Deepwater Township – James H. Fletcher, section 22, was born in Cooper County, Missouri, August 13, 1844. His parents, James P. and Philadelphia (Menafee) Fletcher, were natives of Virginia. The former was one of the pioneers of Cooper County, and died in 1845, while on a trip home from Virginia, whither he had gone on business. James H. subsequently moved with his mother to Saline County, where she resided until 1849, then coming to Bates County.
The subject of this sketch spent his youth on a farm, and obtained his education principally through his own efforts. He enlisted in the Confederate Army in the spring of 1861, in the Missouri State service, Captain Fewel’s Company and O’Kane’s Infantry Batallion, in which he remained but about six months. In the summer of 1862 he enlisted in the regular Confederate Army, in the Sixteenth Missouri Infantry, and served until the close of the war, when he
surrendered at Shreveport. He participated in numerous important engagements, among which were the battles of Lexington, Lone Jack, Missouri, Prairie Grove and Helena, Arkansas, Pleasant Hill, Louisiana, and Jenkins’ Ferry. After the close of the war he returned to his home in Missouri. Mr. Fletcher was married in this county, in September, 1868, to Miss Mary E. Simpson, who was born in Cass County, Missouri, and a daughter of James R. Simpson. He was again married here, October 2, 1873, to Miss Mary S. Jarvis, a native of Madison County, Illinois. Her father was Fletcher Jarvis, Esq. Mr. Fletcher moved to his present farm in February, 1882, and now has 120 acres of land, all fenced, with a fair house and improvements, and good orchard. He was appointed census enumerator in 1880, and took the census of Mound and Elkhart Townships. He has three children: Waller, by his first marriage; Juanita and James Henry. He and his wife are members of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. The former belongs to the Masonic fraternity.
(History of Bates County, Missouri, 1883)