Sedgwick County KSGenWeb

Portrait And Biographical Album of Sedgwick County, Kan.

Chapman Brothers 1888

Pages 603 - 604

JOHN KIEFNER, JR. The subject of this sketch, who is one of the most enterprising young business men of Garden Plain, was born in Garrett County, Md., April 6, 1860, and is the eldest son of John and Anna C. (Leockel) Kiefner, natives of Germany. John Kiefner, Sr., was born in Bavaria, April 4,1834, and the mother, a native of Hesse-Darmstadt, first opened her eyes Aug. 20, 1835.

            John Kiefner, Sr., left his native country in 1849, going directly to Baltimore, Md. While there he learned the trade of a cabinet-maker, and after serving his apprenticeship migrated to Garrett County, where he worked at his trade, and on the 24th of December, 1854, was united in marriage with Miss Anna C. Leockel, who came to America with her parents in 1840. Fifteen years later Mr. Kiefner moved with his family to Perryville, Mo., where he now resides. During the year 1882 he became a resident of Kansas, living in Sabetha, Garden Plain and St. John, but preferring Missouri to this State, he returned to Perryville in the fall of 1887. The parental household included seven children, namely: Mary E., John, Jr., Samuel B., Anna C., Fanny R., Charles E. and Nellie C.

            John Kiefner, Jr., the subject of this sketch, received his education in the common schools of Perryville, Mo., and at the age of eighteen began the study of pharmacy in the drug-store of Thomas Layton, of that place, remaining two years. Subsequently he compounded drugs in Grenada, Miss., St. Louis, Mo., Uniontown, Ky., Brinkley, Ark., New Madrid, Springfield and Kansas City, Mo. He also clerked in a dry-goods store in Perryville some seventeen months, and attended the medicinal department of the University of Maryland, at Baltimore, for five months, and during the winter of 1882-83.

            On the 22d of November, 1884, Mr. Kiefner landed in Garden Plain, this county, with the munificent sum of $1.35 in his pocket. Good fortune attending him, however, he secured a position in the drug-store of Rowe & Saur, remaining thirteen months. He then invested in a quarter-section of land in Pratt County, and later acquired a like amount in Seward County. On the 26th of December, 1885, he purchased the stock-in-trade of his employers, paying for this with one of his quarter-sections of land. Since that time his career has been steadily progressive. In business he is what his neighbors call a "hustler." It seems almost incredible that in the short space of three years he has acquired by his own skill and good management the ownership of three fine quarter-sections of land, located in Sedgwick, Barber and Seward Counties, a neat and tasteful dwelling, and the stock of drugs, besides the store building, where he is usually to be found attending strictly to business. In the estimation of his friends he is a most genial, courteous neighbor and an excellent citizen -- just the kind to assist in building up this beautiful, growing, prairie State of Kansas.

            The marriage of John Kiefner, Jr., and Miss Nettie Rosenbery, of Medicine Lodge, Kan., took place on the 16th of May, 1886. This lady was the daughter of O. H. and Vickey (Craddick) Rosenbery, and was born in Shelby County, Ill., Oct. 26, 1862. Her death took place March 22, 1887. Of this union there was one child, a son, born Feb. 25, 1887, and who survived his mother but a few months, passing from earth June 24, 1887. Mr. K. was a second time married, April 4, 1888, to Miss Ida Walker, who was born in Rosamond, Ill., May 28, 1869, and is the daughter of Dr. G. M. and Amanda (Yeager) Walker.

             Mr. Kiefner, politically, votes the straight Republican ticket, and has held the office of Township Clerk for over two years. The fact that he is in the midst of Democracy, which is largely in the majority in Garden Plain Township, indicates his standing among his fellow-citizens. In religious matters he belongs to the Methodist Episcopal Church, and there, as elsewhere, is active and efficient.

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