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Note: Below is an article from Goodspeed's History of Southeast Missouri. p. 710 "John Kuennell, an enterprising and prosperous merchant of Altenburg, Mo. was born in the Kingdom of Bavaria in 1847. He is the son of Andrew and Eva Kuennell, both of whom were natives of Germany. Andrew Kuennell was a grain merchant and saloon keeper. He died suddenly at the age of fifty-six years. To him and wife were born ten children, six of whom are alive.
John Kuennell came to America in 1872. By trade he is a cabinet maker, but after coming to America he worked for some time as a millwright in Missouri, Illinois and Colorado.
In 1870 he engaged in the real estate business, but not meeting with success he engaged in the vinegar business, at which he lost all he had. Not willing to give up to disappointment, he began peddling with a capital of $25, a Christmas present from his mother. He continued this mode of merchandizing until 1881, when he commenced business in Altenburg with a stock of goods worth $1500. In the spring of 1888 he purchased his present residence, and the next fall build his large store in which he does an extensive general mercantile business.
In 1878 (1873 is the correct date) he was united in marriage with Carrie Wieland of St. Louis. She was born in the Kingdom of Wurtemberg, Germany. Her father is now engaged in farming in Clark County, Ill. This union has been blessed by the birth of one child, Katie."
John remarried after Carrie's death, but "ran away" from her in St. Louis, and came to live with his daughter in Altenburg, according to family. The 1920 census show him living with another elderly, widowed woman, but not sharing his last name. Because he was Catholic, the Lutheran cemetery in Altenburg would not allow him to be buried there with his wife, so he must have picked the Concordia cemetery in St. Louis. After he heard that his second wife had died in St. Louis, he returned there. He is at the same boarding house on Lindell Blvd. in the 1930 census, minus his "wife."
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