
Anton Kurz
Farmer and Rancher
Ron Kurz Collection
Please note that the
spelling of Antone was changed
during his life. Antone in the early years, Anton later on.
It was always pronounced the
same, "An
- tône"
 |
Peter Joseph Kurz
Born: November 2, 1820 in Scharen, Kr. Kastellaun,
Rheinland
Married: January 27, 1856 in Green Bay, Brown
County,
Wisconsin
Died: October 1, 1898 in Town of How, Oconto
County, Wisconsin
Catherine Bibelhausen - wife
Born: November 25, 1835 in Valwig, Rheinland
Died: June 22, 1915 in Ladysmith, Rusk County,
Wisconsin
Antone Kurz - son
Born July 7, 1867 in New Denmark, Brown County,
Wisconsin
Died: February 18, 1943
Burial: in Crown Hill Cemetery, Coldwater Kansas
Children of ANTONE KURZ and OLGA RAAZ are:
i. FRANK KURZ, b. 1909;
d. 1983.
Burial: Freedom
Oklahoma Cemetery
ii. LAURA
KURZ, b. 1911; d. 1991.
Burial: Crown
Hill Cemetery in Coldwater Kansas
iii. BERTHA KURZ,
b. 1913; d. 1984.
Burial: Crown
Hill Cemetery in Coldwater Kansas
iv. VIOLET KURZ
WESTOVER, b. 1924;
d. 1958,
Burial : Whitemarsh
Memorial Park, Norristown, Montgomery, PA.
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OKLAHOMA
Antone Kurz Homestead
|
Antone Kurz was from the farming community of New
Denmark, Wisconsin.
He was the sixth child of 10 born to Peter Joseph Kurz and his wife
Catherine
Bibelhausen, in what was then a Danish community with only a few new
German
immigrant families. In the mid 1800's families in
northeastern Wisconsin
were often the first to break ground for homesteading.
Without a
doubt, Anton watched, participated in, and learned as members of the
community
went about building first crude shacks for shelter and barns, using the
simplest of tools, clearing stumps from the land, digging water wells,
and breaking virgin soil for farming and pasture land. Then fencing and
more adequate homes, barns and outbuildings came as he grew older. What
he learned there served him well throughout his life, as he repeated
the
process in adulthood on the unsettled lands of Oklahoma.
Oklahoma
Homestead
Photo by Jerry Eagan |
This is Anton's homestead 2004. The house
was where the pile
of rocks is on the left side of the picture. The barn built into the
side
of the hill is the location of Anton's first dugout house
built in
1900 when he homesteaded there. A new one room house was
build in
1908 when he married Olga Raaz. Son Frank was born
in 1909
in that one room. A two-story addition was build in 1910. The
flat
top hills in the background of the picture are about 1 mile to the east
of the homestead.
Anton homesteaded in Northwest Oklahoma Territory in
1900, after
mining a few years in Colorado and Wyoming. During a visit to his
brother
Jacob's, who had a ranch in southern Kansas, Jacob showed him
open
land a short distance away in Oklahoma. This is where Anton stood atop
Lookout Mountain for the best possible view of the surrounding area,
choosing
a long narrow strip of flat, green land to settle.
Local lore
states he was the first to claim and settle land in the area. Anton
homesteaded
160 acres 6 miles south of Kansas state line in Oklahoma, about 15
miles
from brother Jake's Ranch in Kansas. His 1900 homestead was originally
in the Township of Webster, Woodword County. After making his claim, he
dug an indentation in a small hill and built walls and a roof on it
which
he used as the shelter for his first home. This "Dugout" later became
the
foundation for his barn.
 |
Olga Raaz
Kurz
1889 - 1933
Ron Kurz Collection
|
Once establish on his land and with the local
population growing,
Anton met Olga Raaz. She was from a local homesteading family
that
had come from a German community in St. Petersburg, Russia.
Olga's
father was a military musician in the Czar of Russia's personal band
before
bringing his family to the United States. His instrument remains in his
great grandson's family collection.
When the Raaz Family left Russia, the Russian
government would
not allow them to bring money, gold or other valuables out of
Russia.
Jacob Raaz was a carpenter, as well as being a musician. He built large
wood boxes to pack up their personal items that they would allow to
take.
Elizabeth Bissa and husband Jacob sold everything they could and bought
precious stones such as Diamonds, Rubies, Emeralds, hiding them in
concealed
hollowed out corners in the wood boxes he built.

