Klemm, Louis J.

KLEMM

Posted By: Karon Velau (email)
Date: 6/29/2021 at 13:19:21

History of Warren County, Iowa from Its Earliest Settlement to 1908, by Rev. W. C. Martin, Clarke Publishing Co., Chicago, Illinois, 1908, p.734

LOUIS J. KLEMM
One of the most prosperous farmers and successful business men of Linn Township is Louis J. Klemm, who has spent his entire life in Warren County, his birth occurring in Jefferson Township, September 13, 1863. His paternal grandfather, John Klemm, is still living in Des Moines, Iowa, at the advanced age of ninety-five years. He was born in Baden Baden, Germany, February 19, 1813, and came to the United States in 1843, locating first in Pike County, Ohio. In 1857 he came to Iowa, his destination being Churchville, Warren County. He made the trip by boat and after deciding on a location returned to Ohio for his family, which he brought by wagon to his new home. He purchased two hundred and forty acres of land in Jefferson Township, to the cultivation and improvement of which he devoted his time and attention until 1869, when he sold that place and bought the farm now owned and occupied by our subject in Linn Township. Here he lived for twenty-five years and then removed to Des Moines, where he is now living retired. In his farming operations he met with most excellent success, becoming a well-to-do and prosperous citizen of this county.
During his boyhood Louis J. Klemm attended the public schools of the county and for three months pursued his studies in a private school at Ot­tumwa, Iowa. For the same length of time he was also a student at Bowen's Business College in Des Moines, and later conducted a store in Norwalk for three months, but has made farming his principal occupation. For thirty-nine years he has resided upon his present farm, where he owns two hun­dred and forty acres of land under a high state of cultivation and improved with good and substantial buildings, and besides this he has one hundred and sixty acres in Adair County. In connection with general farming he is quite extensively engaged in stock-raising, and is also interested in the banking business, being a director of the German Savings Bank at Des Moines; a director of the Farmers Saving Bank at Carlisle; and vice president of the Bevington Bank in Madison County, Iowa. He has one of the nicest homes in this part of the county and everything about the place shows the owner to be a man of progressive ideas and thoroughly familiar with his chosen occupation.
On February 27, 1887, Mr. Klemm was united in marriage to Miss Cath­erine A. Cain, who was born in Linn Township, June 6, 1860. Her father, James Cain, was a native of Pennsylvania and one of the successful agricul­turists of this county, owning two hundred and fifty-nine acres of land. He died at the age of sixty-one years, and his wife, who bore the maiden name of Sarah A. McNeil, died at the age of sixty-nine years. In their family were nine children who are still living. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Klemm have also been born nine children but Sarah is now deceased. The others are John A., Mary Catherine, Rose B., Ignatius F., Barbara T., Louis J., Margaret E. and Joseph A.
In religious faith Mr. Klemm is a Catholic and he is a member of the Knights of Columbus. He uses his right of franchise in support of the men and measures of the Democratic party but takes no active part in political affairs, preferring to give his undivided attention to his business interests. He is a financier of more than ordinary ability and in all his business affairs has been found upright, reliable and energetic.