Harrison County Iowa Genealogy

HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY, IOWA, 1915
BIOGRAPHIES
Page 704
FRANK W. SCHWERTLEY

One of the largest land owners of Harrison county, Iowa, is Frank W. SCHWERTLEY, who was born in this county before the Civil War, and has spent his whole life within its limits. Before reaching his majority Mr. SCHWERTLEY taught school for a time, as did his wife. Since then he has engaged in general farming and stock raising and now owns eleven hundred and sixty acres of the best land in the county.

Frank W. SCHWERTLEY, the son of Frederick and Salome (BRECHT) SCHWERTLEY, was born on April 8, 1858, in Magnolia, Harrison county, Iowa. His parents were natives of Wurtemburg and Baden, Germany, respectively, and came to the United States early in the fifties, first locating in Wheeling, West Virginia. Frederick SCHWERTLEY soon found employment with the United States government, driving mail stages, and was afterward transferred to routes farther west, until finally he was given a route running between Council Bluffs and Calhoun, Iowa. Calhoun, by the way, was the first postoffice to be located within the limits of the present Harrison county. After his marriage, his wife induced him to give up driving stage, and he then took up teaming in this county. In 1859 he started for Pike's Peak to look for gold but only got as far as Kearney, Nebraska, when he decided to return home. In 1860 Frederick SCHWERTLEY bought one hundred and sixty acres in section 10, of Taylor township, this county. He proved to be a very successful farmer and at the time of his death owned between sixteen hundred and seventeen hundred acres of land in Harrison county.

Frank W. SCHWERTLEY was the eldest of eleven children born to his parents. He received such education as was provided by the district schools of his boyhood days and when he was twenty years of age began to teach school in Taylor township, this county. He taught one year in his own county and in 1879 went to Nebraska, where he taught one year. However, he decided to forsake the school room for the independent career of the farmer. He rented land from his father for three years and then bought one hundred and twenty acres in section 24, of Clay township. He lived there seven years, at the end of which time he traded that for part of the old home farm lying in section 17, of Taylor township. On this farm he lived for fourteen years, and then bought his present home in Taylor townsnip. He has added to this farm from time to time until his present holdings of eleven hundred sixty acres make him one of the three largest landowners in the county. He adopts modern methods in all his work and uses a large traction engine for plowing and doing various other kinds of work on the farm. He owns his own threshing outfit and has every kind of modern machinery which the twentieth-century farmer could possibly use. He uses a large Cole automobile for visiting his various farms and keeping in close touch with the work from season to season. Mr. SCHWERTLEY is one of the most extensive stock raisers in the county, making a specialty of Poland-China hogs, and has excellent registered hogs of this particular breed.

Mr. SCHWERTLEY has been twice married. He was first married to Elizabeth O'CONNOR, who died leaving eight children, Salome, who married Lester BRATTON; Frederick, a graduate of Creighton Medical College, who is now intern in the St. Joseph hospital at Omaha; John H., a graduate of the civil engineering department of Ames College; Leo, a graduate of Creighton high school, and four, William S., Paul, Cyril and Desmus, who are still at home.

After the death of his first wife, Mr. SCHWERTLEY married, secondly, June 6, 1911, Sadie GILMORE, who was born in Harrison county, a daughter of A. J. and Sarah (MCKENNA) GILMORE. Her father was county supervisor at one time and prominent in the history of the county in many different ways. There are no children by this second marriage.

Mr. SCHWERTLEY and his family are all members of the Catholic church, and he is a member of the Knights of Columbus. Mr. SCHWERTLEY is a Democrat, but has never taken a prominent part in political affairs, owing to the fact that he has such extensive farming interests. Mr. SCHWERTLEY is one of the representative men of his community, and it is eminently fitting that his life history be recorded in this volume.

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