USA > Kansas > Marshall County > History of Marshall County, Kansas : its people, industries, and institutions > Part 67
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On June 24. 1885, William H. Brooks was united in marriage to Alice Beveridge, who was born on March 5, 1864, in Adams county, Ohio, daughter of Jacob and Nancy (McNeil) Beveridge, further mention of whom is made in this volume in a biographical sketch relating to Dr. Jacob Beveridge, and to this union four children have been born, namely: Ralph, who is at home: Mrs. Madge Totten, of La Junta, Colorado; Ray E .. who is at home, and Chester A .. an optician, practicing at Marysville.
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Mr. and Mrs. Brooks are attendants at the services of the Methodist church and have ever since taking up their residence in this county taken a warm and active interest in the various good works of the community in which they live, helpful in promoting all worthy causes thereabout. Mr. Brooks is a Republican, but has never been a seeker after public office.
WILLIAM SCHWINDAMAN.
William Schwindaman, a native of Peoria. Illinois, where he was born on April 6. 1853, the son of Laurence and Katie (Kern) Schwindaman, is now one of the substantial farmers of Marshall county.
Laurence and Katie (Kern) Schwindaman were born in Strasburg, Germany, he in 1808 and she in 1823. They received their education in good schools and were reared amid the scenes of village life. As a lad Mr. Schwindaman learned the basket-maker's trade, at which he worked dur- ing the years of his active life. Thirty-two years of his life were spent in his native land, when, in 1840, he decided to come to America. On his arrival in this country he at once proceeded to Louisville, Kentucky, where he lived for a time, after which he spent some time in St. Louis and Chicago and then located Peoria, Illinois, where he followed his trade for over thirty years. His health failing him, he came to Kansas, where he pur- chased three hundred and twenty acres of land in Washington county, where he died a few months later. The widow died some years later at the home of her son, William, in Marysville township, Marshall county.
Politically, Laurence Schwindaman was identified with the Republican party: though he did not aspire to office, he took much interest in local affairs. He and his wife were devout members of the Catholic church and Mrs. Schwindaman was prominent in the work of the altar society of that church. They were the parents of ten children, four of whom are now living as follow: Kasper. William. George and Lizzie. Kasper resides at Keokuk. lowa, where he is a farmer: George is a farmer at Meridian, lowa. and Lizzie Smith lives at Bellingham. Washington, where her hus- band is a foreman in a cement mill.
William Schwindaman received his education in the common and high school at Peoria. Illinois, and there grew to manhood. At the age of twenty-three years he entered eighty acres of land in his native state, where he engaged in general farming for one year, when he came to Marshall
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county, where he worked as a farm hand for a year and a half and then rented his father's farm in Washington county. After two years of active farm life he engaged as a clerk in a store at Palmer, Kansas, and was thus engaged for two years. He then purchased a furniture and undertaking establishment, and after two years he sold the business and moved to Reims- ville, Kansas, where he conducted a general store for two years when he sold this business and moved to Colorado, where he took a homestead and also clerked in a store for about two years. He next located at Boise City, Idaho, where he clerked for a year and a half, at which time he returned to Palmer and rented the home farm, which he purchased a few months later. Here he engaged in general farming and stock raising for four years, when he sold the farm and purchased the elevator at Palmer. Here he engaged in the buying and selling of grain for two years when he sold the business at Palmer and purchased the elevator at Marysville, and there continued in the grain business for two years, when he sold and purchased a harness business. This work he managed in connection with his position as mail carrier for about a year, after which he moved to the farm he had purchased, two and one-half miles from Marysville. Here he has a splendid farm of one hundred and sixty acres. in addition to a quarter section that he owns in Colorado. He is successfully engaged in general farming and stock raising and is recognized as one of the progressive men of the town- ship. During his residence in Palmer he served as a justice of the peace, and has served a term of four years as trustee of Marysville township, as well as being for many years as a member of the school board.
