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