Mr. Reimes' career is an interesting one to the student of biography, inasmuch as he is a typical representative of that class of men whose individual efforts alone have won them success. Lacking the opportunities for advancement which fall to the lot of many, he has risen to a high position, solely by reason of his merit and ability. It has been said that "experience is the best teacher” and that “adversity develops the best talents,” and there are numerous examples which seem to prove the truth of these old sayings. Mr. Reimers may have been unfortunate in that he was born in comparative obscurity and without the prospects of any betterment of his condition, but Providence gave him moral and physical stamina, together with energy, shrewdness and tenacity of purpose, which amply fitted him when he was thrown upon his own resources to make his life a success and a credit to the sturdy ancestry from which he came.
His father, Johann J. Reimers, was a tavern keeper in Schwerin, Province of Mecklenburg, Germany, and joined in the revolution against the King of Prussia in 1848, losing his life in that memorable struggle. His mother, Sophia (Leonhart) Reimers, left her home some time in 1849, with her three sons, and came to America, making her home in St. Louis, where she died in 1852.
August Reimers was born at Schwerin on the twenty-third day of September, 1841, and was therefore only eleven years old when his mother died. He began life on his own account at that time and his first position was that of a sweeper and office boy in Balmer & Weber's music establishment, where he was employed until 1855. He then became a baker's apprentice, working on the boats plying on the lower Mississippi, and was employed thus for three years, or until 1858, at which time he became a candy maker's apprentice in St. Louis, where he completed his trade and found employment as a journeyman candy maker in 1860.
It was but a few months after this that Mr. Reimers' labors were transferred to another and less peaceable field of action. He was making good progress in his chosen field of labor when the call for volunteers to fight for the preservation of the Union found him ready to show his patriotism for, and loyalty to, the fair land of his adoption. His term of service in the Union Army during the War of the Rebellion extended over a period of almost five years, commencing with his enlistment in Company B, Third Missouri Volunteer Infantry, on the eighteenth day of April, 1861. This regiment participated in the engagement at Carthage, Missouri, on July 5, and in that at Wilson's Creek, Missouri, on August 10. The enlistment had been for ninety days only and after the last engagement the regiment returned to St. Louis, where they were discharged. Nearly all the volunteers reënlisted, however, this time in the Fifteenth Missouri Volunteer Infantry, Mr. Reimers being assigned to Company E. The reënlistment was on the first day of September, 1861, for a period of three years or during the war.
The regiment was in the Fremont campaign and took part in the battle at Pea Ridge, Arkansas, on the sixth, seventh and eighth of March, 1862, after which it was transferred to Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee. It took part in the siege of Corinth, Mississippi, during July and August, 1862, and was then transferred to the Army of the Cumberland; it had previously been known as the “Army of the Frontier.” With the Army of the Cumberland the regiment was with General Buell in the Kentucky campaign and was a strong force in the Perrysville battle on October 8, 1862. It took part in the battle of Stone River, Tennessee, on December 29, 30 and 31, and then camped at Murfreesboro until June, 1863, when it started on the Tullahoma campaign, fighting at Liberty Gap. On the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth of September it was in the fight at Chickamauga and on the twenty-ninth of November was part of the storming column at the famous attack at Missionary Ridge. After this it went to Knoxville to relieve General Burnsides' forces.
While near Knoxville the regiment reënlisted for three years and after a veteran furlough spent at St. Louis it joined Sherman's army at Chattanooga about the first of May. During the Atlanta campaign it took part in the engagements at Buzzards' Roost, Resaca, New Hope Church, Dalton, Kenesaw Mountain, Peach Tree Creek, the siege of Atlanta and Jonesboro, all of these places being in Georgia.
After the fall of Atlanta the regiment marched back to Chattanooga and later to Pulaski, Tennessee. On the fifth of November it took part in the engagement at Columbia, on the seventh at Spring Hills and on the eighth at Franklin; on December 15 and 16 it was engaged at Nashville.
After the surrender of Appomattox the regiment was sent to Texas on account of the Maximilian campaign which was threatening, but was never called upon to enter any battles. It returned to St. Louis, where it was mustered out on the twenty-fourth day of January, 1866.
Mr. Reimers remained with his regiment throughout its entire term of service and was honored by promotion, first to first sergeant, on the battlefield of Stone River, December 31, 1862; next he was commissioned first lieutenant at Nashville, Tennessee, on May 8, 1865, and about the first of September of the same year, in Texas, he was brevetted captain.
He was wounded three times during his service, but never so seriously that he was prevented from remaining with his regiment in the fiercest of the fight. His first wound was received at Wilson's Creek, August 10, 1861; the second at Missionary Ridge, November 25, 1863, and the third at Spring Hills, November 7, 1864. All were flesh wounds.
It is a record made by few men who were in the service of the Government during the Civil War. It was such men-those whom Providence favored so graciously — that were enabled to carry on the war when their less fortunate comrades fell or were compelled to give up the fight because of sickness or serious wounds. Mr. Reimers is said by his comrades to have been a brave and gallant soldier and is an enthusiastic supporter of the Grand Army of the Republic. His physical health does not seem to have been impaired by the hardships through which he passed.
Immediately upon leaving the service Mr. Reimers began working at his trade in the candy factory of Blanke Brothers in St. Louis. He continued in this employ for several years, being a resident of St. Louis until 1871. During his residence there he married Miss Christina Hamm on March 30, 1867. By this union were born four children: Johanna, Martha, Lydia and August. Mrs. Reimers' untimely death occurred in Davenport on October 5, 1877.
On the first day of September, 1871, Mr. Reimers opened up a candy manufacturing establishment in the City of Davenport. His years of experience in one of the best known factories in the West had fitted him for the undertaking of a private enterprise and he continued alone in the business with marked success for about three years, when he took into partnership with him William H. Fernald, who has since been a member of the firm known as Reimers & Fernald. The firm does an enormous business throughout the West, and has of late years added the manufacture of crackers to that of candy.
On the twentieth of October, 1879, Mr. Reimers married Miss Mary Schmidt, at Muscatine, Iowa. This happy union was destined to be cut off in a short time, however, as death claimed the loving wife and left a sorrowing husband on the twenty-fifth of May, 1892. One child was born of the union: James Morgan.
Mr. Reimers' business operations in Davenport have been attended with success, the legitimate reward of his diligent efforts, honest methods and intelligent conduct of his affairs. He has not only built up a large business, but he has built up, also, an enviable reputation among the business men here and in other places where he has business dealings. His life has been devoted mostly to his private interests, although he has always been one of those to whom the people have looked for support of public enterprises of interest to the community at large. He is a stalwart Republican, but has never given any time to politics further than to represent his ward — the Fifth - in the city council. In religious sentiment he is a Presbyterian.
He is connected with the Crystal Ice Company, of which he is a director and of which he was president at one time; with the Davenport Building and Loan Association, of which he is a director. He is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic; is a member of the Illinois Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, and of the Masonic Fraternity, in which he is enrolled upon the books of the Blue Lodge, the Chapter and the Commandery.
Mr. Reimers has traveled over the greater part of this country and is thoroughly conversant with the conditions existing in the different sections of it. He has been a keen observer always, a student of men and things, and as a result is a pleasant and intelligent conversationalist.
He made a trip to his native land in 1893, and October 8 of that year married Miss Clara Elizabeth Filzhut of Berlin. Mr. and Mrs. Reimers returned to Davenport during the autumn of 1893. In July of 1894 they returned to the old country for a trip of several months.
BIOGRAPHIES