AUGUST J. WOLF.
August J. Wolf, farmer and stockman, of Atchison county, was born October 17, 1862, in Doniphan county, Kansas. He is a son of Gottlieb and Joehanna Wolf, who were the parents of fourteen children, seven of whom are living. The parents of August Wolf were born in Germany and both grew up there and were married in the capital city. In 1860 they left the Fatherland with their five children and came to Doniphan county, Kansas, where they engaged in farming. In 1880, they came to Atchison county, Kansas, and bought the farm of 240 acres which is now owned by their son, August, the subject of this sketch. Five years later they moved to Atchison, Kan., where the father died in 1904, at the age of eighty-five years. The mother died in 1914, at the age of eighty-one. August Wolf grew up on his father’s farm and at the age of twenty-seven started out to shift for himself. He rented his father’s farm, and also helped his father in the threshing business. While feeding a thresher he had his right hand torn off. This, of course, disabled him greatly, but he kept up courage and after his injury had healed engaged in threshing again. In 1902 he bought his father’s farm, and kept up both farming and threshing until 1905, when he gave all of his attention to farming. Just after this a storm destroyed many of the buildings on his place and he rebuilt them better than they were before and made several additions. He now owns 320 acres of land, seventy of which he plants in corn each year. In 1910 he retired from active work on the farm, and his son-in-law, Will Graham, now has actual charge of the place. Mr. Wolf has been twice married, his first wife being Mary Walsh, a native of Germany, to whom he was married in 1890. No children were born to them and the wife died in 1912. Mr. Wolf later married Dorothea Hoffman, who was born in Atchison county, April 15, 1870, and is the daughter of Frederick and Katharena (Scheu) Hoffman. Her parents are of German birth, both having left their native country when quite young. They were married in Illinois and came to Kansas about 1860, where nine children were born to them. Three had been born to them while they were living in Illinois. The father engaged in farming in Center township and worked the place which Frank Hubbard now farms and was also a blacksmith in Atchison, Kan., for a few years. He died in July, 1887, at the age of fifty-six years. No children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Wolf, and the wife died in July, 1913, at the age of seventy-six years. Mr. Wolf is a Republican. He is a member of the Fraternal Order of Eagles and belongs to the Evangelical church. Mr. Wolf has striven under the greatest difficulties, having lost his right hand when a young man, he has been immeasurably handicapped through the greater part of his life. This is especially true in view of the fact that he followed farming, where, if anywhere, the use of both hands is necessary. Though it was a great disadvantage that Mr. Wolf was placed under, he made a success of his career by hard work and good management.