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George M. Allingham, who died on the 6th of October,
1907, was born in Canada in 1861 and was there
reared and educated. He came to the United States
in 1881, locating in Council Bluffs, and after
spending several years upon the road as a traveling
salesman for a shoe house of Cedar Rapids he entered
the employ of J. R. Snyder, a commission merchant
of Council Bluffs, in 1888. Five years later he
became manager here for the Grape Growers Association
and so continued throughout the remainder of his
life, capably controlling the business of the
house.
In 1894 Mr. Allingham was married in Council
Bluffs to Miss Cara L. Stimson, and they had one
son, Roger S., born in 1904.
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J. FRANK
STEVENSON.
J. Frank Stevenson, who carries on general agricultural
pursuits, is the owner of an excellent farm of
one hundred and sixty acres in Valley township,
whereon he is raising full blooded shorthorn cattle,
having now a herd of thirty-five head for registration.
He was born in Greene county, Ohio, on the 6th
of February, 1861, and is a son of William and
Emily Stevenson, who, during the pioneer epoch
in the history of Pottawattamie county, came to
this locality. The father died in June, 1899,
and the mother is still living in Hancock. Further
mention of the family is made in connection with
the sketch of Benjamin T. Stevenson on another
page of this work.
The subject of this review was a pupil in the
public schools in early youth and completed his
education as a high-school student in Council
Bluffs. Being the youngest child in his father's
family, he remained at home until thirty years
of age and assisted his father in carrying on
the work of the farm. He then started out upon
an independent business career, purchasing one
hundred and sixty acres of land in Valley township,
upon which he has since resided. It is a rich
tract of land, responding readily to the care
and labor which he bestows upon it, and in addition
to tilling the soil he is quite extensively and
successfully engaged in raising full blooded shorthorn
cattle, having today a fine herd of thirty-five
head. His business interests are capably managed
and his methodical habits, his laudable ambition
and his unabating diligence constitute the foundation
upon which he is building a gratifying success.
On May 29, 1901, Mr. Stevenson chose a companion
and helpmate for life's journey in his marriage
to Miss Mary Swire, who was born in Oskaloosa,
Iowa, November 14, 1868, and is a daughter of
Henry and Elizabeth Swire,
895
both deceased. She completed her education in
the schools of Council Bluffs and afterward engaged
in teaching for one year in the district schools
and for seven years in the city schools of Council
Bluffs, proving a most capable educator. Unto
Mr. and Mrs. Swire were born four children: Jennie,
living in Denver, Colorado; Henry, of Missouri;
Fanny, the wife of E. E. Oehler, of St. Louis,
Missouri; and Mrs. Stevenson. Our subject and
his wife have one daughter, Dorothy.
The parents attend the Presbyterian church and
are much esteemed socially in the community, the
hospitality of the best homes being freely accorded
them. Politically Mr. Stevenson is a republican,
with firm faith in the party, and he has been
called to some local offices, serving as township
clerk for three years and as assessor for six
years. He belongs to Valley lodge, No. 439, I.
O. O. F., and has filled all of its chairs, a
fact which indicates his standing among his fellow
members of the order. His salient traits of character
are such as commend him to the confidence, good
will and friendship of all with whom he comes
in contact, and he is a worthy representative
of an honored old pioneer family.
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Frank B. Liggett, well known as a prominent representative
of industrial interests, his intense and well
directed activity bringing him a large measure
of success, is now connected with the Council
Bluffs Box & Basket Company. He is pre-eminently
a man of affairs and his indomitable energy and
unabating perseverance are numbered among his
salient characteristics.
He was born upon a farm in Center county, Pennsylvania,
March 25, 1871, and there lived to the age of
thirteen years, when he went ,to Lawrence, Kansas,
with his parents. His father, Benjamin Liggett,
Sr., was also a native of Center county, Pennsylvania,
born about 1829, and his death occurred in Oklahoma,
in 1905, when he had passed the seventy-fifth
milestone on life's journey. He had been married
in the Keystone state in 1861 to Miss Sara Adams
and they became the parents of seven children,
of whom six are now living, the youngest son,
Edward Liggett, having been killed at the battle
of Las Guamas, in the Philippines, when serving
with the Rough Riders. The surviving members of
the family are: Wilbur Fisk, a resident of Ouray,
Colorado; Susan E., the wife of Richard Vanderhoff,
of Canal Fulton, Ohio; John McClellan, a prominent
business man of Kansas City; Carrie M.; Frank
B.; and Sarah. The mother of this family died
in Pennsylvania about 1882.
