USA > Iowa > Clinton County > Wolfe's history of Clinton County, Iowa, Volume 1 > Part 62
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as to maintain such a position. He was engaged for several years on the work of his praiseworthy book, "History of the First Iowa Cavalry." He was greatly beloved by every man in his regiment, and it is safe to say that no regiment in the Union received better care at the hands of their surgeon than the First Iowa Cavalry while in charge of Doctor Lathrop. Always with the boys, whether on the battlefield, the march, in the camp or hospital, he was ever present during an engagement with willing hands and cheering, loving words. He was an ardent patriot, a true friend, a faithful surgeon, a man whose kindness of heart was exceeded only by his ability as a physi- cian and surgeon. Courteous to all, the humblest private received the same consideration at his hands as did the major-general commanding the de- partment. No officer in the regiment was more active than he to relieve the ยท regiment of the dishonor cast upon it by General Custer. While some were evidently afraid to express their opinions, Doctor Lathrop was outspoken and fearless of the result. Reporting the matter to the governor of Iowa, he was largely instrumental in causing the court martial of Custer and his retirement for a year from the army.
Doctor Lathrop was a man of earnest convictions and an ardent patriot, and was greatly loved by all who knew him. After the war, though for many years deprived of the use of his lower limbs from paralysis, resulting from disease contracted in the service, he carried on an extensive practice, and besides was actively engaged in literary and other pursuits. In addition to the publication of various valuable medical papers, he compiled a "Med- ical and Surgical Dictionary of Iowa." He contributed a great deal to magazines and his articles were always eagerly read.
The Doctor was a member of the American Medical Association, the Iowa State Medical Society, the Iowa and Illinois Central Medical Associa- tion, Clinton County Medical Society, etc., and was a member of the examin- ing committee of the medical department of the Iowa State University. of the Col. N. B. Howard Post, Grand Army of the Republic, and of the Charles H. Lathrop Camp, Sons of Veterans, of Dysart, Iowa. He was also an examining surgeon of pensions.
The death of this eminent surgeon and beloved citizen occurred on February 6, 1890, at his home in Lyons.
Doctor Lathrop was married to Sarah Virginia Ernst Naille on May 6, 1873. . She was born at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, December 26, 1840, the daughter of Rev. John and Sarah B. (Ernst) Naille. Rev. John Naille was born in Frederick, Maryland, February 18, 1800. He was the son of
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Jacob and Elizabeth Naille, and he received a good education, having taught school at the early age of fourteen years, and later entered the ministry of the German Reformed church. He was considered a great builder of con- gregations, always greatly strengthening the church wherever he went. Up to 1880 he was active, and he lived until in 1902, his death occurring in Trapp, Pennsylvania. Politically, he was a Republican. He and Sarah B. Ernst were married in February, 1824, in York, Pennsylvania. She was born in that city in 1808, and her death occurred in November, 1885. Of their six children only Mrs. Lathrop survives, living at her cozy home at Lyons. At the reunion of the survivors of the First Iowa Cavalry at Des Moines on June 9, 1910, they adopted a resolution thanking Mrs. Lathrop for completing the history of that regiment, a part of which was left un- finished by her distinguished husband, and adopted her as "mother of the regiment."
JAMES B. WOLFE.
The Emerald Isle, far-famed in song and story, has furnished a large number of enterprising and high-minded citizens to the United States, and they have ever been most welcome, for we have no better class of citizens. They are, almost with no exceptions, industrious, and they are loyal to our institutions and may always be relied upon to do their full duty as citizens in whatever community they may cast their lot. Among this large class the name of James B. Wolfe, whose long, strenuous and interesting career has resulted in much good to himself, his family and to his friends and neigh- bors, for his example has ever been exemplary and his influence salutary.
