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 October 5, 2020

August T. Staak, who came to Carroll in 1875, remained one of the substantial and esteemed citizens here until called to his final rest on the 12 of July, 1909. His birth occurred in Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Germany, on the 4th of April, 1844, and his parents passed away in that country. He crossed the Atlantic to the United States in 1861 and a few months after his arrival in the new world enlisted for service in the Civil war, joining the Fifty-seventh Illinois Volunteer Infantry when not yet eighteen years of age. He served as a private for over four years and while in the army did a good meal of nursing. He had obtained a good education in the schools of the fatherland and also became an excellent English scholar. After returning from the war he began work as a farm hand and while thus employed lost one of his feet, the accident being caused by a threshing machine. Settling in La Salle county, he was married in Ottawa and subsequently removed to Iroquois county, spending several years in Chebanse. He next resided at Papineau for a few years and then came to Carroll county, Iowa, in 1875, making his home in Carroll until he passed away on the 12th of July, 1909, at the age of sixty-five years, three months and eight days.

On the 28th of December, 1867, at Ottawa, Illinois, Mr. Staak was joined in wedlock to Miss Mary Catharine Collison, who was born on the 5th of October, 1843, twelve miles from Paris, France. Though her parents were English people, she first learned to speak the French language and afterward became familiar with the English and German tongues, both of which she speaks fluently. Her father, William Collison, was born on the 24th of May, 1817, within five miles of Leeds, England. He wedded Miss Ann Chappel and they emigrated to America in the winter of 1846-7, settling in Cook county, Illinois, on the old plank road, eight miles north of Chicago, where they purchased a farm of forty acres. Later William Collison removed with his family to La Salle county, Illinois, and began farming near Ransom, where his wife passed away on the 24th of August, 1864, her remains being interred at Ottawa. In 1876 Mr. Collison came to Iowa, settling five miles west of Carroll, where his demise occurred in 1903, when he had attained the age of eighty-seven years. Unto him and his wife were born the following children: John, who is now a resident of Ottawa, Illinois; Mrs. Staak; Joseph and Frederick, living in Carroll county, Iowa; Sarah, the wife of William Hamilton, of Grand Ridge, Illinois; Jane, the wife of John Higgins, of Brayton, Greeley county, Nebraska; Elizabeth, who is the wife of Hugh Morgan and resides four miles west of Carroll; and Frank, living four and a half miles west of Carroll.

Mr. and Mrs. Staak were the parents of eleven children, six of whom are yet living. William, a drayman of Carroll, wedded Miss Ida Yegge, by whom he has a son, Harold A. On the 3d of August, 1895, he enlisted in the army and served throughout the Spanish-American war, reenlisting twice and spending fourteen months in the Philippine Islands. Clara, living in Boone, Iowa, gave her hand in marriage to John F. Yegge, by whom she has six children: Arthur, Raymond, Genevieve, Agnes, Paul and Joseph. Frank T., a baker of Marseilles, Illinois, wedded Miss Mary Ragan, and has one son, Charles James. Sarah J., who makes her home at Fort Jones, California, is the wife of John Kehrer and the mother of four children: Paul, Augustine, Louisa and Joseph. John, a baker living at Sioux Rapids, Iowa, married Miss Lillian Hodge and has one daughter, Irene. Joseph, proprietor of a bakery at Carroll, married Miss Agnes Hines, of Marseilles, Illinois. Mrs. Mary C. Staak has now made her home in Carroll for thirty-six years and enjoys a wide and favorable acquaintance here.

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