Marshall County KS Archives Biographies.....Steig, John 1823 - 1917
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com May 3, 2007, 1:34 am

Author: Emma E. Forter

JOHN STEIG.

    John Steig, who is now deceased, was one of the oldest pioneers in Marshall
county, and had lived on his farm in Balderson township since 1865. He was born
in Belgium on February 9, 1823, the son of John Steig and wife, who were of the
farming class in that country, and among the highly respected people of their
home district. John Steig received his education in the schools of his native
land and remained a resident of that country until he was thirty-two years of
age. In 1857 he decided to seek a home in America. After a long voyage he landed
at the port of New York and at once proceeded to Chicago, Illinois, where he
remained for a time, after which he took up his residence in Milwaukee. In 1865
he left the city life and came to Kansas. Here he homesteaded land in Balderson
township, Marshall county, on which he built a small shack, which answered the
purpose of a home. Those were hard and trying times for the young man in a
strange land and amid new conditions. The country was new and the few neighbors
were far apart. Marysville, a long distance away in those days, over the plains,
with no roads other than the trail over the prairie, was the nearest trading
point, and at that time it could hardly be called a town. He later built a log
house, obtaining the material from the timber growing on his own tract of land.
He also built a log barn, and today there are walnut logs on the place that were
a part of the barn erected forty-nine years ago. Some years later he erected a
board house, that is still standing on the farm and in which he lived until
1902, when he built the present neat and substantial residence.

    By much hard work and close application Mr. Steig was able to clear and
break his land preparatory to the planting of his crops. His progress was slow,
but in time he began to prosper and was soon successfully engaged in general
farming and stock raising, and left a splendid farm of one hundred and sixty
acres, which adjoins eighty acres that is owned by his son, John B. The farm is
under a high state of cultivation and well kept. Much of the place is of fine
bottom land, where are raised splendid crops of corn and other grain, with fine
tracts of pasture and meadow land.

    On March 24, 1868, John Steig was united in marriage to Margaret J. Beonack,
who was born on September 5, 1847, in Luxemburg, and to this union were born two
children, Margaret and John B. Margaret Meybrunn resides in Balderson township,
two miles south and one mile west of the home. John B. was born on March 20,
1882, and received his education in the district schools of Balderson township
and has always lived on the farm where he was born, and where he assisted his
father with the farm work. In addition to the management of his late father's
farm he looks after the interest of his own place of eighty acres.

    John Steig was an active member of the Catholic church, as is his widow, and
they reared their children in that faith. The family have long been prominent in
the social life of the community and are held in the highest regard and esteem
by all who know them. Mr. Steig was actively identified with the Democratic
party, and was recognized as among the substantial and successful men of the
township. Mr. Steig cast his first vote for James Buchanan for President, and
never missed casting his vote for the Democratic candidate up to the time of his
death. He had never been sick, up to his last illness, but once in his life, and
that was in the fall of 1915, when he had an attack of la grippe, which affected
his sight and hearing. Other than that he was both hale and hearty and able to
enjoy many of the blessings of life, on his farm, where he spent so many years.
During his residence in the county he had witnessed many wonderful changes, and,
today, where now stand the fine farm buildings and where grows the golden grain,
then stood the few huts of the early settlers and there grew the tall prairie
grass, with here and there a patch of timber. All this took place in the life of
this worthy man, who did so much for the development of Marshall county. John
Steig died in Balderson township on February 15, 1917, and was buried at
Summerfield, Kansas, at Holy Family cemetery.


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)



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