A. F. COLLMAN

COLLMAN

Posted By: Jake Tornholm (email)
Date: 4/21/2020 at 12:38:48

A. F. COLLMAN, a farmer and nurseryman of section 4, Mercer township, was born in Hanover, Germany, January 18, 1841, a son of Frederick and Dora (Bussie) Collman, natives of Hanovor, Germany, where they were reared and married. In 1845 they emigrated to America, first locating in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, thence to Kendall county, Illinois, where he improved a frontier farm and reared a family of six children, three of whom are living at this writing. The father died in 1871, at the age of eighty-four years, and the mother in 1889, at the age of ninety-one years.

Our subject was reared on a farm, receiving his early education in the common schools, and completed it at what is now known as Jennings Seminary, at Aurora, Illinois. In connection with his farming pursuits he began teaching at the age of eighteen, and taught for six terms, five of which were in his own township. He was married March 1, 1863, to Miss Martha Beecher, a native of New York, and daughter of Philo and Mary (Olney) Beecher. The father was a cousin of the celebrated divine, the late Henry Ward Beecher, and of Puritan ancestry. Mr. Beecher settled in Kendall county, Illinois, in 1850, and there died at the age of fifty-one years. Mrs. Beecher is now a resident of Lincoln, Nebraska. After his marriage Mr. Collman purchased a part of his father-in-law's farm, where he resided until 1872, when he came to Adams county, Iowa, purchasing 160 acres of wild land, where he has since resided. In 1873 he engaged in the nursery business, and is the only man in the county who has made a success of the nursery business. He has now a well improved farm of 240 acres, and raises more nursery stock than any man in Southern Iowa. He is the Vice-President of the State Horticultural Society.

Mr. and Mrs. Collman are the parents of five children: Charles, Louise, the wife of Frederick Reese, Leavitt, Etta and Ralph. The family are members of the Congregational Church of Corning. He has served as deacon of the church since 1873. He organized the Union Sunday-school in Mercer township, which has the largest attendance according to the number enrolled of any Sunday-school in the county. He takes great interest in the church work, and is an ardent worker in the temperance cause. Politically he is a Republican.