The Raaz Homestead
left to right
Mother Elizabeth,
father Jacob, daughter Pauline
and Jacob's brother
Anton
Kurz on the far right.
Ron Kurz Collection
|
Olga's
sisters Pauline and Anna.
Henry Kurz Collection
|
These jewels were what they used for money the first
few years in
the USA. A few gems remained in the family for two
generations with
Laura Kurz. The Raaz family had 15 children but only two made
it
to adulthood, Olga & Pauline. Beside Paul, 19 and Anna 20, all
the
rest died at birth or at a very young age. One child died on the boat
when
they came over from Russia and is buried at sea.
In America, Olga lived with parents Elizabeth and
Jacob Raaz, sister
Pauline and brother Paul. The family settled on this homestead, 4 miles
north of Anton's homestead and 2 miles south of the Kansas state line,
in 1904. This 160 acres is still in the family.
Olga was 3
when they came to the USA in 1892 from St Petersburg Russia.
Pauline,
born in America, died just 3 or 4 years ago at close to 100 years old.
Anna, also a younger sister born in America, died as a young woman in
the
worldwide flu epidemic of 1920. Olga's brother
Paul was
a year younger than Olga. He was killed by a lightening
strike about
20 months after Anton and Olga's marriage, and is the Paul Raaz that
signed
as a witness on Anton and Olga's marriage certificate. While standing
in
a field with his father, Paul pointed up and said, "Look at that funny
little cloud" and was immediately struck. The family dog "Carlo" was
also
killed instantly and great granddad was knocked to the ground, stunned,
but not injured. There was no storm at the time.
Insights into her Raaz grandparents , as told to a
descendant by
the late Laura Kurz:
"The Raaz family always served wine with meals, this included
even
the young children as they got a very small glass of wine too.. With
Oklahoma
always being a dry state until just a few years ago, prohibition didn't
change Oklahoma much. So the Raaz's always had homemade
wine.
In their later years 1920's and 1930's the Raaz family moved about 100
miles south to a small German community in the little town of Bessie OK.
Life for the Raaz's centered around the large German
Lutheran church
there. During the depression everyone was poor and had no cars, but
everyone
in
Bessie lived close enough together they could walk everywhere
in
town. A typical Sunday they all would go to church services
in the
morning then,
they as a group, after church would go to one of their homes,
have
a snack and a little sip of homemade wine, then they would walk, as a
group
to someone else's house, eat a little more and sip a little
more.
As the day went on the group had visited several homes and had a lot of
snacks and sips
of wine. By time for evening services some were not walking
very
well.
Laura also talked about her grandparents not learning
to speak English
and she would get in arguments about it with her granddad, of course
these
argument were always in German, and Laura would refer to her granddad
as
a 'stubborn old fart'. Jacob Raaz died in 1938, he was in his
late
80's and Elizabeth (Bissa) Raaz died in 1951 in her mid 90's. Both are
buried at the German Lutheran Church Cemetery in Bessie, OK.
Ron Kurz Collection
Anton and Olga married in 1908. Anton was 40 and Olga 18 when
they were
married. When the couple were married, Olga being a staunch
German
Lutheran, told Anton any children they might have would be
raised
German Lutheran or she would not marry him. Anton was
Catholic. So
in the 19 teens and 20's they would drive about all day Sunday to
attend
a German Lutheran church, somewhere in the next county in Oklahoma for
Olga and the kids. Then they would go on up into Kansas to a
Catholic
Church for Anton. Neither church was very close to each other
or
home. They had 4 children, Frank, Laura , Bertha and Violet.
German
was spoken in Anton and Olga's home. Frank, Laura
and Bertha
didn't speak english until they started to school.
Anton was 42 years old when the oldest, Frank, was
born. This part
of the country was undergoing years of rapid change. The 1910 U.S.
Census
shows that Oklahoma had achieved statehood and the homestead was now
officially
redesignated in Patterson Township, Woods County. Although living in
another
state, Kansas, brother Jacob and his family were only 15 miles away.
There are several humorous tales related by
descendants. One cherished
family story follows:
"In 1910, Anton and Olga, with baby
Frank,
went to visit brother
Jacob and family at their ranch in Kansas. Uncle Jake had one
of
the first cars in the country at that time, I heard that it was a brand
new 1910 Model T Ford. The two families went for a afternoon
drive.
Anton had never driven a motor car before, and may never had actually
seen
one. So his brother had him driving for the very first
time.
They were traveling down the dirt road and came to a closed gate across
the road. In the range land of this time, it was just the
normal
thing to hop down from the wagon or horse and open the fence gate that
blocked the cattle from wandering down the road. Once the horse or
wagon
was through, a person stopped, hopped down and closed the gate behind
themselves
before continuing on down the road. New to these motorcars, Granddad
Anton
just pulled back on the steering wheel and yelled "WHOA"...... and
drove
on through the closed gate. Horses didn't come with brakes."
Another family tale related by a descendant:
"In the 1920's the local bootlegger lived a 1/4 mile
south of Anton
and Olga. That place ended up being where Frank and Arline lived for 50
+ years until they both died. Anyway, during prohibition a
doctor
from Coldwater was in the area and wanted some good booze, not the
Saturday
Nite Special cheap stuff that the bootlegger sold at the local
dances.
So, as the story goes Granddad Anton and the bootlegger hitched up a
team
of horses and wagon and went over to where the still was hidden in the
hills and canyons about 3 miles east of Anton's house and got the
Doctor
some of the bootleggers good stuff. They had to go to the Still, hidden
in the hills at night so no one ( cops, neighbors and etc.) would see
them
come and go. The bootleggers didn't trust any other
neighbors. It
took them all night to get the good booze, but the Doctor was very
pleased."
|
The three oldest
children of Antone and Olga
were, left to right, Laura, Frank and Bertha, pictured here in 1914.
Violet,
the youngest in the family was born in 1924, ten years after this
photograph
of the oldest three children
was taken.
Ron Kurz Collection
|
Ron Kurz Collection
The one room cabin
was enlarged with a two
story additions making the house an "upright and wing" design.

