Nicholas Hofer. Of the citizens of Marion Township, Clayton County, few are known so well, and none more favorabley, than the subject of this sketch, who has resided here since 1858. During this long period he has made many warm friends who hold him in the highest esteem for his integrity of character and genial disposition. He is pre-eminently a self-made man and is now residing on an estate comprising one hundred and ninety-five well cultivated acres.

Our subject, like many of the best residents of this township, was born in Switzerland in the year 1846. He is the son of Samuel and Magdalene (Baumgardner) Hofer, who were also natives of that country. Nicholas, accompanied by his mother, came to America in 1858, landing in New York City, where they remained for a short time and then made their way to this western state and ocated in Marion Township, with whose interests they have been identified since that time. Young Nicholas first purchased a tract of forty acres and began his career as an independent farmer. He has met with more than ordinary success in the prosecution of his calling and has now a finely improved homestead of nearly two hundred acres. He is now taking the world easy, and though he still has his farm under his management, does little work himself and is living in peace and contentment, enjoying the fruits of his earlier labors.

Mr. Hofer was married, in 1865, to Miss Lizzie Sutter, who was also a native of Switzerland and was born in 1851. By her union with our subject there were born twelve children, namely: Pauline, John, Louisa, Bertha, Rosa, Samuel, Lena, Freddie, Benjamin, Mary, Leodia and Annie. They are all being given the advantages of a good education, and are bright and intelligent in the extreme. Mr. Hofer is a member of the Dunkard Church, and is identified with the Democratic party in politics.

The father of our subject departed this life in his native land. He was a man greatly respected in his neighborhood and was a true Christian gentleman. He was the father of two children besides our subject, Benjamin and Magdalene.

~source: Portrait and Biographical Record of Dubuque, Jones and Clayton Counties; Chicago: Chapman Pub. Co., 1894; pg 535-536
-transcribed by Sharyl Ferrall