JOHN AND MINNIE KOESTER
John and Minnie (Kraack) Koester ran a boarding house in Aspinwall at the south end of Main Street in the late 1800s.
The Koester children who attended school in Aspinwall were Rudolph, Ella, Clara and Hilda. Albert was born in 1903 and in 1905 the family left Aspinwall and moved to Sac County, later to South Dakota in 1909. All are deceased.
After his wife died, William Ewoldt and his five sons lived across the street from the Koester boarding house. They ate their meals in the Koester home. The Ewoldt sons, Emil, John, Bill, Henry and Alfred, all served in the armed forces. The Manning American Legion Post is named after Emil since he was the first Manning area soldier killed in World War I.
JULIUS KOESTER
Julius Koester was born April 7, 1911, son of Gustav and Mary Carstensen
Koester. He grew up on a farm two miles north of Aspinwall. Eunice Lamp,
daughter of Hubert and Amelia Westphalen Lamp, was born November 2, 1919. The
Lamp family lived on a farm east of Manning at that time, but moved to a farm 1
1/2 miles north of Aspinwall in the early 1930s.
Julius and Eunice were married November 2, 1938, at Carroll. Their first home was in south Manning and he did custom work with a windrow baler. He went into building construction, working in Grand Island, Nebraska; Priest River, Idaho; and on the Alcan Highway in Canada in 1943. He lived in White Horse, Yukon Territory for nine months.
After returning from Canada, they purchased a home in Aspinwall from the Bruhn Brothers and lived there from 1944 through 1948. During this time Julius was a carpenter and became the town assessor following the death of William Hansen in 1946.
Their son Eugene was born April 14, 1941, while they lived in Manning. He started to school in Aspinwall in 1946. The family left this area because Eugene was suffering from asthma and went north to Minnesota and on to Bismarck, North Dakota. They spent one winter there, then moved to Newcastle, Wyoming, where they built a home and lived there until 1960. Eugene graduated from Newcastle High School in 1959. He received the Bosch-Lomb honorary science award and a four-year scholarship to Wyoming State College at Laramie. He studied Civil Engineering at the University and graduated in 1963. After four years in the Air Force, he joined the Army Corps of Engineers. At the present time he is stationed at Beaverdale, North Dakota.
Julius enjoyed the construction and building trades. Summers he was foreman of construction crews in the Yellowstone National Park area and winters he worked in the Laramie area. His hobby in his younger years was being in corn picking contests and he also enjoyed hunting, such as deer, antelope and elk. He died October 6, 1972.
Eunice has been a baker, working in the Newcastle Bakery for 10 years. After moving to Laramie she was the bake shop manager at the University of Wyoming until retiring.
June 15, 1974, she married Frank Baillie. Mr. Baillie passed away April 24, 1976.
Because of the cold weather in Wyoming, Eunice spent the winter months in Arizona where she met Julius (Jay) Rumpel from Kansas City, Kansas. They were married November 28, 1980. They live in Laramie, and their hobbies are fishing, hunting and traveling.
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JURGEN AND MARIA KOESTER
Jurgen Koester, born in Lunden Schleswig-Holstein, Germany April 6, 1836, and Maria Kahl, born May 18, 1833 in
Lunden Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, were married in Germany in 1861. They became the parents of
seven sons and one daughter; one son Hans died in infancy. In the year 1881 Jurgen and the older son
Fritz came to America to establish a home near Aspinwall. In 1882 the mother and children Henry, Johannes,
Gustav, twins Conrad and Fredrick, and Margareta came to America to join the father and son. They lived in Iowa
and Hayes Township where the younger children attended school.
Fritz married Margareta Voss; they moved to Vail, where he died in 1937. Henry moved to Flandreau, South Dakota, where he died in 1941. Johannes married Minnie Kraack and they moved to Huron, South Dakota, where he died in 1955. Gustav married Maria Carstensen; they lived in the Aspinwall area, and he died in Manning in 1960. Conrad married Minnie Hagedorn and they moved to Flandreau, South Dakota, where he died in 1949. Fredrick moved to Manning, where he died in 1947. Margaret married Hans Voss; they moved to California, where she died in 1929.
