Charles C. Gall

CHARLES C. GALL. For the man of independent spirit, desiring useful activity and plenty of variety, spiced with hardships as well as reasonable success, there was never a more attractive country than the counties of Western Kansas twenty or thirty years ago. Into this region about that time came a young man who had recently landed on American soil from his native Germany. Charles C. Gall has proved an admirable citizen of Grant County in the thirty years he has lived there, has worked hard and gained due fruits and rewards of labor, has identified himself with his community in a public spirited way and is one of the most highly respected citizens of the entire county.

Mr. Gall was born in Wurtemberg, Germany, September 27, 1865. The village in which he grew up was Affaltrach and the court town of his native district was Weinsberg. For seven years he was a pupil in the local schools, and that comprised his education. He was a farmer and baker's son, and his grandfather also followed the trade of baker and lived in the Black Forest or Schwartzwald of Germany. The grandfather was twice married, the only child of his first wife being Carl Gall, who came to Grant County, Kansas, about the same time as his son and was well known in this section of country. Carl Gall was born in the Black Forest, was employed at the miller's trade and afterward became a baker. He married Caroline Fritz, daughter of Chris Fritz, a farmer. Carl Gall brought his family to America in 1885 and came out to Kansas in 1886 and lived in Grant County until his death in 1904 at the age of sixty-six. His widow is now living at New Ulysses. Their children were: Charles C.; Mrs. Lizzie Hoffman, of Grant County; Mrs. Mary Simshauser, of Colorado; Miss Augusta, now register of deeds of Grant County; August, who has had a very interesting career; and Ernest, a farmer in Grant County.

August Gall, at the time of the Spanish-American war joined the Twenty-first Kansas Regiment and had many of the adventures of the service with that command, as described on other pages of this publication. Later he entered the United States Navy, and while there covered practically all the salt waters of the globe. He was finally appointed to a position at the national capital and is now a member of the White House police force.

Charles C. Gall was just twenty-one years of age when in 1886 he entered his homestead in Sherman Township of Grant County. This quarter section was the northwest of section 4, township 27, range 38. It was his home until he had proved up. He commuted the tract and continued a resident there until 1893, when the mortgage ate up his entire title. Thus for six or seven years he had endured vicissitudes and hardships, and when he lost his claim he was back where he was at the beginning. In the following interval he lived as a squatter on school land for several years and leased section 16, township 27, range 37. This section is now included within the boundaries of his extensive estate. He had been accustomed to living in a dugout, and constructed such a home upon the land where he is now located. He has always been alone in his efforts, and whatever of success he has had is entirely to his credit.

Only a few of the details of his varied experience can be related here. He made his start in the cattle business by trading property which he owned for a steer or calf here and there. One time he exchanged a hog for a cow. Again he had a quantity of millet which was the purchase price for another animal. A neighbor once hired him to dig a well and paid him with five heifers. These were the foundation of his live stock business. He also came and went frequently and found employment in outside places. He worked on the construction of the Cone irrigation ditch in Colorado, and in Greenwood County, Kansas, was a farm hand at $20 a month for a time. Several seasons, when the fields were white with harvest in Ford, Pawnee and Barton counties, he went thither as a harvest hand, and without these occasional seasons of outside employment he could never have supported himself in Grant County.

A few years after making his second start the school section was sold at auction and he bought it on the twenty-year payment plan at $1.25 an acre. Later he arranged by compromise with the original owners and the purchase of tax titles for six other quarter sections, but the most expensive part of his ranch and farm was three quarter sections, for one of which he paid $1,000 and for the other two $1,600 each. Thus altogether he has acquired the ownership of thirteen quarter sections and has three sections in a single body. On this land he engaged in ranching until 1912, and is now devoting his time to general farming and grazing his pastures. His most reliable crops are maize and broom corn.

Though a bachelor Mr. Gall has been keenly interested in community affairs and especially in education. For twelve years or more he was a member of school district board No. 19, was trustee of Sherman Township two terms, treasurer of the township two years, and was twice elected to the office of sheriff of Grant County. The first term he was elected on an independent ticket, and was the only independent candidate in the state chosen to a county office that year. He was re-elected, and on account of an act of the Legislature fixing terms of county officers he was sheriff for an extra year. The second time he was elected he was chosen as a republican. Mr. Gall was reared in the faith of the Lutheran Church and that is the religious tendency he has always followed.