CHRISTIAN SCHNEEKLOTH

Christian Schneekloth, a retired resident of Sunbury, was identified with general agricultural pursuits throughout his active business career, thus winning the competence which now enables him to spend the evening of life without recourse to further labor. His birth occurred in Holstein, Germany, on the 2d of June, 1847, his parents being Henry and Margarita (Schroeder) Schneekloth, who were likewise natives of that country. The father passed away in Durant, Iowa, about 1878, while the mother’s demise there occurred in 1900. Their children were seven in number, our subject being the third in order of birth.

Christian Schneekloth spent the first twenty years of his life in his native land and there obtained his education. In 1867 he crossed the Atlantic to the United States, locating in Davenport, Iowa, where he secured employment as a farm hand and thus worked for four years. On the expiration of that period he rented one hundred and sixty acres of land in Scott county, devoting his attention to its cultivation for three years. Subsequently he operated a rented farm of one hundred and sixty acres near Walcott and in 1880 purchased a quarter section of land in Farmington township, Cedar county. He later bought an additional tract of eighty acres but disposed of the property and purchased eighty acres of land in Inland township, which is still in his possession. The work of the fields claimed his attention until the time of his retirement from active business life, and his well directed labors as an agriculturist brought him a substantial annual income. He sold his place of one hundred and sixty acres in Farmington township to his son Harry and now lives at Sunbury with his wife, owning a fine residence in that town. On the 5th of March, 1872, in Davenport, Mr. Schneekloth was united in marriage to Miss Dora Hamann, a daughter of Henry and Christina Hamann, both of whom are deceased. Our subject and his wife have four children, namely: Harry, a resident of Farmington township; Malinia, who gave her hand in marriage to Frank Gurck and makes her home in Farmington township; Rudolph, living in Inland township; and Otto, of Walcott.

Mr. Schneekloth is independent in politics, not considering himself bound by party ties when exercising his right of franchise. Both he and his wife belong to the Lutheran church and their lives are in harmony with its teachings. In a land where effort is unhampered by caste or class he has worked his way steadily upward by dint of untiring perseverance and unfaltering integrity, being now numbered among the prosperous and respected citizens of his community. During the entire period of his residence in the United States, covering forty-three years, he has made his home in this part of Iowa and the circle of his friends here in therefore a wide one.