Marshall County KS Archives Biographies.....Thomann, Frank 1847 - living in 1917
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@gmail.com July 21, 2005, 5:11 pm

Author: B. F. Bowen

FRANK THOMANN.

    France has given to the United States some of her best and most progressive
citizens. Among those who have settled in Marshall county is Frank Thomann, one
of the well-known and prominent retired farmers of Summerfield, who was born in
Alsace on March 27, 1847, the son of Jacques and Victoria (Bishops) Thomann.

    The parents of Frank Thomann were also natives of France and there received
their education and grew up and were later married. The father had been married
before his union to Victoria Bishops and by the first wife was the father of
five children. By the second wife, the mother of Frank, there were two children
born, of whom Frank is the only one living. Jacques Thomann as a young man
learned civil engineering, at which he worked in his native land until 1856,
when he decided to seek a home for himself and family in the United States.
After a voyage of thirty-six days they landed at Philadelphia, where the family
resided for a year. The father then decided that he would be a farmer and in
1857 came to Kansas. The trip from St. Joe to Marshall county was made in a
wagon drawn by oxen. On their arrival in the county, Mr. Thomann located in
Richland township, where he pre-empted one hundred and twenty acres of land in
section 32, at one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre. He at once built a log
cabin in which the family lived for some years, and with his oxen he broke the
tough prairie sod and planted his grain. The few years that he lived on his farm
were fraught with many difficulties, yet during those years his life was a most
active one. He was the first surveyor of Marshall county after Kansas became a
state. His death occurred on May 10, 1864. His widow survived him until 1890,
when her death occurred on April 16 of that year. They were members of the
Catholic church and lived consistent Christian lives, and were held in the
highest regard and respect by all who knew them.

    Frank Thomann received the greater part of his education in the schools of
his native land, having attended school but two months after the family came to
America, yet he was but nine years of age when he came with his parents to this
country. At the age of sixteen years he started in to work for himself, and
later he and his half-brother farmed the old home place. In 1884 Mr. Thomann
retired from the farm and moved to Beattie, Kansas, where he assisted A. J.
Brunswig and Joseph Baer organize the Bank of Beattie, Mr. Thomann furnishing
the money. These men were also the managers of an elevator known as the Brunswig
Elevator Company, which did a big business. In 1889 the Kansas City &
Northwestern railroad was completed through Summerfield, and Mr. Thomann was one
of the first to buy lots in the new town. He and his brother-in-law, August
Wuester, started a drug store, which they conducted for a number of years. The
members of the banking house and August Wuester, organized the Summerfield
Hardware and Implement Company, of which the subject was the manager. This
business was conducted for ten years, when they sold. The drug store was burned
in 1894, after which Mr. Thomann took over the business, which he conducted
until 1904. After this he operated the elevator until 1913, in which year he
retired to private life. He was president of the bank at Summerville for
twenty-six years, but at the present time he has no interests in the
institution. He still has large land interests, owning- three hundred and sixty
acres of splendid land in Guittard township, one hundred and sixty acres in
Poctawatomie county and one hundred and twenty acres in Osage county, Kansas, as
well as an additional eighty acres in Marshall county.

    Frank Thomann was united in marriage on March 10, 1883, to Charlotte
Wuester, the daughter of Abraham and Margaret (Bauer) Wuester, both of whom were
natives of Germany, where they received their education in the public schools
and grew up. They later came to the United States and established themselves on
a farm.

    To Frank and Charlotte Thomann have been born the following children: James
A., the first born, deceased; Wilbur Charles; Warren F. and Frank Charles.
Wilbur Charles is an automobile salesman at Indianola, Nebraska; Warren F. is a
painter, of Frankfort, Kansas, and Frank Charles is a student in the University
of Kansas.

    Politically, Mr. Thomann is a stanch Democrat and has ever taken much
interest in local affairs. He is a member of the Ancient Order of United
Workmen, the Knights and Ladies of Security and the Free and Accepted Masons,
having attained the Knight Templar degree and is a member of the Shriners.

    During their early life in the county, the Thomanns lived in a tent and
experienced many of the difficulties of the early settler. There were many
Indians in the vicinity, and at times they camped near the home of Mr. and Mrs.
Thomann. At one time there was a band of thirty-five redskins that stopped at
their home, and during their stay they took two gallons of whiskey which the
family had for medical use. It was not long until the greater number of the
Indians were intoxicated and were determined to fight. Lucky, there were enough
of the band that remained sober to care for the drunken ones, and by morning the
band had disappeared. After the Indian raid in 1864. the settlers of Washington
county and the counties west, returned east through Marshall county, and the
road was lined with people from Marysville to Guittard Station. Much of the fear
that animated their hasty retreat at that time, was caused by a large band of
Pottawatomie Indians that were on their way to visit the Otoes, and when they
crossed the military and the stage road, the settlers saw them and gave the
alarm that the Indians were again on the war-path.

    Frank Thomann having come to Kansas in an early day, when he was but a lad,
has seen the wonderful transition of the country from the wild prairie,
inhabited with the wolf and roving bands of Indians, to the present
well-developed farms, with fields of golden grain and pastures dotted here and
there with fine herds of the best of cattle; droves of hogs growing fat on the
products of the farm, and the finest horses, fit for the plow and driving
purposes. This great change from the most primitive to the highest state of
efficiency, has only been accomplished by the hardest kind of work and close
economy. Splendid buildings and well-kept premises are now seen, where once
stood the settler's cabin and the rude barn. In all of this Mr. Thomann has had
an important part, and he and such as he are entitled to the greatest honor for
the work that they have done. It is difficult for the present generation to
realize the wonderful changes that have taken place during the life of some of
the men and women now living.


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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