Merchant, farmer, stock grower, postmaster and the leading citizen in his neighborhood and by having residing in half a dozen states in different parts of the country, William Thayer of Fenton, Wyoming is a man of large and varied experience who has learned wisdom from association with men in many places and under a great variety of circumstances. He was born in the state of Iowa in 1849, the son of Nelson and Mary (Cromer) Thayer and while he was yet of tender years they removed to Minnesota where they lived for eight years. In 1868 they found a new home in Kansas and in that state their son, William grew to manhood and completed his education. There also he started in life for himself and after pursuing his chosen vacation of farming for a dozen or fifteen years he went to Florida in 1884 and from that time until 1891 he was engaged in contracting and building in the South. In the year last named he returned to the Northwest and settled in Wyoming on land which is a part of his present farm of 200 acres situated in Bighorn County near Fenton, Wyoming and became a stock grower and farmer. In 1900 he opened a store at Fenton which he is still conducting with cumulative profits being the only mercantile enterprise of its kind in the town. In 1897 he was appointed postmaster at his home town and is still filling the office and performing its duties with fidelity in a manner that is creditable to the service and to himself the office subserving in a commendable way the convenience of the community. He is an active member of the Masonic fraternity holding membership in the lodge at Meeteetse. In 1874 he married in Kansas to Miss Alice McDonough, a native of Minnesota. They have seven children, George, Nina, William, Frank, McDonough, Harry and Theodore Roosevelt.
