This Fort Dodge home—known for many years as “the Minkel house”—dates its history back nearly 100 years as it was built in 1876, according to county records. Located at 1008 6th Ave. N., the home has been remodeled at various times during these many years and is presently owned and occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Wayne Moses. They purchased the property in 1961 and added a combination living room and bedroom with bath on the east side.

The house now has a living room, dining room, three bedrooms and two baths on the first floor and two bedrooms upstairs. Two wood-burning fireplaces—one in the living room, the other in the east bedroom—have now been converted to gas.

The house acquired the Minkel name because it was owned and occupied by L. H. Minkel, Fort Dodge school superintendent and his family, for many years. Minkel came to Fort Dodge to take over the school position and continued as superintendent until 1923. The Minkel family resided in the Sixth Avenue home during this period and for many succeeding years when Minkel was in the insurance business here. The Minkel heirs sold the home to Mr. and Mrs. Louis C. DeFoe, who in turn, sold it to the Moses family.

Mr. and Mrs. Minkel were parents of five children—Lewis Minkel, now retired and living in Laguna Hills, Calif.; Eleanor, now deceased who was married to Roger Files of Fort Dodge; Dr. Roger Minkel, now deceased; Elizabeth (Betty) Myser of Ketchikan, Alaska; and Willard Minkel of La Mesa, Calif.

Minkel purchased the home when he came to the city early in 1911. John F. Duncombe, pioneer Fort Dodge attorney and industrialist, acquired the lot on which the house is located in 1864. In 1872 he sold the lot to Julia A. Ingersoll and it was during her ownership that the home was built.

Stories about the house relate that it once was occupied by a Dutch seaman who built a cupola in the style of a ship’s pilot house on the porch above the front entryway. It was removed many years ago.

Mr. Moses, the present owner of the house, is an Illinois Central Railroad conductor. He and his wife are parents of three daughters, all of whom are married and living elsewhere.