Tietje, William

ZELL, GEHRKE, BLUME, KEDING, RIECK

Posted By: BCGS
Date: 12/4/2009 at 21:42:14

Sumner has a goodly proportion of retired men - men who for many years were closely associated with agricultural, industrial or commercial interests of the locality and in the management of their affairs won the success that now permits of honorable rest from labor. To this class belongs William Tietje, who, in 1884, settled in Bremer county, remaining active in agricultural pursuits for many years thereafter. He was born in Hanover, Germany, May 5, 1851, and is a son of Christ and Catherine (Kruse) Tietje, the latter of whom died in Germany. The father afterward came to America with his two youngest children and passed away at the home of his son William. He and his wife became the parents of five children: Christof, who resides in Germany; Henry, who died in 1910, William, of this review; Catherine, who married William Tieman, of Waverly; and John, of Minnesota.

William Tietje acquired his education in the public schools of Germany, attending from the time he was six until he was fourteen. At the age of twenty he came to the United States and for seven years thereafter worked on a farm in Lake county, Illinois, his highest wages during this period being two hundred dollars per year. At the end of seven years he bought forty acres of wild land and carried forward the work of its development until he moved to Bremer county. Here he purchased two hundred and forty acres in Sumner township, upon which was a good house but which was otherwise unimproved. To this Mr. Tietje later added one hundred and twenty acres adjoining an eighty acre tract in Fayette county. Upon this property he erected three sets of good buildings and when he retired divided the land between three of his sons, by whom the farms are now operated.

On the 8th of February, 1878, Mr. Tietje was united in marriage to Miss Louisa Zell, who came from Germany to America with her parents when she was thirteen years of age. Mr. and Mrs. Tietje have five children. William is engaged in farming in Sumner township. His wife was in her maidenhood Miss Ida Gehrke. Henry married Sophia Blume and is following farming in Fayette county. Charles married Bertha Keding and is operating one of his father's farms. Louis is a farmer on the old homestead. His wife was in her maidenhood Miss Martha Rieck. Ida lives at home. The parents have lived in Sumner since the spring of 1912 and they occupy a comfortable and attractive home in the west end of town. Mr. Tietje is a member of St. John's Lutheran church and is a republican in his political views. He was one of the organizers of the local creamery and has been its president for a number of years and while on the farm served for some time as treasurer of his school district. In all the work of improvement he has borne his full share and well deserves mention among the representative and able men of this locality.

History of Bremer County, Iowa Vol. II 1914