Carroll County IAGenWeb

HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY IOWA

A Record of Settlement, Organization, Progress and Achievement

VOLUME II ILLUSTRATED

CHICAGO THE S. J. CLARKE PUBLISHING COMPANY 1912

Transcribed by Sharon Elijah June 26, 2020

Glidden has a goodly proportion of retired men—men who for many years were closely associated with agricultural, industrial or commercial interests here or elsewhere, and in the management of their affairs won the success that now permits of honorable rest from labor. Prominent among this class is Louis Prill, now one of the venerable residents of Carroll county, having reached the eighty-fifth milestone on life’s journey. He is one of the valuable citizens whom Germany has furnished to the new world, his birth occurring Lauenburg, on the 24th of December, 1826. He is a son of Henry and Charlotte (Frohm) Prill, also natives of Germany, whose large family of five sons and six daughters included Joachim, Christina, Dorothea, Carolina, Wilhelmina, Lizetta, Frederick, Henry, Louis, William and Sophia. The father of this family, a farmer by occupation, passed away in the old country in 1848, at the age of sixty-five years. His wife survived him many years and had reached the remarkable age of ninety years at the time of her death.

In the common schools of the fatherland Louis Prill acquired a good education and his father’s farm was the training ground whereon he received thorough preparation for life’s practical duties. He served a term as a soldier in the regular army, and then, in 1854, left the fatherland and came to the United States, first locating in LaPorte, Indiana. In that city he was engaged at various pursuits for six years, after which he made his way across the plains by wagon to Pike’s Peak. Finding no work there, however, he continued on to Fort Laramie, Wyoming, and was there employed by the government at haying for a time. He then resumed his journey across the plains with Nevada as his destination, and in the meantime had many adventures with the Indians, who were still numerous in that region. After working in the quartz mills of that state for a while he made the trip back to Illinois by wagon, and was there engaged in farming for a period, first in Fayette and later in Coles counties. After remaining in the latter county three years he removed to Moultrie county, Illinois, where he farmed for two years, and in 1875 came to Iowa, since which year he has continued a resident of this state. He took up his abode in Carroll county, and although he purchased one hundred and sixty acres in Grant township he made his home in Glidden township, where he invested in seventy acres of land. He now owns two hundred and thirty acres of land in Glidden and one hundred and sixty in Grant townships, aside from an eighty-acre tract located within the corporation limits of Glidden on the south. Prosperity attended his efforts from the first and as the years passed his diligence and perseverance constituted the strong elements in the success which came to him, enabling him, about twenty years ago, to retire from active life, at which time he came to Glidden and has since made this his home. His bank deposits and other investments have been amply sufficient in the evening of life to supply him with all necessities and many comforts and luxuries, and thus in his declining days he has not found it necessary to labor for those things which contribute to man’s welfare and happiness.

In the spring of 1854, ere leaving the fatherland, Mr. Prill was united in marriage to Miss Ida Minnie Barr, also a native of Germany, and unto them have been born nine children, as follows: William C., who resides in Glidden, and who married Miss Agnes Gibson, by whom he has one daughter, Margaret; Otto G., who married Miss Lizzie Clifton, and with his wife and daughter, Nellie, resides in Wyoming; Frank of Glidden, who married Miss Carrie Shulze, unto which union have been born two daughters, Emma and Lillian; Lena, the wife of Vetch Hefton, of Marion county, Illinois, and the mother of five daughters; Henry, a farmer of Glidden township, who married Miss RIcke Seden, and now has eight children; Emma, who married Robert Lang, by whom she has four sons, Louis, Walter, Arthur and Palmer; Lizzie, the wife of George Lanspach and the mother of four children, Herbert, Fay, Margaret and Ruth, the family residing in Medford, Oregon; Charles, who married Amelia Loschen and now has one son, Orville, the family residence being located in Glidden; and Louis, who passed away at the age of two and a half years. Mr. Prill has twenty-six grandchildren and there are also two great-grandchildren. In 1889 he was called upon to mourn the loss of his wife, who passed away at the age of sixty-two years. She died in the faith of the Lutheran church, of which institution Mr. Prill is also an exemplary member. He has always been a stanch advocate of democratic principles and has held various township offices. A life of activity and usefulness has won for him an enviable position in the regard of his fellowmen. He early learned to value life’s opportunities and appreciate its purposes, and he is now one of the revered patriarchs of his community, who was born during the administration of President John Q. Adams and has lived to witness the notable events which have not only shaped the history of the country but have also largely molded the destiny of the world. His reminiscences of the early days are interesting and give a glimpse into the by-gone civilization almost totally unknown to the youth of the present time.

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