USA > Iowa > Des Moines County > History of Des Moines County, Iowa, Volume II > Part 13
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Mr. Lohmann was reared in the Lutheran church, while his wife holds membership in the Baptist church, and the spirit of Chris- tianity guides them in all their relations and their sterling worth is recognized by all with whom they come in contact. In his political views Mr. Lohmann was a stanch democrat, voting with that party until the election of 1912, when he supported Theodore Roosevelt, the progressive standard bearer, and is now independent in politics. He belongs to the Ancient Order of United Workmen, to the Com-
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mercial Exchange and to the Boat Club. He is well known as a prominent citizen and has been very active in musical circles. In his younger days he was a good pianist and organist and some of the best church choirs and glee clubs had him for their director. His efforts have done much to develop the musical taste and talent in Burlington, and this is but one of the many phases in which his life work has been one of benefit and value to his fellow townsmen.
JOHN BLAUL.
No history of Burlington and Des Moines county would be com- plete were there failure to make reference to John Blaul and the fam- ily of which he is a most worthy representative. The name has long been associated with the commercial development of Burlington and has ever been a synonym for enterprise and honorable dealing. It is true that he whose name introduces this review entered upon a busi- ness already established, but in controlling and enlarging this many a man of less resolute spirit and of more limited business capacity would have failed. The wholesale grocery house of the Blaul Com- pany is today the result of the cooperation, enterprise and business capacity of the father and sons and at the head of the business at the present time is John Blaul of this review.
Mr. Blaul was born in Boston, Massachusetts, February 11, 1853; but from the age of four years has been a resident of Burlington. The family name indicates his German lineage. The American progen- itor was the Rev. John Blaul, a native of Germany and a minister of the Evangelical Lutheran church. He did not himself come to the new world but his son, John Blaul, crossed the Atlantic and was the founder and promoter of the large wholesale grocery enterprise now conducted under the name of the John Blaul Sons' Company. His birth occurred in Hesse-Darmstadt on the 18th of December, 1826, and he was educated for the profession of school teaching, but he heard the call of the west and could not remain content in his native country with the alluring opportunities of the new world before him. As a passenger on a sailing vessel in the year 1850 he spent three or four months upon the broad Atlantic before reaching the American coast. After a brief period passed in Norwich, Connecticut, he went to Bangor, Maine, and also resided for a time in Boston, Massa- chusetts, before coming to Burlington. While in Bangor he worked for sixty cents per dav and was ready to perform any service that
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would enable him to earn a living while he was mastering the English language and acquainting himself with the methods and customs of the new world and its trade conditions. For a time he occupied a position in a machine shop in Bangor, from which he removed in 1856 to Boston. It was through the influence of an old friend, August Poehler, a mechanic, who was employed in Burlington, that he came to this city. Soon after his arrival he secured a position in a tin shop but in 1857 embarked in the retail grocery business on Front street as a partner of Theodore Poehler. These gentlemen were also closely associated through the fact of having married sisters. Their business relations continued harmoniously and uninterruptedly for a number of years but eventually Mr. Poehler withdrew and joined his brother August in business, while Mr. Blaul continued alone in the retail grocery trade until the close of the Civil war in 1865. He then sold out to his former partner and in 1866 reentered the trade as a whole- sale and retail grocer at No. 113 Jefferson street. Through the two succeeding years he had as a partner Philip Hoerr and while one was upon the road building up a trade the other managed the business in Burlington. After Mr. Hoerr sold out in 1869 Mr. Blaul was alone until he admitted his oldest son to a partnership in 1882 and later the other sons became members of the firm, at which time the business was conducted under the style of John Blaul & Sons, and the trade was confined exclusively to the wholesale business. The father re- mained as the administrative head of the business until his life's labors were ended in death on the 27th of January, 1885.
