Caroline Barbars Arbogast Bottiger.

The Sabetha Herald.

September 21, 1922. 

Caroline Barbars Arbogast Bottiger

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Caroline Barbars Arbogast, was born at Mt. Pleasant Mills, Snyder County, Pennsylvania January 6, 1854, and died at her home in Sabetha Kansas, Thursday September 14, 1922, folling a long Illnes.

She was married to Richard Bottiger on October 1, 1873 at Miffinburg Pennsylvania, to this union were born four children.  One son Paul, dying in infaney the others Mrs. C. Lewis, Mrs. Harry West and R. E. Welch, all of Sabetha, with  Husband survive her.  One sister Mrs. Matt Reardon and their children; Midred Lewis, Lee Myron and Carrie West.

The Bottigers came to Kansas in the Spring of 1884 and settled on a fram Southwest of Sabetha, where they lived for twenty years, moving to Sabetha in 1904, where they have since lived.

History of Nemaha, County

Richard Bottiger.

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When Richard Bottiger left his old home in Pennsylvania thirty-two years ago, he was imbued with the idea that Kansas offered better opportunities for gaining a livelihood and amassing a competence than that afforded in his old home State. As the 3'ears passed, this idea became a reality. Mr. Bottiger made a good living from the start, and rose from the status of a comparatively poor man to become a well-to-do citizen. At this day, when he and his faithful helpmeet who has shared his early struggles to get ahead in the world, have every comfort and luxury that money can buy, they look back over the years of hard and unremitting labor on the Kansas plains, take a just pride in their belongings and their beautiful modern home, and feel grateful that they were permitted to take a part in he upbuilding of a great county and State, in the capacity of humble tillers of the soil.

Richard Bottiger was born in Cumberland county, Pennsylvania, in the town of Sunberry, August 15, 1852, and is a son of Isaac and Caroline (Kepler") Bottiger, who were the parents of fourteen children, of  whom Richard is the second in age and birth, and twelve are living Isaac Bottiger was born in Pennsylvania in 1827, and died in 1881. He was a son of Daniel and Katharine Bottiger, the former of whom was a stone mason, and son of a German emigrant who made a settlement in
Pennsylvania. It will thus be seen that Mr. Bottiger comes of the sturdy Pennsylvania German stock, whose industry and proverbial honesty have become noted, the countrv over. The mother of Richard Bottiger was born in Dalton county, Pennsylvania, a daughter of Abraham Kepler, a farmer who was a native of Schuylkill county, Pennsylvania. She died in 1914 at the age of eighty-one years.

Richard Bottiger was reared on the parental farm, and when he became able to do a man's work, at the age of twelve years, in the fields, did farm labor for the neighboring farmers at a wage of $3 per month, eventually receiving $13 per month, as he became older and more competent. He rented land in his home county, but the returns seemed so slow and opportunities for advancement looked so meager that he decided to come to the newer country of Kansas. Accordingly, June 8, 1883, he migrated to Nemaha county and bought 160 acres of land in Rock Creek township on a time contract at a cost of $22 an acre. In 1884 he brought his family to the new home and prosperity became his from the start. He tilled his acreage continually with excellent results until his retirement to a home in Sabetha in 1904. In six years' time he was enabled to pay for his first farm, and then added another quarter section to his possessions. In addition to his land holdings, he is a stockholder and director of the Citizens State Bank of Sabetha.

Mr. Bottiger was married in 1873 to Caroline Arbgast, born in Snyder county, Pennsylvania, January 6, 1854, a daughter of Jacob and Mary (Lahr) Arbgast, natives of Pennsylvania. Three children have blessed this happy marriage, namely : Ida, wife of Clayton Lewis, farmer of  Rock Creek township ; Laura, wife of Ira West, farmer of Rock Creek township ; Flossie, wife of Dr. Ralph Welch, practicing dentist of Sabetha.

Mr. Bottiger is a Republican in politics, and served as treasurer of Rock Creek township for five years. He was maj'or of Sabetha for two terms, 1910-1913, inclusive, and during his term of office, the water works S3'stem was installed, and the electric light plant was enlarged and modernized. He is a member and trustee of the Sabetha Methodist Episcopal Church.