KESLER, FRANK A.

KESLER, LOTT, HUFFMAN, BAUGHMAN, EDWARDS, REESE, HILLER

Posted By: Jean Kramer (email)
Date: 2/8/2004 at 10:00:05

Biography reproduced from page 454 of Volume II of the History of Kossuth County written by Benjamin F. Reed and published in 1913:

Frank A. Kesler, who owns and operates “Mill Grove Farm,” located on section 8, Eagle township, has for eleven years been identified with agricultural and stock-raising interests of Kossuth county, where his realty holdings aggregate five hundred and thirty-two acres, all but fifty of which he is renting out. He is a native of the state of New York, his birth having occurred in Iroquois on the 15th of June, 1855, and a son of Lyman and Catharine Jane (Lott) Kesler. In the parental line he is of German extraction, as the name would suggest, his grandfather, Philip Kesler, having been born in Germany, whence he emigrated to the United States, locating in New York. Lyman Kesler was born and reared in the Empire state, but was married in Michigan. In 1863, he removed with his wife and family to Illinois, settling on a farm in De Kalb county, which he cultivated for a year. At the expiration of that time he went to Kane county, that state, which continued to be his place of residence until 1877. In the latter year the family came to Iowa, the father purchasing land in Hardin county, west of Eldora, where he continued his agricultural pursuits for four years. He diligently cultivated this place until 1901, when he withdrew from active work and he and the mother went to Radcliffe, where he is now living retired. Three children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Kesler, as follows: an infant, who died at the age of ten months; Frank A., our subject; and Willard, who is residing at Radcliffe.

Frank A. Kesler was a lad of seven years when his parents removed to Illinois, in the common schools of which state he was educated. Having been reared on a farm he early became familiar with the duties and responsibilities of the agriculturist, having assisted with the cultivation of the home place until the family removed to Iowa, when he began farming for himself on land near Eldora, which had bee presented to him by his father. He met with more than average success in the development of his interests and became numbered among the prosperous agriculturists of Hardin county. In 1902, he disposed of his property there and came to Kossuth county, locating on a farm in the vicinity of his present place. At that time he purchased four hundred and fifty-two acres of land, but he subsequently increased his holdings by the addition of another eighty acres. He is renting out four hundred and eighty acres, one hundred and sixty being leased by his sons, Herbert and Kenneth, while the remaining fifty-two he is cultivating for himself. Mr. Kesler is an alert, active and energetic man of enterprising and progressive methods and is recognized as one of the representative agriculturists of Eagle township. His land was entirely unimproved when he purchased it, and during the intervening ten years he has erected four sets of buildings, tiled his fields and brought them under high cultivation. He is a stockholder in the Iowa Lake Creamery and the Farmers Elevator Company of Armstrong, and for two and a half years he has been treasurer of the Lake Road Telephone Company, of which he was a trustee for three years. He was president of the school board two years and for four years school director.

On the 12th of September, 1880, Mr. Kesler was united in marriage to Miss Mary E. Huffman, a daughter of Solomon and Sarah (Baughman) Huffman, natives of Ohio, of German extraction. The father who was an agriculturist, and a lay preacher of the Methodist Episcopal denomination, was engaged in farming nine miles northwest of Eldora at the time of his daughter’s marriage. He continued to reside there until his death, which occurred in May, 1882. The mother subsequently made her home with her son Absalom in Wright county, Iowa, where she passed away in October, 1890. Seven children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Huffman, Mrs. Kesler being the second in order of birth. The others are as follows: Ruhamah, deceased; George, a farmer of North Dakota; Absalom, who is farming in Eagle township; Edward, deceased; Frank, who was for many years a lumberman at Cass Lake, Minnesota, but is now farming in Eagle township; and Effie, deceased.

Mr. and Mrs. Kesler have had five children. Ezra, a farmer in Eagle township, who was born on the 20th of August, 1881, married Theresa Edwards and they have one child, Helen. Myrtle May, their only daughter, was born on March 31, 1883, and is living at home with her parents. Herbert, whose natal day was June 23, 1885, married Flora Reese of Eldora, Iowa, and to them has been born one child, who died in infancy. Kenneth, who was born on the 14th of September, 1888, married Mabel Edwards, a sister of his brother Ezra’s wife, and they have two daughters, Leah and Katherine. Ray, whose birth occurred on the 21st of December 1891, resides in Armstrong, where he follows the painter’s trade. He married Sadie Hiller of Eagle township, and they have one child, Portia.

Mr. Kesler is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church of Eldora, and he belongs to the Congregational church of Fairmont, and fraternally he is identified with the Modern Woodmen of America. He votes the republican ticket at national elections, but locally he supports such men as he considers best adapted for the office, regardless of party affiliations. He served for four years as school director in district No. 3, Eagle township. Mr. Kesler is considered to be one of the best business men and most capable agriculturists in his community, and “Mill Grove Farm,” so named by his son Ray, is in every way a credit to him, its general appearance and condition evidencing the exercise of capable supervision and competent direction in its operation.