Tegtmeier, A.H.

PIPHO, FRIEDMANN, NACKE, LEVERENST, WIEDEMAN

Posted By: BCGS
Date: 1/1/2010 at 11:54:20

The Tegtmeier family has been prominent in agricultural circles of Bremer county since very early times and its representatives today are numbered among the leading farmers in this section of the state. Among their number is A.H. Tegtmeier, who owns and operates one hundred and twenty acres of land on section 20, Fremont township, a tract upon which he has resided since he began his active career. He was born in Maxfield township, this county, on the 30th of March, 1859, and is a son of August Tegtmeier, a native of Germany, who came to America with his parents in 1851 and afterward worked for some years as a farm laborer. When he was twenty-seven years of age he purchased eighty acres of prairie land in Maxfield township and ten years later disposed of this, buying one hundred and sixty acres in Fremont township. For many years thereafter he cultivated and improved this property but in 1905 lost his sight while blasting rock on his farm. He afterward made his home with his children, dying while residing with his daughter in Fayette county. His wife, who was in her maidenhood Miss Eleanora Pipho, was born in Germany and died on the farm in 1905. To their union were born six children: A.H., of this review; John, of Sumner, Iowa; Fred, a resident of Tripoli; Sophia, the wife of Fred Friedmann, also of Sumner; Caroline, the deceased wife of Henry Nacke, of LeRoy towsnhip; and Mary, who married William Leverenst [Leverance], of Fayette county.

A.H. Tegtmeier was reared upon his father's farm, acquiring his education in district schools. At the age of twnety-seven he married and came into possession of the farm which he now operates receiving from his father one hundred and twenty acres of wild land. This he has since greatly improved erecting excellent buildings and installing modern equipment until it is today by reason of his care and management one of the most valuable and productive properties in the vicinty.

In 1886 Mr. Tegtmeier married Miss Mary Wiedeman, who was born in Warren township, a daughter of Henry and Dorothea Wiedeman. The mother has passed away and her husband survives, residing on the old homestead in Warren township. Mr. and Mrs. Tegtmeier have four children, Ernest, Emma, John and Bertha. The family are members of the Evangelical Lutheran church and Mr. Tegtmeier is a democrat in his political beliefs. He grew up in Bremer county in pioneer times and can still remember many of the conditions which then existed, preserving a clear recollection of his grandfather's old home in Fremont township, which was a fourteen by sixteen upright board shanty, with a thatched roof. The first home which he himself occupied was a small shanty and the stable was covered with straw. Mr. Tegtmeier has witnessed a great deal of the development of this region and to a great extent has assisted in it, his influence being always on the side of right, improvement and progress.

History of Bremer County, Iowa Vol. II 1914