Arthur John Engel
September 16, 1881 - January 13, 1970
Interment: Greenwood Cemetery, Brookings, SD
Arthur John Engel was born on September 16, 1881 as the first born child to John G. and Bertha Pauline Fredricka (Rogge) Engel in Minnesota. AJ would gain a brother William Oscar (1883) before AJ's father passed away in 1888 (story goes that Bertha killed him, but who knows!). His mother remarried to Carl Eduard Hilgendorf (circa 1890) and he gained a sister (Elsie Minnie (1891)) and two more brothers (Walter Carl (1894) and Herman Frank (1897)).
AJ married Bessie Mary Tierney on March 4, 1904 in Rock County, Minnesota. Together they had nine children (Floyd Chester, Ruth, Francis, Clyde, Bertha Lucille, Donald Drew (died shortly after birth), Marshall Leonard, Lyle Thomas, and Curtis Dale). They lived in Minnesota and Iowa before eventually settling in Aurora Township, Brookings County, South Dakota.
A record of World War 1 Selective Service from September of 1918 shows that at the age of 36, he was a self-employed farmer.
AJ's wife, Bessie, passed away on December 19, 1955. He lived another 15 years on his farm and passed away at 88 on January 13, 1970.
