Albert Romey

ROMEY, OTTO, CARPENTER, VELIN, WILBURN, WILSON

Posted By: Volunteer Transcriber
Date: 3/6/2007 at 10:38:59

Biographies from the 1914 "Past and Present of O'Brien and Osceola Counties of Iowa"

ALBERT ROMEY.

Every country of Europe has contributed some of its best and warmest blood to the various states of our Union, but no country has sent here more independent, self-reliant and liberty-loving people than has Germany. Every branch of industry has felt the invigorating impulse of these people, and has responded with a firmer and more enduring progress. Strong and vigorous sons of the Fatherland, influential in every line of American activity, to them our country is largely indebted for the almost phenomenal prosperity which it now enjoys. Many of the first settlers of Osceola County, Iowa, were born in Germany, and among these there is no one who is more worthy of representation in this volume than Albert Romey, who has lived for the past forty-three years in this county.

Albert Romey, a distinguished veteran of the Civil War, was born April 12, 1844, in Dantzig, Prussia, Germany. His parents, Frederick and Louisa (Adams) Romey, spent all their lives in the land of their birth with the exception of six years which Frederick spent in America. He was a cabinet-maker in his own country and was in the United States from 1856 to 1862, when he returned to Germany, where he lived the remainder of his days. One daughter, Mrs. Mary Otto, had previously come to this country and settled in DeKalb County, Illinois, and it was to visit her that Frederick Romey and his son. Albert, came to this country.

Albert Romey was only twelve years of age when he came to the United States, and when fourteen years of age had hired out to work for a doctor in DeKalb county, Illinois. In the same year, however, he came to Fayette County, Iowa, where he worked on a farm until the opening of the Civil War. Although but a mere youth of seventeen and a resident of this country but five years, he was seized with the same patriotic zeal which caused the millions of native-born sons to flock to the standard of their country. He enlisted in the spring of 1861, immediately after Lincoln's first call, in Company F, Third Regiment-Iowa Volunteer Infantry, and served for four years and four months. His regiment was first stationed in Missouri, and while in that state he participated in engagements at Monroe Bine Mills, on the Missouri River. Hickory Woods and Mexico. He was then sent to St. Louis to embark on gunboats which were sent down the Mississippi River, up the Ohio and down the Tennessee to Fort Henry. He was in the sieges of Fort Henry, Fort Donelson, Island No. 10, Fort Pillow and Memphis. From Memphis he went to Vicksburg and was in all of the fighting up to the surrender of that stronghold on July 4, 1863. He was then sent up the Yazoo river with their gunboat "Corandelett" which fought with the rebel ram "Arkansas." From here he went again to Island No. 10, in the Mississippi, where his regiment was stationed to prevent General Price from retaking the island. From Vicksburg his regiment was sent to Meridian, Mississippi, later returned and went to assist General Banks upon the Red River expedition and went up the river toward Shreveport, Louisiana, and was detached and assigned to duty with the First Missouri Artillery. His next engagements were the battles of Yellow Bayou, De Glase and Cross Roads. For twelve days he was in continuous action and on horseback all the time. After the Red River expedition was concluded he returned to Vicksburg and from thence was sent to Memphis; here he returned to his original regiment and was sent to Georgia, where he followed Sherman on his memorable march to the sea. He was finally mustered out at Louisville, Kentucky, at the close of the war, having been a participant in engagements in eight different states and passed through hardships which would try the nerve of the strongest heart. During his entire service he lived out in the open, his command having lost their tents at the battle of Shiloh in the spring of 1862. He was wounded on two different occasions, but fortunately not seriously at either time. At Yellow Bayou, in Louisiana, he was wounded by a piece of shell while on a gunboat and later was wounded on the back by a sabre cut while a rebel cavalry were charging the battery.

Immediately after the close of his long service at the front Mr. Romey returned to Fayette County, Iowa, where he farmed for a year. In 1866 he was married to Lucy Carpenter, and the following year they went to Nebraska looking for a place to locate. However, the Indians were giving trouble in that state and they returned to Iowa arid lived in Fayette county until 1871. At this time Osceola County was being opened for settlement, and in that year they went to the latter county and homesteaded five miles southeast of Sibley, on the northwest quarter section of township 98, range 41, and here they lived until 1880, at which time they moved to Sibley, where Mr. Romey engaged in the grocery business, and he has been engaged in that business continuously since that time, a period of more than thirty-three years. He still owns one hundred and sixty acres of land in Dickinson County, about nine miles from Spirit Lake.

Since coming to this county Mr. Romey has been in office practically continuously. He was postmaster at Sibley from 1897 to 1906. He has been county supervisor of Osceola County for two terms and while living in the county was township clerk and a member of the school board for several years. He has also been assessor of Sibley since becoming: a resident of the city. He has always taken an active part in Republican politics and has been one of the leaders of his party in the county for more than forty years. He is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic post at Sibley, and has been a quartermaster since its organization. He and his family are loyal members of the Methodist Episcopal Church and render to it their earnest support at all times.

Mr. Romey and his wife have reared five children, all of whom are still living: E. A., a hotel proprietor of Dante, South Dakota; George A., cashier of the bank at Melvin, Iowa: Mrs. Lucile Ruth Velin, whose husband is a farmer of this county: Mrs. Abbie Wilburn, of Sibley, Iowa; Mrs. Bessie Wilson, who is railroad agent at Elko, Nevada.

And this is the history of a sixteen-year-old German lad who came to this country without any knowledge whatever of its language, customs or institutions and yet by his own indomitable energy and pluck has made a name for himself in this great republic. Fortunate, indeed, is the county which receives such emigrants, and Osceola County is to be congratulated that Albert Romey decided to make his permanent home within its borders. He has been devoted to his adopted country, and has always taken an active interest in everything which he felt would benefit his community in any way. No man stands higher in the esteem of his fellow citizens in this county today than does Mr. Romey, and when the work which he has done is taken into consideration it can be truthfully said that he is one of Osceola County's representative men.

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