John Joseph DUESBERG

Notes for JOHN JOSEPH DUESBERG: John Joseph Duesberg was born on Sept. 2,1900 to parents Theodore Liborious Duesberg and Anna Mary Zwingman at Angelus,Sheridan Co.,Ks. on a farm. He was the ninth child born to them. The first seven children were born at St. Libory, Howard Co. Neb. where Theodore and his dad worked on building the new railroad across Neb. John Joseph Duesberg was called and went by Joseph John Duesberg his entire life. He did not know that John was put down first on his church baptismal records until he was an older man. His older brother, John Henry Duesberg was also born in Angelus and went by John (Jay). He had an older sister that was called Minnie but her first name on her baptismal records was Anne. Many times the Germans would put the first same name for more then one child and then call them by their last surname chosen. They would also have three surnames. His grandfather's name was John Henry William Duesberg when he came from Germany. He was called John when he first arrived on his American records but later on he went by William Duesberg in St. Libory, Neb. In my German research I found one family of Albers at St. Libory, Ill. that had listed all their baby girls as Mary Albers on their baptismal records but they probably called them by their middle name . Joe's grandfathers were both called John. They were John Henry Wiliam Duesberg and John Joseph Zwingman. They may have named Jay after John H. W. Duesberg and Joe after Grandfather, John Zwingmans. He was called Joe by his family and people of Selden. Two of his older brothers, William & Bernard died at St. Libory, Neb. Joe had a little sister, Caroline, born in Angelus on 10-7-1904. Then in 1905 they moved to Leota,Ks. In 1912 they moved back to Sheridan Co. but to a farm 7 miles. south of Selden. A few years later they moved 3 1/2 Mi. west and 1 & 11/2 Mi. north of Selden. The children went to a one room country school. Joe was in the first class that graduated from Selden Rural High School. He quit high school his third year and taught in a country school by Menlo, Ks. He stayed with a Schwartz family while he taught there. He then went back to high school in Selden and graduated with his sister, Caroline. Other students he went to high school with were: Walter Rogers, Kent Solden, Alice Trimble Anderson, & Leo Zimmerman. They had a good basketball team I was told. Joe and his brother, Jay, ran around with the Zimmerman boys from Selden. There was Leo, Elmer and Leonard. The Zimmermans were born in Jennings, Ks. Through their friendship he and Jay met their first double cousins, Agnes & Florence Nauer from Jennings when he was twenty and Jay was 22. Agnes was 16 and Florence was 18. The two couples dated for six years. Joe & Agnes got married on May 5,1926 and Florence and Jay were their witnesses. The flower girls were Joe's nieces, Helen Moheng Bushart & Eulalia Pauls Berls. Florence went away to business school in Salina,Ks. and Jay just wasn't the marrying kind at the time. He was busy goofing with the guys & drinking. Probably Florence would have married him if he just would have been ready to settle down because she thought a lot of him. She fell in love with some one else in Salina, Arthur Yepsen, and married him. Joe was a quiet and gentle Person. He was thin, six feet tall, with light complexion and blue eyes. He was easy going. Everyone liked him. He loved to visit with people on a one on one basis but he was very quiet in a crowd. He was very intelligent. He could fix almost anything. He knew how to fix any gas engine. He taught himself how to fix any TV He didn't care to travel. He was content to stay in Selden. He read everything in the newspaper everyday. His wife and children were his life. He never complained about the inconvience of having to wear an artificial leg. He served his community as mayor and councilman for many years. He was a business man and land owner. He had a Ford dealership, a Sinclair & Mobile gas station and then a propane gas and appliance store. He supported the community & Sacred Heart Catholic Church until his death. Joe loved to whistle. He wouldn't have a specific tune in mind. He would just make up his own little tunes which would drive his wife crazy at times. Joe had a Mobile gas station on main street. The Rome Grocery Store was in the building just south of the station. Joe had walked home for lunch. Barbara Rome went out behind their store and she saw that his station was on fire. She rushed into the store and called the phone co. The town's fire dept. was volunteer. When there was a fire, they would call the phone co., who would call the fire chief and blow the fire whistle. The men would man the fire engine and off they would go to the fire. If they missed the fire engine, they would drive to the fire. Anyway, Barbara called Joe to tell him that his station was on fire and she rushed out the back of their store and got their garden hose. When he got there, she was desperately trying to put the fire out. Years later she told about him walking there and whistling while she was so upset and working franticly to put the fire out with a garden hose. She never got over that. The station was burned pretty bad. He fixed it up and sold it to his 1st cousin, Leonard Zimmerman. He started the propane business. When Joe was fifty his left leg started bothering him. Especially his ankle. He would sit up half the night rubbing his foot and ankle. In the morning there would be a large ashtray full of cigarette butts. It was hard to get him to go to a doctor. After much fighting, he went