In 1879 William Schwindaman was united in marriage to Anna Schin- mels, the daughter of Henry and Catherine (Schlax) Schimmels. Mr. and Mrs. Schimmels were born on a farm in Germany and there received their education and grew to maturity. Mr. Schimmels was born in 1814 and continued to live in his native land until 1851, when he decided to locate in America. On his arrival in the United States he proceeded at once to Wisconsin, where he purchased eighty acres of land, which he developed and improved and there he engaged in farming and stockraising for twenty years, when he came to Kansas and bought one hundred and sixty acres of land in Marshall county, where he made his home until the time of his death on July 17, 1887. Catherine (Schlax) Schimmels was born in 1828 and continued to reside in Germany until 1855, when she came with her brother to the United States and located in Wisconsin, where she worked out before her marriage. She and Mr. Schimmels were devout members
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of the Catholic church and she was an active member of the altar society, until her death in 1901. Mr. and Mrs. Schimmels were the parents of nine children as follows: Marguretta, John, Antone, William, Catherine, Anna, Peter, Elizabeth and Mary. Marguretta Smith is now deceased; John and Antone are farmers in Nebraska; William is a well-known farmer in Ok- lahoma; Catherine Lippett lives at Beloit, Wisconsin, where her husband is operating a hotel; Peter is a merchant in Oklahoma; Elizabeth Kersting resides in Nebraska, where her husband is a farmer and stockman, and Mary Kersting resides in Mundon, where Mr. Kersting is conducting a restau- rant.
Anna (Schimmels) Schwindaman was born on the home farm in Wis- consin on April 18, 1862, and received her education in the public schools, remaining at home until her marriage at the age of seventeen years. She and Mr. Schwindaman are the parents af eight children as follow: Cath- erine, Lillian, Mary, Laura, Golden. Florence, William and Leo. Cath- erine Potter is now a resident of Clinton, Missouri, her husband being a trav- eling man ; Lillian Ring, Mary Ring, Laura Schmitz and Golden Wassenburg are all residents of Marshall county, where their husbands are farmers and stockmen; Florence, after completing her education in the Marysville high school, having graduated in the class of 1911, engaged in teaching, and is now one of the teachers of Marshall county, and is living at home; William is the station agent at Hull, Kansas, and Leo is at home with his parents.
Mr. and Mrs. Schwindaman are members of the Catholic church and have reared their children in that faith. They have long been prominent in the religious activities of the church and of the social life of the com- munities in which they have lived. They have taken much interest in the educational and moral development of the township as well as the county.
ERNST KOENEKE.
Ernst Koeneke. one of the well-known and successful farmers and stock- men of Herkimer township, Marshall county, was born in Cook county. Illi- nois, on September 30. 1857, and is the son of Thomas and Mary ( Schotte) Koeneke.
Thomas and Mary Koeneke were natives of Germany, the former hav- ing been born in Holstein and the latter in Hanover. They were educated in the schools of their native country and later came to the United States,
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locating in the state of Illinois, where they were married and where Mr. Koeneke engaged in farming until 1860. At that time they decided that they would locate in Kansas. They pre-empted a farm of one hundred and sixty acres, where the son, Ernst, now lives, and for this they paid three dollars and seventy-five cents per acre. Logs were obtained from the timber on the tract, with which the first house was built. He had his oxen to assist him in his work, for the family had made the trip from Atchison, with an ox team and wagon. Mr. Koeneke at once engaged in the task of breaking his land and preparing it for planting crops. In time he had a well-estab- lished home and here he and his wife lived until the time of their deaths, he having died in 1893, at the age of seventy-three years, and she in 1910, at the age of eighty-four. They were devout members of the German Luth- eran church, and were among the organizers of the first church in the town- ship. They were the parents of four children as follow: Henry, now deceased, who was a stock and grain buyer of Herkimer: Ernst; Mary, the wife of Mr. Gleue, of Herkimer township, and Christena Fragel, a widow of Herkimer. Mr. and Mrs. Koeneke were a most estimable people and were held in the highest regard. Their lives were active ones and they took the greatest interest in their family and the social, civic and religious life of the township.
Ernst Koeneke was three and a half years of age at the time his parents left their home in Illinois and located in Herkimer township. Here he attended the early schools of the district for a time, and was reared on the home farm, where he assisted his father with the work of the place. As a young man he became impressed with the dignity and independence of the life of a farmer and soon decided that he would follow in the work of his father. He remained at home after he had reached manhood, but later established himself on a farm which his father had given him. From 1886 he operated the home farm for his father. After the death of the father. Mr. Koeneke bought and traded with his brother for the old home place. where he now lives. Since assuming possession of the place he has remodeled the house, which is today one of the substantial farm residences of the county. His barn, thirty-eight by one hundred feet, is a substantial structure. He is now the owner of nine hundred and sixty acres of splendid land, the greater part of which is in a high state of development and nicely improved. He raises high-grade Hereford cattle and Duroc-Jersey hogs, and is recognized as one of the substantial and successful farmers and stock- men of this section of the state.
