BIERSTEDT, EDWARD C.

BIERSTEDT, KNOCHENMASS, WAGNER

Posted By: Jean Kramer (email)
Date: 5/24/2004 at 16:46:00

Biography reproduced from page 671 of Volume II of the History of Kossuth County written by Benjamin F. Reed and published in 1913:

Edward C. Bierstedt is numbered among the worthy and representative farmers, stock-raisers and dairymen of Burt township, Kossuth county, Iowa, where he operates a farm of one hundred and fifty-four acres constituting one of the model properties in this section of the country. Mr. Bierstedt is a native son of Iowa, having been born upon his father’s farm in Burt township, January 21, 1874. He is of German parentage, his father, Christopher Bierstedt, having been born in the fatherland, where he received his early education and training. He came to America when he was a young man and settled in Clayton county, Iowa, where he married Miss Dora Knochenmass, also a native of Germany. Christopher Bierstedt farming in Clayton county for a few years and met with a gratifying degree of success. He subsequently removed to Kossuth county where he bought an eighty acre tract of land in Burt township and began its improvement and cultivation. From time to time he added to his holdings and at one time he owned three hundred and eighty acres in another section. He built a comfortable home upon his property and planted forest and orchard trees. He followed agriculture for many years in Kossuth county but eventually sold his farm and removed to the city of Burt where he resided for two years. At the end of that time he removed to Whittemore, where he lived retired until his death in 1908. He was one of the representative and thoroughly successful farmers in Kossuth county and was identified with its development. His wife survives him.

Edward C. Bierstedt was one of a family of five children. He was reared upon his father’s farm and from his earliest childhood aided in the minor duties incident to the cultivation of the soil. As he grew older he was given more and more responsible work and became thoroughly familiar with farming. He remained at home until his marriage in 1899, and in that year bought one hundred and fifty-four acres on section 16, Burt township, where he now resides. At the time Mr. Bierstedt purchased his farm there was a small house upon the land and there he resided for a few years. He has since made extensive additions to the original building and has remodeled within and without and equipped it with modern conveniences. He has also erected a large barn and sheds. He has a hog house upon his property and most of his acres are tiled and drained. A portion of the land is planted in timber and orchard trees and he specializes in high-grade Shorthorn cattle. He engages in dairying to some extent and maintains a good grade of cows for this purpose. He sells his milk to the Lone Rock Creamery Association, in which he is a stockholder. Mr. Bierstedt is an enterprising and successful farmer but does not allow his activities along this line to monopolize his attention. He is an up-to-date, progressive business man, interested in the modern development of the section in which he resides. He is a stockholder in the Farmers Elevator Company of Lone Rock and is also interested in the Independent Telephone Company.

On February 8, 1899, Mr. Bierstedt was married in Palo Alto county, to Miss Anna Wagner, who is of German parentage but was born and reared in Iowa. To this union were born five children: Matilda, who died at the age of two years; Arthur O.; Esther; Raymond; and Leona.

Politically Mr. Bierstedt gives his support to the republican party but has never sought public office. He holds membership in the German Lutheran church of Lotts Creek and his wife is also a member of this congregation. The agricultural and business circles of Burt township have benefitted by Mr. Bierstedt’s life work, and his career has exemplified the sturdy and reliable virtues of an honest man and a representative citizen.