Following the removal of the family to Lawrence,
Kansas, Frank B. Liggett there remained for four
years and during that period entered the employ
of J. N. Roberts, a box and basket manufacturer,
with whom he continued in Lawrence until he was
transferred to the main factory in St. Louis about
1888. There he continued for six years, winning
advancement from time to time in recognition of
his efficiency; ability and trustworthi-
896
ness. On the expiration of that period he was
transferred to the factory at Poplar Bluff, Missouri,
where he continued for two years, when he went
to Cape Girardeau, Missouri, for the purpose of
attending the State Normal School. He had become
imbued with a strong desire to attain a more advanced
education than had previously been accorded him
and he completed a three years' course in the
normal, devoting the first thousand dollars, which
he had saved, to that purpose. He left the Normal
School in 1897 and went to Kansas City, Missouri,
where he was employed by his brother, John M.
Liggett in the plant there, conducted under the
name of the Kansas City Box & Basket Manufacturing
Company. Two years were there passed and in 1899
he removed to Council Bluffs, where he established
the present business under the name of the Council
Bluffs Box & Basket Company. His entire life
has been devoted to this line of industrial undertaking
and he is therefore thoroughly acquainted with
the trade in every particular from the time the
raw material is purchased until the finished product
is placed in the hands of the purchaser. The enterprise
at Council Bluffs has been steadily developed
along healthful lines and the business is now
large and profitable.
Mr. Liggett is a member of the Benevolent &
Protective Order of Elks and is now serving as
exalted ruler of lodge No. 531. His political
support is given to the republican party but while
he is interested in its success and has thoroughly
acquainted himself with its principles he has
never sought or desired office, preferring to
concentrate his energies upon his business interests.
Undoubtedly one element of his prosperity is the
fact that he has persevered in the pursuit in
which he embarked as a young tradesman, thus gaining
an intimate and comprehensive knowledge of the
business that has proven one of the salient features
of his growth in industrial circles.
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Fred H. Orcutt, senior partner of the firm of
F. H. Orcutt & Son Company, wholesale dealers
in carpets and rugs at Council Bluffs, was born
in Bucksport, Maine, September 24, 1852, and is
descended from good old Revolutionary stock, his
great-great-grandfather on both sides of the family
having fought for American independence. His father,
Hosea Orcutt, was a native of Cohasset, Massachusetts,
born in 1821, and died in Bucksport, Maine, in
1855, at the comparatively early age of thirty-three
years. He was a carpenter and builder by trade,
thus providing for his family. In 1843 he was
married in Bucksport, Maine, to Miss Sarah Abigail
Lake, and they had seven children, as follows:
Sarah A., the deceased wife of Leander Hancock;
Julia W., the deceased wife of James Colby; Hosea
L., who died in 1889; Fred H., of this review;
and three who died in infancy. The mother still
survives and is now living in Lynn, Massachusetts,
at the very advanced age of eighty-five years.
Fred H. Orcutt was less than three years old
at the time of his father's death. His boyhood
and youth were spent in his native city and at
the
897
usual age he entered the public schools there.
He arrived in Council Bluffs in 1873, and seeking
employment, secured a situation in the wholesale
dry-goods house of Smith & Crittenden, with
whom he continued in the capacity of salesman
for ten years. During that period he carefully
husbanded his financial resources until at the
end of a decade he was able to establish the Council
Bluffs Carpet Company, carrying on the business
for eight years. On the expiration of that period
he accepted the agency of nine carpet mills for
Iowa and Nebraska, and in 1902 he embarked in
his present business as the senior partner of
the firm of F. H. Orcutt & Son Company, dealers
in carpets and rugs. As much of his business life
has been spent in connection with the carpet trade
he is an excellent judge of the value and wearing
qualities of any article of this character. He
has made a close study of the business and since
establishing the present firm has met with excellent
success, the house enjoying a continually increasing
trade during the five years of its existence.
The business methods and policy inaugurated commend
the firm to the support and trust of all and their
patronage is steadily increasing.
In 1876 Mr. Orcutt was married in Villisca, Iowa,
to Almira A. Schriver, and unto them have been
born two children, Louis E. and Edna I. Mr. Orcutt
belongs to the Royal Arcanum and to the Modern
Woodmen camp. He gives his political support to
the republican party and he is one of the official
board of the Broadway Methodist Episcopal church.
