JAMES K. P. CONNER. The subject of this sketch is a gentleman of ripe intelligence, and a man of large benevolence and broad sympathies. He is a citizen of Jobe, Missouri, and the most efficient postmaster at that place. Mr. Conner is a native Hoosier, born in Dubois County, December 23, 1844, and the son of Rial and Clara (Berry) Conner, natives, respectively, of Tennessee and Illinois. The parents were married in Indiana, and the father died in Dubois County, that State, in 1861. The mother is still living and finds a comfortable home with her children.
All his life Mr. Conner was engaged in agricultural pursuits, and met with substantial results. Like many of the representative citizens of the county Mr. Conner was reared to farm life, and remained engaged in the duties on the same until August, 1862, when he joined the Ninety-third Indiana Volunteer Infantry, Company G, as sergeant, and served three years lacking eighteen days. During the war he was in the Southern States, and participated in the battle of Vicksburg, Jackson, Franklin and Nashville, Guntown, Holly Springs, and other battles and skirmishes. June 10, 1864, he received a gunshot wound in the right side, which at the time was pronounced a fatal wound. He was in the hospital at Memphis three months. This was the only wound he received, and he was never taken prisoner. After being wounded he rode 130 miles on the back of a mule to escape being made a prisoner. After the war he engaged in the mill business in Dubois County, Indiana, but four years later went to Washington, Daviess County, Indiana, where he opened a grocer store and carried it on for two years. After that he commenced farming in Dubois County, and continued the same four or five years. From there he moved to Missouri and located in Oregon County, where he started a saw mill, and continued in this business for six years. After that he branched out in the hotel business at Alton, continued this two years, and then bought 160 acres of land on Frederick River. This is an excellent tract of land, most of it is under cultivation, and Mr. Conner has met with good success.
While a resident of Indiana, in 1869, he was married to Miss Hannah Oxley, a native of Dubois Count, who died in the Hoosier State, a short time afterward. One child, deceased, was born to this union. In 1874 Mr. Conner married Miss Mary Abell, who was also a native of Indiana. Three children were the fruits of this union, two of whom are living, a son and daughter. In the year 1883 Mr. Conner married Miss Lucy Jenkins, who was born at Cape Girardeau, Missouri They have no children. Mr. Conner is a member of the A. O. U. W. at Alton, the G. A. R., Gatewood Post, and in politics is a Republican.