AMEL MARKWALT.
Amel Markwalt, farmer, of Lancaster township, Atchison county, Kansas, was born in Germany July 14, 1864. He is a son of Gottlieb and Minnie (Schraum) Markwalt, and was one of five children, as follows: Gustave, Manistee, Mich.; Augusta, address unknown; Amelia (Lidkye), widow, Manistee, Mich.; William, Manistee, Mich.; and Amel, the subject of this sketch. The parents were both German, and died when Amel was but five years of age. He knows nothing of his parents, except that his father was in the German war of 1866, when the Prussians were fighting the Austrians.
The schooling of Amel was neglected, owing to the death of his parents, and he spent his youth working on a farm in Germany. In 1882 he sailed for America, and upon arriving in this country he went to work in the lumber mills at Manistee, Mich., remaining there three years. He then came to Atchison, Kan., and worked in the Central Branch railroad shops as a laborer. He did various kinds of work of a mechanical nature during his six years of employment there. He then engaged in the retail oil business for himself, and finding this profitable he enlarged his business to include the selling of ice. A few years later he sold his business, and in 1903 bought 160 acres of land in Lancaster township and moved there the following year, where he has since resided. He has built a fine residence and a barn since buying the land, and has a two-acre orchard. His barn is an excellent one, with a capacity of fifty tons of hay.
Amel Markwalt was married in 1885 to Augusta Stolp, who was born in Germany August 2, 1865, and left her native land in 1883 and came to Atchison, Kan. She is a daughter of August and Charlotte (Weisgean) Stolp, both now deceased. Her father came to Atchison, Kan., in 1884. Mr. and Mrs. Markwalt have six children: Ida, wife of J. Ziegler, Nortonville, Kan.; William, living at home; Henry, deceased; Charlotte, Elsie, and Otto, living at home. Mr. Markwalt does not affiliate himself with any political party, believing that he can vote more conscientiously by voting independently. He is a member of the German Lutheran church.