The subject of this sketch, G.L. Sams is one of the most progressive farmers of the Solomon valley. While his land does not consist of extensive acres every available part of it is under a high state of cultivation, and there is a charming sense of rest suggested by this pretty country home with its vine covered cottage, well kept lawn, stately windmill and other out buildings all freshly and brightly painted; the house a model of neatness and good taste that bespeaks the refinement and culture of its occupants.

Mr. Sams is a native of Missouri, born in Shelby county, in 1842 and reared in Marion county. He is a son of Joseph and Nancy (Yater) Sams. Mr. Sams' great-grandfather, with three brothers emigrated from England to America and upon arriving in the new world they took diverging paths and their identity was lost to each other. The branch our subject sprang from settled in North Carolina and from that state to Missouri in 1815, when his father was but four years old and in the very earliest settlement of that state. Mr. Sams' father was a farmer and lived in Marion county until his death in April, 1889. His maternal ancestry were of German origin and settled in Kentucky. His grandfather moved from that state to Indiana, where his mother was born and from Indiana to Missouri in 1832. She died in 1881.

Mr. Sams grew to manhood in Marion county and received his education in a log school house. He has been a farmer the greater part of his life, rented his farm in 1882 and engaged in the harness business three years, but returned to the homestead. In July of 1901, he became associated with Thomas Shanks in general merchandise in Simpson, Mitchell county, just over the line from Cloud. Their capital stock is two thousand dollars. They are doing a successful business on a cash basis.

Mr. Sams was married in 1871, to Miss Amanda Day, of Marion county, Missouri, and immediately started for Kansas. She is a daughter of Thomas and Hannah (Corder) Day, and was born in 1845. Her father was a farmer and carpenter. The Days were of southern origin and came from Kentucky to Virginia, and thence to Missouri, where her father died before the war. Her mother died July 5, 1871. To Mr. and Mrs. Sams two sons have been born. Joseph Clyde who has just attained his majority is associated with his father on the farm and gives evidence of becoming like him a practical farmer. Earl, aged seventeen, graduated in the common school at Simpson and was a student of the Beloit commercial college one year. He is manager of the general merchandise store of Shanks & Sams, at Simpson. These sons are both intelligent and popular young men.

Mr. Sams lives on the homestead he secured in 1871. Their first place of abode was the primitive dugout and two years later a cellar was dug and walled up with rock with floor and roof of dirt, where they lived several years. Mr. Sams was at one time engaged in sheep raising quite extensively and made it a success. He started on fifty head of ewes to be raised on the share. This was in 1875, and he continued in the sheep raising industry for about a dozen years. He sent three hundred head west which netted him $1,000. He has a herd of forty finely graded Shorthorn cattle and has been a successful hog raiser, although in 1895 he lost about forty head from cholera. Mr. Sams is a Democrat and takes an intelligent interest in political affairs. He has been an efficient member of the school board of district number thirty-nine for twelve years or more. The family are members of the Baptist church at Simpson. Mr. and Mrs. Sams are very worthy and estimable people and retain that hospitality the Missourians are famous for. They are good citizens, people of integrity and highly esteemed.