William Kirmse Family Moved to Alva, Oklahoma

William Kirmse Family Moved to Alva, Oklahoma

William Kirmse Family Moved to Alva, Oklahoma[1]

Story

As per the biography of Wilhelm "William" Kirmse and Martha (Cordes) Kirmse[2] - "After three crop failures, and since William had always liked the country around Alva, he and Martha decided to sell their land at Shattuck and move to Alva. They purchased a farm southeast of town ... Fred Lohmann and August Kahnert drove the horses and two wagons from Shattuck to Alva for them. William came on the freight train with all their machinery and personal belongings. Martha and son Julius came by train a few days later arriving at sunset, just before Christmas in 1910."

Who

According to Helen (Kirmse) Hacker, Left to right:

Margaretha (Meier) Cordes, Julius Henry Kirmse, and Wilhelm "William" Kirmse. 

Margaretha (Meier) Cordes, Julius Henry Kirmse, and Wilhelm "William" Kirmse

Martha (Cordes) Kirmse.

Martha (Cordes) Kirmse

These two men (Fred Lohmann and August Kahnert) helped the William Kirmse's move by driving the horses and wagons from Shattuck, Oklahoma to Alva, Oklahoma.

Fred Lohmann and August Kahnert

Date

December 1910

Location

Goodwin, Oklahoma[2]

Notes

1. Helen (Kirmse) Hacker shared this photograph October 2003.
2. KIRMSE, WILHELM (WILLIAM) family biography, from "Pioneer Footprints Across Woods County 1893-1975" by the Cherokee Strip Volunteer League,  1976. p.378. 
3. This photograph apparently was taken on the Kirmse homestead near Goodwin, Oklahoma just before the William Kirmse family moved to Alva.  The barn in the background matches that described by William Kirmse as an improvement in his Land Patent application. Also, Margaretha (Meier) Cordes supposedly stayed with her other daughter and son-in-law Marie (Cordes) and Henry Lohmann in Goodwin until they moved to Alva.