Herman A. Axtell Herman A. Axtell may well consider himself fortunate in being the owner of one of the fine farm estates of Clayton county and further interest attaches to his prestige as one of the progressive and successful agriculturists and stock-growers of the county by reason of the fact that he was an infant at the time of the family removal to this county and was reared to manhood on the farm which he now owns and on which he has an ideal rural home. Mr. Axtell was born in Lorain county, Ohio, on the 17th of September, 1862, and in the following year his parents came to Clayton county and settled on the farm now owned by him. He is one of the five surviving children of Augustus E. and Martha (Bartlett) Axtell, the former a native of Vermont and the latter of the state of New York. After having maintained their residence in Ohio for a term of years the parents came to Clayton county, Iowa, in 1863, as previously noted, and the father proved a resourceful and broadminded member of the pioneer community, in which he developed and inproved the splendid landed estate now owned and occupied by his son Herman A., of this review. Here he died at the age of 85 years and here his venerable widow still resides, she having celebrated her eighty-fourth birthday anniversary in 1916 and being one of the revered pioneer women of the county. Reared to the sturdy discipline of the farm, Herman A. Axtell was not permitted to neglect in the least the advantages afforded in the public schools of the locality and period, and his individual ambition along this line was indicated by his later completing an effective course of study in a business coIlege at Fayette. He continued to be associated with the work and management of the home farm until he was 21 years of age, and thereafter he was employed for a total of five years in a creamery at Cresco, Howard county, and Clayton county, where he gained expert knowledge of this line of industrial enterprise. For twenty years thereafter he rented the old homestead farm of his parents and proved himself one of the spedaIly alert, progressive and successful farmers and stock-growers of the county. At the expiration of the period noted he purchased the fine property, which comprises two hundred acres of land, in sections 24 and 25 Cass township which is improved with the best type of farm buildings and supplied with the most approved modern facilities. In connection with diversified agriculture Mr. Axtell has been specially prominent and successful in the breeding and raising of fine Shorthorn cattle and Duroc-Jersey swine. He has served consecutively since 1910 as township clerk, has been secretary of the school board of his district since 1902, and served fourteen years as township assessor. These preferments denote alike his loyal interest in public affairs of a local order, his ability and the high estimate placed upon him in the community that had always represented his home. He gives his political allegiance to the Democratic party, is affiliated with the Modern Brotherhood of America and he and his wife attend and support the Baptist church at Strawberry Point, from which village their attractive and hospitable home has service on rural mail route No.1. In 1888 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Axtell to Miss Leah Lamphiear, who was born and reared in this county and who is a daughter of William and Elizabeth (Maxwell) Lamphiear, the former of whom is deceased and the latter of whom still maintains her home in this county. Of the children of Mr. and Mrs. Axtell the first, Fern C., died at the age of 12 years; Lloyd W. now has the management of the fine farm of three hundred and forty-five acres which his father owns in Stutsman county, North Dakota; Fannie M. was graduated in the Teachers' Institute at Cedar Falls and is now a popular teacher in the public schools of Riceville, Iowa; Meron A. is a member of the class of 1918 in the Iowa State Agricultural College, at Ames; Howard I. is attending the high school at Strawberry Point; and the two younger members of the ideal home circle are Herma R. and Martha E. source: History of Clayton
County, Iowa; From The Earliest Historical Times Down to
the Present; by Realto E. Price, Vol. II; pg. 26-27 |