Charles Kuck

CHARLES KUCK, one of Washington township's well-known farmers, a former trustee of that township and the proprietor of a well-improved place on rural mail route No. 1 out of St. Marys, was born at New Knoxville, in this same township, June 29, 1864, and is a son of Ernest and Elizabeth (Fenneman) Kuck, the latter of whom was born in Germany and was but a child when she came to this country with her parents, the family settling in the New Knoxville neighborhood, as is set out elsewhere in this volume, the Fennemans having been among the influential pioneers of that neighborhood. Ernest Kuck was a son of William Kuck, one of the pioneers of that same neighborhood, and was born on the old Kuck place, just southwest of the village. He early took up the trade of carpenter, and after his marriage established his home at New Knoxville, where he continued working as a carpenter and builder, and where his last days were spent, his death occurring on April 7, 1875, and his widow long survived him. They were the parents of five children, of whom but two now survive, the subject of this sketch and his brother, Edward Kuck. Charles Kuck was but ten years of age when his father died, and he thus early began to assume mature responsibilities in the matter of a livelihood. He received his schooling in the New Knoxville schools, and when little more than a lad began to work as a carpenter, a vocation he followed until his marriage, when he rented a farm down over the line in Shelby county and started in as a farmer. For eleven years Mr. Kuck and his wife lived in Shelby county, and then they came back into Auglaize county and located on the farm in Washington township where they are now living and where they are very comfortably situated. Mr. Kuck has a well cultivated farm of 115 acres, and since taking possession of the same has made numerous substantial improvements, now having a well-equipped farm plant, as well as a nice dwelling house. In addition to his general farming he gives considerable attention to the raising of livestock and is doing well. Mr. Kuck is a Republican, and for nine years served the people of Washirigton township as a township trustee. He also has rendered service as director of schools in his district. He and his wife are members of the First Reformed church at New Knoxville, and he has served the congregation of that church as a deacon. Mrs. Kuck before her marriage was Mary Wierwille. She was born in Shelby county and is a daughter of Adolph and Elizabeth (Kattman) Wierwille, natives of Germany, who had come to this section of Ohio with their respective parents in the days of their youth and were here married, as is set out elsewhere in this volume, together with additional details regarding the pioneer Wierwille and Kattman families here. Mrs. Kuck has a sister, Sophia, and three brothern, Henry W., William and Ernest Wierwille. Charles and Mary (Wierwille) Kuck have two children, Anna and William C. Kuck, the latter of whom married Anna Schmeat and has four children, Frederick, Alice, Orville and Lela. Anna Kuck married Gustav Elshoff and has three children, Marion, Calvin and Orlando.