Jurgen passed away in Manning in February, 1916. Marie died at the home of her son Gustav in February, 1927. She left six sons, one daughter, 23 grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren. The parents and one son Fredrick are buried in the Iowa Township Cemetery.
Jurgen was a carpenter by trade in Germany. Two sons, Fritz and Fredrick, two grandsons, Herman and Julius Koester, and one great grandson, Edward Adams, were also carpenters.
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LOUIS KOESTER FAMILY
Louis Koester was born May 4, 1900, to Gustav and Maria Carstensen Koester.
Leona Ranniger was born May 3, 1904, to William and Margarita (Hinrichs)
Ranniger. They were married December 20, 1922, at Carroll by the Rev. A.J. Mueller.
They lived for several months with her father, after which they moved to a farm in Hayes Township. They lived there until 1930, when they moved to Aspinwall again to live with her father, William Ranniger, later returning to the farm.
They had two sons while at Aspinwall, and Leroy attended the Aspinwall School; Lloyd was then four years old.
In March 1938, they moved to Freeborn County, Minnesota, where their daughter Leone was born in 1939. They farmed there until 1951 when they moved to Albert Lea, Minnesota.
Louis died in March, 1962 and Leona in May, 1981.
Leroy and Mildred are farmers; they have five children, Steven, Kevin, Vickie, Lu Ann and Janelle. Lloyd and Eileen lived in Albert Lea and have three children, David, Diana and Julie. Lloyd was a co-owner of a garage when he died from a car accident in February, 1973. Leone and Karl Hueners had three children, Michael, Dean and Monica; she is now Mrs. J. Navarra and lives at Clayton, California.
PETER AND CHRISTINE KRAACK
Peter and Christine Kraack came from Lunden, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany in 1887 and settled in
Aspinwall. They lived here until about 1910, when they went to live with a daughter at Wolsey, South Dakota.
They were the parents of seven children. Christine's husband died in Germany; she had two daughters. Emma was married to C. Henry Petersen; they had 11 children and lived at Manilla. Minnie was married to John Koester; they had three sons and three daughters and lived at Wolsey, South Dakota. Katherine "Lena" and her first husband, August Schneekloth, had one daughter; she and her second husband, Hans Matthiesen, had three children, and moved to Nebraska. Anna was married to Peter Weick; they had two sons, and lived in Post Falls, Idaho. Fred and his wife, Minnie Langbehn, had one daughter; he later married again and he and his second wife, Bertha Opperman, had three sons. Henry died on the voyage to the U.S.A. and was buried at sea.
''Grandpa'' Peter enjoyed coming into the Aspinwall store, asking for his groceries in German to tease the clerks.
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HARRY KRUETZFELDT FAMILY
Harry Richard Kruetzfeldt was born to Henry and Ida Wellendorf Kruetzfeldt June
4, 1890. July 3, 1925, he was married to Adele Lena Jensen, daughter of William
and Lillian Jensen, born February 27, 1895. They had two children, Luetta Clara, born October 9, 1926, and
Galyn Harry, born September 28, 1931.
The family left Aspinwall in September of 1937 and moved to Coon Rapids. From there they moved to Arion in January of 1943. Mr. Kruetzfeldt was an employee of the Milwaukee Railroad and retired in 1954.
Luetta was married November 5, 1948 to Elmer Foster and they have four daughters. The Fosters moved to Humboldt. In the fall of 1981 they moved to Portland, Oregon.
Galyn was married March 15, 1954 to Donna Rood of Arion. Their family consists of two sons and three daughters and they reside in Alta.
Harry Kruetzfeldt passed away June 5, 1957 and his wife Adele passed away September 15, 1972.
Harry had one sister, Mrs. Detlef Wiese of Vail, and one brother, Emil Q. Kruetzfeldt, Larrabee, Iowa.
