WILLIAM A. RADEKE
— Inheriting in no small measure the habits of industry, honesty and
thrift, characteristic of his German ancestors, William A. Radeke, of
Iowa township, is widely known as one of the most intelligent and
prosperous agriculturists of Benton county, being an extensive
landholder and a citizen of worth and prominence. A son of Ferdinand
Radeke, he was born April 5, 1858, in Tama county, Iowa.
A native of Germany, Ferdinand Radeke was born, in 1807, near Berlin,
and there lived for more than forty years. Emigrating to the United
States in 1854, he was fourteen weeks in crossing the broad Atlantic.
From New York city he came directly to Iowa, and the following four
years worked at his trade of a harness maker in Iowa City. Driving to
Tama county in 1858, he invested a large part of his savings in land,
buying one hundred and sixty acres in York township. The real estate
dealer of whom he bought the land was a veritable land shark, with no
right whatever to dispose of the tract, and Mr. Radeke eventually lost
all title to it. He subsequently made a bona fide purchase of eighty
acres of the same farm, and was there employed in tilling the soil
several seasons. In common with the early settlers of the place he
lived in a frugal manner, corn bread made from meal ground by hand
being a large part of the living at first. But little machinery was
then used in farming, wheat, the staple product, being cut with a hand
sickle and threshed with a flail. Coming from there to Benton county in
1866, he settled in Iowa township, buying the eighty acres of land on
section 24 that are now owned and occupied by his son William. A part
of the land had been previously broken, and a log house had been
erected. He was successful as a farmer, and subsequently bought eighty
acres of adjoining land. He also bought land in Leroy township, where
he afterwards pursued his independent vocation for awhile. From there
he removed to Luzerne, there living retired until his death, in 1888.
Ferdinand Radeke was three times married. By his first wife, who was a
life-long resident of Germany, he had three children, of whom one
survives, Frank, now a resident of Welsh, Louisana. He married second,
in Germany, April 2, 1832, Louisa T. Schmidt, who was born April 10,
1813, and died in the Fatherland in 1848. The only child born of that
union has passed to the life beyond. He married for his third wife, in
1854, Wilhelmina Schmidt, who was born November 20, 1824, and died
March 11, 1904, leaving four children, namely: Henry A., of Iowa
township; William A., the subject of this brief sketch; 0. L., of Leroy
township ; and Gustave, of Oklahoma.
Reared to manhood under the parental roof-tree, William, A. Radeke
received a limited education in the rural schools of his district, and
subsequently began life on his own account on eighty acres of land
deeded to him by his father in 1881, it being the original homestead
property on section 24, Iowa township. Toiling wisely and well, he met
with eminent success in his agricultural labors, and now owns valuable
farming lands, having one hundred and twenty acres of rich and fertile
land in Benton county, and six hundred and sixty-seven acres of well
improved land in Pipestone and Lincoln counties, Minnesota. Mr. Radeke
has made other investments of importance, being a stockholder in the
Luzerne Savings Bank, and holding stock in several banking institutions
in South Dakota.
Mr. Radeke has been twice married. He married first, in February, 1883,
Louisa Kern, who was born in Kendall county, Illinois, and died in Iowa
township, Benton county, October 18, 1892, aged twenty-nine years. She
bore him six children, of whom five are living, namely: Minnie, wife of
Edwin Anderson, of Chicago, Illinois; Clara, wife of Henry Meyermann,
of Belle Plaine, Iowa; Mary, wife of A. F. Landsmann, of Lyons, Iowa;
Amelia, of Belle Plaine, and Albert, living at home. Mr. Radeke married
for his second wife Annie Schultz, who was born in LeRoy township,
Benton county, September 28, 1871, a daughter of John Schultz, and to
them seven children have been born, namely: Martha, August, Clarence,
Elmer, John, Richard and Arnold. Politically Mr. Radeke is a
Republican, and is now serving as a justice of the peace. Religiously
he is a member of the German Lutheran church.
Picture of William and Annie Radeke
