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Alfred Vinyard, farmer, of Valle Township, was born in Bellevue Township, 

Washington County, Mo., in 1828, and is the tenth of twelve children 

born to Peter and Lucy (Richardson) Vinyard, natives of Botetourt County, 

Va., where they were reared and married.  In the winter of 1827 and 1828 

they crossed the country with wagon and horses and came to Missouri.  

During their journey Mr. Vinyard was taken sick with the measles, and 

was compelled to remain for six weeks in Tennessee.  He settled in the 

western part of Washington County, in the wilderness, but about a year 

later moved to Jefferson County and settled in Valle Township, where he 

died about 1844, at the age of sixty-three.  He enlisted as a soldier 

in the War of 1812, but was not called into service.  He was of German 

descent, a farmer, blacksmith and wagon-maker by occupation.  He was 

also for some time justice of the peace of Valle Township, and his father 

was a soldier in the Revolutionary War.  His people were formerly from 

Pennsylvania. The mother of Alfred died about 1854, at the age of sixty-eight.
Alfred Vinyard was reared to manhood without any educational advantages, and 

worked for several years getting out railroad timber.  In 1867 he married Mrs. 

Adelia Beron, daughter of John and Sarah Aubuchon, early settlers of Jefferson 

and Washington Counties, respectively. Mrs. Vinyard was born in the latter 

county, and became the mother of two children: Rosetta and David. Mr. Vinyard, 

since the war, has lived on his present farm, which consists of 790 acres, and 

is situated three miles southwest of Vineland, and is one of the leading farmers 

of the county.  During the war he was in the employ of the Iron Mountain Railroad 

Company to furnish supplies, etc., and since then has devoted his attention to 

farming and wooding.  He is politically, a Democrat, and his first presidential 

vote was for Gen. Cass, in 1848.  Mrs. Vinyard is a member of the Catholic Church.  

Our subject has just engaged in stock raising, in partnership with Alexander W. 

Siegrist, the firm being Vinyard & Siegrist, stock raisers and farmers.  Mr. 

Siegrist was born in St. Louis in 1864, and was educated at Smith's Academy. He 

then worked for his father, and was then in the butcher business for two years.  

In 1884 he came to Jefferson County, where he has since remained, and where he 

is, in partnership with Mr. Vinyard, engaged in the breeding of Holstein cattle 

and Berkshire hogs, having some of the finest of each breed in Jefferson County.  

Mr. Siegrist is the son of John H. and Mollie (Farrow) Siegrist, now of St. Louis, 

where they were married, and where they have lived for thirty years. The father is 

a wholesale and retail dealer in coal, but was formerly engaged in the clothing 

business in St. Louis.  He was born in Lebanon, Penn., in 1829 and at the age of 

seventeen began teaching school.  He came to St. Louis in about 1857.  The mother 

was born in New Orleans in 1839, and came with her father, John Farrow, to St. 

Louis.  Of their four children, Alexander W. is the third.