Hitchler, George W.

HITCHLER, MILLER, BENSKIN, PENTICO, WALKER, MCQUOWN

Posted By: Volunteer Transcriber
Date: 8/31/2009 at 08:18:26

Hitchler, George W.

One of the successful men of Mound Prairie Township, Jasper County, is George W. Hitchler, whose long residence here has shown him to be a man of courage, self-reliance and of the utmost integrity of purpose, as a result of which he has, during his entire life, stood high in the estimation of his neighbors and friends' and is therefore deserving of a place in this book.

Mr. Hitchler was born in Sherman Township, this County (but the vicinity in which his birth occurred is now a part of Mound Prairie Township), March 6, 1859. He is the son of William Hitchler, who was born in Germany in 1810 and there he was reared and, when a boy, worked in his father's vineyard near the town of Rhodt, along the picturesque and famous river Rhine. Immigrating to America when twenty-one years of age, he found employment as a fireman on one of the first steamers on Lake Michigan. Then he returned to New York, in which state he had spent some time after landing here, and he worked in a lumber camp near Buffalo for quite a while. He was then married to Nancy Miller, who was born in the state of New York on May 2, 1829.

After his marriage William Hitchler went to Illinois, locating in Kendall County, where he rented land. In 1845 he drove from Rock Island to Jasper County, Iowa, and took up one hundred and sixty acres from the Government. The country was a wild prairie and he was one of the earliest settlers there. In later years he has a fine farm and good home as a result of his close application to his place. He built a good house and barn, but in 1866 a Rock Island engine, that road having just been completed, set the prairie on fire, and Mr. Hitchler's farm was burned over, his home, outbuildings, grain, etc., having been destroyed. He and his wife were members of the Lutheran Church. Their family consisted of eleven children, of whom George W., of this review, was the sixth in order of birth.

George W. Hitchler is one of the oldest native-born residents of Mound Prairie Township, being now fifty-three years old. He grew up amid pioneer conditions and consequently had to work hard when a boy, with little chance to get an education; however, he went to school during the short winter terms where the town of Metz now stands. He remained on the home farm until his marriage, then, he rented the farm he now owns, finally buying one hundred acres, to which he has since added fifty acres, which he has placed under a high state of improvement and cultivation. He carries on general farming and stock raising, and he has a pleasant home. Politically, he is a Republican, and he has been Township trustee and school director. He and his wife are members of the Baptist church.

On September 18, 1882, Mr. Hitchler was married to Lyda Benskin, who was born in Richland County, Illinois, the daughter of Wesley Benskin, an Illinois farmer. To Mr. and Mrs. Hitchler the following children have been born: Mrs. Maud Pentico and Mrs. May Walker, twins: Mrs. Viola McQuown, John, Pearl, Lola. Past and Present of Jasper County Iowa B. F. Bowden & Company, Indianapolis, IN, 1912 Page 887.