STUEDEMAN, Ernest

STUEDEMAN, ROHWEDDER

Posted By: Annette Lucas (email)
Date: 5/23/2021 at 23:32:04

SOURCE: History of Audubon County Iowa, Its People, Industries and Institutions. H. F. Andrews, Editor, B. F. Bowen & Company, Inc., 1915

The late Ernest Stuedeman, who was a retired farmer and stockman of Lincoln township, Audubon county, Iowa, was born on October 14, 1846, in Stettin, Prussia, Germany, and died on May 12, 1915, at his home in Lincoln township. He was the son of John and Fredrica Stuedeman, and came to this country from Germany with his parents when he was fourteen years of age. He attended the country schools and worked for his father until he was twenty-four years of age, when he was married. After his marriage he farmed for himself on his father's farm, remaining there about twenty-eight years, and then bought one hundred and sixty acres. He sold this land in 1888 and then rented a farm in Crawford county, where he lived for fifteen years. He left that place and came to Manning, where he bought a farm in Lincoln township, section 20, in 1903. This place contained two hundred and forty acres, for which he paid sixty-two and one-half dollars an acre. Mr. Stuedeman put about twelve thousand dollars worth of improvements on his farm. During the time he was in business, he sold about two carloads of cattle and three carloads of hogs annually. All the grain raised on the farm was fed to the stock.

John and Fredrica Stuedeman, the parents of Ernest Stuedeman, were both born in Germany, where the former worked on a farm. In 1860 they came, with their family, to America, landing at New York City and later removed to Clinton county, Iowa. John Stuedeman had eight hundred dollars when he arrived in this country, with which he purchased a farm of forty acres, paying twelve dollars an acre for it. In a few years, he bought one hundred and sixty acres more at a cost of thirteen dollars an acre, and continued to add to his acres until he owned an entire section of land in Clinton county. To John and Fredrica Stuedeman were born ten children, one of whom died in Germany. The others were Otto, Albert, Bertha, Rudolph, Martha, Anna, Lucia, Ernest and Carl, all of whom are now deceased with the exception of Otto and Rudolph, the latter of whom lives on the old home farm in Clinton county.

At the age of twenty-four, Ernest Stuedeman was united in marriage with Anna Rohwedder, the daughter of Max Rohwedder. She was born on June 24, 1848, and died on August 1, 1895. To this union were born nine children, namely : Lucia, who is married, lives in Carroll county and has three children; Catherine died in infancy; Alma, who lives in Manning, is married and has two children; Elsa, who resides in Wisconsin, is married and has three children ; Matilda is at home ; Erwin, who is a farmer in Audubon county, is married and has one child; Laura, Max and Virtus are all at home.

Mr. Stuedeman was a Democrat and served as constable of Clinton county in 1880 and school director of Lincoln township for two years. He was a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and passed all of the chairs in this lodge. The Stuedeman family are all loyal members of the German Lutheran church, Mr. Stuedeman having belonged at Manning.