NICHOLAS TUSING, b 14 Mar 1835

TUSING, SHINE, CONLEY, SUTON, SMITH

Posted By: Donna Moldt Walker (email)
Date: 1/24/2005 at 15:00:30

Nicholas Tusing, one of the largest stock-dealers in the northwestern part of Jackson County, is a leading man among the energetic, business-like and well-to-do agriculturists of Prairie Spring Township, his place of residence, where he owns one of the best managed and most valuable farms to be found in all the country around. His homestead comprises 265 acres on section 33, and he owns besides 150 acres on section 9, making 415 acres of fine farming land, the cultivation of which is carried on under his personal supervision.

March 14, 1835, was the date of the birth of our subject in the German Fatherland, Vimskerch, in the province of Luxemburg, being the place of his nativity. That province was also the home of his ancestry on both sides of the house. His grandfather Tusing was an overseer and tax collector, and also a hunter on a large estate in his native land. His grandfather Shine was a gardener. His parents, Bittis and Margaret Tusing, lived and died in the land of their birth, where the father had carried on business as a grain dealer and shipper, his death occurring in 1874. He was a man of shrewd mind and good capacity, and was held in general esteem by his neighbors and by all with whom he had dealings. Five children were born to him and his worthy wife, as follows: Anna, living in Luxemburg; John, deceased; Michael, in Luxemburg; Elizabeth, deceased; and Nicholas.

The latter, who forms the subject of this biographical notice, spent the first thirteen years of his life in the old home, and then engaged in teaming until 1855, when he crossed the borders into France, where he found employment with a railway company as messenger. In 1857 he returned to Luxembourg, and in the same spring started for America, thinking that life offered him better chances here than in his native country. He left Havre on board a sailing-vessel, and after a tedious voyage of thirty-five days landed in New Orleans, and thence came up the Mississippi River to Bellevue. From there he went to Dubuque County, where he engaged as a farm laborer for six months. After that he was employed in mining for about two years, sinking shafts from 125 to 150 feet deep. Subsequently he abandoned mining, and after marrying in Dubuque went to Key West, where he bought stock, and supplied the butchers in Dubuque with meat for a year.

Our subject next turned his attention to agriculture, and coming to Prairie Spring Township, bought 150 acres of partly improved land, and besides attending to its cultivation bought and shipped stock to St. Paul. In 1875 he rented his farm, and moved to Dubuque, and there bought a residence, and putting up a butcher's shop had a meat market, and also bought and shipped cattle. In 1881 he rented his shop and market, bought 135 acres of land near La Motte, farmed it a year, and then went back to Dubuque to live, and carry on the meat market. In 1887 he rented it, and bought his present place of 265 acres, with scarcely any improvements on it. He has since greatly increased its original value, and put it in fine shape. It is well watered by a branch of Farmer's Creek, is fenced, and is supplied with an excellent set of farm buildings, including a comfortable dwelling, two barns, 24x50 and 24x60 feet respectively. He handles more cattle than any one in this part of the county, buying and feeding four car-loads a year, and shipping them to the Chicago markets, and his herd of graded Short-horns is celebrated far and near.

The marriage of Mr. Tusing and Miss Catherine Conley took place in Dubuque, in November, 1859, and to them have come three children: Catherine, wife of John Sutton, who manages the meat market at Dubuque; Margaret and Mary, who are at home with their parents. Mrs. Tusing is a native of Ireland, born nine miles from the city of Dublin. Her parents, Patrick and Catherine (Smith) Conley, were natives of County Kildare, Ireland, where the father was employed as a laborer. Her grandfather Smith was a farmer in that country. Her parents both died in Ireland. They had seven children: Catherine, Mary, Ann, Jane (who, with the exception of Mrs. Tusing, are living in Dubuque), Thomas, Pat and John, the three latter being dead. Mrs. Tusing, being left an orphan at the age of fifteen, went to live with her grandmother until she came to America, in 1857, leaving Liverpool in a sailing-vessel, and landing in New York six weeks and three days later. After her arrival in this country she was sick for seven weeks, and then came to Dubuque, where she remained until her marriage.

Mr. Tusing has acquired a fine property by the exercise of good financial talents, and judicious management of his affairs. He is a man of exceeding generosity and benevolence, having the heart to feel and the hand to respond to any call for aid from the needy or unfortunate, and his liberal donations to all public enterprises are too well known to need comment here. He and his wife are conspicuous and worthy members of St. Theresa's Catholic Church. He is identified with the Democratic party, and displays a marked interest in political affairs.

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