My Genealogy Hound

ANDY DEXHIMER. While the stock business is not the most prominent industry of Pettis County, it is at present receiving a greater proportion of the attention of the people than in former years. Among those who have contributed to the development of this industry in the county and who have in its pursuit gained a commendable degree of material success, prominent mention should be made of Mr. Dexhimer, one of Sedalia’s foremost citizens. In addition to the buying and selling of cattle, he conducts the largest wholesale meat business in the city, and is carrying on a large and profitable trade among the people of this section.

The Dexhimer family is of German origin. The parents of our subject, William and Catherine (Rodman) Dexhimer, were born in Hesse-Darmstadt, Germany, and thence emigrated to America, settling on a farm near Cleveland, Ohio. During their residence at that place our subject was born, February 5, 1851. From there in 1860 they came to Missouri, and after a sojourn of several years in Ste. Genevieve County, came to Sedalia, in March, 1867. In this city the father engaged in gardening and in the dairy business until his death, which occurred at the age of sixty-five. His wife passed away in Cleveland, Ohio, at the age of eighty-six.

Of the family of eight children, six of whom survive, our subject is the youngest in order of birth. He was a mere child when his parents moved to Missouri, and his boyhood years were passed in Ste. Genevieve County, where he was a pupil in the district schools. At the age of sixteen he came to Sedalia, where for a time he assisted his father. In 1880 he embarked in the wholesale butcher business, which he has since conducted on an increasing scale. He has a slaughter-house on Brushy Creek, near the tracks of the Missouri Pacific Railroad, the main building being 24x36 feet in dimensions. In it are to be found the latest appliances for the slaughtering of stock and the preparing of the beef for the market.

The real-estate holdings of Mr. Dexhimer include his elegant residence on West Second Street and a farm of sixty-one acres in Cooper County, near Tipton, Mo. All that he has represents the result of years of arduous toil, for he has had to depend entirely upon his own exertions. In matters of public interest he gives his active co-operation, and his support may always be relied upon to secure needed municipal improvements. While not a partisan, he is firm in his allegiance to the Republican party. Socially he is connected with Unity Lodge, A. O. U. W., and in religious belief is a member of the English Lutheran Church. His marriage, which was solemnized in California, Mo., in 1875, united him with Miss Helen Neighbors, who was born in Chariton County, this state. Their six children are named Charles, Mattie, Christine, James, Andrew and David, the eldest of whom assists his father in business, and the others are students in the Sedalia schools.