William Clair Engle

ENGLE ENGEL BAUNMIER OBRIEN

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 4/20/2010 at 20:34:35

Woodbury County History 1984

William and Olympe Engle
By William Engle

William Clair Engle, (spelling of last name changed from Engel to Engle), was born October 22, 1890, Indianapolis, Indiana. Father: William Frederick Engel. Mother: Sophie Baunmier. (Both born in German.) Eight children: Minna, William, Marie, Sophie, Emma, Crl, Esther and Ernest.

Bill graduated from high school in Indianapolis, Indiana, and attended Butler University in Indianapolis and drove a race ar for Mormon Car. Company at the Indianapolis Speedway in 1910. He learned the trade of marble cutting and worked on many buildings (Utah State Capitol, Fontenall Hotel in Omaha). He served in the Army, 1917 to 1919 as a sergeant in Military Police in France. After returning home, he went into the tile business in the Sioux City area.

He married Lucille O’Brien in 1919. She was a music and school teacher and died in 1947. Bill and Lucille had five children: Joan Engle, married Jack Whelton, lives in Colorado Springs; William Engle married Bette Leget, lives in Okemos, Michigan; Paul Engle married Delors Gisch, lives in Sioux City; Joseph Engle married Lucille Hollender, lives in Sioux City; Bruce Engle married Eleanor Otis, lives in Sioux City.

Three boys served in the Armed Forces: Bill, Air Force, WWII; Paul, Navy, WWII; Joseph, Marines, Korean Conflict.

During the second World War, Bil, Sr, worked on the Hanford Atomic Project in Hanford, Washington.

Olympe Choquette Phillips was born September 23, 1890, in Salix, daughter of Joseph Choquette and Malvina Hubert. A graduate of St Joseph School of Nursing, Sioux City, Iowa, she was a nurse at St Joseph’s Mercy Hospital, and also worked as a private duty nurse. She married George Phillips; they had one son, who died at birth. George passed away and is buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in San Diego, California. Olympe married William ‘Bill’ Engle, June 14, 1953 and they moved to Salix to a home Olympe had built on the site of her parents’ home, which had been destroyed by fire some years earlier.

Bill continued in the tile and construction business until 1969. He and Olympe traveled extensively in the early years of their marriage. Bill served on the Salix City Council for thirteen years. Olympe passed November 9, 1982. She was a membr of the Iowa League of Nursing, and also a mmeber of St Joseph’s Catholic Church, and Tabernacle Society at Salix. She is buried in San Diego, next to her first husband.