Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2024
Nathaniel Kline was born Feb. 27, 1838, in Tunkhannock, Wyoming, Pennsylvania.
His parents were Johannes John Peter Klein (1805-1875) who was born in Hesse-Darmstadt, Germany, and died Feb. 9, 1875 in Eagle Creek, Minnesota, and Anna Elisabeth Wenderoth Klein (1785-1830) who was born in Elfershausen, Schwalm-Eder-Kreis, Hesse, Germany, and died in Germany before Johannes John Peter Klein headed to America.
Nathaniel Kline’s grandparents were Andreas Klein (1740-1799) and Maria Elisabeth Herwig Klein (1745-1812); and Johann Konrad Wenderoth (1748-1799) and Anna Maria König (1762-1794. They all lived and died in Germany.
His father had moved to Pennsylvania from Germany with his wife, Margaret Annen Klein (1806-1886) and were settler-colonists in Pennsylvania.
It was there that Nathaniel Kline was born.
Nathaniel Kline (sometimes called Klein) moved from Pennsylvania to Minnesota, along with his parents and siblings, and lived in Chaska at first. Then Nat moved to Eagle Creek.
Nat volunteered in the 9th Regiment Minnesota Infantry at Fort Snelling on Aug. 15, 1862.
The 9th Minnesota Infantry Regiment was a Minnesota USV infantry regiment that served in the Union Army in the Western Theater of the American Civil War. The 9th Minnesota Infantry Regiment was organized into service at Camp Release, Hutchinson, Glencoe, Fort Ridgely, Fort Snelling and St. Peter, Minnesota, between Aug. 15 and Oct. 31, 1862. The companies were individually mustered into Federal service at Camp Release in October.
I Company of the 9th Minnesota Infantry was there until 1863. They then mustered into federal service on Oct. 12, 1863. Nathaniel was mustered out on disability on May 27, 1864.
Nat, as he was called, married Katie Maria Catherina Timmers, who was born June 29, 1853, in Einighausen, Sittard-Geleen Municipality, Limburg, Netherlands, in Chaska. Then they all settled in Eagle Creek, where they were farmers.
During the next several years, Nat and Katie had 14 children, though at least five of them died in infancy or early childhood.
The children included Agnes (1871-1871), Louis (1872-1951), Charles Leonard (1873-1966), William Bernard (1875-1916), George Lambert (1877-1944), Mary Augusta (1880-1881), Annie V. (1882-1884), Joseph Alex (1884-1906), Julia Margaret (1887-1973), Louisa Mildred (1888-1982), Laura Catherine (1890-1950), Alice Irene (1892-1907), Edward P. (1895-1965), and Myrtise Marie Babe Kline (1897-1975).
Agnes, Mary Augusta, Annie V., Joseph Alex, and Alice Irene Kline, were all buried at the Calvary Cemetery in Eagle Creek, now part of Shakopee.
Private Kline died Feb. 21, 1926, in Eagle Creek, Minnesota. He was buried at the Catholic Cemetery in Shakopee. Ten years later, Katie died on Dec. 2, 1936, in Shakopee, and she was buried near her husband at the Catholic Cemetery.