ENOCH MAYER
View Portrait of Mr. & Mrs. Enoch Mayer
Enoch Mayer, who has lived retired in Tipton for the past eleven years, was long identified with the agricultural interests of Cedar county and thus won the competence that now enables him to spend his declining years in well earned ease. His birth occurred in Northumberland county, Pennsylvania, on the 21st of May, 1831, his parents being John and Katherine (Reed) Mayer, who spent their entire lives in the Keystone state. The father possessed remarkable skill and ingenuity along mechanical lines and worked as a blacksmith, carpenter, wheelwright, millwright, cabinet maker, etc. He also had a wonderfully retentive memory and lived to attain the venerable age of ninety years. Unto him and his wife were born thirteen children, four sons and nine daughters, all of whom are now deceased with the exception of two: Enoch, of this review; and Mrs. Sarah Kline, who is a resident of Schuylkill county, Pennsylvania.
Enoch Mayer was reared on the farm where his birth occurred, and as there were no free schools in the locality, his educational opportunities were limited. He attended a German school for a few months and spoke that language almost exclusively during the first twenty-two years of his life, having received only three days’ instruction in an English school. He was employed in connection with the public coal works for a period of sixteen years and in1869 came to Cedar county, Iowa. Here he turned his attention to general agricultural pursuits, purchasing and locating upon a farm of two hundred acres on section 24, Cass township, eight miles northwest of Tipton. In the cultivation and improvement of that property he was actively and successfully engaged until 1899, since which time he has lived retired in Tipton. He still retains one hundred and sixty acres of his farm, however. He has led the life of a quiet, industrious citizen and well merits the prosperity which has crowned his efforts.
In 1854 Mr. Mayer was united in marriage to Miss Rachel Yoder, who was born in Berks county, Pennsylvania, on the 11th of January, 1836. Her parents, Abraham and Katharine (Trautman) Yoder, were likewise natives of Berks county, Pennsylvania, and died in that state. Unto them were born five sons and six daughters. Mr. and Mrs. Mayer became the parents of fourteen children, all of whom were born in Pennsylvania with the exception of the four youngest, who were natives of Cedar county, Iowa. The record of the family is as follows: Charles, whose birth occurred October 13, 1854, and who passed away January 26, 1862; Tobias, living in Cass township; Emma Catharine, the wife of William F. Owens, of La Harpe, Kansas; Adam, who was born September 2, 1858, and died on the 10th of October, 1858; Ellen, born December 1, 1859, whose demise occurred on the 16th of December, 1865; Enoch, whose natal day was July 22, 1861, and who passed away December 20, 1865; Elizabeth, the wife of John Staab of Berwyn, Nebraska; Christina, who was born April 5, 1865, and died August 6, 1866; Clara, the wife of William Weaver, of Rock Island, Illinois; Ida, who is the wife of Eugene Kopenhaver, of Cass township; Susan, who gave her hand in marriage to Clinton Corey and resides in Adair county, Iowa; Lena, the wife of William Barbe, of Topeka, Kansas; Alice, the wife of Harry Dodds, of Cass township; and Oscar, who was born December 20, 1877, and passed away December 30, 1877.
Both Mr. And Mrs. Mayer are devoted and consistent members of the Reformed church, having been confirmed in that faith in 1859 and 1856, respectively. They have now traveled life’s journey together for fifty-six years, their mutual love and confidence increasing as the years have passed by. Both enjoy excellent health for people of their advanced age and their faculties are largely unimpaired. Mr. Mayer joined the Independent Order of Odd Fellows in 1863 and is a member of the lodge at Tipton. He and his wife have now resided within the borders of Cedar county for more than four decades and their acquaintance is a very wide and favorable one.
