Charles Achning, Sr. moved to Kansas Territory and settled with other German immigrants in Eudora. In 1859, three years after its establishment, Eudora was incorporated as a city and elections held. Mr. Achning was a member of the first city council in Eudora and served as its first treasurer. (All of the members of the council must have been native Germans because the council records were written in German that year and the next.)

Mr. Achning was a businessman and merchant first in Eudora, then in Lawrence. In Eudora he established a grocery store in the 1870s; in Lawrence he established a saloon by 1875 and then a hardware by 1885.

Charles Achning, Sr. was a member of the Lawrence Turnverein and is one of 34 members pictured in composite photographs of 1881. Composite photo 3B.