IRA F. PRELL

The farm which Ira F. Prell owns and occupies, situated in Union township, Worth county, has long been in possession of the family. It was formerly the home property of his parents, John and Mary (Michalek) Prell, who were residing thereon at the time of the birth of their son, Ira F., on the 27th of January, 1878. The father was born in Bavaria, Germany, while the mother is a native of Bohemia. John Prell left Germany at twenty-seven years of age for the United States and after reaching the American coast crossed the country to Whitewater, Wisconsin, where he secured employment as a farm hand. He also worked for a time in the lumber woods and afterward he determined to try his fortune at a point still farther west. He then removed from Wisconsin to. Union township, Worth county, and invested his savings in eighty acres of the present home farm of Ira F. Prell. The tract which he secured was then largely undeveloped and unimproved and with characteristic energy he began breaking the sod preparatory to planting the fields. He continued the work of farming here until 1910, when he passed away at the age of seventy years and ten months. He had been married in Mason City, Iowa, to Miss Mary Michalek, who came to the United States with her parents when a small girl, the family home being established in Union township, Worth county, north of Plymouth, Iowa. Her father worked in the woods and at farm labor and later, when he had saved from his earnings a sufficient sum to purchase land, he became owner of a small farm in Union township, which he continued to develop and improve until his demise. His daughter, Mrs. Prell, is still living upon the old homestead and is now sixty-eight years of age. She is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, to which Mr. Prell also belonged and he gave his political endorsement to the republican party.

Ira F. Prell spent his youthful days upon the old homestead and worked in the fields through the summer months, while in the winter seasons he pursued his education in the district schools and also attended school at Plymouth, Iowa. In his early manhood he was employed at farm labor, both upon the old homestead and by others in the neighborhood. In 1909 he left Iowa for the far west, making his way to Valley county, Montana, where he thought to take up a homestead but did not find a suitable location, and later he went to Williams county, North Dakota, where he was employed at farm labor. Eventually he returned home but in the following spring made his way to Standing Rock, South Dakota, settling upon the government reservation. There he continued until September, when he once more came to Worth county. Five years ago, or in the spring of 1913, he purchased the interest of his brother Jason in the old homestead and is now operating the farm. His has been an active and useful life and his success is the direct and legitimate outcome of his own labors. He has worked earnestly and persistently as the years have gone by and each day now finds him busy in the fields in the production of the crops best adapted to soil and climatic conditions here. He has been thoroughly trained in the best methods of tilling the soil and he uses the latest improved machinery to facilitate his work. He annually gathers good crops for which he finds a ready market and as the years pass by his prosperity is increasing. Like the others of the household, he has long held membership in the Methodist Episcopal church and its teachings have guided him in all of his life's relations. His political support has been given the republican party since age conferred upon him the right of franchise, and while he has never sought or desired office, he has ever been loyal to the best interests of his community.

Source: History of Mitchell and Worth Counites, Iowa, 1918, Vol. II, Pages 645 & 646

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Transcription by Gordon Felland, 11/20/2006