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History of Tipton, Kansas CONTINUED -

Baptism recorded first for Tipton in Catholic records was Margareth Arnoldy born July 2, 1874; daughter of Nicholas and Angela Arnoldy.
1875 – Mr. and Mrs. Franz Boden and family (she was Elizabeth Schmit) and Mr. and Mrs. Anton Gasper (Margaretha Denis Gasper) and John came over on a boat to New York; train to Wilson and in a lumber wagon to Tipton. They came straight across country; looking for the church steeple they thought had been built. Instead they found only a cluster of buildings, dugouts and the rest in the planning stage. Since they had no place to stay they moved in with the Nick Arnoldys and worked for them for $.25 a day until they had their own dugouts ready to live in.
The same year Rev. Anton Timphaus organized the Catholic People and they chose the name of “Pittsburg Catholic Congregation”.
Peter Jacobs was struck by lightning in 1876 and is thought to be the first death in the new community.
On March 26, 1877, Block 44, in the town of Pittsburg was acquired from the U.S. Government for a Church. On March 27, a receivers receipt covering the land on which Tipton now stands was issued by the United States to Mark J. Kelley, Probate Judge of Mitchell County, granting said land to him as trustee “for the personal use and benefits of the occupants and inhabitants of Pittsburg in Mitchell County, Kansas. On March 28, N. Reinert and M.J. Arnoldy were commissioned to go to Russell for the building materials for a Church – which was completed by mid summer.
The ship – SS Vaderland – arrived at the Collection District of New York on May 17,1877, with another group for Pittsburg. They were: John Schmit, 58, his wife Regina Fie Schmit 56: their children – Barbara Schmit 23, Katherina Schmit Much and her husband John Much; grandchildren John 11, Barbara 4, Franz 3, M. Ann (Emma) 2; Anna Marie Schmit Schmit Streit 26, an infant.
The second family grouping was: Cornelius Arens, 59, and his spouse, Anna Marie Fie Arens 59; their children Theodor Arens, 32, and wife Anna, 34; grandchildren, Apollonia 9, Peter 5, Johann 4, Cornelius 3, and Marie Arens, an infant.
Anna Arens Gasper, 59, (mother of Anton Gasper who came in ’75) also decided to come along as her husband had died and she wanted to be with her family.
President Grover Cleveland issued patent on the quarter section occupied by the townsite on Nov. 17, 1886 and shortly after Postmaster Seright received word that there was another Pittsburg in Kansas and was requested to find another name. The other Pittsburgh in Kansas was named by Col. Ed Brown. It was called ‘New Pittsburgh’. Both retained the names until the 1880’s. It was rumored a purse of $150.00 was given to old Pittsburg in Mitchell County and it changed it’s name to Tipton as suggested by Chris Reinking; that having been the name of the county seat of Cedar County, Iowa, from which he came.
Rev. Adam Schmidtkonz organized the Lutheran Congregation in 1879. The first marriage was between Henry Albrecht and Helena Lessman on Jan. 14, 1880; and the first funeral that of Carl Clinke in 1880. The Lutherans adopted a Constitution and the Church Book and Hymnal of the Iowa Synod were introduced in the same year.


Thursday, August 9, 200112:36:11 PM