Edd’s announced career change and the 1938 birthday gathering; no new identity merges.
Kunkel family stories
From the farm sale to a city beat
Edd Kunkel’s October 1937 farm-sale announcement came with a change of career. The Salisbury Press-Spectator reported that the Wien-area farmer was offering livestock and implements at public auction before moving to Kansas City. His connection to this family has not been established.
According to the notice, he had joined the city police squad and was to be assigned to the 28th District. He planned to begin his duties on or about December 1.
The paper described him as a World War veteran with nineteen months of overseas service who had been wounded thirteen times. It then quoted his own dry assessment of the new job: “I guess that experience will help me on my beat.”
The article captures his announced plan and how he spoke about it at the time. It is not a later employment record confirming that he began the assignment, and its military-service details remain attributed to this newspaper account.
Source: Salisbury Press-Spectator, October 22, 1937, page 1, “Edd Kunkel of Wien to Have Farm Sale.” Publication details and text checked against the family-preserved clipping.
Ice cream and cake for an eighty-second birthday
Friends and relatives planned a surprise for Mr. and Mrs. John Kunkel of the Wien community in July 1938, marking his eighty-second birthday. The guest list included Mike Morrison and his family, the H. P. Niemeier household, Ignatius Kunkel’s family, Kathleen Kunkel and Mr. and Mrs. Edd Kunkel. Ice cream and cake were served.
This is a small celebration worth remembering alongside the larger weddings and anniversaries: a Sunday gathering of familiar names and an eighty-second birthday shared with family.
Source: Salisbury Press-Spectator, July 29, 1938, p. 1, “Relatives Surprise John Kunkel on Birthday.”