Dickinson Co., KS AHGP-Portrait and
Biographical Album of Dickinson, Saline, McPherson and
Marion Counties-Henry W. Kandt
Portrait and Biographical
Album of Dickinson, Saline, McPherson and Marion
Counties
Chapman Brothers, Chicago, 1893
HENRY W. KANDT, one of the enterprising
German fanners of Lyon Township, residing
on section 20, was born in Prussia, on
the 28th of February, 1846, and since quite
a young lad has been a resident of Dickinson
County. His father, John F. Kandt, was born in
the same province on the 14th of August, 1814,
and was married about 1831 to Miss Maria Bredow.
With their three children they emigrated to the
United States in 1855, locating in Watertown,
Wis., where Mr. Kandt followed his trade of wagon-
making until 1859. In that year a colony of
German settlers was formed, consisting of Charles
F. Brehmer, John Poerich, William Tiebell, Fred
Krause, Henry Krause and Mr. Kandt, and these
men with their families came to Dickinson County,
Kan. Mr. Poerich was drowned in the year 1881,
and Frederick Krause is also deceased, but the
others are still living. They all settled along Lyon
Creek, and John Kandt for many years engaged
in stock-raising. He pre-empted one hundred and
sixty acres of land on section 20, and purchased
an additional eighty-acre tract. Developing a
farm, he made it his home until his death, which
occurred on Christmas Day of 1891, at the age of
seventy-five years. In the family were four children:
Henry W.; August F.; Emily, wife of Fred
Rich, of Ridge Township; and Minnie, wife of
Charles H. Koepke, the present County Commissioner
from Union Township. The mother of
this family is still living and makes her home with
her son August, who resides on the old homestead.
Since his father's death, he has added to the two
hundred and eighty-acre farm a quarter-section of
land, and he also owns four hundred and eighty
acres in Marion County, Kan.
We now take up the personal history of our subject,
who, on starting out in life for himself, had
an eighty-acre tract of land where his present
home is now situated. Indolence or idleness is
utterly foreign to his nature, and as his financial
resources were increased as the result of his well directed
efforts, he has made additional purchases.
His home farm now comprises three hundred and
sixty acres, and he also owns three hundred and
twenty acres on sections 27 and 28. He is engaged
in general farming, and has fifty acres
planted in corn, forty in wheat and twenty-five in
oats. He owns one hundred and fifty head of
cattle and fifteen horses, and his farm is one of
the desirable places in the county.
On the 23d of April, 1870, Mr. Kandt married
Miss Wilhelmina Brehmer, a daughter of Charles
F. Brehmer, who came to this county in 1859.
Their union has been blessed with five children:
Martha, wife of Otto Kuether, a blacksmith of
Herington; Emma, Henry, Charles and Annie.
The four younger children are still at home.
Since attaining his majority, Mr. Kandt has
served in official positions. At the age of twenty one
he was elected Township Clerk, and filled that
office for two years. He was also Justice of the
Peace for two years, and for ten years was Township
Trustee. In 1884, he was elected a member
of the Board of County Commissioners, and in
1887 he was re-elected, serving for six consecutive
years, during which time the County Poor House
and County Jail were built. In politics, he was
formerly a Republican, but is now independent.
He is a man in whom his neighbors and friends
have the greatest confidence, and their trust is
never misplaced. The German families who located
acre in 1859 were all poor, but they have
been an industrious and enterprising colony.
Like many of his own countrymen, Mr. Kandt has
by perseverance and enterprise acquired a handsome
competence, and is numbered among the substantial
citizens of the community.
(c) 2009 Sheryl McClure for
Dickinson County KS AHGP