Joseph Barth
BARTH, SMITH, RING, CAIN, BREWINGTON
Posted By: Peter Gausmann (email)
Date: 1/19/2010 at 04:37:50
JOSEPH BARTH
Joseph Barth, one of the valued residents of Forest City, now living retired after long years of active connection with agricultural interests, was one of the earliest settlers of Hancock county, arriving in this part of the state in 1855, when the work of progress and development seemed scarcely begun. His memory therefore forms a connecting link between the primitive past and the progressive present. A native of Germany, he was born in Wurtemberg on the 23d of March, 1833, a son of Andrew and Victoria (Smith) Barth, both of whom died in that country.
In the common schools of Germany Joseph Barth pursued his education and in 1852, when a youth of nineteen years, he crossed the Atlantic to the United States, landing in New York city on the 9th of August. For three and a half years he was employed in New York state as a farm hand and in the fall of 1855 he sought the opportunities offered in the growing west, making his way to Iowa as a member of a party of five who came out to buy land. Four of them located in Hancock county, while the fifth returned to New York. The four companions purchased a tract of timber land of one hundred and twenty acres, for which they paid three hundred and twenty-eight dollars, and at that time they had the choice of the prairie land. For two hundred dollars Mr. Barth purchased a quarter section from George Green, who had obtained the land from the government. Rapidly accruing interest, however, ran the cost of the land up to four hundred and twenty-eight dollars before he could make his last payment. He afterward sold the land for fifty dollars an acre. This farm covered the northeast quarter of section 21, Ellington township, Hancock county, and he also bought one hundred and twenty acres adjoining, which is now owned and occupied by his son Lewis. Still later he acquired another farm of one hundred and sixty acres near Buffalo Center in Kossuth county, for which he paid forty dollars an acre and which he sold for one hundred dollars an acre. He still owns about twenty acres of timber land. In 1895 he retired from active agricultural pursuits and removed to Forest City, where he has since lived. In 1894 he, with his son John A., purchased a furniture store which they conducted under the name Barth & Barth until 1904, when they sold out.
On June 27, 1860, Mr. Barth was married to Miss Catherine Ring, of Benton, Lafayette county, Wisconsin, and they became, the parents of three sons and a daughter: Lewis, who is living in Hancock county; John A., residing in Sac City, Iowa; Mary A., at home; and Edmund, living in Greene, Iowa. The wife and mother passed away in 1878 and the following year Mr. Barth wedded Mrs. Nancy J. (Cain) Brewington. There is one child of this marriage, Daisy M., residing at home. Mrs. Barth died February 9, 1914.
In politics Mr. Barth is a democrat and for some years he served as township trustee, while for a quarter of a century he filled the office of school treasurer of Ellington township, Hancock county. Those who know him esteem him as a man of sterling worth. His life record shows what may be accomplished when energy and determination point out the way, for his success is attributable entirely to his own efforts. In the spring of 1856 he carried the chain for the survey of the town of Forest City and he has witnessed the development of Winnebago and Hancock counties from pioneer times to the present.
Source: History of Winnebago County and Hancock County, Iowa: A Record of Settlement, Organization, Progress and Achievement, Vol. II. Pioneer Publishing Company (Chicago), 1917. pp. 190-193.
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