My Genealogy Hound

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 an 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. Stark 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.