Transcribed from History of Wyandotte County Kansas and its people ed. and comp. by Perl W. Morgan. Chicago, The Lewis publishing company, 1911. 2 v. front., illus., plates, ports., fold. map. 28 cm. [Vol. 2 contains biographical data. Paged continuously.] p. 742-743 transcribed by Mitchell Hemphill, student from USD 508, Baxter Springs Middle School, Baxter Springs, Kansas, on January 19 2001.

Victor W. Puhr

VICTOR W. PUHR, the enterprising dairyman who is located at Rosedale, is building up a very successful business. He is possessed of the ability to hustle - one of the requisites of the man who would accomplish anything worth while - but combined with this characteristic is found a shrewd common sense, which acts as a check on his impetuosity.

Mr. Puhr is a native of Austria, where his birth occurred in 1881. He is the son of Frank and Elizabeth (Schlapfer) Puhr, both born in the same great Empire, where they were educated and married, and where some of their children were born. The father became identified with the agricultural prosperity of Austria, although he was a farmer in a small way. In 1888 he pulled up the stakes which limited his operations in his native land and with his wife and family took passage for America, going direct to Johnson county, Missouri. He secured a tract of land on which he did truck gardening, but his farming in Missouri was of short duration. He had heard of the agricultural possibilities of the state of Kansas, and he bought land in Wyandotte county, and here he brought up his children and lived until his death in 1910. He now lies in old Shawnee cemetery, survived by nine of his ten children and by his wife, who maintains her residence in South Park with some of her family.

The first seven years of Victor W. Puhr's life were passed in his native land and when he was of an age to enter school, the family came to the United States. They made a temporary halt in Missouri, as mentioned above, but Wyandotte county, Kansas is the scene of the lad's school life and of his preliminary farming experiences. He early learned bow to do all kinds of farm work, remaining with the family until he was twenty-four years of age, at which time, in 1905, he realized the advisability of establishing an independent business. Starting in a very modest way, he now has twenty-five cows and sells his milk in Kansas City to dealers and also to individual customers. It is the opinion of the farmers in his community that Mr. Puhr is a very promising young man whose success is assured, in that he is both capable and industrious.

In 1907, two years after he commenced his dairy business, Mr. Puhr married Miss Mary Collins, a life long resident of Kansas. Her birth occurred in Louisburg, that state, and as a child she came with her parents to Rosedale, where the family still resides. Three children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Puhr, Victor, Frank and Pauline. Both husband and wife were baptized and brought up in the Catholic faith and they are members of the Catholic church in their parish.



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