Ron Kurz Collection
This is an
original photo postcard of the 1910
Ford that Anton learned to drive on. It was taken at the home of his
brother
Jake Kurz in Kansas. Here it is filled with visiting family members and
friends. It was sent to Anton's mother, Katherine Bibelhausen Kurz in
Ladysmith,
Wisconsin, for Christmas.
|
Wild
Buffalo Wallows
These land
indentations filled with bright green
grass were left by roaming buffalo in the late 1800s. After
rains,
they filled with water and the wild roaming herds would roll in the mud
to form a protective coat against biting insects and sunburn; also
cooling
themselves. Anton did not break this original prairie sod on
his
homestead. His cattle grazed the land and used the wallows as the
buffalo
had before them. At the upper left corner the little flat top
hill
is known as Lookout Mountain. It is about one mile west from
where
the picture was taken. The story goes since Anton was the
first
person to homestead there. He went up on Lookout Mountain to
see
the best land in the area,. His 160 acre homestead was 1/4 mile wide by
1 mile long. This is how it looked in 2004.

Photo by Jerry Eagan
|

Photo by Jerry Eagan
Anton's grandson
stands in the Freedom, Oklahoma,
Pioneer Museum with Anton Kurz's old Scythe. It was used to cut grain
for
harvest. At the end of the wooden handle is a long curved very sharp
blade.
Standing in the dried, ripened wheat, the scythe was swung in a low
half
circle around the front of the farmer to cut the stalks close to the
ground.
It was then gathered by hand in "shocks" or bundles which were placed
together.
tee pee style. This method is still used across the U.S. by such groups
as Amish farmers. |

Laura Kurz
standing beside her father Anton's
1936 Chevy.
It was the last car
he owned.
Ron Kurz Collection
|
Anton
shows off his grandson, Ron Kurz
Ron Kurz Collection
|
Family story:
"The last car that Anton bought was a 1936 Chevy
sedan. Back then
heaters didn't come standard in new cars. So for Christmas,
from
the Montgomery Wards catalog, son Frank ordered a heater and installed
it for his dad. Anton thought that was the greatest thing in the world
you could have; a warm car in the winter time. After Anton died,
daughter
Laura got the old green '36 Chev and drove it until the early 1950's."
|
Obituary of
Anton Kurz
Anton Kurz,
who had lived near Lookout, Okla,
for about 44 years died in the Wichita hospital Thursday afternoon,
February
18, 1943, as noted in the Star last week. He had been in the hospital
several
weeks.
The body was
brought to Coldwater, and on Sunday
afternoon at 2 o'clock services were held at the home of Jacob Kurz in
this city. Burial was made in Crown Hill cemetery beside the wife, who
died on February 6, 1933.
The service
was in charge of Father A. B. Dziemian,
Catholic priest of Sitka, and the casket bearers were neighbors of the
deceased - Ed. Mahoney, Arden Hall, Lynn Fross, Arthur Doty, William
Johnson
and Henry Neukirch.
Mr. Kurz was
born in New Denmark, Wis, on July
7, 1867 and at the time of his death was 75 years, 7 months and 11 days
of age.
Mr. Kurz was
a good neighbor and friend. He
