Josseph Schwaller & Son, Jos. C. Schwaller, 1899 Biography

SCHWALLER, WEBER

Posted By: David Reineke (email)
Date: 1/13/2007 at 12:57:09

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. Any information in brackets or notes at the end are my own explanations. It reads as follows:

Jos. Schwaller and Son

Mr. Joseph Schwaller is likewise an early settler of Roselle Township, as he has lived in that township since 1874. He is not only an early settler, however, but he is also the earliest United States citizen of the township, having been in possession of his citizenship papers since 1857.

Mr. Schwaller was born in 1822 in Canton Solothurn, in Switzerland. He immigrated to the free country of America in 1852, and two years later he married the well-brought-up Miss Elisabeth Weber, who was born in Rhenish Bavaria [a former district of Bavaria near the Rhine River] and as a 2-year-old child came with her parents to Cincinnati, Ohio. In 1845, she moved with her parents to Guttenberg, Iowa. The elderly woman, therefore, also belongs among the earliest settlers of the State of Iowa.

The couple lived near Guttenberg, Iowa until 1874, and in that year they moved to Carroll County, Iowa. The names of their children are: Joseph C., Wilhelm, August, Heinrich, and Elisabeth, all of whom live in Roselle Township.

Joseph C. Schwaller

This man, the son of the above-named gentleman, enjoys great popularity not only in Roselle, but also in many parts of the county. He was born on 22 August 1855 in Guttenberg, Clayton County, Iowa, where he attended the parish and public schools. After he had progressed rapidly through these schools, he devoted himself for several years to his further education, and especially concentrated on the mechanical trades. In 1874, he moved with his parents and siblings to Roselle Township, Carroll County, where his parents purchased a 200-acre farm. Mr. Joseph C. Schwaller then turned to the teaching profession and worked for 10 years as a popular and successful public schoolteacher.

In his spare time, he worked at watch-making, a trade in which he had earlier rendered good service as a mechanic. He later gave up the tiring profession of schoolteacher and devoted himself entirely to watch-making, in which he worked with much skill and enjoyed broad customer support.

He also works on a large scale at poultry raising, an occupation he finds enjoyable, but especially at raising the superior and pure blood breeds such as the yellow and silver Wyandottes, striped Plymouth Rocks, brown Leghorns, bronze turkeys, Toulouse geese, Peking ducks, and white guinea fowl.

Nowhere is there to be found a better or more practical system for raising these breeds than this man has established, and naturally the very large area around his farm is very useful for this.

And since 1874, Mr. Schwaller has also been secretary of the Farmers Mutual Insurance Company of Roselle against Fire, Lightning, and Tornado. So that the reader may have an idea of the business of this company, we mention here briefly that since Mr. Schwaller has been secretary of this company, the insurance capital of the company has risen from $31,000 to $540,000.