PETER RUBEL.
The gentleman whose name here greets the eyes of the reader, one of the best-known and most prosperous farmers of Greeley township, this county, is another of that considerable number of Germans, who, as young men, came to this country to seek better opportunities than they could hope to obtain in the Fatherland. Energetic, thrifty and enterprising, he has succeeded largely and is one of the substantial men of the county.
Peter Rubel was born in Bavaria, Germany, November 18, 1844, the son of Jacob and Elizabeth (Unger) Rubel, farming people who spent their whole lives in their native land. At the age of twenty-one, Peter Rubel came to America, landing in New York on February 8, 1866. He remained in New York state until the fall of that year, at which time he proceeded west, stopping in Ogle county, Illinois, where he married and where he lived for about eight years, at the end of which time he moved on farther west, locating, in 1872, in Mahaska county, Iowa, where he remained until the year 1883, in which year he came to Audubon county, renting eighty acres of land in Douglas township. For seven years he rented land in that and Sharon township and then bought one hundred and twenty acres in Douglas township, on which he lived for eleven years, at the end of which time he sold the farm and then for one year lived near the town of Gray, after which he bought two hundred and forty acres of land in section 8 of Greeley township, where he since has made his home. Prospering there, he presently added eighty acres to his first purchase, making in all a farm of three hundred and twenty acres, which he has greatly improved and upon which he has erected a fine set of farm buildings, giving him one of the best and most highly-improved farms in Greeley township, upon which he carries on general farming and stock raising with a large measure of success.
In September, 1872, Peter Rubel was united in marriage with Mary H. Ehrenhart, who was born in Germany, a daughter of George Ehrenhart, to which union six children were born: Maggie, who married Albert G. Beech and has six children, Pearl, Earl, Lester, Ethel, Ralph and Harold; Emma, who married David Snyder; Otto, who married Sophia Burr and has four children, Harold, Clarence, Russel and Marion; Addie, unmarried, lives in the city of Omaha; Dora, deceased, and Tilda, who also is unmarried and lives in Omaha. The mother of these children died on May 10, 1889, and Mr. Rubel married, secondly. September 22, 1891, Amelia Sabel, who was born in Germany, the daughter of John and Henrietta (Willnitz) Sabel, and to this latter union eleven children have been born, Charles, Mary, Albert, William, Walter, Earl, Louis, Minnie, Lee, Lester and Glenn, all of whom are living at home save Charles and Albert.
Mr. and Mrs. Rubel are members of the Lutheran church and have reared their children in the faith of this church. He is independent in his political views and gives close attention to the political affairs of the county. He is deeply interested in the educational affairs of his home township and has been school director for four vears.
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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. 460-461.
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