Carl E. Kayser, son of Carl F. and Lillian P. (Eble) Kayser, was born May 20, 1889, in Newark, New Jersey. His father was born in the Grand Duchy of Baden, Germany, and his mother was born in the state of New Jersey. His father came to the United States at the age of eighteen years and has been in the teaching profession ever since, being now professor of Germanic languages in Hunter College, New York city.
Carl E. Kayser attended the public schools in Newark, New Jersey, and in New York City, and from 1905 to 1909 he attended Columbia University in New York city, from which he graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. Immediately after his graduation he entered the employ of the American Metal Company, Limited, and, after a thorough apprenticeship in their offices in New York, St. Louis, Denver and Joplin, came to Bartlesville, Oklahoma, in 1912, in the interest of this company. Here, after three months, he became President and general manager of an American Metal Company, Ltd., subsidiary, the Smelter Gas Company. This company supplies gas to the zinc smelting plants of the Bartlesville Zinc Company, the National Zinc Company and the Lanyon-Starr Company. After 1914 he became actively connected with the administration of the plants of the Bartlesville Zinc Company at Bartlesville and elsewhere.
In 1915 Mr. Kayser was married to Miss Mildred J. Leach of Bartlesville, Oklahoma, and they have become the parents of two sons and a daughter: Carl Mark, six years of age; Frederick Thomas, aged three; and Janet Marie, one year old.
As a side issue, in 1915 Mr. Kayser started breeding pure bred Holstein cows, and is today a three-fourths owner of an institution known as Prairie Mound Dairy, which breeds these animals on a large scale. This dairy, which is located one mile southwest of Bartlesville on a five-hundred-acre tract of land, is supplied with all modern equipment necessary for the successful conduct of the business. The company supplies milk daily to the city of Bartlesville and is the owner of the only herd in the County which stands accredited by the federal government as being free from tuberculosis. The people of Bartlesville buy from this dairy a brand of milk heretofore unknown there, which is Certified Milk.
On November 1, 1921, Mr. Kayser severed all connections with the Smelter Gas Company, American Metal Company, Limited, and the Bartlesville Zinc Company and became Vice President and general manager of the Mississippi Valley Oil Company, operating in Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas, and organized by himself. Mr. Kayser has shown marked ability and employs successful business methods. This is obviously manifested by the growing interests of his new company.
The business methods of Mr. Kayser have ever been such as will bear the closest scrutiny and investigation, hence the success he now enjoys comes as a reward for his industry and integrity. He is keenly interested in the business development of the community and in upholding her civic standards, thus becoming one of the substantial and influential citizens of his adopted city and state.