Samuel Bockes

BOCKES

Posted By: Tammy (email)
Date: 3/20/2015 at 14:24:59

Samuel Bockes was born in Somerset county, Pennsylvania, in 1840, and moved to Iowa in 1870. He located on Section 30 in Palermo township and with the exception of about 15 years of which he lived in Conrad, he has resided on this farm. Mr. Bockes will be 85 years old July 7 of this year and is still hale and hearty.

He came here early in March while the ground was still frozen, but it thawed out shortly after and it was impossible to get around, as the ground was so soft that horses and wagon were helpless. Mr. Bockes said that he thought he had come to the wrong place and probably would have gone on farther west had travel been possible, but now he realizes that as well as others hit the garden spot of the world.

At that time Dave Strickler, John Price, J. R. Lynn, Jake Lighter, Sol Wilhelm, Dan Bockes and Aaron Kinsinger were the only ones near by. Dan Bockes, who is a brother, and Aaron Kinsinger, a brother-in-law, came the year before and broke about 50 acres of sod, so as soon as the ground was in condition Mr. Bockes had some work that he could do.

The closest mills were at Union and Eldora and at that time all the grain was sacked and Mr. Bockes remembers one time he got stuck three times within a mile of home and had to unload and carry the wheat over the bad places.

--The Grundy Register (Grundy Center, Iowa), 12 February 1925, pg 12