USA > Iowa > Clayton County > History of Clayton County, Iowa : from the earliest historical times down to the present : including a genealogical and biographical record of many representative families, prepared from data obtained from original sources of information, Volume I > Part 81
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rectors of the company. He was likewise one of the organizers of the Farmers' Mutual Insurance Company at Garnavillo, and has been continuously an officer of the same save for an interim of three years. For many years he has been a director of the West Side School of Garnavillo; during his three years of service as township trustee he was the staunch advocate of liberal and progressive poli- cies and instrumental in the effecting of the building of several fine bridges in the township; and the year 1916 finds him serving his first term, with characteristic loyalty and efficiency, in the impor- tant office of county commissioner. His political allegiance is given to the Republican party and he and his family are communicants of the Lutheran church. In the year 1887 was solemnized the mar- riage of Mr. Kregel to Miss Sophia M. Bruns, who was born and reared in Garnavillo township, and whose parents, Frederick H., deceased, and Anna M. (Moellering) Bruns, resided in Monona; the father was a representative farmer of Garnavillo township, he having been six years of age at the time of his parents' immigration from Germany to America, and his wife having been born in Clay- ton county, a member of a well known pioneer family. Of the children of Mr. and Mrs. Kregel the eldest is Arthur J., who is married and who has the active charge of the old homestead farm of his father; Laura M. is the wife of Elmer H. Brandt, who is indi- vidually mentioned on other pages of this work ; Irene E. and Edna P. M. remain at the parental home, the former being a graduate of the Garnavillo high school, where Edna is attending, being now (1916) in the tenth grade.
Herman D. Kregel is one of the five surviving children of John D. and Helena A. (Kaiser) Kregel and is a popular repre- sentative of one of the well known and honored pioneer families of Clayton county, which has been his home from the time of his birth and in which he has won secure status as one of the prominent and successful exponents of agricultural and live-stock industry in his native township. He was born in Garnavillo township on the 15th of August, 1865, and he may well take pride in being a repre- sentative of that fine German element of citizenship that has played a splendid part in connection with the civic and industrial develop- ment and progress of Clayton county. His parents were born in the Kingdom of Hanover, Germany, and were children at the time of the immigration of the respective families to the United States, the home of each family having first been established in the state of Ohio. John D. Kregel became one of the early settlers of Garna- villo township, where he won distinct prosperity and prestige through his association with agricultural industry and where he became a substantial farmer and honored and influential citizen. Both he and his wife remained on their old homestead farm until their death, and both were earnest and lifelong members of the Lutheran church. Herman D. Kregel was reared to the sturdy discipline of the old homestead farm, gained his early education in the public schools of the county and continued to assist his father in the work of the farm until he had attained to his legal majority. He then became interested in the Black Diamond Stock Farm; which
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consists of one hundred and ninety-seven and one-half acres of the old homestead, which is situated in Sections 13 and 14, Garnavillo township. This place is owned jointly by himself and his brother Edward W. and is notable for the fine improvements, including good buildings, and in connection with his operations in the domain of diversified agriculture Mr. Kregel gives special and successful at- tention to the breeding and raising of the Black Polled Angus cattle. He is a member of the directorate of the Garnavillo Savings Bank, of which he was one of the organizers, and is known as one of the substantial and upright citizens of his native county. He has fur- ther shown his progressiveness by identifying himself with the Garnavillo Commission Company and the Garnavillo Creamery Company, in each of which important corporations he is a director. He has served with characteristic loyalty and efficiency in the office of township trustee, is a Republican in politics and he and his wife are zealous communicants of the German Lutheran church at Gar- navillo. April 24, 1890, recorded the marriage of Mr. Kregel to Miss Minnie Meyer, who likewise was born and reared in this county, and whose parents, Louis and Eliza (Moellering) Meyer, natives of Germany, are now venerable and honored pioneer citi- zens of Farmersburg township. Mr. and Mrs. Kregel have four children-Adelia, Arnold W., Elmer J. and Ivanelle. The three elder children have been given the advantages of the public schools, including the high school at Garnavillo, in which Adelia and Elmer J. were graduated.
