Sedgwick County KSGenWeb

Portrait And Biographical Album of Sedgwick County, Kan.

Chapman Brothers 1888

Pages 321 - 322

JOHN D. PINGEL was the second actual settler of Grant Township, coming to this county at a time when buffalo roamed in great numbers over the plains, and when his nearest neighbor was two miles away. He hauled the pine lumber for his house from Emporia, a distance of 100 miles, and endured the common lot of the pioneer - its hardships, its struggles, its privations - and is now enjoying the reward of persevering industry. The fine tract of land which he transformed from the wilderness into a productive farm, embraces an area of 200 acres, and is well stocked with high-grade Clydesdale horses, blooded Durham cattle and Poland-China hogs. In the early days he was engaged in freighting from Emporia to this point, and has engaged in many an exciting buffalo hunt, which he followed one winter for a living.

     Our subject first opened his eyes to the light within the confines of the German Empire, where he was born Sept. 4, 1835. Of the five children comprising the family of David and Dorothy (Pingel) Pingel, John D. was the third, and the family traced its ancestry back through several generations who had been born and reared in that region. David Pingel, like his forefathers, was mostly engaged in agricultural pursuits, and spent his entire life on his native soil, his death occurring in 1843. The mother came to America in 1858, locating first in Illinois, and thence removing to Hall County, Neb., where she passed away in 1887, at the advanced age of eighty-three years.

     Mr. Pingel, of our sketch, crossed the Atlantic when a youth of eighteen years, setting sail from Hamburg in the spring of 1853. The voyage was made in a sailing-vessel which anchored in New York Harbor twenty-eight days after leaving Hamburg. Young Pingel remained in the metropolis but a short time, and then made his way to Toledo, Ohio, where he worked on the railroad a year, and spent the winter following chopping in the woods around Sheboygan, Wis. He passed his summers in Chicago engaged at mechanical labor. His first labors on a farm in this country were in the vicinity of Elgin, Ill., where he also met and married Miss Axana Welch, the wedding taking place on the 5th of September, 1858.

     Mrs. Pingel was born in Tioga County, Pa., Sept. 30, 1842, and is the seventh child of Josiah and Julia Ann (Stowell) Welch, whose family included six sons and five daughters. Her father was native of Ohio and the mother of New York State. Her father served in the War of 1812, and afterward settled in Pennsylvania, and moved in 1857 to Kane County, Ill.; he died in 1859, at an advanced age, in Crofford County, Wis. His wife is still living, and draws a pension from the Government.

     Mr. and Mrs. Pingel, after their marriage, settled on a farm in Kane County, Ill., where our subject followed agriculture until the outbreak of the late Rebellion. Then feeling it his duty to join the army of volunteers who were entering the ranks in behalf of the Union, he enlisted for three years in Company B, 36th Illinois Cavalry, being mustered into service in August, 1861, at Aurora. Soon afterward the troops left Camp Hammond, and the 36th Regiment, with others, did good service in the battles of Pea Ridge, Corinth, Perryville, Stone River, Nashville, Chickamauga, Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge, our subject participating in each engagement and fortunately escaping both wounds and capture. He accompanied the army of Gen. Sherman as far as Atlanta, and then, his term of service having expired, received his honorable discharge on the 23d of September, 1864, and returned to his home and family in Illinois.

     For two or three years after retiring from the army, Mr. Pingel was engaged in operating a hay-press at Elgin, and then, in 1870, came to this State, and homesteaded a quarter of section 18, in Grant Township. This was then an uncultivated prairie, and in the fall of the year he put up a house into which he removed with his family, and the spring following commenced in earnest the cultivation of the soil. His labors were crowned with success, and he invested his surplus capital in additional land, all of which he has brought to a fine state of cultivation. The farm buildings are neat and substantial, and everything about the premises is creditable to the taste and industry of the proprietor.

     Mr. Pingel takes an active interest in political affairs, and uniformly votes the straight Republican ticket. He assisted in organizing the districts of Grant Township, and has been a Director in his own district for several years. Socially, he belongs to Stephenson Post No. 255, G. A. R., at Sedgwick City. Mr. and Mrs. P. have no children.

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