John Brockman was born on May 29, 1882 in West Point, Iowa. He is Walt’s 1st cousin twice removed on the Kempker side of the family.

John William Brockman was the 2nd of 6 children born to William and Mary Kempker Brockman. William was a German immigrant who became a carpenter. I wrote about William in this post.

The 1900 census finds John working as a day laborer. It lists his brother Herman as carpenter, so it is likely that John was not yet working as a carpenter at this time. By the 1910 census, he is working with his father building houses.

On February 20, 1912, John married Margaret Behrens. They married at St. Marys Church in West Point. Father Jacoby was the officiant. In the photos below from the county records we can learn quite a bit. The informant was William Brockman, John’s father.

Margaret was living in West Point. She was 22 and it was her first marriage. She was born in San Francisco and her parents were Paul Behrens and Elizabeth Bates. The witnesses were Aloysius Lohmann and Helen Brockman. They were married by Rev Jacoby, Priest.

John and Margaret had 4 children. I wrote more about their marriage in this post. The 1935 Fort Madison City Directory had them living on Avenue H. It is fun to look at the directory to see who else lived there and ads for businesses.

This image shows a section of the directory. It shows daughters Alice and Mildred as students and son Eugene as a laborer. Herman is John’s brother. I’m not sure if the other Brockmans are related, but it is possible.

John Brockman died on March 22, 1939 in an automobile accident. Mary had died less than a month earlier of heart failure. Their youngest, Alice was only 19 at the time.