He is interested in all that pertains to the material,
intellectual, social and moral progress of his
community and his efforts have ever been on the
side of good citizenship and of progressive business
conditions.
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There is no department .of public service which
more nearly concerns the welfare of the entire
population than that .of which Mr. Nicholson is
chief-the fire department, and in this connection
he has rendered most capable service, winning
encomiums by reason of the high standard of efficiency
which he has introduced into the department. A
native of Ohio, he was born in Washington, that
state, on the 27th of January, 1852, and there
spent the first six years of his life. In 1858
the family removed to Payson, Illinois, where
he was reared and acquired his education as a
public-school student.
In 1872, when a young man .of twenty years, Mr.
Nicholson came to Council Bluffs. He established
a meat market here in 1895, which he conducted
for two years, or until about 1897. In 1892 he
had been made chief of the fire department and
served in that capacity for three years. In 1901
he returned to the department as captain of Company
Na. 4, Truck No. 1, and so served for two years,
when he resigned and went to Montana, where he
engaged in the cattle business. Some time afterward
he again came to Council Bluffs and in 1907 was
once more made chief of the fire depart-
891
ment, in which capacity he is now rendering signal
service to his fellow townsmen.
Mr. Nicholson was married in Council Bluffs in
1877 to Miss Mary Schiferli, and they have two
sons, William and Harry F. Mr. Nicholson belongs
to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, to the
Knights of Pythias fraternity, the Woodmen of
the World and is past president of Aerie No. 104,
Fraternal Order of Eagles. His political allegiance
is given to the democracy but while he has never
been a politician in the sense of office seeking
he has made a creditable record in public service
and in his present position is well entitled to
mention among those who are loyal to the public
good.
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J. J. Gordon claims Scotland as the land of his
nativity, his birth having occurred in Aberdeenshire
on the 24th of December, 1856. His parents were
Andrew and Mary (Chyne) Gordon, also natives of
Scotland, and in their family were seven children,
of whom five are still living: Andrew; J. J.,
Mary, Helen and Anna. The children are all residents
of Scotland with the exception of our subject
but the parents are now deceased.
J. J. Gordon may well claim the proud American
title of a self-made man, for he started out to
earn his own living when only nine years of age.
He was employed in various ways in Scotland until
he reached the age of eighteen, when thinking
that he might have better business opportunities
to win success in the new world he bade adieu,
to friends and native country and sailed for America
in 1874. He first located at Lincoln, Nebraska,
and sought employment in the service of the Burlington
& Missouri Railroad but remained there for
only five days, for the work proved too heavy
for him. He was given a pay check but could not
get it cashed, so that he never realized anything
for that service. He then walked to Clay county,
Nebraska, where he was first employed on the construction
of a sod house and while thus engaged he and the
other workmen lived on crackers and bacon alone.
The conditions which Mr. Gordon met were discouraging
and he longed at times for his native land and
his old home but he possessed a spirit of perseverance
and determined to remain. Going to Mills county,
Iowa, he there found employment as a farm hand
with a Mr. Shields and worked by the month there
for six years.
On the expiration of that period Mr. Gordon was
married to Miss Ada Harrington, who was born in
the state of New York. They became the parents
of four children, of whom three are now living:
Myrtle, the wife of Arthur Carter, a resident
of Omaha; Ada, the wife of P. B. O'Neil of Hancock;
George W., of Council Bluffs; and Harry, now deceased.
After his marriage Mr. Gordon rented a farm for
two years and in the meantime lived frugally and
economically, so that on the expiration of that
period he was enabled to purchase eighty acres
of land in York township.
899
This he at once began to improve, living thereon
for twelve years. He then sold out and removed
to Mills county, Iowa, where he bought a farm
of one hundred and sixty acres, upon which he
resided for six years. Disposing of that property
he next purchased and cultivated a tract of land
in James township, Pottawattamie county, on which
he resided until after the death of his wife,
who passed away in 1894, leaving a husband and
three children to mourn her loss. In 1898 Mr.
Gordon was again married, his second union being
with Miss Anna Hughes, who was born in Shelby
county, Iowa, while her father was a native of
Canada and her mother of England. They still survive
and are now residents of this county. Unto Mr.
and Mrs. Gordon have been born two children, Harry
Bryan and Helen M.
