We have a record of the William and Sophie Pagenkopf family. They were born in Prussia, came to Illinois and then to Minnesota in June, 1858. There were four sons and one daughter, Mima, who died at the age of sixteen. The sons, John, George, William and Benjamin all owned adjoining farms in Independence. Mrs. Grace Hill is a daughter of George. His son, Edward, died in 1933. Edward's daughter, Gertrude Archer, lives at Pine River, Minnesota. William Pagenkopf served in the Civil War in Company I of the Second Minnesota Infantry. He contacted a disease in a southern prison camp and died in May, 1871. Mrs. George Pagenkopf and her sister, Mrs. Claude McGary, were killed in a horse and buggy train accident at the Loretto crossing in 1912. C. E. Marquart owns the farm where the Pagenkopfs settled.
