Johann "John" Meisel, Jr.

MEISEL, STAUGIE, HOFFERT, REINART, BACHES, HOSCHEIT, ROSE

Posted By: Richard Gehling (email)
Date: 6/27/2010 at 14:46:41

Johann H. Meisel, Jr. was the son of Johann and Christine Meisel. He was born on 2 November 1830 in Odenhausen, District of Erfurt, Province of Saxony in modern-day Germany. As a teenager he learned the trade of linen weaver. He left his parents' home as a 23-year-old, when he married Fredricka Staugie. The newlyweds set up housekeeping in a home of their own in Odenhausen. There Johann worked for two years at his chosen profession.

But Johann and Fredricka longed for a new life in America. They sailed westward in the early spring of 1855. Fredricka was then in the advanced stages of pregnancy. Her first child, Augusta, was born aboard ship on the 17th day of May right there in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

Upon arrival in the U.S. the Meisels settled first in Pennsylvania. They stayed but a year in the Keystone State, then moved to Bureau County, Illinois, near the town of Princeton. Initially their farm totaled a mere 80 acres, but within a few years they had purchased another 96 acres.

Johann and Fredricka spent a total of 29 years on their Illinois farm. While there, Fredricka gave birth to six more children: Anna, Johanna, Emma, Maria, Heinrich and Benjamin.

In 1885, the Meisels decided on a move to Carroll County in western Iowa. With money generated from the sale of their Illinois properties, they purchased 120 acres in Roselle Township. They later added another 85 acres in Washington Township, and - a little while later - another 160 acres, bringing their Carroll County land holdings up to a total of 365 acres, more than a half section of land.

Johann Meisel retired from farming in 1894, and moved his wife to a large house in the town of Carroll, Iowa. He died there on 28 May 1900 at the age of 69. His wife, Fredricka, survived him by just over six years. Although a devout Lutheran like her husband, soon after his death she sold 88 acres of Meisel land to the Catholic congregation of nearby Halbur, Iowa, so that they might begin construction on St. Augustine's Catholic Church.

Fredricka died on 15 June 1906, and was buried beside her beloved husband in the Carroll City Cemetery.

Firstborn Sons of the Gehling Family
 

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