From "Standard History of Adams and Wells Counties Indiana," Chicago, Lewis Publishing Co., 1918, pp. 467-469.
WILLIAM A. KUNKEL. A great man has somewhere been described as one who is so short-sighted that he cannot see the obstacles which lie between him and his goal. Whether this be true of William A. Kunkel or not, certain it is that he has conquered all obstacles that impeded his path to success and he now ranks as one of the leading business men in Wells County, Indiana.. As head of a number of important business concerns Mr. Kunkel has met with such marvelous good fortune that it would truly seem that he possesses the the "open sesame'' to unlock the doors of success. But success in business is not his only distinction. He is, one of those broad-minded, patriotic, forward looking men who in every community of the nation are the real conservators of those community destinies which in the aggregate constitute the national destiny and the policies by which America is exercising its influence and power in the world at large. Mr. Kunkel at the present time is Federal Food Administrator for Wells County. He has given up all his business and is devoting his entire time to this important position, sacrificing all those things of individual interest in order that he might do his whole duty to help make the world safe for democracy.
Like many another big American business man William A. Kunkel was born on a farm. He first saw the light of day January 31, 1868, in Lancaster Township of Wells County. He is a son of Michael and Mary (Kleinknecht) Kunkel, both natives of Pennsylvania. Michael Kunkel when a young man moved to Ohio, lived on a farm in Crawford County until 1848, and then bought a farm of eighty acres in Adams County, Indiana. A few years later he sold this and acquired a tract of a hundred and twenty acres in section 12, Lancaster Township, Wells County. He was busied with its improvements and made it his home until 1884, when he moved to the city of Bluffton. He died there, an honored and widely esteemed citizen, May 7, 1886. Michael Kunkel married for his first wife Julia Mason, a native of Ohio. She was the mother of four children, Sophia, who died February 15, 1879; Louisa, who died September 20, 1854, and Samuel and Calvin, both living in Lancaster Township, Calvin on the old home farm. For his second wife Michael Kunkel married Mary Ann Kleinknecht. She was born December 3, 1827, daughter of John M. and Anna (Gerhart) Kleinknecht, who located in Lancaster Township of Wells County in 1848. Mr. Kleinknecht died at the home of Michael Kunkel in 1867, and his wife passed away on the old homestead in Lancaster Township in 1859. Both were devout members of the United Brethren Church. The first class of that denomination in Lancaster Township was founded by John M. Kleinknecht, and this eventually resulted in a church organization at Tocsin. Mrs. Mary Ann Kunkel, who was for many years a devout member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, died on February 27, 1913. She was the mother of the following children: Martha Ann, deceased; John O.; Lydia Matilda, wife of T. M. Souder ; Rebecca J., widow of Henry Masterson; Dora and Theodore H., deceased, and William A.
William A. Kunkel grew up inured to the sturdy discipline of the homestead farm in Lancaster Township, and derived his early educational advantages from district school No. 1. That he was a real country boy is evidenced by the fact that he was never in town when street lamps were lighted until after he was sixteen years of age. He finished his education In the Bluffton High School, graduating with the class of 1886. He essayed to become a merchant, making a start in Ashbaucher Brothers Clothing Store at Bluffton at three dollars a week. He soon saw that he was not in a congenial line of employment. Leaving the store he taught a country school two terms, and later found employment in the office of the resident engineer of the Clover Leaf Railway. Of all his early experiences this was the most important. It gave him a considerable practical knowledge of engineering, and finally he was appointed assistant to the resident engineer. In 1889 he was made deputy surveyor of Wells County and in the following year at the age of twenty-one was elected county purveyor on the democratic ticket. He was re-elected in 1892. A special feature of his administration of the office of county surveyor was a general concerted movement to improve the public highways of Wells County, and much of the sucess of this movement was due to Mr. Kunkel's careful and technical skill in handling the proposition in its various details.
Mr. Kunkel credits much of his material success to his extensive operations in the oil field. He first became interested in this industry in 1890, but was unable to give it much attention owing to his duties as county surveyor, until 1894. In 1896 he became associated with the Cudahy Oil Company, in charge of the right of way and pipe line department. In May, 1898, he took full charge of the field production and pipe lanes of the company and retained that position for one year after the Cudahy interests were purchased be the Standard Oil Company. Since 1900 Mr. Kunkel has been an independent producer in various oil fields in Indiana, Illinois and Oklahoma.
However, his business interests could not all be described under a single head. He is owner of over six hundred acres, constituting several well drained and well improved farms in Wells County, all thoroughly drained by many miles of ditch, improved with the best of farm facilities, including hog pens, silos, electric lights and every other equipment devised by modern agricultural science. Mr. Kunkel is on the board of directors of the Studebaker Bank, the Marion and Bluffton Traction Company, the Bliss Hotel Company, the W. B. Brown Company and other concerns. He is, as these connections and achievements indicate, a man of sound judgment, liberal ideas and progressive methods. Exactness and thoroughness have characterized his life efforts, and what he is and what he has done illustrates what may be accomplished by persistent and painstaking effort. Politically Mr. Kunkel is a firm believer in the principles of the democratic party. He has served as chairman of the Democratic County Central Committee, is at present chairman of the Eighth Congressional District and vice chairman of the State Democratic Committee, and in 1916 was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention at St. Louis. Fraternally he is a Knight Templar and thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason, a member of the Mystic Shrine, and is affiliated with Bluffton Lodge No. 92, Knights of Pythias, Bluffton Lodge No. 796, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.
He and his family are earnest and active members of the Methodist Episcopal Church and all of them are leaders in the social affairs of their home community. June 24, 1891, Mr. Kunkel married Miss Minnie A. Morgan of Kelso, Huntington County, Indiana, daughter of John V. and Mary A. (Rauch) Morgan. Mrs. Kunkel was educated in the Bluffton schools and she and Mr. Kunkel were members of the same graduating class of the high school. She was a popular and successful teacher both in the Bluffton and the Huntington city schools before her marriage. Mr. and Mrs. Kunkel take proper pride in the developing characters and the early achievements of their three children. The oldest, William A., Jr., graduated from the Bluffton High School with the class of 1911, from the Indiana State University with the degree A. B. in 1916, and spent the following year in Harvard University. He married Miss Lois Steen Nicholson of Wheatland, Knox County, Indiana. Their romance began while they were students at the Indiana State University; they now live at Bluffton. Kenneth, the second son, is a graduate of the Bluffton High School with the class of 1913 and from the Yale University with the class of 1917, and is now at home doing his bit for the country and the world as responsible manager of an agricultural enterprise of several hundred acres. Marjorie, the only daughter, graduated from the Bluffton High School in 1916 and is now a senior in LaSell Seminary at Auburndale, Massachusetts.
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