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Biographies - O'Brien County |
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Biographies - O'Brien County |
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From "The Iowa History Project":
Otto F. Bartz
Scott M. Ladd
J.P. Mansmith
ADKINS, John Vertner, the subject of this sketch, like most of those in middle life in our western country, did not come from wealthy parents. On the contrary he was born in a log cabin, near Plymouth, in Schuyler county, 111. Again, like most of them, he has made for himself a place in the business world that has grown up around him, and all of us, where he can command the best that is going in the way of living and education for his children. He is well situated in business circles, and commands the respect and confidence of his acquaintances. He was born November 15, 1851, as stated above, and now lives at Paullina, Iowa. His father was a native of Connecticut, and consequently a Yankee, as we rate Yankees, but was also a sturdy Scotchman, being descended from ancestors, who came from Scotland in an early day. He was born December 5, 1824, at Litchfield, Conn., and died June 5, 1897, at Newton, Iowa. His mother's maiden name was Lydia Ann Vertner and she was of German descent. Mr. Adkins was educated in the district schools of Illinois and this, with a wide field of reading, constituted the bulk of his educational qualifications, so he cannot boast of a college education. He settled in Iowa in March, 1865, at Prairie City, and worked in a general store for twelve years.
He went to Paullina, O'Brien county, in October, 1883, going into business with his brother in the general merchandise business; sold out in 1886, in the month of July; went into the Bank of Paullina as bookkeeper August 1, 1886, which position he held until July, 1892, when he took the position of cashier, which he now holds. He has always voted the republican ticket but never held any office, or sought one.
He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, being admitted to membership at Prairie City in 1873, Blue Lodge; is also a member of the Hawarden chapter, Crusade Com- mandery of Cherokee, and El Kahir Shrine of Cedar Rapids. He has never belonged to any church organization, but favors the work being done by all churches.
He was married to Miss A. B. White, daughter of Rev. J. C. White. They have two children, Harry C., aged 18, attending school at Drake university, and Leigh W., aged 11.
Source: Biographies and portraits of the progressive men of Iowa, Benjamin F. Gue, Published by Conaway & Shaw, 1899, p. 372
ALLEN, Milton Henry, of Sheldon, is one of the best-known and most widely employed lawyers of O'Brien county, as well as of northern Iowa generally. He has been brought up in a law office, as it were, for his father, Charles T. Allen, is also a prominent lawyer. He is one of the very early settlers of northeastern Iowa, having come to Winneshiek county from Henry county, 111., in 1856.
He served during the war as captain of Company K, Thirty-fourth Iowa Infantry volunteers. Mr. Allen's mother was formerly Carrie Smith, a native of New York state.
Milt. H. Allen, as he is commonly called, was born February 11, 1859, at Decorah. His earliest instruction was received in the public schools of that town, and was continued at Spencer, in Clay county, whither he moved with his parents in 1871. Five years later the family moved to O'Brien county, settling at Sheldon, where Mr. Allen began reading law in 1877 in the office of Barrett & Allen, the members of the firm being 0. M. Barrett, afterwards state senator, and C. T. Allen, the father of Milton. He was chiefly occupied by his studies for the next few years, though at one time he stopped to accept a position as brakeman on the old Sioux City & St. Paul railway. He was admitted to the bar in the district court of O'Brien county, May 9, 1881, and immediately began practicing in his home town. He removed to Sanborn in 1884, and, after enjoying a good business there for nine years, returned to Sheldon, November, 1, 1893, where he still resides. One of the most important cases he has tried was in February, 1891, on a question of habeas corpus, in which he succeeded in releasing John Telford from the penitentiary at Sioux Falls, S. D., where he had served two of a fifteen-years' sentence for robbery. The point raised was the uncertainty of the statute under which the sentence was pronounced. Since that time Mr. Allen has been employed in nearly all the important cases in O'Brien and adjoining counties, making a specialty of railroad, corporation and criminal law. He has been the local attorney for the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad company since 1889 and of the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha since 1895.
In politics Mr. Allen was a democrat all his life until 1896, when he bolted the Chicago free silver platform and joined the republican forces, making campaign speeches all over northwestern Iowa for McKinley and sound money. He is a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, belonging to the Sioux Falls Lodge No. 262. He is not a member of any church.
