Otto Fascher

Otto Fascher is another of the sterling sons of the German Fatherland who has found in our great American republic the opportunities through which he has achieved definite independence and prosperity, and Clayton county has been the stage of his activities during the entire period of his residence in the United States. His industry and self-reliance have been on a parity with his ambition and integrity of purpose, and through his own ability and well ordered endeavors he has won secure place as one of the substantial and popular exponents of agricultural industry in Clayton county.
He is a loyal and progressive citizen, and that his ability has not lacked popular appreciation is evidenced by the fact that he is serving as trustee of Read township, of which position he has been the efficient incumbent since 1914.

Mr. Fascher was born in Klein Küsten, Germany, on the 9th of August, 1872, and is one of the six surviving children of Carl and Dorothea (Welle) Fascher, the former of whom passed his entire life in that section of the German Empire and the latter of whom came to the United States in 1895, the remainder of her life having been spent in Clayton county, Iowa, where she died in the spring of 1916, a devout communicant of the Lutheran church, as was also her husband. Otto Fascher was reared and educated in his native land and was twenty-four years of age when, in 1896, he came to America and established his home in Clayton county. Here he was employed at farm work for a few years, and his further progress toward the goal of independence was made by his operations on a rented farm, where he continued his energetic labors, when he purchased sixty acres of excellent land in Section 5, Read township, where he has proved himself a resourceful and energetic farmer and stock-grower and gained prestige as one of the able and valued exponents of these basic lines of industry in Clayton county. He has improved his farm with good buildings and in its various operations he avails himself of scientific methods and the most approved modern facilities in the way of implements and machinery. From the time of becoming a naturalized citizen of the land of his adoption he had given his support to the cause of the Democratic party, and in addition to serving as township trustee, as previously noted, he is a school director of his district. He and his wife are communicants and earnest supporters of the Lutheran church at St. Olaf, from which village his farm receives service on rural mail route No.2.

On the 21st of September, 1900, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Fascher to Miss Augusta Kuhn, who likewise was born in Germany and who came with her parents, William and Fredericka Kuhn, to America in 1894, in which year the family home was established in Clayton county. Here Mr. Kuhn died in 1910, and here his widow still resides.

Of the six children of Mr. and Mrs. Fascher the first two died in infancy; Lucy died at the age of three months and Hilda at the age of five months. The two surviving children are Arno, born December 25, 1903, and Leona, born August 28, 1905.

source: History of Clayton County, Iowa; From The Earliest Historical Times Down to the Present; by Realto E. Price, Vol. II; pg 117-118
-submitted by S. Ferrall