Menno Township, Marion County, Kansas

Initially when the Andreas Ratzlaff family settled in Kansas, they rented a farm in the southeast corner of Section 24, Menno Township, Marion County, Kansas.  The lived on this farm until 1914.  During this period of time, the Ratzlaff children attended Steinbach School which was located at the extreme northeast corner of Section 23.  After 1914, the family moved one mile south, and lived on a farm at the southeast corner of Section 25.  At this time, the children had to move schools and attend the Antioch School, located at the northwest corner of Section 36.  My Grandfather, Albert Ratzlaff, was just a little guy when attending Steinbach, but went to Antioch for most of his childhood years, through 8th Grade.  I remember driving down the road with Grandpa when I was young, past the site of the school where there was still a hedgerow that had bordered the schoolyard.  I remember how Grandpa pointed out that many a baseball was lost in that hedgerow when he was a schoolboy.  My dad, Norman Ratzlaff, also attended the Antioch School in the early 1940s for elementary school.  When they were grown and struck out on their own, three of the Ratzlaff boys acquired land along the road running between Sections 24 and 25 that would later become a blacktop.  Albert's farm was located in the northeast quarter of Section 25, Jacob's in the southeast quarter of Section 23, and Abraham in the southeast quarter of Section 22.