Mr. Gordon remained upon his farm in James township
for four years and on selling that property removed
to Hancock, where he purchased a grain elevator,
continuing in the grain trade there for three
years. After selling out in that line he bought
a farm east of Hancock, which he improved and
cultivated for three years, when he sold out and
took up his abode on his farm in Valley township.
Here he had a good tract of land under a high
state of cultivation and in all of his farm work
he is practical and progressive, meeting with
merited success in his undertakings. He engaged
in raising and feeding hogs and this branch of
his business is proving profitable. Recently he
sold his farm in Valley township and in the spring
of 1908 expects to remove to a fruit farm which
he has purchased a mile and a half northeast of
Council Bluffs. He also owns two residences and
the creamery in Hancock.
Politically Mr. Gordon is a democrat and for
two years has served on the village board of Hancock.
Socially he is connected with the Odd. Fellows
lodge, No. 439. Local advancement and national
progress are causes both dear to his heart and
he has the strongest attachment for the stars
and stripes, being most loyal to his adopted country,
where he has made his home from early manhood.
Realizing that in America labor is king, he has
acknowledged her sovereignty and been one of her
willing subjects. Year after year he has worked
persistently and energetically and his diligence
and capable management have made his one of the
substantial citizens of Valley township, his present
financial resources being in marked contrast to
his financial condition when as a boy of nine
years he started out to make his own way in the
world.
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John Frederick August Kohlscheen is one of the
extensive landowners of Pottawattamie county,
eight hundred and sixty-seven acres paying tribute
to the care and labor which he bestows upon them.
He is also well known and successful in raising
and feeding cattle and is accounted today one
of the leading stockmen of this part of the state.
He belongs to Iowa's citizens of foreign birth
who have sought homes in America and in this land
have
900
found the opportunities which have enabled them
to rise from a humble financial position to one
of affluence.
Mr. Kohlscheen was born in Schleswig-Holstein,
Germany, January 3, 1843, and was educated in
the public schools of that country. He was reared
to farming and chose this as a life occupation
when he attained his majority. In 1870 he came
to the United States, arriving at Davenport, Iowa,
with a capital of about forty dollars. Immediately
he sought employment and for one year worked as
a farm hand in Scott county, after which he removed
to Johnson county, Iowa, where he again worked
at farm labor for a year. On the expiration of
that period he rented land and began raising onions
and potatoes. He was very successful in that work,
producing large crops, and after carrying on gardening
for two years he purchased a team and came to
Pottawattamie county, in the spring of 1874. Here
he invested his earnings in eighty acres of land,
whereon he now resides. In that summer he formed
a partnership with a Mr. Russman in Layton township,
and during that year he had a man break about
fifty acres of the sod of his prairie farm. In
the spring of 1875, in partnership with Nick and
John Sievers, he built a shanty on their land
and for two years they kept bachelor's hall and
cultivated their fields.
In 1877 Mr. Kohlscheen was united in marriage
to Miss Magrada Paasch, a native of Germany, who
came to the United States in 1876. Following his
marriage, Mr. Kohlscheen rented eighty acres of
land adjoining his eighty acre tract and farmed
the entire place of one hundred and sixty acres.
In the fall of 1881 he purchased two hundred acres
adjoining his original farm and in 1883 he built
his present handsome farm residence, while since
that time he has put up commodious barns and cribs.
His place is today one of the best improved farms
in the county, giving every evidence of the careful
supervision and labor of the owner. Mr. Kohlscheen
now owns eight hundred and sixty-seven acres of
land, of which three hundred and sixty acres lie
in Knox township, two hundred and forty acres
in Lincoln township, two hundred in Pleasant township
and sixty-seven acres in James township. Mr. Kohlscheen
has been very successful as a raiser and feeder
of cattle but he got his real start in life in
gardening, which placed him in a position to buy
land. Since making his first purchase steady progress
has followed and he is today one of the prominent
representatives of agricultural life in Pottawattamie
county.
Unto Mr. and Mrs. Kohlscheen have been born eight
children: Gustav, who attended the business college
in Davenport, is now operating his father's land
in Lincoln township. Emma is the wife of Henry
Mattice, of Lincoln township. Ferdinand, who was
a pupil in the Davenport Business College, operates
his farm in Pleasant township. Bernhardt, who
attended the business college at Des Moines, is
at home. August, who was a student in the Omaha
Business College, is cultivating land in Pleasant
township in connection with his brother Ferdinand.
