Henry Falk

HENRY FALK. - Most men are a better success as employes than as employers. That is doubtless the reason why there are so many men who buy farms and lose them because they cannot make them pay. It is not because they do not use their muscles enough, but because they do not use their heads enough that they fail. No one can accuse Mr. Falk of Bethel of this fault. He has made an unmitigated success of farming. He found it impossible to leave the life. He tried to for a time, but he found the call of the land too strong for him. Not only has he been able to secure a competence for himself and family, but he has done much good for the township and the county. He is a public spirited man. Would that there were more farmers like him.

Born in Baden in the duchy of Baden in the southern part of Germany, in 1851, he was the son of Rheinhardt and his wife Catharine formerly Catharine Ernst. They were both born in Germany. Rheinhardt Falk was a blacksmith in his native town and in 1887 he came to this country to pay a visit to his son, but before his visit ended, he died, in 1888. The same year his wife died in Germany; the two who had been one in life were not long divided in death.

Henry Falk went to the schools of his town of Baden and then went to work on a farm. He was drafted to serve in the army and he served three years. In 1878 he came to America by himself and worked on the farms in Lincoln, Nebraska, and he then came to Kansas, where he worked some of the time on farms and partly in packing houses. He was assistant foreman at Armour's packing plant. He was very industrious and thrifty, and also very intelligent, and he now owns two hundred and fifteen acres of land in Wyandotte county and on it he raises wheat and cattle. He has held the office of road overseer in Wyandotte township and in Prairie township, where his farm is now.

Two years after he came to America, in 1880, he married Ludgarde Schmitt. She was born in Germany and came over to this country alone, locating in Kansas City, where she met Henry Falk. The two young people were drawn towards each other and in a very short time were married. She has been her husband's helpmeet in all of his busy life. Like her husband she is an orphan; her parents both died in Germany. Mr. and Mrs. Falk have six children: Henry, his father's namesake is the eldest; next comes Anna Mary, now the wife of William Northern; the third is Frank; Katrina is the fourth and she is now the wife of Charles Seifert; the next in age is Edward Carl and he is attending school in Kansas City, Kansas; and the youngest is Joseph who is at home on the farm with his father.

Mr. and Mrs. Falk are both Catholics and they have brought up their children in the same faith. In politics he is independent and does not care to pin his faith to any party, but rather chooses to pick the best man on each and every occasion. He has a very fine home and the family are all prospering. There is room in America for more Germans such as he.