ABRAM PFAFF

Abram Pfaff, long a well known and valued citizen of Cedar county, was born in Kaiserslautern, Bavaria, Germany, May 7, 1814, and in his childhood days was brought to the United States by his parents. He was a young man of twenty-three years when he was united in marriage to Susan Laubscher, their wedding being celebrated in Canton, Stark county, Ohio, in 1837. Mrs. Pfaff was born April 13, 1821, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Nicholas Laubscher, who were also natives of Bavaria. The birth of Mrs. Pfaff occurred in Kaiserslautern and she was a little maiden of seven summers when her parents crossed the broad Atlantic and sought a home in the United States. They made the voyage at the same time the Pfaff family came and both families settled in Ohio, but it was in Iowa that Mr. and Mrs. Laubscher spent their declining years.

Following their marriage Abram Pfaff and his wife went to New York but subsequently took up their abode in Pennsylvania, where two children were added to the household. After spending a few years in the Keystone state they returned to Ohio, where another child was born to them. In 1845 they came to the middle west, locating on a farm in Cass township, Cedar county. Here the father developed and improved his place until 1852, when he made an overland trip to California but returned to his home in the fall of the same year. He then resumed his farming operations, which he continued throughout his remaining years.

After coming to Cedar county six more children were added to the household, the record being as follows: William, who was born November 20, 1839, and died October 7, 1867; Magdalene, who was born February 28, 1843, and is the widow of Finley Huey and a resident of Lisbon, Iowa; Abram, who was born March 15, 1845, and is now a resident of Tipton; Peter, who was born May 10, 1847, and died in May, 1909, at the age of sixty-two years; Caroline, who was born September 16, 1849, and makes her home in Cass township with her sister, Mrs. Dodds; Charles, a resident of Tipton, who was born October 29, 1853; John, who was born October 10, 1855, and is a resident of Tipton, his sketch being found on another page of this work; Anna E., born July 3, 1857, who is now the wife of Fred Kohl, of Lisbon; and Susan, whose birth occurred May 18, 1859, and who is now the wife of Charles A. Dodds, of Cass township. Both the parents died many years ago, the mother passing away on the 7th of November, 1867, while the father, surviving for a number of years, departed this life March 10, 1885, when seventy-one years of age. He was identified with the early development of this section of the state and became a prominent and highly respected citizen, his death being a great loss to the community in which he had so long made his home.