Jeffers, Thomas J.

JEFFERS, BEELS, PATTERSON, STIER, EMERY, DENSMORE

Posted By: Volunteer Transcriber
Date: 8/31/2009 at 11:34:40

Jeffers, Thomas J.

In such men as Thomas J. Jeffers, farmer of Independence Township, Jasper County, there is peculiar satisfaction in offering their life histories as justification for the compilation of works of this character, not that their lives have been such as to gain them particularly wide notoriety or the admiring plaudits of their fellow men, but that they have lived upright lives and been true to the confidence reposed in them, having shown such integrity as to entitle them to the regard of all.

Mr. Thomas J. Jeffers was born in this Township on April 22, 1873, and here he grew to manhood and received his education, and, with the exception of a short time in the West, he has been a continuous resident in this vicinity. He is the son of Joseph Jeffers, who was born in Ohio. He was among the early settlers of Jasper County and here spent his last days on a farm in Independence Township, dying in 1877; his wife died in 1876. They were the parents of five children, two daughters and three sons, namely: Mrs. Clara Beels, born March 11, 1857, lives in Baxter; Mrs. Edward Patterson lives in Independence Township; William, born June 15, 1853, lives in Nebraska; Thomas J., of this review; Walter, born May 23, 1874, lives in Independence Township. These children were all born and reared in this Township and were educated in the local schools.

Thomas J. Jeffers was reared on the home farm and there he assisted with the general work about the place during the summertime, and he has made farming his life work. He owns thirty acres of good land in Independence Township and has a comfortable home there. In connection with his farming he operates a threshing machine and corn shelling outfit, doing a big annual business with each, being one of the best-known threshers in the County, enjoying substantial, returns from a large territory.

Mr. Jeffers was married on November 11, 1894, to Lillie Blanche Stier, who was born in Clear Creek Township, Jasper County, Iowa, August 6, 1876, and here she grew to womanhood and was educated, and with the exception of five years has been a continuous resident of the County. She is the daughter of John and Polly (Emery) Stier, the father born in Michigan on April 25, 1849, and died in Clear Creek Township, this County, on December 31, 1897, the mother was born in Wisconsin on August 7, 1859, and is living in Mingo, Iowa. They were early settlers of this County.

There were seven children in the Stier family, five of whom are living, namely: Amos and Mamie, twins, born in 1878, the former residing in Minnesota, the latter having died in infancy; Albert, born in 1880, lives in Mingo; Mrs. Minnie Densmore, born in 1889, lives in California; Ileon, born July 4, 1897, lives in Mingo; Lee died in infancy. These children were born in Clear Creek Township, the rest in Jasper County.

To Mr. and Mrs. Jeffers has been born one daughter, Zella, whose birth occurred on May 31, 1896; she is attending the rural schools of this community.

Politically, Mr. Jeffers is a Republican. He is a member of Jasper Lodge No. 168, Knights of Pythias, of Baxter. Mrs. Jeffers is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church of Clear Creek.Past and Present of Jasper County Iowa B. F. Bowden & Company, Indianapolis, IN, 1912 Page 1138.