Mr. Wolfe was born in Ireland, on April 13, 1843. He is the son of John R. Wolfe, mentioned at length on another page of this work. Most of Mr. Wolfe's life has been spent in the country of his adoption, for he was but a child when his parents crossed the great Atlantic and brought him to Chicago in 1847. Later they moved to Ottawa, Illinois, and in May, 1855, they reached Clinton county, Iowa, and here James B. Wolfe was reared on a farm and educated in the common schools. He was put to work in the fields when old enough, and early in life became acquainted with general farm work. Farming has been his principal occupation and he also engaged in merchandising at Lost Nation for some time. He has been very successful as a business man and has laid by a competency for his de-
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clining years. He is the owner of a valuable and highly improved farm of two hundred and eighty acres, and he has also given his son a fine farm of one hundred and sixty acres. Stock raising has long been one of his hob- bies and chief occupations and he has sent out some very fine live stock from his place, being a breeder of Shorthorn cattle. He also feeds cattle and hogs extensively. He is an excellent judge of live stock of all grades. and he has long been regarded as one of the leading general farmers in this township. He has a beautiful home in the midst of forest and fruit trees and he has such substantial outbuildings as his needs require.
Politically, Mr. Wolfe is a Democrat, and while he has never taken a very prominent part in public affairs, he has been more or less active in local matters, and has been school director for twenty years. He and his family are members of the Catholic church and very faithful in their sup- port of the same.
Mr. Wolfe was married in Clinton county, on February 8, 1872, to Anna O'Connor, a native of Jackson county, Iowa, the daughter of Jere- miah O'Connor and wife. Her father was born in Ireland, from which country he came to America in a early day, and here he and his wife spent the rest of their lives, being now deceased. They were highly respected in their community.
To Mr. and Mrs. James B. Wolfe seven children have been born, named as follows : John O. C .; Jerry, a veterinary surgeon of Grand Mound; Mary, Nora, James, Walter and Anna. They are all living and have received good educations and are popular in the social life of their community. There are no more worthy or highly honored people in Clinton county than the Wolfes.
CONRAD KUEBLER.
To his own efforts is due the success of Conrad Kuebler, who is now liv- ing in retirement at his beautiful home at Calamus, but for several decades one of the leading agriculturists of Olive township, Clinton county. He started out on his life career with no large amount of this world's goods, but, being ambitious, he forged ahead and is the owner of very valuable farming property in this county and he is one of the substantial men of Calamus who has done his full share in promoting local conditions.
Mr. Kuebler is a native of the Buckeye state, having been born in Craw-
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ford county, Ohio, August 24, 1847, and he is the son of L. G. and Agnes Barbara (Steinhilber) Kuebler, both natives of Wurtemberg, Germany. They left that country in 1833 and came to America, locating in Ohio, where they were married. Mr. Kuebler started life in the New World as a farmer, and also wrote for a German paper at Allentown, Pennsylvania. He was a man of fine attributes of head and heart, and he was a graduate of Tuehning University. When a young man he studied chemistry and was later a drug- gist in Germany. In the general literature of the world he was well advised and, being a student all his life, was well informed on the current topics of the day. In June, 1853, he moved to the place where his son, Conrad, now resides and where the town of Calamus now stands, all' south of the railroad. He entered it at one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre, entered two hundred and forty acres. At that time there was no Calamus. He improved this land and became well-to-do, and died here in September, 1862. In his family there were seven children that grew to maturity, one dying in infancy. He and his family were Lutherans. The elder Kuebler donated twenty acres upon which to start the town of Calamus. He did a great deal toward the early develop- ment of this community and was a man who was admired by the pioneer ele- ment.
Conrad Kuebler attended the public schools one year and studied under his mother, becoming very well educated. He has followed farming and stock raising all his life and has been very successful. He is the owner of two hundred and ninety-four acres in the outskirts of Calamus, which is as valu- able land as could be found in Olive township. He also has one hundred and sixty acres of excellent land in Carroll county, Iowa. For the past twenty- five years he has kept bees on a large scale, keeping on an average of one hundred colonies. Everything about his place indicates thrift and good management.
Mr. Kuebler was married November 27, 1877, to Wilhelmina Wagner, daughter of Conrad and Anna (Gaatch) Wagner, natives of Germany. The father came to America with his parents in 1832, and the mother came in 1852, when sixteen years of age, making the voyage alone. They both located in Davenport, Iowa, married there and lived for some time in Scott county. In 1856 they came to Calamus, Clinton county, Mr. Wagner having entered one hundred and sixty acres of land, a part of which is now the site of Cala- mus, and here they established an excellent home and became well known.