Amanda, Alma and Herbert are all at home.
Mr. Kohlscheen is independent in politics, voting
for men and measures rather than for party. He
has served for several terms as road overseer
but
901
has not been a politician in the sense of desiring
office. He belongs to the Lutheran church and
has lived a life of uprightness and honor, winning
him high regard. Moreover, his example in a business
way may well serve to encourage and inspire others
who have to start out in life as he did without
capital save strong purpose and laudable ambition.
In this country, where labor always finds its
sure reward, he has gradually advanced until he
is today one of the wealthy agriculturists of
this section of the state, and his prosperity
is well merited.
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Louis Hagedorn is engaged in raising cattle and
hogs on section 4, James township, where he owns
and cultivates a good tract of land of one hundred
and forty-seven acres. He is one of Iowa's native
sons, his birth having occurred in Scott county,
July 16, 1866. His parents were Chris and Sophia
(Groth) Hagedorn, who were natives of Holstein,
Germany, and are now living in Avoca, Iowa, having
come to America in the early '60s. They first
settled near Davenport, where they resided for
five years, and then took up their abode in Council
Bluffs but later removed to Pleasant township,
where the father purchased two hundred and sixty-six
acres of land. He then carried on general farming
with good success until 1902, when he put aside
further business cares and is now living retired
in Avoca. His diligence and perseverance have
constituted the basis of the success which he
is now enjoying and which enables him to live
without further recourse to labor. Unto him and
his wife were born seven children, namely: Dora,
the wife of August Ruidiger of Neola, Iowa; Henry,
whose home is in Pleasant township, this county;
Louis; Clara, the wife of Herman Siffert of Avoca;
Minnie, the wife of John Gutchlutch, also of Avoca;
John, who is residing in Bentley, Iowa; and Laura,
the wife of August Hager, whose home is in Knox
township.
Louis Hagedorn remained at home with his father
through the period of his minority and was a pupil
in the public schools. On starting out in life
on his own account he worked by the month as a
farm hand, being thus employed for three years,
but desiring that his labors should more directly
benefit himself he rented a farm, which he cultivated
for nine years. That he prospered in this undertaking
is indicated by the fact that on the expiration
of that period he was enabled to purchase the
farm upon which he now resides, comprising one
hundred and forty-seven acres on section 4, James
township. Here, in addition to tilling the soil,
he raises cattle and hogs of good grades and for
his stock secures good prices on the market.
In 1894 Mr. Hagedorn was married to Miss Verna
Rihner, who was born in Scott county, Iowa, in
1873, a daughter of Samuel and Catharine (Rush)
Rihner, who were natives of Switzerland. The father
died in 1905, but the mother is still living,
making her home in Minden, Iowa. Their family
numbered nine children, while unto Mr. and Mrs.
Hagedorn have been born two children--Herman F.
and Rinehart J.
902
The parents are members of the Lutheran church.
They deserve much credit for what they have accomplished
for they started in life empty-handed and as the
years have gone by they have accumulated enough
to enable them to purchase one of the finest farms
in James township. They have many friends in the
county and are well known socially, the hospitality
of the best homes in their locality being freely
accorded them. Mr. Hagedorn votes with the republican
party and is in thorough sympathy with its platform
and its purposes but does not seek nor desire
office, preferring that his attention shall be
given entirely to his business affairs, whereby
he has met with a merited degree of prosperity.
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GUIDO LOUIS
STEMPEL, M. D.
Dr. Guido Louis Stempel, who for many years has
been an active member of the medical fraternity
in Pottawattamie county, practicing at Macedonia,
is perhaps even better known in connection with
his studies and research in the lines of natural
science, possessing as he does one of the finest
collections of the fauna of Iowa. He was born
in Drachhausen, Germany, February 19, 1836, a
son of Dr. Christian Wilhelm Stempel, a retired
military surgeon. His mother was the sister of
his father's first wife, who died during the absence
of Dr. Stempel with the German army, engaged in
opposing the invasion of Napoleon and his troops.
It was following his return from the war that
he was married a second time and by that union
there were eleven children, of whom Dr. Stempel
of this review is the youngest. His mother died
soon after his birth and the father was thus left
to care for his large family, Guido Louis Stempel
being left in charge of old Hannah, a faithful
domestic, who was so good to him that he has always
said he loved her as though she were his real
mother. The father, who was now past sixty years
of age, married a third wife, who was younger
than some of his sons and daughters and not their
equal in social standing. This somewhat marred
the happiness of the family but not to such an
extent that it lessened the love of the children
for their father. Their farm lands were situated
near the village of Drachhausen in the province
of Brandenburg in the kingdom of Prussia.
