POPPE, WILLIAM

POPPE, WILSON, SCHONE, ENGELBART

Posted By: Jean Kramer (email)
Date: 10/7/2003 at 16:47:44

Biography reproduced from page 559 of Volume II of the History of Kossuth County written by Benjamin F. Reed and published in 1913:

William Poppe is the owner of an excellent farm of a hundred and sixty acres located on section 34, Springfield township. It is a rich, productive piece of land, splendidly improved and is in every way a tribute to his agricultural skill and management. Petersburg, Menard county, Illinois, was the place of his birth, the event occurring on the 15th of April, 1860. His parents, John D. and Mattie (Wilson) Poppe, were born, reared and married in Germany, whence they emigrated to the United States about 1856. Upon their arrival in this country, they were induced by a man who met them at the wharf to go to Memphis, Tennessee. There they were retained at hard labor against their will for eight months, at the expiration of which time by careful planning and much precaution they managed to elude their captor and make their escape. Practically without funds, and unfamiliar with the language and customs of the county, their troubles were not yet over by any means, but the father soon succeeded in getting an opportunity to work in payment for his passage up the river to Springfield, Illinois. He there obtained employment and was later able to send for the mother. They resided in Illinois until 1868, when they came to Jones county, Iowa, where the mother passed away when our subject was a youth of sixteen years. The father, however, survived for some time thereafter, his death occurring in 1895. After attaining manhood his energies were always devoted to farming with the exception of the period he spent in the German army. Mr. and Mrs. Poppe were the parents of five children: Johnson, Fred and Henry, all of whom reside in Jones county, this state; William, the subject of this sketch; and Mary, the wife of John Schone of Jones county, Iowa.

The education of William Poppe was begun in the schools of his native state and completed in those of Iowa. At the age of fifteen years he left home and began earning his own living, working out by the month as a farm hand from then until he was twenty-four. He then began farming for himself in Jones county, where he resided until 1889, when he came to Kossuth county and purchased his present homestead. He has ever since diligently applied himself to the development of this place, on which he has made all of the improvements, making it one of the valuable properties of the community. Mr. Poppe is an enterprising and progressive man, who takes an active and helpful interest in everything pertaining to the advancement of agriculture. He is secretary of the Rural Telephone Company of Springfield township, and he was one of the organizers of the Farmers Cooperative Creamery Company. Such success as has come to him is the result of individual effort, as he started out in life empty-handed, and has earned everything he possesses.

In 1887, Mr. Poppe was married to Miss Mary Engelbart, a sister of Martin Engelbart, a well known farmer of this township, and to them have been born five children: Adolph, Amanda, Ella and Jennie, all of whom are at home; and William.

The family are members of the German Lutheran church. He is a republican in politics, and has for eight years served as township trustee and as school director for nine