ROTHSTEIN, Frederick E.

ROTHSTEIN, POWELL, JACOBS, WHITMAN, MUELLER, KUEHL, GRACE, JACOBS

Posted By: Nettie Mae
Date: 1/19/2003 at 00:14:16

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

FREDERICK E. ROTHSTEIN.

Among the prosperous farmers of Clinton county none are more deserving of representation in this volume than the gentleman whose name introduces this review. For many years he has been connected with the agricultural interests of Olive township, and through his well-directed efforts has gained a handsome competence that numbers him among the most substantial citizens of his community. Keen discrimination, unflagging industry and resolute purpose are numbered among his salient characteristics, and thus he has won that prosperity which is the merited reward of honest effort.

Mr. Rothstein was born in Stockholm, Sweden, on the 22d of August, 1822, and is the oldest son of Jonathan and Charlotte Rothstein. His father was successfully engaged in the practice of law in Nykjoping, and owned a farm neat that place, on which his family loved. There our subject passed the first fifteen years of his life, attending the local schools, and then engaged in clerking in a general store until his emigration to America.

On the 22d of April, 1843, Mr. Rothstein sailed from Stockholm and was over two months in crossing the Atlantic, landing in New York June 29, a stranger in a strange land and unable to speak the English language. He was instructed by a Dane as to how to get to Cincinnati, and after spending a few days in New York he started for the former city. There he found friends and employment, clerking in a variety store until 1849. Hearing of the discovery of gold in California, he resolved to try his fortune on the Pacific slope, and in March, 1849, he and twenty-three others started westward, going by steamer to Independence, Missouri. They then crossed the plains with pack mules, arriving in Hangtown, now Placerville, California, on the 8th of August, that year. There he engaged in mining until the following spring, when he went to Greenwood Valley, built a hotel and successfully conducted the same until the fall of 1856, when he sold his interests at that place and went to San Francisco, remaining there until February, 1857. Concluding to return east, he took passage on a steamer, and by way of the Isthmus of Panama went to New York, whence he came to Iowa.

Mr. Rothstein first located in Scott county, where he erected a steam saw and grist-mill, which he carried on until the opening of the Civil war, when he removed the mill to Olive township, Clinton county, built a dam and run the mill by water power until 1869. In the spring of that year he commenced buying farm land, at first purchasing forty acres, and he has since added to his landed possessions until he now owns seven hundred acres of rich and arable land. In 1876 he sold his mill. When he first located here this region was but sparsely settled, but being a man of sound judgment and keen discrimination, he realized that it would soon become thickly populated and that the land would accordingly rise in value. He started a ferry, which he ran until able to build a bridge across the river, and subsequently built two toll bridges, of which he had charge until he sold them to the county. At present he devotes his entire time and attention to his agricultural interests. He has always been hard-working and progressive, and to his own unaided efforts is due his success in life.

In March, 1852, Mr. Rothstein was united in marriage with Miss Elizabeth Powell, a native of Harrisburg. Pennsylvania, who died in December, 1876, and he was again married September 15, 1877, his second union being with Miss Sarah (Jacobs) Whitman, widow of Dana Whitman, who was born in Vermont, and died in 1876. By her first marriage she had two children, namely: (1) Edwin, born in Scotty county, attended the Davenport Business College, and is now assisting Mr. Rothstein in the operation of his farm and is extensively engaged in stock raising. He has efficiently served as road supervisor and school director in his distract, and in his social relations is a member of the Knights of Pythias and the Yeomen Society of Dixon. He married Fredreka Mueller, a daughter of Henry Mueller, a resident of Calamus and an old settler of this county. They have three sons, Harry E., Paul F. and Ralph H., all born on the old homestead. (2) Alberta, born in Seward county, Nebraska, was educated in Clinton county, Iowa, and is now the wife of Charles K. Kuehl, who is proprietor of a general store in Olive township located on the river near Mr. Rothstein’s farm. He is also a member of the Knights of Pythias fraternity and the Yeomen Society, and has filled several local offices, including those of township treasurer and school director, serving in the former capacity for the last six years. Mr. and Mrs. Kuehl have four children: James F., Ethel May, Daniel W. and Esther E., all born in Olive township.

Mrs. Rothstein is a native of Scott county, Iowa, and is a daughter of Mark C. and Lois (Grace) Jacobs, pioneers of that county. Her father was born in Tompkins county, New York, on the 9th of February, 1813, and arrived in Davenport, Iowa, in April, 1837. He located in Liberty township, Scott county, and turned the first furrow within its borders. In 1840, he married Miss Lois Grace, who was also born in Tompkins county, New York December 8, 1819, and when a little girl removed with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Michael Grace, to Ohio. In 1839 they came to Iowa and settled in Allen’s Grove, Scott county. Mr. and Mrs. Jacobs began housekeeping in Walnut Grove, and to them were born eight children, six of whom are still living. Mr. Jacobs was a member of the famous band of “Iowa Patriots” who in the fall of 1837 drove the Missouri invaders from the sacred soil of Lee county, and he also assisted materially in purging this section of the state of a band of blacklegs and horse thieves who infested it during its existence as a portion of the western frontier. For nearly forty years he lived on the same place, and being a man of industrious habits, he became quite well-to-do. He was upright and honorable in business affairs, and commanded the respect and confidence of all with whom he came in contact. He died at his home in Liberty township, Scott county, July 27, 1877, at the age of sixty-three years, and was buried at Dixon, Iowa.

Mr. and Mrs. Rothstein are earnest and consistent members of the Christian church, and in politics he is identified with the Republican party, though he case his first presidential vote for Zachary Taylor in 1848. He has held the office of school trustee and director, and has always taken a deep and commendable interest in public affairs, giving his support to all enterprises calculated to advance the moral, intellectual or material welfare of his township and county. His career has even been such as to gain for him the confidence and high regard of his fellow citizens, and probably no man in the community has more friends than Frederick E. Rothstein.