leaves to mourn his loss one son Frank, whose home is near Lookout, and
three daughters, Laura, Bertha and Violet Kurz, all of Wichita; his
brother
Jacob Kurz, and many other relatives and friends. Mr. Kurz was a
successful
rancher, a loving husband and father and thoughtful neighbor.
|

Crown Hill Cemetery
in Coldwater, Kansas.
Photo by Jerry Eagan
|

Frank Kurz and Family
Son of Anton and Olga Raaz Kurz
Ron Kurz Collection
|
Frank Kurz
Family - 1979
Ron Kurz Collection
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Family Story:
" For his 21st birthday, Anton gave his son Frank a
check for
one
thousand dollars. Anton thought it would be used to buy cattle, farm
equipment
and so on. Well, as most young men would do, he went out and bought a
sporty
new car; a 1930 Chevrolet Cou'pe with a rumble seat. Anton was not too
happy.
Also, 2 and 4 years later, Frank's
sisters
Laura and Bertha
were just plain pissed off when they did not get a generous 21st
birthday
check. They were still complaining about that up until they died. We
found
the old cancelled "One Thousand Dollar" check in Laura's stuff after
she
died".
|

The garage/bunkhouse
on Frank Kurz ranch in
1947.
This is a picture
of one of Antone's
grandsons with son Frank standing. It was taken before the
main house
was built.
Ron Kurz Collection
|

Photo by Jerry Eagan
The house built by
Frank Kurz in the late 1940's
early 1950's,
located 1/4 from
Anton's homestead.
This picture is how it looks in 2004. At the time it was
built it
was one of the nicest, if not the nicest house, in the area
for years.
The building to the left in the picture is the garage/bunkhouse. |
Ron Kurz
Collection
|
Frank and Arline were
married August 24, 1933.
Frank passed away August 6, 1983, only a few days before their 50
Wedding
Anniversary. |
North and South
Meet
Brother's Sons Meet
Frank
Kurz (left) son of Peter (P.J.)
and Rose Kurz of Argyle Minnesota visits with Frank Kurz (right) son of
Anton and Olga Kurz of Freedom, Oklahoma.
Ron Kurz Collection
|
Frank Kurz
1983
This treasured
picture was taken less than
72 hours before his sudden death.
Ron Kurz Collection
|
Photo by Jerry Eagan
The Frank
and Arline Kurz grave site is located
at the Freedom Cemetery,
Freedom Oklahoma
|
Ron Kurz Collection
Obituary of
Frank Kurz
|
Frank
Anton, son of Olga Raaz and Anton Kurz
was born near Lookout, Oklahoma, on March 27, 1909. He passed away
suddenly
at his home on the 6th of August at the age of 74 years, 4
months
an 10 days.
He attended Lookout Rural School and worked
with his father at
farming and ranching. After his father's death he continued the
operation.
On August 24, 1933 at Alva, Oklahoma, he was
married to Miss Arline
Smith. To their marriage three children were born.
Following their marriage they lived in the
Freedom area where he
has farmed and ranched.
He was a former member of the board of
directors, The Freedom Coop,
the Woods County Rural Water District 2, served on several Rural School
Boards and a lifetime member of the Freedom Museum.
Mr. Kurz was preceded in death by his parents
and a sister Violet
Westover.
|
Obituary of Frank Kurz

