The history of Dubuque County, Iowa : containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, etc., Part 102

Author:
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Chicago : Western Historical
Number of Pages: 964

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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES :

J. E. JOHNSON, foreman of the saw-mill of Ingraham, Kennedy & Day ; is a native of Ohio, and was born in the city of Cleveland Dec. 1, 1852 ; his parents removed to Minnesota in 1854, and he grew up mostly in that State, except three years in Wisconsin, where he attended school ; he has been connected with manufact- uring lumber since boyhood; he has been connected with this mill since it was built, and was appointed to his present position in 1879. In 1874, he married Miss Eliza O'Shay, in St. Paul ; they have two children-Arthur W. and George E.

AUGUST JUNGK, stonemason and grocer, No. 502 High street ; is a native of Germany, and was born in Saxony in 1818; he is a stonemason by trade ; emigrated to the United States in 1837, and came to Iowa in 1850, and settled in Dubuque, and engaged in working at his trade ; he has lived here thirty years, and is an old settler. He has been married three times ; this present wife was Fredrika Gon- nel, a native of Saxony, Germany ; they have three children-Amelia, Lilly and Edward. Mr. Jungk has three children by former wives.

CHRISTIAN JUNGK, dealer in dry goods and notions, No. 1643 Clay st., Dubuque; is a native of Germany, and was born in Saxony Feb. 12, 1822; he cmigrated to America in 1844 ; he came to St. Louis and lived there eight years, and came to Dubuque in 1853 and engaged in the grocery and provision business on Clay st., and he has been engaged in the mercantile business since then, and is one of the oldest merchants in the city. When he came to this country he had nothing, and owes his success to his own industry and good management. In 1852, he was married to Miss Henrietti Malz, a native of Saxony ; she was born in 1828; they have eight chil- dren-Lena, Emma, Robert, Hermann, Otto, Selma, Willie and Clara.

O. JUNKERMANN, of the firm of Junkermann & Haas, wholesale drug- gists, 776 Main st .; is a native of Germany, and was born Aug. 12, 1826 ; he grew to manhood and learned the drug business and served as a clerk in the drug business in Germany, France and Switzerland ; he emigrated to America in 1851, and was clerk in a drug store in New York and Cincinnati, and came to Dubuque in 1854, and, in 1855, he associated with his present partner, J. W. Haas, and they established their present business, which they have successfully carried on for twenty-five years, and have built up a large, extensive trade. The firm of Junkermann & Haas is the oldest business house in Dubuque without change of firm. In 1858, Mr. Junkermann married Miss Julia Hoff bauer, from Davenport; they have two sons and five daughters.

JOSEPH J. KABAT, merchant tailor, Main st .; is a native of Austria, and was born Aug. 26, 1831 ; he grew up to manhood there, and came to America in 1856; he came to Iowa the same year and located at Dubuque; began working at liis trade ; in 1864, he engaged in business for himself and has continued since then ; he is one of the oldest merchant tailors in the city, and has built up a good trade. He was united in marriage to Miss Eleanor Wolland, a native of Austria, in 1857 ; they. have two children-Joseph and Eleanor.

AUGUST KAISER, proprietor of the Dubuque Vinegar Works, foot of Ninth st., Dubuque ; is a native of Germany, and was born Dec. 3, 1820 ; he emigrated to America in December, 1847 ; he afterward went to California, Australia, Africa, and, after going around the world, arrived in New York in the spring of 1855; he came to Dubuque Dec. 4, 1855, and, after making arrangements to go into business, went to Chicago and remained until Feb. 1, 1856, when he returned and engaged in the vin- egar business on the corner of White and Sixth streets ; he has continued in the business since then, a period of over twenty-three years ; he has been engaged in manufacturing vinegar longer than any one in the city or in the State; his vinegar has an established reputation, and he has built up a large trade. He has held the office of City Alder- man, being twice elected. When he first came to America, he only had $16, and his success in life is owing to his own efforts, and he is one of Dubuque's substantial bus- iness men. In 1857, he was united in marriage to Miss Augusta Schmidt, a native of Germany ; they have had three children, only one of whom is living, a daughter --- Matilda Kaiser.

