USA > Iowa > Sac County > History of Sac County, Iowa > Part 75
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William L. Cole was reared and educated in Clinton county, this state, and when nineteen years of age his parents moved from Clinton county to Sac county, and he has since resided on the farm where his parents settled upon their arrival in this county. Since 1889 he has had entire charge of
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the farm, having purchased the farm from his father. He has erected a fine, modern, ten-room house in the last two years, has good barns and outbuild- ings of all kinds. He has a barn which measures thirty-two by forty-eight, with a fourteen-by-sixteen-foot addition. He raises a large amount of stock each year and has about twenty-five head annually for the markets.
Mr. Cole was married February 2, 1892, to Lena Galbraith, the daugh- ter of Mr. and Mrs. Alexander Galbraith. The Galbraiths were early settlers of this county and first settled on the farm where their daughter is now living. Mr. and Mrs. Cole are the parents of four children: Guy, born December 20, 1895 ; Lola, born in November. 1901 : Reo, born in June, 1903, and Lucile, born in January, 1909.
Politically, Mr. Cole is a member of the Republican party and has taken a very active interest in the affairs of that organization. An indication of the esteem in which he is held by his fellow citizens is shown in the fact that he has been elected as trustee and assessor of his township, both offices com- ing to him as a recognition as a business man. He is interested in the Sac County Mutual Insurance Company and was a director in that organization for eight years. In fact, Mr. Cole is interested in any public enterprise which seeks to better the condition of the farmers of his locality. The members of the family are adherents of the Methodist Episcopal church and give it their zealous and earnest support. Mr. Cole has lived a useful and honor- able life, a life characterized by perseverance and well defined purpose, and he has established his character as a man who measures up to the type of the good American citizen.
WILLIAM G. BROBEIL.
In the respect that is accorded to men who have fought their own way to success through unfavorable environment we find an unconscious recogni- tion of the intrinsie worth of a character which cannot not only endure so rough a test, but gain new strength through the discipline. The gentleman to whom the biographer now calls the reader's attention was not favored by inherited wealth or the assistance of influential friends. but in spite of this, by perseverance, industry and a wise economy. he has attained a comfortable station in life, making his influence felt for good in his community in Lytton, Sac county, Iowa, where he has maintained his home for the past twenty years.
William G. Brobeil, a retired farmer of Lytton, Iowa, was born May
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13, 1855, in Polk county, this state. His parents, John and Mary Christina (Schull) Brobeil, were both born at Wittenberg. Germany, and they were reared and married in their native country, coming to the United States in 1850. They first located in Pennsylvania, but two years later went west and settled in Des Moines, lowa, where John Brobeil worked at his trade as a carpenter. He saved his money and, with true German thrift, was soon able to purchase a farm ten miles north of Des Moines. He died at the home of his son-in-law, George Miller.
William G. Brobeil was educated in the schools of Polk county, Iowa, and worked on his father's farm until his marriage. When he was twenty- seven years of age he rented his father's place and operated it for the next seven years, after which he rented his father-in-law's farm and lived on it for eight years. In 1894 he moved to Sac county, this state, although he had been there the previous year and purchased one hundred and sixty acres of land at thirty-six dollars an acre. Such was his success as a farmer that within six years he was able to purchase another quarter section adjoining his first farm, so that he now has three hundred and twenty acres of land in Cedar township. In 1908 he retired from the active labor of the farm and purchased a residence in Lytton, where he is now living, surrounded by the comforts and conveniences of life. His two sons, Charles and Fred, are now operating the home farm.
Mr. Brobeil was married on December 25, 1880, to Barbara Elsa Deitz, of Polk county, this state, the daughter of Conrad and Susan Deitz, who were natives of Germany and among the early pioneers of Polk county. The Deitz family settled in Polk county in 1847, making the long overland trip from Pennsylvania to Iowa in emigrant wagons in that year. Mr. and Mrs. Bro- beil are the parents of two children living, their sons, Charles and Fred. on the home farm. Minnie Blanche died at the age of eight years.
