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Jasper County, Iowa
Historical and Genealogical Data Exchange
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William
G. Kling Among
the substantial men whose labor and influence has given impetus to the general
material improvements of Jasper County in years gone by and who today occupies
no insignificant place in the esteem of the community in which he resides is the
worthy gentleman whose name forms the introduction to this sketch. He has been content to spend his life right in his home
locality, wisely deciding that this favored section of the great Hawkeye State
was as well if not better suited for the pursuit of agriculture than any other.
Then, too, he has the home atmosphere always about him and the advantages of the
prestige established by his honored progenitors whose lives redounded in a
general way to the production of much good to the people embraced in the scope
of this biographical compendium. Mr.
Kling was born on the farm where he now resides in Elk Creek Township, Jasper
County, Iowa, on September 5, 1873, and, as already intimated, he grew
to manhood here, assisted with the general work on the home place and spent his
winters in the schools of his district, when he became of proper age. He is the
son of Henry, Sr., and Marguerete (German) Kling, both natives of the town of
Donstadt, Germany, the father born on September 16, 1816, and the mother on
January 24, 1828. They grew up and
were married in the fatherland and there began life on a farm.
In 1853 they immigrated to the United States in an old-fashioned sailing
vessel, the voyage requiring forty-two days.
They located in Jasper County, Iowa, bought a farm of forty acres from
the government and established a home. Prospering
through hard work, Mr. Kling later purchased one hundred and twenty acres more
where the subject of this sketch now resides, and he subsequently added
forty-eight acres, owning two hundred and eight acres at the time of his death,
on December 19, 1883. His wife died
on March 20, 1874. They were both
members of the Lutheran Church. Their family consisted of six children, namely: Henry, Adam
(lives in Monroe, Iowa), Mrs. Eliza Peery, Mary, Mrs. Margaret Schnug and
William G. (of this review), he being the youngest of the family. The
subject attended school at Galesburg and when ten years of age he was driving a
team on the farm for his father and has ever since been engaged in farming the
home place. In connection with
general farming he raises Hereford cattle.
He inherited thirty-five acres of the home place and farms it now for his
brother Henry, who bought out the other heirs.
He feeds a large number of hogs annually.
Henry Kling, Jr., who makes his home with the subject, was born March 25,
1847, in Darmstadt, Germany. As
stated, Henry bought out all the heirs of the home place except William G., of
this sketch. He has added to his
original purchase until he is now the owner of six hundred and thirty-seven
acres in Elk Creek and Fairview Townships.
He is supposed to be retired from active work, but it seems hard for him
to keep out of the harness and he still does a great deal of work, though the
subject has the principal working of his land.
Henry has remained unmarried. He
knew Jasper County in its pioneer days and experienced the privations of that
period. He has been very successful
in a business way and is well known and well liked. William G. Kling was married on December 10, 1902, to Mamie Stregle, who was born in Iowa on November 20, 1880, the daughter of John and Mena Stregle, early settlers of Jasper County. Two children have been born to the subject and wife, namely: Freeman, born September 20, 1903, and Hazel, born November 16,1905. The Past and Present of Jasper County, Gen. James B. Weaver, Editor-In-Chief, 1912 B.F. Bowen Co., Indianapolis, IN, p . 1250. |
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