Katt, Nicholas

KATT, ADAMI

Posted By: Roseanna Zehner
Date: 7/22/2006 at 16:14:22

KATT, NICHOLAS

Nicholas Katt has a commendable standing among the sturdy, energetic and successful farmers of Lyon county, who so thoroughly understand the vocation they follow that they command good fortune. He is widely known as an upright and industrious farmer, and as a citizen his name is also respected far beyond the limits of Garfield township, where is found his present home.

Mr. Katt was born in the kingdom of Hanover, Germany, in 1854, where his father, Diedrich Katt, died when he was but a year and a half old. He was reared by his grandmother, and trained to farm work. His marriage occurred in Germany before his arrival in this country in 1882, when Miss Margarette Adami became his wife. They have a family of eight living children: Henry, Joh, Ida, Anna, Willie, Augusta, Mary and Walter. Henry and Anna are married, and Ernest, a child born after Augusta, is dead. The five youngest children were born in this country; the other four in Germany.

On his arrival in the United States, Mr. Katt's first location was in Cedar county, Iowa, where he found employment as a farm laborer for five years. In 1887 Mr. Katt came into Lyon county, and for a year did farm work, after which he settled on a farm of eighty acres in section 35, Garfield township, where he was engaged in the cultivation of the soil for the ensuing five years. When he entered here this was all wild land with absolutely no improvements, but Mr. Katt presently brought it out into fine condition. He began with a stable built of hay, and had a house 12 by 20 feet in dimension. Here he saw hard times and though he worked hard met with poor results. The first year his crop was so small he did not raise enough to feed his stock through the winter. In 1892 he received a good offer for his farm, and the following year, having disposed of his first place, located on the southwest quarter of section 4, Garfield township, and here he is still to be found, enjoying a large measure of success, and satisfied with the very substantial results that have come to years of toil. These are the dimensions of the very commodious and attractive farm home in which he and his family abide: 16 by 24, with 14-foot posts, 16 by 16, with 14-foot posts, and 14 by 14 with 9-foot posts. The barn is 32 by 40 feet, the granary, 24 by 24 feet, and corn cribs and other out buildings ample to every need. Four acres are given to a farm grove, and the entire place shows good farming and close attention.

Source: Compendium of History Reminiscence and Biography of Lyon County, Iowa. Published under the Auspices of the Pioneer Association of Lyon County. Geo. Monlun, Pres.; Hon. E. C. Roach Sec’y; and Col. F. M. Thompson, Historian. Geo. A. Ogle & CO., Published, Engravers and Book Manufacturers. Chicago, 1904-1905

Transcribed by Roseanna Zehner, Darlene Jacoby and Diane Johnson