To Mr. and Mrs. Kuebler the following children were born: Anna R., Edith E., Leonard J., Rhoda (died in infancy) and Irwin C.
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Mr. Kuebler and his family are members of the Methodist Episcopal church, and he belongs to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Modern Brotherhood of America. Politically, he is a progressive Republican. He has long taken an abiding interest in local affairs and for nine years he has been trustee of Olive township. He was a candidate on the Republican ticket for supervisor in 1893, but was defeated. For nine years he was school director at Calamus and justice of the peace for six years. He has performed his duties very faithfully and acceptably when any public trust has been re- posed in him and he has the confidence of all classes.
JOSEPH G. STEINER.
Joseph G. Steiner, of Wheatland, Spring Rock township, Clinton county, holds worthy prestige in business circles, and has always been distinctively a man of affairs. He wields a wide influence among those with whom his lot has been cast, having won definite success and shown what a man with lofty principles, honesty of purpose and determination can win while yet young in years.
Mr. Steiner was born in this county in 1872. He is the son of George Steiner, who came to Clinton county in 1850 and bought six lots for six thousand dollars in Lyons. He later sold out for six hundred dollars. He was a stone mason by trade. Later in life he moved to Waterford township where he engaged in farming. He subsequently moved to Charlotte, Water- ford township, and enaged in the saloon business and there he passed the rest of his life, dying at the advanced age of eighty-four years, on September 13, 1905, and is buried at Lyons. The mother of the subject, who was known in her maidenhood as Catherine Simmons, lives in Clinton. These parents were born in Germany. The mother is the sister of Nick Simmons, an early settler in Clinton county. The parents of Joseph G. Steiner came to America from Germany and located at Albany in 1848 and there married. This union resulted in the birth of ten children, an equal number of sons and daughters. One son died when thirty-six years of age, after having been engaged in busi- ness in Clinton for several years; Fred was constable of Waterford township; Joseph G., of this review, has been a councilman for eight years and was also elected justice of the peace; Nick is a councilman of Charlotte. They are all Democrats and this family are Catholics.
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Joseph G. Steiner was educated in the German schools at Lyons, later studying at Sugar Creek and Charlotte public schools, and one term at a business college in Clinton. After leaving the school room he engaged in the restaurant business at Preston, Iowa, and was later in the saloon business at Charlotte, Waterford township, this county, also engaged in the saloon busi- ness at Marshalltown, Iowa, for a period of about two years. On September 28, 1900, he entered the saloon business at Wheatland, Iowa, and followed the same for a period of six years. In 1907 he built a fine brick building on the corner of Railroad and Washington streets, and he has since operated a restau- rant and confectionary there, building up a very extensive trade and doing an excellent business from the first. He also has other real estate in Wheatland, Clinton and Camanche townships. He has been very successful as a business man.
Mr. Steiner was married on September 24, 1900, to Wilhelmina Pearl Lahs, of Clinton, representing an excellent family. Mr. and Mrs. Steiner are members of the Catholic church and faithful in their support of the same, and socially Mr. Steiner is a member of the Fraternal Order of Eagles.
JOHN HENRY EDENS.
Among the many men who have held public office in Clinton county Mr. Edens possesses some enviable and unique distinctions. For sixteen years he has filled the office of county clerk. a period of service unequalled in length by that of any other person ever holding a county office in the county. This fact alone speaks volumes for his popularity and his efficiency.
John Henry Edens was born in Clinton, Iowa, September 20, 1867. the son of John and Dora ( Heide) Edens. John Edens was born near Kiel, in northern Germany. January 22, 1832. and in his native country followed the stonemason's trade. He came to Clinton in 1852, was a stonemason and contractor until 1886. then became a member of the firm of Nammany & E.dens, doing a general mercantile business. In 1894 he retired from business and died January 5. 1903. In politics he was a Democrat, in religion an ad- herent of the German Lutheran church. and in his fraternal relations a mem- ber of the Iowa Workmen and of the Turners. John Edens was a strong and successful man. honest and upright. and personally as well liked as any man in Clinton.
