BIOGRAPHIES: AWALD KLUKAS, Elk Mound, Dunn Co., WI

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Submitted by:  Laura Abood <wabood@msn.com> 3/19/2006
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AWALD KLUKAS, owner of a fine improved farm in the town of
Elk Mound (Section 8), which he is operating to good
advantage, was born in Germany, March 5, 1883, son of
Frederick and Wilhelmina Klukes, natives of that country,
the father born in 1840 and the mother in 1841.  With them
he came to the United States in 1884, the family settling at
Fall Creek, Eau Claire County, Wis., but soon afterwards
moving to the town of Elk Mound, Dunn County.  In Section 8
they bought 80 acres of land, the tract forming a partly
developed farm, but with poor buildings.  Frederick Klukas
at once began to improve the place.  He built a good frame
house with necessary out-buildings, also proceeding with the
clearing of the land, and there he farmed until 1897.  He
then gave up that farm to his son Robert and moved across
the road in the same section on to a 220-acre tract that he
had bought.  He built up a good farm there, with a
substantial residence and other buildings, continuing to
operate it until 1907, when he retired and moved to Elk
Mound.  Later he and his wife moved to Colfax, where they
both died.  Frederick Klukas on March 14, 1914, and Mrs.
Wilhelmina Klukas on Jan. 6, 1916.  They were the parents of
seven children:  Fred, who was killed in the woods near
Detroit, Mich.; Bertha, now Mrs. Herman Schultz of Fall
Creek, Wis.; Robert, of Colfax; Tena, deceased; Joel,
residing with his brother Awald; Max, a prominent farmer in
the town of Elk Mound; and Awald, subject of this sketch.
Awald Klukas, who was a babe when he accompanied his parents
to America, as a boy attended the rural school of his
district in the town of Elk Mound.  He grew to manhood,
acquiring a good knowledge of agriculture from his father,
working on the home farms, where he remained instead of
seeking his fortune in other places.  In 1907, when his
father retired, he came into possession of 204 acres of the
home farm, since which time he has more fully developed the
land and erected additional buildings, converting it into
one of the best farms in the town.  In 1908 he put up a
large dairy barn, of 40 x 84 feet in ground plan with a full
basement, and which is provided with the Humane barn
equipment of drinking cups, litter carrier and stanchions,
and is finished with cement floors.  He has also built a
granary, milk house, wood shed, garage, a corn crib combined
with grain sheds, a smoke house and a chicken house.  These
are all good frame buildings, except the milk house and
smoke house, which are of cement block construction.  Mr.
Klukas has installed an acetylene gas plant, which furnishes
light for his house, barns and yard, and has also just put
in a fine waterworks system with a 217-barrel cistern on the
hill back of his house, the cistern being supplied from a
115-foot well drilled through solid stone except for the
first seven feet.  The pumping power is furnished by both a
gas engine and wind mill, and from the well pipe lines are
run to the house, barn and yards.  Mr. Klukas is a man of
energetic and progressive character and follows general and
dairy farming along modern methods.  He has a fine herd of
Holstein cattle headed with a pure bred sire, and also
raises Duroc-Jersey hogs.  He is a stockholder in the Elk
Mound Cooperative Creamery.  On Feb. 28, 1906, Awald Klukas
was married to Sophia Sonenberg, who was born in the town of
Grant, Dunn Counry, Wis., Dec. 20, 1886, and to him and his
wife the following children have been born:  Herbert E.,
Dec. 19, 1906; Emma E., July 12, 1908; Harvey E., Feb. 18,
1910; Edwin H., Oct. 11, 1911; Lawrence V., Aug. 5, 1913;
Mabel H., June 24, 1915; Violet E., July 14, 1917; Hazel E.,
Nov. 27, 1919; Melvin R., Oct. 1, 1921, and Luverne W.,
March 10, 1924.  Mr. Klukas and his family are members of
the Byer Settlement German Lutheran Church.