Charles J. Engler.-One of the
representative mercantile establishments of the thriving
village of Garnavillo is that owned and conducted by Mr.
Engler, who here has a specially substantial and well
equipped store in which he handles all kinds of heavy and
shelf hardware, stoves, ranges, and plumbing, lighting
and heating supplies and plants. He is at all times
prepared to furnish estimates for the installation of
plumbing, lighting and heating equipment, and the high
reputation for his establishment constitutes its best
commercial asset, for its service is of the best type in
all departments and fair and honorable dealing is the
rule from which no deviation is permitted. Mr. Engler has
gained a secure place as one of the progressive business
men of his native county and is specially worthy of
recognition in this publication. Charles J. Engler was
born at Monona, this county, on the 31st of March, 1877,
and is a son of John and Mary (Light) Engler, the former
a native of Germany and the latter of the State of
Kentucky. John Engler established his home in Clayton
county, was a harnessmaker by trade but after coming to
this county he became a successful farmer of Clayton
township, where his death occurred on the 17th of
December, 1887, his widow being still a resident of that
township and being a devout communicant of the Catholic
church, as was also her husband. Of the children the
first-born was Rose, who died in young girlhood; Louis is
a prosperous farmer of this county; Emma is the wife of
Robert Anderson and they maintain their home in the city
of Dubuque, Iowa; Lena is the wife of Bernard Tonner, of
Clayton township; Catherine and William remain at the old
homestead with their mother; Charles J., of this review,
was the next in order of birth; and Albert is still with
his mother on the home farm. Charles J. Engler gained his
early experience of practical nature in connection with
the work of the home farm and was about ten years of age
at the time of his father's death. He made good use of
the advantages afforded in the public schools of the
locality and at the age of twenty-two years he left the
farm to enter upon an apprenticeship to the tinner's
trade, in a hardware establishment at Elkader, the
judicial center of his native county. Within two years he
had so applied himself as to become a skilled workman at
his trade, and his first work as a journeyman was at
Neola, Pottawattamie county, where he remained two years.
For the ensuing three years he was engaged in the work of
his trade at Stuart, Guthrie county, and he then went to
Kalispell, Montana, where he remained about one year.
Upon his return to Clayton county he resumed his
association with the work and management of the old
homestead farm, but after a lapse of eighteen months he
went to the city of Chicago, where he remained two years
and broadened his knowledge of the hardware business as
well as of the work of his trade. He next returned to his
native county and assumed a clerical position in the
general merchandise establishment of William L. Kords, in
the village of Clayton. About a year later he removed to
Ossian, Winneshiek county, where he worked at his trade
for a brief interval. In 1909 he established his home at
Garnavillo, where he has since risen to a prominent place
in connection with the business and civic activities of
the village. For three years he was employed in the
hardware establishment of the firm of Kregel &
Luehsen, and he then purchased the interest of the senior
member of the firm. Thereafter the enterprise was
continued under the firm name of Luehsen & Engler
until the death of Mr. Luehsen, since which time Mr.
Engler has individually owned and conducted the
flourishing enterprise, his establishment controlling a
substantial trade that extends throughout the ample
territory normally tributary to Garnavillo. Mr. Engler is
liberal and public-spirited as a citizen and while he has
had no ambition for political preferment he has been
found aligned as a staunch supporter of the cause of the
Democratic party, his religious faith being that of the
Catholic church, of which he is a communicant. He still
permits his name to remain engrossed on the roll of
eligible bachelors in his native county, and here his
circle of friends is virtually coincident with that of
his acquaintances. source: History of Clayton
County, Iowa; From The Earliest Historical Times Down to
the Present; by Realto E. Price, Vol. II; pg.
111-112 |