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A[ARON] K. RIFE, cashier of the People's Savings Bank of Shellsburg, has been a resident of Benton county since 1865. He was born in Tuscarawas county, Ohio, in 1863, and is a son of John and Marie (Kaserman) Rife, for many years residents of Ohio, but originally from Switzerland, whence they came with their parents. They were reared in Ohio from early childhood, and were there married. John Rife was a mason by trade, but made his home on a farm, both in Ohio and Iowa; he first located in Canton township, and a year later bought another farm in the same township, where he and his wife spent the remainder of their lives. He died in December, 1894, in his seventy-second year, and his widow died in 1904, in her seventy-fifth year. She was a member of the Presbyterian church, and formerly of the Reformed church. Mr. Rife was a stanch Democrat. Mr. Rife and his wife had a large family of children. J. S., lives in Utah; Jesse lives in Nebraska; Simon died in Colorado, in the spring of 1908; Mrs. Sherwood, of Berkeley, California, and her husband are osteopathic physicians; James is a farmer in Canton township; Mrs. McVey, Mrs. Strain and Mrs. Stookey live in Shellsburg.
A. K. Rife was reared in Benton county, and received his education in the academy at Vinton and the Normal School at Dixon, Illinois; he taught fifteen years in Benton and Linn counties, and in the fall of 1898 was elected county superintendent of schools of Benton county, serving two terms of two years each. He then spent three years in mercantile business in Vinton and then lived on a farm until the organization of the bank, in August, 1906. He owns the home farm, a farm in Worth county, Iowa, and also residence property in Vinton. Mr. Rife is a public-spirited citizen, greatly interested in progress and the welfare of the community, and politically is a firm Prohibitionist. He is a member of the school board of Shellsburg, and has held other public positions of trust. He has always enjoyed the full confidence of his fellow citizens, and all have appreciated his sterling qualities and worth. He and his wife are both members of the Presbyterian church; he is affiliated with the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons and Independent Order of Odd Fellows, of Shellsburg, and both he and his wife belong to the Rebekah order.
Mr. Rife married, in Benton county, Sarah E., daughter of Henry Weinland, an early resident of Blairstown and vicinity. They have one son, James A., born in Shellsburg, March 3, 1908.
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