My Genealogy Hound

C. C. Lightner, of the firm of Lightner Bros., proprietors of a general store in Urbana, Dallas County, was born in Lewis County, Mo., August 6, 1852, and is a son of J. M. and Elizabeth (Snapp) Lightner, natives, respectively, of East Tennessee and Vermilion County, Ill., and born in 1828 and 1834. The parents located in Hickory County, Mo., in 1859. J. M. Lightner was a blacksmith and farmer. In 1861 he enlisted in the Missouri State Militia under Capt. Lindsey, and served three years. He died August 23, 1885, the father of three children, two of whom are living, our subject and George W. The paternal grandparents of our subject were Christopher and Nancy (Glass) Lightner. The former, a blacksmith by trade, was born in Pennsylvania, and was of German descent. He died in 1861. C. C. Lightner spent his early life in Dallas County, Mo., and attended the common schools; he afterward attended Johnson’s Commercial College of St. Louis, where he graduated in 1878. When eighteen years of age he began life for himself, and chose farming and stock-raising as an occupation, which he abandoned in 1878, and with his father and brother established his present business, under the firm name of J. M. Lightner & Sons. In 1884 the firm became Lightner Bros., under which style it is successfully conducted. October 4, 1873, Mr. Lightner married Miss Ellen Bower, a native of Dallas County. She was born in 1855, and is a daughter of E. and Pelina (Yeager) Bower, the latter of whom died in 1881. Three children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Lightner, viz.: Georgia C., Jessie L. and Rosa Cornelia. Mr. Lightner is a Democrat politically, and has served as postmaster of Urbana for more than six years.