CHAPTER XXVII (Part 29)
BIOGRAPHICAL
Sol Kahn - Since the year 1871, the name of Kahn has been favorably known in Henry County. Sol Kahn has the distinction of being the oldest merchant in the southern part of Henry County and of Montrose. The name of Kahn is recognized as an honorable one and the goods sold from the Kahn stores are dependable. An extensive business has been built up, a large department store growing from a very small beginning in Montrose in 1871.
Mr. Kahn was born in the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg, Fuerstenthum Birkenfeld, Germany, June 4, 1844, and was the son of Moses and Eva Kahn, who belonged to the Jewish fraternity. Moses Kahn was a dealer in horses in his native land, and both he and his wife, Eva, lived all of their lives in Germany.
Sol Kahn received a good education in the schools of his native land and served three years as an apprentice to a dry goods merchant who for a consideration of $100 a year allowed him to work in the business and learn as much as he possibly could during his apprenticeship. He then spent two years in a dry goods store at Brussels, Belgium, after which he was employed in a store at Treves, Germany, for four years.
By means of thrift and the strictest economy, Mr. Kahn saved up a few hundred dollars and immigrated to America in 1869. His first two years in this country were profitably spent in a dry goods store at Macon, Missouri. In 1871 he came to Montrose, Missouri, and in partnership with Louis Baum he purchased the store which had been founded and operated by Kahn & David. The firm was conducted under the name of Kahn & Baum for two years, at the end of which time Mr. Kahn purchased his partner's interest and operated the business under his own name.
The Kahn stores progressed from year to year and grew from an ordinary sized store, carrying a stock of goods worth about $4,000, to a large department store carrying a stock of goods ranging in value from $30,000 to $40,000. The large Kahn building was erected in 1884 so as to afford ample quarters for the growing business. In 1904 an addition to the building became necessary and the business of the Kahn stores now occupies two floors of a large brick structure measuring 85x80 feet.
Of late years Mr. Kahn has retired from the active management of the stores and the Kahn Commercial Company was organized in 1908 to operate the business. While Mr. Kahn holds a substantial interest in the business, his son, Carl Kahn, is president of the company, Ed Rock is secretary and Max Kahn, another son, is manager.
Mr. Kahn was married in 1876 to Miss Kate Marsh, born in Illinois, a daughter of George Marsh, one of the early settlers of Henry County. The children born of this marriage are as follows: Max and Carl, who are successful merchants.
Mr. Kahn is a Democrat but has never taken an active part in political matters. He adheres to the faith of his fathers, and is of the Jewish persuasion in religious matters.
Bernard Menker - In the neighborhood of Germantown, in Deepwater township, Henry County, Missouri, is the oldest German settlement in the western part of Missouri. This settlement began nearly ninety years ago when the Schmedding brothers came to this locality and built the first cabins in this part of the county. A Catholic Church was built and a congregation formed as early as 1834, and its growth was steady as the years passed. Many excellent German families crossed the ocean to become a part of the new settlement which gradually spread to all parts of the southwest part of Henry County. The people living in this part of the county are prosperous, happy and loyal to the land of their adoption and all have excellent homes and good families who take a just pride in the accomplishments of their ancestors, who came to this country to find homes for themselves and their kinfolks. Bernard Menker, who resides on the old Weisman place, which was originally the Barney Hagebock place, the first proprietor of the farm having erected a splendid stone house as early as 1860, he having come from Osage County to Henry County in 1839, is one of the oldest and best known of the old settlers of the Germantown neighborhood.
Mr. Menker was born in Germany May 26, 1843, and immigrated to America in 1861. He was accompanied across the ocean by his sister, Francesca Menker, who later became the wife of Franz Weisman. Mr. Menker joined his relatives in Henry County and has been a continuous resident of the Germantown neighborhood with the exception of one year spent in Germany in 1880, when he returned to the land of his birth for an extended visit. He is a Democrat in politics and is a member of the Germantown Catholic Church. Mr. Menker makes his home with his nieces, the Misses Josephine, Elizabeth and Louisa Weisman, on the Weisman homestead. He is owner of 240 acres of land.
