J. M. Sanger is manager of the Concordia Bottling Works. As this is a business which contributes to the larger commercial relations of Concordia and the surrounding territory, Mr. Sanger’s business position is accordingly one of influence and importance.
The bottling works were established by E. J. Messal in 1884, and thus the business had a continuons history of more than thirty years. Subsequently a stock company took the management and ownership of the business, but in 1912 Mr. Sanger bought the plant from the stock company and is now its manager. He had made a thorough study of the business, had introduced the most scientific methods and had a thoroughly sanitary equipment, including some of the finest machinery made for the bottling business. The output of the plant is 300 cases per day, and besides a large trade elsewhere his superior stock supplies the Western Central Branch territory.
A native son of Cloud County, where he was born August 2, 1877, Mr. J. M. Sanger had been known to the people of this community all his life and had well earned the respect and esteem of the entire body of citizenship. His parents, A. T. and Ruby J. Sanger, came to Kansas in 1875, taking up a homestead six miles south of Concordia in Cloud County. His father was a veteran of the Civil war, having served as a member of Company C in the Eighty-sixth Illinois Infantry. During his first year in the army he was disabled, and afterwards was granted his honorable discharge. He was affilisted with the Grand Army of the Republic up to his death.
In Cloud County Mr. J. M. Sanger grew up and received his early training and since starting out in life for himself had given an excellent account of his abilities and industry. He is an active member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. In 1905 he married Miss Viola E. McIntyre, daughter of Lewis McIntyre. They are the parents of one son, Lee T., born in 1906.