William C. Meyer. It is specially gratifying to
note that in Clayton county are to be found many
representative citizens who claim the county as the
place of their nativity, who are scions of sterling
pioneer families and who have here found the best of
opportunities for personal achievement and the
winning of worthy success in connection with
industrial, business and professional activities.
Such a citizen is William C. Meyer, who now conducts
a substantial and prosperous business in the handling
of agricultural implements and machinery in the
thriving little city of Garnavillo, and who is one of
the loyal and public-spirited men of his native
county, with such secure hold upon popular confidence
and esteem that he has been called upon to serve as a
member of the village council and also of the local
board of education.
Mr. Meyer was born on a farm in Farmersburg
township, this county, on the 8th of April, 1860 and
is a son of Louis H. and Annie (Werges) Meyer, both
natives of Germany. Louis H. Meyer was born and
reared in Germany and as a young man, in 1847, he
immigrated to the United States and numbered himself
among the pioneer settlers of Clayton county, Iowa.
In Farmersburg township, as now constituted, he
obtained a homestead claim of one hundred and sixty
acres, and this he reclaimed and developed into one
of the fine farms of the county, the same being
eligibly situated in Section 17, and the homestead
having continued to be his place of residence for
sixty-five years. There he died on his eighty-fifth
birthday anniversary, one of the well known and
highly honored pioneer citizens of the county, and
there his venerable widow still maintains her home,
both having become in their youth devout communicants
of the Lutheran church, in harmony with whose faith
they ordered their lives as the years dropped into
the abyss of time. Of their eleven children the first
born was Charlotte, who is deceased, her death having
occurred when an infant; Annie is the wife of Henry
Benjegerdes, of Plymouth, Cerro Gordo county, this
State; Minnie is the wife of John Splies, of Monona,
Clayton county; William C. of this review, was the
next in order of birth; Henry died when about 21
years of age; Mary is the wife of Frederick Zarbrok,
of Manly, Worth county, Iowa; Frederick is a resident
of Postville, Allamakee county; Louis resides at
Manly; Maggie died in childhood; Charley resides on
the old homestead; the tenth child, a daughter died
at birth; and Elizabeth is the wife of Frederick
Lucke, of Manly, Worth county.
William C. Meyer continued to be associated with
the work and management of the old homestead farm
until he had attained to the age of thirty-seven
years, and his early education was gained in the
excellent public schools of his native county. At the
age noted he took unto himself a wife and initiated
his specially successful career as a dealer in
agricultural implements and machinery, in which line
of enterprise he has been established at Garnavillo
since 1897, with a substantial trade that extends
throughout the wide area of fine farming country
normally tributary to this village. He keeps his
stock up to the best standard in all departments and
has shown himshelf a reliable, conscientious and
progressive business man, with the result that he has
gained a high reputation and a secure place in the
confidence and esteem of all who know him. Mr. Meyer
gives unequivocal allegiance to the Republican party
and has been zealous in the activities of the same in
his native county. He is now a valued member of the
village council of Garnavillo, besides which he is
serving efficiently as a member of the board of
education and as president of the board of trustees
of the local Lutheran church, of which both he and
his wife are zealous communicants.
On the 27th of December, 1897, was solemnized the
marriage of Mr. Meyer to Miss Emma Meyer, who
likewise was born and reared in Clayton county and
who is a daughter of the late D.H. Meyer, further
mention of the family being made on other pages of
this publication in the sketch dedicated to her
brother William F. Meyer. Mr. and Mrs. Meyer have two
children, Bessie Annie and Maude Elizabeth, both of
whom remain at the parental home.
