The History of the Yakima Valley, Washington, Comprising Yakima, Kittitas and
Benton Counties, The S.J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1919, Volume II, page 608

JOHN DANKERS.

At the age of seventeen years John Dankers came to America and in this country
he has found the opportunities which he sought, now being one of the successful
and prosperous ranchmen of the Cowiche district of Yakima county. A native of
Germany-, he was born in 1858 and in that country he spent his boyhood days,
there acquiring his education. Many reports having come to him in regard to the
chances presented to a young man in the land of the free, he decided upon
emigration and at the age of seventeen crossed the ocean. He made his way
directly to the interior and located in Red Wing, Minnesota, where for several
years he was connected with farming. Conditions there did not fully suit him and
he once more took up his westward course and in 1884 came to Yakima county,
taking tip a homestead near Prosser. He is therefore numbered among the early
pioneers of this section, having witnessed all the changes that have
transformed a wild section of land into a prosperous agricultural district. He
watched the railroad come in and in fact assisted in building the road. After
taking up his homestead he rented land on the Ahtanum, to the cultivation of
which he devoted several years, and later bought sixty acres there. At a
subsequent period, however, he traded' this tract for eighty acres on the
Cowiche and as his means increased and his income steadily grew because of his
untiring labor. he acquired more land until he had three hundred and twenty
acres. He has since sold three-quarters of this, retaining but eighty acres, to
the cultivation of which he still gives his time and attention. He has erected
a handsome residence and put up substantial buildings for stock and grain, thus
making his one of the valuable properties in his neighborhood. He has always
followed progressive methods and as the years have brought him golden harvests
his prosperity has increased and he is now numbered among the substantial
residents of Cowiche. There seems to be an eternal justice which rewards hard
labor and the success which Mr. Dankers has won has been attained in that
honorable way, so that today there is none who can begrudge him the comfortable
competence which he has accumulated.

In 1880 Mr. Dankers was united in marriage to Anna Tamke, a native of Germany,
and they have become the parents of five children: Henry and John, well-to-do
ranchers; Katie, who married Joseph Worrell, also a rancher; Emma, the wife of
James Cunningham, who is now serving his country in the United States army; and
Annie.

Mr. Dankers has ever taken a laudable interest in the progress of his section of
the state and has readily given his aid to worthy public movements. By his work
along agricultural lines he has contributed toward general prosperity and has
helped to plant the seeds of civilization here. In politics he is independent,
supporting the man whom he deems best qualified to fill the office to which he
aspires. Along religious lines both he and his wife are devoted members of the
Lutheran church, in which faith they were reared and to which they ever remained
loyal.

********************************
Submitted to the Washington Bios Project in December 2007 by Jeffrey L. Elmer.
Submitter has no additional information about the subject of this article.