LOUIS PRILL

PRILL, BARR, FROHM, GIBSON, CLIFTON, SCHULTZE, HEFTON, SEEDEN, LANG, LAUNSPACH, LOESCHEN

Posted By: Mary Beth Janssen (email)
Date: 3/30/2003 at 00:35:43

LOUIS PRILL

(History of Carroll County, Iowa, Vol. II, S.J.Clark Publishing Co. 1912) - -

Glidden has a goodly proportion of retired men - men who for many years were closely associated with agricultural, industrial or commercial interests here or elsewhere, and in the management of their affairs won the success that now permits of honorab1e rest from labor. Prominent among this class is Louis Prill now one of the venerable residents of Carroll County, having reached the eighty-fifth milestone on life’s journey.

He is one of the valuable citizens whom Germany has furnished to the new world, his birth occurring in Lauenburg on the 24th of December 1826. He is the son of Henry and Charlotte (Frohm)Prill also natives of Germany, whose large family of five sons and six daughters included Joachim, Christina, Dorothea, Carolina, Wilhelmina, Lisetta Frederick, Henry, Louis, William, and Sophia.
The father of this family a farmer by occupation, passed away in the old country in 1848 at the age of 65 years. His wife survived him many years and had reached the remarkable age of ninety years at the time of her death.

In the common schools of the fatherland Louis Prill acquired a good education, and his father’s farm was the training ground whereon he received thorough preparation for life’s practical duties. He served a term as a soldier in the regular army, and then in 1851, left the fatherland and came to the United States, first locating in LaPorte Indiana. In that city he was engaged in various pursuits for six years, after which he made his way across the plains by wagon to Pike’s Peak. Finding no work there, however, he continued on to Fort Laramie, Wyoming, and was there employed by the government at haying for a time. He then resumed his journey across the plains with Nevada as his destination, and in the meantime had many adventures with the Indians, who were still numerous in that region. After working in the quartz mills of that state for a while, he made the trip back to Illinois by wagon, and was then engaged in farming for a period, first in Fayette County, and later in Coles County. After remaining in the latter county for three years, he moved to Moultrie County, Illinois, where, he farmed for three years, and in 1875 came to Iowa, since which year he has continued a resident of this state.

He took up his abode in Carroll County, and although be purchase one hundred sixty acres in Grant Township, he made his home in Glidden Township where he invested in 70 acres of land. He now owns 230 acres of land in Glidden and 160 acres in Grant Township,aside from an 80 acre tract located within the corporation limits of Glidden on the south. Prosperity attended his efforts the first and as the years passed his diligence and perseverance constituted the strong elements in the success which came to him
enabling him about 20 years ago to retire from life, at which time he came to Glidden and has since made this his home.

His bank deposits and other investments have been amply sufficient in the evening of life to supply him with all the necessities
and many comforts and luxuries, and thus in his declining days he has not found it necessary to labor for those things which contribute to man’s welfare and happiness.

In the spring of 1854, ere leaving the fatherland Mr. Prill was united in marriage to Miss Ida Minnie Barr, also a native of Germany, and unto them have been born nine children, as follows:

William C., who resides in Glidden and who married Miss Agnes Gibson by whom he has one daughter Margaret; Otto G. who married Mrs. Liz Clifton and with his wife and daughter Nellie resides in Wyoming; Frank of Glidden who married Miss Carrie Schultze
unto which union have been born two daughters Emma and Lillian; Lena, the wife of Vetch Hefton of Marion County Illinois and mother of five daughters; Henry, a farmer of Glidden township
who married Miss Riek Seeden an now has eight children; Emma who married Robert Lang by whom she has four sons, Louis, Walter, Arthur and Palmer; Lizzie, the wife of George Launspach and the mother of four children, Herbert, Fay, Margaret and Ruth, the family residing at Medford, Oregon; Charles, who married Amelia
Loeschen and now has one son Orville, the family residence being located at Glidden, and Louis, who passed away at the age of two and a half years.

Mr. Prill has 26 grandchildren, and there are also two great-grandchildren. In 1889 he was called upon to mourn the loss of his wife who passed away at the age of 62 years. She died
in the faith of the Lutheran Church, of which institution Mr. Prill is also an exemplary member. He has always been a staunch advocate of democratic principles and has held various township offices. A life of activity and usefulness has won an enviable position in the regard of his fellow men. He early learned to value life’s opportunities and appreciate its
purposes, and he is now one of the revered patriarchs of his community who was born during the administration of John Q. Adams, and has lived to witness the notable events which have not only shaped the history of the country but have also largely molded the destiny of the world. His reminiscences of the earlier days are interesting, and give a glimpse into the bygone civilization almost totally unknown to the youth of the present time.