Exerts from Portrait and Biographical Record of Clay, Ray, Carroll, Chariton and Linn Counties, Missouri, published 1893.
".......John (Henry) Cazzell, was a native of West Virginia, and was born December 27, 1818. He is yet living and resides in Indian Territory. The mother of our subject, Mrs. Jane (Wamsley Cazzell), was born in La Fayette County, Kentucky, in the year 1820, and passed away in 1875.........Unto John and Jane Cazzell were born thirteen children.
(John and Jane) removed from Kentucky to Ohio, where they resided for two years, in the Spring of 1855 locating in Missouri. They made their journey hither by water, landing at Glasgow, and from there came direct to Chariton County, which they made their permanent home.......When the father, mother and children arrived in their Missouri home, the father had just one dollar with which to begin life here. Nearly two score years have passed since upon April 3, 1855, the Cazzells settled in Chariton County, where the father met with success and from his very small beginning amassed a comfortable competence......."
Note: John Henry Cazzell was called "Squire". He lived eight miles from Galsgow, Missouri at a Post Office named Cazzell for him.
The following are exerts from a letter written by Ruby Cazzell Braden of Climax Springs, Missouri to
Mae Cazzell Dye sometime before June, 1970. Ruby Cazzell Braden was the daughter of Henry
Lewis Cazzell and grand daughter of John Henry Cazzell.
"I was very fond of my Grandfather (John Henry Cazzell), and he told me many things concerning
my ancestors when I was a little girl at home with him and my Grandmother (Lilly Mae Conrad
Cazzell). My Father and Mother (Henry Lewis Cazzell and Bertha Ellen Phillips Cazzell) were
divorced when I was five and my brother three. Grandmother and Grandfather Cazzell raised us in
their home in Galsgow, Missouri. I remember Grandpa telling me of how his ancestors came over to
America from France and (later) how they came by boat up the Mississippi River to the Missouri
River, then up it until they saw some land that looked good to them and they docked their boat and
cut down trees and built their homes. Wild turkeys were plentiful and also fish, so they had food.
This land is what is known as Alholt Bottoms today. It was a fertile land and they raised good crops
of food. They were a hard working class of people. My Grandfather farmed and fished. He sold
fish to the towns along the railroad, especially to the town of Glasgow. He would ship the fish to
town by the Wabash Railroad. He sold fish enough to pay for his home in Glasgow. I was born in
this house and lived in it all my childhood. It is torn down now."