My Genealogy Hound

STEPHEN T. LUPE is proprietor of the Sedalia Elevator, which was erected in June, 1892, and which has a capacity of fifty thousand bushels. He is also extensively engaged in buying and selling grain and providing storage for the same. Several of the leading fraternities here claim him as one of their members, he being Past Grand of Neapolis Lodge No. 153, I. O. O. F., Captain and Aid-de-Camp on General Cadie’s staff, and Patriarch Militant in the Odd Fellows’ society. He also belongs to the Benevolent Order of Elks, and is a past officer in Sedalia Encampment No. 53.

Mr. Lupe was born in Louisville, Ky., April 23, 1848. His grandfather, Jacob Lupe, who was of German descent, was a farmer in West Virginia, and later in Roanoke, Ind., where his death occurred. Our subject’s father, James, was a native of Wheeling, W. Va., and was captain and part owner of a steamboat which ran between Louisville and New Orleans, and during the winters ran up the Red River. During the twenty-five years of his life on the river he never had an accident, and was one of the best known and most respected captains in the service. In 1848 he settled near St. Louis, and engaged in farming until 1860, when he entered the wholesale and retail liquor business in that city. In 1889 he moved to New Smyrna, Fla., where he owns an orange grove. He is now in his seventy-fourth year, and is a member of the Presbyterian Church. His wife, Anna E., a native of Louisville, was the daughter of Henry H. Porter, who was of German and French extraction, and operated a tannery at Louisville, where his death occurred. Mrs. Lupe died in Memphis in 1869, while on her way to New Orleans, where she hoped to regain her health. Her eldest son, James H., Jr., died in childhood.

Stephen T. Lupe was reared in St. Louis County, Mo., and obtained a good education. In 1869 he located on a farm in Dresden Township, Pettis County, where he ultimately owned seven hundred and fifty acres. This property he improved and operated until 1885, when he moved to Sedalia. Entering the employ of Gaylord Leavenworth, a banker of St. Louis, in 1886, he remained there as Currency Teller for a year and a-half, after which he kept books for his father for nine months. He was next engaged in the real-estate and loan business, as a member of the firm of Reece, Lupe & Hansberger, of Sedalia, and later began contracting for mail routes, sometimes having as many as five hundred routes in the district, which was bounded by Arkansas, Nebraska and Indiana. Later the firm became Lupe & Evans, and as such continued in business for four years.

In St. Louis, October 13, 1869, Miss Mary Hood, a native of Edinburg, became the wife of Mr. Lupe. Their marriage has been blessed with seven children, viz.: Anna E., Mrs. Ed Evans, of Sedalia; James H., an electrical engineer of San Diego, Cal.; and L. Loranie, Maude, Maggie, Minnie and Libbie. The parents are members of the Presbyterian Church, and enjoy the friendship of all who know them. In politics Mr. Lupe is identified with the Democratic party, but is not radical in his belief.