GENEALOGY and HISTORY of the DESCENDANTS of WILLIAM KONKEL By Carroll G. Bryan Published by Boulevard Press -Detroit, Michigan 1966 To MOM whose pride in the Konkel name inspired me to write this history. 3 CARROLL G. BRYAN 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I wish to acknowledge two contributions, of over one thousand dollars each, made by ADA KONKEL ESSEX and ETHEL KONKEL BRYAN. Without their financial support this history could not have been published. I appreciate the assistance of my wife LaVerne ... especially her understanding and encouragement. There are certain persons without whose help I would have found it extremely difficuit to complete parts of this history. Their names will be found at the end of their respective chapters. Finally, there are those who so carefully wrote their own family histories for publication, as well as the many who took the time to send little notes, cards or letters of appreciation and encouragement. My sincere uthank you" to each and every one. 5 INTRODUCTION The KONKEL HISTORY has been a long time in the making, a topic of conversation since the turn of the century whenever Konkels got together. About 1927, Samuel Konkel, owner and publisher of the Springfield Herald, at Springfield, Colorado started collecting family records from his many cousins, nephews and nieces. His work was cut short by his death in 1935 at the age of 82. The letters he received were in large part from descend­ ants of brothers and sisters of William Konkel, Samuel's father and the subject of this book. The paper brown and creased and the writing faded with age, these old letters first came to the attention of the author in the fall of 1962. The history and genealogy they contained may be found in Part II of this book immediately following the Index. Writing this history has been one of the most interesting and rewarding ex­ periences of my life ... following the pioneering Konkels in their many mi­ grations over a period of 62 years (1824-'86) from Pennsylvania to Ohio, then by covered wagon trails to Indiana, Iowa, Kansas and finally t~ Colo­ rado and all points of the compass. No matter where one travels today there are various spellings of the Konkel name listed in telephone and city di­ rectories ... Kunkel, Kunkle, Konkle, Kunckle, etc. All are undoubtedly re­ lated to some degree, descendants of the early Kunkels who came ov­ er from Germany. William and Anna Konkel instilled in their children a high regard for a bet­ ter education and a Christian way of life. Since a formal education was hard to come by, under the environment in which this pioneer family lived, most of the children furthered their education on their own initiative after they had reached adulthood. One became a minister of note, one served as mayor of his home town and the others were either school teachers, farmers, mer - chants, post masters or newspaper men. Several were talented in music and dramatics. They sang in their church choirs, taught Sunday school classes and participated in community plays and other events at the local school house. All worked hard toward a better life for their children. William and Anna Konkel were typical of the hardy Amer.ican pioneers who contributed so much to the building of America. This older generation has now passed on ... our mothers and fathers, aunts and uncles and their many cousins. May their dedicated lives continue to be an inspiration to other Konkels and their kin for generations to come. 6 PREFACE The compilation of this book has taken over three years to complete and represents an estimated 3,000 hours or more of spare-time work ... writing letters, searching city and telephone directories, driver license files, vital statistics, marriage license bureaus, cemetery records, etc.; also hours and hours of editing, typing, mailing manuscripts out to all descendants for cor­ rection, retyping them for the printer and finally proofing the printer's copy before publication. The book is divided into 14 chapters, arranged in sequence according to the order of birth of the 14 children born to William and Anna Konkel. No refer­ ence is made to page numbers, only to genealogical numbers. The first digit of your genealog-ical number identifies your family branch, also the chapter in which your record may be found. The last digit of your genealogical num­ ber indicates the order of your birth. Drop the last digit and you have your parents' number; drop two digits from the right and you have your