Marshall County KS Archives Biographies.....Denlinger, John W. 1854 - 1915 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ks/ksfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com May 18, 2007, 7:06 pm Author: Emma E. Forter (1917) JOHN W. DENLINGER. The late John W. Denlinger, a well-known and substantial farmer of Marshall county, who died at his home in Rock township in 1915, was a native of the great Keystone state, but had lived in the West since the days of his childhood. He was born at Blair, Pennsylvania, April 9, 1854, a son of John and Margaret (Wort) Denlinger, natives of that same state, who moved to Iowa about i860, where the subject of this memorial sketch grew to manhood and where he lived until 1893, when he came to Kansas and bought a farm in Center township, this county, where he made his home until March of 1901, when he moved to a farm that he had bought in Rock township the year before and on which he spent the remainder of his life, his death occurring there on December 10, 1915. At the time of his death Mr. Denlinger was the owner of four hundred and forty acres of land and was regarded as one of the best circumstanced men in that part of the county. He was a Democrat and had served the public for two terms as treasurer of Center township and for three terms as a member of the school board. He was a member of the Baptist church, as is his widow, and ever took a proper part in local good works. Mrs. Denlinger is the owner of a fine farm of two hundred and forty acres surrounding her pleasant home in Rock township and she and her family are very comfortably situated. John W. Denlinger was twice married. It was while living in Iowa that he was united in marriage to Ella Ford, who died on October 25, 1893. To that union five children were born, namely: John, deceased; George, deceased; Burt, who is a well-known farmer in Rock township, this county; Mrs. Jessie Waite, of Axtun, Colorado, who died May 7, 1917, and Orval, who died on July 3, 1897. George Denlinger was frozen to death on January 13, 1888, during a fearful blizzard in Iowa. He and his brother, John, were on their way home from school when overtaken by the blizzard which cost George his life, while John was badly frozen, but was not past resuscitation when found by a search party. John Denlinger, who came to Marshall county with his father upon the latter's removal from Iowa, was killed by an accidental shot during a "wolf drive" in this county on January 21, 1913. He left a widow and two small children, the youngest of whom was but an infant. The widow, who was born Emma Behrens, and her children were in a railway wreck at Randolph on October 16, 1915, when a car carrying sixty passengers went into Fancy creek, and the infant child of Mrs. Denlinger was drowned. Of the large number of persons drowned in that wreck the body of Mrs. Denlinger's baby was the only one not recovered from the water. Mrs. Denlinger was badly injured in the wreck, but recovered. She and her daughter, Venetia, make their home with the widow of her father-in-law on the Denlinger farm in Rock township. On September 12, 1894, John W. Denlinger was united in marriage to Mrs. Lena (Hildebrand) Oswald, widow of Andrew Oswald, whom she married in 1886 and who died in 1891, leaving two children, daughters both, Mrs. Anna Drennen, of Lenora, this state, and Mrs. Helen Blackney, of Center township, this county. Mrs. Denlinger was born at Hanover, Kansas, May 5, 1869, daughter of John and Dora (Brocker) Hildebrand, natives, respectively, of Germany and of the state of Iowa, the former of whom is still living, a successful retired farmer, now making his home at Hanover. John Hildebrand remained in his native Fatherland until he was seventeen years of age, when, in 1855, he came to the United States and proceeded on out West to the then end of the railway line at St. Joseph, Missouri, whence he walked over into this part of Kansas and presently homesteaded a tract of land in Marshall county on which, after his marriage, he established his home and became quite successful as a farmer and stockman, remaining there until his retirement and removal to Hanover, in the neighboring county of Washington. His wife, mother of Mrs. Denlinger, died in 1884. To John W. Denlingers' second union two children were born, Floyd and Alta, both of whom are at home with their mother. The Denlingers have a very pleasant home and have ever taken a proper part in the general social activities of the community in which they live, helpful in promoting all movements having to do with the advancement of the common welfare thereabout. Additional Comments: Extracted from: History of Marshall County, Kansas: its people, industries, and institutions by Emma E. Forter Indianapolis, Ind.: B.F. Bowen & Co. (1917) File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ks/marshall/bios/denlinge447gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/ksfiles/ File size: 5.2 Kb