Edward J. SCHERF

SCHERF, HAYES, DINGLE, ADAMS, JACOBS, TOMPKINS, PALMER, HARTHAN

Posted By: Sharon R. Becker (email)
Date: 3/29/2011 at 08:46:02

EDWARD J. SCHERF

Notwithstanding the fact that he experienced the somewhat unusual fortune of birth, on June 24, 1847, in mid-ocean, Edward J. SCHERF cannot be called a man without a country. He may indeed be regarded as a representative of American and it has been given to him to serve the country in war and in peace. Mr. SCHERF is of that stanch German stock whose assimilation is beneficial to any new country. His parents, Christian and Menia (DINGLE) SCHERF, were both natives of Saxony, and in 1847, they followed theexample of so many of their friends and neighbors and decided to seek a new home beyond the seas. They were already the parents of three children and, as previously mentioned, Mr. SCHERF'S birth occurred en voyage on June 24.

The elder SCHERF, who had been a woolen worker in his native land, soon after landing on American shores, went to Milwaukee, where he found a means of livelihood in railroad construction. The early days in the new country was saddened by the death of the mother, Edward SCHERF being at the time of her demise but four months old.

Of the four children of this first marriage two are still living, Mr. SCHERF and Caroline, widow of Peter ADAMS of Ventura, Iowa.

The father married again, the second wife being May JACOBS, who survived until 1900, her age at the time of her death being seventy-two years. This union also was blessed by the birth of four children, all of whom are living.

In 1856, when Mr. SCHERF was about nine years of age, his father decided to remove to the country which he believed to possess greater and more wholesome opportunities for a family of growing children. To this end he purchased eighty acres of timber and rough land in Sauk county, Wisconsin, the tract being known as Baraboo Bluffs. This land was cleared and grubbed out and brought to a state where cultivation became possible at the expenditure of great time and labor and like most boys similarly situated young Edward was called upon to take his share of the struggle with the wild country, when he was yet a mere lad.

Ten years later, in November, 1866, the father again resolved upon a new scene of endeavor, this time removing to Floyd county, Iowa. The journey from Wisconsin was made by wagon and the usual adventures of the pioneer were experienced. Again the father purchased an eighty acre tract of wild land, four miles west of Charles City, and again began the task of clearing and subduing the hitherto unbroken country. This he accomplished with the assistance his sons and here he engaged successfully in the pursuit of agriculture until some little time previous to his death, when he removed to Ventura.

To Mr. SCHERF'S lot fell a full share of those hardships and privations which are ever the heritage of the pioneer. In Sauk county, when it was not yet necessary to use two figures in writing his age, the clearing of the rough land was left to him and his step-mother, while the father eked out a by no means abundant living by hiring out by the day. The toil entrusted to him was so far beyond his years and strength that often at night time he found himself too tired to sleep and the dawn of a new day would find him the "raveled sleeve of care" still frayed and worn. But however hard this discipline may have seemed at the time it is doubtless true that it had its beneficial mission and that is assisted in building up the character which ultimately came to be distinguished for its strength and fearlessness.

It is needless to say that there was little time left for the acquisition of an education, and Mr. SCHERF enjoyed the advantages of but two winter terms of school. But all learning is by no means secured at a desk in a school room and Mr. SCHERF, being naturally ambitious, has since by his own efforts done much to remedy this defect.

Meanwhile the Civil war cloud which had been gathering for so many years burst in all its fury, and in February, 1863, Mr. SCHERF enlisted in Company L of the Third Wisconsin Cavalry. He was but sixteen years of age and in order to be accepted forged the papers giving his father's consent. It is an almost pathetic commentary on the toilsome and rigorous life hitherto led by this youth that he looked upon the dangers and hardships of war with positive eagerness, preferring them to his hard lot at home. He had intently observed the soldiers at Baraboo and he looked with envious eyes upon their leisure and the good times they seemed to be having. However, when he got in active service and heard the bullets whizzing about his head, and saw his comrades falling about him, he confessed that he many times wished that he was back in Wisconsin hauling flour.

