In the book's own words, not ours, with obvious scanning errors fixed. A few names of people born after 1905 are withheld for privacy. Families often supplied these stories to the publisher, so check key dates.
Born 1882
From Past and present of Nodaway County, Missouri (1910)
LESTER OAKLEY STAPLES.
One of the progressive and deserving young agriculturists of Green township, Nodaway county, is Lester Oakley Staples, who was born in Atchison county, Missouri, May 6, 1882, and is the son of Rudolph Richmond and Hannah Isabel (Fine) Staples, the father born in Wisconsin in 1853, being the son of Abial Richmond and Abigail (Ward) Staples. Abigail Ward was a relative of Montgomery Ward, the famous merchant of Chicago. When Rudolph Staples was about two years old the family moved to Nod away county, Missouri, making the trip with ox teams in 1855. locating below Hopkins and followed farming, and there Rudolph grew to maturity and lived there until 1876 when he and Hannah I. Fine were married, moving soon afterwards to Atchison county, locating on nearly a straight line west of Burlington Junction. Abial Staple, the grandfather, had buried a sum of money in Wisconsin, before coming here, knowing that it would be unsafe to bring it with him, having the family to protect at the same time. He afterwards went back alone on horseback and got it, making a ride there and back of about fourteen hundred miles.
Hannah Isabel Fine was born in Indiana, the daughter of Harrison and Elizabeth (Emerich) Fine. The Emerichs were in partnership with the wealthy Astor family. The mother of Lester O. Staples came west with her parents when she was a little child, the family locating near Hopkins, this county, then moved across the line into Iowa where Hannah grew to maturity and where she married Rudolph R. Staples. In 1876 they moved to Atchison county and there they were living when their son, Lester O., was born. There the father now owns a fine farm of four hundred and eighty acres, and he has been very successful. Lester O. is one of a family of four children, namely: Arvilla Lavetta, Weltha Joanna, Lester Oakley, of this review, and Rudolph Richmond, Jr. All but Lester O. are living at home with their parents in Atchison county; however, for the past five years this family have made their home in Burlington Junction, though still operating their farm in Atchison county.
Lester O. Staples grew to maturity in Atchison county on the home farm, where he early in life learned the various phases of agriculture, which he has adopted as his life work. He received an excellent education in the high school and college at Tarkio, having attended school there for a period of nine years.
On December 28, 1904. Mr. Staples married Edna Pearl Smith, daughter of James William and Adeline ( Johnson) Smith. The mother is a sister of Augustus Johnson, of Quitman. The Smith family are widely known. Her father was a prominent farmer in the northwestern part of Green township for many years and he is now a well known resident of Burlington Junction, having been a man of influence in this part of the county. Mrs. Staples was born in Green township, May 9, 1884, and there she attended school and received a good text-book training. She also attended Lawrence University, at Appleton, Wisconsin. For a year after their marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Staples lived on his father's farm, then bought a farm of two hundred acres in Green township, six and one-half miles southwest of Burlington Junction, where he now resides. He has a rich and productive farm, well improved and well kept, and his home is an attractive and pleasant one. He is well equipped for carrying on general farming and, judging from the large success that he has achieved so early in life, it is safe to predict that the future holds in store for him much of good and promise.
Two children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Staples, namely: [name withheld], born September 10, 1906. and [name withheld], born November 27, 1908, died January 8, 1910. when fourteen months old.
Mr. Staples is a member of the Masonic order at Burlington Junction and one would judge from his daily life that he is making a persistent effort to live up to its high precepts, since his conduct among his fellowmen is that of an honest, straightforward, genteel gentleman.
As printed in Past and present of Nodaway County, Missouri (1910). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.
Named in this biography: Burlington Junction
The printed record stops around 1910. We trace your line from there down to you, with every source cited.