The late Franz Weisman was born in Germany in 1835 and died at his home near Germantown in 1907. He immigrated to America in 1866 and settled at Germantown, Henry County, where he was married to Francesca Menker in August, 1866. Mrs. Francesca Weisman was born in 1836 and died in 1895. Mr. and Mrs. Weisman made their home continuously in the large stone house which now shelters their three daughters and Mr. Menker. They accumulated 290 acres of land, 170 acres of which adjoins Germantown and 120 acres is in another tract.
There were eight children born to Franz and Francesca Weisman as follows: Mrs. Francesca Tilling, Walker township; Frank Weisman; Mrs. Anna Schmedding; Elizabeth, Josephine, Louisa, Mrs. Mary Goth. Francesca married Louis Tilling and is mother of seven children: Anna, wife of Frank Bettels of Deepwater township, mother of one child, Ida; Jennie, Joseph, Minnie, Fred, Louis and Clara; Frank Weisman married Katie Bettels and died in 1905, leaving two children, Henry and Bernard, who reside with their mother in Walker township; Anna is the widow of Barney Schmedding and resides near the Bates County line with her four children: Monica, Frank, Elizabeth and Mary. Elizabeth, Josephine and Louisa reside on the home place. Mary is the wife of Edward Goth, who resides on a farm near Montrose. Mr. and Mrs. Goth have four children: Orpha, Bertha, Omer and Ethel. All of the family are members of the Catholic Church.
Joseph Schmedding - To the Schmedding family or to the ancestors of the present members of the family in Deepwater township belongs the honor of having established the Germantown settlement and of having erected the first Catholic Church in Henry County or in western Missouri. Gerhardt, Theodore, Herman, Bernard and John Schmedding, brothers who were all born in Germany, immigrated to this country from their native land in the early twenties, and John Schmedding came to Missouri from New Orleans and purchased a farm of eighty acres in Warren County. About 1832 he joined his brothers at the new settlement in the northern part of Deepwater township in Henry County and his name has ever since been linked with the early history of this section of the county.
Joseph Schmedding, subject of this review, was born at Germantown, Deepwater township, April 20, 1852, and is the son of John and Elizabeth (Walbert) Schmedding, both of whom were natives of Germany. John Schmedding was born in 1800 and died in 1864. Mrs. Elizabeth Schmedding departed this life in 1876. After coming to Henry County in 1832 John Schmedding entered free Government land, and here reared his family. There were three children in the family of John and Elizabeth Schmedding: Joseph, subject of this sketch; J. Bernard, Montrose, Missouri; and Henry, deceased.
There were no free schools in this section of Henry County before the Civil War time and the education of Joseph Schmedding was of necessity limited. He has always been a farmer and he came into possession of the old home place of his parents. Mr. Schmedding formerly owned 400 acres of land but has recently sold some of his land and now owns a tract of 170 acres upon which he erected a new frame house in 1912.
In 1886 the marriage of Joseph Schmedding and Mary Myers took place. Mrs. Mary Schmedding was born August 28, 1865, in Bates County, Missouri, and is the daughter of Morris and Mary (Schmedding) Myers, the former of whom was a native of Germany and the latter was born in the Germantown neighborhood, the daughter of Barney Schmedding, pioneer. To Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Schmedding have been born eight children: Catharine, Nebraska City, Nebraska; Mrs. Lavina Stewart, Walthill, Thurston County, Nebraska; Henry, Winnebago, Nebraska; Clements B., a merchant in Germantown; Charles, Winnebago, Nebraska; Mrs. Anna Cook, Henry County; Bernardina and George (twins), at home; Mrs. Lavina Stewart has four children: Angeline, Josephine, Marion and Nina Stewart. Henry Schmedding married Mary Rotert and has two children: Maurice and Dennis. Charles Schmedding married Therese Rotert and has one child, Emmet. Mrs. Anna Cook has one child, Leroy Cook. Mr. Schmedding was formerly a Democrat but of late years has espoused the cause of the Republican party. He and his family are members of the Germantown Catholic Church and he is fraternally affiliated with the Woodmen of the World.
