Biographical Sketch of Christian D. Oncken, Gasconade County, Missouri

>From "History of Franklin, Jefferson, Washington, Crawford and 
Gasconade Counties", Biographical Appendix, Goodspeed Publishing 
Company, 1888.

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Christian D. Oncken, farmer and stock raiser of Richland Township, was
born in Oldenburg, Germany, March 20, 1828, and is the son of Christian
D. and Eliza (Knodt) Oncken, who spent their lives in Germany.  The
father died in 1840, aged fifty-three years, and the mother died about
1877, at the age of eighty-three years.  The father was a magistrate,
and served in the French War of 1813 and 1815.  He was one of the vet-
erans at Waterloo, and a commissioned officer.  Christian D. received a
fair education, and, after reaching manhood, followed the occupation of
a farmer for about three years.  In 1847 he came to Hermann, and worked
in the tanyard and mill of his cousin, Hans Widersprecher, until 1849,
when the cousin died.  Mr. Oncken then engaged in merchandising for a
short time, and in 1850 was married to Miss Elizabeth, a native of Ger-
many, born in 1854, the daughter of Jacob Jaeger.  She came with her
parents from Germany at the age of two.  Ten children were the result
of Mr. Oncken's marriage, seven of whom are living: Frank, Henry, 
Julius, George, Adelia (wife of Ernst Lange), Bertha (wife of Charley
Stricker), and Ella.  Mr. Oncken, immediately after marriage, settled
on his present farm, then almost a wilderness, twelve miles west of
Hermann, on the Gasconade River, and which consists of 490 acres.  He
served in Company A, Enrolled Missouri Militia, during the war, and was
justice of the peace four years prior to that struggle.  He is a Repub-
lican in politics and a good citizen.  When Stople Postoffice was 
established, about 1853, Mr. Oncken carried mail from there to Hermann 
once a week, for two years, at $26 per year, the postoffice then being
Gasconade Ferry Postoffice, which he was instrumental in establishing.

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