Linn County, Kansas

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BIOGRAPHIES

ZAROBOBEL MENTZER

One of the beautiful characters of Mound City and who contributed greatly in a cultural way to his time and his community was Zarobobel Mentzer. He was of high class German descent, one of his ancestors having been General John Rolla Mentzer of the Continental Army. Mr. Mentzer was born at Listenburg, Maryland, October 23, 1830. He was a devoted member of the German Lutheran Church and had always been the leader in its musical programmes. In his early life he became the employee of a prominent contractor in his native town of Listenburg, and was familiar with large affairs in business. This employer was a Mr. Bartleson, father of our Elim W. Bartleson of Pleasanton, and as a result of this association he was married on July 13, 1853, at Listenburg, to Margaret Parker Bartleson, a daughter of the house. Seven children came to them-Ida B., Lucy May, Charles Lee, Esther Allen, Mary Ellen, John Rolla and Jesse Blanche, all of whom have been exemplary, useful, successful citizens, of whom we have this record-Lucy May became the wife of George B. Dunbar of Cedar Point, Iowa; Mary Ellen married John W. Kenney of Mound City; John Rolla married Lilian Edith Lamoreau and have for many years made their home at Kansas City where John has had connection with high class bond houses; Jesse Blanche married George N. Roy of Mound City. These children gave to their distinguished father fourteen grandchildren and three greatgrandchildren. The mother had died in 1874 at Cedar Point, Iowa, where they had gone after his service in the Civil War as a soldier in Company C of the Sixteenth Iowa Infantry, finishing a veteran enlistment which took him with Sherman to the sea and into the grand review at the White House in Washington. Zarobobel Mentzer was of charming personality, gifted mentally, resourceful and helpful to his fellow men, and giving to his children much more than the material comforts of life with which he surrounded them lavishly, for he was a successful man and acquired a competence. His life span measured eighty-four years when he passed away May 15, 1914, at the home of the daughter Mrs. Ellen Kenney in Mound City.

(History of Linnn County, by William Ansel Mitchell, 1928, Pages 349-350)

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