Nobles County MN Archives Biographies.....Kuhl, Fred 1863 - 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com October 23, 2006, 1:14 am

Author: Arthur P. Rose (1908)

  FRED KUHL owns and resides on the west half of section 2, Dewald township. He

has been a resident of Nobles county nineteen years. He was born in Schleswig

Holstein, Germany, April 14, 1863, the son of a tailor. Ben Kuhl, the father,

died in Germany in May, 1875, at the age of 45 years. Annie (Sass) Kuhl, the

mother, died in Illinois July, 1891, aged 55 years.



  Fred lived in his native country until a little past seventeen years of age.

He secured a country school education and at the age of fourteen began working

at the miller's trade, which he followed until his removal to America. His

departure from the old country was not without exciting experiences. In company

with a cousin he decided to leave his native land and seek a fortune in the new

world. The cousin had been drawn for service in the army and Fred was within the

age limit, and neither were permitted, under the German laws, to leave the

country. At the port from which they sailed an agent was found who, upon the

receipt of 25 marks from each, made it possible for them to evade the law. The

agent to whom the cousin paid his fee proved to be a detective, and this

seriously interfered with the plans of the cousins. Fred sailed from the

Fatherland to England and from there to the United States. The cousin was

retained as a witness against the immigration agents, who served sentences for

their enterprise, but was permitted to follow on a later boat. Fred landed in

New York on September 15, 1880, after a stormy voyage of 21 days on the water.

Owing to this delay and by the merest chance the cousins were reunited on this

side of the water.



  Mr. Kuhl went at once to Davenport, Iowa, where he was successful in getting a

position in a flouring mill. He was about to begin work when the mill burned

down. He was then without money, and the prospects were not the brightest.

Successful in getting work, however, he spent the next three years of his life

working for wages. One year of this time was in the vicinity of Davenport; the

other two years at Monmouth, Ill. He then rented a farm near Monmouth and spent

two years on that. From Illinois he went to Benton county, Iowa, and for four

years farmed rented land.



  In the fall of 1899 Mr. Kuhl came to Nobles county and became a land owner. He

purchased the northeast quarter of section 30, Elk township, and lived there

three years. Owing to the failure of the Frederickson company, through which

agency the land had been purchased, Mr. Kuhl lost the land. He then rented the

whole of section 33, Elk township, broke out the land, and made his home there

two years. In 1894 he bought the southwest quarter of section 2, Dewald, and

moved to his new possessions. Three years later he bought the northwest quarter

of the same section. Besides these 320 acres of land, he now owns a quarter

section in Clay county, Minn., near Moor-head. In the spring of 1902 Mr. Kuhl

rented his farm and moved to Worthington, where he resided five years. During

that time he was engaged in the management of a billiard hall and bowling alley,

in the insurance business and in working for a creamery company. He returned to

the farm in the spring of 1907 and has since made his home there.



  Mr. Kuhl was married in Illinois April 1, 1884, to Mary Will, daughter of Mr.

and Mrs. Peter Will. Both her parents are dead, her mother having died when she

was two years old and her father in 1904. She was born in Germany, and as a girl

worked in the same mill in which her husband was employed. They were engaged in

the old country and Miss Will came over the year after her future husband did.

Mr. and Mrs. Kuhl have been the parents of four children, only one of whom

survives: Annie, died when six months old; Ben and Peter, twins, died in

infancy; Charlie, born Sept. 4, 1892, residing at home.



Additional Comments:
Extracted from:



AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NOBLES COUNTY

MINNESOTA

BY

ARTHUR P. ROSE



NORTHERN HISTORY PUBLISHING COMPANY 

WORTHINGTON, MINNESOTA 

PUBLISHERS

1908

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