FRED KAMPMANN

A well improved farm of two hundred acres on sections 3 and 10, Springfield township, is the property of Fred Kampmann, whose labors as an agriculturist have been rewarded with a gratifying measure of success. His birth occurred in Hanover, Germany, on the 3d of September, 1857, his parents being Henry and Wilhelmina Kampmann, who passed away in that country. The family was in limited financial circumstances and at the early age of nine years our subject was obliged to leave home and provide for his own support. When a youth of fifteen he crossed the Atlantic to the United States in company with Mrs. Henry Rixe, who was at that time visiting the fatherland and who after became his mother-in-law.

Coming direct to Springfield township, Cedar county, Iowa, Mr. Kampmann worked for the Rixe family for one year and was later employed by Fred Conrad for five years. He next spent a similar period in the service of Henry Conrad, was then married and during the following twelve years again worked for Fred Conrad. By dint of untiring industry and close economy he accumulated the capital which in 1900 enabled him to purchase his present farm of two hundred acres on sections 3 and 10, Springfield township, to the further cultivation and improvement of which he has devoted his time and energies continuously since. He erected a new barn and made other substantial improvements on the property until it is now lacking in none of the equipments and accessories of a model farm of the twentieth century. In the conduct of his agricultural interests he is winning well merited success, following the most modern methods of farming using the latest improved machinery to facilitate his work.

In 1884 Mr. Kampmann was united in marriage to Miss Alvina Rixe, a native of Cook county, Illinois, and a daughter of Henry Rixe, who is now deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Kampmann became the parents of six children, one of whom, Emma, passed away when twenty years of age. The others are as follows: Henry, Carl, Amanda, Minnie and Herman.

In his political views Mr. Kampmann is a democrat, while his religious faith is indicated by his membership in the Evangelical church at Lowden, with which his wife is also identified. The period of his residence in Cedar county covers almost four decades and the circle of his friends is a wide one. His record may well serve as a source of inspiration and encouragement to others, showing what may be accomplished when one has the will to dare and to do.