Frank J. Kriebs, M. D .- The thorough preparation, the dis- tinctive technical ability, the sterling character and the fine sense of stewardship that have marked the professional career of Dr. Kriebs have given him place of prominence as one of the able and representative physicians and surgeons of his native county and state, and he has been engaged in the successful general practice of his profession at Elkport for the long period of thirty years. As a physician of high ideals he has been guide, counselor and friend to many of the families of this part of Clayton county, and as a citizen of broad and liberal views he has been an honored and in- fluential figure in the community life. Dr. Kriebs was born at Guttenberg, this county, on the 27th of May, 1859, a date that indicates conclusively that he is a scion of one of the pioneer fami- lies of the county. Here he gained his youthful education in the public schools, and after making a substantial advancement along academic lines of study he followed the course of his worthy and resolute ambition by initiating his preparation for the exacting profession in which it has been given him to achieve unequivocal success and high honors. In 1881 he was graduated in the cele- brated Rush Medical College, in the city of Chicago, and after thus receiving his well earned degree of Doctor of Medicine, he engaged in the practice of his profession in Carroll county. Iowa, where he remained until 1886, when he returned to his native county and established his residence and professional headquarters at Elkport. Earnest and effective service in his humane vocation has enabled him to build up a specially large and important general practice and
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he has long held prestige as one of the leading physicians and sur- geons of Clayton county, with a due regard in temporal prosperity and with the greater recompense involved in the confidence and high regard of the community in which he has lived and labored to goodly ends. He is an influential and valued member of the Clay- ton County Medical Society, and has long held membership also in the Iowa State Medical Society and the American Medical Asso- ciation. He served six years as county coroner, is now the zealous incumbent of the office of health officer of the county, and he is local surgeon for the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad. The doctor has found time and opportunity to lend his effective co-oper- ation in the promotion of civic and business enterprises that have advanced the best interests of the community, and it may be spe- cially noted that he was one of the organizers of the Elkport Sav- ings Bank, of which he has been vice-president from the time of its incorporation, and that he is a stockholder in two other banking institutions in the county. His residence property at Elkport is one of the most modern and attractive homes of the village and in Volga township he is the owner of a well improved farm of one hundred and eighty acres. He is well fortified in his opinions con- cerning economic and governmental policies and gives his allegiance to the Democratic party. Both he and his wife are earnest com- municants of the Catholic church and in a fraternal way he is affili- ated with the Modern Woodmen of America. On the 12th of Sep- tember, 1894, was solemnized the marriage of Dr. Kriebs to Miss Nettie E. Goodsell, who was born in the state of Massachusetts and who is a daughter of Jerome and Margaret (Dorgan) Goodsell, the former of whom was born in Connecticut and the latter of whom was born in Ireland. Mrs. Kriebs was a child at the time of her parents' removal to Clayton county, and here her father died when 72 years of age, her mother, now venerable in years, being still a resident of this county. Dr. and Mrs. Kriebs have one daughter, Helen May, who was born February 2, 1898, and who is now a member of the class of 1916 in Mount St. Joseph's College, in the city of Dubuque.