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MARSHALL COUNTY, KANSAS.
In 1881. Ernst Koeneke was united in marriage to Agusta Senger, who was born in Germany. She received her primary education in Herkimer township. When seven years of age she came with her parents to the United States. They located in Herkimer township, Marshall county, in 1873, where the father and mother died some years ago. To Mr. and Mrs. Koe- neke have been born the following children: AAmalie, Sophia, Rudolph, George, Edward, AAlfred. Ernst and Louise. Amalie is the wife of Rudolph Cumro, a successful young farmer of Herkimer township, and they are the parents of four children : Rudolph Koeneke is a resident of the home town- ship: Sophia Drinkgern is a resident of Colorado, and the other children are at home. Mr. and Mrs. Koeneke are prominent in the social and the religi- ous life of the community, in which they live and where they are held in high regard.
Mr. Koeneke is identified with the Republican party and has served as township treasurer and is now treasurer of the school board.
LINDEN KIRLIN.
Linden Kirlin, the well-known inventor of farm machinery and one of the most substantial farmers of Guittard township. this county, is a native of Illinois, but has been a resident of Kansas since 1879 and of Marshall county since 1883. with the exception of the period of years spent in promot- ing the manufacture of his disk cultivators in Kansas City, where he oper- ated as the head of the Kirlin Cultivator Company. He was born on a farm in Mercer county, Illinois, September 21, 1848, son of Jacob and Nancy Jane ( Mills) Kirlin, natives of Ohio and of Indiana, respectively, both repre- sentatives of old American families.
Reared on the home farm in Illinois, Mr. Kirlin was made familiar with farm work and with farm machinery from the days of his boyhood, and it was by studying the needs of the practical farmer along these lines that he came to conceive the devices which have made his name one of the best- known among the farming people of this country, the Kirlin farm imple- ments having a wide sale throughout the United States. One spring while plowing corn back on the old home farm in Illinois, Mr. Kirlin was seized with an attack of rheumatism which made it torture for him to follow the old-fashioned cultivator he was guiding along the corn rows behind a big pair of mules. Right then and there he conceived the idea of a riding-plow
LINDEN KIRLIN.
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and he had a local blacksmith rig up a plow surmounted by a seat and swing- ing between wheels. It was a great success. That was in the early seventies and he presently improved on his idea and in 1878 invented a riding com- bined lister and drill, which was made for him by the Rock Island Plow Company under his direction. This lister was constructed by attaching one right-hand bar-share plow bottom and one left-hand bar-share plow bottom together, that having been the first lister ever made in the Rock Island fac- tory. The next year, in the spring of 1879, Mr. Kirlin came to Kansas with his family, he having married in 1871, and settled in Brown county, where he made his home until 1883, when he came to Marshall county and bought a farın of one hundred and sixty acres in the southeastern part of the county, where he lived for thirteen years, or until 1896, when he moved to Beattie to give his personal attention to the affairs of the L. Kirlin Cultivator Com- pany, manufacturing his farm implements at that place. In the meantime, in 1880, Mr. Kirlin had patented a combined lister and drill, which was made and sold by the P. & O. Plow Company for a good many years on a royalty basis. After the lister came the two-row knife cultivator for listed corn, patented in the year 1882, which also was manufactured by the above com- pany. Mr. Kirlin's next invention was the two-row disk lister cultivator, which revolutionized the cultivation of listed corn. Thousands of these cultivators were sold by Mr. Kirlin and they are still in great demand in many parts of the listed-corn territory. After this runner-cultivator came the Kirlin two-row wheel and runner disk cultivator the wheels making the draft lighter. This cultivator was patented in 10 ,2. The following year Mr. Kirlin brought out the wheel-and-tongue cultivator. It was in 1893-94 that Mr. Kirlin began the wholesale cultivator business at Beattie, but on account of his rapidly increasing business he moved to Kansas City in 1900, where he remained until his retirement in 1913 and returned to his old home place of three hundred and twenty acres northwest of Beattie, where he is now living. Mr. Kirlin's friends declare for him that his inventions, being the means of enabling the farmers to raise corn more cheaply than before. have been the means of paying off more mortgages on farm lands in the West than any one other agency. In the year 1915 Mr. Kirlin, who, despite the growing weight of his years, is still alert and his inventive genius as vigorous as ever, brought out a shock absorber for Ford automobiles, known as the "Kirlin road smoothers," and during the summer of 1916 made an attachment for the old runner cultivator for the second time over the corn,
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which is thought to be destined to bring this machine back into the market. Mr. Kirlin is now traveling in his car taking orders for the trade.
