Stephen Douglas Sturtz

STURTZ

Posted By: County Coordinator (email)
Date: 5/27/2010 at 16:36:47

Among Boone county’s native sons is numbered Stephen Douglas Sturtz, who is now engaged in the occupation of farming in Dodge township, having a well developed tract of land, form which he derives gratifying annual income, He was born November 3, 1860, and is a son of J M and Caroline (Goetzman) Sturtz. His father was born January 9, 1833, in Muskingum county, Ohio, and comes of German ancestry. In the place of his nativity he was reared and when a young man of twenty years he came to Boone county in 1853. Here he engaged in farming and the tract of and upon which he first settled remained his place of residence until his death which occurred in Chicago, at the home of his daughter, Mrs William Paulson on August 2, 1911. He had devoted his entire life to farming and stock raising up to that he time of his retirement from active business and was numbered among the leading agriculturists of Boone county. His political support was given the democratic party and he attended the Lutheran church. He was strong in his honor and his good name and sterling traits of character endeared him to those with whom he came I contact. In august 1854, he married Caroline Goetzman, who was born September 12, 1836, in Alsace-Lorraine. In her girlhood she came with her parents to America, the family home being established in Ohio. In 1853, she became a resident of Boone county, where she remained until her death, which occurred on the home farm in July 1909.
Mr and Mrs Sturtz were the parents of seven children. William A born in 1857 is now a retired farmer and stock buyer, residing in Boone. Stephen D is the next of the family, George, born 1866 is engaged in the real estate business in Sioux City, Iowa. Ann D born in 1871 is the wife of William Paulson, a resident of Chicago. James born 1878 is engaged in farming in Boone county. They were also the parents of two children, who died in infancy.
Stephen Douglas Sturtz was born and reared in this county and during his youthful days he divided his time between attendance of the public schools and the work or the fields. He continued to assist his father upon the old farm until 1884, when he was married and purchased a tract of land. He then began farming and stock raising on his own account and has since followed that pursuit, residing continuously in Dodge township with the exception of eight years, when he was a resident of Boone. He owns about 350 acres, which he has brought to a high state of cultivation and to which he has added ay modern improvements and equipments. The success which has crowned his efforts is well merited and indicates what maybe accomplished when ambition and energy point out the way.
On September 24, 1884, Mr Sturtz was married to Miss Cordelia Swigert, a daughter of Anderson and Mary (Winklepleck) Swigert, who were married in Ohio. They had a family of eight children, of whom four survive, Madill, George A, Frank and Cordelia. The last named was born on June 12, 1866, in Boone county, where she was reared and educated. Mr and Mrs Sturtz became the parents of five children, three of whom are living. Beatrice who was born in 1887, is a graduate of Boone high school. In 1908 she became the wife of A V Dalberg, a chemist in a beet sugar mill at Sterling, Colorado. They have two children, Helen and James. Horace, born in 1889, was graduated form the high school of Boone and married Leam Williams. He died January 7. 1913, as a result of an accident. Geneva born in 1891, and Herschel D born in 1898 are at home with their parents. Clayton B died in infancy.
Mr and Mrs Sturtz are members of the Presbyterian church and are loyal to their professions. He has never held political office outside of township positions and is rather independent in his political views. Throughout his entire life, covering a period of about fifty-four years he has lived in Boone county and has been an interested witness of all the changes which have occurred, wrought by time and man. He has lived to see the pioneer homes upon the farms of this county replaced by commodious, substantial residences, while the work of agricultural development has been carried forward until Boone ranks with the leading counties of the state in the primitiveness of its soil and in the amount of harvests produced on a given area.

1914 Boone County History Book