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Biographies of Chickasaw County, IowaAndrew J. Felt ANDREW J. FELT, pioneer journalist, was born at Victor, Ontario County, New York, December 27, 1833. He was educated at Hamilton Academy, later studying law, and came to Iowa in 1855 before being admitted to the bar. Mr. Felt located in Clayton County and the following year became associate editor of the North Iowa Times of McGregor. He was admitted to the bar in Chickasaw County and established the Cedar Valley News at Bradford, attending to law business and editing his paper. In 1860 he renewed his editorial connection with the North Iowa Times until the Civil War began when he enlisted in Company B, Seventh Iowa Volunteers. At the Battle of Belmont he was taken prisoner, remaining in captivity for a year, when he was exchanged and joined his regiment at Corinth. After returning from the army Mr. Felt established the Public Record at West Union, and in 1867 the Nashua Post which he conducted until 1874 when lie purchased an interest in the Waterloo Courier. He was originally a Democrat but became a Republican during the war period. He was a delegate to the National Republican Convention at Chicago which, in 1868, nominated General Grant for President and was chosen one of the secretaries. Later he removed to Kansas where he became prominent in public affairs and was elected Lieutenant-Governor of the State. [History of Iowa, 1903, submitted by Cathy Danielson] William D. Hebard William D. Hebard, hardware merchant and dealer in agricultural implements, was born in the town of Aztalan, Jefferson Co., Wis., Nov. 18, 1849. Lived there about eleven years, then his parents removed with their family to Chickasaw Co., Iowa; he lived there until 1869, when he came to Augusta. He has been selling farm machinery for the last eight years, been associated in the business with J. C. Hackett; they added hardware stock in their business in the Fall of 1880. Mr. Hebard was married in Nashua, Chickasaw Co., Iowa, in 1875, to Mary A., daughter of William and Elizabeth Reed. She was born in Budd Town, N.J. They have two children, Roy W., aged five years and Frank, aged 3 years, both born in Augusta, Wis. Besides his other business Mr. Hebard is interested in farming. He is one of the Village Trustees and is a member of the A. F. & A. M. His parents, William and Killissa H. Hebard, now reside in Nashua, Iowa. [History of Northern Wisconsin (Eau Claire County, Wis.) 1881, page 340; submitted by FoFG mz] Otto Masemann, who is engaged in general farming on section 22, Washington township, Chickasaw county, and also in the breeding of Scotch Durham cattle, was born in Germany, September 17, 1865, his parents being John H. and Anna Masemann. They never came to the United States, the father passing away in Germany a number of years ago and the mother still making her home there. Otto Masemann came to the United States in 1883, when a young man of eighteen years, after having acquired a common school education in his native country. He did not tarry on the Atlantic coast but made his way to the Mississippi valley and took up his abode at Bellevue, Iowa, where he soon secured work as a farm hand. He was thus employed for seven years and afterward he engaged in farm work in Washington township, Chickasaw county, for a year. He was ambitious to own property and carry on farming independently, however, and in 1892 he purchased one hundred and sixty acres of the farm upon which he now resides. Since then he has further extended its boundaries by investment in an additional tract of eighty acres, so that he now has two hundred and forty acres of good land. He is regarded as one of the successful farmers of the county, following improved modern methods in the development of his fields. He breeds and raises Scotch Durham cattle and his stock raising as well as his general farming interests have brought to him success. He has made all of the improvements upon his property and it presents a most attractive appearance, constituting one of the pleasing features in the landscape. At the age of twenty-seven years, on the 17th of March, 1892, Mr. Masemann was married to Miss Elvina Joachim, a daughter of Charles and Mary (Schultz) Joachim, both of whom were natives of Germany and have now passed away. The father departed this life in Washington township, Chickasaw county, while the mother died in La Grange, Illinois, her remains being brought back to Alta Vista for interment. Mr. and Mrs. Masemann have two living children, Fred and Alvina. The son served with the famous Thirty-third or Prairie Division during the European war, being a member of Company C of the One Hundred and Thirtieth Infantry. He was in France for a year and was on some of the most notable battle fronts. Mr. Masemann and his family are members of the German Lutheran church of Alta Vista, and in politics he is a republican. He has served as school director in Washington township for several years and is a stanch advocate of progressive methods of education. In fact he stands for all that tends to promote improvement and upbuilding along any line vital to the welfare of the community. In his business affairs he has prospered and has never had occasion to regret his determination to come to the new world, for he has here found the opportunities which he sought and in their utilization has gained a place among the substantial farmers and