(copied from 1914 Sac County History, reprinted in “As Time
Goes By”, Odebolt, Iowa 1877-1977,
printed by The Odebolt Chronicle May, 1977, p.63)
click photo for enlargement
William A. Stanzel, born 1833 in Schonnecow, Prussia, in the highlands of Germany, son of Martin and Eva Rosanna Stanzel. In 1847 his mother died and the father with his five sons and two daughters set sail for America. Some of his family had preceded him and located near the city of Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Here the immigrants likewise settled and there William lived for a time. When still a youth he left home and journeyed westward in search of a fortune. He stayed in St. Paul a few months and then came south to Illinois. Here things apparently did not satisfy him and opportunity seemed remote, so he came into Iowa and settled down to the serious and commendable pursuit of farming in Clinton County. He prospered and was rewarded for his diligence and industry and was doubly blessed when he took to wife Mr. Lucinda R. (Clark) Kenyon on the 27th day of August 1864. This was a fortunate day for him, as later events proved.
Lucinda R. (Clark) Kenyon, with whom this narrative is also intimately concerned, was born March 13, 1842 in Delaware County of the old Buckeye state. The parental farm was located in Berkshire Township. She is the daughter of Barnabas and Submit (Hitchcock) Clark, and is a descendant of an old and illustrious American family which dates its origin back to the days of the Pilgrim fathers and the best blood of New England flows in the veins of her and her children. The Clark family, according to authentic record, begins in America with Thomas Clark, a first mate of the historic ship "Mayflower". It is recorded in history that he was the first of the Pilgrims to land on the bleak shores of New England. Beginning with Barnabas Clark, father of Mrs. Stanzel, and tracing backward, we find that he was the son of Alvin Clark and was born September 11, 1799; was married in May of 1824 to Submit Hitchcock, who was born on January 2, 1801 and died May 6, 1878. Barnabas learned the trade of wagon maker, but also worked as a skilled craftsman in the engraving art. He settled in Delaware County, Ohio, and removed from there to Clinton County, Iowa, after his marriage. He died September 27, 1890. His children were Samuel Hall Clark; Mary Jane (Mrs. Oliver Duncan); Sabra Clapp (Wade); Frederick Hanks; Laurinda (Lucinda?) Roxana (Mrs. Wm. Stanzel). It is worthy to note that Prof. Alvin Clark, the famous telescope manufacturer and astronomer, of world-wide fame, was a brother of Barnabas Clark.
William A. Stanzel and his capable wife resided on a farm in Clinton County until 1876, when they sold out their holdings and on March first came to Sac County. Their welcome in the county as not a very pleasant nor an inviting one, as they arrived here while a blizzard was raging with all the characteristic fierceness and extreme cold which accompanies the northwestern winter storm. This blizzard followed an exceptionally mild winter. They invested their capital in three hundred and twenty acres of land in Clinton Township. With only a small frame, unlined and unplastered house to shelter them, they lived here during the terrible cold and with the thermometer registering twenty degrees below zero. Mrs. Stanzel was then nursing a child but six months old . Their first year crops were very poor, the corn being small and the wheat very light. To add hardships to their bad luck, the grasshoppers came in the fall and stripped the place of everything edible and left a barren waste in their wake. However, they saved a little from the wreck, for Mrs. Stanzel gathered the cabbage heads as fast as the greedy "hoppers" stripped off the outer leaves. When it came time to sow the crops for the next season it devolved upon Judge Criss, ever the firm friend of the farmers to offer advice which was acceptable and resulted in a good wheat crop for the ensuing year. Judge Criss advised Mr. Stanzel and others to sow their wheat very thick so as to prevent the "hoppers" from getting into the field in order to eat the grain and the plan worked to perfections.
Mrs. Stanzel recalls vividly the terrible winter of 1880 and 1881 as being the most severe in Sac County of all her experiences. From early October to late Spring the snow was very deep and did not disappear from the ground until April 17. Another very heavy snow came on the 20th.
Nearly all of the early settlers in Clinton Township came from Clinton County, Iowa and the township was named in honor of Clinton County. For over forty years theses brave and hardy pioneers lived on their fine farm and in May, 1907 moved to Odebolt where Mr. Stanzel died in January of 1911.
This estimable and worthy couple have reared the following children: George; Silas; Mrs. Eve S. Fuller; William, Jr.; Mrs. Mary Hannah Scott; Herman; Mrs. Harriet Hooper; and Barnabas.