Will County IL Archives Biographies.....Kaps, Joseph 1834 - 
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Deb Haines ddhaines@gmail.com May 5, 2007, 2:33 pm

Author: Portraits & Bio Sketches, 1890

JOSEPH KAPS. Among the citizens of foreign birth, residents of Plainfield 
Township, who have been factors in promoting its farming interests and by 
sheer force of persistent and intelligent labor have placed themselves among 
the most substantial members of the community, is the subject of this 
biographical review, and his farm is one of the finest and best managed in 
this vicinity. He was born in Shleisien, Germany, near the boundary line 
between that kingdom and Poland, his birth taking place October 1, 1834. His 
father, Christopher Kaps, was a native of the same place, while his father, 
whose given name was John Michael, was born in Austria. After attaining 
manhood the latter crossed the border and became a citizen of Germany, and 
there married and reared a family, spending the rest of his days there as a 
farmer. The father of our subject learned the trade of a weaver and followed 
that occupation besides tilling the little plot of eight acres of land that he 
owned. He resided in his native place until 1854, and in that year with his 
wife and two sons started for this land of promise, setting sail November 19, 
from Bremen in the sailing vessel "Alfred" and landing December 25, on the 
shores of America. He located in Cleveland, Oswego County, N. Y., and was a 
resident of that place till July, 1855. In that month he came to Illinois and 
located in Aurora, Kane County, and lived there ten years. At the expiration 
of that time he came to Will County and spent his last years in the town of 
Troy, dying there in 1875. The mother of our subject departed this life in 
1872. The father was twice married and reared two daughters by his first 
marriage, Mary coming to America and dying here subsequently unmarried. There 
were four children of the second marriage, two of whom were reared to years of 
maturity, our subject and his brother John. The latter settled in Troy and 
later in Plainfield, where he died unmarried. Joseph Kaps attended school 
steadily until fourteen years of age and acquired a sound education. He then 
took up farming as his life work, carrying it on in the land of his birth till 
1854. That year marked a turning point in his life as it was then he emigrated 
to this country. He started out in a foreign land with no other capital than 
with which nature provided him and he first made money by working for others. 
He was thus engaged for four years, and then rented land and in 1867 made his 
first purchase of eighty acres of wild prairie in Troy, this county. He 
greatly improved the land and tilled the soil there until 1880, when he sold 
it at a good advance and purchased his present place of residence on section 
28, Plainfield Township, three miles from the village, seven and one-half 
miles from Joliet, the farm being beautifully located on the banks of the 
DuPage River. It comprises two hundred and fifty-one acres of land of 
unsurpassed fertility and productiveness. He has it under the best of 
cultivation and has erected commodious buildings and has it amply provided 
with all the conveniences for carrying on agriculture to the best advantage. 
The prosperity of our subject is due in a measure to the fact that he has been 
assisted in his labors by the active co-operation of a capable wife to whom he 
was united in marriage in 1865. Her maiden name was Mary Seipolt and she was 
born in Germany, and came to America with her parents, Joseph and Mary M. 
Seipolt. Their pleasant home circle is completed by the seven children born to 
them: Matilda, Mary, Francis, Henry, Joseph, Clara and John. The family are 
members in high standing of St. John's Catholic Church. It may be seen from 
the perusal of this sketch that all that our subject has and is he owes to 
himself, that he is in fact a self-made man. He is well endowed with decision 
of character, tenacity of purpose, and an active mind, and these with his 
inherent capacity and traits of thrift and sagacity have pushed him on to 
success in his calling and the acquirement of a desirable property. He is 
alive to the value of a good education and gives his children advantages in 
that direction. A man of his standing is a good citizen and is a help to any 
community. The pleasant home and fertile fields belonging to our subject are 
well represented in the accompanying lithographic view.

Additional Comments:
Portrait and Biographical Album of Will County, Illinois, Containing Full Page 
Portraits and Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens 
of the County; Chicago: Chapman Bros., 1890 
 


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