The good old days

Cu r t i s Uhlenhopp has many good memories of growing up in Aplington. Although he lives in Florida, many of his extended family members still live in the area. Others have located around the United States.

“My dad was a livestock dealer, and my grandfather was an auctioneer at the sale barn in Aplington,” Uhlenhopp said.

The Henry Uhlenhopp family, with nine boys and one girl, lived on a farm two miles west of Kesley around the turn of the century. Curtis Uhlenhopp’s grandfather, Sander, was one of those boys. Farming and life were very different then. They utilized mostly horse-drawn farm equipment, and had no modern conveniences. Kesley had a one-room school house that taught reading, writing and arithmetic through the eighth grade. At the time, the town had a bank, a grocery store and two churches.

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