MICHAEL LOHR

 

      Among those who have long been identified with the agricultural development of Wayne county must be numbered Michael Lohr, who owns a well improved farm in Benton township and holds the title to five hundred and thirty-seven acres of fertile land in that immediate vicinity.  He is a native of West Virginia, his birth having occurred in Barbour county, that state, on the 15th of May, 1847.  His father, P. P. Lohr, was of German extraction, but was born in Virginia, his natal year being 1817.  His parents, who were farming people, removed from Pennsylvania to Virginia in the early years of the last century and there passed the remainder of their lives.

     P. P. Lohr early directed his energies along agricultural lines, and engaged in farming in West Virginia until March, 1854, when with his family he came to Iowa.  He first located in Jefferson county, but in October, of the same year, he came to Wayne county, settling on a farm a mile and a half east of the place his son Michael now owns.  His first tract of land comprised forty acres, but as the years passed he added to his landed interests until at the time of his death he owned three hundred and twenty acres.  He lived to the advanced age of eighty-three years, his death occurring in 1900.  Mr. Lohr was one of the progressive and public-spirited pioneers of Wayne county, and took and active interest in political affairs, serving with efficiency in various minor township offices.  In his early life he supported the whig party, and after it was merged into the republican voted the latter ticket.  For his wife he chose Miss Sarah Holder, who was born in Pennsylvania in 1820, but in early life removed to Virginia with her parents.  She accompanied her husband and family to Iowa and was residing in Wayne county when she passed away in October, 1911.  Her parents came west in 1851, locating in Jefferson county, where they resided until 1858 when they came to Wayne county.  Here Grandfather Holder bought eighty acres of land adjoining the farm of his son-in-law, P. P. Lohr, who later purchased the property, and resided there until his death in 1861.  To Mr. and Mrs. Lohr there were born seven children, as follows:  Mary, the deceased wife of John Davis, residing in the vicinity of Cambria; Elizabeth, who married John Woolis, of Cambria; Michael, our subject; Harriet Ann, who became the wife of S. Hotchkiss, of Missouri; Daniel, who is residing in Idaho; John, who is deceased; and Allen T., who makes his home in Dakota.

     Michael Lohr, who was a lad of seven years when he accompanied his parents on their removal to Iowa, was educated in the district schools of this county.  He passed his early years in the uneventful routine characteristic of life in the rural sections, and in common with the majority of country youths early became familiar with the duties of the agriculturist.  He remained on the home place until after he had attained his majority and then began his independent career as a farmer.  On first starting out in the world for himself he cultivated rented land, but when he was twenty-seven he invested his accumulated savings in eighty acres of land, which formed the nucleus of his present homestead.  The fact of his having become a landowner seemed to prove an incentive to yet greater effort on his part, and he applied himself to the achievement of his purpose with the unremitting diligence which brought constantly increasing success.  As the years passed he added to his possessions until he now owns five hundred and thirty-seven acres, eighty of which is a portion of the old family homestead east of his place.  All of the buildings now on his farm have been erected by Mr. Lohr, and at various times he has installed about the premises different appliances for reducing the labor connected with its operation, making his one of the model places of the township.  His fields are planted to such cereals as are best adapted to the soil and annually yield abundant harvests.  In connection with his diversified farming he is raising and feeding stock, in which lines of his business he is also meeting with a good measure of success.

     In Wayne county, Iowa, in 1878, Mr. Lohr was married to Miss Mary F. Seaman, a daughter of W. E. Seaman, a native of England, who came to the United States in early life.  He first settled in New York state, but later removed to Rock Island, Illinois.  Of this marriage there have been born eight children, as follows:  Jessie, the deceased wife of Clyde Hathill; William, who married Ethel Gibbs, and is residing in this county; Elizabeth, who is at home; Frank, who married Maude Gibbs, also of this county; and Fred, Seaman, Stanley and Paul.

     The family are members of the Methodist Episcopal church.  Mr. Lohr is a veteran of the Civil war, having enlisted as a member of the Forty-sixty Iowa Infantry in June, 1864, and remained at the front for ninety days.  He maintains relations with his comrades of the field through his connection with Robert Jackson Post of the Grand Army of the Republic at Allerton.  Politically he supports the republican party, and has held various minor offices in the township.  Mr. Lohr is highly esteemed in his community as a man of worth and integrity, who conducts his business affairs in an honorable and upright manner while in matters of citizenship he is public-spirited and can be relied upon to support every movement that he feels will promote the welfare of the community or advance its development.

 

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