DREWS, Otto C. (1886-1930)

DREWS

Posted By: Karon Velau (email)
Date: 9/3/2020 at 09:25:40

Otto Carl Nicolaus Drews
(July 28, 1886 – September 19, 1930)

Ida County Pioneer Record, Ida Grove, Iowa, Thurs., Sept. 25, 1930, p.5
Death Claims Otto C. Drews
Prominent Farmer West of Holstein, a Cancer Victim September 19
Holstein, IA, September 24 – Otto Carl Nicolaus Drews was born July 28, 1886, near Selent in the Province of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. He attained the age of 44 years, 1 month and 21 days. He was baptized in the Lutheran church at Selent. His father, a teacher in the German state school in which religious instruction also was given, laid the foundation of a Christian character in school as well as at home. Of what value such training was to him in life, especially this last year, only those know who wre most intimately associated with him. St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church at Holstein has lost by his death not only a sympathetic friend, but a sincere and ardent member and worker. He ever was ready to serve, and at the time of his death was a deacon of the church. In 1906 he came to the United States, where for some years he found employment on farms in Woodbury and Ida Counties. Industrious and frugal, he soon was able to begin farming for himself. February 20, 1918, he was united in marriage with Miss Edna Kistenmacher of Holstein. He first established a home on a farm near Rock Branch in Woodbury County, and later, in 1922, three miles west of Holstein, where he passed out of this life last Friday afternoon, Sept. 19. This union was blessed with four children, Marie, Harry, Mildred and Elmer. The latter preceded his father in death on October 19, of last year. Mr. Drews was the only surviving member of a family of five children. His 82 year old father, living in retirement at Bad Schwartau, Province of Luebeck, Germany, well deserves the sympathy of his friends and acquaintances at this loss of his last child, which, according to his own words, has been a source of much joy and comfort to him in his declining years. Suffering and sorrow were not strangers to the deceased. He had learned to bear the yoke of the Lord in his youth. But his cup of tribulation was filled to the brim when in February of this year he learned that he was suffering from that dreaded malignant disease, cancer. The skill of doctors and the care of self-sacrificing loved ones lightened his suffering during his long confinement to the bed, and with Christian fortitude he bore the burden the Lord rested upon him. His untimely departure is mourned not only by his own immediate family and of his parents-in-law, the Charles Kistenmacher family, his aged father and step-mother, but also by an uncle living in Sheboygan, Wis., and a host of friends and acquaintances in Ida and Woodbury Counties. Funeral services were held Monday, Sept.22, at the home and at St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church at Holstein. The remains were laid to rest in the Holstein Cemetery, Rev. Sig. H. Sandrock officiated.