. Compendium of history and biography of Linn County, Missouri. very relationof life. THOMAS BEESNEHEN While a great deal may be justly claimed for the inspiring scenesand memorials of historic places, and their impulsions to heroic deedsin their influence on human lives, and no one can question the force ofheredity on human character, all history teaches that earth has nochoice spots for the birth of her strong men, and no ones characteris-tics are inherited whoUj^ from his ancestors. Often in this countrymen of heroic mould have been born and bred on the very confines ofcivilization, and


. Compendium of history and biography of Linn County, Missouri. very relationof life. THOMAS BEESNEHEN While a great deal may be justly claimed for the inspiring scenesand memorials of historic places, and their impulsions to heroic deedsin their influence on human lives, and no one can question the force ofheredity on human character, all history teaches that earth has nochoice spots for the birth of her strong men, and no ones characteris-tics are inherited whoUj^ from his ancestors. Often in this countrymen of heroic mould have been born and bred on the very confines ofcivilization, and even the almost untrodden depths of the wildernesshave brought forth high types of majestic manhood. It is true, also,that almost every man, although he must show, in the very nature ofthe case, traits of mind and character similar to those of his progeni-tors, exhibits others wholly new in his family or individual in his ease. Thomas M. Bresnehen of Brookfield, who is accounted one of thestrongest and most capable lawyers in northeastern Missouri, furnishes. HISTORY OF LIXX COUXTY 445 a suggestive example of these facts. He was born and reared in a wild,undeveloped section of the country, and even though he inherited forceof character, versatility of mind and adaptability to circumstancesfrom his father he has developed and used these gifts in a way whichproves that he came into the world possessed of other- faculties thathave so blended with these as to make him a very different man. Mr. Bresnehen may not improperly be called a product of Brook-field, although he was born on April 16, 1860, within the present limitsof the city, it is true, but before there was even a straggling hamleton its site. Here, however, he began his education and grew to man-hood, surpassing the town in the rapidity of his development. For thelatter he has since atoned by helping to promote its growth andimprovement by every means at his command and exerted his influenceto get others to do the same.


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