Charles Jargo

JARGO, LANGE, KUNAU, FELDTMANN, PETERS

Posted By: Barbara Gehlsen Nugent (email)
Date: 7/25/2011 at 13:29:53

Wolfe's History of Clinton County, Volume 2, Excerpt 1017, 1018, 1019

CHARLES JARGO.

This sketch deals with the life of a man who is prominently identified with the farming and stock raising interests of Elk River township and the vice-president of the Teeds Grove Savings Bank. Charles Jargo was born in Elk River township. Clinton county. Iowa, on March 28, 1864, was reared to farming and stock raising, and received his education in the district schools, and at Riverside Institute, where he spent two terms. He is the son of William F. and Wilhelmina (Lange) Jargo, both natives of Mecklenburg. Germany, where they were married.

William F. Jargo was reared as a shepherd boy, caring for the sheep, later engaged in regular farm work, and when married came to America, landing in New York in 1857. From there he came to Chicago, where both he and his wife found employment on a farm, for, being without means, they were not afraid to work. Here they remained but a short time and then came to Clinton, where he found work cutting cord wood for the railroad at a low price per cord. Later he worked at such labor as he could find, mostly for the farmers, often taking pay in some of their produce, on which he could live, thus continuing until he was able to buy a yoke of oxen, when he rented a farm. He rented until 1867, when he bought eighty acres of land at twenty-five dollars per acre, with a small amount of improvements, including a box house. He resided on this farm until his death, to which he added until it included two hundred and forty acres, and had bought other lands, and aided his three sons in the purchase of farms.

Mr. Jargo followed general farming and stock raising, also buying and feeding stock for market, mostly shipping his own stock, and giving his attention to his farm and its products to the exclusion of other matters. In the true sense of a self-made man, he accumulated a good estate. His best and most often consulted adviser was his wife, a faithful helpmate. In politics he was a Republican, but never aspired to office beyond serving in some of the township offices, among them that of school director, which he filled for several years. He and his wife were brought up in the Lutheran faith, from which they never departed, and were well known and highly respected residents of their community, of honor and integrity above reproach. Mr. Jargo died on August 24, 1903, in his ninety-fourth year, his wife on September 24, 1904. They were the parents of three sons : William, who is a practical, neat and successful farmer in Jackson county, Iowa; Charles, and Ernest, also a prominent farmer of Jackson county, living near Miles, and near his brother William.

Charles Jargo was reared on the old homestead, which he now owns and where he resides and carries forward the work inaugurated by his father. He has made a record equal to his father's, and is engaged in general farming and the raising of thoroughbred and registered Shorthorn cattle. Percheron and Norman horses, and Poland China hogs. He has added to the homestead, and now owns four hundred and sixteen acres of farming and grass land, well adapted to stock raising, with running water and wells in each field. The house, which is built on an elevated site, he has remodeled and enlarged and has erected other needed buildings, making his one of the best improved farms in the township. He is a stockholder in the Teeds Grove Savings Bank and its vice-president. This is one of the solid institutions of Clinton county. He also owns an interest in two fine stallions of proved merit, one a Percheron and the other a Belgian, and is a member of a threshing machine company, and the committeeman that bought the machine. For eight years he has been a member of the school board, and has given his children a good education, three of them having graduated from the high school, and three from the public schools, ready for advancement. Mr. Jargo is a strong and active Republican, but has cared to hold no offices save that of township clerk. Baptized in the Lutheran faith, he has never departed from it. Fraternally, he is a member of the Odd Fellows and has filled all the chairs.

In 1888 Charles Jargo was married to Julia Kunau, the daughter of John and Anna C. (Feldtmann) Kunau, natives of Germany, where they were married and where their daughter Julia was born. John Kunau came to America without his family in 1868, landing in New York, then, bringing the family, made a short stop in Ohio, and came on to Iowa, where he started in on a small scale as a farm renter. He was successful, and later bought a good farm of three hundred acres, forty of which were in timber. After advancing age had come to him, he sold the farm to his son and retired from active labor. In politics he is independent. He and his family are members of the Lutheran church. Mr. Kunau is well known, and highly respected where known. His family consisted of Julia, Mrs. Jargo; John, a farmer; Theresa, Mrs. M. H. Peters; Ernest, a farmer; Bertha, Mrs. Henry Peters; Elfreda, Mrs. Ferdinand Peters; Alfred, farmer on the homestead ; and S. H., assistant cashier of the Teeds Grove Savings Bank. To Mr. and Mrs. Jargo have been born six children ; the eldest are twins, William H. and John K., born October 8. 1890: Alta P., born on September 3, 1892; Malinda J., born on March 17, 1895; and Marvin B. and Ervin A., twins, born on December 24, 1896.

The Drover's Journal of Chicago offered three prizes for subscriptions to their paper, the second of which was a ticket to Washington, D. C, which was won by Marvin B., one of Mr. Jargo's youngest sons. So his father paid the fare for his twin brother, and the two boys made the trip, and stood in front of the Capitol in the group and had their pictures taken with the national winners, the whole being quite an achievement for thirteen-year-old boys.