Kuntz, N. R.

KUNTZ, DENTZER, DURFEE

Posted By: Daniel K. Higginbottom (email)
Date: 11/14/2014 at 10:47:46

Kuntz, N. R.--Dealer in general merchandise, Polk City. Prominent among the early settlers of this county, and among the most enterprising and liberal-spirited of its citizens, is the subject of this sketch. He was born June 7, 1822, in Prussia, and when eight years of age came with his parents to America, first settling in Licking county, Ohio. Remained there but four years and then removed to Seneca county, that State, and here he received his early education in the schools of Tiffin, which he supplemented with a course at the Ohio Western University at Delaware. After he had completed his schooling he entered a mercantile establishment in Tiffin as clerk. After remaining there for three years and a half he went in 1850, by way of Panama, to California, and while there he engaged in mining, but on account of ill health returned to his home in Ohio, in the fall of 1851, and unable to tend to business for about one year. After recovering he engaged as clerk in the mercantile business for about a year and a half, and he was then employed by the Sandusky, Dayton & Cincinnati Railroad, as assistant civil engineer, in which capacity he worked till the spring of 1856, and then came and opened out a farm at Walnut Grove, in Story county, this State, where he followed agricultural pursuits, as best he could, in a pioneer country. On the 22d of February, 1859, he began the mercantile business at his present location. Twenty-one years have come and gone. The building in which he first began business became timeworn and decayed that it has long since been torn away and replaced by the one he now occupies, and during all the period of successive years never have his doors been closed a single business day. In 1859 he was elected by the republican party to fill the office of County Surveyor, but after a short time resigned on account of his private business, and in later years he was elected by the citizens of his own township to fill the office of trustee when every vote but four was cast for him. We have seen lives more sensational in their nature, but none that have reflected more credit in the community in which they reside, for he has always aided in every public improvement that would benefit his town and county. In educational matters he has always been a zealous worker, and in the cause of temperance has been untiring, and has used every effort during his whole life to advance its interests. He has also been a member of the Masonic fraternity since 1848, and was one of the charter members of at the organization of the lodge at this place. He was married in Tiffin, Ohio, November 23d, 1859, to Miss Mary A. Dentzer, a native of Baden, Germany. They have by this union a family of one son and two daughters, living: Julius A., Alice R. (wife of Rev. Benjamin Durfee, of the M. E. Church), and Florence E.

Source: "The History of Polk County, Iowa", p.1030-31. Des Moines, Union Historical Company, 1880.