Source: Biographies and portraits of the progressive men of Iowa, Benjamin F. Gue, Published by Conaway & Shaw, 1899, p. 302
From: mslace@netins.net
Henry J. Brueggeman and Maggie Florence Ihnen were married December 13, 1921. They were engaged in farming and operated a corn sheller and trucking business for many years.
Henry J. Brueggeman, son of Adolf and Hattie (Hasstedt) Brueggeman, was born January 3, 1899, at Boone, Iowa. In 1908, he came with his parents to a farm near Ocheyedan, Iowa. Maggie Florence Ihnen, daughter of Albert and Bertha (Fechter) Ihnen, was born March 11, 1902, in O'Brien County, Iowa.
After their marriage they lived on a farm near Worthington, Minnesota. In 1927, they moved to a farm on the west edge of Harris, and became members of St. John's Lutheran Church. They also had a corn sheller and trucking business for many years. In December, 1941, they moved to a farm three and one half miles northwest of Harris, where Henry passed away on February 1, 1956.
Maggie moved to Harris in 1958. She and Lester Heppler were married September 8, 1959; he passed away October 5, 1973. Maggie moved to the Golden Years Apartment in Sept, 1974. She entered the Lake Park Care Center in October, 1977, and passed away there February 14, 1893.
Their children: Della Mae Rubsam of Harris, Marlyn (Bud) of Lake Park, and Elaine Mehan of Millford.
Harris, Iowa Centennial
Harris--The past 100 years
Roseanna Mary Zehner
County Coordinator
Lyon County, Iowa
http://www.rootsweb.com/~ialyon/
Herbert E. Dean
Iowa Official Register 1927-1928 - Biographies of State Senators, pg. 230
Submitted by Sharyl Ferrall
Senator from the forty-ninth district comprising Osceola, Lyon, O'Brien and Sioux counties, was born in O'Brien county, Iowa, December 5, 1872, of American parentage. Attended school at Primghar, and Morningside college, Sioux City, Iowa. Served two years as deputy clerk of the court of O'Brien county, under J.W. Walter. Entered the Northern Indiana Normal school at Valparaiso, Indiana, and graduated with the class of 1896. Entered the law department of the State University of Nebraska and graduated with the class of 1898. Was married to Estella M. Bowser of Fort Wayne, Indiana, and has two sons, Wilbur M. and Forest C. Moved to Harris, Iowa, in 1899, and was elected president of the school board. Moved to Ocheyedan, Iowa, in 1901. Was once appointed and three times elected mayor of that town. Devotes most of his time to his farm interests. Elected representative in 1916. Reelected in 1918. Elected senator in 1924. Appointed member of state highway comission by Governor Hammill and confirmed by the senate in 1927. A republican in politics.
McKEEVER, A. J., of Sheldon, O'Brien county, is a product of Ireland, the little green isle that has furnished so large a quota of the men who have been foremost in preserving and developing this great land of the free. His parents, Michael and Rose (O'Kane) McKeever, were farmers, and despite the despicable system of landlordism prevailing in Ireland, were in moderate financial circumstances when they came to the United States in 1860.
The youth of Mr. A. J. McKeever was spent on a farm in Dubuque county, where his parents resided until 1884, when he removed to O'Brien county. In 1888 he engaged in the grocery business at Sheldon, in partnership with Mr. Theodore Geiger, and after one year's prosperous business Mr. McKeever bought out the interest of his partner and continued the business alone. In his youth he learned well the lessons of prudence, frugality and industry, so valuable to men everywhere in business, and these qualities enabled him to increase his stock and extend his business until now he owns and occupies the handsomest business block in that city. He is the embodiment of a first-class business man; strictly honorable in his dealings, courteous to all, and genial and companionable to a high degree. He makes a friend of everyone with whom he comes in contact. Coming direct to Iowa from Ireland in 1860, he begun with pioneer life, and has lived to see the wild prairie upon which he first came for a home transformed into a grand agricultural paradise, all settled up with good citizens and industrious farmers, and has accumulated for himself a goodly portion of this world's wealth to make himself comfortable in old age. Religiously, like the greater share of his nationality, he is a Catholic, and is faithful in his labors for, and self sacrificing in his devotion to, his church. In politics he is a democrat, but one of that kind who has the greatest consideration for the views of those opposed to him.
