J. W. ROCHHOLZ

Among the prominent citizens and representative farmers of Sugar Creek township is J. W. Rochholz, whose home is on section 4. He is one of Cedar county’s native sons, his birth occurring in Rochester township, on the 25th of October, 1858. His parents were J. W. and Anna (Wilt) Rochholz, natives of Kulmbach, Germany, where they were reared and married and where the father followed the trade of stone-cutter and brick layer until his emigration to America in 1852. On landing in New York he proceeded to Philadelphia and from there came to Muscatine, Iowa. Deciding to settle in Rochester township, Cedar county, he made the trip here on foot, traveling a distance of fifty miles in that way, and purchased twenty acres of land. So successful was he in his farming operations that he at length became the owner of over two hundred acres of very fine farm land, never going in debt but paying for everything when he purchased it. He continued to reside in Rochester township until his death, which occurred when he was eighty years of age, and his wife died at the age of fifty-five years.

The children born to them were as follows: George, now a resident of Adair county, Iowa; Mrs. Maggie Sinclair, of Moline, Illinois; Mrs. Hattie Becker, of Muscatine, Iowa; Mrs. Barbara Cripliver, of Boone, Iowa; J. W., whose name introduces this sketch; August, a resident of Mason City, Iowa; Mrs. Emma Munn, of Muscatine; Mary, a resident of Macon City, Missouri; Mrs. Sarah Grimm, of Chicago; Mrs. Clara Edwards, of Cedar Rapids; and William P., of Center township, this county.

J. W. Rochholz of this review was reared and educated in much the usual manner of farm boys of the period and since attaining man’s estate has devoted his attention largely to agricultural pursuits, but for about three years conducted a general store at Lime City in Sugar Creek township and also served as postmaster at that place for a time. Soon after his marriage he purchased a tract of eighty acres in Rochester township and was engaged in its operation for three years, after which he rented his farm and removed to Lime City, where he was engaged in merchandising for five years. During the following three years he followed farming near Iowa City in Johnson county and in 1893 purchased his present farm in Sugar Creek township, Cedar county, where he has since resided. His first purchase consisted of one hundred and sixty acres, but he has added to it a tract of one hundred and twenty acres, making in all two hundred and eighty acres, of which two hundred acres are on section 4, Sugar Creek township, and the remainder on section 9. He now follows general farming and stock-raising and has a well improved and highly cultivated farm, whose neat and thrifty appearance plainly indicates his progressive methods and shows that he thoroughly understands the occupation which he is now following.

Mr. Rochholz was married on the 4th of March, 1881, to Miss Wilmina Fulwider, who was born in Sugar Creek township, February 15, 1864, a daughter of Anthony Fulwider, whose sketch appears on another page of this volume. This union has been blessed by five children, namely: B. F., who is now operating his father’s eighty-acre farm in Sugar Creek township; H. W., who lives on the home place but in another house that has been erected thereon; Amy, the wife of George W. McCroskey, of Rochester township; Mattie, the wife of Otis Barkhurst, of the same township; and Grace, at home. The parents hold membership in the Methodist Episcopal church of South Bethel and the family is one of prominence in the community where they reside.