AUGUST LUDWIG MEIER 1862-1952

MEIER, SEITZ, MARSTON

Posted By: Volunteer
Date: 4/21/2005 at 19:57:13

AUGUST LUDWIG MEIER

Funeral services were held Sunday at 2:30 p.m. at the Community Presbyterian Church for August Meier, 90, pioneer Postville resident, who passed away June 12 at the home of his daughter, Mrs. E. C. Marston. The rites were in charge of Rev. Walter T. Martin. Burial was in Postville cemetery.

Mr. Meier was long associated in the community life of Postville having served on various town boards and having been engaged in a number of business enterprises.

August Ludwig Meier was born on November 20, 1862 on a farm near Garnavillo. He was the youngest son of Christian and Elizabeth Meier, pioneers of Clayton county. He was the last survivor in a family of nine children. In February, 1887, he was married to Belle Seitz of McGregor. To this union was born one daughter, Amy Katherine.

After spending a year on the home farm, they moved to a farm one mile west of town, then into Postville, where he has since resided.

He was confirmed in the Lutheran Church at Garnavillo where he grew to manhood. When the family moved to this community, he joined the Methodist Church and later the Community Presbyterian Church when it was formed and where he has always been a regular attendant.

In his earlier years, he took an active part in the affairs of the community. He was instrumental in organizing the Postville Creamery, a member of the board of education, mayor, councilman, assessor, and director and vice president of the Postville State Bank. He was engaged in various business enterprises.....shoe and clothing, hardware and produce, where he introduced the practice of candling and grading eggs. He worked for a time for the original firm of Luhman & Sanders.

He was ever a lover of music. This interest was acquired in the old-fashioned singing school. So eager was he that others should gain the same pleasure from singing, that he went out into the country and conducted singing schools without compensation. He was church choir leader for over 50 years and seldom missed a Sunday. He attended Moody Institute for a time and studied music under D. B. Towner.

For many years before his health failed, he spent the winter in California where he had a host of friends, many of them former Iowans.

He was preceded in death by his wife who passed away in 1922. He died on June 12, 1952, in his ninetieth year, at the home of his daughter, Mrs. E. C. Marston.

Postville Herald - contributed by Mary Durr