George Kriebs .- It is one of the most consistent and gratifying functions of this publication to accord specific recognition to those honored and influential citizens who are today prominent in the civic and business activities of Clayton county, who claim the county as the place of their nativity and who are representatives of sterling pioneer families of this favored section of the great state of Iowa. Such an one is Mr. Kriebs, who has long been one of the leading business men of Elkport, where he owns and conducts one of the finest retail drug stores in the county and where he has served as a director and as cashier of the Elkport Savings Bank from the time of its organization to the present. He is one of the substan- tial capitalists of his native county, is a liberal and loyal citizen who commands unequivocal popular esteem, and he is definitely entitled to consideration in this history. George Kriebs was born at Guttenberg, this county, on the 25th of October, 1857, one of a family of nine children, of whom seven are now living. He is a
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son of John P. and Lena (Sisemann) Kriebs, who were born and reared in Germany and who immigrated to America in the '40s. The parents became pioneer settlers in the fine German colony of Guttenberg, Clayton county, Iowa, and there the father long held secure status as one of the most honored and influential citizens of the thriving community. He was a leading merchant of that village, held the office of postmaster for a long period and gave several years to characteristically efficient administration in the office of mayor of the village. He was a stalwart in the local camp of the Democratic party and both he and his wife were communi- cants of the Catholic church. They were venerable and revered pioneer citizens of Clayton county at the time of their death. George Kriebs attended the public schools of his native village until he had attained to the age of fifteen years, when he became a clerk in a drug store at Elkader, where he remained thus engaged for the ensuing six years, and where he gained a thorough and prac- tical knowledge of all details of the business that is of semi-pro- fessional order. Upon leaving the county seat Mr. Kriebs engaged in the drug business at Elkport, where he has continued his active association with this line of enterprise during the long intervening years and where he now has one of the largest and best equipped drug stores in the county. In 1906 he became one of the organizers and incorporators of the Elkport Savings Bank, of which he has since served as cashier and in the upbuilding of the substantial business of which he has been the dominating executive. This is one of the representative financial institutions of Clayton county, bases its operations upon a capital stock of ten thousand dollars and now has a surplus fund of five thousand dollars. The vice- president of the bank is Dr. Frank J. Kriebs, a younger brother of the cashier, and of the doctor individual mention is made on other pages of this publication, in the general historical department of which is given also due consideration to the banking and other financial institutions of the county. Mr. Kriebs is not only one of the principal stockholders of the bank of which he is cashier but also has stock in several other banks in his native county. His material prosperity is further indicated by his ownership of a fine landed estate of three hundred and thirty acres, in Volga township, and in civic affairs he is definitely prominent and influential, with splendid equipment for leadership in popular sentiment and action. He is one of the most prominent men in the local councils of the Democratic party, as indicated by the fact that he is serving as chairman of the Democratic central committee of Clayton county. He served four years as postmaster of Elkport, under the adminis- tration of President Cleveland, and he has been called upon to serve also in virtually every village and township office in his home com- munity. He has passed all of the official chairs in the Elkport Lodge. No. 345, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and is affiliated also with the local camp of the Modern Woodmen of America. He is secretary of the company which owns and controls the Elkport opera house, of which popular amusement resort he is manager. In November, 1877, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Kriebs to
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Miss Louise E. Cook, who was born at Elkader, this county, and who is a daughter of the late Asahel D. Cook, who was one of the honored and influential citizens of the county, where he and his wife continued to reside until their death. Of the children of Mr. and Mrs. Kriebs, the eldest is Frank D., who is now engaged in the drug business at Beresford, South Dakota; Vera L., a popular young business woman, is serving as assistant cashier of the Elk- port Savings Bank; Gertrude H. is the wife of William J. McTag- gart, of Rochester, Minnesota ; Asa G. is a representative merchant of Elkport, where he is serving as postmaster; and Harold J. C. remains at the parental home.
