Neisslie, Joseph C.

NEISSLIE, TITUS, KAPP, SHIBLEY, NEWBURN, SNELL, BUNYAT, VON GREILICH

Posted By: Volunteer Transcriber
Date: 2/14/2003 at 20:02:10

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

JOSEPH C. NEISSLIE.

Among the worthy citizens that Germany has furnished to Clinton, Iowa, is this carpenter and contractor, who was born in Wurtemburg, in 1836, a son of Adam and Catherine (Titus) Neisslie. He was but eight years old when his mother died, and in 1847 came to America, with his father, who first located in Trenton, New Jersey, and from there removed to Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Later he came to Lisbon, Iowa, and spent his last days at Council Bluffs, where his death occurred.

At the age of twelve years Joseph C. Neisslie began learning the carpenter’s and millwright’s trades at Trenton, New Jersey. In November, 1863, he came to Clinton, Iowa, where he was at first employed as a journeyman carpenter on bridge work for the old Chicago, Iowa & Nebraska Railway, now the Chicago & Northwestern Railway. In 1872 he commenced work in the Clinton Lumber Mills, as millwright, and later was in the employ of W. J. Young for seventeen years in the same capacity. He next engaged in contracting and building in Clinton, and also took contracts for building freight and round houses, as well as other buildings for the railroad, and at the present time is engaged in building in Clinton.

Mr. Neisslie married Miss Margaret Kapp, who died in 1898, at the age of sixty years. Unto them were born ten children, as follows: George, who is now connected with the round house of the Chicago & Northwestern Railway, at Clinton; Adam, a saw-filer and carpenter, who married Sadie Shibley, and has two children, Lisle and Margaret; Lenora, at home; Sadie, widow of R. Newburn; Margaret, at home; Andrew, a railroad fireman, who married Gertrude Snell; Katherine, bookkeeper for Reed & Conger, of Clinton; Emma, at home; Schiller, a painter and carpenter; and Blanche, at home. The family are Presbyterians in religious belief, with the exception of our subject, who is a Lutheran, and all are held in the highest esteem by their many friends and acquaintances.

The wife of our subject was a descendant of the Bunyat family, and the grandfather was an interpreter in the employ of the German government during the Napoleonic war; and her uncle, Herr Von Greilich, was a titled man, and was a native of Heidleberg, and owned a line of ships that plied between Germany and Australia.