GEORGE WAHLERT, JR.
The value to a community of having the right man in the office of township trustee never was better demonstrated in Greeley township, this county, than during the present incumbency, George Wahlert, Jr., the present efficient and enterprising trustee having demonstrated his peculiar fitness for the important position which he holds, and it is but proper that a work designed to set out for the consideration of future generations something of the lives of those who constitute the leading citizenry of Audubon county in this generation should carry a fitting review of the interesting career of Trustee Wahlert.
George Wahlert, Jr., was born in Henry county, Illinois, October 23, 1878, the son of Jergen and Lena (Dommeier) Wahlert, further details of whose lives will be found set out at length in the interesting biographical sketch relating to Jergen Wahlert, presented elsewhere in this volume. George Wahlert came to this county at the tender age of three years, his parents having moved here from Illinois in the year 1881, and he was reared on the parental farm and attended the district schools of Greeley township until he was seventeen years of age, living at home until he was nineteen, at which time he commenced "working out" on neighboring farms, continuing this form of activity for three years, at the end of which time he bought a half interest in a farm with William Hensley, this partnership continuing for three years. Mr. Wahlert then bought eighty acres of unimproved land from Mr. Hensley in section 16, of Greeley township, and has ever since made his residence there. In addition to improving this original eighty acres, Mr. Wahlert has added thereto by the purchase of an additional eighty on the east and one hundred and twenty acres in section 20, of the same township, all of which he has improved and brought to a high state of cultivation. He has given considerable attention to the breeding of pure-bred stock and has a full-blooded registered Percheron stallion, one of the best animals of that breed in Audubon county. He also feeds quite a few cattle and is noted for the excellent quality of his stock, all of which is kept up to the best standard.
On February 11, 1903, George Wahlert was united in marriage to Mamie Hensley, daughter of William Hensley, who died on June 7, 1906. On January 20, 1909, Mr. Wahlert married, secondly, Minnie Gripp, of Moline, Illinois, who was born on May 8, 1887, in Moline, the daughter of James H. and Anna (Dohrn) Gripp, both of whom were natives of Holstein, Germany, who came to this country with their parents when children. The Gripps came to Audubon county in 1892, but returned to Moline in 1904 and are still living there. To Mr. and Mrs. Wahlert four children have been born, but two of whom are living, James H., born on January 28, 1912, and Marion Arnold, July 4, 1914.
Mr. and Mrs. Wahlert are not members of any church, though they are attendants on and supporters of the Methodist church. Mr. Wahlert is a Democrat and is keenly interested in the county's politics. He is a leader in his township, which he is now serving very acceptably as township trustee. He and his wife are hospitable and genial folk and are deservedly popular among their hosts of friends.
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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. 795-796.
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