Leo Charles & William Nicholas Kunz

Leo Charles was born on February 12, 1885 in Elvaston, IL, the fifth child of Josephine and Michael Kunz. He started school in Illinois, probably at Eagle School, which was just a short distance from his grandfather's home, north of Elvaston in Prairie Township. At the age of ten, Leo came to the Sherman area of Washington with his family. He continued his primary education at the school that was atop the Sherman Hill. Leo went on to high school in Wilbur and then attended Gonzaga College where he boarded in a dormitory. Gonzaga was a two year school at that time. His daughter, Eileen, has a certificate of Leo’s First Testimonial of Good Conduct and Application, dated October 1905. After completing his education, Leo returned to the Sherman to work with his father Michael. When Michael retired, Leo continued working the home place. Leo was active in the local Sherman organizations. He played for the local baseball team as pitcher. He was also active in a singing group.

Miss Agnes McNally was born in Chicago, IL on October 14, 1883. Her mother died suddenly when she was only four years old. From that time onward, she was raised by two aunts, sisters of her mother (née Markey) who were living in Prairie Township near Elvaston, IL. Eventually she traveled west to Washington State to help her Aunt Alice Markey who had married George Kunz. George and Alice had a large family and Agnes initially served as a mother's helper. George's nephew Leo was the assigned driver to go into Wilbur to meet Miss McNally’s train from Illinois. When this lovely lady debarked from the coach car, she declared, “Your land is so large, how do you know which way to go?” Leo’s playful answer was “Do you know which way is up?” Their daughter, Eileen, remembers hearing that Agnes didn’t like Leo very much at the beginning.

Sherman School class picture, c. 1909

Agnes McNally, teacher. Front row, second from right: Gertrude Kunz.

At some point, Agnes became a qualified teacher. Soon after her arrival in Creston, she was hired to teach school at Sherman. Agnes boarded with the Michael Kunz family while she taught. This must have occurred around the time where Michael's son Hilary was just a toddler, for there is a tale that Hilary was wont to sit on Agnes' lap and call her “Agens.” That nomer has lasted until this very time, when Evelyn Agnes Kunz Gaffney, daughter of Hilary, is called Agens by certain members of the family.

Agnes, at times, became homesick for her Illinois family and friends. Her Uncle George wrote in a letter to his sister Josephine, back in Illinois:

Leo and Agnes Kunz

1909 wedding picture

Anna Catherine

Dau. of

Leo & Agnes Kunz

Aug. 2, 1913

Nov. 7, 1917

Her little prayer: Jesus, Mary and Joseph,

I give you my heart, my soul and my life.

Sherman Cemetery, WA

Francis Kunz

1912 - 1934

Sherman Cemetery, WA

With time, young Leo was smitten by Agnes McNally’s charms. Five months after this letter was written, on September 29, 1909, Leo and Agnes were wed. The couple made their honeymoon trip to Chicago and used the opportunity to revisit both their home places.

Leo and Agnes lived and farmed in the Sherman area until 1928. That year they bought property in Mondovi, north of Davenport, where they raised their family. Leo and Agnes had six children:

When Leo and Agnes retired in 1946, they bought a house on Maple Street in Spokane and their son, Charles, took over the farm. Later, when it became too much for the couple to keep up the house and yard, they moved to Riverview Terrace on Downriver Drive, where they had an apartment in a seniors' residence.

Leo suffered from prostate cancer and spent his last days in the skilled nursing area of Riverview Terrace. He died on April 10, 1970. Agnes continued to live in the apartment at Riverview. Five years after her husband's death, Agnes developed acute heart trouble and was taken to Sacred Heart Hospital where she died in February of 1975.

William Nicholas was born in Hamilton, IL on July 9, 1887. He was just three years old when his mother Josephine Bejot-Kunz died. His father, Michael Kunz, then married Amelia Much in 1891. By 1894, when Bill was six years old, the family uprooted and moved to Sherman, WA.

            Bill would have started school at Sherman in the one-room schoolhouse just up the hill from the family farm. After having obtained his elementary and secondary education, Bill joined his older brother Leo at Gonzaga College and enrolled in a two-year bookkeeping program. Bill then returned to the Sherman area and farmed with his father.

            Bill courted Miss Mary Catherine ("Mayme") Maguire, a teacher at Banner School north of Sherman and who taught there for two terms. Mary's father, James Maguire, had been born in 1832, in Cavan County, Ireland. Her mother, Mary Ryan, was born in 1852 in Boston of Irish decent. Mary Catherine had been born on May 21, 1886 in Clayton County, IA and came to Spokane with her parents in 1893. There she attended school and then went one year to the State Normal School at Cheney [now Eastern Washington University], receiving a teacher's certificate. (Other accounts, including her obituary, have that Mayme attended Washington State College [now University], whose education department opened in November 1907.)

