H. Herman Ahlers, b. 7 Jun 1853

OTTENS, LAHMEYER, HARMS

Posted By: Donna Moldt Walker (email)
Date: 2/21/2004 at 12:13:08

H. Herman Ahlers, one of the most reputable citizens of Bellevue, where he has resided since the summer of 1888, was born June 7, 1853, in what was then the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg, Germany, and is the son of John H. and Adelaide (Ottens) Ahlers, who are also of German birth and parentage, and who spent their last years in Germany. He remained a resident of his native country until a youth of sixteen years, in the meantime receiving a good education, which was supplemented after coming to America by an attendance of one term in 1878 at the State Agricultural College, in Story County, Iowa. The first winter of his residence in this county he attended school for a time in Richland Township, making his home with his brother John.

Our subject crossed the Atlantic in the fall of 1869, taking passage at the port of Bremen on an Ocean Steamer and landing in New York City twenty-three days later. Thence he came at once to this county, and when not in school engaged in farming, until the fall of 1874. He then revisited his native land and spent six months among the friends of his early youth, returning to America in the summer of the following year. He repeated this visit in the fall of 1881, sojourning in the Fatherland until July, 1888, since which time he has been a resident of Bellevue.

The marriage of our subject with Miss Doris Lahmeyer took place in Germany, in 1883. Mrs. Ahlers is a native of the Province of Hanover, and was born Aug. 15, 1855. Her parents were Henry and Magdalena (Harms) Lahmeyer. Of this untion there have been born two children - Adelia, Dec. 7, 1883, and Clara, Oct. 23, 1886. Mr. Ahlers, politically, is independent, aiming to support the men whom he considers best qualified for office. In religious matters, he and his estimable wife were reared in the German Lutheran Church. His is the owner of valuable land in Emmet County, and has been uniformly successful in his efforts to obtain a competence. He is looked up to in his community as a man thoroughly reliable in all respects, and one representing in an admirable manner its best elements.

("Portrait and Biographical Album of Jackson County, Iowa", originally published in 1889, by the Chapman Brothers, of Chicago, Illinois)