Biographical Sketch of John Kieffer, St. Joseph, Buchanan County, MO

>From "History of Buchanan County, Missouri, Published 1881, St. Joseph
Steam Printing Company, Printers, Binders, Etc., St. Joseph, Missouri.
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John Kieffer, wholesale liquor dealer, may be numbered among the most
successful business men of St. Joseph.  He is a man who owes his 
success to his own energy and industry.  Without having any schooling
when he was young, he had a hard struggle with life.  But he over came
all difficulties, improved himself, bent all his energy to one point
and reached it.  He was born July 9, 1837, at Hesperingen, Luxemburg.  
When ten years old, his parents died, and John left home and went to
Frace, with an object to get work, and this he obtained from a farmer,
who paid him a mere trifle.  He worked for five years, and in 1852,
returned to his home, where he served his apprenticeship as a black-
smith, for two years, with his brother-in-law.  Then again went to
France and worked at his trade up to 1858.  His brother, Peter, who
had been in California, had paid a visit to Europe, and when returning
to America, persuaded John to accompany him.  This he did March 15,
1858, and arrived May 7th at New York City, when, after a few days he
started west.  He visited Chicago, Dubuque, Iowa, St. Louis, and 
finally on July 4, 1858, came to St. Joseph, where he settled and 
worked for three years at his trade.  In 1861, he opened a blacksmith
shop on Frederick Avenue, which he carried for four years.  To recover
his failing health he made a trip over the plains to Denver, in 1865,
and returned in the spring of 1866.  He then paid a four months visit
to Europe and returned in July, 1866 to St. Joseph, where he started
a hotel and saloon, in which business he was engaged up to May, 1868,
then opened a summer garden at Corby's Grove, which he managed for one
year.  He then engaged in the ice business, and in 1876, formed a 
partnership with Christian Mast and Joe Schreiber and started the St.
Joseph Ice Company, and of which business he is now sole manager.  On
October 20, 1880, he opened, with Mr. Koenigsmann, under the firm,
Kieffer, Koenigsman & Co., a wholesale liquor and wine business.  Mr.
Kieffer married December 10, 1861, Miss Katharina Ohler.  They have 
had four children: John Peter, born September 13, 1862, died July 20,
1876; Henry, born June 18, 1864; Emma Louise, born November 16, 1866;
Louis Albert, born September 20, 1868.

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