William C. Kruse .- As one of the representative business men of the younger generation in his native county, Mr. Kruse owns and conducts a well equipped and essentially modern furniture and undertaking establishment in the village of Monona, and his promi- nence in community affairs as well as his unqualified personal pop- ularity is indicated by the fact that he is now serving as municipal treasurer of the village. Mr. Kruse was born on a farm in Giard township, this county, and the date of his nativity was March 5, 1880. He is a son of Henry and Amelia (Busch) Kruse, both of whom are now deceased, and both of whom were honored pioneer citizens of Clayton county at the time of their death, both having been born in Germany. Henry Kruse was a lad of thirteen years when he came to America and within a short time after his arrival in the land of his adoption he established his residence in Clayton county, where he grew to manhood under the conditions and influ- ences of the farm and where he eventually purchased a farm of his own, in Giard township. He later sold this property and bought another farm, in Monona township, and he long held distinct prece- dence as one of the progressive and successful agriculturists and stock-growers of this county. After his retirement from active labors he established his home in the village of Monona, where his death occurred about two years later, his devoted wife surviving him by a number of years. Both were earnest communicants of the Lutheran Church and in politics he gave a staunch support to the cause of the Democratic party. Of the children the firstborn, Mary, is deceased; August and Henry W. both reside in Monona ; William C., of this review, was the next in order of birth; Adelia is the wife of Roy Koth, of Monona, and Amanda is the wife of Arnold Kaiser, of the same place. William C. Kruse found his childhood and youth compassed by the invigorating discipline of the home farm, and in the meanwhile he made good use of the advantages afforded in the public schools of his native county. He continued his active association with agricultural pursuits until he had at- tained to the age of twenty-five years and then went to Monona, where for one year he was employed in the furniture and under- taking establishment of George Kaiser. In 1906 he engaged in the same line of enterprise at Sumner, where he continued in business until 1911, when he transferred his residence to Monona, where he has since controlled a substantial and representative business, with a store in which he displays at all times a large and varied assort-
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ment of furniture, besides having a thoroughly well appointed de- partment devoted to undertaking. He is not only well known as a representative funeral director of his native county but is also a licensed embalmer. Mr. Kruse is essentially liberal and public- spirited as a citizen and takes loyal interest in all things touching the welfare of his home village and native county, where his circle of friends is limited only by that of his acquaintances. He is un- wavering in his allegiance to the Democratic party and, though he is in no sense a seeker of public office, his civic loyalty is shown by the careful and effective service which he is rendering in the office of village treasurer. Both he and his wife hold membership in the Lutheran Church and give earnest support to its various depart- ments of work. On the 24th of April, 1906, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Kruse to Miss Amanda Kregel, daughter of Will- iam and Paulina (Dickman) Kregel, of Monona, where Mrs. Kruse was born on the 8th of December, 1881, her education having been acquired in the public schools of this village and in an institution of higher education at Decorah. Mr. and Mrs. Kruse have two children-Gerald, who was born September 26, 1909, and Pauline, who was born December 5, 1915.
Joseph J. Kuehl is another sterling representative of the fine element of German citizenship that has contributed in large and altogether commendable measure to the civic and industrial devel- opment and progress of Clayton county, within whose borders he has resided since he was a child of two years. Though he is a native of Germany and pays due deference to its noble traditions and customs, as a matter of birthright, he is a true American in thought, action and appreciation, with his only knowledge of German institutions and customs that received from his parents and from later reading of admirable literature pertaining to the Fatherland which he left in the days of his infancy. He is now known as one of the energetic, progressive and substantial farmers and stock-growers of Clayton county, is the owner of a well im- proved landed estate, and is one of the influential citizens of Board- man township, his homestead being situated four miles west of Elkader, the county seat, from which place he receives service on rural mail route No. 2. Joseph J. Kuehl was born in Germany on, the 24th of January, 1864, and thus was about two years of age when, in 1866, he accompanied his parents, Joseph and Dorothy (Fick) Kuehl, on their immigration to the United States, the family home having been established in Clayton county, Iowa, in the same year, and the death of the devoted wife and mother having occurred in March, 1871. Joseph Kuehl obtained a tract of land and became one of the pioneer farmers of this county, where he achieved inde- pendence and prosperity through industry and earnest effort and where he developed one of the excellent farms of Boardman town- ship. He is still a substantial landholder of the county, but is now living virtually retired at Elkader, in the serene enjoyment of the rewards of former years of toil and endeavor, and secure in the high regard of all who know him. Of the four children the subject of this review is the firstborn; Mary died in childhood; Sophia is
