Johnson County KS Archives Biographies.....Caenen, Remi 1853 - 
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 October 22, 2008, 12:10 am

Author: Ed Blair (1915)

  Remi Caenen, a Johnson county pioneer and extensive land owner, has carried on
an extensive business in this county for a number of years. Mr. Caenen is a
native of Belgium, born March 27, 1853, and is. a son of Leven and Mary Teresa
Caenen, natives of Belgium, the former born in 1812 and died in 1891, and the
latter born in 1818 and died in 1902. The parents immigrated to America with a
family of seven small children in 1856, at which time Remi Caenen, the subject
of this sketch, was only three years old. They settled in St. Clair county,
Illinois. In 1864 they removed to St. Paul, a town twenty-four miles west of St.
Louis, and two years later returned to Illinois, where they remained until 1868,
when they came to Kansas, locating in Johnson county, one mile west of Lenexa.
The Caenen family met with a great many difficulties in their endeavor to
establish a home in the new world. It seemed as though one disaster after
another followed the little family of immigrants. One of their children, Mary,
died during the voyage to America and was buried at sea. After they located in
Illinois, the flood of 1858, near East St. Louis, swept away everything they
had, and after coming to Kansas, they encountered several bad years and crop
failures and endured all kinds of privations and hardships. They just managed to
exist and when they were fortunate enough to have a crop, prices were so low and
the markets so poor that they were unable to make much progress in the early
years, but by persistence and industry, and with the help of the boys, as they
grew up, things began to turn for the better, and the father was considered a
well-to-do man at the time of his death. The parents removed to Lenexa during
the latter years of their lives and spent their declining years in peace and
plenty. They were the parents of the following children: Sophia; De Clercq,
Lenexa; Henry, Lenexa; Remi, the subject of this sketch; Frank, Lenexa; Mrs.
Frank Schlagel, Lenexa; and Mrs. Mary Boehm, who died in 1905. Remi Caenen
obtained most of his education in the public schools of Illinois, and when he
was about twenty-six years old, he and two brothers operated the home farm,
which consisted of 240 acres for five years, when they divided up the stock and
implements. This was in 1880 and he then bought 100 acres of land, where his
home is now located in Shawnee township. This land cost him $23 per acre and it
is now worth $400 per acre. Mr. Caenen has dealt considerably in real estate and
has platted and sold a great many lots. He platted eighty acres in Bartcliff
addition and sold it off in small tracts recently. He owned over 190 lots in
Monrovia and has sold ninety lots of that tract. He owns a half section in
Olathe township, which his son, R. F., manages. Mr. Caenen has one of the finest
residences in the county. It is built of stone quarried on his own place, and
the house, which was erected in 1907, cost over $10,000. The place has all
modern conveniences, including lighting plant, water system, etc. Mr. Caenen was
married April 5, 1880, to Miss Mary A. VanHercke. She was born at Harlem, Mo.,
in 1861, a daughter of Joseph and Lucy VanHercke, natives of Belgium, who
immigrated to America in 1851, settling in Missouri, where they remained until
1866, when they came to Johnson county, Kansas, and followed farming and are
both now deceased. Mr. Caenen's wife died July 18, 1901, leaving the following
children: Emma Renner, Colby, Kan., has five children; John, farmer on Indian
Creek, Oxford township, has five children; Mary Boehm, Paola, Kan., has two
children; Josie Hurley, Paola, Kan., has one child; Remi F., operating his
father's farm near Olathe; Matty Schumaker, Kansas City, Mo.; Rose, Delia and
Achille, at home. Mr. Caenen is a progressive business man and is counted among
Johnson county's most successful men of affairs.

Additional Comments:

Extracted from:

HISTORY OF Johnson County Kansas
BY
ED BLAIR

AUTHOR OF
Kansas Zephyrs, Sunflower Sittings and Other Poems and Sketches

IN ONE VOLUME

ILLUSTRATED
STANDARD PUBLISHING COMPANY
LAWRENCE, KANSAS
1915


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