August Schultz
A life of hard and unremitting labor, guided at all times by a
great determination and persistency of purpose has brought August
Schultz to a position of prominence among the men who, for the
past twenty years, have made substantial contributions to the
agricultural development and progress of Allamakee county. At
eight years of age he was a hired laborer in his native country,
Germany-- and his childhood was filled with hardships and
privations, while later his life was filled with hard work and
industrious striving after the success which he enjoys today. He
owns two hundred acres of land near Postville which by his
practical and modern methods of development he has made a
valuable and productive property worthy of comparison with the
finest farms in the section of the state.
Mr. Schultz was born in Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Germany, on the
28th of August, 1867, a son of Deitrich Schultz, who for many
years was employed on a trading vessel on the river Elbe. He
served his term of enlistment in the German army and never left
his native country.
At the early age of eight years August Schultz was hired out as a
farm laborer, spending his summers at this work and attending
school during the winter months. This continued until 1884 and,
during that period, he became a practical and able farmer,
learning the best agricultural methods and all the details of
farm operation. In July, 1884 he left Germany and came to
America, settling immediately in the vicinity of Postville, Iowa,
where he secured employment as a farm hand and being ignorant of
the English language, he spent two winters in school in order to
acquire it. During all of this time he saved money and by
frugality and economy, accumulated enough to buy land. He
purchased ninety acres in Post township, to which he later added
forty acres, carrying forward its cultivation along modern and
progressive lines until it was one of the finest farms in that
locality. He sold that property in 1911 and bought his present
farm of two hundred acres, a mile north of Postville, and this he
has also substantially improved, erecting new buildings and
installing the necessary farm equipment. Mr. Schultz is a
practical farmer, having learned the details of farm operation
through many years of hard work in the fields and the results are
evident in the excellent condition of his property today. He is a
large shareholder in the Cooperative Creamery Company and the
Cooperative Mercantile Association of Postville and is known in
the town and the vicinity as a reliable, resourceful and
far-sighted business man.
On the 25th of December, 1895, Mr. Schultz was united in marriage
to Miss Dora Schultz, who although she bore the same name, is no
relative. She was born in Grand Meadows township, Clayton county,
near Postville, August 14, 1877, and is a daughter of William and
Rieke (Moll) Schultz, natives of Germany. The parents came to
America in 1870, locating first in Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania,
where the father engaged in railroad work. They moved later to
Alabama and then to Iowa, settling in this state about the year
1873. After several years of railroad work, William Schultz
purchased a small farm in Clayton county, and from that time to
the present has engaged in agricultural pursuits, success
steadily attending his well directed labors. He and his wife
became the parents of seven children, of whom the wife of the
subject of this review is the second in the order of birth. Mr.
And Mrs. August Schultz have nine children: Velma, who was born
March 13, 1897; Bertha, April 8, 1898; Lawrence September 2,
1900; Roy, May 1, 1902; Milda, April 14, 1903; Elmer, December 1,
1905; Harry, July 2 1908, Kenneth, July 1,1910, and Gertrude,
February 28, 1912.
Mr. Schultz is a member of the Lutheran church and fraternally is
connected with the Modern Woodmen of America. He gives his
political allegiance to the democratic party. A resident of this
locality for more than a quarter of a century, his many sterling
qualities of mind and character have become widely known here and
his honorable and upright life has commanded the respect and
confidence of all with whom he has had business or social
relations.
-source: Past & Present of Allamakee County; by
Ellery M. Hancock; S. J. Clarke Pub. Co.; 1913
-transcribed by Diana Diedrich
Return to 1913 biographies index