Gehrmann, Emil J.

GEHRMANN

Posted By: Joyce Hickman (email)
Date: 8/5/2008 at 13:56:19

Emil J. Gehrmann

(From the 1883 History of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, by J. H. Keatley, p.68, Belknap Twp.)
Emil J. Gehrmann, farmer, P. O. Carson, was born on the river Weiser, Germany, December 7, 1850. He is the son of Charles F. and Johannah (Riceland) Gehrmann. His father was a machinist and engineer, born in Germany March 20, 1823. He was passenger engineer for about twenty years. He ran the first German train into Russia, and also the first train that was run between Moscow and Kaurch, as a trial, prior to drawing the train that bore the Duke Alexis to the Black Sea. He drove the train that bore the Duke on his trip. He also ran the first train on this road, which train, before starting, was sprinkled with Holy water, by the Priest of the Greek Church. From the early part of 1860 to 1869, our subject's father lived in several different places in Russia. August 16, 1869, he with his family landed in New York City. They came to Chicago and visited a few days with a brother. In September of the same year they came to Council Bluffs. The father had come ahead and purchased land in Macedonia Township, this county, where the family moved, and lived for six years. At the end of this time they sold out and bought in Sectino 29, Township 75, Range 40, where the father (our subject) and a brother, each have farms. The father worked ten years in the Union Pacific machine shops, but has now retired to his farm. Our subject's mother was born in Saxony, Germany, August 16, 1827. This was the native Province of Martin Luther, and she has seen the house in which the school which he attended was kept; also his ink-bottle and pen. When a ltitle girl, she visited his grave, and planted small bass-wood trees about it. Our subject received a good education in the German and Russian schools. He talks fluently the German, Russian and English languages. He attended a mechanical institute in Germany, and studied the machinist trade from 1863 to 1866. He afterward fired about one year on a railroad, finally becoming an engineer himself. Since coming to this country, he has devoted his attention exclusively to farming, and has been very successful. He now has 120 acres of land. He was married in Belknap township, this county, May 1, 1879, to Elizabeth Carse, born in County Down, Ireland, near Belfast, March 19, 1851, a daughter of Joseph and Elizabeth (Spratt) Carse, both natives of Ireland. Her parents and family came to America in 1860, locating in Dixon, Ill., where they lived for about eighteen years. They came to this county in 1878, locating on the farm in Section 21, Belknap Township, where both the parents still reside. Mr. and Mrs. Behrmann have one child - Emil, born May 2, 1880. they are members of the Lutheran Church.