Pleasant Valley Township,........ The eighteen sections in Township 28, Range 16, forming a part of Pleasant Valley Municipal Township, were first entered in 1845, on Section 35, by William C. Brennan, Mary J. Paul, Mary A. Culp and M. A. Blackwell. In 1848 Section 22 was entered by William Whitteker and Hulda Grills; on Section 1, by Evan Gaskill and Britain Freeman; on Sections 2 and 3, by Hiram Rippee; on Section 12, by Andrew Baker; all in 1848; while in 1849 John H. Hight, and John Baker entered lands on Section 11, 12 and 13. John Rippee purchased on Section 3 in 1848. Prior to 1859 the following named owned lands in this part of the township; William Newton, Samuel Gillespie, Isaac W. Julian, Joel Parker, John D. Armand, A. H. Hyde, H. D. Smith, S. T. Kimball, Mary McKee, Francis Scott, Eliza M. Crawford, Preston Hawkins, F. H. Cole and Stephen H. Julian.

Gasconade Township, No. 29, Range 15, was first entered by Samuel Hughes and David Butcher in 1846; John C. Trimble, Ratliff Palmer, Leonard Crider, J. H. Hight, Minerva Finley, Isaac Binkley, Joshua Rippee, A. P. Pool, James Pearson, William Binkley, Carson M. Berry and Alfred Young, in 1847-49. Early in the 1850's William Newton, Alexander Newton, William Coday, W. J. Whitteker, Jonathan Hickman, Nevels Newton, Cyrus Rippee, Nepthaline Goss, William F. Young, D. C. Russell, W. P. Cunningham, Berry Burnett, James Coday, John Coday, John Bortram, James H. Adams, John L. Waters and Robert P. Pool.

The pioneer marriage records of Wright County was destroyed during the War and the oldest record now known that made in 1863. From it the names of those persons married during the war are taken, with dates and names of officiating justices or preachers. The following is among those listed:

In May, 1852, a license was issued to William H. Ridens to carry on a dramshop at Hartville, but probate affairs occupied the attention of the judges. In November, 1852, the court constituted as in April, Arthur Rippee being sheriff.

J. A. Hight, of Mansfield, Mo., is a son of John H. and Jane Baker Hight, and was born in Middle Tennessee in 1830. The father was also supposed to have been born in Tennessee in 1809, and there grew to maturity and married. He was a carpenter by trade, but also farmed, and after moving to Missouri, in 1839, followed both these occupations in what is now Wright County. He was killed in Arkansas, through mistake by the Federal forces during the late war. His wife was born in Kentucky in 1810. Five of their thirteen children grew to maturity. The Hight's are of Irish descent, and the maternal grandfather and the grandmother immigrated to Tennessee from Kentucky, thence to Missouri, and died in the latter state. J. A. Hight received only the advantages of the subscription schools in his youth, and was engaged in assisting his father in tilling the farm. At the age of twenty years he was married to Miss Mary Ann Rippee, who was born in Indiana in February, 1831, and five children have blessed their union: Thomas Jefferson, John Wesley, Hiram Jackson, William H. and Mary J., wife of William B. King. Mr. Hight farmed in Wright County until the breaking out of the Civil War, and in 1862 joined the Eighth Missouri State Militia, entering as a corporal; through exposure his eyes became somewhat diseased. Since August 1883, he has received a pension of $30 per month, and received back pay to the amount of $2,433.39. He is a member of the G. A. R. He owned four lots in the town of Mansfield.

Mrs. Mary Newton, Widow of Andrew Newton, was born in Kentucky in 1827, the daughter of William and Huldah Young Rippey, natives of Virginia. They were married in Kentucky, and afterward moved to Indiana, when the subject of this sketch was a child. The father was a farmer by occupation, and died in Indiana, where the mother also passed the remainder of her days. The paternal grandfather died in Wright County, Mo., and the maternal grandfather died in Kentucky. Mrs. Newton was left an orphan at an early age, and was reared by an aunt, who took her to Missouri and settled in Wright County. Here she grew to womanhood, and was married to Mr. Newton in 1843. To them were born fifteen children: James; William; Sarah, wife of Thomas Montgomery; John; Frances E., wife of William W. Edington; George W.; Mary, wife of Rufus Scott; Julia A., wife of C. J. Crain; Jesse A.; Barney; Rettie, who died at the age of 11; Huldah, who died at the age of 19 months; Clementine; Susan, who died at the age of 4 months; and an infant son. Andrew Newton was born in Kentucky in 1819, and died February 27, 1881, at the age of 62 years. He was reared in Indiana, and came to Missouri in 1839, where he homesteaded 400 acres.

J. W . Rippee, druggist at Cedar Gap, Wright County, Mo., was born in Webster County, Mo., in 1850, the son of John and Catherine Newton Rippee, and grandson of William Rippee, who died when John Rippee (J.W.) was small, John Rippee was born in Kentucky in 1822, and grew to manhood in Indiana. He came to Missouri in 1837, locating in what is now Webster County, but then Pulaski, and is one of the pioneer men of the place. His wife, Catherine Newton, was born in Indiana in 1833, and by her marriage became the mother of ten children, and J. W. Rippee being the eldest in order of birth. He was reared in Webster County on a farm, and remained on the same farm until June 19, 1888, when he was united in marriage to Melissa Potter, of Douglas County, Mo., born in 1869, and the daughter of William Potter, one of the early settlers. Mrs. Rippee received a common-school education, and was a refined and much esteemed lady. Mr. Rippee embarked in the drug business in May, 1887.