nifong

ALEXANDER NIFONG

Alexander Nifong, Sr., an old and highly respected citizen of Fredericktown, was born in Cape Girardeau County, Mo., in 1808, and is the son of George Nifong, who was born in Davidson County, N. C., in 1783, and who immigrated to Missouri in1805, and settled near where Marble Hill is now located. In 1818 he moved to Madison County, located one mile east of Fredericktown, and here purchased 100 acres of land. He died in 1873. He was one of the first white men to make a permanent settlement in what is now Bollinger County, Mo. He was the father of eight children, two yet living: Alexander and George W. Alexander was ten years old when he came to Madison County, was reared on the farm, and at the age of nineteen commenced working for himself. In 1832 he married Miss Elvira Arnet, who was born in Madison County in 1814. She was the daughter of John Arnet, who settled in Madison County in 1814, one mile south of the county seat. After marriage Mr. Nifong commenced mining at Mine La Motte, but owing to the failure of his wife's health, gave it up at the end of four years. He purchased a farm one mile north of Fredericktown and began his career as a tiller of the soil. It was on this farm that Mr. Nifong lived until 1886, when he divided it between his two sons. His boyhood and youth were spent among the hills and vales of Madison County, and now in the sunset of life, he sits musing over the varied and eventful scenes, which pass in retrospect before his vision. He has lived to see the almost boundless forest, through which he in youth and early manhood hunted the deer and other wild animals, transformed into broad and waving fields of grain interspersed with farms and fine dwellings. Mr. Nifong lost his wife in 1869. He is the father of four children now living: Elizabeth (wife of Samuel P. Flemming of St. Francois County). William (an M. D. of Fredericktown), Pattie (wife of William Richie) and Alexander, Jr. Dr. William Nifong graduated at St. Louis Medical College in 1866, and has since been an active and successful physician and surgeon of Fredericktown. He was born in 1842, and in 1866 he married Miss Eliza, daughter of Col. William Anthony. Mrs. Nifong was born in Madison County in 1842, and to her marriage were born three children: Frank, Walter and Sylvester. Dr. Nifong is a member of the Southeastern Medical Association, and was a charter member of the same.