JOHN DRIMMEL.
John Drimmel, farmer and stockman, of Shannon township, Atchison county, was born on the farm where he resides, in 1863, a son of John and Mary (Karn) Drimmel, natives of Austria. John Drimmel, Sr., was born in Austria in 1829, and immigrated to America with his wife in 1853. They were accompanied by the oldest child, Veronica. He settled on a rented farm of eighty acres north of Atchison in Shannon township, which he cultivated for three years and then bought eighty acres of land four miles west of the city. John, Sr., erected a small, rough box house, which was the family home for the first twelve years, and which was then replaced by a large, handsome brick residence of ten rooms, which is now the home of the son, John. This fine home is modern and fitted with a lighting system and a cellar runs underneath the entire body of the house. It is one of the most attractive places in Atchison county. Mr. Drimmel added to his acreage as he was able and accumulated a total of 230 acres of fine land which is now being cultivated by his son. During 1914 John Drimmel, with whom this review is concerned, had planted forty-five acres of corn, 100 acres of wheat, and ninety acres of oats, all of which yielded splendid crops. Mr. Drimmel is renting eighty acres, in addition to the home farm. The elder Drimmel was a Free State man and served as company cook in the Union army during the Civil war. He reared a family of seven children, as follows: Mrs. Veronica Miller, living in Doniphan county, Kansas; Antony, of Atchison; Florence, Everest, Kan.; John, the subject of this review; Arnold, of Kansas City; Frank, living with his brother, John; L. J., a farmer, living in Shannon township. All of the children of this pioneer family are well-to-do and in good health, the oldest of the family being over sixty-one years of age. John Drimmel, the father, died in 1891. The mother was born in 1829, and died in 1889. They were a worthy pioneer couple who achieved a comfortable competence and reared a fine family in the land of their adoption.
John Drimmel owns and manages the old home place of the Drimmel family in Shannon township, and is one of the representative and well known farmers of Atchison county. All of his fifty-three years of life have been spent in Atchison county and he has always lived on the farm which he now owns. Mr. Drimmel was married in 1893 to Miss Marie Blodig, who died in the first year of her marriage, leaving one son, Frank, born March 1, 1894, and studied in St. Benedict’s College. He was again married in 1896 to Miss Marie Jahl, who has borne him the following children: Anna Marie, born November 24, 1898; John Albert, born April 28, 1900; Marie Veronica, born September 6, 1901; Agnes Cecila, born December 23, 1902; Irene Florentine, born June 11, 1904; Ernest Gabriel, born January 15, 1906; Alfred William, born March 28, 1908; Reinhold Leapold, born September 20, 1909; Rose Helena, born January 23, 1911; Maximilian Louis, born August 21, 1912; Genevieve Frances, born August 14, 1914. The mother of this large family of eleven children was born in Austria in 1877, a daughter of John and Anna Jahl. John Jahl, the father of Mrs. Drimmel, was born in Austria in 1852, and departed this life March 10, 1879. Mrs. Jahl was born July 22, 1855, and came to America in the year 1894, and has since resided in Atchison county. Mrs. Jahl resides with her daughter. She and Mr. Jahl were married in Austria in 1875 and were the parents of three children as follows: John Jahl, Jr., born February 21, 1876, and died in October, 1877; Mrs. Marie (Jahl) Drimmel, born March 10, 1877; Frank Jahl, born September 17, 1878, and died in June of 1879.
Mr. and Mrs. Drimmel and their children are all members of St. Benedict’s Catholic Church and are liberal supporters of this denomination. Mr. Drimmel is a Democrat in politics, but simply does his duty as a citizen and has never been a seeker after political office. The Drimmel home is a very happy one, and the Drimmel family is one of the largest families in Atchison county or the state of Kansas, and Mr. and Mrs. Drimmel have good and just right to be proud of the fact, inasmuch as Atchison county is proud of them. The children of this fine family are all receiving the benefits of a good school and college education, and it is the firm intention of the parents that all of their sons shall be educated in St. Benedict’s College, and the daughters shall finish their training in Mt. St. Scholastica Academy. John, Jr., is at present a student in St. Benedict’s College, class of 1917, and Anna and Marie will enter Mt. Scholastica in the fall of 1916 in order to complete the course in this excellent young ladies’ school. Mr. and Mrs. Drimmel believe thoroughly in giving their children every educational advantage within their means in order to properly fit them for becoming useful men and women and become a credit to their ambitious parents.