Pfeifer, Ellis Co., Kansas

The town of Pfeifer is located 10 miles south of Victoria on the south bank of the Smoky Hill River. It was founded in August 1876 (there is some discrepancy as to whether it was August 21 or August 24) by the following men, with the number of people in the family indicated in parenthesis:

from Kamenka

John Meder (2)
John Schleiter (5)

from Pfeifer

Andrew Desch (4)
George Etzel (2)
Anton Holzmeister (6)
Gottlieb Jacobs (11)
Joseph Jacobs (3)
Matthew Jacobs (2)
Michael Jacobs (2)
George Schmidt (6)
John Schmidt (4)
Joseph Schmidt (2)
Jacob Schoenfeld (3)

Another group arrived in Pfeifer (Kansas) from Rothammel in late September 1876:

John J. Basgall (4)
Joseph Basgall (4)
Martin M. Appelhans

Part of this group from Rothammel went first to Ohio to visit Martin Basgall before going on to Pfeifer (Kansas). The last three listed here stayed in Ohio until August 1877 when they, too, moved on to Pfeifer:

John J. Basgall (5)
Elisabeth Basgall, widow (5)
Joseph Basgall (2)
Martin Appelhans (7)
John Basgall (3)
Alois Hartmann

They were joined in February 1878 by John Breit and Valentine Schoenfeld (5), in December 1878 by Peter Breit (3), and in 1879 by George Dome (7) - all from Pfeifer (Russia).

The original site chosen by the first founders was in Section 25-14-17 of Freedom Township. Several families objected to the location, however, and in 1884 the town was moved to the northwest quarter of Section 36.