John Kurt

KURT, SCHEITLER, GRACE, TILL, LIVINGSTON, SCHWIRTZ, DETTERMAN

Posted By: Barbara Gehlsen Nugent (email)
Date: 8/24/2011 at 16:37:38

History of Jackson County, Iowa, Volume 2, by James Whitcomb Ellis, 1910.
Biographical Sketches

JOHN KURT

John Kurt has made good use of his opportunities since he came to this country and is numbered among the substantial men of Jackson county. He is now living retired in Bellevue, but for a long period he was actively connected with the best agricultural interests of this section of Iowa and still has in his possession a fine farm of two hundred acres lying partly in Bellevue and partly in Jackson townships. He was born in the grand duchy of Luxemburg, May 8, 1842, a son of Michael and Mary (Scheitler) Kurt, natives of the same place. In 1848 the father brought his family to America, locating upon a farm in Dubuque county, Iowa, where he lived until his death. His wife passed away in Cascade. One other of the children born to them now survives, Margaret, who is the wife of Thomas Grace and lives in Missouri.

John Kurt was about six years of age when his parents emigrated to America and so is indebted to the public schools of Dubuque county, Iowa, for the training he received in the elementary branches of English education. He also obtained a practical knowledge of farm work as he assisted his father in the cultivation of the fields. He remained under the parental roof in Cascade township, Dubuque county, until he was about forty years of age, when he came to Jackson county and purchased a tract of four hundred acres of land seven miles southwest of Bellevue. He at once began the further cultivation and improvement of the place and prospered in his undertakings. He still owns a fine farm of two hundred acres. In all of his work he was progressive as well as industrious and systematic, and in the course of a few years he obtained so notable a success that he felt he was justified in retiring. Accordingly, in April, 1898, he removed to Bellevue, where he is still residing. On locating here he bought a brick house on Third street, to which he has added until it is one of the fine homes of the city, a model of comfort, beauty and convenience. Here he enjoys many of the luxuries of life, to which his many years of hard work so well entitles him, and the satisfaction that comes to a man who is conscious that the past holds nothing of which he need be ashamed.

On the 9th of February, 1870, Mr. Kurt wedded Miss Mary Till, like himself a native of Luxemburg. As a child she came to America with her parents, Peter and Elizabeth Till, who spent the closing years of their lives in this state. Mr. and Mrs. Kurt had ten children, namely: Peter, who is living in Kansas; John B., who is operating his father's farm; Frank, who is residing in Kansas; Anna, who is the wife of Harry Livingston, of Kingman, Kansas; William, of Emporia, Kansas; Charles, of Canyon, Kansas; Antone, who is also in Kansas; Clara, who is a school teacher; Celesta, who is in the normal school at Cedar Falls; and Edward, who is a pupil in the high school of Bellevue. Mrs. Kurt died in 1895, and in April, 1898, Mr. Kurt married again, his second wife having been Mrs. Christina Schwirtz, the widow of Joseph Schwirtz. Her father, Benedict Detterman, was a native of Germany, but she was born in Clinton county, Iowa.

Since age conferred upon him the right of franchise, Mr. Kurt has given unfailing support to the democratic party at the polls, but has otherwise not been active in its ranks, for he does not aspire to official preferment. He is a faithful communicant of the Catholic church, and by his daily life has proved the practical value of its teachings, having in every relation followed an honorable course, which has now brought him the respect and esteem universally paid to persons of genuine personal worth.