Anton Till

TILL, REYMICHAEL, SCHROM, KURT, HOMAN, GUNNER, PORTZ

Posted By: Barbara Gehlsen Nugent (email)
Date: 8/24/2011 at 16:56:52

History of Jackson County, Iowa, Volume 2, by James Whitcomb Ellis, 1910.
Biographical Sketches

ANTON TILL.

Anton Till was for many years identified with the agricultural interests of Jackson county but for the past eight years he has lived retired in a comfortable home in Bellevue. He was born in Luxemburg, Germany, January 10, 1844, a son of Peter and Elizabeth (Reymichael) Till, who emigrated from Germany to Jackson county in 1857. The father purchased a farm in Jackson township and made his home on it for ten years but subsequently sold that farm and purchased another tract, which he continued to cultivate until his demise. In his family were four children, namely: John, a resident of Bellevue; Anton, of this review; Katherine, the wife of Nick Schrom, of Shelby county, Iowa; and Mary, the wife of John Kurt, who is mentioned elsewhere in this volume. The father died in 1879 at tne age of sixty-six years, and the mother, surviving for a long period, departed this life in 1897 at the age of seventy-five years.

Anton Till was a youth of thirteen years when he accompanied the family on their emigration to the new world, and he likewise accompanied them on their various removals in Jackson county, assisting his father in the cultivation of the fields and thus gaining intimate and practical knowledge of the best methods of farming, so that when he started out on his own account he was prepared to carry on a successful business. His first purchase of land was two hundred acres in Jackson township and he later bought another tract of eighty acres adjoining the first tract, then one hundred and twenty in Bellevue township and later one hundred and sixty acres in the same township. He thus carried on farming on an extensive scale until about eight years ago, when he put aside business cares and removed to Bellevue, where he occupies a comfortable house, built of stone and located on Fourth street. He disposed of two hundred and ninety-five acres of his land to a son and sold the remainder to others, so that he now has a competency that supplies him with all the necessities'and many of the comforts of life.

Mr. Till was married in 1871 to Miss Katherine Homan, who was born in Tete Des Morts township, Jackson county, June 17, 1855, a daughter of Louis and Susie (Gunner) Homan, both natives of Luxemburg, Germany. Upon their emigration to the new world in 1850 they made their way direct to Jackson county and settled on a farm in Tete Des Morts township but about three years later they removed to the southern part of the county and settled on a farm on the Maquoketa river. The father, however, spent his last years in Bellevue, where he died October 30, 1901, when he had reached the extreme old age of ninety years. The mother, who was born January 10, 1819, is still hale and hearty at that age and lives alone in Bellevue. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Homan were born six children: Michael, who died in Germany ere the family emigrated to America; Peter, a resident of Remsen, Iowa; Mrs. Mary Portz, deceased; Katherine, now Mrs. Till; and Nicholas and John, twins, both deceased, the former passing away at the age of five years and the latter when but eighteen months old.

Unto Mr. and Mrs. Till have been born thirteen children but three o. the number died in infancy, while those surviving are: Peter, who follows farming in Bellevue township; John, a resident of Jackson township; Lizzie, the wife of Frank Kurt, their home being near Cascade in Jackson county; Mary, the wife of Michael Kilburg, of Washington township, this county; Joseph, who makes his home in Richland township; Anna, at home; Susie, the wife of George Zimmer, of Dubuque; and Nick, Louis and Maggie, all still under the parental roof.

Mr. Till is a democrat in his political views and affiliations and he is a communicant of the Catholic church. Throughout his business career of continued and far reaching usefulness his duties were performed with the greatest care and business interests were so managed as to win him the confidence of the public and the prosperity which should always attend honorable efforts, and now in the evening of their days he and his estimable wife are enjoying in retirement the accumulations of profitable, successful and honorable lives.