Nicholas Maasson (1854-1923)

MAASSON

Posted By: Debra Scott Hierlmeier (email)
Date: 11/11/2008 at 17:13:32

NICHOLAS MAASSON 1854-1923
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Saved $17,000 from $100 Yearly Wage
The story of a life time devoted to saving every cent that it was possible for him to earn was disclosed Tuesday at the funeral of Nicholas Maasson, for twelve years a laborer on the farm of George Lippold Sr., and for the next forty years engaged in the same capacity with Lippold’s son at Avoca.

The aged man’s estate was valued at $17,000 cash, credited on the banks of an Avoca bank at the time of his death. His wage during the fifty-two years of his residence at the Lippold farms was $100 per year.

Every year on March 14, Maasson would draw his $100 check, when he would go at once to Avoca and deposit the money in the bank.

The other 364 days of every year was spent on the farm. On no occasion was Maasson known to go to town except to place his $100 check in safe keeping at the bank. His only mail during the fifty-two years that he worked for Lippold consisted of an annual statement from the bank, according to the farmer.

Of clothing, Maasson was provided with sufficient for his simple needs by the farmer. When Maasson was a young man his last employer would frequently ask him why he isolated himself on the farm and refused to seek pleasures in the towns as other youths did. To this Maasson would invariably reply, “I am happy enough. Each year I place $100 in the bank and if I went to town I would spend it.”

March 14, 1923, arrived but for the first time in fifty-two years the thrifty hired man was unable to go to town. He was suffering from the grip, which threatened to develop into pneumonia. Days went by and Maasson arranged with his employer to place the check in the bank when the doctors told him that he was gravely ill.

He died Sunday morning and the money which represented fifty-two years of saving will probably go to his father, John Maasson, also a resident of the farming community near Avoca. So bad was the condition of the roads at the time appointed for the funeral that a horse drawn hearse and carriages had to be used. Many bouquets of flowers were sent by relatives and friends of the man. Funeral services were held in the German Lutheran Church at Avoca.

From the Scrapbooks of Bessie Gross Gustafsen
Source: Avoca Journal Herald