Can someone tell me about the early life of Captain Daniel Deroy Emmons, who for a time commanded Company F of Major Henry P. Hawkins’ 6th Missouri Cavalry? His name appears in the Missouri census only in 1870. It suggests he was a native of New York state. He passed away in 1878 if my information is correct. The Williams Monks book says Emmons was in West Plains in July of 1861. That's the earliest record I have of him. He enlisted at Pilot Knob or Ironton (Iron County) in September of 1861. Two who served under him in Company F, John Alexander Randall and Jefferson M. Randall, were brothers from Wayne County. They are said to have joined Hawkins’ independent company Aug. 1, 1861, and for a time were members of General Grant's bodyguard at Pilot Knob and elsewhere. Since Hawkins, a merchant in Wayne County before the war, was also a native of New York, I have wondered if he and Emmons might not have been related or acquainted before the war. Emmons was a physician in Wayne County after the war. An aged granddaughter of his was my neighbor at Piedmont in the 1950s.
Cletis R. Ellinghouse