GOTTFRIED W WITTE, b 7 Sep 1828

WITTE, RAKOW

Posted By: Donna Moldt Walker (email)
Date: 2/28/2005 at 18:05:38

Gottfried W. Witte, formerly the "village blacksmith" of Slabtown, is now retired from active labor, having become well-to-do, with sufficient means to defend him against want in his declining years. He possesses all the characteristics of an intelligent and popular citizen, being a loyal Republican, the encourager of progress and education, and an ardent lover of liberty, believing in universal freedom for the human race, both of mind and body. He is possessed of refined and cultivated tastes, is a lover of nature, and prefers his rural home to all blandishments and display of city life. Genial and companionable by nature, he counts his friends by the score, and is a man entertaining in his conversation, being humorous, witty and lively - one with whom an hour may be always employed both pleasantly and profitably.

The descendant of pure German ancestry, our subject is the son of Henry and Dorothea (Witte) Witte, who were both natives of the Fatherland, and the former mostly occupied as a shepherd. the parental family included nine children, all of who lived to mature years - six sons and three daughters. Gottfried was the seventh child, and was born Sept. 7, 1828, in the Prussian town of Kutzerow. In conformance with the laws and customs of his native country, he was placed in school when a little lad of six years, and pursued his studies quite steadily until fourteen years of age. He then, in 1843, began learning the trade of a blacksmith, at which he served an apprenticeship of three years, and worked at this until 1864.

In the meantime our subject was married in his native Prussia to Miss Wilhelmina Rakow, and in their native land they became the parents of five children, two only of whom lived to come to America - Max and Agnes. The voyage here was performed in the fall of 1865, and Mr. Witte first settled at Galena, Ill., with a capital of $1,000. He remained there until the early part of 1866, and on the 5th of May that year, arriving in Slabtown, this county, soon afterward purchased the blacksmith shop of John Allen, who could not make a living at this place.

Notwithstanding the questionable outlook for his business at this point, Mr. Witte decided to try the experiment, which resulted in a success which he himself had hardly dared to hope for. In the course of time he built up an admirable business - patrons coming from far and near to give their work to the man upon whose word they could rely at all times. Mr. Witte took out his naturalization papers before he had been in America two years, and allied himself with the Republican party. He is progressive in all his ideas, and especially in favor of the education of the young, who will soon play their part in upholding one of the best Governments on the face of the earth.

Max, the eldest child of our subject, and his only son living, was graduated from the Iowa City Medical College at the age of twenty-one years, and also from the German-American College at Galena, Ill. He has already attained a fine reputation as a physician, and is the first assistant surgeon at the Hospital for the Insane at Mt. Pleasant. Miss Agnes, the daughter, also took kindly to her books, and follows the profession of a teacher, in which she has met with fine success. Mr. and Mrs. Witte are members in good standing of the German Lutheran Church at Bellevue, and, as far as patriotism is concerned, no American-born citizen has a warmer affection for the stars and stripes than Gottfried Witte.

During his blacksmithing days Mr. Witte had ninety-three regular customers on his books, and he wisely invested the capital accumulated from his labors in a fine farm of 120 acres, located in the vicinity of Spragueville. Besides this, he has twenty-five acres at his homestead. His dwelling is a neat and tasteful structure, and within abounds with the evidences of cultivated tastes and ample means, music, art and literature. He retired from active labor in 1886, and has now ample time to devote to reading and study, of which he is more than ordinarily fond, and has always encouraged his children to keep themselves posted in regard to all matters of general interest to the intelligent and progressive citizen.

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