the community in. which the mill is located, and to his careful management and enterprise the satisfactory business enjoyed by the company is due. He has had charge of thirteen different mills and has thus gained broad practical experience, which now enables him to give capable management to his individual interests. The equipment of the mill is unusually good for an establishment of this extent. The mill building, a substantial brick structure of three stories, with ten-foot basement and engine and boiler room, was erected in 1891, and has an Allis equipment throughout for a daily capacity of two hundred barrels of flour. The main building is forty by fifty feet in size, with an addition thirty-six by forty feet in size, for office and storage purposes. The mill has fire protection from a standpipe to the top of the mill, with hose on every floor, and connection with the village waterworks. It also is steamheated throughout. The company enjoys a steady flour trade, both locally and wholesale. Its brands are "Alpine" (full patent) and "Royal" (straight), while "Colby Patent" and "Splendid" for the larger bakeries are as well known as any flours in Michigan. Besides handling all kinds of grain, seeds, etc., the company sells annually quite an amount of hard and soft coal, with storage rooms for five hundred tons each, the sidings and warehouses occupying an advantageous location convenient for local trade and shipments.

The manager, Mr. Conklin, is very proud of his mill from every point of view. He particularly insists that the mill should be kept like a home, and he extends a welcome to callers and inspectors at any and all times. He is a practical miller in all details, and came into charge of this plant from the milling section of central and northern Wisconsin.

On the 24th of August, 1898, was celebrated the marriage of E. S. Conklin and Miss Katheryn Cornish, a native of Wisconsin. They now have two sons, Roscoe S. and Horace F. The parents are widely known in Marcellus and the hospitality of the best homes is freely accorded them. Mr. Conklin is a valued member of the Masonic fraternity, being identified with both the lodge and chapter, and in his life he is most loyal to its teachings and tenets. He has made a creditable business record as a man of ability and trustworthiness and is thoroughly conversant with his trade, and added to a complete command of the technical side of the business is an executive ability and keen insight into trade relations and possibilities.

CLINTON L. KESTER.

Clinton L. Kester, the present postmaster of Marcellus, whose public-spirited citizenship stands as an unquestioned fact in his life, was born in Parkville, St. Joseph county, Michigan, December 14, 1861. He is a son of Adam H. and Emaline (Bodmer) Kester, the former a native of Pennsylvania, and the latter of Ohio. In early life they became

residents of Michigan and were married in this state. The father devoted much of his time and energies during his business career to mercantile pursuits, save that the last fifteen years of his life were spent upon a farm in Missouri, where he died February 14, 1906, at the age of seventy-four years. He had long survived his wife, who passed away on the 14th of November, 1876, when thirty-nine years of age. In his political views Mr. Kester was a stalwart Republican. In his family were six children: Millie, who is now living in Missouri; Clinton L., of this review; Herman; Ada, the wife of O. F. Wilson, also of Missouri; Frank, whose home is in St. Joseph, Missouri; and Burton, of the same

state.

Clinton L. Kester was a youth of fourteen years when he accompanied his parents on their removal to Marcellus. He worked in his father's store for about ten years, thus acquiring his early business. training and experience. He afterward went to Colorado, where he engaged in clerking for a time and later he joined his father, who had removed to Missouri and was there engaged in farming. After an absence of two years spent in the west, Clinton L. Kester returned to Marcellus, Michigan, and again entered the field of business activity here as a general merchant of the firm of Kester & Arnold. This relation was maintained for four years, when Mr. Kester withdrew and afterward engaged in clerking in the general store of S. Sterns & Company, in which capacity he served until appointed postmaster eight years ago. He has recently received his third appointment in the office, the duties of which he has discharged with credit to himself and general satisfaction to the public. He owns a fifty-acre vineyard, one mile east of the village, which he oversees and which is kept in excellent condition, yielding large crops. His political allegiance has always been given to the Republican party and he is thoroughly in sympathy with its principles and policy. For four years he served as treasurer of the village and was a faithful custodian of its funds, while at all times he is loyal to those interests which tend to promote public progress and improvement. His social relations connect him with the Masons, the Knights of Pythias and the Knights of the Maccabees, and he is regarded as a valued representative of these organizations, exemplifying in his life the beneficent spirit of the different orders which are based upon the idea of the brotherhood of man.

JOSEPH Q. CURRY.

Joseph Q. Curry is one of the native sons of Michigan, who has found in this state ample opportunity for the exercise of his native talents and has become fully cognizant of the fact that in Michigan earnest labor brings a sure and just reward, for through his close application and earnest efforts he has become one of the substantial residents of Cass county. He now makes his home in Marcellus and was