Johann Dentlinger, 1899 Biography

DENTLINGER, RADKE

Posted By: David Reineke (email)
Date: 7/24/2004 at 14:53:20

I translated the following biography from Der Carroll Demokrat, a German-language newspaper published in Carroll, Iowa, between about 1874 and 1920. It was originally published in a special 25th Anniversary Edition of the paper on Friday, 20 September 1899. I have not changed the place or name spellings. Any information in brackets or notes at the end are my own explanations. It reads as follows:

Johann Dentlinger

With pleasure, the Anniversary Edition publishes a short life history of Mr. Johann Dentlinger, who indeed belongs to a class of persons who are a credit to the German culture in these parts. With a candid, respectable and frank character, his word is as good as a German handshake in the old days.

He was born in Sedorf, district of Oberndorf, on the lovely Neckar River, on 27 November 1850. He lost his mother at the age of three years, and so had to depend on his own resources from an early age. So, at the age of 15, he made his way to Elsass [Alsace]. He worked there for four and one-half years, and made himself useful at various occupations. After a short trip home for several months, he immigrated to America in 1870. He went first to Illinois where he lived in Bureau County, working on various farms. In the spring of 1877, he moved to Iowa, where he purchased a farm in Arcadia Township, Carroll County. He stayed in that township until 1882, when he moved to an 80-acre farm in Carroll Township, which he had purchased earlier in 1880. On 21 November 1882, he married Miss Theresia Radke, a respectable and proper young woman who was born in Putnam County, Illinois on 19 March 1858. In 1897, Mr. Dentlinger sold his farm in Carroll Township and then purchased a 160-acre farm in Arcadia Township, where he has happily and peacefully resided since then with his wife and children, respected by all their acquaintances. This happy marriage has produced eight children, namely: Franz, Otto, Joseph, Maria, Theresia, Philip, Anna and Margaretha.

NOTES: The town of Oberndorf am Neckar is in southwestern Germany, and there is a town called Seedorf a few miles to the west which may be the town mentioned. They are in the region known as Wuerttemberg, or Baden Wuerttemberg. The 1880 census shows a John Dentlinger and father residing on the farm of August Staiert in Arcadia Township, where they are listed as brother-in-law and father-in-law. The 1880 census shows a Radke family living in Milo, Bureau County, Illinois, with a “Theresse” age 21.