Alva Review-Courier -

Benjamin Steinmetz, 94, longtime resident of Kiowa, Kansas, passed away peacefully Saturday, August 5, 2017, at St. Francis Hospital. He was born February 19, 1923, in Kulm, North Dakota, to Solomon and Katherine (Gebhardt) Steinmetz.

Ben attended elementary school in Kulm where he learned English at the age of nine, having spoken only German until then. Ben worked on the family farm that he later purchased and owned for many years. A severe drought in Kulm prompted Ben, as a teenager, to work his way south to work on a farm around Scott City, Kansas, and then Kiowa. In Kiowa he worked for Sam...