Mary and William Kunz

1910 wedding photo

Infant son of

Will N. & Mary C. Kunz

Wilbur Cemetery, WA

Mother

Mary C. Kunz

1886 - 1920

            Bill and Mayme were married in Spokane on October 17, 1910 at St. Aloysius Church. They moved to Owl Creek, a few miles southeast of Sherman and north of Creston, where they farmed and eventually bought their own land. According to their son, Michael Kunz, Bill was not really very fond of farming and would like to have become an undertaker like his older brother Gene who lived and worked in Almira.

            The young couple had their first child, Mary Josephine, on September 12, 1911 in Spokane. Two years later, on June 18, 1913, their son James Robert was born in Creston. A second daughter, Rita Catherine, was born in 1918.

            In 1920, Mayme was expecting another child but the young mother came down with tuberculosis. Eventually the illness made it impossible for her to care for herself and the children. A nurse was therefore hired to care for Mary and to look after the small children. The nurse was a local girl, Elizabeth Jeannette Simons, who had been trained at Sacred Heart Hospital in Spokane.   At the end of July or the beginning of August 1920, Mayme gave birth to an infant son who lived just long enough to be baptized. The complications from birth, along with the tuberculosis, seriously weakened Mayme and she died just one week later while still in Sacred Heart Hospital on August 7, 1920 at the age of thirty-four.²

Jeannette Simons, whom her brothers and sisters called “Tootsy,” was a good nurse and mother’s helper. She continued to work for Will after Mayme's death, caring for his children. In late 1921, Will put forth the following proposal to Jeannette: “I’d like you to marry me any Thursday between Christmas and New Year's Day.” Indeed, they were married on December 28, 1924 [?].

            Will and Tootsy lived on the Owl Creek farm where Will had been farming. They had two sons, Michael William and Willard Arthur, born in 1927. They also had to a baby girl, Elizabeth Jeannette ("Betty"), born on July 4, 1934. Betty was born one day after George Dennis Kunz, son of Hilary Kunz and Violet Simons. The two mothers were sisters and the fathers were brothers. Both mothers had been trained as registered nurses at Sacred Heart Hospital. These facts made headlines in the Spokesman-Review, the Spokane newspaper. But Betty’s life was short and she died of whooping cough on June 6, 1935, before she reached two years of age.

            Will truly did not like farming. In 1940, he got the itch to go west and so the family moved to the coast -- first Port Angeles and then Edmonds. They sold their farming equipment to Will's sister and brother-in-law, Gertrude and Michael Menehan. The land was sold to Will's stepmother Amelia Kunz and his brother Leo Kunz. The Menehans rented the land from Amelia and Leo, and Amelia lived with Gertie and Mike until her death in 1943.

            The Will Kunz family lived in Edmonds in an idyllic setting, with a green apple orchard and a squab farm. Will then got a job with the Washington State Department of Transportation on the Kingston Ferry and stayed with this firm until retirement. Will lived at the family home in Edmonds until his death of cancer at Stevens Hospital on December 20, 1969. Jeannette remained in the home for a number of years afterward. Eventually she moved to Spokane, first living near her son Mike, and eventually moving into a nursing home where she lived well into her 90s. She was the last of her generation in the both the Simons and Kunz families.

Mary Josephine taught school for ten years at Loon Lake, Nespelem and Electric City. She also followed her patriotic inclination and served in the United States Women's Auxiliary Corp -- WACs -- for twelve years, attaining the ran of Major. She was appointed as the Eight Army WAC Staff Director in Yokohama, Japan in March 1949.³ It was there that she met William Bullock of Washington, D.C., who was also in the service. The couple married in 1950 in Manila. In 1952, Major Mary Josephine Bullock was reassigned to Washington, D.C. He husband served in intelligence, stationed at the Pentagon.⁴ The couple divorced in the 1960s. After retirement, Josephine moved to Spokane, where she worked as a travel agent.

James Robert worked for the railroad in Sandpoint, ID. During that time he met and married Lenore Costigan, a school teacher. Together, they moved back to Spokane. James and Lenore had four children: William, Patrick, Joan and Alice. Bill lives in Beaverton, WA with his wife, Judy. They have three children. Pat lives in Spokane and he has five children, including a set of twins. Joan lives in Blaine, WA and Alice is in Seattle.

            Rita Catherine studied nursing at Sacred Heart Hospital and then joined the Army Air Force to become a flight attendant. In those days flight attendants were also required to be nurses. She married Glen Turner, who was also in the army, and together they had eight children. The Turners served in Japan when the oldest children were young. Glen and Rita live now in Clarkston, WA where Glen taught high school after he retired from the army.

            Michael William graduated high school from Creston. His first job was working in a shipyard in Bremerton, throwing rivets alongside his father Will. Mike later went into the Navy and served on an aircraft carrier in the Pacific in 1944.⁵ He married Wyona Lithgo and they had a daughter, Cindy.

            Willard Arthur ("Billy") finish high school in Edmonds and later Billy went on to the local vocational school. Billy married Barbara Ann Larson on November 17, 1951 in Edmonds, WA. They had three children: Nicholas, Mark and Theresa.