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LOUIS KAMMULLER, manufacturer of copper, tin and sheet-iron work, Iowa street, second door south of Sixth street, Dubuque ; was born in Southern Germany Oct. 9, 1823; he grew up and learned his trade there, and emigrated to America in 1848; he came to Iowa and located at Dubuque in 1851, and began work- ing at his trade ; he has been connected with his present business for twenty-nine years, a longer time than any one in the city, except C. Mason. He married Miss Martha Oliver, a native of Wisconsin, December 27, 1849; they have seven children-Julius, Emma, Louise, Lizzie, Magdalena, Jessie and Fred O.

JOHN KAPP, of the Dubuque Mattress Company, manufacturers of mat- tresses and bedding, 451 Fourth street, Dubuque; was born in the Rhine Province of Prussia, Germany, Sept. 15, 1845 ; his parents came to America in 1851, and lived at Catskill, N. Y .; they came to Iowa in 1859, and located in Jackson Co., and, in 1860, came to Dubuque, where John served an apprenticeship of three years, and learned his present business ; he went to Chicago, and from there to Fort Wayne, Ind., where he lived for nine years ; in 1874, he went to Chicago again, and stayed two years, and, in 1876, came back to Dubuque, and with his father formed the firm of Kapp & Son, and, in 1877, they changed the name of the firm to the Dubuque Mattress Company ; his father died in 1879, and he carries on the business, employing about ten hands in the factory ; they ship their goods West in Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Minnesota, Illinois and Wisconsin ; it is the pioneer wool mattress factory, and the only one west of the Missis- sippi River. Mr. Kapp married Miss Margaret Zimpelmann, a native of Shelby Co., . Ind., May 11, 1869; they have three children-Rosa, Katie S. and Walter E.

PETER KARBERG, publisher of the Nord Iowa Post, corner Main and Sixth streets ; is a native of Germany, and was born Aug. 27, 1840 ; he came to the United States in 1857, and came to Iowa and located in Guttenberg, Clayton Co. ; engaged in teaching school; in 1861, upon the breaking-out of the rebellion, he enlisted as private in the 17th Mo. V. I., called the St. Louis Turner Regiment ; was promoted to Second Lieu- tenant in a colored regiment in June, 1863 ; he was mustered out June 16, 1866 ; after the war, he resided for several years in New York and Philadelphia, then returned to Clayton Co., Iowa, and was appointed first United States Mail Agent on the C., D. & M. R. R, and served one and a half years, and then purchased the printing material of the Dubuque (Iowa) Staats Zeitung, moved it to Lansing, Allamakee Co., and estab- lished a German paper under the name Nord Iowa Post, which he removed to Dubuque in 1877. Mr. Karberg is a member of the Governor's staff; he was appointed by Gov. Gear, during his first administration, with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, and has since been re appointed to the same position. Mr. Karberg, in 1873, was united in marriage to Miss Hermine Kiesel, from Guttenberg, Clayton Co., Iowa ; they have one daughter- Auguste, born Feb. 29, 1876.

JOHN KEENAN, architect and builder, Third street, near Bluff, Dubuque ; is a native of Ireland, and was born May 16, 1824; he emigrated to America in 1842, and lived in Philadelphia until 1854, when he came to Iowa and located at Dubuque, and engaged in building ; he has been prominently engaged in building for twenty-five years, and is one of the oldest contractors in the city. He married Miss Charlotte Benner, from Philadelphia, in 1846, they have five children-Francis P., Sarah, John, Mary and Katie.

HARRY KEEPERS, passenger conductor on the Illinois Central Railroad, residence, 984 Bluff street; is a native of Ross Co., Ohio, and was born Aug. 25, 1849 ; his parents came to Iowa in 1855, and located in Dubuque ; he grew up and attended school here until fifteen years of age, when he began railroading with the Illinois Central Railroad, and has remained fifteen years ; ten years of the time he has run on the Iowa Division ; he was express messenger three years, and, since 1875, he has run a passenger train on the Iowa Division of the road. In 1871, Mr. Keepers was united in marriage to Mrs. Jennie May Ward, nee Todd, a native of New York State ; they have two daughters-Edith and Elsie. Mr. Keepers is connected with the Masonic Order and the Knights Templar.

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PAUL KEES, of the firm of J. & A. Christman & Co., dealers in dry goods, 672 Main street, Dubuque ; is a native of Germany, and was born in Constanz, Baden, Oct. 23, 1847 ; he came to the United States in 1866, and came to Dubuque the same year and entered the store of Mr. Christman and continued with this house until 1875, when he visited Germany ; he returned the following year, and since then has been a member of the firm of J. & A. Christman & Co.

