| WOODSON COUNTIES, KANSAS. | 287 |
SIMON KLOTZBACH.
SIMON KLOTZBACH.—Perhaps the history of few men in Allen county exemplifies more forcibly the power of determination, courage and industry in achieving success than does that of Simon Klotzbach, an honored pioneer of Allen county. He was born in Hessen Germany, March 10, 1848, and is a representative of a family that was prominent both in political and military affairs there. His grandfather, Martin Klotzbach, served under Napoleon in the battle of Wagram in 1809, and two of his brothers-in-law went to Moscow under that officer. The younger entered the army at the age of fifteen and served under the Corsican general for fifteen years. He was a "Tryrom,"—a man that batters down doors,—until that position was abolished by the use of cannon, after which he was a sharpshooter and also served on outer picket duty.
George Klotzbach, the father of our subject, was born in 1802, and in the '60s came to America where he took up farming as an occupation. He followed that pursuit for several years in Pennsylvania, removed to Illinois in 1872, and in 1878 came to Kansas, settling on a farm on which Simon now resides, and which he homesteaded. His widow and daughter Matilda are now living with the subject of this review, and the mother, although ninety years of age, is still enjoying good health. The other surviving member of the family is Mrs. Kate Malone, who lives in Iowa.
Simon Klotzbach of this review spent his early youth in the fatherland and accompanied his parents on their emigration to the new world. He came to Kansas in an early period in the development of Allen county, and soon after his arrival here he attempted to purchase his supper at a house by the roadside but on account of the scarcity of food was refused, although he had three hundred dollars in his pocket. He suffered many hardships and difficulties those first years in Kansas. Twice the grasshoppers destroyed all his crops, and he has at several different times lost all his hogs by cholera and once by cockle burrs. His first loss amounted to about twelve hundred dollars, and the next spring and fall he lost at each time about sixty head. In 1897 he lost about one hundred and fifty head of hogs; in 1898 one hundred and forty; and the following winter between forty and fifty, and at one time he lost probably one hundred head of cattle by the Texas fever. Yet in spite of all this he has prospered and he to-day owns five eighty acre tracts of land, of which one hundred acres are planted to orchard products, eighty acres of this being in one plat. He follows progressive methods in his farming, and merits a high degree of success.
On the 7th of October, 1891, Mr. Klotzbach married Miss Dora Struphart, whose widowed mother is now living in Chanute, Kansas. Her brother, Joseph, resides in Salem township, Allen county. Unto Mr and Mrs. Klotzbach were born five children, viz: George, Willie, Mary, Margaret and Frank, who died at nine months.
During the Civil war Mr. Klotzbach manifested his loyalty to his adopted country by enlisting in the Forty-fifth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, and with Sherman participated in the celebrated march to the sea. While at the front he suffered a very severe attack of typhoid fever and it was be-
| 288 | HISTORY OF ALLEN AND |
lieved that he could not recover. To all duties of citizenship in times of peace he is as true and loyal as when he defended the stars and stripes on southern battlefields.
Pages 287-288, 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.
