200                              HISTORY OF KANSAS CITY.

    Wynkoop Kiersted is a civil engineer of Kansas City, whose business interests have led him into various sections of the country, where his superior ability and knowledge in the line of his profession are recognized. So carefully has he studied his subject and so expert has he become that his opinions are largely received as authority on the subject of the building of waterworks and sewerage systems. A native of the Empire State, his life record began in Mongaup Valley, Sullivan county, New York, February 9, 1857. His parents, Wynkoop and Jane A. (Swan) Kiersted, were, also natives of the Empire State. The paternal ancestors came to this country at a very early day from Holland. Wynkoop Kiersted, Sr., spent his entire life in Sullivan county, New York, and was there engaged in the tanning business. He had an uncle who was a veteran of the Revolutionary war, serving with official rank in the struggle for independence.
    Wynkoop Kiersted of this review was reared at home, acquiring his education in the public schools and in the Eureka high school, which was founded and largely supported by his father. His preliminary education being completed, he next entered the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute at Troy, New York, from which he was graduated in the class of 1880. The same year he came west and accepted a position with the Missouri River Improvement Commission. He was identified with this work for two or three years and for two years afterward was engaged in the construction of waterworks. He made the surveys for the sewerage system of Elgin, Illinois, and built the waterworks at Fairfield, Iowa. In 1880 he opened an office in Omaha, Nebraska, as a civil engineer and there remained until the fall of 1887, when he came to Kansas City, where he established and has since maintained an office. In the intervening years for a considerable period he was chief engineer of the Kansas City waterworks and introduced the present system of water clarification, and also designed the sewer system of Kansas City, Kansas. For two years he was chief

                                    HISTORY OF KANSAS CITY.              201

engineer of the city of Galveston, Texas, in the construction of their new waterworks system. He was engaged in the appraisal of the waterworks property of Los Angeles and Oakland, California; of Dubuque, Iowa; of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania; of Eau Claire and Beloit, Wisconsin; of Baton Rouge, Louisiana; of Denison, Texas; of Pittsburg, Kansas; of North Platte and Kearney, Nebraska; of Meridian, Mississippi; and of Council Bluffs, Iowa, together with various smaller cities, and during this time designed some forty or fifty waterworks systems. He has served as consulting engineer for various other cities and has come to be a recognized authority throughout the country on the subject of building waterworks. He is the senior author of a volume on The Management and Maintenance of Waterworks which was published by John Wiley, of New York city, has received much favorable press notice and is accepted as authority on civil engineering. He is also author of a work on Sewage Disposal, which is also recognized as a valuable contribution to knowledge of this subject. He belongs to the American Society of Engineers and to the Rensselaer Society of Engineers, of Troy, New York.
    In 1888 Mr. Kiersted was married to Miss Medora R. Smith, of St. Joseph, Missouri, a daughter of Dr. J. D. Smith and a granddaughter of Hon. Abiel Leonard, of Fayette, Missouri, who for many years was a judge of the supreme court of this state. Mr. and Mrs. Kiersted have become the parents of four children: Martha, who is attending National Park Seminary near Washington, D. C.; Jeanette, Wynkoop, Jr., and Louise, all of whom are attending school, and are with their parents. In 1903 Mr. Kiersted established the family residence at Liberty, Missouri, where he now makes his home, but continues his business headquarters at Kansas City. He is a republican where national issues are involved but casts an independent ballot at local elections. His family are members of the Episcopal church. His rapid and substantial rise in his profession is attributable to the thoroughness with which he has mastered everything bearing upon the subject of civil engineering, combined with his unwearied industry and his professional integrity. He is now one of the ablest civil engineers of the state and his fame has spread abroad, winning him a wide and gratifying patronage.

Source:

Whitney, Carrie Westlake, "Wynkoop Kiersted," Kansas City, Missouri: Its History and Its People, 1808-1908, Volume III, Chicago, S. J. Clarke Pub. Co., 1908, pp. 200-201.

    Richard Wynkoop, in the 1904 edition of the Wynkoop Genealogy in the United States of America, has this to say about Wynkoop's father on page 94:

    351. Cornelia Wynkoop, (Tobias 141, Tobias 40, Evert 4, Cornelius 1,) baptized November 7, 1784, "Neeltje," Kaatsbaan church: died January 27, 1860, aged 75: married, January 19, 1811, John Kiersted, born February 24, 1786, died December 3, 1862, aged 76 yrs., 9 mos., son of Christopher and Leah (Du Bois) Kiersted. She was commonly known as Nelly.
    Children of John and Cornelia Kiersted:
603. John Kiersted: b. Feb. 8, 1813: m., Oct. 1, 1850, Maria A. Lockwood, daughter of Thomas S., of Newburgh, N. Y.
604. Wynkoop Kiersted: b. May 18, 1818.
605. James Kiersted: b. Dec. 2, 1821.
606. Tobias Kiersted.

    Wynkoop Kiersted's biography above will have to fill in the blank spots in the family, who incidently continued to use the name Wynkoop until the 1940s.

    All my best,

    Chris