William McPhetridge was born on a farm just west of Novinger and when grown purchased 240 aces of the family homestead from his father.  He and Sarah Bozarth, another Adair County native, married 21 Nov 1869 and had five children, two of whom died in early childhood.  One of the three remaining daughters is pictured with them here; Eva S (1872), Celia R (1874) and Sarah J (1878). [Violette; KDE obit]

Hiram Novinger was born in Dauphin County, PA and came to Adair County as a young child.  His father settled in the western part of the county and laid out the town that would be named for him.  Sarah Niece’s parents emigrated from Germany when she was a year old and settled at Pure Air in Adair County a few years later.  The young couple married in 1876 and raised their three children, Ira, Maude & Bertha, on a farm near the town of Novinger. Their place was the site of Adair County’s first coal mine.  [Violette; Novinger; KDE obits]

John & Hettie, the children of John & Sarah Novinger and Hiram & Elizabeth Snyder, were both native Adair countians.  They married in 1884 and raised four children, Ollie Jane, John H, Marion & Meade, on their farm just outside Novinger.  The family moved to Colorado in the early 1900s but Hettie came back to Kirksville a few years before her death. Her body was returned to Greeley for burial. [Novinger, KDE obit, Shoops]

Samuel Novinger was born and raised near the town of Novinger, Adair County.  He was a farmer who, except for one year on a railroad survey crew as a very young man, spent the rest of his life working the land on which he was raised.  He also helped found the Novinger Bank and served as its President for about 30 years.  He and his wife, Mary Motter, were the parents of six children. [Violette; First 100 Years; KDE obit]

David & Josephine Wharton were married in Adair County, MO on Aug 22, 1870, about a year after each had moved here from their native Mercer County, PA.  In 1873, they moved back “home”, stopping off for a year in Illinois and another in Indiana on the way.  They returned to Adair with their two young sons, Edwin & Bertram, in 1879 and David bred Shorthorn cattle & Percheron horses on their farm near Novinger. They lived with one of the boys in Dade County after retirement. [Violette; 1870 Census; MO Death Certfs]