KINZEL, Joseph J. - 1914

KINZEL, PHIFER, SPRINGER, SLAUBAUGH

Posted By: Volunteer
Date: 7/8/2009 at 16:54:14

HISTORY OF
Cherokee County
IOWA
VOLUME II
ILLUSTRATED
CHICAGO
THE S. J. CLARKE PUBLISHING COMPANY
1914
by Thomas McCulla

JOSEPH J. KINZEL.

Joseph J. Kinzel, an enterprising and successful merchant of Cleghorn, is associated with D. A. Springer in the conduct of a hardware store and enjoys an enviable reputation as a young man of excellent business ability and discernment. His birth occurred in Germany on the 27th of December, 1879, his parents being Andrew and Dora (Pheifer) Kinzel, likewise natives of that country. The father followed farming in Germany until 1881, when he crossed the Atlantic to America and located in Cherokee county, Iowa, cultivating rented land in Rock township for about fourteen years. On the expiration of that period he purchased and improved a tract of one hundred and sixty acres in Liberty township, where he has been successfully engaged in general agricultural pursuits to the present time. Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Kinzel have resided in this county for almost a third of a century and are well known and highly esteemed within its borders.

Joseph J. Kinzel, who was but two years of age when brought to the new world by his parents, acquired his education in Rock and Liberty townships of Cherokee county. He remained at home until he had attained his majority and then took up his abode on a rented farm in Sheridan township, near Cleghorn, which he is still operating at the present time. On the 1st of April, 1913, in association with his brotherinlaw, D. A. Springer, he purchased the hardware stock of David Gowan and has since dealt in this commodity, enjoying an extensive and well merited patronage. Messrs. Kinzel and Springer also purchased the building, a twostory cement structure, which they utilize entirely in the conduct of their business. Mr. Kinzel is a stockholder in the Farmers Elevator Company and in the Sheridan No. i Telephone Company and is widely recognized as a substantial and representative citizen of the community.

In February, 1900, Mr. Kinzel was united in marriage to Miss Anna L. Springer, a daughter of Andrew J. and Elizabeth (Slaubaugh) Springer, who are natives of Ohio and Maryland respectively. Mr. Springer removed to Illinois in the 50s and in that state operated a farm continuously until 1895, with the exception of the period which he spent in California in search of gold. In 1895 ne came to Cherokee county, Iowa, purchased a tract of land in Sheridan township and cultivated the same for two years. He still remains on the farm but is living retired, enjoying his declining years in well earned ease. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Kinzel have been born six children, as follows: Opal, Arthur, Vernita, Andrew and two who died in infancy.

In politics Mr. Kinzel is a progressive, advocating the principles set forth by Theodore Roosevelt at the time of the birth of the new party. His religious faith is that of the Christian church. He is well known throughout the commu nity in which he has spent practically his entire life and where his genuine worth and his high principles have commended him to the goodwill, trust and respect of all with whom he has been associated.