C. A. Schafer

SCHAFER, STAHL, RUSCHEN

Posted By: Karen D-J (email)
Date: 10/26/2008 at 16:11:59

C. A. SCHAFER, the efficient Superintendent of the Poor Farm of Grundy County, which is located on section 22, Palermo Township, was born December 22, 1857, and claims Ostfriesland, Germany, as the place of his birth. His parents, Aaron and Ida (Stahl) Schafer, were also natives of Germany, the latter being deceased. The father worked there as a laborer. With his second wife and three children he crossed the Atlantic to America, locating in Stephenson County, where he followed farming for five years. In 1869 he came to Grundy County, settling in Shiloh Township, where he purchased one hundred and twenty acres of land, devoting his energies to its cultivation for fifteen years.

C. A. Schafer was a lad of six summers when he crossed the briny deep, and during the five succeeding years he lived in Illinois. He then came with the family to this county, and helped his father to clear the land and break prairie; in fact he performed all the arduous duties of developing a new farm. He also experienced all the hardships and difficulties of frontier life. He then began to earn his own livelihood by working as a farm hand. In 1880 he was united in marriage with Miss Mary Ruschen, daughter of Harm Ruschen, a resident of South Dakota. The lady was born in Germany, and came to America in 1870 with her father, locating in Stephenson County, Ill., whence Mr. Ruschen moved to Dakota in 1884.

Mr. and Mrs. Schafer began their domestic life upon a farm in Shiloh Township, which he operated for three years, when he removed to Parkersburg, Butler County, where he worked in a restaurant and saloon for a time. He later purchased of his father a farm on section 13, Shiloh Township, which he carried on for a year, when he sold out and went to Wellsburg, where he engaged in the saloon business. He also dealt in farm implements and bought stock. For five years he remained in Wellsburg, when he went to Hampton, Franklin County, where he was engaged in auctioneering and in the insurance business, dealing in western lands. After three years, however, we again find him in Wellsburg engaged in the real-estate and insurance business. January 16, 1890, he was appointed Superintendent of the County Poor Farm, and has been re-appointed each year since, and this position he has filled with credit.

Unto Mr. and Mrs. Schafer were born three children: Arend, Herman F. and Henry. In politics, Mr. Schafer is a Democrat, and in the fall of 1893 was nominated on the ticket of that party for County Sheriff. He has been an active worker in the ranks of the Democracy, was Chairman of the Democratic Central Committee of Shiloh Township, and has frequently served as a delegate to the state conventions. He served for several years as Constable, and was for one year Deputy Sheriff. Socially he is connected with the Order of Red Men and the Iowa Legion of Honor. Under his able management the affairs of the Poor Farm are conducted in a very satisfactory manner. He has had the house remodeled, and everything about the place is neat and thrifty in appearance. The farm comprises one-hundred and sixty acres, and in addition he has rented two hundred acres, which under his supervision are well cultivated and improved. Mr. Schafer is a man of sterling worth and strict integrity, and has the confidence and high regard of all with whom business of social relations have brought him in contact.

Source:
Portrait and Biographical Record
of Jasper, Marshall and Grundy Counties, Iowa
1894