W.J. WAY, of the firm of W.J. Way & Co., general merchants at Carson, has been a successful businessman by his own tact and energy, and also by his social manner he was won for himself many warm friends. He commenced here in Carson in 1880, on a small scale, as a pioneer merchant at this point, and he forced prosperity upon his path. His present large and commodious building, erected in the fall of 1889, is 36 x 120 feet in ground area, the first story being fifteen feet high, and here the firm carry a stock of $15,000 to $20,000 worth of goods, doing a business of $20,000 to $40,000 annually.

Mr. Way was born in Menard County, Illinois, October 11, 1860, a son of T.B. and N.J. (Cox) Way, father of English ancestry. His mother was a native of Bonaparte, Iowa. When the subject of this sketch was a small lad, his father engaged in business at Indiana Creek, Illinois, and later moved to Winterset, Iowa. At the age of seventeen he took charge of his father's store at Chandlerville, Cass County, and still later he was at Clarinda, Page County, and from that point he moved to Carson in connection with his extensive mercantile business. He is also operating a large brickyard.

He was married, December 8, 1882 at Glenwood, Iowa to Miss Vesta Head, a daughter of Captain T.H. Head, who is a prominent citizen of Glenwood. She is a lady of more than ordinary culture, as she graduated at the age of fifteen years at the Glenwood High School. Mr. and Mrs. Way's children are: Leo C., Lynn D. and Philip. In politics Mr. Way is a Republican and in religion a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Carson.