Mr. Brobeil is one of the stockholders in the Farmers Elevator Com- pany, of Lytton, a co-operative enterprise which is rendering the farmers of this section of the county good service. Politically, Mr. Brobeil is a Demo- crat and has served as trustee of Cedar township for several terms. He and his wife are regular attendants of the Presbyterian church and are liberal contributors of their means to its support. Fraternally, he is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Mr. and Mrs. Brobeil made a trip a few years ago to the Pacific coast and had an enjoyable tour, visiting many points of interest on the coast and having a very pleasant time. Mr. Brobeil belongs to that class of men who are able to overcome apparently insurmount- able obstacles, and owes his success today to the fact that he has never known
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what defeat in business means. He is truly a self-made man who has gained a comfortable competency solely through his own efforts, and in doing this he has never compromised between right and wrong, but has always stead- fastly adhered to the right principles of honor and integrity. For this rea- son he well merits a place in this biographical volume.
CHARLES F. BERG.
One of the best known farmers in Sac county, Iowa, is Charles F. Berg, owner of a farm consisting of two hundred and twenty acres in Wheeler township, section 34. Mr. Berg first came to this county thirty-five years ago and is, therefore, one of the older pioneers of the county, having endured many of the hardships, privations and experiences of those who enter a new country. Mr. Berg is a native of Sweden, having been born in that country in 1835. His earlier life was passed in an orphans' home in Stockholm, but when five years of age he was taken into the house of a farmer in the country near that city and was reared as his own son. He received careful training in the secrets of successful husbandry and when quite a young boy was able to do a considerable amount of work about the farm. This knowledge and early experience stood him in good stead in later years when trying to win a competence from Dame Fortune in his adopted country. In 1864 Mr. Berg was united in marriage with Katerina Ekstrom, also a native of Sweden, born in 1839. Five years after marriage they emigrated to America and for the first six months lived in Indiana. They did not find conditions to their liking in the Hoosier state and so moved westward into Iowa, locating in Boone county. Here they lived for seven years, meeting with fair suc- cess in their chosen field of agriculture. In 1878 they came to Sac county and purchased a tract of eighty acres in Wheeler township, for which they paid six dollars and sixty cents per acre, buying on time. The various pur- chases of land Mr. Berg has made from time to time very clearly indicate the rise in the price of land in this territory from that of the pioneer days to the high figure which is now demanded. Mr. Berg's second purchase was forty acres, for which he paid sixteen dollars per acre. After a few short years he was again able to add to his holdings, again purchasing a tract of forty acres, but this time having to give a price of thirty dollars per acre, and by the time he made his last purchase of sixty acres he was compelled to pay forty-five dollars, several times the price of the land he first bought.
CHARLES F. BERG AND FAMILY
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Mr. Berg has practically retired from the active duties of life and the management of the homestead is almost wholly in the competent hands of his son Martin, who divides his attention between grain and stock raising. The farm is an excellent producer and figures for the year 1913 will give a good idea of what is raised annually. In the year mentioned there were pro- duced four thousand bushels of corn and two thousand bushels of oats. Forty tons of hay were harvested and in addition to the above there were two hundred and fifty bushels of wheat and the same amount of barley produced. In addition to this excellent showing, there were one hundred hogs marketed and ten head of cattle.
Martin Berg was born on the farm he now operates on August 1, 1879, and is, therefore, a native of Sac county. He received his carlier education in the district schools near the homestead and later took a course at the Sac City Institute. Politically, he is a Democrat, and was an ardent advocate of the policies of Woodrow Wilson in his campaign for presidential election. His religious affiliation is with the Swedish Lutheran church, of which he is an active and consistent member. He carries insurance in the Bankers' Asso- ciation.
Mr. and Mrs. Charles F. Berg are the parents of six children, namely : Amanda Sophia, who is the wife of P. G. Lundell, of Wheeler township. this county ; Matilda Carolina, who is Mrs. Sherman Stolt, and resides in Sioux City, this state; Charles O., who is also located in Wheeler township; Anna Charlotte, who is the wife of S. Salmonson, of South Dakota; Henry, who is engaged in the practice of law in Idaho, and Martin, who, as above stated, manages the home farm for the father. All of the children have been given excellent educations, receiving elemental training in the district schools near home, supplemented with later and more advanced studies at Sac City Insti- tute, and in addition to that course, Henry took a course in the study of the law at the University of Lincoln, Nebraska. Mr. Berg has been one of the most conscientious of fathers and has endeavored to prepare both his boys and girls for useful stations in life. On December 24, 1914, Mr. and Mrs. Berg will celebrate their fiftieth or golden wedding anniversary.
