Bollinger, Jacob

BOLLINGER, MILLER, HOWES, LANTZ, EICHLEY, STUMPF, MENHARDT, SHOLLENBERGER, EBERSOLE, DAVIS, BARRICK, SCHEMP, KAUFMAN, SHULTZ, SIDDLE, BAKER

Posted By: Volunteer Transcribers
Date: 1/25/2003 at 09:34:53

Source: "The 1901 Biographical Record of Clinton Co., Iowa, Illustrated" published: Chicago : S. J. Clarke Pub. Co., 1901.

JACOB BOLLINGER.

Jacob Bollinger, deceased, was one of the representative farmers and highly esteemed citizens of Bloomfield township. He was a native of Switzerland, born January 8, 1831, and a son of Leonard and Barbara Bollinger, who spent their entire lives in that country as farming people. The father died in 1871, aged sixty years, the mother in 1876, aged seventy-five. In their family were eight children, all of whom were reared in Switzerland with the exception of our subject. The only one now living is Leonard, who continues to make his home in that country.

The subject of this sketch attended the district schools of his native land until fifteen years of age, and assisted his father in the operation of the home farm. At the age of twenty he emigrated to the new world, and on landing in New York proceeded at once to Ohio, where he worked as a farm hand for about five years. From there he went to Clark county, Indiana, where he was similarly employed.

In Clark county Mr. Bollinger was married, September 11, 1857, to Miss Anna Miller, who was also born in Switzerland, on the 11th of January, 1839, and in 1851 came to the United States with her parents, Nicholas and Elizabeth Miller, also natives of Switzerland. They crossed the Atlantic from Havre, France, on The Harvest, a sailing vessel, and after a good voyage of fifty-three days landed in New Orleans. The weather was so warm that on New Year’s day it was uncomfortable on board the ship. At New Orleans they took a steamer up the Mississippi river to Louisville, Kentucky, where the daughters secured work, while the father and mother went across the river into Indiana, where they bought a farm of eighty acres, making it their home for twenty-five years. There the mother died about 1878, after which the father lived with his children until he, too, was called to his final rest, in 1884. They had two sons and four daughters, namely: Simon, who married Theresa Howes, and lives in Clark county, Indiana; Anna, widow of our subject; Barbara, wife of William Lantz, of Clark county, Indiana; Elizabeth, wife of Charles Eichley, of Louisville, Kentucky; Lena, who has been married three times, her first husband being a Mr. Stumpf, the second Charles Menhardt, and the third Francis Shollenberger, of Maquoketa, Iowa; and John a leading dry-goods merchant of Louisville, Kentucky.

After his marriage Mr. Bollinger rented a farm of eighty acres in Clark county, Indiana, for two years, and subsequently rented another farm for ten years. At the end of that time he came to Clinton county, Iowa, and bought eight acres of land in Bloomfield township, to the cultivation and improvement of which he devoted his energies for seventeen years. On selling that place he bought the farm of ninety acres on section 6, Bloomfield township, which is now owned by their son, Leonard. Later he bought fifty acres on the same section, and made many improvements upon his place, including the erection of a good house and barn.

Unto Mr. and Mrs. Bollinger were born eight children, as follows: Elizabeth became the wife of Henry Ebersole, a farmer of Bloomfield township; Edward married Emma Davis, and lives in Delmar; Lydia is the wife of Samuel Barrick, of O’Brien county, Iowa; Jacob married Julia Schemp, and lives in Fulton, Jackson county, Iowa; Anna is the wife of Daniel Kaufman, of Bloomfield township, this county; Henry married Agnes Shultz, and makes his home near Edgewood, Iowa; Katie is the wife of George Siddle, who lives on a farm near Delmar, Bloomfield township, Clinton county; and Leonard married Leafie Baker, and resides on the homestead farm.

Mr. Bollinger died on the 8th of December, 1883, and was laid to rest in the Union church cemetery. He was a minister of the German Baptist church, and held an appointment at Fulton, Jackson county, Iowa. In politics he was a Republican. For many years he labored with all the strength of a great nature and all the earnestness of a true heart for the bettering of the world about him; and when he was called to the rest and reward of the higher world his best monument was found in the love and respect of the community in which he lived.