Zabel, Herman

The following data is extracted from A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans.

Herman Zabel has spent all his life in Pottawatomie County and is a son of one of the early pioneers there. His own career had been one of varied interests and activities. He still owned a big farm near the county seat and is also vice president of the Farmers State Bank of Westmoreland in that city.

His father, the late Charles Zabel, was born near the city of Berlin, Germany, in 1851, and deserves a permanent record among the pioneers of Pottawatomie County. At the age of nineteen he came to the United States, worked in the pineries and around the saw mills of Wisconsin, and in 1857 joined the free state pioneers of Kansas. He homesteaded 160 acres in Mill Creek Township of Pottawatomie County, but after two years on the claim he began the operation of a flour and saw mill at Westmoreland. Subsequently he farmed, was in business as a merchant, and in his closing years was a banker at Westmoreland. He died there in 1904. He was always a staunch republican and was honored with various township offices. His church was the Lutheran, and fraternally he was identified with the Masons and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. During the Civil war he belonged to the Kansas State Militia and assisted in repelling the raid of General Price.

In Wisconsin before coming to Kansas he married Maria Tessendorf, who was born near Berlin, Germany, in 1844, and died at Westmoreland, Kansas, in 1915. Their children were: Julia, wife of John Pfaff, a banker and hardware merchant at Anadarko, Oklahoma; Mary A., wife of W. E. Ross, a farmer at Oklahoma City; Herman; Matilda, wife of Henry Mitchell, living in Central Kansas; Charles A, a farmer of Pottawatomie County; and Lillie A., wife of Michael Pfrang, a Pottawatomie County farmer.

Mr. Herman Zabel was born in Pottawatomie County November 26, 1866. He grew up in the country districts, attended rural schools, and after reaching manhood he acquired his father's farm, consisting of 440 acres, located a half a mile east of Westmoreland. This farm is one of the best developed and best improved in the vicinity of the county seat. Besides the care required by it Mr. Zabel is vice president of the Farmers State Bank and is vice president of the Westmoreland Mercantile Company. He is a republican in politics, and had served as a member of the Westmoreland school board, Fraternally he is affiliated with Valley Falls Camp No. 1451, Modern Woodmen of America, and Salome Lodge No. 252 of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.

Mr. Zabel married in 1889, at Westmoreland, Minnie Kohler, who died in 1897, leaving four children. Fred is assistant cashier of the Farmers Stats Bank of Westmoreland. Lillie married Lloyd Base, a contractor at Onaga, Kansas. Cleve is a farmer and lives at Westmoreland, and Frnest, the youngest son, had finished his education and is assisting his father. In 1899, at Westmoreland, Mr. Zabel married for his present wife Miss Ellen Fowler, a native of Pennsylvania. Their children are Charles, Savilla, Julia, Anna, Alax and Catherine. Charles is a graduate of the high school and Savilla is a student in the high school, while the youngest children are still in the grammar school.

Source: A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans

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