A contemporary biographer has said of him : "He was a prudent, conservative man, whose advancement came through his own untiring efforts, keen discernment, and the careful husbanding of his resources. He concentrated his energies upon his business affairs, and his name became a synonym for honorable dealing and commercial success. He was plain and unostentatious in manner, but possessed the worth of character that won him the confidence of the entire business com- munity. He was married first in Germany to Miss Maria Anna Neufeld, who died in Boston, Massachusetts, in December, 1854. The children of that marriage died in infancy, with the exception of John Blaul, who is now at the head of the grocery house. In 1857 John Blaul, Sr., was again married, his second union being with Caro- line Knoener, a daughter of Charles and Katherine Knoener, who were natives of Germany and came to Burlington carly in the '50s from Lippe-Detmold. Her father was a school teacher and taught in the parochial schools of Burlington, in connection with the carrying on of agricultural pursuits. His daughter, Mrs. Blaul, died in
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August, 1902. The children of this marriage were: Charles; Theo- dore; Louis ; Amelia; Pauline, who died in 1901 ; and two who died in childhood."
Of this family Charles Blaul was born in Burlington, July 28, 1860, and entered the firm in 1882. He spent eight years as a traveling salesman and then took charge of the coffee and spice mills of the company. In Wapello, Iowa, he wedded Miss Jessie Stephen, a daughter of Levi and Jane (Dickcson) Stephen. Theodore Blaul, born February 23, 1862, was also admitted to partnership in 1882 and in the following year became the representative of the house upon the road, thus remaining until 1886, when he was placed in charge of the canning plant owned and controlled by the firm. On the 14th of October, 1886, he wedded Miss Emma Unterkircher, a daughter of P. F. Unterkircher. The birth of the youngest son, Louis Blaul, occurred October 16, 1863, and after attending the public schools until 1879 he entered the store and was admitted to partnership in 1885. He was head bookkeeper and cashier for a number of years, but in 1902 took up his abode upon a farm south of Burlington. He is still financially interested in the business and has other extensive connections with commercial enterprises of this city.
The eldest son of the family is John Blaul whose name introduces this review and who is now at the head of the business established by his father. At the usual age he became a pupil in the public schools, passing through the grammar grades and taking up the work of the high school. His business training was received in the employ and under the direction of his father and after reaching the age of sixteen years his entire time and attention were given to the grocery trade. In 1882 he was admitted to a partnership and following the demise of his father succeeded to the presidency of the company.
The business is one of far-reaching scope and importance. Theirs was primarily a wholesale grocery house but their trade relations have constantly broadened in scope and for a considerable period they have made a special feature of importing coffee and spices and in their factory they grind their own spices and also manufacture flavor- ing extracts and baking powder. In 1895 they established a canning factory and are now engaged in canning tomatoes, pumpkins, hominy, apples and baked beans. Their employes in these two connections number one hundred and fifty, two-thirds of the number being in the manufacturing department and one-third in the canning department. They have a large force of city and traveling salesmen and every phase of their business is being most carefully conducted with the result that greater success is constantly accruing. The family still
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own the business block in which the father established his store at No. 113 Jefferson street. In 1880 he built a store at No. 113 North Third street, between Valley and Market, and in 1892 the brothers erected a part of their present fine business block, to which an addi- tion was built in 1903. This is a stone and brick structure, the two upper stories being of brick. Excellent railroad facilities have been secured, a track extending to the doors so that cars can be loaded and unloaded without the need of teaming transfers. With the incorpora- tion of the business on the ist of February, 1903, under the name of the John Blaul Sons' Company the oldest brother, John Blaul, be- came the president, with Charles as vice president, Theodore as treasurer and E. G. Koonz as secretary. The four Blaul brothers, together with W. H. Ripley, A. H. Riepe and E. B. Kerns constitute the board of directors and several of these gentlemen represent the house upon the road as traveling salesmen. They have altogether eighteen traveling men, who cover a large territory in the west and northwest, beside a portion of Illinois. Their business has now reached extensive and gratifying proportions. In this connection it has been said: "From a small retail grocery trade the enterprise has developed until it has reached extensive proportions, covering many branches, each one supplying a large patronage. The annual business has reached a very large figure, and the house has ever maintained an unassailable reputation, the straightforward policy inaugurated by the father being maintained by the sons. They are men of resourceful business ability, who have found in the business conditions of the present opportunity for advancement and successful accomplishment, and their position in commercial circles of Burlington is second to none."
