| WOODSON COUNTIES, KANSAS. | 199 cont'd |
STARLING D. BRANDENBURG.
STARLING D. BRANDENBURG—For more than a quarter of a century has Starling D. Brandenburg tilled the soil and reaped the meadows of Allen County. He moved into a board shanty on practically a raw piece of land in section 16, township 25, range 21, on the 18th of October, 1872, and began the initial work of developing a farm. How well he has succeeded will be seen when it is stated that his farm is bounded by half section lines and its improvements exceed those of many of the largest farms in Allen County.
Mr. Brandenburg came to Kansas from Tipton County, Indiana. He was born in Union County, Indiana, Nov. 5, 1840, and passed some of his early years in Wayne County. His father was John Brandenburg, born near Baltimore, Maryland, March 22, 1809. In 1830 he came west and engaged in merchandising in Philomath, Union County, Indiana. He removed, some years later, to Wayne County and died near Centerville, November 6, 1861.
The Brandenburgs of this branch were introduced into the United States by William H. Brandenburg who was born near Berlin, Germany, emigrated to the new world and settled near Baltimore about 1780. In 1801 he moved westward to Warren County, Ohio, and died near Lebanon in 1805.
The mother of S. DeWain Bradenburg[sic] was Elizabeth Kidwell. Her father, the Rev. Jonathan Kidwell, was a Welchman and the original Universalist preacher of his district in Indiana. He issued three publications devoted to the propagation of the doctrines of the Universalist church, one at Philomath, one at Cincinnati, Ohio, and one at Terre Hante,[sic] Indiana. The children of John and Elizabeth Brandenburg were: Ann, wife of James Chapman, of Winchester, Indiana; Sarah J., of Chanute, Kansas; Emily, wife of Aaron Jones, of Chanute, Kansas; Starling D., and Rebecca, who married James Jones, and resides in Neosho County, Kansas.
Our subject received only a country school training in the woods of Indiana. When the family home was broken up by the death of the father the son married and started life for himself. A pony and a sleigh, the resources of his days of frolic and courtship, were the sum total of his property with which to begin business. In the ten years which elapsed from his marriage to his advent to Kansas he had accumulated eight hundred dollars. With this and with his abundant energy he has maintained a steady increase from year to year. His large, roomy and handsome residence, which he erected in 1898, his barns and his orchard and his pens of
| 200 | HISTORY OF ALLEN AND |
stock testify to the manner in which he has disposed of his time the past twenty-eight years.
January 1, 1862, Mr. Brandenburg was married in Wayne County, Indiana, to Nancy Helms, a daughter of James Helms, who, with a son, served through the Civil war. James Helms married a Clevenger, for his first wife and five of their children survive. By a second marriage three resulted. Isaiah Helms, of Bronson; Lacina Recknor, of Allen County; Samuel Helms, of Allen County, and Susan Laws, of Calaway County, Missouri, are some of these children.
Mr. and Mrs. Brandenburg's children are: Melvin F., of Allen County; William L.; Emma L., wife of John Tillery, of Allen County; Myrtle I. and Ivy May Brandenburg.
The Brandenburgs were Democrats in politics, at all times, till the Peoples party was organized in 1892 at which time our subject espoused their cause and has since acted with it.
Pages 199-200, 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.
