James Kephart was born April 22, 1842, in Venango County, Pennsylvania. His family moved from Pennsylvanian to Dubuque, Iowa, when he was six.
After the war he returned to Dubuque and began a career in merchandizing. He
traveled the northern tiers of counties selling groceries for a Dubuque firm
and later tea and coffee. In 1871, he married Margaret Ann McGee and they had
four daughters. In 1876, the family moved to Farley and then, in 1884, to Webster
City, where they stayed until 1920. They then moved to Oklahoma and finally
settled in Gooding, Idaho. Kephart died April 27, 1932, and is buried in Elmwood
Cemetery, Gooding, Idaho.