EMKE EUKEN, UNION TOWNSHIP.

Emke Euken is among the most prosperous and most public spirited citizens of this part of Cass county; is a farmer by occupation, and for years has been recognized as a leading Democrat. He is a native of the province of Oldenburg, Germany, and was born August 19, 1851, a son of John R. and Catherine (Gerdes) Euken--also born in that section of the empire. The father, who was a farmer, emigrated to the United States in 1868, bringing with him his wife and family of six children. They settled upon a farm in Whiteside county, Ill., where John R. Euken died in the fall of 1872.

In 1876 Mrs. Catherine Euken, the widow, with her four sons and one daughter (one son having died), came to Franklin township, this county, for the purpose of acquiring a larger tract of land than their Illinois farm. The family settled on 160 acres of wild land on section 35, and as Emke was the oldest of the children (being twenty-five at this time) the responsibilities of its cultivation and improvement fellupon him. This work was most successfully accomplished, and the widow and her five children--now mature and useful members of society--are still residents of Cass county.

After making a valuable piece of property of the Franklin township farm, Emke Euken purchased eighty acres in Union township. The latter was virgin prairie land, and he subsequently bought another "eighty" upon which some improvements had been made, the combined tract forming the homestead upon which he has reared a family of his own.

In 1882 Mr. Euken was married to Elizabeth Leubben, also a native of Germany, whose parents, Jacob and Maria Leubben, emigrated to the United States in 1865 and settled in Whiteside county, Ill. There the mother died, but the father passed his last years at the home of his son in Wiota, Franklin township. The four children born to Mr. and Mrs. Euken--Emma, Lizzie, John and Carl--are all living at home.

Socially and politically Mr. Euken is one of the most popular men in this section of Cass county. A stanch Democrat in politics, he served as township clerk for four years from 1883; was assessor for a like period, and township trustee for nearly a decade, being still an incumbent of the last named position, as well as school trustee. He was a candidate for county recorder and was only defeated by a small vote, his future as a progressive public official being assured.

Besides having large agricultural interests, Mr. Euken is a stockholder, director and vice-president of the First National Bank, of Cumberland, and is treasurer of the Cumberland Creamery, of which he was one of the founders and to the support of which he has contributed from the first. In fact, there are few enterprises of practical utility to the community, or movements which promise to advance the public interests, in which he is not a foremost figures. His religious faith is German Lutheran, and his personal character is grounded in honesty and strict morality.


From "Compendium and History of Cass County, Iowa." Chicago: Henry and Taylor & Co., 1906, pp. 329-330.