elected on the general conference. Some years since, he wrote a pamphlet on church matters, opposing several Episcopal decisions, which was published and largely circulated, and which is generally regarded as having settled the questions in dispute. In 1856 he studied law under Hon. W. S. Pryor, now of the Kentucky court of appeals, and attended the law department of the University of Louisville, where he graduated in 1858. He first began practice in New Castle, Kentucky, but desiring a broader field, in the fall of 1858, he came to this county and located in Marshall. Soon after the war broke out, he returned to Kentucky and remained until 1865, when he returned to Saline, stopped in Miami until 1867, then moved to Marshall, where he has since lived, and practiced his profession. Judge Strother was twice county attorney of this county, once before and once after the war; and in 1872 he was elected to the state senate for four years, and was chairman of the judiciary and several other important committees. In 1879 he came near being the democratic candidate for lieutenant governor, though not a candidate for nomination. In 1878 he only laced three votes, in convention, of receiving the democratic nomination (which was equivalent to election) for congress in this, the eleventh district. In 1880, desiring rest from practice, he consented to become a candidate for judge of this, the sixth judicial circuit, including the counties of Saline, Lafayette, and Pettis, was elected, and entered on his duties January 1, 1881. Judge Strother has filled every public office with which he has been entrusted, with honor to himself and credit to his constituents. It is but recently that he assumed the office he now fills, that of circuit judge, but the brilliant legal talents displayed in a long practice, insure an equally brilliant record on the bench. On the 23d of October, 1860 Judge Strother married Miss Mildred E. Lewis, of Marshall, and has had nine children, seven of whom are living.
