MEYER, M. F.

MEYER, MELKEY, BLOCK, WETZEL, TIEDE

Posted By: Jean (email)
Date: 12/26/2003 at 13:35:22

Biography reproduced from page 285 of Volume II of the History of Kossuth County written by Benjamin F. Reed and published in 1913:

M. F. Meyer, who engages in general farming and stock-raising in Sherman township, Kossuth county, where he owns one hundred and sixty acres of land, is one of the most enterprising and progressive as well as successful agriculturists in his community. He was born in Germany on the 19th of February, 1877, and is a son of W. D. and Henrietta (Melkey) Meyer, also natives of Germany, who emigrated to the United States in 1880. They located on a farm in Rock Island county, Illinois, continuing to reside in that state until 1911, when they came to Kossuth county and are now living in Luverne. Five children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Meyer, as follows: Herman, who went to Alaska and has never been heard from since; Ernest, who is a resident of Humboldt county, Iowa; M. F., our subject; and Anna, the wife of Max Block, of Luverne, Iowa; Vinnie, the wife of Lewis Wetzel, of Kewanee, Illinois.

As he was only a child of three years when he came to America with his parents, M. F. Meyer was reared in Illinois and educated in the public schools of Rock Island county. He was early trained in habits of thrift and industry and while still a small lad began assisting his father with the lighter duties about the home farm, remaining under the parental roof until he was twenty years of age. In 1897, he left home and came to Kossuth county, where for two years he worked out as a farm hand. At the expiration of that time he bought his present farm, comprising one hundred and sixty acres, and began farming on his own account. There were no improvements on the property when he purchased it and during the period of his ownership he has tiled and fenced his fields and erected a comfortable residence and large barns and substantial outbuildings. He is practical and progressive in his ideas and conducts his business in a systematic manner, keeping in touch with the modern methods of agriculture. His farm is supplied with every implement or appliance that will expedite the work or lessen the labor connected with its cultivation and he also owns an automobile. He engages in general farming, and as his fields have been brought to a high state of productivity and are carefully tilled, he annually reaps abundant harvests, that command the market's highest prices.

Mr. Meyer was married in 1899 to Miss Matilda Tiede, and to them have been born six children: Ferdinand, Lydia, Erhardt, Ernest, Dorothy and Hilda.

The family attend the religious services of the German Lutheran church, in which the parents hold membership, and the political support of Mr. Meyer is given to the republican party. He has never held any public office, however, save that of road supervisor, the extent and demands of his private interests, precluding the possibility of assuming other duties. He is a capable and efficient man, and is leading a life of intelligently directed and intensive activity, as is evidenced by the well kept and thriving appearance of his farm, which is one of the most attractive properties in this section.