Biographies
"K"
HON. MARION A. KIGER
Hon. Marion A. Kiger, of Harrison, representative from Kootenai county,
is serving for the third term as a member of the general assembly and
is the present speaker of the house of representatives, a position for
which he is admirably fitted by reason of his comprehensive knowledge
of law, his freedom from prejudice and partiality and by reason also of
an analytical mind, which enables him to discriminate readily between
the essential and the non-essential in all public as well as private
affairs. He has lived in Idaho since 1908 and through the intervening
period of eleven years has been a well known attorney of Harrison. He
was born upon a farm in Fountain county, Indiana, October 12, 1877, a
son of James Wesley and Margaret Ellen (Baker) Kiger, who were also
natives of Fountain county and representatives of pioneer families of
that district.
The grandfather in the paternal line was John Kiger, who removed to
Indiana from the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia about the year 1830. He
became wealthy through his operations as a farmer and stock raiser and
was numbered among the influential citizens of Fountain County, where
he died in the '80s. The maternal grandparents were Andrew and Amsey
(Miller) Baker, who removed to Fountain County, Indiana, from
Pennsylvania in 1830 and settled on a homestead ten miles south of
Veedersburg. The farm which they owned is still in possession of the
family, being now the property of Mrs. Margaret E. Kiger, who, however,
makes her home at the present time in Parsons, Kansas.
The father, James Wesley Kiger, served as a Union soldier during the
Civil war and at its close married Margaret Ellen Baker, with whom he
went to Kansas, there taking up a homestead claim. He undertook to farm
it but was soon starved out on account of crop failures through a
scourge of grasshoppers and chinch bugs. He then returned to Indiana,
but in 1878, when his son Marlon was but a year old, he again removed
to Kansas, locating on another homestead in Labette County. In 1884,
however, the Kiger family once more went to Indiana and in 1890 took up
their abode on the old Baker homestead, where the death of Mr. Kiger
occurred in 1891.
The early life of Marion A. Kiger was spent upon farms in Indiana and
Kansas and his preliminary education was obtained in the country
schools of Fountain County. He later concentrated his efforts and
attention upon farm work and continued with his mother until he had
attained his majority. He then borrowed fifty dollars and entered the
Central Normal School at Danville, Indiana, attending for one term. At
the end of that time he was able to obtain a teacher's certificate and
during the winter of 1902-3 he taught his first term of school in
Fulton Township, Fountain County. He then devoted his attention
steadily to school-teaching until 1906 through each winter season.
In that year he returned to the Central Normal School, where he resumed
his studies, using the money that he had been able to save from his
earnings as a teacher. There he completed a law course in 1907 and in
the same year he entered the law department 'of the University of
Kansas, from which he was graduated with the L.L. B. degree in 1908. He
at once came to Idaho and located in Harrison, where he has constantly
practiced law with marked success. No dreary period of waiting was his.
Almost immediately he won a good clientage and has been most successful
in its conduct, winning many favorable verdicts. This is due to the
thoroughness with which he prepares his cases, his comprehensive
knowledge of the law and his ability to apply its principles
accurately. He is a member of the Idaho State Bar Association.
On the 21st of December, 1907, Mr. Kiger was married in Terre Haute,
Indiana, to Miss Frances Myrtle Agnew, a teacher, who had previously
been a member of the faculty of the Central Indiana Normal School and
had gained prominence in primary and kindergarten work in Ohio and
Indiana. They now have two children: John Cole, born December 15, 1912;
and James Robert, known as "Jimmie Bob," born August 25, 1915.
Mr. Kiger belongs to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and his
religious faith is that of the Baptist church. His political allegiance
is given to the Republican Party and his interest in the political
situation and questions of the day is that of a public-spirited citizen
who recognizes the duties and obligations as well as the privileges of
citizenship.
His fellow townsmen, appreciative of his worth and devotion to the
general good, elected him to the House of Representatives in 1914 and
gave him recognition of his valuable service in re-election in 1916 and
in 1918 with practically no opposition for the third term. At the
beginning of this term he was unanimously elected speaker of the house
and is so serving at the present time. In this connection one of the
newspapers of the state said: "Speaker Kiger promises to be one of the
most popular speakers a house of representatives in an Idaho
legislature has ever had. He is recognized as a presiding officer of
unusual ability. He was the unanimous choice of the caucus of his party
and of the entire house of representatives of the fifteenth session
upon his election. Taking up the gavel, he prefaced his serious duties
with the clear-cut statement that the work of speaker was new to him,
that he would make mistakes but that they would be mistakes of the
head, not of the heart. He declared for a fair, open and above board
policy which would give courteous recognition to all members,
regardless of party affiliation, desiring to speak from the floor.
"When Speaker Kiger appointed his committees he again made it plain
that while he could not gratify the ambitions of all members, nor could
he give everyone the positions they desired, he had tried to be fair,
impartial, unprejudiced and select the men he thought could best serve
on the committees to which they were assigned."
[Source: History of
Idaho: the gem of the mountains, Volume 4; Edited by James Henry
Hawley; Publ. 1920; Transcribed and submitted to Genealogy Trails by
Andrea Stawski Pack.]
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