Joseph Newton Chiswell, P. O., Slater. Was born August 4, 1827, in Montgomery county, Maryland, and is a son of Augustus and Jemima Eleanor Chiswell, of the same county and state. He helped on the farm, attending school in the winter, until his father died, when he was thirteen years old, and he then assisted his mother inn managing the farm. He went to Loudon county, Virginia, and learned the trade of blacksmithing, remaining three years—then returned to Maryland for five years. In 1849 he came to Marion county, Missouri, and spent one year in blacksmithing. Returned to Maryland, and during his stay the old homestead was sold, and he then came to Saline county, in 1856, and worked at his trade, near the farm he now lives on. In 1859 he bought 200 acres of raw prairie, and forty acres of timber on Fish creek, and commenced improving, by degrees. His first dwelling house was accidentally burnt. He rebuilt a smaller house, and in 1871 he made an addition to it—and again in 1880, he enlarged it considerably, building a gothic front, as it now stands.
