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Chase County Sketches
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William Stenzel Family William Stenzel was born May 30, 1839, in Germany. He studied for the German ministry in Berlin, Germany, for three years. He came to America at the age of sixteen years with his parents and settled in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. His parents died in Milwaukee.
He joined the U. S. Army and fought through the Civil War in Companies F and A, 5th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, 1st Division and 37th Brigade. In 1367 he was married to Miss Minnie Bosa of Milwaukee, who had come to that city from Saxony, Germany, at the age of fourteen years.
Mr. Stenzel sang in the Lutheran Church choir for many years in Milwaukee. He was a cooper by trade and also ran a wood and coal yard.
Mr. and Mrs. Stenzel came to Kansas in the summer of 1874 and settled on Collett Branch, on railroad land of 161) acres which he bought for eight dollars an acre. He preached at Hymer and Piper Settlement and also preached funeral services at both places.
To Mr. and Mrs. William Stenzel eight children were born. The
first five, Helen Louise, Minnie Caroline, Kathrine Rose, Otillie Clara,
Emma Flora and William Carl, were born in Milwaukee. Emma Flora
died of smallpox at the age of four. After they came to Kansas, another
girl, Dora Emma, and a son, Walter Scott, were born in Chase County.
Mr. Stenzel was engaged in farming and stock raising until he
moved to Elmdale in 1907. He made that place his home for the next
seven years. He died the last of April, 1914, at the age of seventy-five
years.. He was a member or the G.. A. R. Post at Elmdale.
After his death Mrs. Stenzel made her home with her daughter, Mrs. Charles Pflager, until her death at Elmdale, June 2, 1917.
When they first settled in their home on Collett Branch, the Stenzels built a shack to live in. A wind and rain storm blew the roof off their house while it was being built by Prentis Park, who owned the Wm. Haney farm on Middle Creek. The winters were so very cold that they lost twenty bushels of potatoes that froze in the house, under the stairway; and their fat hogs sat and froze to death. They took rye and wheat and corn to Shipman's Mill at Elmdale on the river to have it ground into flour and meal.
Mr. and Mrs. Stenzel took a 400 pound hog to Florence to sell for ten dollars. They planted cane to be made into sorghum molasses on shares. They headed and stripped the leaves from the cane which they took to John Campbell and later to Tom Harper, who both lived on Middle Creek and made sorghum molasses on shares. They planted corn by dropping three grains in a hill after it had been marked off. They covered it with a hoe. Later they used a hand planter. They put up prairie hay and sold it to the ranch which was at the head of Collett Branch. Mr. Stenzel and his older children did the work.
The place was surrounded by a stone fence. They set out fruit trees, dug several wells and made a dug-out cellar.
They bought their coffee in green berries and roasted it in the oven and ground it in hand-mills. They also- roasted wheat and used it for coffee. Mrs. Stenzel knit by hand the stockings for the family and woolen socks by the dozen at twenty-five cents a pair for the Jeffrey store at Elmdale. They took cattle and kept them on shares for Ebenezer Stotts who was the Elmdale banker at that time.BR>
The Stenzel girls went to school at Frozen Hill, north of the present John Wells home. William Maxwell was the teacher. This is what is now the Union School district. When the stone schoolhouse was built, Mr. Triplett bought the old schoolhouse and used it for a granary. He later sold his farm to Prentis Thurston. When Minnie Stenzel was about fourteen years old, she cooked for the Wm. Triplett family at the head of Collett Branch. One day Mr. Triplett called the family outside to show them a herd of deer grazing on the hillside. They counted eighteen. Antelope were frequently seen.
The children of William and Minnie Bosa Stenzel were: Helen Louise Stenzel, who married Frank Frey. There were no children. They adopted a daughter, Carrie, who married Herman Hegwer. Minnie Caroline Stenzel, who married Charles Fflager. There was one daughter, Mrs. Agnes Pierce. Kathrine Rose Stenzel, married Mike Brauner. There were three children, Chester, Paul and Walter.
The Brauners were divorced and Mrs. Brauner married Fred Schneider. There were three children, Earl, Opal and Lloyd Schneider. Otillie Clara Stenzel, married Valentine Englert; there were three children, Lester, Ruby, and Minnie Englert. William Carl Stenzel, married Lula Ella May; there were five children, Vernon, Lee, Erma, Bessie and Cleo Stenzel.
William died in January, 1940. Flora Emma Stenzel married William Simpson. There were three children, Lewis, Ruby and Ruth. Walter Scott Stenzel, married Sophia Flueler. There were two children, Helen and Leroy. Helen Stenzel mar�ried F. W. "Bill" Huth, Chase County builder and contractor. They live in Cottonwood Falls. They have adopted two children, Gary Ross and Keith Harris Huth. Leroy Stenzel married Rhoda Shaft, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Enos C. Shaft. They have two children, Richard Leroy and Sandra Jean Stenzel. They live in Topeka. Mrs. Sophia Stenzel lives in Cottonwood Falls.
The original Stenzel farm comprised 160 acres. Later 240 acres were bought from Dave Morris of Diamond Creek. Walter Stenzel died in 1915. Mrs. Stenzel lived on the farm about two years, then moved to Elmdale to educate her children. The farm was rented. In August, 1934, while the tenants, Dewey Childs and family were away, the house burned to the ground and was never rebuilt. The ground however is still under cultivation.
Historian's Note: Mrs. Charles Pflager (Wilhelmina Caroline Fredericka Stenzel), died at the home of her daughter, Mrs. James O. Pierce, July 12, 1938. She was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, August 9, 1866; came to Chase County at age of nine; grew up on Collett Branch and married Charles Pflager March 12, 1887. Lived on Stribby Creek and at Elmdale.
Mrs. James O. Pierce, author of above article, passed from life November 19, 1939. Her maiden name was Agnes Pflager and she was born February 10, 1893. She married J. O. Pierce November 18, 1912. She lived her entire life on Stribby Creek. She was the mother of two sets of twin boys: Lester and Leslie, and Walter and Bud. Bud died in infancy.
Chase County Historical Sketches, Vol II, pages 221-223
by Lorna Marvin
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