Joseph Seifert

JOSEPH SEIFERT. - The German element is one which has found many representatives in Wyandotte county and it is one which assuredly has contributed its quota toward the onward movement of progress, ever retaining a clear mental grasp and directing affairs along safe and conservative lines. America owes much to the German stock and has honored and been honored by many good citizens of this extraction. Joseph Seifert is a native of Germany and an agriculturist, his specialties being fruit and sweet potatoes, and he has proved a prosperous and enterprising representative of the great basic industry.

Joseph Seifert was born in Baden, Germany, in 1870, and is a son of Valentine and Marguerite (Seiler) Seifert, both of whom were natives of the Fatherland. The date of the father's birth was 1839 and that of the mother, 1846. In the year 1886 the older people came to the conclusion that it would be of advantage to them and particularly to their children to remove to the land of greater resources across the Atlantic, and they accordingly set sail in that year with their five children. Almost immediately after their arrival they came on to the west and made location in Kansas City, Missouri. After working for fourteen years in a packing house in that city the father found himself in a position to taste the greater independence of a farmer's life and he accordingly purchased land in Quindaro township and has engaged in its operation for many years and still resides there. The mother died in 1910. Both father and mother were members of the Catholic church and of the children born to them four survive, namely: Herman, Charley, Joseph, and Louise, wife of Simon Ernest, a blacksmith of Kansas City, Missouri.

Mr. Seifert was reared in Germany and received his education in the renowned educational institutions of that land. When quite young he engaged in the serious activities of life, working at the cooper's trade, and he was eighteen years of age when he came to this country with his parents. After his arrival he secured work in the packing houses of Kansas City, Kansas, but as soon as opportunity afforded he chose the more wholesome life of a farmer and secured a property, where he engages in the cultivation of the soil, his energies, as before mentioned, being specially directed to the raising of fruit and sweet potatoes.

When Mr. Seifert was twenty-three years of age he laid the foundation of an independent household by his marriage to Tiny Miller, of Wyandotte county, daughter of Samuel and Marguerite Miller. There are three children: Ernest, Frank and Raymond. The family are affiliated with the Methodist Episcopal church and give their support to all just causes.