KRITZLER, Jacob J. - 1912 Bio (1831-1920)

KRITZLER, UNKRICH, GERSON

Posted By: Debbie Nash (email)
Date: 11/26/2002 at 18:23:31

From the HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY - 1912, Volume II
Pages 461-462.

JACOB J. KRITZLER

Among the many foreign countries which have contributed to our citizenship and have had an invaluable influence in molding the character of our national life, none is more conspicuously represented than Germany. Among the brave men and earnest-minded workers that are numbered among those who came from the fatherland Jacob J. KRITZLER holds a worthy place. He was born in Frankfort-on-the-Main in the year 1831, his parents being Jacob J. and Harriet KRITZLER, the former being a native of Germany and the latter of Switzerland. His father never left his native land where he served as a commissioner until his death, April 3, 1865.

Left motherless at the age of five years Jacob J. KRITZLER was reared and educated in his native locality and remained at home until he was nineteen years old, when he set out for the new world, landing in New York in October, 1850. He made his way west as far as Ohio, locating in Cincinnati where he remained for a short time. He then returned to the east and lived for a time in New York city and in Brooklyn. In 1852 he went back to the old country to revisit the scenes of his childhood, remaining four years, when he once more departed for America. He became a resident of Jefferson county, Iowa, in 1865, settling in Glasgow, Round Prairie township, where he conducted a tavern for nine years. He then paid a second visit to his native land but remained only a short time and on his return to Round Prairie township engaged in agriculture, acquiring a tract of land of one hundred and seventy acres. This he cleared and improved and cultivated with much success for many years. He is now retired, still making his home in Glasgow, however.

For a helpmate Mr. KRITZLER chose Miss Charlotte UNKRICH, to whom he was married in 1863. Mrs. KRITZLER was born in Germany and is a daughter of John H. and Fredericka L. (GERSON) UNKRICH, both natives of Germany, who immigrated to our shores in 1859. The father, who was of much consequence in his native community, was an agriculturist and had also served in the legislature. On his arrival in America he settled in Round Prairie township, Jefferson county, continuing the cultivation of the soil on a farm of three hundred acres which he operated until his death, the following year. The mother passed away in 1876. Mr. and Mrs. KRITZLER were the parents of one child, Gustave, who died November 14, 1880, at the age of sixteen years. Fraternally Mr. KRITZLER is connected with the Odd Fellows Lodge, of Glasgow. In his political views he is a republican and served as township clerk for twenty years and for a long period as secretary of the school board. He and his wife worship in the German Reformed church. Although in his eightieth year Mr. KRITZLER is in possession of excellent health and a merry heart, enjoying that peace of mind which comes after a long life spent in honest toil.

I am copying this information for the benefit of genealogical research and am not related to said individuals.