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Below is a family biography included in The History of Dallas County, Missouri published by Goodspeed Publishing Company in 1889.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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W. Smithpeter. The milling interests of Dallas County, Mo., are ably represented by Mr. Smithpeter, who is the proprietor of the Buffalo Roller Mills, and is a dealer in flour and meal and native lumber. He was born in Laclede County, Mo., on the 2d of July, 1849, his parents, Alfred and Mary C. (Dugger) Smithpeter, having immigrated from their native State of Tennessee to that county in 1840. Here the father purchased 700 acres of timber land, and succeeded in improving a great portion of it previous to his death, which occurred in 1861, he being killed by bushwhackers. His widow and six of his ten children are still living, the latter’s names being Angeline (wife of G. Dethurum), Albert, Wilburn, Ellen (wife of M. H. Case), Marietta and Florence. Wilburn Smithpeter, whose name heads this sketch, was reared and educated in Laclede County, Mo., and remained with his parents until twenty-one years of age. In 1870 he came to Buffalo and engaged in the drug business, which business he followed until 1883, when he purchased the mill he is now operating. In 1887 he put in the roller process, and now manufactures as fine flour as can be had in any city, and supplies the demand for many miles around. His mill is a three-story frame building, run by steam, and has a capacity of fifty barrels per twenty-four hours. He also owns a valuable and well-improved farm of sixty acres, and is engaged in the lumber business, having a saw-mill attached to his grist mill. Mr. Smithpeter is one of the progressive citizens of the county, and has done all in his power to encourage worthy enterprises. He is a member of the Masons, the I. O. O. F. and the A. O. U. W., being a Select Knight in the latter. In 1873 he was married to Lydia A. Shemberger, a native of Indiana, by whom he has two children: Charles W. and Herbert Y. He and wife are worthy and consistent members of the Christian Church.

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This family biography is one of 74 biographies included in The History of Dallas County, Missouri published in 1889.  For the complete description, click here: Dallas County, Missouri History, Genealogy, and Maps

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