 |
|
 |
|
FERDINAND SCHLUNTZ is prominently numbered among the progressive and influential residents of Kane township, a business man and agriculturist of well known ability. He owns a fine farm of two hundred and twenty acres, all splendidly improved and adorned with a modern home and large and convenient farm buildings, and he is also quite extensively engaged in the raising of a fine grade of stock. For four years from 1892 Mr. Schluntz served Kane township as its clerk, and since 1897 he has served in the office of township trustee. With the exception of one year he has served as a school director continuously since 1889, has served in the office of assessor, and is township president of the Iowa Farmers Mutual Fire Insurance Company, one of the organizers of the Farmers Savings Bank of Keystone and twice its president and at present a director, was one of the organizers and is now the president of the Keystone Mercantile Company, and is a director and one of the organizers of the Irving Mercantile Company.
Mr. Schluntz was born in Hickory township of Scott county, Iowa, February 3, 1862, a son of Carl and Margaret (Strohbeen) Schluntz, the father born in Holstein, Germany, October 6, 1833, and the mother was born in that country in 1823. Carl Schluntz came to the United States in 1857, and landing in New Orleans after an ocean voyage of three months he worked his way up the river to Davenport, Iowa, where he married and farmed in Scott county until the fall of 1865, coming then to Benton county and locating in section 32, Kane township. He purchased there eighty acres of land for twenty-three hundred dollars, and only about one-half of the soil had been broken and an old house and a straw barn constituted the sole improvements of the place. This was considered a very high price for the land at that time. In 1887 Mr. Schluntz retired from active labor and moved to Belle Plaine, but after the death of his wife there in July of 1900 he returned to the farm and has since lived with a son there. He owned at one time four hundred, and forty acres of land, and he served his township as a road supervisor and as a school director. The three children of Mr. and Mrs. Schluntz are: Ferdinand; Edward, also living in Kane township; and Alvina, the wife of Fred Hamann of Kane township.
Ferdinand Schluntz was reared on the farm and he attended first the district schools, then the old academy at Irving, Iowa, and later the International Business College at Davenport, graduating from the latter institution in May of 1888. During the five months following his graduation he worked as a bookkeeper for an insurance firm, was then in a clerical position for a year, for a similar period was engaged in buying corn for the Davenport-Glencoe Company at Casey, and he returned then to the farm and gave up mercantile pursuits on account of failing health. During a few years following his return he operated a threshing machine and corn sheller, also working at the carpenter's trade and in a logging camp in Minnesota, and in 1889 he began farming for himself, renting the place he now owns from his father, and he has worked his way up to a leading place in the industrial life of his community.
In February of 1890 Mr. Schluntz married Geschen Junge, born in Holstein, Germany, December 24, 1865, and she died on the 3d of March, 1902. She bore her husband seven children, five now living, namely: Mary, born in 1892 and at home with her father; Carl, born January 20, 1894, also at home; John, born December 14, 1895, died on February 8, 1896; Alfred, born April 24, 1897; Emma, born February 4, 1899; Herman, born March 24, 1900, died April 17, 1901; and George, born October 17, 1901. Mr. Schluntz is a member of the Democratic party. He is also a member of the Modern Brotherhood of America, Lodge No. 763, at Irving, and with the exception of one year he has served as president of the order since its formation. He is a progressive and up-to-date business man, public spirited and alert, and Kane township numbers him among its influential residents.
 |