In 1871, in Mercer county, Illinois, Linden Kirlin was united in mar- riage to Blanche Estelle Mitchell, who was born in that county in 1853. daughter of Isaac and Susan D. (Glancy) Mitchell, the former a native of Ohio and the latter of Indiana, and to this union five children have been born, three sons and two daughters, namely: Mrs. Eva Maud Thomas, of Chicago; Ward Graham Kirlin, a traveling salesman, of Kansas City; Ernest Clair Kirlin, who is on the home farm in Guittard township; Jacob Orr Kir- lin, a traveling salesman, of Kansas City, and Grace Belle Kirlin, a music teacher, with a studio at Kansas City, who is an instructor in music in the college at Lexington, Missouri. The Kirlins attend the Methodist Epis- copal church and take a warm interest in the general social affairs of their home community. Mr. Kirlin is a Republican and gives close attention to local civic affairs, but has not been a seeker after public office.
GEORGE H. THIELE.
Though not for long a resident of Marshall county, having left here with his parents when but an infant for St. Louis, where he was reared, George H. Thiele, well-known abstractor and examiner of land titles in the city of Washington, county seat of the neighboring county of Washington, bears a peculiar and distinctive relation to the history of this county, for he has the distinction of having been the first white child born within the present confines of the county of Marshall. He has been a resident of the neighboring county of Washington since 1877 and is thus perfectly familiar with the progress made in this section of Kansas since pioneer days and has done well his part in the development of this region, having been helpful in many ways in promoting movements designed to advance the common welfare, and in the development of the real-estate interests of this section has for many years been particularly active, few men in the state possessing more thoroughly grounded information regarding land values and conditions hereabouts than he.
George H. Thiele was born on a pioneer farm on the Black Vermillion. near the present site of Bigelow, this county. September 14, 1855, and in the absence of any more authoritative claim is thus declared to be the first white person born in Marshall county, his parents, Ernest William and Charlotte
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(Brockmeyer ) Thiele, Hanoverians, having been among the very earliest set- tlers in the region now comprised within the borders of this county, they having settled here in the spring of 1855. Ernest William Thiele was born in the city of Hanover, in the kingdom of that name, son of George and Sophia Thiele, natives of that same city, and there married Charlotte Brockmeyer, also a native of Hanover, daughter of Henry and Sophia Brockmeyer, natives of that same kingdom. They were married at Meridan, Connecticut. Shortly after their marriage Ernest William Thiele and wife came to Marshall county and settled on a pre-empted tract of land on the Black Vermillion, near the site of the present town of Bigelow, in the southern part of the pres- ent county of Marshall. Conditions, however, did not prove satisfactory to them there and in the winter of 1856-57 they disposed of such holdings as they had accumulated there and went to St. Louis, Missouri, where they established their home and where they resided until 1880, when they removed to' Hanover, Washington county, Kansas. Ernest W. Thiele died on May 17, 1883, and his widow survived him less than three years, her death occurring on April 24, 1886. Their descendants now include, besides the subject of this sketch and his family, Ernest William Thiele, of Hanover, this state: Mrs. Sophia Rhode, of Herkimer, Kansas; the widow and chil- dren of August Thiele, of Hanover, Kansas, and the husband and children of Eliza Haverhorst, of Jackson county, this state.
As noted above, George H. Thiele was but an infant when his parents left this part of Kansas and went to St. Louis and in that city he grew to manhood, receiving his schooling in the city public schools. He remained there until after he was twenty-one years of age and then, in May, 1877, returned to Kansas and settled in Washington county, adjoining the county of his birth. On January 1, 1880, Mr. Thiele opened an abstract of title office at Washington, county seat of that county, and has ever since been engaged in business there as an abstracter and examiner of land titles and conveyancer, one of the best-known and most influential business men in that city. Mr. Thiele is vice-president and a member of the board of directors of the Washington National Bank, served for one term as mayor of his home city, for three terms as a member of the city council from his ward, as clerk of the city school board for six years and as a director of the same for one year. He is a Republican and has ever given a good citizen's attention to local political affairs. Fraternally, he is affiliated with the local lodges of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, the Ancient Order of United Work- men and the Modern Woodmen and in the affairs of these organizations takes a warm interest. He and his wife are members of the Presbyterian
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church at Washington and have ever taken a proper part in church work and in the general good works and social activities of their home town. Mr. Thiele is an active member of the Abstracters Association of Kansas and a corresponding member of the National Geographic Society.
