Harrison County Iowa Genealogy

HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY, IOWA, 1915
BIOGRAPHIES
Page 506
AUGUST SIEBELS

The raising of blooded stock in Iowa has recently received a great stimulus and Iowa farmers are coming into a realization of the value of a high grade of stock as compared to the inferior grade of animals. Harrison county has had more than its share in arousing this stimulus as this county is famous all over the state for its high grade of cattle. One of the men who is responsible for this enviable reputation, is August SIEBELS, who not only rears full-blooded Shorthorn cattle, but also has a number of high grade hogs and horses. Mr. SIEBELS is typical of the successful farmer who started with comparatively nothing. He worked for some years as a farm hand but, with a definite purpose in view, that of owning and cultivating his own land. His ambition has been fully realized.

August SIEBELS was born on November 25, 1867 in Scott county, Iowa. He was the son of Henry and Katherine (CORNELIUS) SIEBELS, and is one of a family of ten children of whom five boys are still living. Mr. SIEBELS' father, who was a native of Germany, was born in 1832. At the age of twenty he emigrated to America and located in Scott county, Iowa. For some time he worked as a blacksmith at Davenport, Iowa, and a few years later went to Pottawattamie county, Iowa, and began the cultivation of the soil, buying land and improving it. He farmed until 1885, when he retired and moved to Minden where he now makes his home. His wife, who was born in Germany, in 1832, came to America with her parents, at the age of sixteen. She died in January, 1914.

August SIEBELS was reared on his father's farm and attended the district schools of Pottawattamie county. He early decided to own his own land, and at the age of seventeen, began working as a farm hand and saving his money. Four years later he rented two hundred and forty acres of land from his father, which he cultivated for seven years and saved his money, and finally bought the land which he had been renting. This land was located in Washington township, Harrison county; at the time he left it was well improved. He sold his property in 1907, and moved to Woodbine, Iowa, where he established a mercantile business, and later bought and sold live stock. During his residence in Woodbine, he had bought a farm in Jefferson township, known as the Charles Hunt farm, and in 1913, he moved to the country to resume the tilling of the soil. At the time of occupation, the place was unimproved, but Mr. SIEBELS has built a hay and cattle barn, has made great progress in establishing a thoroughly modern home and, in all, the improvements on the place amount to the respectable sum of seven thousand dollars. Mr. SIEBELS has accumulated two hundred and forty-eight acres of land of which twenty acres are in natural timber.

August SIEBELS was married in 1888, to Maggie SCHRODER, who was born in Germany, in 1868, and came to America when she was about seventeen years of age. August and Maggie (SCHRODER) SIEBELS are the parents of ten children, Mrs. Clara SNYDER, of Woodbine, Iowa; Lulu; Adolph; August; Harry; Kathrine; Anna; Claude; Carl, all of whom are at home; and Emma, who died in infancy. The political adherence of Mr. SIEBELS is given to the Democratic party, on which ticket he was at one time elected trustee of Washington township. Mr. SIEBELS and his family are stanch members of the German Lutheran church and Mr. SIEBELS' life is evidence of the fact that his whole life is dominated by a quiet and sincere faith. Mr. SIEBELS belongs to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. When it is remembered that he began working at an early age and has attained his present success, only by the pursuit of a definite aim, it becomes plain that Mr. SIEBELS has fully earned the prosperity which he enjoys today.

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