John H. MEYER

MEYER, LARSON, FINCH, LUPPES, SCHUTTE, HARRIS, WEST, DEVRIES

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 9/5/2016 at 17:44:12

March 23, 1871 ---- October 20, 1942

Services for Widely Known Blairsburg Farmer Thursday.

John H. Meyer, 71, widely known farmer in Blairsburg community, died suddenly Tuesday at his present home in Webster City, 853 Bank Street. Death was caused by a stroke of apoplexy. Mr Meyer had been in poor health for several years and seriously ill for the past seven weeks. Funeral services will be held Thursday at 2pm at the Foster Funeral Home, preceded by a brief service at the home at 1:30 o'clock. Burial will be made in Graceland Cemetery.

John Meyer was born March 23, 1871, on a farm in Illinois. His parents, John and Jennie Meyer, moved to Iowa when the boy was only six months old and located on a farm north of Blairsburg. He attended the schools and grew to young manhood in that community. March 9, 1895 he was united in marriage at Clarion to Bertha Larson and they set up housekeeping on a farm which they purchased a mile south of the home place. They farmed there until 1926 when they retired and moved to Webster City where they purchased th home they have lived in since.

Besides his parents, Mr. Meyer was preceded in death by two brother and two sisters. His wife, four sons and three daughters survive. They are John of Hazelton, Iowa; Ralph, of Omaha; Henry and Ira, Blairsburg; Mrs. Glenn Finch, Omaha; Mrs. John Luppes, Blairsburg. There are 24 grandchildren and also three sisters and one brother. Mrs. Annie Schutte, St. Cloud, Minn.; Mrs. Katie Harris, Dows; Mrs, Jennie West, Des Moines, Iowa. Mr. Meyer had been baptized in the Lutheran faith.

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John H. Meyer, was a prosperous young farmer of Wall Lake township, Wright county, Iowa, was born in Carroll, Illinois, March 23,1871, but is the son of German parents, his father and mother; John and Jennie (DeVreis) Meyer, having been born in Germany. John Meyer, who died on March 26, 1885, was a teamster by occupation, who was employed in hauling paper from the mills until he came to America, in 1861, at the age of forty-five years. After landing in New York City he moved directly to Freeport, Illinois, where, for a number of years, he was engaged in teaming. From Freeport, Illinois, he immigrated to Grundy county, Illinois, and for one year rented a farm. In 1871 he came to Wright county, Iowa, and purchased one hundred and sixty acres of land in Wall Lake township, where he lived until the time of his death, in 1885. During the fourteen years that he lived upon this farm he made many improvements. There was a family of nine children in the Meyer family, of whom John H., the subject of this sketch, was the fifth. The other children were: Aeijelt, Maggie, Ernest, Anna, John, Katherine, Henry, Jennie and Minnie.

John H. Meyer was educated in the common schools of Wright county. He quit school at the age of fourteen and, until he was twenty-one years old worked with his father on the farm. After attaining his majority Mr. Meyer rented one hundred and sixty acres in Wall Lake township for five years. In 1901 he purchased one hundred and sixty acres in section 35, which was wholly unimproved and for which he paid twenty-five dollars and twenty-five cents and has invested approximately twenty-nine hundred dollars in tile and has set out an acre of shade trees and one-half acre of fruit trees. Altogether Mr. Meyer has spent about sixty-five hundred dollars in various improvements on the farm. His principal crops are corn and small grain, the corn averaging fifty bushels to an acre and small grain about forty bushels. Most of the grain is fed to the livestock. Mr. Meyer sells about three carloads of hogs each year. His nearest trading point is Blairsburg, which is six and one-half mile distances. Mr. Meyer owns a ford automobile.

In 1896 John H. Meyer was married to Bertha Larson, daughter of Lars and Elizabeth Larson, who were natives of Norway. Bertha Larson was born in Webster county, Iowa, and there received her education. She was one of a family of ten children, consisting of four daughters and six sons. Mr. and Mrs. John H. Meyer have seven children-John, Mayme, Henry, Ira, Pearl, Mable, and Ralph-all of whom live at home with their parents.

Mr. Meyer has served as school director for ten years, and has also served as assessor for five years, being the present assessor of Wall Lake township. In politics Mr. Meyer is identified with the Republican party. He is a member of the Modern Woodmen of America. The Meyer family attended the Presbyterian church.