Castner, George

CASTNER, HILDEBRANDT, CARLYLE, MARSHALL, TURNMAN

Posted By: Volunteer Transcriber
Date: 8/21/2009 at 12:43:13

Castner, George

The subject of this sketch holds prestige among the enterprising and respected agriculturists of Jasper County and those who have had occasion to look over his well tilled and modernly improved farm in Richmond Township are of the opinion that he is entitled to rank among our leading twentieth century tillers of the soil. He is a man who has been trained to do well whatever is worth doing at all and, consequently his efforts have been justly crowned with success.

Mr. Castner was born in Bureau County, Illinois, December 31, 1857, the son of S. M. and Mary (Hildebrandt) Castner. His maternal grandparents, Joseph and Elizabeth Hildebrandt, were natives of New Jersey, but their parents were born in Germany, from which country they immigrated to America in the early days, locating in New Jersey. Joseph Hildebrandt died in that state, but his wife came west and spent many years in Jasper County, Iowa, then went to Illinois where she spent the last three years of her life at the home of her youngest son, Manuel Hildebrandt, dying near Princeton, at the ripe old age of ninety-nine years. The paternal grandparents of the subject came to Illinois from the East and died in Stark County, that state.

But little is known of their early life.

S. M. Castner, father of the subject, was born, reared and educated in New Jersey and there he was married. He planned to devote his life to the legal profession and studied law in his native state, but never practiced. About 1847 or 1848 he and his wife came to Illinois and located in Bureau County when the country was mostly a wilderness and Chicago was but a village. They developed a farm from the wild, on which they lived until 1866, in which year they moved to Jasper County, Iowa, and located in Rock Creek Township, remaining there until 1877 when they moved to Mahaska County and there Mr. Castner still lives, having reached the advanced age of ninety-three years. His first wife died on November 20, 1874, and he subsequently married Mrs. Elizabeth Carlyle, who is still living. There were twelve children by the first union, seven of whom are supposed to be living at this writing.

George Castner attended school in Rock Creek Township, this County, and in Grinnell Township, Poweshiek County, also went to high school at Stewart, Guthrie County. He returned to Jasper County and has made farming his life work, with the exception of seven years spent in Grinnell engaged in the manufacture of brick; however, most of this period has been lived in Poweshiek County. In March 1911, he bought an interest in a farm of two hundred acres in Richland Township and here he is engaged in general farming and stock raising, being a breeder of Poland-China hogs and graded cattle.

Politically, Mr. Castner was a Republican up to ten years ago, since which time he has been an advocate of socialism; but conditions having changed since then, he has now returned to the standard of the "grand old party." He has belonged to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows since 1882, having joined the same in Wataga, Illinois. In 1883 he joined Tecumseh Lodge at Kellogg, Iowa, later associating with the Grinnell lodge, with which he is still affiliated. He also belongs to the Modern Woodmen of America, which he joined in 1900. Mrs. Castner is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

On August 23, 1883, Mr. Castner was united in marriage with Kate Marshall, a native of Illinois, and the daughter of John and Martha Marshall, who came to that state from Pennsylvania. Eight children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Castner, namely: Lucien Henry, who married Lois Turnman, lives at New Sharon; Lulu May was next in order of birth; the third child died in infancy; George A. is at home; the younger ones are, Elma, Leora, Edith Mercedes, Evan Marshall and Ruth Evelyn.

In 1877 Mr. Castner returned to Knox County, Illinois, and worked by the month for two years and then came back to Jasper County and bought eighty acres, which he later rented and returned to Knox County and worked for two years, being in the employ of two well known men there, the Niles brothers. Then in 1883 he came back to Iowa and has been here ever since. It was during his second trip to Illinois that he met his wife. Past and Present of Jasper County Iowa B. F. Bowden & Company, Indianapolis, IN, 1912 Page 1262.