PROF. G. M. SILER. This able, experienced and successful educator of Douglas County, Missouri, is a native of Holt County, this State, where he was born July 28, 1864, a son of Granville L. and Nancy J. (Bohart) Siler, for a history of whom see the sketch of J. G. Siler, of Taney County.
Prof. George M. Siler received his education in the schools of Arno, Ava and Silver Shade, and eventually graduated in the teacher’s course from the well-known Bradleyville School. He was brought up on a farm, and while following the plow or wielding the hoe he learned lessons of perseverance and industry which were of the most material use to him when he started out to fight life’s battle for himself, as well as strengthened and improved his naturally strong constitution. He began teaching school in 1882 and has followed that occupation in this and Taney Counties up to the present and has won an enviable reputation as an educator, being thorough, painstaking and firm in his management. At the present time he presides over the school at Rome, and as he has given much attention to school work and has taken every means of improving his methods of instruction, he has made a success of this work. In addition to teaching he has given considerable attention to farming and owns a fine tract of land, comprising 160 acres, near Rome, a considerable portion of which lie devotes to the raising of stock.
He has always supported the principles of the Republican party, has been active in the political affairs of his section, and in 1888 was elected to the office of county assessor, a position he filled with ability for two years. He led to the altar Miss Rachel A. Jennings, a daughter of Dempsey C. and Martha A. (Curtis) Jennings, the former of whom was born in Kentucky and the latter in Tennessee. They came to Missouri with their parents and settled in Lawrence County, were married there, and are now living in Stone County, at Ponce de Leon Springs. They formerly lived on a farm near Rome, were accounted among the leading farmers of this county, and still own their farm at this point. The children born to them are as follows: Rachel A.; Mary E., wife of James Maxwell, of Stone County; William, who resides in Stone County; Thomas H., Tela J. A., Ethel T. and Elender. Mr. Jennings was a soldier in Company D, Sixth Missouri Cavalry, and served throughout the war, and owing to the hard service he experienced he has since lost his eyesight, for which he receives a pension of $72 per month from the Government. He was a strong Union man during the war, and was a participant in thirty hard battles. He is a Democrat politically. Mrs. Siler was born in Lawrence County, on March 24, 1869, and she and Mr. Siler have two children: Clyde and James C. They lost one son, Irl. They are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and are highly esteemed in the county in which they live.