Joseph and Sophia Spick, and his brother Antoine. (Wedding picture taken in Burlington in 1869).

Joseph and Sophia Spick came to live on a farm north of Murray in the fall of 1870, just two years after the town of Murray was laid out. They came from Burlington, Iowa. Joseph and his older unmarried brother, Antoine, drove through in a wagon with household goods while Sophia and her six month old daughter came by train.

They chose to come to Murray because of a friend, Fred Needt, father of Austin Needt, had came earlier and urged Joseph to come also. This he did and purchased a farm adjoining Mr. Needts. Joseph added acres to his first purchase and lived there until 1908 when he passed to the Great Beyond. Sophia built a home in north Murray moving there in 1916. This is the home belonging to the late Mrs. Edna Wolfe.

Joseph and Sophia Spick

all having gone to their reward except the two youngest, Mrs. Mary Houston of Winterset, Iowa, and Mrs. Lila Westerfield of Osceola, Iowa.

Joseph Spick came to the U.S. from the Alsace-Lorraine Country between Germany and France. He spoke three languages, French, German, and English. He especially loved the French language, but found few people with whom he could converse in French.

Sophia was born near Hamburg, Germany.

As a little child she came with her parents to Schenectady, New York. It was while visiting an aunt in Burlington that she met and married.

Life was not easy for this pioneer couple. Joseph, who has learned the blacksmith and wagon maker trade in Europe rode many Saturday to Murray to shoe horses for one dollar a day, so he might buy groceries for his growing family.