EDWARD T. KEIM, Superintendent and Manager of the Dubuque Tele- phone Exchange Company, Fifth street, Dubuque ; is a native of Reading, Penn., and was born Aug. 8, 1844 ; his parents came to Dubuque in 1855; he grew up and attended school here, and graduated from the high school and entered Beloit College ; after leaving college he entered the bank of Babbage & Co. for one year ; then entered the employ of the American Express Company ; he was connected with the express com- pany about thirteen years, until April, 1879, when he accepted the position of Superin- tendent of the National Bell Telephone Company for Dubuque County, and the towns of Rockford and Freeport; upon the consolidation of the two telephone interests he became Manager of the Dubuque Telephone Exchange Company; he is also introduc- ing the system in Rockford, Ill., and it is already in operation there. Mr. Keim was the first Secretary of the Dubuque Building and Loan Association, and held that office three years ; he was also President of the Episcopal Church Building Association. Mr. Keim has always been interested in the study of natural sciences, and his cabinet of mineral and fossil specimens took the first premium and three diplomas at the North- western Exposition in 1878. Mr. Keim was united in marriage, July 9, 1867, to Miss Emma Bloomfield, a native of Greensburg, Ind. ; they have four children-Randolph, Peyton, Martha and Griffith.

PETER KIENE, of the firm of Peter Kiene & Son, insurance, loan and real-estate, railroad and steamship agency, corner Main and Fifth streets; is a native of Switzerland, and was born at Canton Graubundten, Dec. 15, 1819 ; he emigrated to America in 1840 ; he came to Iowa and arrived in Dubuque Aug. 15, 1840 ; he was engaged in mining and smelting near Galena for several years ; in 1845, he opened the hotel known as the old " Farmers' Home," corner Main and Fifth street's, where the First National Bank now stands; it was then a prominent hotel; in 1849, he built " Harmony Hall," it was located in the couutry at that time; he engaged in manu- facturing brick for some years, and, in 1858, he established his present business on the same corner he now occupies, and has continued the business in the same location over twenty-one years. He has held the office of City Marshal, City Alderman, Deputy Sheriff and Director of Poorhouse. He took a prominent part in organizing the Ger- man Benevolent Society, one of the best and most powerful societies in the State ; he is also prominently connected with the Order of Odd Fellows, and became a member in 1843, of Wilde Lodge, in Galena; he was one of the organizers of Schiller Lodge, No. 11, to which he now belongs ; it is the largest and most wealthy lodge in the State belonging to this order; he has managed the finances for the past fourteen years, and has not lost a dollar. In 1846, Mr. Kiene was united in marriage to Maggie Ragatz ; she was born in the same place that he was, and they grew up together ; she died in 1854; they had four children, three of whom survive-Peter, Richard and Maggie ; in 1855, Mr. Kiene married Mary Huenke ; she was born near Hamburg, Germany ; they have five children-Henry, Dora, Paul, Emil and Arnold.

PETER KIENE, Jr., of the firm of Peter Kiene & Son., corner Main and Fourth streets ; is a native of Dubuque Co., and was born in the city of Dubuque, Nov. 2, 1846 ; he grew up and attended school here; before he was 16 years of age, upon the breaking-out of the rebellion, he enlisted in Co. E, 16th I. V. I., and served four years ; he was in the battles of Shiloh, Iuka, Corinth, Vicksburg, and through the Atlanta campaign ; he was wounded in the battles of Shiloh and Corinth, and was taken prisoner at the latter place and was held only a short time; he was taken prisoner at the battle of Atlanta, July 22, 1864, and was a prisoner ten months, until the close of the war ; seven months of the time he spent in Andersonville. After the war, he was Secretary and Paymaster of the C., C., D. & M. R. R., and held that position six years ;

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in 1877, he associated with his father in their present business. Mr. Kiene was united in marriage, May 20, 1869, to Miss Carrie M. Busby, a native of New York State; they have two children-Carrie L. and Peter E.

HON. JOHN KING, deceased; was born in Shepardstown, Va., in 1803, and was a son of Samuel King, who died in Dubuque over nineteen years ago. The subject of this sketch was much more than an ordinary man, having been the first editor and newspaper proprietor in the State of Iowa, and had filled a number of public offices of honor and trust with fidelity, and to the satisfaction of his fellow-citizens. As an early journalist and an enterprising citizen, he was identified with the movements which detached a part of the Territory of Michigan and formed Wisconsin Territory, then including Iowa, in 1836. While in youth, he became a resident of Chillicothe, Ohio, where he reached manhood, and, like thousands of young men, after 1830 and since, he looked to a farther West as the place of fortune, enterprise and greater usefulness. He was already about 30 years old when the first permanent settlement was made in Iowa. After examining various localities in new parts of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and a part of Missouri, he resolved to make his home in the then unsettled region west of the Mississippi.

