Kautzky Kronikles

Kautzky Kronikles 2000

Home	Famous Kautzkys	Family Email/Links	Reunions
Kautzky/Book Lineage	Archives	Kautzky Cousins
	Sign Guestbook View Guestbook
Mary (Kautzky) Book's Life Story			Joseph Kautzky's LifeStory
Paul Kautzky's Life Story

Famous Kautzkys

Contact: Dennis Loghry

Updated: June 05, 2004

Joesph Kautzky Sr. with one his own self designed shotguns

In 1937 hundreds of people came from all over the state of Iowa and surrounding states, crowding into the Fort Dodge Iowa Gun Club, to wish a happy 75th birthday to Joseph Kautzky Sr. Over 1 hundred trapshooters took their positions at the posts. Among the trapshooters were Joseph Kautzky Sr., and his two sons Rudy and Joseph Jr. Waiting beside Joseph Sr. was Marie Kautzky his daughter a world class trapshooter herself.
At this trap shoot Joseph Sr. broke 147 targets out of 150! Marie came through with a score of 148 targets!
In 1909 in the town of Jewell, Iowa Joseph Kautzky senior broke 200 targets out of 200, this was a shooting feat never before accomplished.
In Chicago, Joseph Kautzky Sr. bested his record with 253 targets without a miss. This was a world record.
Soon trapshooters from all over the country began asking about him. Joseph Sr. was an expert gunsmith as well as an expert trapshooter. In 1910 he invented the single trigger for double barrel shotguns.
Joe Kautzky himself put his single trigger into over 600 guns. Many of the guns that Joseph Sr. worked on were shipped around the world.
Joseph Sr. was the fifth of five generations of gunsmiths.
Joseph Kautzky Senior was sought out by many sportsmen for his gunsmithing and artistic skills with the shotguns, One of Joseph Sr. best customers was the renown Bandleader and March Master, John Phillip Sousa. Mr. Sousa's gun collection was repaired and altered by Joseph Kautzky Sr.
Dupont held a trapshoot contest. for sportsmen using the Dupont powder. For breaking 50 targets without a miss they were awarded a gold watch fob. For each time they repeated this feat they were awarded a gold bar to put on the fob. After awhile Joseph Sr. had so many of these gold bars, that he took thirty of them and had a bracelet made. with them.. article taken from the magazine, The Iowan.

lagoon.jpg (11965 bytes)

Theodore Kautzky is a very well known artist.
I know very little about him, I first came across him and one of his watercolor books at the Des Moines, Iowa main public library.
This painting was done for the 1939 New York Worlds Fair.
It is still on display at the New York City Museum. The title of the picture is Fountain Spectacle, Lagoon of Nations,

I chose the Boy Scout March midi due to the Sousa connection and the fact that the Boy Scouts have been a great asset to many families including our own. My son James was a Life Scout with 25+ merit badges

If you have information and/or pictures of famous Kautzky, please contact me, Dennis Loghry [email protected]