Bertha Kurz
Daughter of Anton and Olga Raaz Kurz

Ron Kurz Collection
Bertha and
her mother Olga Kurz after fishing.
Ron Kurz Collection
|

Olga Kurz and
daughter Bertha show off their
days catch.
Ron Kurz Collection
|

Left to right:
Laura Kurz,
Margaret Holl
Renier
(Veronica Kurz Holl
daughter from Wisconsin),
Bertha Kurz
Ron Kurz Collection |

Laura Kurz
Daughter of Anton and Olga Raaz Kurz
Ron Kurz Collection
|
Ron Kurz Collection
|
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Ron Kurz Collection |

Ron Kurz Collection |
Ron Kurz Collection
Bertha and
Laura Kurz celebrate a birthday
with a niece
|
Each of Antone and Olga's daughters was
independent
in facing life,
yet their lives would intertwine again and again. The following are
memoirs
of family descendants that describe adventures of both women.
"In their working life's Laura Kurz was a
registered
nurse who graduated
from St. Francis Hospital, Wichita, Kansas Nursing School in
1935.
Bertha Kurz went to secretary school and ended up being an executive
secretary.
It was commonly known by most of the family that Laura & Bertha
loved
to nip a
little."
"In the late 1940's Laura got married to an
eastern
Oklahoma hillbilly
hick, which the marriage didn't last too long, In their
divorce papers,
on the
list of items that Laura got, the last item was "one
horse
named
Legs" The 1st item on what he got was "one large saddle".
Sounds
like a country song to me. The Hillbilly Hick would not honor
the
divorce papers so Laura got her brother Frank Kurz to go with her to
eastern
Oklahoma to get Legs the
horse and her other personal stuff from the hick at gun
point.
A few weeks later Laura's car was stolen in the middle of the night
from
brother Frank's driveway. It was the Hick, he still had a set
of
keys to the car."
"In the early 1970s Laura & Bertha both
moved
back to Oklahoma
to retire. They bought a house together in Alva. Like I said
earlier
they both liked to nip a little and they did not agree on too
much.
When I got married, my new wife and I were traveling from Illinois to
Nevada,
we stopped by Oklahoma to visit the family. Laura &
Bertha had
invited us to go out to dinner, we stopped at their house and they met
my wife and asked if we would like a drink, we said yes and Laura got
up
went to her bedroom brought out a jug of whiskey went to the kitchen,
fixed
drinks for everyone, then served them and took the jug back to her
bedroom.
A little while later Bertha asked if we would like our drinks
refreshed,
we said yes, she got up went to her bedroom got a jug of
whiskey,
the same brand that Laura had, and then she refreshed our drinks and
took
the jug back to her bedroom."
"They both had sort of became
hypochondriacs. Now Bertha did
have palsy and she would shake a lot, as she got older it got
worse.
On a camping trip we were using a small 1 axle tear drop camping
trailer,
it was unhooked from the car but we didn't use anything to sturdy the
camper
so it would wobble a lot. I had to laugh at Bertha as she was sitting
at
the dinette in the camper and she was taking a level full large table
spoon
full of liquid medicine, her palsy was shaking, the camper was wobbling
but she never spilled a drop."
"They would both usually get pretty tipsy every
night
then get into
a good verbal fight. Bertha always had bowel movement
problems. One
night they went to brother Franks house to spend the night and to visit
with Franks kids who were visiting from the far corners of the
world.
When the nephew and niece got home late that night, about 2 am, Laura
and
Bertha were both drunk and fighting, when we heard them
fighting
my sister and I walked into the bedroom they were in, Bertha was
sitting
up in the bed crying and there sat Laura on a small stool leaning on
her
