Samuel M. Pickler

Samuel Pickler, son of George & Emily (Martin) Pickler, was born November 6, 1846 in Washington County, IN and grew up in Davis County, IA. The family moved to Kirksville in 1866. He took some advanced courses at the North Missouri Normal School and Commercial College (now Truman State University) during its first year of operation, joining the faculty as an assistant the following year. He became a regular instructor when it was converted to a state school in 1870.

After leaving Normal School, Pickler became an enterprising businessman and civic leader in Kirksville. He was owner/editor of the Kirksville Journal for eight years, 1873-81, during which he also founded the Milan Republican in nearby Milan, MO. In the 1880s and 1890s he operated a highly successful mercantile store, Pickler’s Famous, on the north side of the Kirksville square. From these ventures, he invested heavily in land, including rental properties in Kirksville, timber acreage in western Adair County, and property in other states, including an oil-bearing tract in California.

Pickler held several elected positions: Adair County School Commissioner, 1875-77; Mayor of Kirksville, 1882-83; and Adair County Representative in the Missouri Legislature for four terms, 1877-79, 1897-99, 1899-1901, & 1911-13. He was nominated as Republican candidate for Congress in 1900, but did not win.

From 1899 through 1907, Picker served his former school on the Board of Regents, first as a Board member up to 1905 and then as Secretary starting in 1903. When Baldwin and Library Halls burned in 1924, he donated $25,000 toward replacing the latter. He later contributed additional funds to help furnish that building which was named Pickler Memorial Library in his honor.

Sam Pickler and Mary “Mollie” Bowen married on October 15, 1873 and had a daughter, Ethel (Mrs Frank P Young), and a son, Erle Kasson, who died at age twelve. The couple divorced in 1897 to which Pickler married Ida Martin Fowler on June 13, 1898. He died March 12, 1929 and was buried at Forest Cemetery in Kirksville.