About

John Brackman

John Brackman grew up in Concordia Missouri, a farming community located 60 miles east of Kansas City Missouri. John served in the U.S. Army for three years (1966-1969) in Germany. He graduated from Central Missouri State University (now the University of Central Missouri) in 1973 with a BS in Electronics Technology, married Ruth, moved to Kansas City and was employed at Honeywell Inc. for 28 years. From 2004 through 2012 he was employed by the Control Technology Solutions company (CTS), headquartered in St. Louis Missouri. He has been retired since 2012. John and Ruth have three sons; Andrew (and wife – Anna), Benjamin, and Mark (wife – Monica). Mark and Monica have three children; Mather and twin girls, Maggie and Mae, who bring much joy to our lives.

John’s has always been interested in history, especially American history. His interest in the Civil War increased as he started doing genealogy research into his family. His great-great grandfather emigrated to Missouri from Germany in 1847 and the family lived through the Civil War, experiencing raids by a loose knit group of young men known as bushwhackers. Southern leaning bushwhackers would traverse the countryside, terrorizing the locals, especially anyone suspected of being a Union supporter. Being a German community on the edge of a slave holding county, the farmers were raided at least four times; the last time losing at least 23 men including my great-great grandfather’s youngest son.

Always on the search for unknown historical accounts of these incidents, John stumbled upon the Liberty Missouri Tribune, a newspaper that was Union but supported the Democratic Party and the South in general. Reading accounts of the incidents and news that populated the 1860 newspaper, generated the idea that newspapers of that day could be a wonderful source for bringing to light how people of that day realized that their country was disintegrating.

John’s other interests are in photography, traveling and video creation. He was a member of the Raytown Missouri school board from 1993 until 2003, serving as board president for three years. He is a member of the Raytown Rotary Club since 2004, serving as treasurer and also a member of the Jackson County Historical Society and a member of The State Historical Society of Missouri. He has walked the 220 mile “rails-to-trails” Katy Trail in Missouri and gives oral presentations about the bushwhackers in Missouri with emphasis on the Concordia raids.