Heinrich Johann Wilkes

Heinrich Johann Wilkes and his, wife Mary (Terhaar) emigrated from Germany to the United States about 1870 and settled first near New Munich, in Minnesota.

Heinrich Wilkes vocation was that of farmer and like his counterparts who had come to the land of the free, he wanted a farm of his own. So, the family again moved, this time to Richland County, Dakota Territory, where they settled near what is now Barney, North Dakota. Here John B. Wilkes was born in 1878. His brother Bernard had been born two years earlier. Also to this family were born the following children: Henry (1873), Gerhart (1874), Herman (1882), Anthony (1885) and Francis in 1889. Herman and Gerhart were destined to become Catholic priests.

Anthony married Apollonia Stroeder of Minto, North Dakota on June 22, 1910 in Litchville and the family moved to the Marion, North Dakota area. Here there were eight children born as follows:

  1. Mary Katherine in 1911;

  2. Henry Herman in 1913;

  3. Agnes in 1915;

  4. Paul Jacob in 1917;

  5. Albert Peter in 1918;

  6. Aloysius Francis in 1920;

  7. Theodore in 1922 and

  8. John Gregory in 1926.

After John Gregory was born, the family moved to Greenland Township and Jacob Frederick was born on the old Tund place in June of 1930.

John Gregory Wilkes is the only member of the family now living in Barnes County, having moved from Fingal to Valley City. He is unmarried.

Source: Barnes County History 1976 Page 267