John B. Bartell was born around 1808 in Bavaria. He immigrated to America sometime before 1842 and settled in New York. He married Augusta Maiden, and they had at least five children: William, born around 1842; John, born around 1844; Frederick, born around 1850; Augusta, born around 1850; and Henry, born around 1853. The family moved to Ganges, Michigan, sometime in the 1850s, and Bartell worked as a shoemaker there. By 1870, he owned $800 of real estate and $30 of personal property. His wife Augusta died in 1872. He moved to Pleasant Valley, Kansas, sometime before 1885, and he died there around 1889.