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Biography of William Groom

William Groom, of England, emigrated to America, and settled in Kentucky, where he married Sally Parker. They had Abraham, Isaac, Moses, Jacob, Aaron, Susan, Elizabeth, and Sally. All except Susan came to Missouri. Abraham and Isaac settled in Clay County. Jacob and Aaron settled in Montgomery County in 1810. Jacob was a ranger under Captain Callaway, and, in company with Jackey Stewart, was scouting in the woods the day Callaway was killed. A man named Dougherty was killed the same day, at Salt Peter Cave, not far from Groom’s farm. After they had killed him the Indians cut his body into pieces, and hung them on a pole. As Groom and Stewart approached the cave, they discovered the horrible spectacle, and about the same instant were fired upon by the Indians. Both horses were wounded, Stewart’s mortally, and he also received a gunshot wound in his heel. After running a short distance, his horse fell, and soon expired; and he being unable to walk, on account of his wound, Groom generously helped him on to his own horse, and they both succeeded in making their escape to Fort Clemson. Groom was an uneducated man, but generous hearted and possessed of strong common sense. He was a leading politician of his day, a Democrat of the Andrew Jackson stripe, and was elected to the Legislature several times. He was a member of the first State Legislature, which met in St. Charles in 1821-2. He dressed in a buckskin suit, wore a band of hickory bark around his hat, and always had independence enough to express his honest convictions on every subject that came up for discussion. We give several characteristic anecdotes of him elsewhere. He married Sally Quick, and they had Aaron, Maria, William, Lucinda, Sally A., and two other daughters, one of whom married a Mr. Hubbard and the other a Mr. McGarvin, all of whom lived in Montgomery County.