John Michal DeKinder’s father and mother were both from the Rhineland in Germany and settled in Calhoun County, Illinois. John, their eldest, was the only son in a family of five. The DeKinders moved to Archer County, Texas, about 1891, where John married Margaret Immel in 1908. Athough born in Russia, Margaret’s family was ethnically German, one of many families who had settled in the Beresan region in the early 1800s. The Immels emigrated to Texas in 1891 or 1892 to escape persecution. John and Margaret moved to Lovelock about 1909, where he opened a blacksmith shop and eventually became mayor. John died in the 1950s; Margaret died in 1967.

John, Margaret and their eldest child, Julia (b. 8 Sept. 1910)

The DeKinder children: Julia and John Jr., ca 1915

John (front) in his blacksmith shop ca. 1915.

Christmas 1937 in Lovelock: Margaret DeKinder with Julia’s daughter, Margaret Riehm; Cordelia Dandurand Fenton (Julia’s mother-in-law, married to Humboldt Fenton) with Julia’s son, Jack (later a member of the Lovelock city council); and Julia