Adele had five sisters and two brothers, Anna (Mrs. John Lafrentz), Bloomfield, Nebraska; Clara (Mrs. Vertus Lamp), Manning; Ella (Mrs. Otto Lamprecht), Bloomfield, Nebraska; William J.F. Jensen, Manning; Lillian (Mrs. Louie Wegner), Denison; Gladys (Mrs. Leo Dalton) Wausa, Nebraska; and Hubert Jensen, Clinton.
The Kruetzfeldts had eight grandchildren.
HENRY (JOCHIM) KRUETZFELDT
Henry (Jochim) Kruetzfeldt, born August 2, 1856, and Ida Katharine Wellendorf, born in 1858, came from
Schleswig-Holstein, Germany.
Mr. Kruetzfeldt told of their sailing ship crossing the ocean. The winds died
down, causing the trip to take longer, thereby making the group run out of food and water.
Henry's citizenship papers were signed April 18, 1888, at Clinton County, Iowa. On his baptismal paper, the name was J. Heinrich Kruetzfeldt; on his citizenship paper it was only Henry, so evidently the name Jochim was dropped after he came to the U.S.A.
They landed at Lyons, near Clinton, on their arrival in the U.S. Because of a great smallpox epidemic, people were required to carry their vaccination papers with them.
Their family consisted of the following children: Emil Claudius; Alma (Mrs. Detlef Wiese); William, who died as a young man of diphtheria; Harry, who married Adele Jensen; Minnie (Mrs. Henry Goettsch); and Clara, who died of a cerebral hemorrhage at a young age.
The Kruetzfeldts farmed in the Westside area. After retiring from farming, they settled in Aspinwall, where Henry was caretaker of the stockyards in the early and middle 1920s. Henry's real trade was weaving, and his granddaughter, Luetta Foster, has a linen tablecloth he made as his "graduation" piece. Luetta also possesses her grandfather's old wooden trunk and on it is painted "Jochim Kruetzfeldt, Lyons 'Stadt,' Iowa, North America" (note: Stadt means city in German).
Ida Kruetzfeldt passed away in August, 1925, six weeks after the marriage of her son Harry. Henry died in 1939 at Vail.
Dorothea Musfeldt is a great-granddaughter.
ODDS AND ENDS
When my father, Claus Fred Stammer, was a young man,
it was the custom to hold funerals in the home of the deceased. When it was
time to take the casket to the cemetery, neighbors would serve as pallbearers;
the doors and halls of the homes were often so narrow that the casket would
have to be tipped over to be carried outside.
Dad decided that his casket would be carried straight, so when he built a new farm house in 1921, he made sure all the doorways were extra wide. The hall from the upstairs was also made wider than normal.
Customs changed, however, and there has never been a funeral
in that specially-planned house.
Clarence Stammer
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Carl ARTHUR KRUSE FAMILY
Carl Arthur Kruse was born June 30, 1907 in Carroll County to Charley J. Kruse
and Annie W. Schroeder. He had two brothers, Harry and Edward. His father died
in 1909 and his mother married Chris Ehrichs of Aspinwall. They had a daughter,
Marie (Mrs. Lewis Hagedorn), and lived on a farm northwest of Aspinwall.
Art married Amanda A. Jentzen September 10, 1930, at Arcadia Lutheran Parsonage by Rev. Theodore Tews. Amanda has four sisters, Mrs. Hugo R.C. Hansen, Manning; Mrs. Henrietta Kruse, Denison; George Hacker, Morgan, Minnesota; and Mrs. Ella Fuchs, Carroll, and four brothers, Louie and Alvin, deceased, William of Westside, and Henry of Pleasant Hill, California.
Mr. and Mrs. Kruse worked on a farm for nine years northwest of Aspinwall, and then bought a farm in 1939 and moved there one mile west and one mile south of Aspinwall. Art farmed the first years, then worked one year for Rasmussens, and then at MJM at Manning. Due to ill health he retired in 1972 and passed away in 1974. Mrs. Kruse still lives on the farm. Stanley Ewoldt has farmed the land for the last 20 years.
