N B NEMMERS, b 15 Mar 1852

NEMMERS, EWEN, MANDERS, HENTGES

Posted By: Donna Moldt Walker (email)
Date: 7/14/2004 at 09:08:14

N.B. Nemmers, the leading merchant of La Motte, is one of its foremost citizens. His public spirit and liberality fosters every enterprise that is conceived for the benefit of the township, and he has done as much or more than any one man to extend its business and commercial interests. He has the largest general merchandise establishment in town, carrying a full line of all kinds of goods, and he does the biggest stock business in this locality, buying and shipping hogs very extensively. He was appointed Postmaster in 1886, and is still holding the office. He is a leader of the Democracy of this section of Iowa, has borne a conspicuous part in public affairs, and is one of the most prominent civic officials of the community.

Our subject is a native-born citizen of Jackson County, Prairie Spring Township being the place of his birth, and March 15, 1852, the date of that important event of his life. His parents, Michael and Annie (Ewen) Nemmers, were natives of Luxembourg, Germany, which was the home of their ancestry. Nicholas Nemmers, the paternal grandfather of our subject, was a carpenter, and carried on his trade in the Fatherland, and then coming to America engaged in it at Tete des Morts, this State, and resided with his sons until his death, in 1858. Nicholas Ewen, the maternal grandfather of our subject, was a hotel keeper in his native land, but in 1848, after his emigration to this country, he turned his attention to agricultural pursuits, and buying a farm in Tete des Morts, comprising 120 acres of land, he made his home there until his death the following year. His wife died in Galena.

The father of our subject was a carpenter while in Germany, and followed that trade two years in Prairie Spring Township after his emigration to this country in 1847. In 1849 he bought a tract of land in St. Donatus, and turning his attention to its cultivation, improved it, and purchased land adjoining until he had a fine farm of 273 acres at the time of his death, which occurred Jan. 23, 1883, at the age of sixty-two years. He was a man of influence in his community, was looked up to by all, and was an important factor in advancing the material interests of the township where more than thirty years of his life were passed. He held the office of School Director for years. Religiously, he was a Catholic, strong in the faith; politically, he was a Democrat. His good wife is living on the old homestead, and is now sixty-three years old. She is the mother of eight children: N.B.; John, in Richland; Michael, in Milwaukee; Theodore, in Prairie Spring; George, in La Motte; Mathias, in Buncombe, Dubuque County; Henry, in Gilbertsville; and Katie, deceased.

The subject of this biographical record was reared in the home of his birth in Prairie Spring Township, and gleaned a good practical education in the local schools, which was further supplemented by a fine general scientific and musical course of study at the Pio Nono College, Milwaukee, which he entered in the fall of 1870, and from which institution he was graduated in the spring of 1874 with high honors. Leaving college he returned home, and was engaged in the profession of teaching, and was thus employed in the Luxemburg Indepedent School District in Prairie Spring for a period of eight years. In May, 1882, he removed to La Motte, and bought of E.M. Belknap a block of town property. He enlarged the building and refitted it up, putting in a large stock, and now has the largest establishment in town, the building being 18x58 feet in dimensions, and his residence is 18x30 feet. In 1887 he became interested in the stock business, which he is carrying on in connection with his other business, as before mentioned. He inherited a share of the old homestead, and has other property, and is numbered among the men of solid financial standing in this town.

Mr. Nemmers was married in Tete des Morts, July 5, 1876, to Miss Lizzie Manders, the ceremony that made them one being performed in St. Donatus' Church. Their marriage has been blessed to them by the birth of six children - Kate, Annie (deceased), John C., Michael, Maggie and Theressa. Mrs. Nemmers is a native of this county, born in Prairie Spring Township Sept. 24, 1858, being the eldest of eleven children in the family of John P. and Catherine (Hentges) Manders, natives of Luxembourg, Germany, the former born in the village of Sandveiler, Sept. 24, 1829, and the latter born in 1827. Mathias Manders, Mrs. Nemmers' paternal grandfather, was a stone mason in the old country, and after his migration to this country in 1850, he became a farmer, locating in Prairie Spring Township, where he operated a 200-acre farm until his decease.

The father of our subject came to America in 1850, and engaged in farming. In December, 1864 he entered the army as a member of the 8th Iowa Infantry, was mustered in at Clinton, and sent to New Orleans. He took part in the expedition against Spanish Fort, and on the third day of the siege, while on picket duty, was shot in the hand, was sent to the hospital, and remained there until the war was over, when he was mustered out at Clinton. He resumed farming, and owns and operates 183 acres of land. He is a Democrat in politics, and has taken an active part in the administration of public affairs, having served as Township Trustee, School Director, and Assessor of his Township. Theodore Hentges, Mrs. Nemmers' maternal grandfather, lived in Germany until 1857, when he emigrated to the United States, and located in Prairie Spring Township, with whose agricultural interests he was identified until his demise.

Mr. Nemmers has acquired a valuable property by the exercise of those characteristics that mark him as a man of unusual sagacity, penetration, and far-reaching forethought, and underlying all these traits are those high principles that have gained him the trust and respect of his fellow-citizens to an eminent degree. He has been an incumbent of all the highest and most responsible local offices. He was Mayor one year, was Township Treasurer, Secretary, and also Director of the School Board, served as a member of the Town Council three years, has been Assessor two years, has served as Township Collector since 1876, is Notary Public (his sixth year in that office), and was Justice of the Peace for six years until his resignation. He is a man of earnest religious views, is still true to the faith in which he was bred, and is an active member of St. Theresa's Catholic Church, of which he is a trustee. In him the Democratic party of Jackson Coiunty finds one of its leaders; he has been a member of the Democratic Central Committee, and has been a delegate to County and State conventions for the last twelve years, and also a delegate to the Judiciary Convention of this Judiciary district.

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