History of Hickory, Polk, Cedar, Dade and Barton Counties, MO
Cedar County Biography Section

   William Stark, dealer in general merchandise, Cedar Springs,
whose stock of goods is valued at $1,700, and whose annual 
sales equal about $7,000, established his business at Lebeck, 
October, 1878.  In 1884 he cut away the brush from where his 
present store is now standing, sold the first goods in the town,
and is the oldest and most substantial merchant in Cedar Springs.
He is also the proprietor of "Springs Hotel."  He was born in 
Lincoln County, Mo., in 1839, and is the son of James and 
Matilda (Hopkins) Stark, natives of South Carolina and Kentucky,
and born in 1804 and 1807, respectively. They resided in 
Lincoln County, Mo., until 1868, and then emigrated to Cedar 
County, where the father died in 1873.  He was of 
Welsh-Scotch-Irish descent, was left and orphan when very 
young, and , after growing up, followed the occupation of a 
farmer.  The mother died in 1879, and was a member of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church.  William Stark was the ninth of 
four sons and eleven daughters, and received a limited education
in the subscription schools.  Since then, by observation and 
study, he has improved his education greatly, and is considered
a well informed man on the general topics of the day.  At the 
age of seventeen he and an elder brother left home, went to an 
elder sister in Camden County, and one year after went to 
Cedar County.  Here William Stark married Miss Lorinda Fisher,
a native of Franklin County, Mo., and the daughter of William 
and Nancy Fisher, natives of Kentucky, but who spent the last 
of their days in Franklin County, Mo.  To Mr. and Mrs. Start 
were born eleven children, three sons and eight daughters—nine
living.  Mr. Stark farmed until 1878, after which he engaged 
in mercantile business.  He has a good farm of 205 acres, and 
is also the owner of considerable property in town. In 1864 
he joined Company M, Fifteenth Missouri Volunteer Cavalry, 
and served until the close of the war, receiving his discharge
at Springfield in July, 1865.  He had previously served in the
Second Provisional service in Northeastern Missouri.  He was 
justice of the peace from 1866 to 1867; is a member of the 
Masonic fraternity, Clintonville Lodge No. 482; and he and his
wife have been members of the Methodist Episcopal Church since
1866.  Previous to that time he had been a member of the 
Baptist Church.  He was postmaster at Lebeck for over two 
years, and is one of the prominent citizens of the county.  
He affiliates with the Republican party in politics, and cast 
his first presidential vote for Lincoln in 1864.  

History of Hickory, Polk, Cedar, Dade and Barton Counties,
Missouri, published by Goodspeed, 1889--Pages 780, 781
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