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.
[Illustration: The Minkel house
1008 6th Avenue North]
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.