knees holding her drink not too level sort spilling some and saying in
slurred speech to Bertha, "All I ever hear from you is if you shit or
you
don't shit". Talk about the rest of us having a big belly
laugh."
"At a later date they went Oklahoma City to
doctors
and were having
medical test's run, they spent the night in a motel as they had to go
in
for their tests early in morning after they had an enema,
they did
their enemas at the same time in a motel room with only one bathroom,
they
learned real quick a new use for a trash can."
"The last story they told on themselves. In
the early mid 1980's
I moved back to Oklahoma and was only 25 miles from where Laura
& Bertha
lived, so I would help them out by driving them to Oklahoma City for
doctor
appointments when Bertha was sick with cancer, but before we
left
Oklahoma City we would always stop by the large discount liquor store
and
they would stock up, they would fill the trunk of the big old
Chevy
Caprice with booze and we would drive home with the Chevy's headlights
aiming at the treetops with all the extra weight the trunk."
|
|
Photo by Jerry
Eagan
Crown Hill Cemetery
in Coldwater, Kansas.
|
Obituary of Laura Kurz
|
Laura
Margaretha, daughter of Anton and Olga
(Raaz) Kurz was born December 1, 1911 near Lookout, Oklahoma on the
27th
of April at the age of 79 years, 4 months and 28 days.
She attended
the Lookout Rural School, graduating
from the Coldwater High School with the class of 1932. She then went to
nurses training at St. Francis Hospital in Wichita, Kansas and in 1935
received her R.N. Certificate working at St. Francis Hospital. During
World
War II she worked for both Beech and Boeing Aircraft in Wichita. After
the war she went to California and later to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
She also worked for the Federal Bureau of Indian Affairs, in 1974 she
came
to Alva to make her home where she worked at Clinton and later at the
Carmen
Nursing Home.
Miss Kurz
first became a member of the Lutheran
Church at Charleston where she was baptized and confirmed. When the
church
closed they went to Selman and when that church closed they went to
Buffalo,
later she became a member of the Alva Zion Lutheran Church of which she
was
a member at the time of her death.
She was
preceded in death by her parents, two
sister, Violet Westover in January of 1958 and Bertha on September 14,
1984 and a brother, Frank on August 6, 1983.
|

Violet Kurz
Westover
Daughter of Anton and Olga
Raaz Kurz

Wedding of Violet Kurz
and Bill Westover

Violet Kurz and Bill
Westover
Ron Kurz Collection |
Bertha Kurz,
Violet Kurz, Bill Westover, Bob
Hope (not the famous one).
Ron Kurz Collection
|
"Younger sister Violet (Jackie) Kurz married a
man
from Philadelphia,
PA. shortly after WWII. In the late 40's Bertha moved to Philadelphia
to
be close to Jackie, After Laura's divorce she also moved to
Philly.
Bertha worked at General Electric Co., Laura was an Industrial nurse
for
a distillery, and Jackie was a housewife having kids. All was
going
well until about 1956 when it was found out that Jackie had breast
cancer.
They didn't have the modern day cures that they have today.
As Jackie
got worse Laura quit her job and took care of Jackie and her family. At
age 33, Jackie died a couple days after new years 1958, leaving 3 small
girls with the oldest only 7. Laura stayed and took care of Jackie's
family
for a year or two until Jackie's husband remarried. Laura
moved to
Arizona and took a nursing job at an Indian hospital. Bertha stayed in
Philly to be close to Jackie's kids as the stepmother turned out to be
one of those you hear the wicked step mother stories about." |
Ron Kurz Collection |
Ron Kurz Collection |

Ron Kurz Collection
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