August Staak, proprietor of Staak’s wholesale liquor store, at Carroll, and local agent of the German Insurance Company of Freeport, Illinois, was born in Buelkow, Mecklenburg, Schwerein, Germany, April 4, 1844, fifth son of William Staak. He immigrated to America in 1861, starting the 18th day of April. His first location was at Northfield, Cook County, Illinois, where he lived four and a half months, then enlisted, October 23, 1861, in Company G, Fifty-seventh Illinois Infantry, his regiment being attached to the Second Division of the Sixteenth Army Corps. He participated in the battles of Fort Donelson, Shiloh, siege of Corinth, battle of Corinth, Town Creek, Resaca, Kingston, Rome, Allatoona Pass, Atlanta (then was transferred to the Fifteenth Army Corps and the Fourth Division), Savannah and Bentonville, and in all the engagements of General Sherman on his march to the sea. He was honorably mustered out July 7, 1865, at Louisville, Kentucky, and received his final discharge and pay at Chicago, Illinois, July 14, 1865. He then settled in Utica, La Salle County, Illinois, where he lived two years. In the fall of 1866 he lost his right leg while working with a threshing machine. In 1867 he located in Iroquois County, Illinois, where he was engaged in the liquor trade for several years, and in 1875 came to Carroll, where he has since resided. He was for some time engaged in the insurance and collection business, and in 1883 opened a meat market, which he sold in May, 1884. In the fall of 1886 he embarked in his present business. Politically he is a Democrat, and was a delegate to the State Convention in 1882. He is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, having joined that organization in 1867, and has served in most of the offices of the post; was quartermaster for three years, and is its present commander. He was a delegate to the State Encampments, at Des Moines, in 1883; Marshalltown, 1884, and at Sioux City, 1886. He was married December 28, 1867, to Miss Mary C. Collison, of La Salle County, Illinois, and they have had eleven children, six of whom are living — William, Clara, Sarah, Frank, John and Joseph.

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