John Wirth

WIRTH, BOLTE, BOHNER, HERKELMAN

Posted By: Barbara Gehlsen Nugent (email)
Date: 7/25/2011 at 10:45:51

Wolfe's History of Clinton county, Iowa, Volume 2, pages 1001, 1002

JOHN WIRTH

Among the old and substantial residents of Brookfield township, Clinton county, Iowa, is John Wirth, a native of Germany, who was born on February 29, 1836. His parents, Martin and Therese (Bohner) Wirth, spent their lives in the fatherland, and of their nine children only two are living, one in the old country and one, the subject of this sketch, in the United States. John Wirth was reared on a farm, but at the age of fifteen years began learning the blacksmith trade, at which his son became a very proficient worker and which he followed at different places in his native country for a number of years. In 1855 he came to the United States and during the ensuing three years worked at his trade in Chicago, removing at the expiration of that time to Minnesota, where he conducted a shop for one year. He then came to Clinton county, Iowa, in June and after spending three years at St. Louis, went to Grand Mound, where he devoted about one year to farm labor, after which he started a shop at DeWitt, where he followed his chosen calling until 1865. In the meantime, 1863, he bought a farm of eighty acres and at the expiration of the period indicated moved to the same and from 1865 until 1881 devoted his attention to agricultural pursuits in this locality. In the latter year he purchased two hundred and twenty acres of land in Brookfield township, to which he moved about the same time and which he improved with good buildings and on a part of which he still resides.

From 1881 until practically retiring from active life a few years ago, Mr. Wirth was one of the leading farmers and stock raisers of Brookfield township, also among the largest land owners, his real estate in Clinton and Jackson counties at one time amounting to over two thousand acres. After accumulating a handsome competency by his farm interests and investments, he divided his land among his children, retaining thirty acres for himself on which he is now living in comfortable and honorable retirement. Mr. Wirth has been very fortunate financially and is today one of the well-to-do men and substantial citizens of the township in which he has long resided. In politics he is a prominent and influential Democrat, and as such has been elected from time to time to various local offices, having served his township as trustee, school director and in other capacities.

Mr. Wirth was married April 27, 1863 to Mary Bolte, a native of Germany, who has borne him eight children, namely: Matilda, Minnie, Felix E. (died on April 24, 1911,at the age of forty-two years), Alexander, Frank, Arthur, Edith and Josephine, the majority of whom are married, well settled in life and highly esteemed in their respective places of residence.

Mr. Wirth is widely known throughout Clinton county and to a marked degree commands the respect and confidence of his neighbors and fellow citizens. He is a self made man in the most liberal meaning of the term, as he came to the county with little means, and the ample fortune which in due time he accumulated is the result of his own labors and judicious management. He is a splendid example of the intelligent and progressive German-American citizenship to which the great West is so largely indebted for its material growth and prosperity and his life may be studied with profit by the young man whose career is yet to be achieved.

Alexander J. Wirth, second son of John and Mary Wirth, was born in Clinton county, Iowa, on the 3d day of March, 1871. He was reared to habits of industry under the excellent training of his father, received a far education in the public schools of his township, and grew up familiar with the active duties of farm life. At the proper age he took his place in the field during his minority, bore his proportionate share in the cultivation of the family homestead, proving industrious and helpful, and while still a mere youth he was able to do a man's part at almost any kind of manual labor. Having chosen agriculture as his life work, he bent all his energies toward becoming proficient in the same, and on leaving home bought two hundred acres of land a short distance west of Elwood, which he has greatly improved and which, under his effective industry, is now one of the finest farms and among the most beautiful and desirable rural homes in the township of Brookfield. Mr. Wirth devotes his attention to general farming and stock raising and his career as an agriculturist presents a series of continual successes such as few attain. Industrious, energetic and possessing sound practical intelligence and mature judgment, he takes broad views of his calling and conducts his farm along modern lines with the result that he never fails to realize bountiful returns from his labors. He is a public spirited man, keenly alive to the best interests. of his township and county, and ready at all times to lend his influence to all worthy measures for the general welfare. He is pronounced in his allegiance to the Democratic party, keeps well informed for the best interests of his fellow men. Fraternally, he is an Odd Fellow, belonging to the lodge at Lost Nation, the canton and encampment at Maquoketa and the Rebekah degree at Elwood, being an active and influential worker in the several branches of these orders.

Mr. Wirth, in the month of November, 1894, was united in marriage with Clara Herkelman, whose father, Carl Herkelman, is noticed elsewhere in this chapter, the union resulting in the birth of four children, Raymond, Lester, Lela and Verda. In every relation of life Mr. Wirth is recognized as possessing a strong sense of truth and justice and he discharges the duties of citizenship with the energy and fidelity characteristic of the broad-minded American who loses sight of self in his desire to uphold the honor of his state and nation. Of inflexible integrity and irreproachable character and actuated by a sincere desire to make the world better, he stands today among the most estimable and popular citizens of the township in which he resides.