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the wife of Henry Schrader, of Elkport, this county; Henry died when young. Mrs. Dorothy (Fick) Kuehl was the second wife of Joseph Kuehl, and after her death he contracted a third marriage. His third wife is now deceased, and of their twelve children seven are deceased: Herman resides at Elkport, this county; Charles at Littleport, John at Elkport, and Henry at Elkport. All of the other children died young except Lena, who was a young woman at the time of her demise. Joseph J. Kuehl was reared under the invigorating influence of the home farm, early began to contribute his quota to its work, and in the meanwhile profited duly by the advantages afforded in the public schools of the locality. He con- tinued to be associated with his father in the work and management of the old homestead farm until he had attained to the age of twenty-three years, when he purchased one hundred and twenty acres of land, near Communia, this county, and initiated his inde- pendent career as a farmer. Four years later, however, he sold this property, and he then purchased a farm of one hundred and sixty acres in Section 29, Boardman township, where he has since maintained his home and successfully carried forward his progress- ive operations as an agriculturist and stock-grower. To his original purchase he later added a tract of eighty acres in Section 19 and still later he purchased eighty-six acres in Section 3, so that his landed estate in Boardman township now comprises three hundred and twenty acres. He has made many fine improvements on this valuable property and has won precedence as one of the essentially representative farmers and stock-raisers of this favored section of the Hawkeye State, with the status of a broad-gauged and public- spirited citizen who is always ready to do his part in the further- ance of measures and enterprises that tend to advance the general welfare of the community. In politics he is found aligned as a staunch supporter of the now dominant Democratic party, and he has served as township trustee, as well as in minor township offices and as a member of the school board of his district, an office of which he is the incumbent at the time of this writing, in 1916. He is affiliated with the Woodmen of the World and the Brotherhood of American Yeomen, and both he and his wife are earnest com- municants of the Lutheran Church, in the faith of which they were reared. February 2, 1887, recorded the marriage of Mr. Kuehl to Miss Mary Ehrhardt, who likewise was born and reared in Clayton county, and who is a representative of the sterling pioneer family concerning which adequate mention is made on other pages of this work. Mr. and Mrs. Kuehl became the parents of ten children : George W. is a progressive farmer of the younger generation in Boardman township; Carrie is the wife of Charles Raemer, of Volga township; Mary is the wife of Herman Raemer, of the same town- ship; Frederick is a substantial agriculturist in Read township; Arthur is associated in the work and management of his father's farm; Catherine is the wife of Henry Baars, of Boardman township ; and Hilda, Louisa, Frances and Mildred remain at the parental home.
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Herman C. Kuenzel has the distinction of being one of the rep- resentative business men of his native village of Garnavillo, where for more than thirty years he has been successfully established in the drug trade and where he has a well appointed drug store that commands a substantial and appreciative patronage. He is a scion of one of the sterling pioneer families of Clayton county, with whose history the name which he bears has been closely and worthily identified for nearly three score years and ten, and in this connection it is most gratifying to render incidental tribute to his honored parents, who here lived and labored to goodly ends and whose memory is here held in enduring esteem. Mr. Kuenzel was born at Garnavillo on the 14th of October, 1855, and is a son of John Henry and Anna (Mohrman) Kuenzel, the former of whom was born in the Kingdom of Bavaria, Germany, and the latter in the Province of Hanover. John Henry Kuenzel was but seven years of age when he accompanied his parents on their immigration to America, and the family home was established at New Bremen, Auglaiz county, Ohio, where he was reared to adult age and where he learned the trade of harnessmaker. In 1850 he came to Clayton county, Iowa, and numbered himself among the pioneer settlers of Garnavillo, which was then a mere frontier hamlet. About one year later he became associated with his brother-in-law, the late Benjamin F. Schroeder, in the erection of a flouring mill at this point, and in the early days they were compelled to haul their flour product by team and wagon to Clayton, from which point it was shipped down the Mississippi river to St. Louis, Missouri. Mr. Kuenzel was one of the pioneers of this important field of enterprise in Clayton county, and through the same he aided greatly in the industrial and civic development of the county, his identification with the milling business having continued up to the time of his decease. John Henry Kuenzel was known and honored as one of the vigorous, upright and enterprising men of the county, was influential in public affairs of a local order and commanded the high regard of all who knew him. He served in minor township offices and also as school director, and he played well his part in connection with the development and upbuilding of the community in which he long maintained his home. Of the family of ten children the eldest is Margaret, who is the wife of Frederick Harberg, of Garna- villo; Julia is the wife of Frederick Schoelerman, of Lake Park, Minnesota ; Herman C., of this review, was the next in order of birth; Anna is the wife of Joseph Walleser, of Garnavillo; Marie is a resident of Cleveland, Ohio; Henry maintains his home in the city of Dubuque, Iowa; Edward C. and Frederick B. reside in Cleveland, Ohio; and Fredonia and Laura are deceased. Herman C. Kuenzel is indebted to the public schools of Garnavillo for his early educational discipline, and at the age of sixteen years he here entered upon an apprenticeship to the cabinetmaker's trade, in which he became a skilled workman and to which he devoted his attention for a period of eight years. He then, in 1880, established himself in the drug business in his native village, where he has since continued successfully in this line of enterprise, with present status
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