On June 11. 1883. at Washington, Kansas, George H. Thiele was united in marriage to Elizabeth B. Baumberger, of that city, who was born at Fryes- town, Pennsylvania, June 14, 1861, daughter of John B. and Persida Baum- berger, whose last days were spent at Washington. John B. Baumberger, who was born on May 3. 1834. died on February 13, 1892. His widow, who was born on September 28, 1832. survived him more than thirteen years. her death occurring on December 16. 1905. They were the parents of five children, those besides Mrs. Thiele being as follow: Ida R., who died on May 27, 1897: Mrs. Mary .A. Bales, who died on December 3. 1887: Harvey Baumberger, who died on February 9. 1899, and David B. Baumberger, now a resident of Salt Lake City, Utah.
To George H. and Elizabeth B. ( Baumberger) Thiele have been born nine children, namely: Ernest L., born on February 15. 1884. now living. unmarried, at Schenectady. New York: Walter G .. September 10, 1885, who is married and now lives at Lawrence, this state: Edna B., October 7. 1886. at home: Mary E., February 5, 1888, at home: Alfred L .. March 17, 1889. now a resident of Spokane, Washington, who is married and has two chil- dren : Amy C .. December 5. 1890, at home : Paul W., March 9. 1892, unmar- ried and now living at Lincoln, Nebraska: Mabel I., January 20, 1894, at home. and George H .. Jr., July 21. 1896, also at home.
GUSTAV C. PAPE.
Gustav C. Pape, one of Franklin township's well-known and substantial farmers and the proprietor of a fine farm of one hundred and sixty acres in section 4 of that township, is a native of Germany, but has been a resi- dent of Marshall county since the days of his infancy and has consequently been a witness to the development of this county since pioneer days. He was born on January 24. 1875, son of Christav Louis and Elizabeth ( Eber- ling) Pape, also natives of Germany, who became pioneers of this county. where the former spent his last days and where the latter is still living. now making her home in the village of Home.
Christav Louis Pape was born in Rohrberg, Prussia. August 26, 1841.
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and grew to manhood in his native, land. In 1872 he married Elizabeth Eberling, who was born in Stockheim on February 12, 1854, and a year or two later he came to the United States with a view to seeking a per- manent location should conditions over here be found to his liking, and at the end of six months returned to the Fatherland very deeply impressed with the possibilities of the situation in this country. A year or two later, in 1876, he returned to the United States, bringing his family with him, and located at Cincinnati, where he left his wife and children while he came on West prospecting, Kansas being his destination. So well did he like the appearance of things in Marshall county that he bought a quarter of a section of land just south of Home village, sent for his family to join him and there he established his home, continuing to live there until 1906, when he retired from the active labors of the farm and moved to Home, where his death occurred on May 12, 1910, he then being sixty-eight years, eight months and fourteen days of age. Mr. Pape was a successful farmer and owned at the time of his death three hundred and twenty acres of excellent land, besides valuable property in the village of Home. For his original quarter section in Franklin township he paid but eight dollars an acre, but he lived to see the prices of land in that section and throughout this whole section of Kansas increase many fold. Following his death a local newspaper had the following to say regarding Mr. Pape: "He man- aged well and acquired a goodly portion of this world's wealth, which he later used to help his children get a start in the world. He had large fore- sight and was remarkably successful in all he undertook to do. Mr. Pape was a great man. He had great qualities of heart and soul. In him all the attributes of a fine Christian character perfectly blended. He was a father, a husband, a neighbor and a citizen in all the sense these words imply. It is a happy thought to think of men like him. His life was gentle. It was not clouded with strife. Though a large man physically, he was always calm and self-possessed. There was no anger, no tempest in his soul. Yet he was not cowardly. He had great moral courage. He was a brave man and would undertake the most difficult tasks and com- plete them with no seeming effort. He was a natural leader of men. He controlled others by controlling himself. He never argued a point in dis- pute, yet he controlled. He merely told where he stood, what he believed, and men agreed with him without argument, and without comment."
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