WARMBIER, EDWARD

WARMBIER, FRASE, HALE, KRAUSE, LAWSON, MUSOLF

Posted By: Jean Kramer (email)
Date: 7/8/2003 at 20:29:17

Biography reproduced from page 643 of Volume II of the History of Kossuth County written by Benjamin F. Reed and published in 1913:

The young man of today who makes agriculture his life work and who carries it on along modern lines, aided by new labor-saving devices and improved machinery which makes farming a science at the present time, can have little conception of the difficulties and hardships which were encountered by agriculturists of barely one generation ago. Kossuth county is almost entirely under cultivation and has been brought to its present high state of productiveness during the last fifty years by men who opened up the country and are now enjoying the fruits of their labors. Prominent among these men is Edward Warmbier, now the owner of three hundred and seven acres of rich Kossuth county land.

He is a native of Germany, having been born in West Prussia, January 18, 1856. He is a son of David and Amelia (Frase) Warmbier, also natives of Germany, who came to the United States in 1866. They made the journey in a sailing vessel and landed in New York, whence they proceeded immediately to Chicago. After a short stay in that city they removed to Bloomington, Illinois, where they lived until 1882. In that year they went to South Dakota, and located at Huron, where they remained until 1891. The father had been a blacksmith in his native country but followed the occupation of farming in the United States. In 1891 the family came to Kossuth county, Iowa, and located in Sherman township, where the father farmed until his death in 1897. He was buried in Bloomington, Illinois. He had survived his wife for seven years, her death having occurred in 1890, and her grave is in Huron, South Dakota. David Warmbier and his wife were the parents of five children: Edward, the subject of this review; William, now located at Bloomington, Illinois; Bertha, the widow of Daniel Hale, of the same city; Amelia, the wife of Carl Krause, of Tacoma, Washington; and Maria, who married Oliver Lawson and is also living in Tacoma.

Edward Warmbier was educated in the common schools of Bloomington, Illinois, and remained at home until he was fourteen years of age. He left school at that time to enter the employ of a dairyman at Bloomington and continued in that occupation for three years. At the expiration of that period he worked at farming in the employ of others until he was enabled to commence farming for himself. He cultivated a small farm near Bloomington from 1874 to 1881, when he removed to Huron, South Dakota, and engaged in the same occupation for ten years. In 1891 he came to Kossuth county, Iowa, where he has remained since that time. He purchased land on section 15, Sherman township, which was entirely unimproved and Mr. Warmbier’s energy and activity have been responsible for its development and cultivation since that time. He has made wonderful changes upon his place, has added to his buildings, laid off his land into convenient fields by rail fences and has given much time and attention to tiling.

On the 16th of February, 1885, Mr. Warmbier was united in marriage to Miss Amelia Musolf, a daughter of Danial Musolf, who came to America from Germany in 1866 and settled in Kossuth county in 1874. He crossed the Atlantic in a sailing vessel with Edward Warmbier and located with him at Bloomington, Illinois, where he lived until he came to Sherman township, this county. He died here, September 8, 1900, and is buried at Luverne, Iowa. His wife died in 1867 and is buried in Bloomington, Illinois. They were the parents of several children, only one of whom, Amelia, the wife of our subject, is still living. Mr. and Mrs. Warmbier have seven children, Anna, Herman, Charles, Rosa, Clara, Linda and Carrie, all of whom are living on the home farm.

Mr. Warmbier is a democrat and has always taken an active interest in the political affairs of Kossuth county. He has been trustee of Sherman township for four consecutive years and served for two terms as president of the school board and was a director for two years. He and his family are devout members of the German Lutheran church of Luverne, and they have many friends throughout the community. Mr. Warmbier is one of the many active and progressive farmers who took up land in Kossuth county in the early days of its development and have improved and cultivated it until is it an important source of wealth. He now owns three hundred and seven acres of the finest farm land in the county and is one of the foremost citizens of Sherman township at the present time.