M. NEIDENBERGER & SON, hardware dealers of Reynolds, carry a large and well-selected stock, valued at from $2,000 to $2,500, their annual sales reaching $7,000 to $8,000. They also do a large tin manufacturing business. They began trade in 1879, having purchased the stock of goods then held by James Eads. Mathias Neidenberger, senior member of the firm, was born in Bavaria March 26, 1814; he was brought up to the tailor's trade, and in 1831 came to the United States, settling in New York City, where he worked at his trade for about two years; he then went to St. Louis, where he worked about fifteen years; thence he went to Collinsville, Ill., and in 1879 came to Reynolds and engaged in the hardware trade and the manufacture of tinware. He was married, in St. Louis, to Christina Bechtoldt, a native of Baden, Germany, who bore him ten children. Christian G. Neidenberger, the junior partner of the firm, was the seventh child in this family of ten, and was born in Collinsville, Ill., February 1, 1857, and at the age of seventeen began to learn the tinner's trade, which he has followed ever since, and is universally acknowledged to be a skillful workman. The elder Mr. Neidenberger is a member of the Lutheran Church.

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