Andrew Herman

ANDREW HERMAN, a prominent agriculturist and pioneer citizen of Cherokee County, is pleasantly located on a fine farm of 230 acres in section 21, township 31, range 25, in Pleasant View township, where he has resided for the past 35 years. He was born in Germany in 1825, and is a son of George and Katherine (Schletere) Herman.

George and Katherine (Schletere) Herman were natives of Germany where they spent their lives, the father dying at the age of 65 years, and the mother, aged 70 years. George Herman was a hand weaver by trade, and carried on that business long before machinery came into general use.

During the Revolution of 1849, so-called, Andrew Herman was a soldier in the Hungarian Army. The year following he embarked for America with his brothers and sisters (eight in all), he being the eldest of the family. They settled in Tennessee, where Andrew was engaged in farming for a few years, and where several of the family contracted the yellow fever, from which they died. Mr. Herman is the only surviving member of the group. During the troubles leading up to the Civil War he was a sympathizer with the South, and it was about this time that he thought to better his fortune by going to Arkansas, but, after a year's residence in that State, he found it was not the location he desired, and in 1857 he moved to Kansas. Soon afterward he went to Kansas City, where he carried on market gardening for six years, meeting with such success that had he kept the property until the present time, he would now be a multi-millionaire. As he did not then realize this fact, he disposed of it in 1863, and engaged in farming in Andrew County, Missouri, near St. Joseph. He remained there until 1869, when he came to Cherokee County, Kansas, and settled on his present farm of 230 acres in Pleasant View township. At that time there were no roads laid out, and but four or five white men had the hardihood to settle, with their families, in the township. The property owned by Mr. Herman still consists of a large acreage of timber-land, but the portion under cultivation has yielded him abundant returns for the labor bestowed upon it.

In 1853, Andrew Herman was united in marriage to Elizabeth Vincent, a native of Germany. Six children have been born to them, namely: Minnie, wife of William C. Stirele, of Memphis, Tennessee, who has three children,—Sophia, Charles, and Willie; Ella, wife of E. P. Douthitt, of Oklahoma, who has five children,—Cecil, Herman, Minnie and Bertha (twins) and John; Andrew; Louise, wife of J. B. Houk, of Pleasant View township, who has one child,—Howard; Amanda, wife of James Ross, of the same township, who has five children,—Isaac, Lizzie, Fern, Mildred and an infant; and Edward, also of Pleasant View township, who married Rosa Bird, and has four children,—David, Lawrence, Alfred and Andrew. Mrs. Herman died in August, 1903.

Mr. Herman has been quite successlul in business, and besides has won the esteem and friendship of all his acquaintances,—a circle that is growing larger year by year. He is a Democrat in politics, and has served as school director and township trustee for several years; he has also been a most efficient justice of the peace.

History of Cherokee County Kansas and its representative citizens, ed. & comp. by Nathaniel Thompson Allison, 1904, transcribed by Carolyn Ward, instructor from USD 508, Baxter Springs Middle School, Baxter Springs, Kansas, 6-27-97