Having spent practically his entire life in Burlington, during much of which time he has been a prominent figure in commercial circles, John Blaul is widely known, and the consensus of public opinion places him high in the regard of his fellow citizens. He was married on the 13th of May, 1877, when Miss Louise Dewein, a daughter of Jacob and Catherine (Meier) Dewein, became his wife. Her parents arrived in Burlington in 1841 and her father here fol- lowed shoemaking. Mrs. Blaul was born April 13, 1853, and by her marriage became the mother of seven children, but three of the num- ber, Clara, Louise and John, died in early life. Those who survive are Milton, Mark, Robert and Selma.
Mr. Blaul holds membership in the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and he gives his political allegiance to the democratic party. He has never been a politician in the sense of office seeking, yet for
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four years filled the position of alderman and exercised his official prerogatives in support of many progressive public movements. He belongs to the Business Men's Association and cooperates heartily in all of its efforts for the improvement of commercial and industrial conditions and the extension of Burlington's trade relations. His name is synonymous with progress. Character, balance, harmony and sound judgment are his native traits, and evenness and poise are also features in his makeup. Anyone meeting Mr. Blaul face to face would know at once that he is an individual embodying all the ele- ments of what in this country we term a "square" man-one in whom to have confidence, a dependable man in any relation and any emergency. His quietude of deportment, his easy dignity, his frank- ness and cordiality of address, with the total absence of anything sinister or anything to conceal, foretoken a man who is ready to meet any obligation of life with the confidence and courage that come of conscious personal ability, right conception of things and an habitual regard for what is best in the exercise of human activities.
ALBERT C. ZAISER, M. D.
Dr. Albert C. Zaiser, devoting his life to the general practice of medicine and surgery, was born in Burlington on the 18th of May, 1873, his parents being John and Marguerite (Funck) Zaiser. The father, a native of Germany, was a wagonmaker by trade, and, cross- ing the Atlantic to America, arrived in Burlington in 1854. He established a wagon shop in this city in 1859 and continued the busi- ness for almost a half century, or until the time of his death, which occurred on the 16th of June, 1906. He was an active and important factor in the industrial activities of the city, and his enterprise proved of value in the development of the community, as well as in further- ing his individual interests. Aside from business, he was a minister of the German Methodist church. He engaged in preaching in Bur- lington for five years and remained a local preacher to the time of his demise, doing everything in his power to advance the interests of the denomination with which he was connected and to sow broadcast the seeds of Christianity. His widow survives him and is now sev- enty-three years of age.
Mrs. Marguerite Zaiser was born in this city in 1841, a daughter of John Adam Funck, a native of Frankfort, Germany, who arrived in this city in the '30s, becoming one of the first settlers of the little
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hamlet that stood upon the banks of the Mississippi and constituted a stopping point for travelers and a trading point for the few isolated settlers scattered throughout the district to the west. He established the first bakery in Burlington and he had the first frame house. He was at one time alderman of the city and also a member of the school board. His name is inseparably interwoven with the history of Bur- lington and its development along business and political lines, his co- operation being given to many measures of value in the days of early progress and upbuilding here. It was his daughter Marguerite who became the wife of John Zaiser and in their family were five sons and three daughters.
Dr. Zaiser, who was the third son and sixth member of the family, was graduated from the high school of Burlington and afterward spent two years as a student in the Iowa State University. Later he attended the Creighton Medical College at Omaha, Nebraska, for a year but continued his studies in the St. Louis College of Physicians & Surgeons, where he remained for three years, or until graduated on the 17th of March, 1897, at which time his professional degree was conferred upon him. Immediately afterward he returned to his native city and his record stands in contradistinction to the old adage that a prophet is not without honor save in his own country, for in the city of his nativity Dr. Zaiser has won a creditable position, his broad knowledge and practical skill being manifest in the excellent results which have attended him in his efforts to alleviate suffering and check the ravages of disease. He is one of the physicians who withdrew from the American Medical Association on account of its methods.
