Altemeier, William John

KLOPPING, RATHELSON, WERMAN, WEISEMAN, MORRIS, WILSON, PENNINGTON

Posted By: Volunteer (email)
Date: 5/23/2007 at 20:07:07

The gentleman whose life history is herewith outlined is a man who has lived to good purpose and achieved a measure of success that is the legitimate reward for honest labor and faithful enterprise. By a straightforward and commendable course he has made his way to a respectable position in the business world, winning the hearty admiration of the people of his community and earning a reputation as an enterprising, progressive man of affairs which the public has not been slow to recognize and appreciate. He is one of our native sons who has been satisfied with local conditions and willing to spend his life on his native heath, having had the sagacity to foresee that here were as good if not better opportunities as existed in this or any other state, and, thus growing up amid the conditions in which he first found himself and being persistent. he has benefited himself and the community in general. His well-kept and well-tilled farm in Mariposa Township shows that Mr. Altemeier has kept fully abreast of the times in every respect and that he believes in doing well whatever he attempts, whether trivial or of momentous importance, and it will be noticed that such men succeed at their life work, where others fail for lack of concentration.

Mr. Altemeier was born in Mariposa Township, Jasper County, Iowa, on June 28, 1870. He is the son of Adolph, Sr., and Wilhelmina (Klopping) Altemeier, the father born on December 24, 1837. at the town of Horn in the Province of Lepin, Germany, and the mother was born on April 8, 1841, at the town of Dephmold, in the Province of Lepin, Germany. When a boy the father worked on the farm in his native land, and in 1855, when eighteen years of age, he emigrated to our shores, taking up his residence in the town of Freeport, Illinois, where his brother Simon and sister Louise were already located, they having emigrated to New Jersey in 1852 and came to Freeport, Illinois, a year later: Simon Altemeier is still living in Mariposa Township, Jasper County, Iowa. In 1857 Adolph Altemeier, Sr., came to Newton, Iowa, and there worked for some time in the brickyard, then began renting a farm five miles north of Newton. He then moved to Spirit Lake, Iowa, and took up a claim, but at the time of the Indian uprising he was forced to leave it, so he returned to Jasper County and in 1860 bought forty acres of land in Malaka Township. A few years later he sold out and bought one hundred and twenty acres in Mariposa Township, this County. Here he met with a larger measure of success than falls to the average man, beginning life as he did, a pioneer under discouraging conditions. He added to his original purchase from time to time until he became the owner of eight hundred acres of valuable land, and he farmed on an extensive scale, becoming one of the substantial and influential men of his community. He took considerable interest in public affairs and served as Township trustee and assessor, also served on the Township school board. He and his wife were members of the German Evangelical church. The elder Altemeier passed to his reward on October 10, 1886, after a successful and honored career. The mother of the subject came to the United States when she was nine years of age, in 1850. and located at Freeport, Illinois, and there lived five or six years among her neighbors from her birthplace in Germany. Her parents had died when she was a young girl. It was about 1856 that she came to Newton, Iowa, and worked in the home of Colonel Curzard for several years, then was married to the senior Altemeier. Since his death she has lived in Newton, for the most part.

Nine children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Adolph Altemeier, Sr., named in order of birth as follows: Adolph, Jr.; Mary is deceased; Mrs. Lottie Rathelson is also deceased; William John, of this sketch; Mrs. Minnie Werman, Mrs. Anna Weiseman, Louis, Edward C. and Fred.

William J. Altemeier grew up on the home farm and when but a boy he began making a regular hand in the crop seasons, attending district school No. 4 in Mariposa Township. When twenty-one years of age he began hiring out by the month, then rented part of the home place from his mother for four years. He was twenty-one years of age when he purchased one hundred and sixty acres just south of the old homestead. Five years later he added eighty acres more to this and here he has continued to reside, keeping the place well up-to-date in. the matter of tillage and improvements, carrying on general farming and stock raising in a successful manner. In 1911 he built a splendid new barn and has such other convenient buildings as his needs require, including a very pleasant residence. He has long made a specialty of raising Poland-China hogs.

Politically, Mr. Altemeier is a Democrat and while he has ever manifested an interest in the welfare of his community he has not sought public office.

On October 28, 1898, occurred the marriage of William J. Altemeier and Hilaria Morris. The latter was born in Mariposa Township, Jasper County, Iowa, on October 31, 1870. She is the daughter of Stephen and Charlotte (Wilson) Morris. The father was born in Tuscarawas County, 0hio, on July 3, 1838, and the mother was born in Arkansas on November 27, 1840. The paternal grandparents were Payton and Martha Morris, who spent their lives in Ohio. The maternal grandparents, Robert W. and Johanna Wilson, who left Arkansas in 1842, moved to Clark County, Indiana, where they lived until 1854 in which year they drove through with a team and wagon to Jasper County, Iowa, Mr. Wilson entering land just east of Rushville in Kellogg Township, and there he and his wife spent the remainder of their lives. Mrs. Altemeier's mother was two years of age when her parents took her from Arkansas to Indiana and there she spent a part of her girlhood, accompanying the family to Iowa, growing to maturity in Kellogg Township and attending the local schools. She became fairly well educated for those times and she taught the first school in district No. 4 in Mariposa Township when the district was opened in 1863. She and Mr. Morris were married on February 11, 1866, he having come to Jasper County from Ohio in 1860. Mr. Morris enlisted in Company I, Tenth Iowa Volunteer Infantry, in which he served faithfully for a period of three and one-half years during the most stirring part of the Civil War. He contracted a disease of the eyes which made it necessary for him to spend some time in the hospital, and in fact, he was troubled from the effects of the same the balance of his life Stephen Morris had bought a farm in Jasper County before he came to Iowa, and after the war he traded that for the home place of one hundred and sixty acres in Mariposa Township, later adding forty acres more. He was a Republican in politics and all the family were members of the Methodist Episcopal church. The death of the father of Mrs. Altemeier occurred on February 4, 1901, and since that event the mother has been living among her children.

Nine children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Stephen Morris, named in order of birth as follows: Mrs. Sarah Elvira Pennington lives in Colton, South Dakota; Anne Clair died in infancy; Mrs. Hilaria J Altemeier, wife of the subject; Robert Melvin, farmer of Mariposa Township, this County; Jesse Payton is living in Newton, Iowa; Herbert S. is deceased; Mrs. Edith J. Snodgrass is living in South Dakota; Clarence is deceased; Harvey Rice is living in Worth County, Iowa.

Five children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Altemeier, of this sketch, namely: Pearl, Odessa, Eva, Lucile and Morris.

Mr. and Mrs. Altemeier are pleasant people to visit in their hospitable home, and they have many friends throughout the locality in which they live.

The Past and Present of Jasper County, Gen. James B. Weaver, Editor-In-Chief, 1912 B.F. Bowen Co., Indianapolis, IN, p. 837.