There Dr. Stempel passed a happy boyhood, roaming
in the garden among all kinds of fruits and flowers,
butterflies and birds. He had, too, the care and
protection of a loving father, brothers and sisters,
and in his youth he attended the village school
but it was his home influence and the constant
intercourse with his father and the older children
of the family that formed his character and marked
out his path in life. He was eleven years of age
when the happiness of their German home was disturbed
by the political condition of the country prior
to the outbreak of the rebellion of 1848. Anticipating
what was to come, Dr. C. W. Stempel resolved to
take his family to the new world, where he might
live without being subject to any potentate. At
Bremen they sailed on the good ship Anna, a three
masted sailing vessel,
905
which after a voyage of seven long weeks dropped
anchor safely in the harbor of Baltimore, Maryland.
The family there rested for a few days, after
which they continued their journey across the
Alleghanies to Brownsville on the Monongahela
river, thence down that stream to the Ohio and
from the Ohio proceeded up the Mississippi river
to Keokuk, Iowa, being forced to land there on
account of great masses of ice obstructing the
river. Keokuk was at that time a booming town
and as no house or room could be rented there
the family had to go on to Fort Madison, Iowa,
which was situated about forty miles up the river.
The next day, traveling overland, they reached
Fort Madison and the father rented two rooms in
which the family began housekeeping. It was their
intention when spring came to resume their journey
but by that time they had formed so many pleasant
acquaintances that they decided to remain in the
neighborhood. The father sought a place in which
to invest his money and fell a victim to the sharpers.
He bought a large tract of land situated on the
Mississippi bottoms between Fort Madison and Burlington.
He thought that he had purchased the best of land
and so it looked to be, but when the spring floods
came the larger portion of the district was under
water from one to six feet deep. In the summer
of 1848 Dr. Stempel of this review and two of
his brothers moved on to the farm into a one-room
log cabin. The eldest of the three officiated
as manager, the second one as cook and the Doctor
as roustabout, his main business being to ride
over the bottoms among the grass and herbage five
to six feet high, looking after the cattle and
also hunting and fishing, always carrying a gun
in his rambles. In 1849 the brothers all suffered
from malaria. About that time the father sent
a carpenter whom he had brought with him from
Germany to build a four-room house out of hewn
logs and plastered inside. This was the envy of
the neighbors, who really regarded it as an extravagance.
When the house was finished late in the fall the
father and the others of the family removed from
town into this dwelling and the three sons thereby
lost their position, becoming only common members
of the family. The summer of 1849, however, brought
little joy to the household, for the father died,
the children were left orphans and the family
was thus broken up.
Dr. Stempel, then only thirteen years of age,
was the most helpless, being the youngest. Although
of tender years he had to support himself. His
father died at the age of seventy-two, although
according to ancestral history in regard to longevity
he should have reached the age of eighty or more.
It was too late in life for him to emigrate to
a wild country; he needed rest and more comfort
than it was possible to have in the wilderness
of the far west.
Starting out to seek employment, Dr. Stempel
hired out to a man who was engaged in the conduct
of a bakery and candy business, his occupation
being to tend store when the proprietor was elsewhere
and also to go to the steamboats with a basket
filled with gingerbread to sell to the emigrants.
For six months he acted in that capacity and then
hired out to a barber, who also made cigars, being
employed in the cigar department. In 1852 he obtained
employment in a harness shop through the influence
of his brother Hugo, who was then working in the
shop. Hugo Stempel has since studied law and is
now an attorney of Fort Madison, Iowa. In this
shop the brothers worked
906
until the winter of 1853, when one luckless Sunday--or
was it a lucky one--they went skating. Their employer
professed to be a very religious man. His idea
was that if a boy had plenty of religion, plenty
of work and something to eat it was all that was
necessary for his earthly comfort and his happiness
hereafter, On Monday morning, after fifteen of
the boys had been skating on the river all day
Sunday, the employer entered the shop with the
order that such wickedness had to be stopped-that
every boy had to go to Sunday school and attend
the church services. Dr. Stempel, his brother
and another boy, not pleased with this edict,
concluded they would run away and the following
night surreptitiously took their departure. They
carried with them a little bundle and tramped
up the Mississippi river in search of work. They
passed through several towns where they were refused
employment and arrived at Keithsburg, Illinois,
with sore feet, heavy hearts and empty pockets
and stomachs; but the tide of their fortunes turned
here and they found work in a harness shop owned
by a very kind-hearted man. The Stempel brothers
were there employed until 1855, when they returned
to Fort Madison and joined an older brother in
establishing a harness shop on their own account
but the new enterprise continued for only a year.
