Re: Nicholas DUERST
DUERST
Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email) In Response To: Nicholas DUERST (Susan)
Date: 3/26/2006 at 10:19:58
History of Wright County, Iowa by B.P. Birdsall, 1915, page 522-524.
Nicholas C. Duerst
As a retired farmer, who after a successful business life, has laid down his active duties for the more quiet walks of life, Nicholas C. Duerst is one of the respected and honored men of the county. With a modest start and the application of keen judgment, he has illustrated well the results of fair dealing and business integrity and is now able to live a life of quiet satisfaction, with the knowledge that his days have been of service, resulting not only for his own welfare, but that in public office and in the little duties of life his efforts have been of true value.Nicholas C. Duerst was born in the state of Wisconsin July 5, 1856, the son of Mathias and Rosena (Kundort) Duerst, who were natives of Switzerland, but who were married in Wisconsin. The father was a factory worker in his native land, where he worked until twenty years of age, when he came to this country, reaching New York in 1854, and going to Wisconsin, where he worked on a farm for a number of years. He purchased a farm of one hundred and sixty acres in that state, where he remained until the year of 1861, and then, at the outbreak of the Civil War, enlisted in the Ninth Regiment, Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, with which command he did not see active service in battle but was able to appreciate the hardships of service as the result of contracting a fever, from the effects of which he never fully recovered. With his regiment Mathias Duerst served until 1865, when he was mustered out.
Mathias Duerst then returned to Wisconsin and worked on his farm until the year 1872, at that time leaving and coming to Wright county. On arriving in Boone township he rented a farm of one hundred and twenty acres, where he lived for a term of four years, and then took up a homestead in South Dakota, at which place he lived for the next twenty years, returning then for a life of retirement with his son, his wife having died during the year 1898. To Mathias and Rosena Duerst were born twelve children: Nicholas C., Sarah, Mary, Rosa (deceased), Rosa, Dora, Abraham, Ella, Mathias, Fannie, Katy and Henry.
Of these children, Nicholas C., who is the only one residing in this county, received his education in the country schools of Wisconsin and of Wright county. At the age of eighteen years he left school and farmed with his father until the age of twenty, when he came, in the year 1876, to Wright county, where he worked for one year and a half on a farm and then rented one hundred and sixty acres. He then purchased forty acres of land, paying for this the sum of six dollars per acre. After three months’ time he sold this land and bought eighty acres of prairie land in Humboldt county, which he broke up and on which placed about seven thousand dollars’ worth of improvements. This farm he cultivated for five years and then purchased eighty acres more adjoining, living there until the year 1909, when he secured a small farm on the outskirts of Goldfield and moved to that place, renting his farm in Humboldt county.
The farm of Mr. Duerst, near Goldfield, produces mostly corn and small grain, the corn averaging about fifty bushels to the acre and the small grain about thirty-five bushels to the acre. Most of this grain is fed to stock. Mr. Duerst marketing each year about one-half carload of cattle and about seventy head of hogs. This progressive farmer has placed about three thousand dollars’ worth of improvements on his farm near Goldfield, and among other conveniences has supplied himself with an automobile.
During the year of 1878, Nicholas C. Duerst and Sarah E. Griffith were married. She is the daughter of Chauncey and Polly (Davis) Griffith, her father being a farmer of Liberty township. Mrs. Duerst was born in Wright county and received her education in the Goldfield public schools. She was the only girl in a family of five children.
To Mr. and Mrs. Duerst were born four children, as follow: Henry married Florence Reister, and lives on his father’s farm in Humboldt county, with his two children, Ethel and Alta; Jessie is the widow of John Hanson, as has three children, Leland, Ruth and Kenneth, the latter dying in infancy; Ansel and Inna are deceased.
Nicholas C. Duerst has served his township well and conscientiously as township school director during eight years, and by his counsel and efforts as a private citizen ahs shown himself to be of no small value in the affairs of Wright county and Liberty township. He has been a prominent man in the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, having generously served through all the chairs of that organization. He is a Mason and has been an active member. Mr. Duerst is a Democrat in politics.
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