Sedgwick County KSGenWeb

Portrait And Biographical Album of Sedgwick County, Kan.

Chapman Brothers 1888

Page 292  

CONSTANTINE MERKLE, proprietor of the 400 acres of land comprising the greater part of section 7 in Park Township, is numbered among the successful stock-growers of Sedgwick County, and gives his attention mostly to fine cattle. His land, which comprises one of the most fertile tracts in that region, has been brought to a good state of cultivation, and the homestead is particularly noticeable on account of the fine set of frame buildings and the air of comfort and plenty which surrounds them. 

     Mr. Merkle took up his residence in this county in the fall of 1872. His boyhood home was in the kingdom of Wurtemberg, Germany, where his birth took place on the 9th of May, 1837. His parents, Joseph and Theresa (Bobb) Merkle, were also of German birth and parentage; and left their native land for America when their son Constantine was a child one year old. They first settled in what was then Allen, but is now Auglaize County, Ohio, where the father engaged in farming and carpentering, having served an apprenticeship at the latter in his own country. He lived to a good old age, and passed away in Auglaize County, Ohio, when seventy-four years old. The mother is still living and has now reached the advanced age of eighty-one. 

     The parental household of our subject included eight children, two of whom died in Wurtemberg before the removal of the family to the United States. Of the six remaining the record is as follows: Anthony has charge of the old homestead in Ohio; Francis died in 1886, at the age of fifty-three years; Lucy died in 1860, when about twenty-five years old; Constantine of our sketch is the next eldest; Catherine became the wife of William McDougle, of Auglaize County, Ohio; John is carrying on carpentering at Spoken Falls, W. T. 

     Our subject being but an infant at the time of crossing the Atlantic has no recollection of the land of his nativity and knows no other home than America. In his boyhood he spent a few months at school each year and his services were utilized upon the farm as soon as he was old enough to be of any assistance, and he also learned the carpenter trade of his father, which he followed for about ten years. Upon reaching manhood he purchased eighty acres of land near the old homestead, in Auglaize County, Ohio, upon which he resided until 1872, when he sold out preparatory to his removal West. 

     Mr. Merkle was married, in Auglaize County, Ohio, to Miss Sarah C. DeLong, who was born there Dec. 22, 1843, and is the daughter of Eli and Susan (Dodson) DeLong. The young people commenced life together on the farm already spoken of, and became the parents of six children, namely: Louisa, now the wife of Henry Scott, of Kingman; Charles; Lizzie, Mrs. James Clare; Vinnella, Alice and Cora May. Mr. Merkle, in 1885, valued his possessions at $20,000, but has since met with considerable loss. He has very little to do with politics, but upon occasions of general elections casts his vote in support of the Republican party. He has steadily declined becoming an office-holder, preferring to devote his time and attention to his farm and his family.

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