JOHN C. TIBBEN.
John C. Tibben, a representative member of one of the old families of Audubon county, which has long been prominent in the agricultural life of this county and himself the owner of three hundred and forty-two acres of land in Audubon township, was born on March 24, 1872, in Rock Island county, Illinois, the son of John W. and Catherine (Schweneker) Tibben. John W. and Catherine Tibben were natives of Hanover and Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, respectively, the former being only fourteen or fifteen years old when he was brought to America by his parents. Henry and Anna (Gummers) Tibben. After landing at New Orleans, the family had proceeded as far as St. Louis up the river, when John C. Tibben's grandfather was taken violently ill and died of cholera. His grandmother, the next spring, brought the family, including Mr. Tibben's father, to Port Byron, Illinois, where they lived until 1880, when Mr. Tibben's father and mother came to Audubon county, and where the mother lived until her death at the age of ninety years. John C. Tibben's father was married in Rock Island county, Illinois, to Catherine Schweneker, who had come with her parents to America when about seventeen years old in 1862. They purchased three hundred and fifteen acres of unimproved land from the Rock Island & Pacific Railroad Company in 1877, paying seven dollars an acre for it. The first house, a rude structure, eighteen by twenty-six feet, with twelve-foot posts, served as a home until 1885, when it was remodeled and additions made to it. The parents lived on the home farm in section 2 of Audubon township until their death. The father had added eighty-six acres more to the farm, and at the time of his death, owned about four hundred acres.
John C. Tibben, the subject of this sketch, after living at home until he was twenty-one years old, was then married and rented land for two years. He then purchased one hundred and sixty acres in section 25 of Greeley township, where he lived for seven years. His father, having died, he came to live with his mother, making the change on November 14, 1900. In 1902 Mr. Tibben sold his Greeley township farm, having purchased one hundred and eighty acres of the home place. He has added to this tract, in the meantime, until he now owns three hundred and forty-two acres. Forty acres were added at one time, forty acres at another time and eighty-two acres in the last tract. Mr. Tibben has one other set of buildings besides those on the home place.
On December 16, 1891, John C. Tibben was married in Audubon county, Iowa, to Anna Wahlert, who was born on March 30, 1872, in Henry county, Illinois, and who is the daughter of Fred and Anna (Polm) Wahlert, natives of Holstein, Germany. Mr. Tibben's mother and Mrs. Tibben's mother were chums during school days in the old country.
Mr. and Mrs. Tibben have been the parents of ten children, nine of whom are living: Fred, born on July 24, 1892; Frank, February 13, 1894, who married Lillie Creese and has two children, Donald and Merlin Edwin; Laura, April 14, 1896, who married Peter J. Schwab; George, December 5, 1900; Warren, July 29, 1903; Arnold, April 27, 1906; Veda, December 24, 1908; Gertrude, December 18, 1910, and Ruth, December 17, 1913.
John C. Tibben is a Republican in politics and has served as township assessor for five years. Although the Tibben family were baptized in the German Lutheran church, they are not members of this church.
Mr. Tibben is not only one of the most extensive farmers of this section, but he is one of the most skillful. He has watched closely the modern developments in farming and, as fast as they have appeared, has adopted the improved and scientific processes. Mr. Tibben is popular in his community and is considered an excellent judge and a successful practitioner of scientific farming.
|
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. 747-749.
|
|
