1905 History of Crawford County Kansas

Lewis Hess, the well known stock farmer at Hepler, has passed all his life since boyhood in Crawford county, and has gained a most creditable degree of success both as a farmer and business man. He has been identified with the progressive movements in the county, and has often been found among the cohorts of progress and upbuilding and in the promotion of some especially worthy enterprise. Public trusts have also been confided in him, and he has never lacked the eminent degree of public-spirited citizenship for which our German-American residents are noted.

Mr. Hess was born in Hanover, Germany, January 1, 1851, being a son of Henry and Grace (Brunjus) Hess. His parents brought their family to America in 1855 and settled first in Benton county, Missouri, but in the early year of 1866 moved to Crawford county, or, as it was then called, the Neutral Lands. His father engaged in farming here during the remainder of his life, which came to a peaceful close in 1894, when he was eighty-two years old, followed two years later by the departure of his wife, then aged seventy-two years.

Mr. Lewis Hess attended school in Missouri, and after coming to Crawford county lived at home and followed farming until 1877. He then bought a farm of one hundred and sixty acres in Sherman township, but sold this in 1886 and moved into Hepler, where he first embarked in the livery business and later in the general merchandise business. Since selling out his mercantile interests he has devoted himself most successfully to stock farming, and he has found this a most profitable line of activity. He has a farm of one hundred and sixty acres, and eighty acres of this lies within the city limits of Hepler, and his residence is also in the town.

Mr. Hess was for some time a member of the Masonic blue lodge at Walnut, Lodge No. 229. He is a staunch Republican, and in public affairs has held the office of township assessor and school treasurer. Mr. Hess was married, January 31, 1877, to Miss Ella Carter, a daugher of Albert and Many Ann Carter. Her father died in 1890, at the age of sixty-five, but her mother is now living at the Hess home, being seventy-nine years old. Mr. and Mrs. Hess have had the following children: Charles, who was a brakeman on the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad, and was killed at Junction City about two years ago; Herman, who died at the age of eighteen months; James, who died at the age of six months; Ruth, who died when three years old; and Dwyer, who died when four months old.