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JOHN H. EDENS
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ASTOR, LENOX, AND TILDEN FOUNDATIONS R L
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Mr. Edens was married on December 8, 1863, to Dora Heide, who was born in Germany May 4, 1834, and came to this country in 1861, her parents having died in Germany. To this union were born three children : Elizabeth, who married Frank Frahn, of Clinton; John H .; and Emma, now Mrs. John Johansen, of Clinton.
John H. Edens received his education in the public schools of Clinton, as a young man began work in his father's store, and remained there till 1891, when he was appointed deputy county clerk under D. R. Markham. In the election of 1894 he was elected on the Democratic ticket as county clerk, took office January 5, 1895, and has since continuously filled that position. Since his first nomination he has never had opposition for the nomination, has always led the Democratic ticket in the election, and twice in presidential years was the only Democrat to be elected to a Clinton county office. This is a remarkable tribute to the personal popularity and capable services of Mr. Edens, which is rendered even greater when one remembers that the voters of Clinton county are not guided so much by party lines in electing county officers as they are by a preference for good and capable men to fill the offices, a fact shown at the 1908 election when Mr. Edens was elected on the Demo- cratic ticket by a majority of two thousand, while Mr. Leedham, the Repub- lican candidate for auditor, received a majority of one thousand five hundred.
Mr. Edens is a member of the Lutheran church. Fraternally, his relations are varied. He is a member of the De Molay Consistory of Scottish Rite Masons, of the Odd Fellows, of the Woodmen of the World, of the Mystic Workers, of the Elks, the Eagles and the Yeomen. But he takes most inter- est in the Clinton Turn and Benevolent Society, Vorwaerts. He is athletic director for this society, gives to his work there much time and attention, and in this way has done much good in the way of building up the bodies of the young people who come into his classes.
Mr. Edens was married on August 30, 1893, to Amelia Schultheis, daugh- ter of Michael Schultheis. a tailor of Clinton. She bore to Mr. Edens one son, Ernest, born January 15, 1895, now in school, and she died shortly after his birth, January 23. 1895.
On December 5, 1898. Mr. Edens was married to Ida Foote. a daughter of William and Amelia ( Hoffmuster) Foote and born in Kansas October I, 1872. The Foote family is of English descent and were very early repre- sented in this country. Mrs. Edens' parents were both born in this country and now live near Lisbon. Iowa, her father being a farmer. Mr. and Mrs. Edens are the parents of the following children : Mabel, born December 9,
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1899; Arthur, born April 11, 1901 ; Edwin and Alfred, twins, born Septem- ber 17, 1903 (Alfred died when eleven months old) ; Elizabeth, born Decem- ber 25, 1905; Frank, born February 20, 1907; and Albert, born March 16, 1908.
Sufficient has been said to show Mr. Edens' standing in his community. deservedly gained. Truly he is one who is a lover of his fellow men and even a casual acquaintance cannot fail to be impressed with the good humor and good fellowship which are reflected in his face.
LIMAN J. CURTIS.
A man who has won a competence by working long and hard in the proper direction and is now living in honorable retirement, surrounded by the comforts of life as a result of his former years of strenuous endeavor, is Liman J. Curtis, of Calamus, Olive township. He is one of the sturdy spirits who has contributed largely to the material welfare of the locality in which he resides, having been one of the leading farmers and stock men for many years, and as a citizen he has always been public spirited and progressive in all that the term implies.
Mr. Curtis was born in Clinton county, Iowa, in 1850 and is the son of D. C. and Maria (Alger) Curtis, the father a native of Vermont and the mother of Madison county, New York. D. C. Curtis came from Vermont Hills, his native state, to Clinton county, Iowa, in a very early day, and located here. entering land in Olive township, one hundred and sixty acres. He found the country wild and rather sparsely settled, but he set to work with a will, cleared and improved his place and lived there many years, becoming very well established. His death occurred about 1907, at the advanced age of eighty-two years and some months. He was always a very active man. and in connection with his farming he preached here for over fifty years and did a great deal of good, being an earnest church worker and a thoroughly good and useful man whom everybody admired and esteemed. He was a Free- will Baptist and, politically, was a stanch Republican. His family consisted of three sons and three daughters.
