The Family › Temple–Catchings › Kunkel

Haddie Elizabeth Kunkel

1842–1936

The known sky above this person — every wedge an ancestor, parents innermost. Click a wedge to visit.

✦ direct ancestor — Owen's 3×-great-grandmother · West line

✓ descent proven at every step

I am:

Life

Born: 30 Mar 1842 · Ephrata, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, USA
Died: 1936 · Richmond, Franklin, Kansas, USA
Buried: Berea Cemetery, Franklin County, Kansas, USA

Parents

Father✦ Rudolph Gunkle ✓ father proven by argument

Mother✦ Elizabeth ✓ mother proven by argument

Marriage & children

Spouse✦ Rev. Hugh Paden Alexander (1836–1911)

✦ Hanna Bessie Elizabeth Alexander (1870–1939)

Life as they lived it

Not the dates — the person. What the records happen to show of work, habits, possessions and the odd episode. Each line says where it comes from.

1888 The Garnett and Greeley papers followed her trips back to Pennsylvania. In April 1888 she "started for Lancaster, Penn., Tuesday, being called by the serious illness of her mother"; in 1893 she was "called back to her home at Ephrata, Penn., by the death of her mother"; in October 1896 she left "for her old home," with her husband going "as far as Kansas City"; and in March 1898 she came home from a month of "visiting her father."

habit · Garnett Journal-Plaindealer, 6 Apr 1888; Greeley Graphic, 7 Apr 1893, 9 Oct 1896 and 18 Mar 1898 · clipping 1 · 2 · 3 · 4

1902 In October 1902 the Garnett Eagle reported that the Ladies Industrial society "met Thursday and elected the following officers: Mrs. H. P. Alexander president," with a vice president, a secretary and a treasurer under her.

work · Garnett Eagle, 10 Oct 1902 · clipping

1907 She sold turkeys from the farm under her own name. In January 1907 the Garnett Journal-Plaindealer carried her notice: "A few full blood Bronz Tom Turkeys for sale at $3.50 and $4.00 apiece, by Mrs. H. P. Alexander, Rural Route No. 1 Richmond, Kas."

work · Garnett Journal-Plaindealer, 18 Jan 1907 · clipping

1911 Eighteen days after her husband died, she held a sale at the farm. The Ottawa Daily Republic announced that "Mrs. Hugh Alexander will hold a public sale at her farm home Tuesday June 6th"; two of her daughters came to help her "get ready for her sale," and the ladies aid society of the Presbyterian church served lunch.

episode · Ottawa Daily Republic, 30 May 1911; Ottawa Evening Herald, 3 Jun 1911; Garnett Evening News, 6 Jun 1911 · clipping 1 · 2 · 3

1916 At 73 she was "ill with blood poison, which resulted from having thrown her elbow out of place recently." A Garnett doctor came out to Charles Cunningham's home near Richmond to consult with the Richmond doctor: "It was feared the arm would have to be amputated, but the doctors put in a drain tube, which gave relief."

body · Garnett Review, 9 Mar 1916 · clipping

Records behind this page

Ancestry.com, Texas, Death Certificates, 1903-1982 (Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013)

Texas Department of State Health Services; Austin Texas, USA; Texas Death Certificates, 1903–1982

Research notes

Working notes from the research, kept verbatim — what was read, what it proved, what stays open. Many open with a line grading the parentage; what the grades mean.

Research note · 10 Aug 2026

PROOF CLASS: BOTH PARENTS = ARGUMENT - two Ephrata Review obituaries nine years apart, one for each parent, name the surviving daughter: 1893 "a daughter, Hannah, the wife of H. P. Alexander"; 1902 "Mrs. H. E. Alexander ... only surviving child". AUDITED 10 Aug 2026 — PARENTS ADDED; two fields deliberately NOT changed. Parents Rudolph Gunkle and Elizabeth were attached this date on two contemporaneous obituaries in the Ephrata Review which name the daughter directly. 10 Mar 1893, Elizabeth's: "Besides her husband she leaves a daughter, Hannah, the wife of H. P. Alexander, of Sugar Valley, Kansas." 11 Jul 1902, Rudolph's: "One daughter, Mrs. H. E. Alexander, of Garnett, Kansas, is the only surviving child." Two notices nine years apart for different deceased. A third and independent witness is the History of the Church of the Brethren of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania (1915), naming Rudolph Gunkle, deacon, elected 8 May 1861 and still serving 1899. NAME: she is HANNAH ELIZABETH. "Haddie" is the headstone's nickname; the stone reads HADDIE KUNKEL / HIS WIFE 1842-1936. "Hannah Elizabeth Gunkle" was added as an alternate name this date. The PRIMARY name is deliberately left unchanged pending the Kansas death certificate, Franklin County 1936, which will report her name as given at death. SURNAME: in Pennsylvania this family spells the name GUNKEL or GUNKLE, never Kunkel. Mohler Brethren Cemetery holds 8 Gunkle, 1 Gunkel and 0 Kunkel. Searching "Kunkel" in Pennsylvania returns nothing, which is why this line stood dead. The parents are therefore entered as Gunkle while she retains Kunkel; the variance is real and is not to be harmonised away. BIRTHPLACE NOT CHANGED: the 1893 obituary places the couple in Cumberland County for eighteen years, but the start of that span is unknown, so it cannot be differenced against an 1842 birth. Ephrata, Lancaster County stands unaltered. Elizabeth's MAIDEN NAME is not recovered by anything in this run and is deliberately left BLANK. "Gunkle" is her married name. Evidence: ancestry/sources/west-kunkel-parents-2026-08-10/ (51 files). Report: ancestry/agent-report-west-kunkel-parents-2026-08-10.md.

Elsewhere

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