GEERDES, Argen G. 1857-1930

GEERDES, PRIMUS

Posted By: Tammy (email)
Date: 5/6/2015 at 20:39:44

A. G. Geerdes, 65-Year Resident of Grundy County, Dies

Passed Away At His Home In Wellsburg Yesterday From Cancer

Was A Former Member Board Of Supervisors

Railroad Extended Only as Far West as Cedar Falls When He Came Here

A. G. Geerdes died at his home in Wellsburg at four o'clock yesterday morning following an illness of a year from an internal cancer. His condition was not regarded as serious until he went to the hospital at Marshalltown last December where he submitted to an operation. He seemed to be getting better for a time after he returned home but a month ago he began to get weaker and he declined very rapidly until the end came.

Funeral services will be held at the Reformed church at Wellsburg at one o'clock Saturday afternoon. The services will be conducted by Rev. Landsiedel and Rev. H. C. Bode. Burial will be in the cemetery adjoining the Bode church two miles west of Wellsburg.

The passing of Mr. Geerdes removes another of Grundy county's early pioneers. He was born in Stephenson county, Ill., 73 years ago the 17th of last January. The family came to Grundy county from Illinois in 1865. That was 65 years ago. There is no one now living in the northwest part of the county aside from his brothers who have been continuous residents there for so long a time. Shiloh township was an open prairie when the Geerdes family came here to help improve it. The railroad at that time had not come any farther west in this section of the state than Cedar Falls and the family came from that place to Shiloh township overland. Mr. Geerdes' father bought the farm that the family built on and improved in Shiloh township for $6.25 an acre. While Mr. Geerdes was not an old man when he died he lived long enough to witness and to take part in a marvelous development in this section of Iowa.

Mr. Geerdes was the oldest of a family of seven children and he is the first to go. The four brothers and the two sisters who remain are Jake from Wellsburg, Henry from Steamboat Rock, Heye from Wellsburg, and John, who resides on a Shiloh township farm. The sisters are Mrs. W. A. Meyer and Mrs. S. J. Snittjer, both residing at Wellsburg.

Mr. Geerdes was married to Miss Helen Primus March 5th, 1879. The couple celebrated their golden wedding anniversary a little over a year ago. There are three surviving children, George from Waterloo, Henry and Mrs. Miner Haack from Wellsburg.

Mr. Geerdes was widely known throughout the northwest portion of the county where he lived for so many years. He devoted his active life to farming and through good management and industry accumulated a comfortable estate. He was a good neighbor. He was fair and upright in all of his dealings and throughout his entire lifetime had the confidence and the respect of all who knew him. He held places of public trust from time to time and served his district as a member of the county board of supervisors.

Mr. and Mrs. Geerdes moved from their farm to the town of Wellsburg twenty-three years ago where they enjoyed their later years in peace, comfort and contentment among their relatives and friends until the fatal affliction which resulted in Mr. Geerdes' death came to them a year ago.

--The Grundy Register (Grundy Center, Iowa), 29 May 1930, pg 1

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