L. J. Curtis, of this review, was educated in the home schools and he assisted with the general work on his father's farm when a boy. having always been a farmer. He started life for himself in Olive township and steadily
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progressed up to the time of his retirement. He is the owner of one of the choice farms of this favored section of the great Hawkeye state, consisting of three hundred and twenty acres, which was all improved by its present owner. He worked hard and managed well both as a general farmer and stock raiser and hence is now able to spend his declining years in ease and comfort. He always kept good cattle, hogs and horses, being a good judge of all kinds of live stock. Through C. W. Cole, of Ohio, he bought and im- ported the first Norman stallion ever brought to Olive township. In the fall of 1900 Mr. Curtis retired to Calamus where he has a comfortable, com- modious and nicely furnished dwelling, and he has lived here continuously ever since with the exception of three years spent in Clinton. He is now re- tired from all active business. He is universally regarded as a man of high integrity.
Mr. Curtis was first married on June 3, 1877, to Eliza E. Boyd, after whose death he married Grace Rector. His third wife was Clarissa Jane Rector, who was born in Madison county, New York, from which state she came with her mother and brother to Clinton county, Iowa, when a young girl. To Mr. and Mrs. Curtis one daughter has been born, Blanche, who mar- ried Frank People, of Calamus.
Mr. Curtis has never aspired to political office, but he has held the office of trustee of Olive township in a very acceptable manner for a period of thir- teen years. He is a Democrat.
HENRY N. HAHN.
It is with a great degree of satisfaction that we advert to the life of one who has made a success in any vocation requiring definiteness of purpose and determined action. Such a life, whether it be one of prosaic endeavor or radical accomplishment, abounds in valuable lesson and incentive to those who have become discouraged in the fight for recognition or to the youth whose future is undetermined. During a long, strenuous and honorable career Henry N. Hahn, one of the substantial and representative citizens of Clinton county, directed his energies and talents toward the goal of success in this locality and by patient continuance has won, now living in retirement at his cozy and beautiful home at Grand Mound, Orange township.
Like many of the thrifty citizens of this county, Mr. Hahn is of German
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birth, having first seen the light of day in the fatherland on April 5, 1829, but the major part of his life has been spent in America, and now in the mel- low autumn of his years he can look backward over a well spent career with no compunction for misdeeds, for he has always done his duty in all the rela- tions of life. He grew to maturity in his native land and was educated there, remaining with his parents, Hans and Minnie ( Heintz) Hahn, until he reached manhood. The parents were born, reared and spent their lives in Germany. They were the parents of five sons and two daughters. All but the oldest daughter came to America. One son, Augustus, was a soldier in the Union army and was wounded at Pittsburg Landing and died there.
Henry N. Hahn, of this review, began life as a farmer in Germany and in 1854 he came to America, the trip across the great Atlantic requiring forty- nine days in an old-fashioned sailing-vessel. He located in the city of Balti- more and began working at five dollars per week putting up stoves and fur- naces, continuing thus for one entire year. In 1860 he came to Clinton county, Iowa, reaching his destination in the then new but rapidly developing Middle West on March 20th. He located one and one-third miles northwest of Grand Mound, where he rented land for a period of eight years in order to get a start. By close application and hard work he laid by a competency. The town of Grand Mound had then just started. On March 1, 1868, he moved to the farm of eighty acres that he had purchased in 1865, and where he still resides. In 1866 he bought forty acres additional. In that year he turned the prairie sod on fifty acres and sowed it in grain in the spring of 1867. In the fall of that year he built the house in which he still lives. He has con- tinued to buy land until now he has one of the "banner" farms of the county, consisting of two hundred and eighty acres, on which stand three good dwell- ings and a number of substantial outbuildings, nearly all of which Mr. Hahn has erected himself. He has kept his land well improved and the soil has been so adroitly tilled that it has retained its original fertility, and Mr. Hahn has long been regarded as one of the leading agriculturists of Orange town- ship. He is also the owner of three hundred and twenty acres of good land in Martin county, southern Minnesota. No small part of Mr. Hahn's income has been derived from handling live stock, of which he has always been an excellent judge, and he has the reputation of owning the best stock in the community, and being of such superior quality he has always found a very ready market for them. He retired from active farming in 1889. He has long been prominent in local financial circles. He was at one time a director in the bank at Grand Mound and for a period of twenty-six years he was secre-
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