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John W. Sur, who is a prominent and influential citizen at Payette, Idaho, has here maintained his home since 1907, his attention being devoted to the shoe business. He was born in Effingham, Illinois, January 6, 1877, and he is a son of Joseph and Sophia (Weaver) Sur, the former of whom was born in Germany, and the latter in Dayton, Ohio, Joseph Sur lived in Germany until he had reached is fourteenth year when he emigrated to America and located in St. Louis, remaining in that city for a short time. Later he removed to Illinois and settled on a farm near Effingham, where he became a prominent agriculturist and stock raiser. He died in 1893, aged sixty-five years, and his devoted wife passed away aged sixty-three years. Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Sur became the parents of four sons and two daughters, all of whom were living in 1912 except one boy and one girl.
To the public and parochial schools of Effingham, Illinois, John W. Sur is indebted for his preliminary educational training. At the age of fourteen years he entered upon an apprenticeship to learn the trade of shoemaker. For five years he worked at the shoe business in Effingham and for ten years he was in the employ of a shoe concern with another firm. Subsequently he entered into a partnership alliance with Theodore S. Gramhorst and for the ensuing five years they conducted a successful shoe business at Effingham. August 7, 1907, after disposing of his interests in the above place, Mr. Sur came to Payette, Idaho, and here opened a strictly up-to-date shoe store. His establishment is now recognized as one of the best paying shoe stores in this section of the state and his large and lucrative business is due to the splendid stock he carries and to his own good management. He is strictly a self-made man and his splendid success in life offers both lesson and incentive to the younger generation. In politics he is a stanch Democrat and in a fraternal way he is affiliated with the Knights of Columbus. His religious faith is in harmony with the tenets of the Catholic church, of which he is a devout communicant.
August 3. 1906, Mr. Sur was united in marriage to Miss E. B. Jacobson, a daughter of M. A. Jacobson, a well known business man in Payette. Mr. and Mrs. Sur have two children: Dorothy Pauline, born in 1908, and Aroma Bell, born in 1910.