to Dr. Marshall in Colby,Ks. Dr. Marshall was very upset. Joe had waited so long that gangrene had set into his foot. The toes were turning black and green, swollen with fluid oozing out between the toes. Dr. Marshall told him to stop his smoking, gave him some white pills and set up an appointment for the next week! The next day, Agnes & her brother, Paul, loaded him in his 1950 white Mercury and drove straight to the Mayo Clinic in desperation. They knew he would probably loose his leg but it was to the point that they now needed to save his life. Agnes stayed there and Paul returned to Jennings. The doctors were very alarmed and wanted to cut off his leg above the knee and they wanted to do it immediately. He kept fussing that he wanted it cut below the knee so he could bend his leg and not have a stiff leg. They said the circulation was to bad and that it wouldn't heal. The doctors finally agreed to cut the leg below the knee but they would not guarantee that the amputation would work. They set up the surgery. He was scared to death. They had him out in the hallway to go into surgery. They thought that he was asleep from medication. They left the door open to the surgery room. He watched them "saw off" another guy's leg. Joe started doing some heavy praying. He thought that he was going to die. He had stopped going to church when his kids were small but now God became a very important person. That day he asked God to save his life and he promised that he would go back to church. He kept his promise and never missed church again. The amputation did not heal and the old discussion returned. The doctors wanted to cut the leg above the knee. He kept arguing to cut it below the knee. There was definitely some stubbornness raising it's head. He won the argument again. There was not much leg below the knee so he had a short stump that would get sore if he walked on it too long but he never complained and was so happy that he had a knee to bend and that he had won the argument. Joe worked in his store until 1972 and then sold the gas store to his nephew, Johnny Sulzman. The propane business had been a lucrative business but when the natural gas line was built at Selden, it took away alot of their business but there was still the irrigation wells and the customers that did not convert to natural gas. He kept going to the store and would take phone calls until his health started declining and he didn't drive. He was featured in the Selden Advocate Newspaper,Abt 1955. A TRIBUTE TO JOSEPH JOHN DUESBERG - Selden Booster Joseph John Duesberg born near Angelus, Ks., Sept. 2, 1900, was reared on the farm with four sisters and three brothers. In 1905, his father Theodore, moved the family to a farm near Leota, Ks. The family later moved to a farm 7 mi. south of Selden in 1912, living there for several yrs. before moving to a farm northwest of Selden. Joe graduated from Selden High School in 1923 after teaching the year before in a country school near Menlo,Ks. He then worked as a carpenter under brother-in-law, Pete Pauls for a few years. He helped Pete work on the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Leoville, Ks. On May 5, 1926, he was united in marriage to Agnes C. Nauer of Jennings,Ks. at the Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church in Goodland, Sherman Co., Ks. Their witnesses were his brother John (Jay} Henry Duesberg & her sister, Florence Catherine Nauer. At this time, Joe leased the Selden Sinclair Gas Station and garage from Bert Vaughn on main street, later purchasing the business. He operated the gas business for twenty yrs. during which time he owned two large gas transports and employed men to drive and haul gas. Some of the drivers were Lee Grace, Daryl Criswell from Selden and a Sparks from Phillipsburg,Ks. In the year of 1947, Joe sold the entire Mobile gasoline business & buildings to first cousin,Leonard Zimmerman. He then procured a propane bulk plant near the highway on the east edge of town and purchased the previous post office building next door to the Selden City Hall, where he now operates an appliance store in conjunction with the propane truck route, servicing the community with propane and appliances. Johnny Sulzman has been a partner in the service dept. for 11 yrs. Joe has been a mayor, member of the city council for 35 yrs., a member of the past Chamber of Commerce, the Knights of Columbus and is a booster for the community and schools. He and Mrs. Duesberg have reared a family of five children: Shirley, Joe Dean, Carol,Coye and Richard, all having a college education. Four are graduates of Kans. State Univ. and all graduated from the Selden Grade & High Schools. THIS ARTICLE SPONSORED BY --- THE FARMERS STATE BANK, ph Ev 6 4389 ,Selden, Ks. Joe's health was good for many years after the leg amputation until he had an prostate operation in 1975. He had a slight heart attack during the operation so he had to take heart medication after that which always upset his stomach. He built purple martin bird houses and put them up. He enjoyed watching them come every spring and watching them in the summer. Joe and Agnes built a new home in 1975 which they enjoyed. Joe had a heart attack after Dr. Whittacker took him off all his heart medication. He was flown by the Flight for Life to St. Anthony Hospital, Westminster, Co. He was in intensive care, put back on the heart medication, got better, then got pneumonia and sepsis while in the hospital. He died on Oct. 29, 1986, his daughter,Carol's birthday and was buried on Halloween.

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