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JOHN SELK. The life record of John Selk is one of which he may well be proud, representing as it does a self help that has brought him success and a name honored and respected in his home community. Born, reared and educated in Germany, he was about twenty-two years of age when he accompanied the family to America, and starting out for himself, working for others by the month, he has finally become the owner of a valuable estate of three hundred and twenty acres in section 21, Homer township. He leases one hundred and sixty acres of that tract and farms the remainder, which represents his homestead. On first becoming a resident of Bentcn county in 1875 he located near Keystone in Kane township, working on farms there, later renting land for several years, and the nucleus of his present estate was an eighty acre tract. His land is finely improved, and he is engaged in general farming.
Mr. Selk was born in Mecklenberg, Germany, in 1849, a son of Christopher and Mary (Stody) Selk, who came to this country in 1872, residing for a few months in Wisconsin, and the mother died there. A year after this sad event the father returned to Germany and he died in that country some eight years later. Mr. Selk has three brothers, all living in Benton county, namely: Henry, a retired farmer living in Keystone; Fritz, also a retired farmer of that place; and Christopher, a Monroe township agriculturist. Mr. Selk married in Benton county about twenty-five years ago Miss Lena Steffler, born in Wisconsin, a daughter of Fritz Steffler, one of the pioneers of that state and now living in its town of Kiel, a retired farmer of more than eighty years of age. Mrs. Selk was reared in Wisconsin, coming in her young womanhood to Benton county. The six children which have blessed their marriage union were all born in Benton county, and they are: Emma, the wife of Peter Lamprecht, of Monroe township, and the parents of a daughter, Helen Farmers; and Herman, Henry, Elsie, Minnie and George. Mr. Selk is an independent political voter, and he is one of the representative citizens of Homer township.
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