representative business men of northern Iowa. William B. Perrin WILLIAM B. PERRIN was born at Berlin, Vermont, January 19, 1839. His education began in the public school and was continued in Barre Academy and Dartmouth College. His studies were interrupted by enlistment in the First Rhode Island Cavalry, Company B, composed for the most part of college students. The company was attached to the Army of the Potomac and saw service in the Shenandoah Valley, the Antietam campaign and at Harper's Ferry. Mr. Perrin later enlisted in the Third Vermont Light Battery, was in the campaign from the Wilderness to Petersburg and at the surrender of the Confederate army under General Lee at Appomattox. After the war Mr. Perrin continued his studies at Dartmouth, graduating in 1866. He took a course of lectures at the Albany Law School in 1866-7, came to Iowa and entered the law office of Tracy and Newman at Burlington. In 1868 he located at Nashua, in Chickasaw County which became his permanent home. He is a veteran legislator, having served in the House of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth General Assemblies, and in the Senate of the Twenty-fifth, Twenty-sixth, Twenty-seventh and Twenty-eighth General Assemblies. [History of Iowa, 1903, submitted by Cathy Danielson] Miss Emily Calkins Stebbins Emily Calkins Stebbins was born January 22, 1843, at Longmeadow, Mass., the eighth generation on American soil. She received her education in the village school supplemented by a course in Peacham Academy, Vt. She came to New Hampton, Iowa, July 13, 1861, and lived with her sister, Mrs. Powers. When H. C. Baldwin, deputy county recorder and treasurer, enlisted with Co. C, 38th Iowa Infantry, Sept. 1, 1862, she took his place and was deputy until January, 1864. In 1865 she entered the law and abstract office of the late J. H. Powers. Feby. 2, 1866, she was commissioned notary public by Gov. Stone, the first woman in Iowa so commissioned, and so far as she can learn, the first in the United States. She is yet notary, abstracter, insurance agent and pension attorney in the office on the ground where she has worked for forty-eight years. She well remembers the looks of holy horror she encountered when she first began working in a public office among men, and remembers that some people would not be waited upon by her because they believed that a woman could not do business correctly. She remembers, too, the flood of female suffrage literature that was then poured upon her. She was for years an active worker in the W. C. T. U., and is a practical, not political, prohibitionist; is a stand-patter in politics and an orthodox Congregationalist. Inheriting from her father French and English blood, and from her mother, Scotch and Welsh, she has positive opinions and language in which to voice them. Touching shoulders with the business world she is up-to-date, or as she says, “I am not a chestnut, and resemble one only in that the worst is on the outside.” [The Blue book of Iowa Women, by Winona Evans Reeves, Publ. 1914, Transcribed by Dana Kraft] Frank Tjaden In 1910 Frank Tjaden settled upon the farm on section 31, Deerfield township, Chickasaw county, on which he now resides, although he has since extended its boundaries until the place now comprises twohundred and forty acres of good land, which he is carefully and successfully cultivating. Mr. Tjaden is a native son of Illinois, his birth having occurred in Woodford county, May 3, 1875, his parentsbeing Menka and Anna (De Fries) Tjaden, who were married in Woodford county, where they became acquainted. The mother died in Floyd county, Iowa, but the father is still living and now resides in Oklahoma with his second wife. Frank Tjaden was educated in the district schools of his native county and throughout the period of his minority remained upon the home farm, assisting in its further cultivation and development. When he had reached man's estate he made his way westward to Washington and afterward became a resident of Pocahontas county, Iowa, where he lived until his removal to Calhoun county. While there he met and married Miss Tena Coleman, whom he wedded on the 5th day of November, 1900. She is a daughter of Bernard and Anna Coleman, both now deceased. The mother died in Nebraska a number of years ago, while the father passed away in Calhoun county, Iowa, September 19, 1911. Following his marriage, Mr. Tjaden rented one hundred and sixty acres of land in Pocahontas county and conducted that farm for ten years. He then removed to Deerfield township, Chickasaw county, and in 1910 took up his abode upon his present farm, having the previous year purchased one hundred and sixty acres of this tract of land. He has since added to his holdings until within the boundaries of his farm are now comprised two hundred and forty acres. He has made this and excellent place by reason of the care and labor which he has bestowed upon it and from his fields he now annually gathers abundant harvests. He Is also a stockholder in the Farmers Elevator of Colwell. As the years have passed Mr. and Mrs Tjaden have become the parents of seven children: Anna, Ludwig, Bernard, Meta, Jacob, Ernest and Leonard, all yet at home. Mr. Tjaden and his family are members of the German Lutheran church of Alta Vista and his political allegiance is given to the republican party, which he supports at the polls, but otherwise he is not active in politics. His farm