is the possessor of two hundred and seventy-five acres in addition to a small tract which he owns in partnership with his brother. He has never married. He is a public-spirited citizen and is ever willing to give his assistance to anything that will conduce to the welfare of the community. In politics he is a stanch republican.
J. F. LINGENFELTER.
J. F. Lingenfelter, a prominent resident of Collins, is a member of the firm of Lingenfelter Brothers, one of the leading and best known mercantile concerns of Story county, conducting stores at Collins and Maxwell, Iowa, and one at Thayer, Kansas. His birth occurred in Warren county, Iowa, on the 4th of April, 1857, his parents being George W. and Sarah E. (Gilman) Ligenfelter, natives of Kentucky and Pennsylvania respectively. Their marriage was celebrated in Indiana, where Michael Gilman, the maternal grandfather of our subject, conducted a woolen mill, George W. Lingenfelter entering his service as a commercial salesman. In 1855 Mr. Gilman established woolen mills at Palmyra, Warren county, Iowa, where Mr. Lingenfelter was associated with him until about 1868. At that time Mr. Gilman sold his business at Palmyra and removed to Summerset, Iowa, where he erected flouring and woolen mills. On severing his business relations with his father-in-law Mr. Lingenfelter took up farming in Warren county, also spending some time as clerk in the Palmyra stores. In 1880 he embarked in merchandising at Palmyra in association with his son, J. F., the partnership being maintained for about three years, when George W. Lingenfelter retired, J. F. Lingenfelter continuing the business for some three years longer.
On the expiration of that period our subject disposed of his mercantile interests and began buying and selling horses in association with his brother, W. E., being thus engaged until 1890. In January, 1891, the brothers came to Collins and bought the mercantile establishment of Hidy Brothers, beginning operations under the firm style of Lingenfelter Brothers. They continued dealing in horses, however, J. F. Lingenfelter managing the mercantile business and his brother the live stock interests. In 1904 they purchased the mercantile establishment of Miller & Miller in Maxwell, Mr. Lingenfelter of this review assuming the management of both the Collins and Maxwell stores. In 1905 they opened another branch store in Cambridge, of which W. E. Lingenfelter took charge. Three years later, however, they disposed of this store, trading it for Kossuth county land. In the fall of 1910 W. E. Lingenfelter opened a branch store at Thayer, Kansas, and has since conducted the same. George W. Lingenfelter, the father of our subject, came to Collins in 1891 and was actively engaged in the conduct of the business of Lingenfelter Brothers for ten years. In 1901