Marie (Schlarke) Westphal

JENSEN, MANDELKON, MEYER, RODRICK, SCHLARKE, WESTPHAL

Posted By: Kent Transier (email)
Date: 1/10/2010 at 13:42:50

“A Memorial and Biographical Record of Iowa”
The Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago, 1896

Mrs. Marie Westphal, widow of the late John Westphal, owns and occupies one of the pleasant rural homes of Jefferson township, Madison county, Iowa.

She was born in Germany, June 18, 1840, daughter of German parents. Lewis Schlarke, her father, came to America in 1842, coming direct to Clayton county, Iowa, and was never heard from afterward. He left his family in the old country, and, after waiting anxiously for some years for news of him, they, too, came to the United States. It was in 1857 that Mrs. Westphal accompanied her mother to America and to Clayton county, Iowa, and here for two years she was employed as a domestic.

At the end of that time she was united in marriage to Mr. Ernest Meyer, a native of Germany, and they settled down on a farm in Clayton county. But after four short years she was left a widow with one child, Frederick Meyer, who is now engaged in farming in Madison county. He married Allie Rodrick.

In 1864 Mrs. Meyer became the wife of John Westphal, also a native of Germany, who had come to this country the same year she did. They continued to reside in Clayton county until 1875, when they removed to Madison county and located on the farm where she now lives. At the time of their removal here this land was wholly unimproved, and the work of erecting buildings and cultivating the land was carried forward by them until they had a comfortable home and pleasant surroundings.

Since Mr. Westphal’s death, which occurred in 1880, Mrs. Westphal has superintended the farming operations, and in her able management of the same has shown herself to be a woman of more than ordinary ability. Her farm comprises 240 acres. Of her children by her second husband, we make record as follows: August is a resident of Des Moines, Iowa; Elizabeth is the wife of Frederick Jensen, Jefferson township, Madison county; Ella, wife of Henry Mandelkon, of Clayton county, Iowa; and Herman, Frederick W. & Albert, at home.

Of Mr. Westphal, we would further record that he was a man well known and most highly respected. For some years, in addition to carrying on his farming operations, he served as secretary of the Farmers’ Mutual Fire & Lightning Insurance Company, of Madison county. Politically, he was a Democrat, and while in Clayton county served as School Director. He was a consistent member of the Lutheran Church, with which Mrs. Westphal is also identified.