Koeneke, Fred

STEEGE, KOCH, HUENEMUELLER

Posted By: BCGS
Date: 1/3/2010 at 14:08:50

Fred Koeneke, one of the successful and progressive farmers of Fremont township, owns and operates one hundred and twenty acres of fine land on section 16, upon a portion of which part of his boyhood was spent. His birth occurred March 22, 1870. He is a son of John and Sophia (Steege) Koeneke, native of Germany, the former born in October, 1838. The parents came to America in 1868 and after stopping for a short time in Cook county, Illinois, came to Bremer county, Iowa. The father afterward rented land in Maxfield and Fremont townships until 1883, when he bought eighty acres on section 16. He developed and improved this property until his death, which occurred in 1886, when he was forty-eight years of age. His widow and children afterward continued to reside upon the farm for a number of years but Mrs. Koeneke now makes her home in Tripoli. In their family were six children: Henry, of Waterloo; John, a resident of North Dakota; Fred, of this review; Mary, the wife of Carl Koch, of Fremont township; Herman, of Waterloo and Sophia, the deceased wife of the late William Huenemueller.

Fred Koeneke was reared upon his father's farm and acquired his education in the distict and German schools of this locality. In 1893 he purchased the homestead, to which he has since added forty acres, owning today one hundred and twenty acres of excellent land. He has greatly improved this property, erecting a new house and substantial barns and outbuildings and carrying forward the work of development along practical and modern lines. He engages in general farming and dairying and through his able management of his interests has met with gratifying and well deserved success.

Mr. Koeneke married Miss Minnie Koch, of Fremont township, a daughter of Adolph Koch, a retired farmer living in Tripoli. Mr. and Mrs. Koeneke have become the parents of four children, Hilda, Laura, Rudolph and Ruth. Mr. Koeneke is a member of the Evangelical Synod and he gives his political allegiance to the democratic party. He has spent his entire life within the border of Bremer county and has become widely known and favorably regarded.

History of Bremer County, Iowa Vol. II 1914