LOHMANN, August H.

LOHMANN, BROCKHORST, BASSEN

Posted By: Amy Robbins-Tjaden (email)
Date: 11/20/2006 at 15:49:44

A Biographical record of Hamilton County, Iowa (New York: S.J. Clarke Pub. Co)

August H. Lohmann

Hamilton county has many citizens of German birth who in the land of their adoption have made the most of their opportunities and while advancing along financial lines have also contributed to the general progress and improvement of the localities with which they have been associated. August H. Lohmann is a son of the fatherland, his birth having occurred on the 23rd of October, 1853, in Germany, his parents, John and Anna (Bassen) Lohmann, being also natives of Germany and the mother died there. In their family were the following children: John, who resides in Lyon county, Iowa; Georgia Anna, the wife of Henry Heins, a resident of Indepedence township, Hamilton county; Margaret, the wife of Henry Weseloh, of Webster City; and August H., of this review.

In accordance with the laws of his native land, August H. Lohmann entered the public schools of Germany at the age of six years and remained as a student there until he was fourteen years of age. He was a youth of sixteen when, in 1870, he bade adieu to friends in the Fatherland and sailed for the new world, arriving safely at the port of New York. Not long afterward he secured a situation as a gardener on Long Island, where he remained for two years, but the opportunities and advantages of the west attracted him and he came to Iowa, settling first in Clinton. For some time he was employed in that locality and afterward removed to Crawford county, where he spent two years.

At the expiration of that period he returned to Germany, visiting for two months amid the scenes and friends of his boyhood, finding that separation did not lessen the ties of friendship. His love for his adopted land, however, urged him to return to the United States, and on this occasion he brought with him his father, one brother, and two sisters. They journeyed westward until they reached Webster City, Iowa, and Mr Lohmann, Sr. purchased the farm upon which our subject is now living. His energies were then devoted to the tilling of the soil and to the raising of crops throughout his active business career and on the 15th of April, 1901, his life's labors were ended in death. Before the father had passed away, August H. Lohmann purchased the old homestead, becoming the owner in 1899. He paid five thousand dollars for the farm and remained upon it for two years after coming to Iowa, and then removed to a tract of eighty acres which he owned. That property he sold, however, when he became the owner of the old homestead. He now has a quarter section of land, rich, arable and improved with splendid equipments. He has good machinery facilitating the work of the farm, and in the fields good crops are raised. His entire life has been devoted to agricultural work and his thorough understanding of the best methods of raising grain and stock, combined with his unflagging diligence has made Mr Lohmann one of the well-to-do citizens of Independence township.

In 1886, in Webster City, our subject was united in marriage to Margaret Brockhorst, who was born in Germany and came to America with her parents. Her mother died in 1892, but her father is now a resident of Freedom township. He too has made farming his life work. Seven children have been born to Mr and Mrs Lohmann: Mary, Emma, John, Inez, Edward, Gusta and Louis, all of whom are yet under the parental roof. They also lost one son, Charlie, and a new born babe, Ester Louisa. The parents are members of the German Lutheran church, and Mr Lohmann is a Democrat, but while he gives his earnest support to the party he has never sought or desired office and has never served in positions of public trust save that of school director, always preferring to give his attention to his farm work, and to-day his property of one hundred sixty acres is the visible evidence of his industrious life.