In the spring of 1856 Dr. Stempel and his brother
Adolph engaged in the fur business, going up the
Des Moines river and its tributaries to trade
for furs of all kinds. Later the Doctor and four
companions undertook the trip to the gold fields
of Colorado, starting in March from the Mississippi
with an ox team. They proceeded as far as central
Nebraska, where they met many disappointed men
returning from Pike's Peak, reporting the gold
boom a great humbug. Accordingly Dr. Stempel and
his partner started back and on reaching the Missouri
river sold their team, boarded a steamer for St.
Louis and from the latter point proceeded to Fort
Madison.
A decided change in the life of Dr. Stempel came
in 1857, when he was twenty years of age. His
brother Herman who then held the position of deputy
county treasurer, had purchased a tract of hilly
land near Fort Madigon, which he intended to convert
into a vineyard and orchard and Dr. Stempel was
installed as manager of the new enterprise. This
occupation was entirely in harmony with his inclinations
and, relieved of the confining work of the shops,
which was not to his taste, he felt like a bird
just out of its cage. He has always loved the
fresh air and the sunshine and he gladly did his
work surrounded by green trees, chirping birds,
bright flowers and beautifully colored butterflies.
Nor was this all, for he was able to resume the
studies which he had been forced to neglect for
so long. During the long winter evenings when
there was nothing to do in the vineyard he could
read books, of which his brother had many. About
this time he became acquainted with Dr. August
Hoffmeister, who had the same desire for study
and collecting of birds, beetles and butterflies.
When the young men found time they would ramble
in the fields and forests together in pursuit
of specimens and the friendship thus formed had
the greatest influence on Dr. Stempel's future
life. He conducted his brother's vineyard until
1861, when he traded for twenty acres of hill
land on the high bluffs just north of Fort Madison
and on this established his home.
907
On the 18th of September, 1866, Dr. Stempel was
married to Miss Johanna Koehler, a daughter of
Charles P. Koehler, and on the 25th of August,
1867, was born their eldest son, Hugo C., who
is now manager of the business of the Stewart
Lumber Company at Dow City, Iowa. Their second
child, Bianca O. was born August 21, 1869, and
is now the wife of Charles McCready, manager of
the Macedonia Implement Company. Maximilian A.,
born August 6, 1872, is now his father's partner
and the manager of The City Drug Store at Macedonia.
In 1866, through the influence of Dr. Hoffmeister,
Dr. Stempel was appointed hospital steward for
the Iowa penitentiary at Fort Madison and there
studied medicine under the preceptorship of Dr.
Hoffmeister until 1872, when he removed to Cedar
Bluffs, Iowa, a village located on the Cedar river.
There, by the advice of his friend and preceptor,
he began the active practice of medicine, in which
he met with fair success, enabling him to start
the first drug store in the village. In 1879 he
went to Chicago, where he did dissecting and attended
a course in Rush Medical College. In 1884 he removed
with his family to Macedonia, Pottawattamie county,
Iowa, where he has since lived, and in the same
year bought the drug store owned by J. M. Kelly
& Company.
Being now in much easier financial circumstances,
he could follow his inclination and devote much
time to the study of local bird and insect life.
His observations and collection of specimens have
been continued for over twenty-two years with
the result that he has the finest private collection
in the state. He has also made two trips in the
interests of the science--one to California and
one to Montana and the Yellowstone National Park
to study the fauna of the higher altitudes. In
1903 he became a member of the Pottawattamie County
and State Medical Societies, with which he is
still identified, although he does not engage
to any great extent in practice, being now in
his seventy-first year and preferring to devote
his time and energies to scientific research,
He has the best collection of butterflies and
birds in the state. Throughout his entire life
he has been greatly interested in the study of
ornithology and entomology and his opinions are
largely received as authority in Iowa concerning
these lines of natural science. Although in his
earlier years there came many hardships and difficulties
in his life his lines are now cast in pleasant
places.
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