Sigler, Isaac M. (1826-1888)

SIGLER

Posted By: Joyce Hickman (email)
Date: 4/3/2008 at 21:51:38

Isaac Michael Sigler
Sep 3, 1826 - Apr 9, 1888

(From the 1883 History of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, by J. H. Keatley, p.81, Boomer Twp.)
I. M. Sigler, farming, Council Bluffs, was born in Putnam County, Ind., September 3, 1826, son of Eli Sigler, native of Tennessee. Mr. Sigler was raised in Indiana, and received his education there. By trade he is a tanner, and followed it till he came to Iowa, and has since followed farming. He came to Iowa in 1855, and entered his farm, and then went back to Indiana and stayed two years, but was preparing to come here. He was married in Indiana, in 1847, to Miss Phoebe Manker, born in Ohio. They have had nine children, six are still living - three boys and three girls, and three girls dead. Only two at home, the other four married; all in this county but the oldest son, and he is in Page County, Iowa, where he is in restaurant and grocery store in Blanchard, Iowa. In moving West, Mr. Sigler came in wagon with horse team, but sold them after coming, and bought cattle and began to break prairie. His farm is on Big Pigeon Creek, and when he came to it in 1857 there were not any horses on the Creek; the work was done with oxen. Wheat was cut with a scythe,, and tramped out with oxen; then to get it made into flour they took it to William Reel's mill on Pigeon, where it was ground on the same stones as the corn, and they would bring it home bran and all together and sift it at home; using bobbinet as a bolt. Robert Kent had the first fanning-mill on the creek, and would charge every fourth bushel for using the fan. When coming in 1855, he entered 200 acres of Government land, and pre-empted 120 of swamp land, and then when he came in 1857, he entered this 120 which he had pre-empted and besides this he bought the claim of William Goodwin of 120 acres; but this was railroad land, so he had to pay the railroad company for it. He moved into a Mormon cabin on the Goodwin claim, and lived in it for about a year. In 1858, he bought his present dwelling house of William Reel, and moved it from Crescent City, and fixed it up, and moved into it in the spring of 1859. For some years his farming was mostly wheat; but now his farming is mostly stock and corn. His farm now consists of about two hundred and fifty acres as he has been selling some. When each township had a member of the Board of Supervisors, Mr. Sigler served for eight years, and besides this has held various offices in school and township. Mr. Sigler had joined a company in 1846 to go to the Mexican army, but while they were drilling and practicing in Green Castle, Ind., he was accidently shot through the wrist the day before they were to start, so that ended his service. He is Democratic in politics; is a member of the Grange, and in 1854 joined the Masonic fraternity, but since coming to Iowa, he has not joined any lodge, because they are so far distant. Mr. Sigler's ancestors were German, his grandfather coming from Germany.