While not taking an active interest in politics, he is a quiet though stanch supporter of the Republican party, and his religious affiliation is with the Swedish Lutheran church, in the faith of which his family has been reared. While giving his main attention to the rearing of his family and the advance- ment of his material interests, Mr. Berg has ever borne in mind the princi- ples of true manhood and stands one of the stalwart men of brain and charac-
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ter who have done so much to advance the interests of this comparatively new section. Conscientious in the discharge of the various obligations of life, of undoubted integrity, he many years ago won the trust and confidence of those with whom he came in contact. and throughout the years this tribute of respect to genuine worth has only grown as time passed by.
J. E. O'GRADY, D. D. S.
.A man of excellent attributes of character and one of the representa- tive citizens of a community known for the progressive spirit it manifests in the business world is Dr. J. E. O'Grady. the popular dentist of Schaller, Iowa.
Doctor O'Grady is a native of the Empire state, born at Courtland, New York, February 4, 1878, the son of Edward Daniel and Elizabeth ( Flavin ) O'Grady, both natives of county Kerry, Ireland. Edward Daniel O'Grady is a farmer and emigrated to America about 1871; in the winter of 1881 he came to Mason City, Iowa, where he bought a farm. In 1907 the family removed to Mason City, where they still reside and are highly respected citizens of that community. Mrs. O'Grady canie to America about the close of the Civil War. Four children have been born to Edward Daniel and Elizabeth { Flavin ) O'Grady, named as follows: Mrs. Mary Bell and Mrs. Johanna Carey, of Mason City: Mrs. Bessie Bonnyman, of Minneapo- lis, and Dr. J. E. O'Grady, the immediate subject of this sketch.
Dr. O'Grady received his primary education in the schools of Mason City, Iowa, where he was reared. His collegiate training was received at the Western Dental College, Kansas City, Missouri, from which institution he was graduated in 1903. lle practised his profession at Kensett, Worth county, and at Dumont and Parkersburg, Butler county, and in September. 1906. came to Schaller, lowa, where he has continually practised since. He also maintains an office at Galva, and enjoys an excellent practice at both towns.
While devoted to his professional duties, Doctor O'Grady has found time to deal extensively in real estate, in the handling of which he has shown marked aptitude. He is the owner of some very valuable properties, consist- ing of two fine farms in Traverse county, Minnesota, one of three hundred and seventy-four acres and another of three hundred and fifteen acres. He also has one hundred and seventy acres in Sac county, lowa, and eight hun- dred acres in Pine county. Minnesota, which he purchased in 1906. He is
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a man of exceptionally fine judgment of land values, gifted with the rare faculty of being able to foretell the future outcome of a present transaction.
Professionally, Doctor O'Grady keeps fully abreast of the best thought of the times, and he is an appreciative member of the District Dental Asso- ciation, the Iowa State Dental Association and the American Dental Associa- tion. He also holds membership in the Dental Protective Association of the United States and the Alumni Association of Western College. He is inde- pendent in his political convictions, and, religiously, gives his allegiance to the Catholic church.
AUGUST D. WOODKE.
From the German empire has come to this broad land of the free the best and truest of its population, who have entered into the life of their adopted country with all the zest and ambition of conquest of the difficulties presenting themselves in their pathway, and have become the very bone and sinew of many communities. In all departments of the civic entirety they are to be found, not laggards, following the procession or being led by others, but they have pushed to the forefront in agriculture, commerce, the professions, and manufactures, and are found among the leaders in the de- velopment and well being of any community in which they have located. Among the many representatives of this race in Sac county, who have done their part in creating homes and competencies for themselves and families, and assisted in the progress of the section which is their adopted home, is found Angust D. Woodke, of whom the historian is pleased to write this review.
