from Memoirs of Clayton County, Iowa

Joseph J. Kuehl is another sterling representative of the fine element of German citizenship that has contributed in large and altogether commendable measure to the civic and industrial development and progress of Clayton county, within whose borders he has resided since he was a child of two years. Though he is a native of Germany and pays due deference to its noble traditions and customs, as a matter of birthright, he is a true American in thought, action and appreciation, with his only knowledge of German institutions and customs that received from his parents and from later reading of admirable literature pertaining to the Fatherland which he left in the days of his infancy. He is now known as one of the energetic, progressive and substantial farmers and stock-growers of Clayton county, is the owner of a well improved landed estate, and is one of the influential citizens of Boardman township, his homestead being situated four miles west of Elkader, the county seat, from which place he receives service on rural mail route No. 2. Joseph J. Kuehl was born in Germany on, the 24th of January, 1864, and thus was about two years of age when, in 1866, he accompanied his parents, Joseph and Dorothy (Pick) Kuehl, on their immigration to the United States, the family home having been established in Clayton county, Iowa, in the same year, and the death of the devoted wife and mother having occurred in March, 1871. Joseph Kuehl obtained a tract of land and became one of the pioneer farmers of this county, where he achieved independence and prosperity through industry and earnest effort and where he developed one of the excellent farms of Boardman township.  He is still a substantial landholder of the county, but is now living virtually retired at Elkader, in the serene enjoyment of the rewards of former years of toil and endeavor, and secure in the high regard of all who know him. Of the four children the subject of this review is the firstborn ; Mary died in childhood ; Sophia is th€ wife of Henry Schrader, of Elkport, this county; Henry died when young. Mrs. Dorothy (Fick) Kuehl was the second wife of Joseph Kuehl, and after her death he contracted a third marriage.  His third wife is now deceased, and of their twelve children seven are deceased : Herman resides at Elkport, this county ; Charles at Littleport, John at Elkport, and Henry at Elkport. All of the other children died young except Lena, who was a young woman at the time of her demise. Joseph J. Kuehl was reared under the invigorating influence of the home farm, early began to contribute his quota to its work, and in the meanwhile profited duly by the advantages afforded in the public schools of the locality. He continued to be associated with his father in the work and management of the old homestead farm until he had attained to the age of twenty-three years, when he purchased one hundred and twenty acres of land, near Communia, this county, and initiated his independent career as a farmer. Four years later, however, he sold this property, and he then purchased a farm of one hundred and sixty acres in Section 29, Boardman township, where he has since maintained his home and successfully carried forward his progressive operations as an agriculturist and stock-grower. To his original purchase he later added a tract of eighty acres in Section 19 and still later he purchased eighty-six acres in Section 3, so that his landed estate in Boardman township now comprises three hundred and twenty acres. He has made many fine improvements on this valuable property and has won precedence as one of the essentially representative farmers and stock-raisers of this favored section of the Hawkeye State, with the status of a broad-gauged and public-spirited citizen who is always ready to do his part in the furtherance of measures and enterprises that tend to advance the general welfare of the community. In politics he is found aligned as a staunch supporter of the now dominant Democratic party, and he has served as township trustee, as well as in minor township offices and as a member of the school board of his district, an office of which he is the incumbent at the time of this writing, in 1916. He is affiliated with the Woodmen of the World and the Brotherhood of American Yeomen, and both he and his wife are earnest communicants of the Lutheran Church, in the faith of which they were reared. February 2, 1887, recorded the marriage of Mr. Kuehl to Miss Mary Ehrhardt, who likewise was born and reared in Clayton county, and who is a representative of the sterling pioneer family concerning which adequate mention is made on other pages of this work. Mr. and Mrs. Kuehl became the parents of ten children: George W. is a progressive farmer of the younger generation in Boardman township; Carrie is the wife of Charles Raemer, of Volga township ; Mary is the wife of Herman Raemer, of the same township; Frederick is a substantial agriculturist in Read township; Arthur is associated in the work and management of his father’s farm ; Catherine is the wife of Henry Baars, of Boardman township; and Hilda, Louisa, Frances and Mildred remain at the parental home.