On the ist of January, 1902, Dr. Zaiser was joined in wedlock to Miss Grace Melcher, of Burlington, a daughter of Dennis and Sadie (Hanna) Melcher, the latter a native of Des Moines county. The former was the proprietor of the Monmouth Pottery Company, in which business he continued actively to the time of his demise in 1901. Dr. and Mrs. Zaiser have one son, Donald, who was born June 14, 1905.
Dr. Zaiser is a well known and popular representative of various fraternal organizations. He holds membership with the Elks, the Moose, the Degree of Honor, the Royal Highlanders, the Ancient Order of United Workmen, the Fraternal Union of America and the Knights and Ladies of Security. He attends the Methodist church and his life is at all times actuated by high and honorable principles as is constantly manifest in his daily conduct. His political allegiance is given to the democratic party but he has no time nor inclination for office holding outside the strict path of his profession. In 1899
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he was elected county physician, filling the office for two years. At the present time he is a member of the board of education and the cause of the public schools finds in him a stalwart champion. His social nature finds expression in his membership in the Burlington Launch Club and the Auto Club, associations which indicate also the nature of his recreation. No outside interests, however, cause him to neglect his professional duties and in the practice of both medicine and surgery he has made for himself a creditable name and place.
DANIEL MATSON.
Daniel Matson was born at Hull, England, March 18, 1842. His father, Joseph Matson, was born in the same place in 1809 and his mother, Susannah Blakley, was born in Hull in 1817. Both fam- ilies were seafaring people. Joseph Matson ran away from home at the age of sixteen and became an apprentice on board a Greenland whaleship. Serving in all the grades of seamanship, he became a captain in the British merchant service at the age of thirty-one years, serving in that capacity until 1851. He was engaged in what was known as the Baltic and Mediterranean trade.
The subject of this sketch, being an only child, accompanied his father and mother on voyages to ports on the Baltic and North seas. In the spring of 1851, his wife having died the year previous, Cap- tain Joseph Matson resigned his commission in the British merchant service and accompanied by young Daniel embarked from Liver- pool for New Orleans, U. S. A. Arriving at that port about the mid- dle of May, he took passage on a Mississippi river steamboat for St. Louis. Shortly before reaching Memphis the father was stricken with cholera and died in a few hours. He was buried in a cane- brake on the Tennessee shore near where Fort Pillow was after- wards built. Young Daniel was left alone without relative or friend on the American continent, "Save that Friend above all others," who has in his case verified the promise to be a Father to the fatherless in a most marked way. Reaching St. Louis the passengers were not allowed to land, but were transferred to another boat and sent to up- river towns. Daniel landed in Burlington, Iowa, about the Ioth of June, 1851. One of the passengers assuming to be his friend, robbed him of all the father's belongings, even to his own clothing, and departed for parts unknown, leaving him upon the streets a homeless waif. Providentially he was led to the home of Mrs. W. W. Woods,
CAPTAIN DANIEL MATSON
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the wife of a well known citizen of Burlington of pioneer days. Through her kind efforts he found a home near Kossuth, Iowa, in a pioneer family named Rankin. These people were Scotch-Irish Presbyterians whose ancestors had landed in Pennsylvania in the early years of the colony. They were sterling people. To their influence he ascribes much of his success in after life. At the age of sixteen, in 1858, he began doing for himself, working out amongst the farmers. He began his career without a penny in his pocket. His extra clothing tied up in a cotton handkerchief which he car- ried in his hand, he trudged away from the home that had shel- tered him for six years and began work at a wage of ten dollars per month. He worked six months, then went to school six months and kept on in this way until Sumter was fired upon. He enlisted as a private in the Burlington Zouaves, Company E, First Iowa Infantry, April 22, 1861, and took part in the stirring campaign in Missouri under General Nathaniel Lyon. Discharged at the close of his term of service (three months), he reenlisted at once in Company K, Fourteenth Iowa Infantry. He was made second sergeant. At Fort Donelson, February 16, 1862, he was promoted sergeant major. He was in the Hornet's Nest at Shiloh and was captured at the close of day on that eventful Sunday, April 6, 1862. After six months' expe- rience in Macon (Ga.) and Libby prisons, he was exchanged and returned to active service. In the spring of 1863 his regiment was ordered to Vicksburg, but on reaching Cairo, Illinois, the order was changed and the regiment spent the summer of 1863 in western Ken- tucky and Tennessee. On the 29th of October, 1863, he having pre- viously passed an examination, accepted a commission as first lieu- tenant in the United States Colored Troops, his regiment being the Fourth United States Colored Heavy Artillery. In the spring of 1864 he became regimental adjutant and November 6, 1864, he was commissioned as captain and took charge of a battery of heavy guns in Fort Halleck, Columbus, Kentucky. From this period to the end of the war, and one year afterwards, his service was chiefly staff duty; acting assistant adjutant general of the district of western Kentucky and on the staff of Brevet Major General J. S. Brisbin, United States Volunteers. He was mustered out at Pine Bluff, Arkansas, February 25, 1866, rounding out four years and ten months of service.
