AUGUST KLEMME, b 26 Oct 1823

KLEMME, BARCH, MICHAELSON, MOSEMANN, WENDT, MUGLIER, MEYER

Posted By: Donna Moldt Walker (email)
Date: 6/15/2004 at 08:04:36

The enterprising German citizen found his way to Iowa at an early date and has contributed his full quota toward the development of its rich resources. The subject of this history, a retired farmer, is a gentleman in the prime of life, having been born Oct. 26, 1823, and his early home was on the other side of the Atlantic, in the Kingdom of Hanover, where he was reared and educated, and confirmed in the German Lutheran Church. He remained in the Fatherland until a man twenty-six years old, acquiring those habits of industry and economy which have been the secret of his later success. He is now the owner of 200 acres of some of the best land in Van Buren Township, and which is divided into two farms, the residence being on section 3. He left the farm, however, in Oct. 1885, and although a comparatively brief sojourner in Preston, has fully established himself in the esteem and confidence of his neighbors.

Henry Klemme, the father of our subject, was also of German birth and parentage. August upon coming to America, settled in Utica, N.Y., April, 1849, where he was employed as a farm laborer one summer. Then in company with his brother he emigrated to Chicago, Ill, in 1850, but not liking that place went across the lake into the pineries in Michigan, on the Muskegon River. In the spring of 1850, however, he returned to Chicago, and remained in that vicinity the balance of the year, employing himself at farming in various places in Cook County.

Our subject, finally, after a short but very effective courtship, was married in Dec. 1850, to Miss Mary Barch. She was also born in Germany, and was the daughter of Charlie and Sophia Barch, who spent their last years in Illinois. The young couple started for Iowa the following spring, and Mr. Klemme purchased forty acres of land on the Maquoketa bottom, and later added eighty acres to his real estate. He continued investing his surplus capital in land until he had a farm approaching 200 acres in extent, upon which he effected good improvements. In the meantime his family expense increased as there were added to the household eleven children. Three of these are now deceased - August died at the age of one year and seven months; Louisa when thirteen years old, and Emma when a child of two years. Caroline married Peter Michaelson, and is a resident of Antelope County, Neb.; Mary became the wife of Fred Mosemann, and died at her home in Washington Township, this county, about 1881. Fred married Miss Katie Wendt, is the father of one child, a son, Frank, and lives on a farm in Van Buren Township, this county; Henry married Miss Tilda Muglier, has one child, August, and is farming in Washington Township; Katie, Mrs. Fred Meyer, is the mother of two children, Frank and Johnnie. She died April 19, 1889, in Antelope County, Neb; Almira and Sophia live in Van Buren Township; Mina remains at home with parents. Mr. Klemme, politically, votes the Democratic ticket, and with his family belongs to the German Lutheran Church. He has become thoroughly Americanized and fully alive to the interests of his adopted country, taking pride in her prosperity and standing among the Nations, and in his own county and community losing no opportunity to encourage the enterprises calculated for the advancement of the people. He keeps himself well posted upon current events, and is a gentleman with whom it is both pleasant and profitable to converse. He has had an ample experience of pioneer life in the Hawkeye State, labored industriously in the accumulation of his property, and is now enabled to rest upon his accumulations and view with pardonable satisfaction the results of a well-spent life.

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