Erks, Rudolph 1860-1922

ERKS, JACOBS, FREDRICKS

Posted By: Glenna Rice, volunteer (email)
Date: 4/5/2012 at 22:24:53

Rudolph Erks is Dead

Was Well Known And Successful Farmer

Gained Fortune By his Own Endeavors

Came to Plymouth County When A Penniless Youth and by Industry and Integrity Gained a Fine Home and a Comfortable Competency

Rudolph Erks, one of the well known and successful farmers of Preston township, died at a hospital in Akron at an early hour on Tuesday morning. Mr. Erks and been in failing health all winter suffering from an internal malady with complications resulting in cancer, which caused his death.

Rudolph Erks was born in Rieshault (sp. Reepsholt) Hanover, Germany, on December 25, 1861. He received his education in the public schools in Germany and there grew to manhood. At the age of twenty-one he decided to come to America to seek advantages denied to youth in his country and came directly to Plymouth county where he found a home, happiness and achieved success in his avocation of farming.

On his arrival here he went to work for Fred Jacobs in Preston township and remained in his employ for four years. At the end of that time he began to farm on his own account and bought eighty acres of land in section twenty-seven in Preston township. The tract at that time was all wild prairie and required the hardest labor to bring it to the proper state of cultivation. Erks bought the place with the object of making a home and at once devoted his energies to developing the resources. He built a shanty fourteen by twenty and a small barn that was covered with hay and proceeded to break the prairie sod. He soon became successful as a general farmer and a stock raiser. He planted a beautiful grove and erected a substantial house which he remodeled and made modern in 1915, and the out buildings on the place are some of the best in this prosperous community. As he prospered he bought more land and owned four hundred acres of as good land as can be found in northwestern Iowa

Rudolph Erks was united in marriage on April 6, 1889 with Helen M. Jacobs, a daughter of Fred and Margaretha Jacobs, for whom he worked when he first came to this country,

Mr. Erks is survived by his wife, three sons and two daughters who are Mrs. Henry F. Fredricks, Frederic, John, William and Meta.

Mr. Erks was a good citizen and prominent in the business and social life of the community. He was a loving husband and father and loyal to his friends and neighbors who had known him in his early struggles and since he had attained affluence and had always found him the same good and true man.

The funeral services will be held this afternoon at the Preston township Lutheran church of which he was an upright and consistent member.

LeMars Semi-Weekly Sentinel
Friday, March 31, 1922; page 1, column 7
LeMars, Plymouth, Iowa