ROBERT W. MULLENGER.
The science of agriculture, for it is a science, as well as an art, finds an able exponent and a successful practitioner in the person of Robert W. Mullenger, of Hamilton township, this county, who is not only a successful farmer, but has made a distinct success as a breeder of fancy live stock. Mr. Mullenger is widely known in Audubon county and maintains a very productive and valuable farm in Hamlin township. Mr. Mullenger is of English stock and comes from parents who immigrated to this country many years ago and who, early in life, settled in the state of Iowa. Thev played a conspicuous part in the general development of this favored section of the country.
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"Robert W. Mullenger was bom on April 19, 1859, in Wisconsin, twenty-miles from Milwaukee, the son of William R. and Mary (Tyler) Mullenger, natives of England, born in the vicinity of London, who came to the United States soon after their marriage, about 1856. Soon after arriving in this country they located in the state of Wisconsin, but in the fall of 1863 moved to Iowa. On the journey from Wisconsin to Iowa, the family came down the Mississippi river to Sabula and then drove overland to Bear Grove, Guthrie county, where the family remained until the next March, the father in the meantime walking on to Council Bluffs. When the family finally arrived at Exira, in this county, there were but eight small houses or shacks in the town. The mother died in 1873 and her son, Robert W., then went to live first with Rudolp Kremming, later with H. F. Andrews, the author of the historical section of this volume, with whom he lived for two years, at the end of which time he went to work for Mr. Andrews' father, with whom he remained for a period of five years. At the end of that time he rented land for one year, although he previously had bought a small tract of unimproved land. In 1883 Robert W. Mullenger moved to Audubon county from Cass county, where he had been renting, and in 1888, five years later, purchased one hundred and fifty-two acres of partially improved land in section 21 of Hamlin township. On November 28, 1907, the house on this farm was destroyed by fire and Mr. Mullenger then built a large eight-roomed house, with furnace, bath, gas lights and waterworks. The yard is surrounded with a beautiful grove of cedar trees, planted in 1890. Mr. Mullenger has built several new barns, cribs, granaries, and other farm buildings, all of the most substantial quality.
On October 2, 1889, Robert W. Mullenger was married to Sadie Sizer, of this county, who was born on March 18, 1868, in Jackson county, Iowa, the daughter of Robert and Hannah (Davis) Sizer, natives of England and Canada, respectively, who came to the United States when children, moving to Iowa in the early fifties and sixties. The father was a soldier in the Civil War, serving in Company A, Twenty- fourth Regiment Iowa Volunteer Infantry, for three years during which period of service he never was wounded nor taken prisoner.
To Robert W. and Sadie (Sizer) Mullenger five children have been born, three of whom are living, Ethel C., born on October 25, 1891; Mabel L., July 6, 1896, and Robert T., September 27, 1904, all of whom are still at home. John and Bessie Mae died in infancy.
Robert W. Mullenger assisted in the organization of the Blue Grass Creamery Company, of Hamlin, this county, and held the offices of secretary and director alternately since the organization of the company until the last two years. Mr. Mullenger makes a specialty of raising thoroughbred registered Percheron horses and is a member of the American Percheron Society. He also makes a specialty of thoroughbred Shorthorn cattle, Duroc-Jersey hogs and Plymouth Rock chickens. His farm is known throughout Audubon county as "Evergreen Hill Stock Farm."
Until the campaign of 1912, Mr. Mullenger had been identified with the Republican party, but when Colonel Roosevelt organized the new Progressive party at Chicago in August, 1912, he identified himself with that party and has since been active in its councils in this section of Iowa. He has held no public offices of consequence, although he has always been active in civic and political affairs and is well known as an active and progressive citizen. Fraternally, Mr. Mullenger is a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons. He has been prominent in educational affairs, having served as a school director for four terms and it was through his influence that the first modern school in Audubon county was erected.
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Transcribed from History of Audubon County, Iowa Its People, Industries and Institutions With Biographical Sketches of Representative Citizens and Genealogical Records of Many of the Old Families, by H. F. Andrews, editor, Indianapolis: B. F. Bowen & Company, 1915, pp. 496-498.
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