FRED WAGNER

Germany has furnished to the citizenship of Iowa many enterprising and progressive men who have left the fatherland and have sought the new world with its more progressive methods, its livelier competition and advancement more quickly secured. Among this number is Fred Wagner, whose birth occurred in Waldeck, Germany, on the 26th of September, 1859, a son of William and Louise (Stiehl) Wagner. The parents were both natives of the fatherland but the father is now deceased, while the mother still survives and makes her home with her son Fred. By her marriage to William Wagner she became the mother of four children: Fred, of this review; Henry, of Chicago, Illinois: Christ, a resident of Davenport; and Carrie, the wife of George Hamann, of Texas.

Reared to manhood across the water, Fred Wagner attended the common schools of Germany until fourteen years of age, after which he was employed in his native country until twenty-three years of age. Although a poor boy, starting out in the world empty-handed, the strong, rugged and persevering characteristics which were developed in him by his early environment made him seek wider fields of endeavor, and he decided to come to America where he might give full scope to his ambition and industry—his dominant qualities. Accordingly he crossed the Atlantic and after arriving in the United States was employed by the month as a farm hand. The money thus earned was used at first to bring his brother also to this country, after which he paid back the money which he had borrowed to cover his own passage. He was thus employed until 1890 when, desiring that his efforts should more directly benefit himself, he rented a farm, which he operated for several years. In 1902 he became the owner by purchase of his present farm of one hundred and sixty acres located on section 6, Inland township. When it came into his possession it was a wild, undeveloped tract, but with his characteristic energy and determination he set about its improvement and within a few years’ time brought his fields under a high state of cultivation. The well improved farm as it stands today, with its neat, modern residence, its substantial barns and outbuildings, its well kept fences and the atmosphere of prosperity and progress surrounding it all, speaks eloquently of a life of close application, untiring energy and of unfaltering determination to succeed on the part of the owner. He gives his attention to general agricultural pursuits, and the success which has attended his efforts in this direction ranks him among the substantial and representative farms of Inland township.

It was in 1890 in Cedar county, that Mr. Wagner was united in marriage to Miss Helene Peter, also a native of Waldeck, Germany, and a daughter of William and Elizabeth Peter, who passed their entire lives in that country. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Wagner were born seven children, William, Kate, Carrie, Henry, Fred, Helene and Minnie.

The parents hold membership in the Evangelical church of Bennett and are most highly respected and esteemed in the community in which they make their home. In politics Mr. Wagner gives his support to the independent movement, but the honors and emoluments of office have never held attraction for him, preferring as he does to concentrate his energies upon the conduct of his private interests. He has never had occasion to regret his decision to come to America, for he had found the opportunity he sought in the freedom and appreciation of this growing country, and in his record is manifested the truth of the fact that success is ambition’s reward.