BARTLETT, MICHAEL & E. H.

BARTLETT, KUCHENREUTHER

Posted By: Jean Kramer (email)
Date: 5/26/2004 at 15:02:22

Biographies reproduced from page 169 of Volume II of the History of Kossuth County written by Benjamin F. Reed and published in 1913:

One of the most attractive properties of Portland township is Walnut Grove Farm, which is owned and operated by Michael and E. H. Bartlett. They are natives of Iowa, Michael having been the first white child born in Chickasaw, Iowa, his birth occurring on the 4th of December, 1853. The younger brother, however, was born in Bremer county, his natal day having been the 17th of July, 1863. The family located in Kossuth county in 1870, and here the father, who was a farmer, passed away seven years later.

Michael Bartlett, who is ten years his brother’s senior, was a youth of about seventeen when his parents settled in Kossuth county. He completed his education about the time E. H. Bartlett began his, both having been students of the district schools. Despite the difference in their ages they early became associated in business, their interests for many years having been identical. For a time they farmed as renters in this county, but subsequently they went to Kansas with their mother, who there filed on a homestead, which they cultivated and improved for two years. At the expiration of that time, in 1892, they sold their claim and returned to Kossuth county, investing their money in a hundred and twenty acres of land in Portland township. It was unimproved, but after erecting thereon the necessary buildings they began plowing and preparing the soil for cultivation. Energy, intelligently expended and exercised along practical methods brought them well deserved success, and year by year they were able to increase the value of their property by needed improvements. A good residence has been erected, while large commodious barns and outbuildings provide ample shelter for their stock and grain. They have also planted a grove and orchard and have enhanced the appearance of the grounds about their house by the addition of ornamental shrubs and trees. Their fields are substantially fenced and tiled where necessary. In connection with diversified farming, they are raising high-grade stock and also engage in dairying. They own stock in the Titonka Cooperative Creamery Association, and are regarded as capable business men and efficient agriculturists. Their realty holdings aggregate two hundred and forty acres, as they hold the title to another tract of a hundred and twenty acres, located on section 24, this township. Forty acres of this piece was homesteaded by Michael Bartlett, and has been in his possession for many years. The success of the Bartlett brothers has not been unusual in any way, but is such as can be achieved by any man of like intelligence and energy. They have encountered the same obstacles and hardships experienced by all who engage in pioneering, but they are not easily discouraged, and to their tenacity of purpose must be attributed their present prosperous condition.

E. H. Bartlett was married in Kossuth county in 1895 to Miss Barbara Kuchenreuther, a native of Germany, and to them have been born four children: Lloyd H., Louis W., and Raymond G., all of whom are at home; and Cecil, who died at the age of three years.

The Bartlett brothers give their political support to the republican party, and for some years E. H. has been prominently identified with the public affairs of the community. He is now township trustee and was formerly president of the school board. He is recognized as a man of marked business ability by his fellow townsmen and is a member of the board of directors of the Titonka Creamery Association. Michael Bartlett is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, being affiliated with the lodge at Burt, in the work of which he took an active interest in his earlier life. Both Michael and E. H. Bartlett are highly thought of in their neighborhood, as they are men of well tried worth and integrity, whose business methods are above question, and they are enjoying well earned prosperity.