Mr. and Mrs. Kruse had three children, all graduates of Manning High School. Both boys were in the Air Force.
Arthur Jr. married Shirley Vrooman of Manilla and they have four children and five grandchildren. Judy Mundt lives in Naperville, Illinois, and her husband fixes computers. Jeanne Kolschever and Janet Meixner's husbands work for Art's Electric and Heating Inc., at De Forest, Wisconsin, where they both live. John is in the Marines in Hawaii.
Willis married Sharon LaFon and they live at Bloomington, California. He works for Amax Aluminum Company. They have six children, Bill, Debra, Robert, Jennette, David and James.
Darlene married Keith E. Anderson of Fort Dodge. He works at Siegs Auto and Darlene took up Lab Technician training and works for Dr. Jiles. They have five children, Nancy, Brian, Cindy, Ellen and Bruce.
HOWARD AND MARGARET KUCHEL
Margaret Ann (Schroeder) Kuchel, daughter of Henry and Hertha
(Peterson) Schroeder, was born September 31, 1936 on a farm 1/2 mile north of
Aspinwall. She attended grade school in Aspinwall, a country school in Iowa
Township, and graduated from Manning High School in 1955. December 4, 1955 she
married Howard Dean Kuchel, son of Albert and Agnes (Frank) Kuchel. He was born
January 26, 1932 and attended and graduated from Irwin High School.
They had three sons. David, born June 22, 1957, is a student at the University of Iowa at Iowa City; Dan, born September 21, 1960, died December 26, 1979; Michael, born January 16, 1962, is a student of N.I.A.C.C. in Mason City.
Howard and Margaret lived in Aspinwall from 1966 to 1973, when they moved to Howard's home place near Irwin. Howard operated a bulldozer in the Irwin area until 1968. He then became employed at IBP at Denison until he passed away in June of 1978. Margaret is employed at L.R. Nelson in Manning.
ODDS AND ENDS
I remember Virgene Schacht, Alice Brady, myself and
sometimes others thinking it a "thrill" to walk (on an evening) out
to Frank Meggers' corner or the opposite direction to the highway.
Dorothy (Ehrichs) Kusel
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ERVIN KUHL FAMILY
Ervin Kuhl was born in Templeton, a son of Leo and Theresa Kuhl. He graduated
from Sacred Heart School in 1934 and spent most of his life in the Templeton
community with the exception of two years he was employed at the Joyce Lumber
Company in Pierson, Iowa, and the time he spent in the service.
He married Margaret Brady of Aspinwall in 1941. She was operator and owner of Margaret's Beauty Shop in Templeton.
They have two children, Mrs. Fred (Teresa) Thury of Toronto, Canada, and Kathy at home; also two grandchildren, Jennifer and Sara.
Before entering the service, Erv was employed at the Pepsi Cola Company in Carroll as a route man. After his discharge Erv operated Kuhl's Tavern and Lunch for 17 1/2 years.
Before his death in December of 1976, Erv was manager of the Templeton Telephone Company.
ODDS AND ENDS
When the Brady family first moved into the Aspinwall depot, they had to go
across the street to the store to get all of their water, for cooking, washing,
cleaning, everything. Later on, a pump was put in east of the depot; when the
store burned down, Frank and Ben Ehrichs had to go to the depot to get THEIR water for the store.
Clara Ehrichs
ODDS AND ENDS
A habit of Grandpa Schroeder's was to cut 12 slices of
onion on New Year's Eve. As the moisture condensed on these slices of onion,
the weather for the forthcoming year was determined. To this day, a grandson,
Alvin Schilling, still carries on this tradition.