claims his entire attention and he works diligently in the further development and improvement of the property, which he has converted Into one of the excellent farms of Deerfield township. A. J. Venz, a farmer residing on section 17, Deerfleld township, Chickasaw county, was born in Germany, July 14, 1862, his parents being William and Hannah (Kneppe) Venz, who came to the United States in the spring of 1873 and first settled in Ripon, Fond du lac county, Wisconsin. After ten years they removed to Chickasaw county, Iowa, taking up their abode in Deerfleld township on a tract of land of forty acres. A year later, however, Mr. Venz went with his family to Floyd county, Iowa, where he resided to the time of his death, which occurred January 2, 1919.A. J. Venz was about eleven years of age when he crossed the Atlantic and had attained his majority at the time of the removal of his parents to Iowa. For three years after coming to Chickasaw county he worked for wages as a farm hand and then began renting land which he cultivated for seven years. The profits from his crops were carefully put away until the sum was sufficient to enable him in 1893 to purchase eighty acres of land on section 16, Deerfleld township. For twelve years he resided upon and further improved the farm and on the expiration of that period he traded the property toward the purchase of his present home place, comprising one hundred and sixty acres. Today he has a modern farm, improved with good buildings that afford ample shelter for grain and stock. He devotes his attention to general agricultural pursuits, producing the crops best adapted to soil and climatic conditions here, and the results of his labors have been very gratifying. In November, 1888, Mr. Venz was married to Miss Emma Krumrey, of Chickasaw township, a daughter of Henry Krumrey, who came to Chickasaw county from Germany about 1866. He is now deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Venz are the parents of three children: Etta, now the wife of E. W. Manning, a farmer of Deerfield township; George, who married Lulu Rose, a daughter of W. W. Rose, and is now engaged in farming in Chickasaw township; and Wilbur, at home. Since becoming a naturalized American citizen A. J. Venz has given his political support to the republican party but has never sought nor desired office. His attention has been fully claimed by his business affairs and it has been through his own labor that he has gained his present day success. He started out in life empty-handed and has worked his way upward. He has never been afraid of hard labor, and his dilligence and industry have placed him among the substantial farmers of this section. Source: History of Chickasaw and Howard Counties, Iowa (S. J. Clarke Publishing Co, 1919) Luman H. Weller LUMAN H. WELLER was born at Bridgewater, Connecticut, August 24, 1833. He received a liberal education at academies and the State Normal School. In 1859 he removed to Iowa, locating on a farm in Chickasaw County. He read law after his day's work in the field until 1868 when he was admitted to the bar. In 1867 he was an independent candidate for a seat in the Legislature but was not successful. He was an independent candidate for State Senator at the elections of 1869 and 1877 but was not elected. In 1878 he was a candidate for Congress but was defeated. In 1883 he was nominated for Congress by the National party, made a vigorous campaign and was elected. Mr. Weller served through the Forty-eighth Congress. He became a prominent member of the Populist party and refused to affiliate with the Democrats. [History of Iowa, 1903, submitted by Cathy Danielson] Miss Mamie E. Weller Miss Mamie E. Weller was born Jany. 8, 1862, on a farm at the edge of Greenwood village, near Nashua, in the house which is still her home. She is the daughter of Luman Hamlin Weller and Mary Eliza Pickett. Her father was a lawyer by profession and represented the fourth district in the U. S. congress, 1883-1885. He was a scholarly man, a progressive along every line of thought. He died March 2, 1914. Her mother's grand father, Sylvanus Stewart, during the Revolution collected all the ammunition stored at Danbury, Conn., and had it carried in ox carts to Powkeepsie, N. Y., thus saving it from the British, when they marched on Danbury. Philo Penfield Stewart, who founded Oberlin, the first co-educational college, was a cousin of her grandmother. Miss Weller attended the Nashua high school and Bradford Academy. There are books in every room of the Weller house and these have been her university, for she is a constant reader. She has traveled all over this country, Canada and Mexico. She is a member of the Isabella Club which was a charter member of the I. F. W. C. She attended the first session of the Iowa federation and has been a delegate at many subsequent meetings; has been a delegate to four general federations and to the National Conservation Congress. Her special club interest has been in conservation, having been a member of the state committee on conservation for several years. She is a member of the Congregational church, of the D. A. R., King’s Daughters, International Sunshine Society, and the American Forestry Association. She is fond of society, having a home famed for its hospitality. [The Blue book of Iowa Women, by Winona Evans Reeves, Publ. 1914, Transcribed by Dana Kraft] | |
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