William and Martha (Cordes) Kirmse
Wilhelm “William” Kirmse married Martha Cordes, on February 11, 1904 in Farrar, Missouri[5]. A few days after their wedding, William and Martha took a steamboat to St Louis Missouri and then boarded a train for Woodward, Oklahoma Territory. There they contacted a land agent who took them by horse and buggy out over the open prairie to locate a quarter-section of land to establish a home. Finally after days of traveling the land agent located a quarter-section where William could file on a relinquishment one mile east of Goodwin, Oklahoma Territory. They initially lived in a sod house and then build a wooden frame house in 1909. Their first two children were born in the sod house: Julius Henry was born in 1905 and Edna Barbara was born in 1908 but died at age 17 months. William and Martha later purchased another quarter-section adjacent to the Kirmse homestead in Martha’s name. The original file claim was completed March 23, 1904. And, the land patent was transmitted on March 6, 1910 – 6 years the original filing. After three crop failures, Wilhelm and Martha decided to sell their land near Goodwin and moved to Alva, Oklahoma at the end of December 1910.
Henry and Marie (Cordes) Lohmann
Johann Heinrich “Henry” Lohmann was born August 15, 1883, near Farrar, Missouri. When he was in his early 20’s he moved to the Oklahoma Territory, started farming and lived in a dugout for a number of years. He filed a homestead claim on a quarter section of land in the section south of William and Martha (Cordes) Kirmse. In 1906, he returned to Farrar to marry Marie Christina Cordes (sister of Martha (Cordes) Kirmse) on November 22, 1906. They returned to the Goodwin area to live on the farm which Henry was homesteading. They had two children: Peter Heinrich Edmund born in 1908 and Water William born in 1910. The John H. Lohmann – Land Patent completion date was March 7, 1912. Henry and Marie continued to live on the farm near Goodwin until the ill health of Marie made them search for a doctor which they found in Alva, Oklahoma. They moved to Alva in 1912.
