Max Winkelman

MAX WINKELMAN has made his success in Kansas chiefly as a farmer. He has been a resident of the state since 1884, and is now comfortably situated on a fine farm in the vicinity of Kinsley. His home has been in Edwards County since 1904.

Mr. Winkelman was born at Berlin, the capital city of the German Empire, June 14, 1861. His father, Gottlieb Winkelman, a native of the same city, was a painter by trade and lived at Berlin for forty years. He came to America before other members of the family and located in Barton County, Kansas. He took up school land and followed farming as well as his trade for some years. He finally engaged in the restaurant business in Ellinwood, and died while still active in business in March, 1895, at the age of fifty-eight. Gottlieb Winkelman married Maria Metzing, who is now eighty-two years of age and still living in Ellinwood. Their children were: Theresa Hoffman, still living in Berlin, Germany; Otto, who lives at Ellinwood, Kansas, and married Anna Schroeder; Clara, wife of Jacob Dick, of Ellinwood; and Max, the youngest.

Max Winkelman attended school in Germany from the age of eight to thirteen. He then learned the trade of painter, the occupation of his father, and at the age of twenty-three came to America, landing at Quebec, and after a few months in Canada joined his parents in Barton County, Kansas, in 1884. He began working at his trade in Ellinwood, and followed that occupation in Barton County until 1891, when he took up farming. For that purpose he rented land and devoted its cultivation to both wheat and corn. Wheat was his most profitable crop.

Mr. Winkelman bought his first land in Rice County. For a quarter section already improved he paid $2,400. That was at a time when Kansas lands, even with improvements, were selling at a very low figure. Even at that price he took it on the partial payment plan. After selling his land in Rice County he established himself in Edwards County, securing a tract of raw land five miles west of Kinsley. He did much of the breaking and improving of this land and for several years he and his family lived very simply and economically. His first home there was a shanty, constructed by joining a couple of small rooms, at a total cost of $75. Here he became a wheat raiser, but after a few years sold his half section and then bought three quarter sections, 480 acres, on the south side of the Arkansas River. By this time Kansas lands had recorded a decided advance, and he contracted to pay $7,000 for the land. He depended upon the crops to pay out, and made good with his reckoning during the ten years he occupied the place. He then bought his present home adjacent to Kinsley. This is the old Spiegel farm, one of the oldest improved farms in Edwards County. He owns 104 acres, and in value and in improvements this ranks as one of the best places around Kinsley. Mr. Winkelman is now giving much of his time to the raising of poultry.

While living in Barton County he took out his first papers as an American citizen and received final proof of his Americanism in Edwards County. His first vote was cast for President Cleveland, and he has been steadfastly a democrat throughout all the subsequent years. It has been enough for him to work and develop his land, rear his family in comfort and plenty, and he has never aspired to public office. He and his wife are active members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church.

Mr. Winkelman was married in Barton County, Kansas, May 28, 1894, to Mrs. Ernestine Kelstein. Mrs. Winkelman was born at the Village of Pombsen in the Province of Silesia, Germany, March 20, 1864. She is a daughter of August and Beate (Gruettner) Schroeter. The mother was a daughter of William Gruettner. The Schroeter family came to the United States in 1882, locating in Ellinwood, Kansas, where Mr. Schroeter bought a farm and spent the rest of his days. Mrs. Winkelman had the following brothers and sisters: Paulina, who married William Moeeser, of Newport, Washington; Adolph and Ernest, twins, both, farming in Edwards County; Alvina, who married Fred Klauss and died in Ellinwood, Kansas; Matilda, wife of Fred Stephen, of Ellinwood; Selma, wife of Fred Meilies, of Stafford County, Kansas; Oscar, who died at Kinsley, unmarried; and William, a resident of Ellinwood.

Mr. and Mrs. Winkelman have four daughters, Valeria, Matilda, Ruth and Esther. Valeria is the wife of John Staure, of Great Bend, Kansas, and has two children, Orren and Elden. Matilda is the wife of William Mathews, of Edwards County.