A. D. Woodke was born in Germany, June 26, 1861, the son of John and Johanna Woodke. The family emigrated to America in 1866 and set- tled at Crown Point, Lake county, Indiana, in the year of their arrival here. They resided on a farm in Lake county until 1876, when they migrated to Sac county and became prominently identified with the pioneer life of Eden township. They settled in section 31 of Eden township, and here the son. August D., was reared to young manhood. In their old age the parents re- tired to a life of well-earned leisure in the town of Lemars, the father going to his long rest in 1899, and the mother following him to the great beyond in February, 1902. They were the parents of five children: William, of Breckenridge, Minnesota: Mrs. Bertha Frevert, of Odebolt, Iowa: Otto
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Woodke, Tiffin, Iowa : Charles, residing in Le Mars; Herman, in Australia, and August D.
Mr. Woodke resided on the home farm in Sac county until he attained the age of twenty-six years. He then took charge of his father's farm and operated it on the share system until he purchased it. By the exercise of diligence and rare business ability he soon succeeded in paying for the land and added substantially to his possessions. He is the owner of two hundred and forty-five acres of finely improved farm land in Eden township and has another farm of eighty acres in Eureka township. In March, 1913, he re- moved to Schaller and is interested in the automobile business, conducted under the name of A. D. Woodke & Son. This firm has been established since 1911. It is located in a large, commodious room on the main street of Schaller and they deal in automobiles and auto parts and supplies. A private repair shop is also maintained for the benefit and convenience of their many patrons.
For the past twenty years Mr. Woodke has been engaged in the produc- tion of pop corn, which is one of the most lucrative crops of this locality. For some years he was a successful grower, but in 1907 he branched out in the buying and shipping of this grain to the Eastern markets. By fair and honest dealing with patrons he has built up a thriving business. He trav- els in season over a large section of territory devoted to the production of this toothsome edible. He buys from the farmers in the vicinity of the towns of Galva, Early, Holstein, Superior, Estherville, and as far west as Nebraska points. During the year 1913 he purchased and shipped to eastern points over sixty-five carloads of this grain.
It is recorded of Mr. Woodke that in his younger days he learned the trade of plasterer and worked at his trade for a number of years. This ac- complishment stood him in good stead during his younger days in Sac county and his operations while plying the trowel extended over considerable terri- tory. Hle plastered houses in Odebolt and other towns of the county when a young man.
Mr. Woodke has always been allied with the Republican party. Orig- inally he was brought up in the Lutheran faith, but joined the Methodist Episcopal church on coming to America. He is a director and president of the Eden Township Mutual Telephone Company.
Mr. Woodke's wedded life began February 10, 1887, when he espoused Alvina C. Schaefer, daughter of Christ Schaefer, the first pioneer settler of Eden township, of whom extended and favorable notice is given in this vol- ume. Mr. and Mrs. Woodke are the parents of the following children :
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John H., of Schaller, Iowa; Edwin A., in the automobile business in Schal- ler ; George C., who is tilling the home farm; Paul H., a student in Morn- ingside College, Sioux City; Leonard Leslie, in high school: Albert M., a student in the Schaller high school. Mr. Woodke is known as a kind and in- dulgent parent who believes in assisting his children by means of a good education, the right kind of parental guidance and in other ways to advance themselves along well chosen paths. He is, among all of the Sac county citizens whose life and accomplishments are herein presented. fully entitled to this brief review and the biographer takes pleasure in writing this tribute in behalf of one who has "made good" in the performance of his duties as an excellent family head and a citizen. A study of his deeds and upright and honorable life will reveal much to the student of human character which will be of benefit to one who is seeking inspiration for his guidance in the battle for success and standing among his fellow men.
JOHN B. MCLAUGHLIN.
The biographies of successful men are instructive as guides and in- centives to those whose careers are yet to be achieved. The examples they furnish of patient purpose and consecutive endeavor strongly illustrate what is in the power of each to accomplish. The gentleman whose life story here- with is briefly set forth is a conspicuous example of one who has lived to good purpose and achieved a definite degree of success in the special sphere to which his talents and energies have been devoted.