As soon as his father discovered the fact of his enlistment he made efforts to have him released on account of his being under age, but he was advised by a lawyer that on account of the papers having been forged it would doubtless be expedient to let the matter rest. And so it came to pass that Mr. SCHERF served in defense of the Union until the close of the war, being discharged at Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas, November 15, 1865.

It has been given to few of our country's brave to have a more thrilling Civil war experience than Mr. SCHERF. Sixteen months of his service was spent on the frontier among the Indians. He by no means escaped unscathed, but was wounded three times, still bearing the scar of a saber cut across his head and on his hand and still carrying as a vivid memento a bullet which lodged between the thumb and forefinger of his right hand.

Immediately after his discharge, Mr. SCHERF returned to Wisconsin, where he engaged for awhile in farming. In 1869 he married [Mary HAYES] and the following year went to Floyd county, Iowa, whither his father had preceded him. For a year he made his livelihood as an employee of the Milwaukee railroad and from time to time assisted a brother-in-law and an uncle in their farming.

In 1872 Mr. SCHERF decided to try a hazard of new fortunes and with his wife set out in a wagon to Osceola county, Iowa. They had progressed as far on their journey as Mason City when the horse fell in trying to ford the stream and they were very nearly drowned. Discouraged by this serious mishap they returned to Floyd county, where they remained until the spring of 1873, when they removed to Cerro Gordo county.

On December 19, Mr. and Mrs. SCHERF located in Clear Lake township, where eighty acres of wild land had been purchased at a cost of three hundred and eighty dollars. The lumber for their first house, which was sixteen by twenty by eighteen feet in dimension, was purchased from Mr. W. C. TOMPKINS of Clear Lake at a cost of one hundred dollars. Mr. SCHERF, who had no ready money at hand, was obliged to ask for credit and at that hauled the lumber from Clear Lake with a team of oxen.

For nearly a year the little family lived in the unplastered barn but made of the humble abode as much of a home as a more magnificent dwelling could have been.

In 1873 the resources being low, Mr. SCHERF found it wise to secure employment upon the Milwaukee railroad in order to earn enough money to meet living expenses. Happily his fortunes steadily improved and in course of time he found himself in a position to purchase eighty additional acres at a cost of five hundred dollars.

Prosperity, attracted by our subject's industry and good management, smiled upon him and he is now the possessor of much valuable land, two hundred and fifty acres in Clear Lake township and one hundred and eighty acres in Grant township. His land is all highly improved and he has set out many trees.

He is now retired and since 1900 has been enjoying at Ventura the fruits of his former industry. He enjoys several affiliations, among them membership in the Tom Howard Post of the G. A. R., at Clear Lake, and with his brother veterans lives over the exciting days of the war.

He has given a life long allegiance to the Republican party.

Mr. SCHERF has always been a skillful and enthusiastic hunter and during his life has owned probably one hundred shot guns. When he becomes the possessor a new gun he at once removed the stock and barrel lock and proceeds to make one to suit himself, carving the new part out of a walnut strip. Among his collection he has some very beautiful ones inlaid with mother-of-pearl and bone. For years he hunted for the market and has killed three hundred and fifty Mallard ducks in twenty-seven days. In his time has killed and shipped many car loads of prairie chickens and still enjoys the sport.

On December 26, 1869, Mr. SCHERF was united in marriage to Mary HAYES, who was born in Ohio in 1849. To this union has been born a family of nine children as follows: William, of Clear Lake township; John, of Grant township; Frank, of Grant township; James, of Clear Lake township; Nellie, wife of Clarence PALMER of Lake township ; Bert, of Clear Lake township; Edward, at home; Sadie, wife of George HARTHAN of Clear Lake township; and Milo, at home.

SOURCE:
WHEELER, J. H., Editor & Compiler. History of Cerro Gordo County, Iowa. Lewis Publ. Co. Chicago. 1910.

Transcription by Sharon R. Becker, March of 2011