Alphonse Peter Veire was born May 5, 1898 in Atkenson, IL. He was the fifth of what would be eight children to his parents, Peter (February 15, 1863) and Louisa (Synesal) (April 2, 1871) Veire. Both parents were natives of Watervliet, East Flanders, Belgium. Alphonse attended school to the 4th grade and when he was 23 years old, he and his brother, Frank, moved to the Jasper, MN area where they farmed. Alphonse was about 6' tall, had black hair and blue eyes, was known to be an exceptional dancer, and enjoyed playing cards. 'Mugs', as he was known, was an industrious, hard-working farmer who farmed most of his life (he did work for John Deere at some point).
On January 12, 1921, Alphonse married Alice Marie Demunck in Pipestone, MN and together they had six children: Carol, Virgil, Loren, Lois, Patricia, and Frances. Mugs and his brother Frank were known to swear at times, but only in Belgium (as a story goes, at one point, after Frank had let loose a string of choice words in Belgium, Loren ran to the house to get a bar of soap to wash his mouth out - sounds like Loren was picking up on those words and may have used them himself). Frank (who never married) farmed with them until November, 1936 when their father (Peter) died. He then he returned to Illinois to live with their mother.
Alphonse bought a 280 farm in 1942 located southeast of Elkton, SD in Lincoln County, MN for $40 an acre. Alphonse died on October 11, 1947 near the age of 50 of encephalitis (also known as sleeping sickness).