Dewie J. Gaul

GAUL WENZEL CWACH BLOCH

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 8/27/2010 at 20:07:13

History of Woodbury County, Iowa 1984

Dewie J Gaul
By Dewie J Gaul

On June 17, 1817, Andrew Wenzel and his wife, Magdalena, arrived in Philadelphia on the ship ‘Xenophon’. They were the first ancestors of Dewie J Gaul, presently an Iowa District Court Judge for the Third Judicial District, to arrive in the New World. Andrew Wenzel and his wife went to Berks County, Pennsylvania, where eight of their children, including Katharine, born February 16, 1822, were born.

Katharine on June 1, 1841, at St John the Baptist Church, Canton, Ohio, married Joseph Friedmann, who had been born December 21, 1813, in Baden, and came to the United States when he was 26.

Joseph and Katharine moved to Liberty Township, Dubuque County, Iowa, in 1856 and their tenth child, Susanna, was born there on November 13, 1856.

Shortly prior thereto, on June 5, 1851, in Pratz, Luxemburg, Nicholas Gaul was born to Johann William Gaul and his wife, Anna Albertina. Nicholas came to New York in About 1870 and made his way to his uncle’s farm near Luxemburg, Iowa. There on February 1, 1876, in Holy Trinity Church he married Susanna Friedman. They then went to a farm near Earling, Shelby County, Iowa, where their even children were born, including John, born September 4, 1888.

Meanwhile Theodore Schnuettgen had on February 7, 1850, been born in Eichhagen, Westphalia, Germany to Peter Anton Schnuettgen and his wife, Maria Anna, and had on August 17, 1874, arrived in New York on the ship, ‘Deutschland’. On March 1, 1886, he had, in St Boniface Church, Westphalia, Iowa, married Fredericka Koestes, who had been born on March 1, 1859, at Oberhundem, Westphalia, Germany, to Josef Koesters and his wife, Brigetta, and had come to the United States in 1885.

On February 10, 1914, John Gaul and Odelia Schnuettgen, born to Theodore and Fredericka on July 28, 1894, were married in St Joseph Church, Earling, Shelby County, Iowa. They made their home on a farm three miles southeast of Earling wehre on September 18, 1928; the subject of this history was born.

He attended St Joseph Grade and High School in Earling, and graduated May 17, 1946. He graduated from Lora College on June 4, 1950. He then entered Georgetown Law School in Washington, D.C., and after a tour of duty in the U S Navy from August 21, 1951 to July 26, 1953, completed his work for a law degree in January of 1955. After being admitted to the Iowa bar, on February 24, 1955, he came to Sioux City for an interview. He was offered a position with the law firm of Sifford and Awadden and began work there on February 28, 1955. There he remained, the firm eventually becoming known as Gaul, Nymann & Green, until May 31, 1983, when he was sworn in as a District Court judge.

Meanwhile, he met and married Mavis Cwach, born February 22, 1928, the daughter of Joseph Cwach and Katherine (Bloch) Cwach, of Yankton, South Daktoa. Dewie and Mavis are the parents of six children: Jacqueline Charbel, of North Mankato, Minnesota; Sandra, of Dubuque, Iowa; Thomas, now a student at Indiana University; Robert, of Sioux City; Randal, a student at Loras College, and Laurie, a student at Mount Marty College, Yankton.