Frank Kunsting died at his home in Franklin, Sacramento county, December 2, 1903, when in the forty-ninth year of his life, after a successful and active business career spent almost entirely in Sacramento and Franklin. He was recognized as one of the useful and honored citizens of both these places, and his death when in the prime of years meant the loss of a substantial figure in the affairs of his community, where he stood as a personal exponent of all that is worthy in business, civic and family relations. He was a man of absolute integrity and of rugged honesty, with the inherited virtues and common sense of his race, and his career was exemplary in all respects.

Born in Westphalia, Germany, February 11, 1855, a son of Anton and Catherine (Piepenbrock) Kunsting, also natives of the same province, he was early deprived by death of his parents, his mother dying when he was eleven years old and his father when he was fourteen, after which time he depended mainly on his own resources and ability for his progress in the world. He received a good education in his native tongue, and throughout life was known as a well posted and intelligent man. He also saw life as a soldier, being but a boy when the Franco-Prussian war broke out, and he fought for his native country during a portion of that conflict. For several years before he left his fatherland he was employed as a bookkeeper in the city of Cologne, and there learned the business routine and skill which stood him in good stead in America. He came to this country and to the state of California in 1879, and for the following ten years lived at Sacramento, where he was employed much of the time as a bookkeeper in the Pioneer Bakery of that city. He moved to Franklin in 1889, and from then until his death was engaged in the mercantile business, also having extensive dealings in grain. He carried on an extensive business, and being a man of excellent financial and executive ability his success was proportionately large. While in Franklin he also took an active part in local politics and affairs generally, being a Republic partisan.

Mr. Kunsting was married at Sacramento, May 21, 1889, to Miss Bernardine Hoffknecht, who was also born in Westphalia, Germany, and came direct from Germany to Sacramento in 1878. She is one of the highly esteemed women of Franklin, and since the death of her husband she has given evidence of her competence for management of business affairs and all matters connected with her late husband's estate. Mr. Kunsting was a consistent member of the Roman Catholic church. For several years he served as a notary public while in Franklin.

Source: History of the New California Its Resources and People, Volume II

The Lewis Publishing Company - 1905
Edited by Leigh H. Irvine