Source: Biographies and portraits of the progressive men of Iowa, Benjamin F. Gue, Published by Conaway & Shaw, 1899, pp. 268-269
The following is a report, written by a unknown boy between 1913 and 1929, presumably for school. It is a character sketch on George Mennig (19 JUL 1841 - 8 JUN 1929) of Sheldon, Iowa.
I will take for the subject of my sketch Mr. George Mennig who lives in Sheldon at the present time.
He was born in Pennsylvania in 1841 where he spent his boyhood days among the pioneers of that section. At the age of thirteen he, with his parents, emigrated to Davenport, Ia where he worked in the sawmills and other work until 1861 when the Civil War broke out. He was one of the fist volunteers to sign the muster roll. He served in the Union army during the duration of the war. He was in Sherman’s march to the sea, Donelson, Corinth, Shilo. After the war, he worked on the steamboats of the Mississippi River running from St. Paul to lower points on the river. In the fall of 1870 he and N.F. Worth drove a team overland to O’Brien County to look the territory over for a location. He liked the looks of the country and the following April he bought two yoke of oxen and a wagon then loading his wife and baby and all their possessions in the wagon, they started for O’Brien County. They traveled with a number of their old neighbors whom they left at Storm Lake, the others going to Plymouth County, Ia. Mr. Mennig arrived at Peterson, Ia in about three weeks, he soon preempted 160 acres near the present town of Sutherland where they lived in a tent. A year or two later they homesteaded the S.E. ¼ of section 18 Carroll township. A brother-in-law homesteaded the N.E. of the same section and another brother-in-law the N.W. ¼ and Mr. Mennig's mother an 80 of the S.W. ¼ of 18 (Soldiers having the right to homestead 160 acres). The rest of the relation left the country at various times, but Mr. Mennig and wife remained on the same farm for about forty years or until 1913 when they moved to Sheldon. They went through all the usual hardships and privations of the typical homesteader such as going forty miles to market, having crops destroyed by grasshoppers etc. etc. This is but an outline of the life of a pioneer, much more can be written.
The grasshoppers destroyed all his crops one year and damaged them on other occasions. He hauled the lumber for his house from Cherokee to the farm which is 4 miles south of Sheldon. He frequently made trips to Cherokee with four oxen to a wagon and cut a load of poles along the banks of the little Sioux which he hauled home for firewood and for a frame work for a straw or hay shed. On one occasion of his absence, his wife and her sister (now Mrs. Byron Donovan) counted a drove of thirty-five elk on section 17 Carroll township. They were traveling in a northwest direction followed by hunters who later slaughtered them all in Dakota. At another time his nephew Geo Klindt saw a fawn pass through the yard. Mr. Mennig occasionally saw deer and elk on his trips but no buffalo. At one time when lost in a blizzard he unhitched his oxen and tied a rope to the yoke and followed, holding on to it, trusting to one ox that could usually find his way back to where he had been fed at sometime, and so they took him to a settler’s house.
Submitted by Christine Murcia, Missouri Valley, Iowa (George Mennig was my great-grandmother's first cousin)
Representative from O'Brien county, was born in Richland county, Ohio, January 24, 1868, coming to Benton county, Iowa, in 1884. He was educated in the public schools of Ohio and Tilford Academy at Vinton, Iowa. Moved to Sioux county in 1889 and was married in 1890 to Effie Troutman of Benton county. Four sons were born to them, Clarence E., Orlo H., Jesse E. and Marvin W. Jesse E. died while in S.A.T.C., Morningside college in 1918. Mr. Smith moved to O'Brien county in 1902, where he engaged in farming and the raising of pure bred cattle and hogs. He retired from the farm in 1920 and has since lived in Paulina. He is a member of the M.E. church, a Thirty-second degree Mason, a member of the Eastern Star and Modern Woodmen of America, and is a republican in politics. Member of the forty-first and forty-second general assemblies.