John B. Mclaughlin. a retired farmer of Iowa, was born January 2, 1856, in Mercer county, Illinois. He was the son of Allen Henry and Lovina J. ( Morford) Mclaughlin. Allen H. Mclaughlin was born De- cember 22, 1830, near Greenville, Mercer county, Pennsylvania, and died November 21, 1913, at the advanced age of eighty-two years, ten months and twenty-nine days. In the spring of 1853 Allen H. Mclaughlin decided he would seek a home in the West and, in the company of others, started west- ward, making the trip by the long, tedious overland trail. They first located in Jackson county, Iowa, and within the first year after young Allen H. reached this county he was married, on September 15, 1853. to Lovina J. Morford, of Jackson county, Iowa. The next month they moved back to Mercer county, Illinois, where they continued to reside until the spring of 1877, when they came back to Iowa and located in Clinton county. In the
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early spring of 1879. Allen H. and his family again turned their faces towards the setting sun, and another overland journey brought the family to Sac county, where they settled on a farin one and one-half miles southwest of Schaller. although the town at that time had no existence. Here they continued to reside until the spring of 1907, when they retired from the farm and spent the latter days of their life in quiet retirement. Mr. and Mrs. Allen H. Mclaughlin were the parents of six children, only one of whom is deceased. The living children are : Mrs. J. B. Harris. John B., Henry A., Francis M. Mclaughlin and Ben H. Allen H. Mclaughlin and wife were married more than sixty years, and it is remarkable that in this three score years of their married life his was the third death in 'all of the Mclaughlin family, out of six children, twenty-five grandchildren and thirteen great- grandchildren.
John B. Mclaughlin came with his parents to Sac county, Iowa, in 1879, when he was twenty-three years of age. His father had traded his Clinton county, Iowa, farm for a section of land in Eureka township and J. B. McLaughlin settled on a part of this, his father giving him eighty acres. Later he bought another eighty adjoining, built a home and resided on this farm of one hundred and sixty acres until the spring of 1910, when he moved to Schaller and retired from active farming. After buying his one hundred and sixty acres. he added more land until he now has two hundred and fifteen acres in Sac county, besides a fine residence in Schaller near the park.
Mr. Mclaughlin was married in 1876. in Mercer county. Illinois, to Mary L. Smith, who was born in that county in 1857. To this marriage seven children were born, six of whom are living: William Locke, who is on the home farm, married and has two children, Lucille and Jeanette : John Herman, deceased: Henry Allen, who lives near Dennison, Iowa: Joseph Marian, a farmer living north of Schaller, is married and has three children, Charles. Ruby and Irvin : Willard F., operating a furniture and undertaking establishment in Schaller. Iowa, and the father of one child. Florence Mary, an infant; Mrs. Etta McQuigg, living on a farm southwest of Schaller, has one daughter, Lenora; Mrs. Nina Woodke, whose husband is a farmer in Edin township, is the mother of one son, George Willard, an infant.
Mr. Mclaughlin is an adherent of the Republican party and, although he is interested in the general principles of his party. he has never taken an active interest in its deliberations. Religiously, he, as well as the other members of his family, is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and gives to it his earnest support. Fraternally, he is a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen and takes an intelligent interest in the work of
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that order. Mr. MeLaughlin has lived a life which has been characterized by energy, industry and a high sense of honor. Since he believes in doing well what he has to do, all who know him speak of him as a prompt, free- spoken man, who has been wide awake in business, shrewd in dealings, but honest and straightforward in all matters. He is a man of pleasing per- sonality who has a large circle of friends and acquaintances in the com- munity where he has spent so many years.
OZRO J. KRAMER.
Efficiency in public service is demanded of the official incumbent in these days of rigid exactitude in the performance of all obligations to the public in general. When an official can combine thoroughness and aptitude in the discharge of the daily routine engendered by the incumbency of a govern- ment position, with a genial and obliging disposition, he is a valued and popular public servant and is given the esteem and commendation of the patrons of his department of the government service. Ozro J. Kramer, the efficient and obliging postmaster of the town of Schaller, while young in years, is endowed with a well developed turn of mind which enables him to perform the duties of his office with satisfaction to all concerned.
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