The Bork Family
of Worth County IowaMichael Bork was born June 1, 1828 in Prussia. He married Sophia Krueger who was also born in Prussia in the year 1837. They married in the early 1860s and had their first son, August Bork in 1864 in Germany. Soon after, they had Albert Bork, in 1865. In 1867 they boarded a ship to America. Sophia was very pregnant with her third child and gave birth on the boat April 9, 1867 to Matilda Bork. Matilda was not breathing when she was born and people on the ship thought she was dead. The people on the boat were discussing throwing the body overboard but she started breathing and she lived to be in her 90's.
Soon after arriving in America the Bork family settled in Watertown, Wisconsin. They had another son, John Bork born August 19, 1869 in Johnsons Creek, Wisconsin; and then had a daughter named Martha Bork of whom I have no dates. She is buried in Grafton, Iowa where the family located by 1880.
Generation Two
August Bork married Bertha Bruesewitz in March of 1893. Bertha was the daughter of Michael Bruesewitz and Wilhelmine Vesper. She was born in Saarow, Germany. August and Bertha had children: August Bork born in 1894, Anna Bork born in 1896, Alvin Bork born in 1902 and Clara Anna Bork born in 1900.
Matilda Bork married Frank Nack. They had three children: Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Nack born in 1890, Rinhold Nack born in 1892 and Lloyd Nack born in 1903 in Mitchell, Iowa.
John Bork Married Emma Glauwitz on August 20, 1895 in Grafton, Iowa. Emma was the daughter of Albert and Louise Glauwitz of Grafton Iowa. John and Emma had the largest family in Grafton. John Bork was a member of the Lutheran Church in Grafton. John Bork began work as an employee of the railroad when he was sixteen. For fifteen years he worked as a section laborer then served as foreman for thirty eight years. John and Emma Glauwitz Bork had sixteen children born to them. Verna Bork was born in 1907, Laura Bork 1899, Myrtle Bork 1902, Ester Bork 1904, Wilma Bork 1912, Malinda Bork 1915, Ruth Bork 1913, Irene Bork 1914, Elsie Bork 1917, Genevieve Bork 1923, Edwin Albert Bork 1897 (died in 1984), John Bork 1901, Arthur Bork 1910 (died 1979), Walter Bork 1911, Roy Bork 1919, and Clarence Bork 1908.
The photos are of John and Emma Bork, taken about 1895. To see a large version of both, click here. John died in 1954.
Martha Bork is somewhat of a mystery. I can not find her on the census but Elsie Bork wrote to me and told me her sad story. Martha married a man named August Dahms. They moved to South Dakota and had five children. The older folks say she died of homesickness and her husband brought her body back to Grafton for burial. He left the children and disappeared. He never came back. Dorothy stayed with Matilda Nack and the other were farmed out to other Aunts and Uncles. The children of Martha and August Dahms were: Dorothy Dahms born 1907, Roy Dahms born 1901, Leona Dahms, Hank Dahms, and August Dahms born 1905. I found Roy Dahms in 1920 census living as a border in the Kuntz household. August Dahms, the father, returned to Oregon, to the place of his birth. According to the census, he was listed as widowed.
Generation Three
August Bork (born 1894), son of August Bork Sr., married Lily Virchow on February 16, 1921. They had children: Gala Anna Louise Bork, Betty Bork and Dale Bork.
Clara Anna Bork, born in 1900, married Harold E. Kimmel in 1926. They had a child Wayne Bork. Clara died soon after the marriage.
John Bork married Vera Rappath. They had a son Donald Bork born June 1926. According to the 1930 census John Bork was the manager of a pool hall.
Verna Bork married Louis Charles Schlotterback, son of Jacob Schlotterback and Cora Wendal, of Benton County, Iowa. They had children Darrell Schlotterback, Dave Schlotterback, Russ Schlotterback and Lois Schlotterback who died as an infant.
Malinda Bork married Harvey Bartz in 1932 in Grafton, Iowa. They had six children: Karen Bartz, Richard Bartz, Bonnie Bartz, Betty Bartz, Sharon Bartz and Judy Bartz.
By Suzanne Judd