Elmer E. Kiefer, the subject of this sketch, is a native of Mercer county, Pennsylvania, born near Neshanock, in 1867. When eleven years of age he came overland with his parents to Kansas and settled in Jewell county. He was reared on a farm, in the meantime receiving a common school education, and when he attained the age of twenty years, entered the State University at Lawrence, Kansas, and graduated from that school in 1889. He then engaged in teaching in the Jewell county schools and after several years of successful work he completed a teacher's course in the Salina Normal. In 1807 he became associated with Mr. Carroll, of the present firm of Carpenter & Carroll, and established a general mercandise[sic] business. In the summer of 1902 he sold his interest to Reverend Carpenter and has since been engaged in clerking.

Mr. Kiefer is a son of George W. Kiefer, an old veteran of the army of the Potomac. He served in Company C, Fifty-seventh Pennsylvania Volunteers, over three years. He received a gunshot wound in the left side, from which he is still a sufferer. He participated in many battles and was an inmate of Libby Prison a short time. He was discharged in 1864, just prior to the battle of Cedar creek. George W. Kiefer was a resident of Jewell county for many years. He is now retired and lives in Lawrence, Kansas. Our subject's mother was Salina Lienberger; her grandfather was a German emigrant and settled in Mercer county, Pennsylvania, in an early day, and lived to be almost a centenarian. Mr. Kiefer's brother, W.L., is also a successful teacher and a former principal of the Jamestown schools. The other members of the family are, Daisy, Mrs. Widrig, of Jewell county; Norman and Cecil Darline.

Mr. Kiefer was married in 1898, to Miss Helen Krom, of Beloit, Kansas. Mrs. Kiefer was also a teacher, having been associated with the Mitchell county schools for several years and also taught at Harwood, North Dakota. Her father, Peter Krom, was a soldier in the Civil war. He served with a Wisconsin regiment. Mr. Krom emigrated to Kansas in an early day and lives on the land he homesteaded, near Beloit. Politically, Mr. Kiefer is a Democrat. He is a member of the Jamestown board of education and one of the councilmen. Socially he is a Mason and a member of the order of Woodmen of America. Himself and wife were members and active workers of the Methodist Episcopal church. Mr. Kiefer is assistant superintendent of the Sabbath school and is trustee and steward in the church. The Keifer's occupy a pleasant cottage home and are ranked among Jamestown's most esteemed citizens.