| WOODSON COUNTIES, KANSAS. | 245 cont'd |
CLAUS BARNHOLT.
CLAUS BARNHOLT, of LaHarpe, a successful farmer and one of the early settlers of Elm township, is a character among the substantial men of his community. He was born in Holstein, now a part of the German Empire, March 21, 1836. His parents were in humble circumstances and his father supported his family at day labor as a timberman or woodsman. The latter was Henry Barnholt, who died in Germany in 1884. He was born with the century and was first married to Annie Timm, who died in 1838. Their other two children were Annie, wife of Hermann Hatz, and Hans Barnholt, both in the Fatherland. Henry Barnholt's second wife was Lina Ohlfest, a sister of John and Carl Ohlfest, prominent and influential farmers of Allen county. The children of this marriage were Catherine, widow of Carl Heeley, who resides in LaHarpe; Henry Barnholt, of Holstein, Germany, and Carl Barnholt, of LaHarpe, Kansas.
Claus Barnholt came to the United States in 1868. He sailed from Hamburg on the "Itonia" for New York and located first at Valparaiso, Indiana. He had been accustomed to wage working in his native land and this was what he took up in America. He remained about Valparaiso two years and, in 1870, came to Kansas with the Ohlfests. The first five years in Allen county he passed as a farm laborer, working for the old and sub-
| 246 | HISTORY OF ALLEN AND |
stantial citizens of Elm township, including Tobey, Pickell, etc. In the spring of 1875 he bought an eighty in section 2, township 25, range 19, and put into it the wages he had saved since his arrival in the United States. His success in farming and, to a limited extent, stock raising, has brought him to a position of financial ease not always achieved by the average farmer. He has added eighty acres to his first purchase giving him a quarter section of land.
Claus Barnholt has known nothing but work. It is one of the characteristics of his race. Reaching maturity with no special opportunities and no talent resources his capital was his industry. The world was before him and it is always kind to the honorable son of toil. In the vigor of manhood did he put forth his greatest efforts and what he achieved will supply his wants in old age. He is a Republican.
Pages 245-246, transcribed by Carolyn Ward from History of Allen and Woodson Counties, Kansas: embellished with portraits of well known people of these counties, with biographies of our representative citizens, cuts of public buildings and a map of each county / Edited and Compiled by L. Wallace Duncan and Chas. F. Scott. Iola Registers, Printers and Binders, Iola, Kan.: 1901; 894 p., [36] leaves of plates: ill., ports.; includes index.
