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John W.
Janssen |
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John W. Janssen... Although a resident of Montana for but nine years, the prominent merchant and ranchman of Coalwood, John W. Janssen, has had connections both permanent and productive of results. He came into this state October 10, 1910, crossing the state line at Marmath, North Dakota, as a passenger in his freight car, chartered from Calhoun County, Iowa. Since that time he has been a progressive figure in the promulgation and carrying through of movements which have been beneficial to the interests of his adopted community, and has placed himself in a position of prestige as ranchman, merchant and public-spirited citizen. Mr Janssen was born January 12, 1863 in Woodford County, Illinois, a son of Dierk H. Janssen, who came to the United States as a young man of twenty-eight years from East Friesland, near Hanover in the Rhine country. He was married in Woodford County, Illinois, to Engelbertha Uphoff, a native of the same locality in Friesland. He settled down to farming, acquiring a good property and dying in 1889, at the age of fifty-eight years, well supplied with this world's goods. He acquired the English language fluently and adopted the customs of his adopted land, and in his community was accounted a man of integrity and usefulness. His widow, who still survives him, lives in Pekin, Illinois, and is seventy-five years of age. Their children were as follows: John W., of this notice; Herman H., of Girard, Kansas; Katie, the wife of Frank Graber, of Peoria, Illinois; Mattie, now Mrs Dittmar, of Pekin, Illinois; Henry, of Geneseo, Kansas; Martha, the wife of Paul Peters, of Larraine, Kansas; Bertha, who married Frank Tucker, of Minonk, Illinois; Will, of Benson, Illinois; and George, on the old family homestead near Minonk, Illinois. To the country schools of Woodford County, John W. Janssen is indebted for his education, and eight years of his early manhood were passed in Gage and Johnson counties, Nebraska, and three years at Quincy, Illinois, in addition to which he was for some years employed in carpenter work and farming in Minonk. Later he went to Rockwell City, Iowa, where he followed the trade of carpenter, and also farmed for four years, and then, in 1910, in response to advertising by the Milwaukee Railroad Company, came to Montana, the place where he now resides being his destination. He had previously filed on a half section upon which the office and store at Coalwood are now situated and which he established after his arrival. There was nothing here but grass at that time to begin with, and he came rather to farm and raise stock than to take up merchandising, but has done all three of these, having continued his stock until 1919, when he disposed of it and at present is devoting his energies principally to his store. Mr Janssen's connection with this community as a citizen has brought into it the postoffice of Coalwood, the name being taken from the abundance of both coal and wood right at hand. This locality has produced many thousands of feet of pine lumber, and the improvements of the region hereabout have been made of the native lumber. The postoffice was opened here in 1912, and in 1915 the stock of goods constituting the Janssen store was placed on the shelves. His beginning, however, dates from an earlier day, when he put in merely a stock of inks and tobaccos. The establishing of the schools here, the first rural school of district No. 1, subdivision No. 76, was urged by Mr Janssen, and he helped build the pioneer log house still used as a place of education, while his eldest son is a member of the board of school directors. In his position on public matters, Mr Janssen is a Wilson democrat, but his only public position has been that of postmaster, which he holds at the present time. Both he and Mrs Janssen have been active in the movement for the establishment of a Congregational Church in the community, the pioneer pastor of which is the Rev John Duncan, "the walking preacher". In Woodford County, Illinois, February 28, 1888, Mr Janssen was united in marriage with Miss Anna E. Baker (formerly Becker), who was born in Hessen, the village of Waurau, May 8, 1867, and was brought to the United States by her mother in 1869. Mrs Becker settled in La Salle County, Illinois, and not too far from La Salle Mrs Janssen grew to young womanhood. Her father was Simon Becker and her mother's maiden name was Margaret Trinmner (sic). Their children were: Katie, now Mrs Fred Falk, of Calhoun County, Iowa; Lizzie, who married George Miller, of Cedar Falls, Iowa; Henry, of La Salle County, Illinois; Carrie, who married Herman Miller, of Cedar Falls, Iowa; Conrad, who died in La Salle County, Illinois; Mary, the wife of Louis Kessler, of that county; Simon, who is a farmer in La Salle County; Balser, also a farmer there; Mrs Janssen; and Theodore, a farmer of Calhoun County, Iowa. Mr and Mrs Janssen have the following children: Fred S.,
associated with his father in his various interests at Coalwood, married
Lois Graham, and has two children, Billy and Dorothy Jean; Carrie, the
wife of Percy Bird of Coalwood, has two daughters, Gladys and Lucile; Sam
B., of the Coalwood community, who spent ten months in the United States
navy during the World war, on the U. S. S. Nanshan, patrolling the Pacific
coast; Will McKinley, also a sailor, who served one year and ten months on
U. S. S. Illinois and the U. S. S. Saranac in the dangerous business of
mine laying, his honorable discharge being granted to him in March, 1919,
while his brother left the service the preceding January; and Dewey, the
youngest, who is a farmer in the Coalwood community. |