MEIER, William A.

MEIER, HAPPEL, SCHMIDT, HELMER, EBY, CRALL, SCHROEDER, WOLFF, VOGLE, OLESON

Posted By: Jennifer Gunderson (email)
Date: 3/14/2021 at 17:28:34

William A. Meier, a retired farmer of section 22, Falls township, Cerro Gordo county, Iowa, was born in Jo Daviess county, Illinois, August 21, 1854. He is a son of John C. and Louisa (Happel) Meier, the former born in Germany, near the Rhine, and the latter also born in Germany, December 7, 1828. The father died at Nora Springs, Iowa, in 1900, and his wife died June 12, 1910 in Nora Springs. They were parents of eight children, of whom all are living, namely: Elizabeth, wife of George Schmidt, of Nora Springs, Iowa; William A.; John C., of Nora Springs; Louisa, wife of Fred Helmer, of Plymouth, Iowa; Mary, unmarried, living at Nora Springs; Annie, wife of Peter Eby, of Mason City; Matilda, wife of Arthur Crall, of Kansas; and Fred, of Minnesota.

John C. Meier and his wife were married in Germany and came to the United States in 1850, spending seven weeks on the ocean voyage. They landed at New York, spent one year near Erie, Pennnsylvania, then moved to Jo Daviess county, Illinois.

Mr. Meier had been a school teacher in his native country and had a splendid education, but on account of poor health was obliged to give up his profession. The family drove from Illinois to Lancaster, Wisconsin, where they bought a small farm and operated it nineteen years. In 1874 the family came to Cerro Gordo county, Iowa, and purchased a farm of three hundred and twenty-seven acres in Portland township, where they lived until 1893, then retired to Nora Springs.

The boyhood of William A. Meier was spent on a farm and he received a good common school education. After his marriage he remained three years on the home farm, then moved to Aurora county, South Dakota, where he took up a homestead of one hundred and sixty acres of raw land near White Lake, which he improved and worked eight years, then sold out and returned to Cerro Gordo county. Upon his return he purchased one hundred and sixty acres of land in Falls township, erected modern buildings, made numerous other improvements, and lived there until 1908, when he purchased his present place of nineteen acres, where he has put up a comfortable residence and is preparing to give up active work. He has always been actively interested in public affairs and current issues and in politics has been a lifelong Republican. He served four years as school director and six years as justice of the peace. He is a member of the M. W. A. of Rock Falls and he and his wife belong to the Methodist Episcopal church at that place.

Mr. Meier was married, July 10, 1879, to Annie D. Wolff, born in Freeport, Illinois, April 15, 1861, daughter of Charles and Sophia (Schroeder) Wolff. Mr. Wolff was born in Prysen, Prussia, February 14, 1822, and died at Rockford, Iowa, at the age of seventy-four years. His wife died in 1864, at Freeport, Illinois, at the age of thirty-five years. They were parents of four children. Mr. Wolff and his wife emigrated to the United States and passed through Chicago when it was only a village, locating at Freeport, Illinois, where he followed his trade of wagon maker. In 1869 he removed to Charles City, Iowa, and later located in Rockford, Iowa, where his death occurred. Mr. Wolff married for his second wife Annie Vogle, a native of Germany, who died at Charles City, in 1903, aged seventy-two years. By his second marriage Mr. Wolff had three children, of whom but one survives.

Three children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Meier, namely: Mary E., wife of William Oleson, of Rock Falls, Iowa; Laura M., at home; and Ester L., who died at fifteen years of age.

Source: WHEELER, J. H. History of Cerro Gordo County, Iowa. Vol. II. Lewis Publ. Co. Chicago. 1910. Transcribed by Jennifer Gunderson (Mar 2021)