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August Zilmer

August Zilmer engages in farming and stock-raising  on section 31, Center Township. We also find him in the front rank of every enterprise calculated to upbuild and benefit the community. Many have longer been residents of the county but none are more favorably known and his fellow-townsmen speak of him in terms of honest praise. He was born in Teplitz, by Stuttgart, Germany, in 1841, and was the third in a family of four children born to Gotlieb and Lottie (Butt) Zilmer. In 1854, accompanied by their family they crossed the broad Atlantic and effected a settlement in Green County, Wis., where Mr. Zilmer devoted himself to the cultivation of a rented farm. His death occurred in 1862, and his wife died in 1870. Of their family, William is married and resides near Hawkeye; Augusta is now Mrs. Miller of Monroe, Wis.; August is the next younger; and Mena is now Mrs. Beckman of Colorado.

We pass by the boyhood days of our subject as his minority was spent in the usual manner of farmer lads; he attended the common schools of Wisconsin in the winter season and aided in the labors of the farm through out the summer months, he remained under the parental roof until twenty-two years of age when he began life for himself. An important event occurred in his life about that time.

In 1863, in Monroe, Wis., he was united in marriage with Miss Louise Schmidt, a native of Germany, and a daughter of Gotlieb and Caroline (Butt) Schmidt, who were born in the same land and with their children came to this country in 1863. They too located in Wisconsin but subsequently came to Fayette County, where the mother died in 1870. Mr. Schmidt is living in the eighty-first year of his age and makes his home with his daughter.

Mr. and Mrs. Zilmer began their domestic life upon a farm in the Badger State, removing thence to Iowa in 1878. In Center Township, this county he purchased eighty acres of raw land but that he subsequently sold and made purchase of his present farm comprising one hundred and eighty-nine acres of highly cultivated and improved land. Since that time he has added to it improvements to the value of $2,500 in buildings. His barn is one of the best in the township and everything else is in keeping with it. He is progressive and enterprising and the work of his hands has gained him a comfortable competence. He also raises considerable stock, making a specialty of Holstein and Durham cattle.

Unto Mr. and Mrs. Zilmer have been born a large family, but of their twelve children only five are now living -- Ida, now Mrs. Kruf of Fremont Township; Henry, John, Freddie and Lena. Emma died in 1880, at the age of seven years and six months and the others died in infancy. The parents are members of the Lutheran Church and contribute liberally to its support. Mr. Zilmer manifests considerable interest in political affairs and at the polls support the Democratic party.