In 1833 (no legal right permitting even the pioneers who preceded him to occupy any part of what is now Iowa, until June of that year), while exploring the region of the Upper Mississippi, he determined to make " Dubuque Mines," as this locality was then known, the scene of all his future operations. Like many others, he engaged in lead mining for a year or more with varied success. At that time, even up to 1835, there was no legal administration of justice. Though several Justices of the Peace for Dubuque Co., then comprising half of Iowa and most of Minnesota, were appointed by the Governor of Michigan in 1835, there was no authority for the trial even of alleged murderers, until after 1836, but the administration of public justice was mainly by voluntary assemblages of the people. In all this, Judge King acted a conspicuous part. One instance of such proceedings appears in an Illinois paper, of August, 1835, before Iowa had its first newspaper. The town of Dubuque was infested with infamous gam- blers and lewd women. A public meeting was held, and Judge King drew up the stringent resolutions that drove that class of nuisances across the river. Judge King was then, as he remained to the close of his life, an admirer of honesty and integrity. To the rich he was always just ; to the poor he was generous, and he would have left a much larger estate had he not always leaned to the side of kindness and charity. After two years of work and observation as to the means by which he could advance his own interest and at the same time promote the welfare of the new community, he concluded not only to make Dubuque his permanent home, but to establish here the first news- paper.

In the fall of 1835, he accordingly determined to return to Ohio and procure the material for a newspaper. Passing the winter at Chillicothe, he went in the spring to Cincinnati, and, by the opening of navigation, had purchased a Washington press and sufficient printing material for a weekly newspaper. He accompanied his purchase by steamboat by the then long, slow route of the river, and arrived at Dubuque about the 1st of May, 1836. On the 11th of that month, he issued the first number of. the " Du Buque Visitor," the only paper then north of St. Louis and west of the river. In 1836, it was his custom to walk eighteen miles to Galena to get the " exchanges " of a newspaper then published at that place. But there are many other matters of more immediate local interest as relating to Judge King, in reference to his work and influ- ence in advancing the moral, social and other interests of his adopted village and city. Whether base men and bad women were to be expelled, or an effort made to secure and preserve for Dubuque proper sites for public squares or graveyards, or for any other matter of public welfare, he was always ready with his voice and pen to work in the right direction.

Such was the esteem in which he was held by his fellow-citizens, that, in the early days of 1835, he was recommended for the highest office in the county. He was appointed, as appears by his commission, "Chief Justice of the County Court of

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Dubuque County," by Stevens T. Mason, then Acting Governor of the Territory of Michigan. From that fact he received the title of Judge, a cognomen by which he was familiarly known ever since. He was then the only person, with the exception of two Justices of the Peace and Peter A. Lorimier, as Supreme Court Commissioner, who had authority to issue warrants for the arrest of alleged criminal offenders. But even that authority, as intimated, did not then protect society. Judge King's court could commit prisoners, but the courts, in what is now Wisconsin, discharged them for want of jurisdiction. Several years afterward, about 1839, Judge King was appointed Postmaster of Dubuque, which office he held for several years, and, after an interval of a few years, he was again appointed as Postmaster, before 1850. During the boundary controversy between Iowa Territory and the State of Missouri, mainly instigated by the peculiar nature and management of Gov. Lucas, Judge King was appointed Aid-de- Camp to the Governor with the rank of Colonel. Gov. Lucas then presided over the destinies of the young Territory. The difficulty was finally settled by Congress and the Supreme Court. He was an early admirer and earnest supporter of the railroad policy of the lamented John Plumbe, the earliest Western advocate of a Pacific railroad. Between 1854 and 1866, he was for several terms a member of the City Council. In his posi- tion of Alderman, he was equally faithful to every public trust, reposed in him. In that capacity he endeavored, as he always did as a private citizen, to have the city adorned and embellished to as great a degree as possible, consistent with the use of private means and the proper use of the public finances. As a writer, he never lost interest in the daily press, and scarcely a week passed in the last twenty years before his death, that the public did not have the benefit of articles or communications from Judge King, extending through the range of local, city, county and State interests, from forest culture and railroads in the country, to gardening, fruit-growing and street improvements at home. He was especially useful in some of these respects, having been one of the first members of the Dubuque County Farmers' Club, in 1860. He had then one of the best-adorned homes in Dubuque. On the matters of agriculture and horticulture he was a free contributor to the local press and to papers abroad, and did more than any other man in Dubuque to create a taste for shade trees, shrubbery and fruit trees around the city. One of the efforts of the last days of his life was the attempt to write a few more lines in his diary, and though scarcely half legible he was unable to usc his voice to explain them ; this fact is an evidence that one of his ruling motives still remained, strong even in death, to let all who lived after him know just what he thought and felt so long as he might live.

