Marion County FlArchives Biographies.....Meffert, John Michael ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/fl/flfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com February 2, 2008, 11:45 pm Author: B. F. Johnson John Michael Meffert Ocala is one of the liveliest cities of Florida. This is due to its exceptionally enterprising and capable business men. Among these men no one ranks higher than John Michael Meffert, whose business is rather hard to describe. He is a manufacturer of lime, of lumber and of barrel material. He is a farmer, in several directions, being a truck farmer, a stock farmer, and fruit farmer. Mr. Meffert is one of those versatile men who seems able to turn his hand to a variety of occupations and make each one a success. He was born in Dorf, Allendorf, Saxe Meiningen, Germany. His parents emigrated to Michigan when he was a small boy. He obtained such education as the ordinary public schools afforded and, owing to delicate health, as a youth, came to Marion county on December 7, 1884. He secured employment in a saw mill at Reddick. In three years he had mastered the business and set up on his own account at Lowell. Even at that time he recognized the possibilities of agriculture in Florida, and within a year after engaging in the lumber business on his own account, he was also farming. He soon learned the unwisdom of buying feed to keep up his stock, and went to growing his feed. It was an easy step for a man of his ability and sound judgment to go from that to raising stock. He has made a success of his truck farm, of producing his own stock feed and of raising fine mules and horses. He now has forty or more mules of his own raising besides fine horses and colts. He was one of the prime movers of the fair, and a large exhibitor, winning prizes on his stock display and on his agricultural display. He has proved to the farmers of Marion county to be a most notable example of making the farm self-supporting in all directions and thus a profitable business. In everything that he has undertaken, his industry, his wise planning, and his sound judgment have brought success. One does not think of Florida as a hay country, yet in 1908 he had one hundred and fifty tons of surplus hay. He successfully cultivated in that year seventy acres of watermelons, thirty-five acres of cantaloupes, thirty acres snap beans, ninety acres velvet beans, eighty acres oats, one hundred and fifty acres corn, twenty-five acres of peanuts, four acres sweet potatoes, one acre Irish potatoes. These items are given to show what can be done upon that soil, and in that latitude when the right man is at the head. He has five farms. He owns individually two thousand acres of land. The firm of Meffert and Taylor owns fourteen thousand acres and the firm of Meffert and Maynard owns eight thousand acres practically all in Marion county. On his stock farm he carries one hundred and twenty head of cattle, six brood mares, eighteen unbroken colts, sixty fattening hogs, and eighty-five head of young hogs and breeders. All of his farms are highly improved with the best machinery, with good wells, with gasoline and wind mill motors. He became interested in the lime business in 1892, buying kilns at Lowell. In 1897 he added the old Ocala Lime Company at Ocala, and in 1900 the kilns at Oakhurst. From small beginnings and from run down plants he has built up to a present capacity of five hundred barrels of lime a day, and in February 1907, organized the Florida Lime Company with $60,000 capital paid in, and is practically the owner of all the stock. The lime business drew him into the making of barrels and the barrels used for the lime are made in his own plants by competent coopers. He has never taken an active part in politics owing to the diversity and extent of his business interests, but his fellow-townsmen pressed him into service as a member of the City Council, and after one year's service in that body he was elected president which position he now holds. He is a live member of the Board of Trade. In religion he is a communicant of the Lutheran Church. In fraternal circles be is affiliated with the Elks, Knights of Pythias and Fraternal Union. On December 7, 1886 he married Miss Nancy Barnhouse, of Berrien county, Mich. They have nine children and Mr. Meffert is far more proud of his big and healthy family of lusty youngsters than he is of the large measure of business success which he has achieved. He has done something more and better than merely make money; he has won the confidence and the esteem of his fellow-citizens of Marion county. Full of public spirit, he is ready at all times to contribute his time, his talents and his money to anything that will be for the betterment of Ocala and Marion county, and on top of all this, he takes keen pleasure in outdoor life and healthy sports, which helps to keep him young and healthy and in touch with the growing generation. Altogether, he is a ctizen in whom Marion county can justly take pride and who has given value received for all that he has gained. Additional Comments: Extracted from: FLORIDA EDITION MAKERS OF AMERICA AN HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL WORK BY AN ABLE CORPS OF WRITERS VOL. III. Published under the patronage of The Florida Historical Society, Jacksonville, Florida ADVISORY BOARD: HON. W. D. BLOXHAM COL. FRANK HARRIS HON. R. W. DAVIS SEN. H. H. McCREARY HON. F. P. FLEMING W. F. STOVALL C. A. CHOATE, SECRETARY 1909 A. B. CALDWELL ATLANTA, GA. COPYRIGHT 1909 B. F. JOHNSON Photo: http://www.usgwarchives.net/fl/marion/photos/bios/meffert26gbs.jpg File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/fl/marion/bios/meffert26gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/flfiles/ File size: 6.0 Kb