Returning to lowa he married Miss Mary Herron Chapman, July 31, 1866. This young lady's parents, who were Scotch Presby- terians, had migrated from Pennsylvania in early days to the terri- tory of lowa. Having practiced economy in saving his wages while Vol. II- 9
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an officer, he was able to purchase a little farm and with willing hands the pair began the voyage of life. Six children have blessed the union.
Susannah died at twenty-four years, just as she was planning for work in the foreign mission field; Elizabeth married Dr. O. F. Hig- bee and they are now living in Fowler, Colorado; Jean C. married John P. Helphrey, now living in Curlew, Washington, where he is in the mercantile business; Joseph left college and served as sergeant in Company M, Fiftieth Iowa, in 1898, in Florida. Later as first lieu- tenant, Thirty-fourth United States Volunteer Infantry, he served in the Philippines, where he saw considerable active service with Gen- erals Lawton and Wheaton. On discharge from this service in 1901 he was commissioned second lieutenant, Coast Artillery, U. S. A. Passing through the grade of first lieutenant in 1907 he became cap- tain, and at this writing is stationed at Fort Hamilton, New York; John A. served in Company M, Fiftieth Iowa Infantry, in 1898, in Florida, and after discharge graduated in the academic and medical school in the State University of Iowa. He is now a practicing phy- sician located in Tremonton, Utah; Samuel B., after receiving a liberal education, chose as his vocation the life of a pioneer in the wilds of northeastern Washington, where he has achieved success.
The little farm where this couple founded their home in 1866 has grown with the years into goodly proportions. The family hav- ing all gone, they have retired from its activities and are now living quietly in the town of Mediapolis.
Early in their married life they united with the Presbyterian church in which the captain was a ruling elder for many years, and Mrs. Matson has done what she could in mission and other church work. They have the satisfaction of knowing that all their children are church members. In their retirement they are still in the har- ness doing what they can in the Master's service. God hath cared for them.
FRED S. FEAR.
Fred S. Fear is secretary and treasurer of the Cave Coal Com- pany of Burlington and is a native son of the city in which he still makes his home. He was born in 1865, of the marriage of Henry W. and Mary J. (Stewart) Fear. The father was a native of Zanesville, Ohio, and was a son of Alfred Fear, who brought his family to
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Burlington in the early '4os, casting in his lot with the pioneer resi- dents of the city. He became one of the early merchants and for a long period was actively connected with commercial development. He also left the impress of his individuality upon the political his- tory of the city and state as a member of the lowa legislature. His son, Henry W. Fear, was largely reared and educated in Burlington and for many years engaged in the agricultural implement business, becoming one of the leading and representative merchants of the city. He wedded Mary J. Stewart, a native of Columbus, Ohio, and a daughter of Robert Stewart, who arrived in Burlington in 1840, after which he engaged in the livery business and also operated a stage line. Henry W. Fear was a democrat in his political views and in matters of citizenship always took an active interest, contributing to the support of many plans intended for the benefit and upbuilding of Burlington. He died in the year 1903, having for about five years survived his wife, who passed away in 1898 in the faith of the Con- gregational church, of which she had long been a devout member. They had but two children, Fred S. and Kimball S.
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