Martens, Claus

MARTENS

Posted By: Joyce Hickman (email)
Date: 9/29/2008 at 13:42:50

Claus Martens

(From the 1883 History of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, by J. H. Keatley, p.178, Minden Twp.)
Claus Martens, farmer, P. O. Minden, was born in Holstein, Germany, October 17, 1844. He is the son of Hans and Dorothea (Sebelin) Martens, both natives of Holstein, Germany. His father was a mason, born in 1782 and died in 1860, in his native land. The mother of our subject was born in 1802, and also died in her native country, in 1876. They had seven children, five of whom are now living - three sons and two daughters. Our subject began life as a farmer. He came tot his country in 1866, coming to Rock Island, Ill., where he worked in a saw-mill. He moved to Davenport, this State, in the same year, and engaged in farming. He came to this county March 20, 1875, and purchased eighty acres of wild land in Section 9, Minden Township, at $9 per acre. He bought forty acres of wild land in each of the years 1877, 1880 and 1882, making in all 200 acres, which is now in good cultivation. In 1881, he built a house and several other good buildings, and set out 100 cottonwood grees and thirty fruit tres during the same year. He now engages in general farming. In religion, he is Lutheran, and in politics a Republican.