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 November 1, 2020

On the streets of the flourishing little town of Arcadia there is no more familiar figure, perhaps, than that of J. C. Pruter, financier and capitalist. He is one of Germany’s contributions to the citizenship of Iowa, his birth occurred in Kiel, that country, on the 6th of August, 1866. His parents, C. and Anna (Fehrs) Pruter, were both natives of Holstein, Germany, who came to the United States in January, 1881. The father, who had served one year in the Prussian and Danish war of 1848, conducted a delicatessen store in the fatherland and also later served as clerk of the court. After arriving in this country, however, he learned the carpenter’s trade, which he followed in Arcadia, Iowa, until his death, in 1908, with the exception of three years spent in Davenport, Iowa. He was laid to rest in Arcadia cemetery and his wife passed away five years ago. The subject of this review is the youngest in a family of two sons and two daughters, the other being: Henry, a general merchant of Orange, Texas; Amanda, who married Charles Wunder, of Wolcott, Iowa; and Johanna, the deceased wife of G. C. L. Berger.

In the common schools of Germany J. C. Pruter acquired a good education, passing through the consecutive grades until his graduation from the high school. He was a youth of fifteen years when he accompanied his parents on their removal to the United States, and shortly afterward he crossed the threshold of the business world, his first employment being in a drug store at West Side, Crawford county, Iowa, where he continued for six months. He then came to Arcadia and for three years worked in a general store here, after which a year was spent in clerking in a general store at Wolcott, Scott county, Iowa. Returning to Arcadia he entered a general store here, in which he clerked for about three years, when he formed a partnership with Messrs. Hoch and Rottler, under the firm style of Hoch, Rottler & Pruter, general merchants, conducting a merchandising business until 1901. In that year the firm dissolved and Mr. Pruter entered the banking business, in which line the firm had been engaged to a limited extent in connection with their mercantile enterprise. In the little office room where he finished up and closed the business of the company his new undertaking had its inception, and from that humble beginning it has steadily grown until today he is the sole owner of the private bank known as the bank of Arcadia. The business has been expanded from time to time, the building enlarged by various additions, and today it is one of the most substantial and successful moneyed institutions of Arcadia township. As he has prospered Mr. Pruter has acquired other interests and today he is the owner of a fine farm of one hundred and sixty acres near Aspinwall, Crawford county, Iowa, and also devotes much attention to the fire insurance business. In the conduct of his affairs he manifests a shrewd sagacity and sound judgment which precludes rash speculation has won for him the confidence and trust of a large and constantly growing patronage.

In 1889 Mr. Pruter was united in marriage to Miss Emma Mohr, and unto this union have been born two children, Vernon and Lucille. In the line of his business interests Mr. Pruter belongs to the Iowa Bankers Association and also the Private Bankers Association, while in his political views he is a republican. He is now serving efficiently as school treasurer and also as a member of the town council. His interests are closely identified with those of the community in which he lives and he ever casts the weight of his influence on the side of progress, advancement and improvement. The steps in his orderly progression are plainly visible, each marking a distinct advance toward the goal of prosperity, until today, in the very prime of manhood, he has attained a foremost position among the most prominent and substantial business men of this part of the county.

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