Darlyne Dahleen
H.E. AND LENA KUHL
Hinrich Edmund "Ed" Kuhl was born February
14, 1878, in Iowa Township, one mile west and 2 1/2 miles north of Aspinwall,
the son of Marcus and Anna Kuhl. Marcus was one of the first settlers in Iowa
Township. He purchased 160 acres of prairie March 23, 1875, and later added 640
acres from the surrounding area. His first home was a cave in the side of a
hill; several years later, a small house was built when Anna Kuhl came from
Germany to be married. This farm is still owned by a granddaughter, Norma Lamaack.
Ed received his education in Iowa Township School District No. 2, in the same building where later all his children and two grandchildren attended school. Ed attended Manning High School and a year at the Denison Business and Normal School.
Lena Jahn was born March 1, 1881, in Hayes Township, 2 1/2 miles west and 4 miles north of Aspinwall. She was the daughter of Paul William and Catherine Lemster Jahn, who both came from Germany with their parents when they were still children. Grandfather Jahn came to Hayes Township about 1879 and located on 80 acres of prairie; he later added nearly 360 acres to the farm. Lena's preliminary education was received in the rural schools in Hayes Township and later she attended public school in Westside while helping in the home of her aunt, Mrs. Herman Martens.
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March 23, 1904 Ed and Lena were married at the home of the bride's parents. They moved on a farm a mile west from his parents and they continued to farm that same place until his death in a car accident May 18, 1960.
Mrs. Kuhl remained there, making her home with her son Marcus and his wife Alice, who were farming the place. She entered the Manning Plaza in June, 1965, where she passed away August 31, 1977.
In 1967 Melvina, husband Ray Vollstedt and son Paul moved on the farm; Melvina passed away and Ray and Paul remained there until the farm was sold in 1979.
Ed and Lena had a family of three sons and three daughters. Elsie and her husband Hugo Wilhelm live at Manning; Herbert is deceased; Melvina (deceased) was married to Ray Vollstedt; Marvin (deceased) was married to Leola Thiedeman; Marcus and his wife Alice Gawley live in Denison; and Kathryn, widow of Virtus Vollstedt, lives in Manning. There are 13 grandchildren, 32 great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild. They were members of Zion Lutheran Church of Manning.
Mrs. Kuhl was a busy housewife and homemaker. Her big interest was in gardening and she had a great love for flowers. In early years she loved cooking for her family and many hired men, and she did a lot of sewing for her family. She was a member of the Aspinwall Lutheran Ladies Aid and a charter member of the Happy Hour Club.
Mr. Kuhl was always interested in community affairs, was President of the schools of Iowa Township and director of Iowa Township No. 2 for a number of years. He served as director of the Home Mutual Insurance Association of Carroll and surrounding counties for 20 years. He also was very active in Farm Bureau work for many years. When the R.E.A. was established in 1936, he served as one of the first directors on the board and continued in that capacity for seven years.
Aspinwall was their closest trading center and in the years before the advent of truckers, many of the cattle and hogs he raised for market were shipped by rail to Omaha and Chicago. The loading was done in Aspinwall.
MARVIN KUHL
Marvin Kuhl was born in Crawford County September 11, 1912 to H.E. and Lena
Jahn Kuhl. Marvin attended the rural school near his home and Manning High School.
Leola Thiedeman was born in Manning November 21, 1915 to Charles and Julia Vinke Thiedeman. Leola attended a rural school in Carroll County.
Marvin and Leola were married December 14, 1937 by Pastor Johann M. Ansorge at the Lutheran parsonage in Manning. Following their marriage they moved to the Ida Kuhl farm two miles west and four miles north of Aspinwall.
They later purchased the farm and lived there all their married lives. Marvin passed away May 8, 1979.
Marvin and Leola were confirmed in the Lutheran Church in Manning and maintained their membership there.
They have three children. Judy is now a teacher in Bozeman, Montana. Roger, an electrical contractor in West Des Moines, is married to the former Pat Shaffer of Dallas Center and they have two children, Nikki and Tyson. Gary, a plumber at Waukee, is married to the former Kathy Potthoff of Manning and they have four children, Angela, Sheli, Christopher and Corey.