grand­ parents' genealogical number, etc. A little practice with the names of your own immediate family and you will soon be able to locate any name you wish to find. The names of over 1,000 direct descendants are listed in the index, each followed by the name of the spouse, if married. An asterisk(*) denotes the person was deceased before the book was published. A plus sign (+) following the birth date tells you that more information will be found about that particular individual later on in the chapter. A minus sign (-) indicates that no information will be found, except what is in that immediate family writeup. The author has endeavored to show no partiality in the amount of space alloted to the many descendants and their families. That some have more written about them than others is because they have either furnished the information, or it was available from other sources. Every effort was made to include all descendants, and to compile a complete and accurate history. C.G.B. 7 OUR FIRST KONKEL OF RECORD Not much is known of our early Konkel ancestors, except that they came to this country from Germany. There the name is spelled Kunkel. The first Konkel of record for our book is one JOHN KUNCKLE, probably born some­ where around 1765. No one knows why the name was spelled as it was. Perhaps our German ancestor was trying to Americanize the name; or, it is entirely possible he could neither read or write. It may be that John simply made his mark in the immigrant log, and some official spelled the name as he interpreted the pronunciation of this foreigner. Actually, we do not know when or where John was born. He may have been born in America, and it may have been his father, _his grandfather or great­ grandfather who came to this country. The only information we have about John, which we are unable to prove, is that he lived to be I 03 years of age. Although there is no record of his wife's name, the names of his children have been handed down in family records as: 1. John Kunckle b d m 2. Michael Kunckle b d m 3. SAMUEL KUNCKLE b d m Barbara Lutz; (2) 4. Mary Kunckle b d m - Lutz s. Barbara Kunckle b d m - Snider 6. Maudlina Kunckie b d m - Hollinger 7. Catherine Kunckle b d m - Stratham SAMUEL KUNKLE Samuel Kunkle dropped the nc" from the family name. It is not known for certain when or where he was born; however, we do know he married Barbara Lutz, and that they lived somewhere in Lancaster County, Penn­ sylvania where their eight children were born. Samuel is supposed to have lived to be 93 years of age, and is buried near the town of Ashland in Ashland County, Ohio. (His burial site was given in a letter written by his granddaughter, Amanda M. (Kunkel) Dill, in the year 1931.) _The eight children born to this union were: 1. Eva Kunkle b d m - Fry 2. John Kunkle b Apr. 19, 1813 d m Magdalena Bulyer 3. Michael Kunkle b Mar. 15, 1815 d Aug. 25, 1877 m Mary Bulyer; (2) Lydia Bulyer 4. Martin Kunkle b June 1, 1817 d Moy 7, 1895 m Leah Keller 5. Jacob Kunkle b Mar. 5, 1818 d m Susanna Kunke 6. Samuel Kunkle b d in the 1850's; murdered ,while return- ing from California, where he is supposed to have made much money. It is not known if he ever married. 7. WILLIAM KUNKLE b May 30, 1822 d Oct. 6, 1876 m Anna Beery 8. Mary Kunkle b Apr. 29, 1824 d Sept. 11, 1885 m John Lahmon 8 After the death of his first wife, Samuel married a second time. We do not have her name nor the date of their marriage. However, we do know that Samuel and his second wife moved the family to Knox County, Ohio where six additional children were born. 9o Catherine Kunkle b d m McBride 1 o. Elizabeth Kunkle b Dec. 2, 1831 d July 3, 1919 m Blakeley 11. Susie kunkle b d m 12. Sarah Kunkle b d m Wisner 13. Leah Kunkle b d m Landers 14. Christian Kunkle b Jan. 31, 1844 d Apr. 5, 1927 m Maggie J. - THE nHESSIAN" STORY There has been much discussion down through the years about whether one of our Konkel ancestors may, or may not, have fought as a hired Hessian soldier against the American army during the Revolutionary War. The author has been unable to prove or disprove this story. Shortly after the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, King George III, of England, hired some 30,000 Hessians from the Prince of Hesse in Germany to fight against the Americans. These soldiers received their regular pay as soldiers, but in addition the Prince of Hesse received nearly thirty-five dollars for each Hessian killed . and three wounded were to be equal in value to one killed.