Dr. Hartwell Stratton, justice of the peace, Charleston, Mo., was born in Cumberland County, Va., February 16, 1825. His parents, Robert and Mary (Adams) Stratton, were natives of Virginia. Robert Stratton's parents removed from England to Virginia in early life, and remained there until their deaths. Robert was a farmer and planter by vocation, and lived and died in Cumberland County, Va. He served as an officer in the War of 1812. His death occurred in 1859. His wife died in 1828, having borne him three children, one of whom, Hartwell, is living. Those deceased are William (a member of the firm of Stratton & Bird, wholesale grocers of Cairo, Ill.) And Pamelia M. Jackson, the mother of the Messrs. Jackson Bros., commission merchants, Cairo, Ill.). Mrs. Jackson died in 1876. William died in January 1888. The subject of this sketch was reared on a farm and remained with his father until he was twenty-one years of age, spending most of his time in school. He attended the Richmond college, also Emory and Henry college. In 1847 he went to Middle Tennessee and engaged in the mercantile business, which he continued for several years, when he began reading medicine, attending two courses of lectures at the Nashville University. In 1860 he entered the Missouri Medical College at St. Louis, graduating in the spring of 1861. Soon after he removed to Norfolk, Mississippi Co., Mo., and remained a short time practicing his profession after which he removed to Charleston, and engaged in the mercantile business, in partnership with J.H. Bethune and William F. Rodney, of Cape Girardeau. They remained in business several years, when Dr. Stratton sold his interest, and engaged int eh drug business in Charleston, in partnership with Dr. T.L. Petrie, and subsequently, with Thomas byrd of charleston. After remaining in the drug business a few years, Dr. Strattton sold out, purchased a farm near Charleston, and engaged in agricultural pursuits, which he continued until a few months ago (1887) when he sold his farm and is now practically retired from business. He was elected to his present office in 1886. He was first married in 1849 to M.A. Kirby, of Tennessee, by whom he had six children, two of whom, only, are living: Mary (Mrs. E.W. Thompson) and William T.G., both of Mississippi County. She died in 1859. He was married again in 1865 to Eliza M. Randal, a native of Cape Girardeau County, by whom he had three children, two of whom, Aura L. and Lindsay M., are living and the other, Frank M. died at the age of eighteen years; their mother died in 1876. Dr. Stratton is a prominent citizen of Charleston and is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church South.
SOURCE -Goodspeed's History of Southeast Missouri Biographies of Mississippi County, 1888