Among the striking traits of the character of Judge King was his independence. He expressed his opinion freely on any subject, and in reference to any man, without reserve. Any one could know, at any time, what he thought of anything or any sub- ject. This independence sometimes made some men rather fear him or try to avoid his displeasure, but almost invariably because there was something wrong in their conduct or motives. There were two or three other elements of liis character equally commendable. Had he been a poor man, his occasional generosity would have been a fault, but his increas- ing wealth only made him still more generous. He was a contributor to almost every ennobling or charitable enterprise, from the building of a church to the raising of a fund for the benefit of the poor. But it was not in the subscription lists to charitable pur- poses alone that some knew best of his liberality. As an earnest, energetic man, he was singularly modest. The world knew little of his private and unostentatious beneficence. Sometimes a needy friend or neighbor would receive money favor in a way that he scarcely knew where it came from or to whom to express his gratitude. On some occasions, he sought avoidance of all thanks by sending his money gratuitously, in an envelope, through the post office, to those whom he considered deserving, and, by this delicate manner, did good acts unknown to the world.

When lie commenced his Visitor with the motto that he always followed, "Truth our guide, the public good our aim," there was no ocean steam navigation, no sewing machine or electric telegraph, or even the lucifer match in common use. Thousands of other useful inventions were devised after he had passed middle life. But he was one

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of those few men who kept up with the times and favored every new thing that had utility. It is in the memory of those who knew him at home that all the kindly ele- ments of his nature are best known. To the last days of the lives of his sisters, his wife, his daughter, son and his intimate friends, they will all tell, in their recollections of him, of his gentle nature at home, the place where all men are the best, truly and correctly known. In the home life of this man, he was loved as much as he was respected by all good men, in his other relations to society. The cool self-possession that marked most of Judge King's life as a journalist, a business man, a philanthropist and a citizen, was one of his characteristics to the day of his death. He even went beyond most men in his preparations for death, especially after the serious injury he received from the street-railway accident in 1869. As soon as he recovered sufficiently from the prostration and delirium incident to such an accident, involving a concussion of the brain and serious resultant injuries to the lungs, he appeared to realize more than before the necessity of so arranging his earthly affairs as to be ready to depart from what we call this life. Hence his arrangement of his business affairs, and, with a precaution seldom adopted by anybody, his purchase and careful preservation of a costly suit of clothes, evidently intended for no other but his burial purpose. To the very last he was the uncomplaining invalid and polite gentleman, as long as he could move his hand to signify welcome to a friend, or wave the words of recognition, or the good-by. In religion, Judge King was a moralist of the strictest kind. The older he grew, the more careful and conscientious were all the acts of his life, and, during the last year of his life, he occasionally remarked to his relatives and to a few other friends, and, espe- cially during his last illness, that he was prepared to die, that he had tried to live right, and that he wished to die as he had lived. Judge King had, in his long, eventful life, suffered much affliction. His first wife died about 1851 ; his second was Miss Smith, of Cleveland, Ohio; he lost two interesting boys at one time from scarlet fever about 1865. Judge King died in the city of Dubuque on the 13th day of February, 1871, leav- ing a wife, a daughter (wife of E. B. Farley, of the firm of J. P. Farley's Sons, whole- sale grocers, Dubuque), and a son, who survive him. He died respected and honored by all who knew him, and, in the history of Dubuque and in the recollection of its citizens, his example and character is preserved grateful remembrance.

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The history of Dubuque County, Iowa : containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, etc., Part 102

Author: Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Chicago : Western Historical Number of Pages: 964

Author:
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Chicago : Western Historical
Number of Pages: 964