Herwehe, Jacob

HERWEHE, WARNTZ, LIBERUM

Posted By: Volunteer Transcriber
Date: 8/30/2009 at 18:28:47

Herwehe, Jacob

Without making any invidious comparisons, it is safe to say that the United States can boast of no better or more law-abiding class of citizens than those sent to our shore by the German empire and whom this country is always ready to welcome. Many of them have come to our forty-eight states limited in financial resources, but imbued with sturdy independence and a laudable ambition to succeed, and who have taken advantage of the wonderful resources afforded here. Gradually they have risen to places of prominence in various lines of activity. Of these none in Jasper County deserves more favorable attention than Jacob Herwehe, farmer and stock raiser of Fairview Township. He was born in Baden, Germany, August 28, 1844, the son of Philip and Anna Mary (Warntz) Herwehe, natives of Germany, the father born on January 28, 1821, and the mother on July 24, 1823, both in Baden. There they grew up and were married, and there the father owned a small farm on which he raised tobacco and small grains. In 1854 he and his family immigrated to America and located in Cincinnati, Ohio, and there he worked at various things in order to get a foothold in the new country. In 1855 he brought his family to Jasper County, Iowa, where Philip Herwehe worked as a farm hand and later rented land until 1859, when he bought forty acres in Fairview Township, which he later added to and here farmed until his death in 1879, owning at that time a good farm of over two hundred acres. He was independent in politics and a member of the German Methodist Church. His widow survived many years, dying in 1903. Their family consisted of three sons and five daughters, of whom Jacob, of this sketch, was the oldest.

The subject attended school in Germany and two winters in Iowa, but he had little opportunity to get an education. Being the oldest son, a great deal of hard work about the home place fell to him when he was a boy, and he did the work of a man when he was sixteen years old. He remained with his father until he was twenty-six years old. He moved on the farm where he now lives in the fall of 1870 and began renting of his father, later buying the place.

He has brought it up to a high state of improvement and cultivation through his long years of close application. In connection with general farming he has raised considerable livestock. Politically, he is a Democrat and he belongs to the German Methodist Church.

Mr. Herwehe was married on August 16, 1870, to Christine Liberum, who was born in Ashuay, Germany, March 2, 1842, and there she spent her childhood, emigrating to America in the fall of 1869 and took up her residence with her cousin in Des Moines. She was the daughter of Conrad Liberum, who was of French descent. One daughter was born to Mr. and Mrs. Herwehe, Anna Mary, who lives with her father, keeping house for him and is his mainstay. She is an industrious, genial and well-informed lady who numbers her friends by the scores.

Mrs. Jacob Herwehe, a woman of splendid attributes of head and heart, passed away on December 13, 1903, having been an invalid for several years.

When Mr. Herwehe came to this County he found a wild, unbroken prairie, and much of his time when a boy was spent upturning the virgin sod. He frequently walked to Newton, ten miles away on the trail, making the trip in three hours. He worked oxen and used primitive implements on the farm, and he underwent the usual hardships and privations incident to pioneer life; but, being a man of courage and sterling mettle, he persevered in the face of all obstacles and in due course of time had a good home and a valuable farm. He talks interestingly of the early days, of the bands of Indians seen hereabout, of the wild game, the general picturesque life of the raw prairie. He is deserving of a great deal of credit for what he has accomplished for himself and the community. Past and Present of Jasper County Iowa B. F. Bowden & Company, Indianapolis, IN, 1912 Page 1193.