Sinnary J. WENTZEL

CAMPBELL, WENTZEL, ROOD, GRANT, CRANE

Posted By: Sharon R Becker (email)
Date: 3/4/2009 at 13:57:36

S. J. WENTZEL

S[innary]. J. WENTZEL, who for almost two decades has been a prominent and successful representative of agricultural interests in Taylor county, was born in Perry county, Pennsylvania, on the 2d of November, 1843. He is a son of Daniel and Catharine (CAMPBELL) WENTZEL, natives of Northumberland county, Pennsylvania, where they were reared and married. His paternal great-grandfather fought for American independence during the Revolutionary war, while his grandfather, Daniel WENTZEL, was a soldier of the war of 1812. His father, who was a stone-cutter by trade, followed that occupation in Pennsylvania for about thirty-six years and then settled upon a farm in Perry county, that state, where his remaining days were spent. His family consisted of five sons and seven daughters, all of whom reached mature years and reared families of their own, and were all church members. Of this number four sons and four daughters still survive.

In the common schools of the Keystone State [Pennsylvania], S. J. WENTZEL acquired his education and on his father's farm he was reared to manhood, assisting his father in the work of the fields until twenty years of age. Then imbued with a spirit (page 641) of patriotism, on the 2d of September, 1864, he enlisted for three years' service in the Civil war, becoming a member of Company F, Two Hundred and Eighth Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. The regiment joined the Army of the Potomac and his first duty was on the picket line. Later, however, he participated in many important engagements, including the battles of Appomattox, Peach Orchard, Bermuda Hundred, Fort Steadman, Petersburg, Five Forks or Hatchers Run. He was a member of a brigade detailed to tear up the railroads, during which time he took part in several skirmishes and was also one of twenty men detailed as a guard to escort General Fitzhugh LEE, with some twenty soldiers, to the Union lines. He later guarded twenty Confederate soldiers after LEE's surrender, keeping them in a building until morning, when they were released. He continued to serve with his regiment until the close of the war and was then mustered out at Alexandria. Later he marched to Washington, D. C., where he participated in the grand review, and was then honorably discharged at Harrisburg on the 17th of June, 1865. Throughout his entire service he lost no time through sickness or other causes, was always on duty and was loyal and brave in his defense of the old flag and the cause which it represented.

When the country no longer needed his services, Mr. WENTZEL returned home, where he assisted in the work of the farm and remained until after the fall crops were harvested. He then went to the pineries, where he worked in the timber through the following winter, and when spring came he boarded a canalboat at Williamsport and went to Baltimore. He made four trips to Key West, two from Baltimore and two from Fortress Monroe. Upon his return to his native state, having located in the county in 1857. He was at that time a young man in 1870 that came west, locating in Knox County, Illinois, where he obtained employment on a farm, working by the month for over a year. In 1872 in that county, he was united in marriage to Miss Angeline CLINE, a native of Pennsylvania, where she was reared and educated. They began their domestic life upon a rented farm which Mr. WENTZEL continued to operate for several years. He then removed to Iowa and took up his abode upon a farm which he had previously purchased in Taylor county. This farm, consisting of one hundred and twenty acres on section 26, Grant township, was but partially improved when it came into his possession, but he immediately set about bringing his fields under a high state of cultivation. He erected a comfortable residence and a good, substantial barn, and has introduced upon the place various improvements which serve to make it one of the valuable and desirable properties of the township. He has made a close study of agriculture and is methodical, systematic and progressive, so that he is numbered among the substantial and successful farmers of his section of the county. In connection with his farming he engages in stock raising and this branch of his business is proving a very gratifying source of income.

As the years have come and gone the home of Mr. and Mrs. WENTZEL has been blessed with six children, five of whom are now living, namely: Charles Ira, who follows the occupation of farming; David Leroy, who is married and operates a farm in Platte township, Taylor county; Laura May, the wife of F. L. ROOD, of Clearfield, Iowa; Lydia Alice, who married Ed GRANT of Northville, South Dakota; and Lucinda Adell, the wife of George CRANE, of Ringgold county, Iowa. Mary F. passed away when three years of age.

Mr. and Mrs. WENTZEL are members of the United Presbyterian church of Clearfield and are people of the highest personal worth, occupying an enviable place in the social circles of the community in which they reside. Politically Mr. WENTZEL is a democrat although he cast his first vote for Abraham LINCOLN in 1864 while serving in the army. He also supported James A. GARFIELD, and it is a coincidence that both candidates were elected on his birthday and both were assassinated. He served as township trustee three or four different terms and was sent as delegate to various county conventions. His friends, and they are many, know him to be a man of high principles and stalwart purposes, and throughout the community in which he resides he commands the respect and confidence of those with whom he has come in contact.

NOTE: S. J. WENTZEL died in 1919. Angeline WENTZEL was born in 1854 and died in 1920. Their daughter Mary F. WENTZEL was born in 1892 and died in 1896. They were interred at Clearfield Cemetery, Ringgold County, Iowa.

SOURCE: CROSSON, Frank E. History of Taylor County, Iowa: From The Earliest Historic Times to 1910 Pp. 638 - 640. S.J. Clarke Pub. Chicago. 1910.

Transcription and note by Sharon R. Becker, 2008