PAUL WIESE, BRIGHTON TOWNSHIP.

Among the most valuable contributions to American progress and achievement which have come from foreign lands, none surpasses in genuine usefulness or continued application to home industries the splendid contribution from the German fatherland A representative of this race, and showing in his career the most striking and valuable attributes of his people, Paul Wiese of Brighton township, this county, where he was an early pioneer, has helped materially to develop and improve the section he favored with his choice for a home on coming hither, and has well sustained the reputation and standing the German people have had for generations.

Mr. Wiese was born in the province of Holstein, Germany, on October 1, 1833, and is a son of Hans and Katharine Wiese, both born and reared in Germany, where they died, the mother in 1848 and the father in 1849. The father was a soldier under Bonaparte for sixteen years and saw all the horros of war in the campaigns of that great commander. He was born in 1777. Two sons and three daughters were born to his household, and of these two of the sons and one of the daughters came to the United States, but Paul is the only one of the three now living, his brother and sister having died in Clinton county, this State.

Paul Wiese grew to the age of nineteen in his native land, and saw much of life's bitterness and sorrow even in his youth. Losing both of his parents by death before he reached the age of sixteen, he was obliged to go to work for strangers to earn his living, and in this experience he was not fortunate enough to feel like continuing it. When he reached the age of nineteen the longing within him for a freer life and a larger opportunity than his native land seemed to offer took practical form and he set sail in a vessel bound for the United States, the voyage across the Atlantic occupying a full month. On his arrival in this country he came direct to Iowa and took up his residence in Scott county, making the trip from Chicago by team and boat. He worked in Scott county three years, and then joined his brother in Clinton county.

On October 7, 1862, Mr. Wiese enlisted in Company A, Sixth Iowa Cavalry, and was placed in the command of General Sully for a campaign against the Indians, who were in a state of violent insurrection. The fighting took place in this State, the Dakotas and Montana, and the service was active and the work warm in the Bad Lands, the White Stone Hills, and many other localities. In a battle in the White Stone Hills on September 3, 1863, in the Bad Lands, they lost but few,, as was the case also in the battle of Tha-A-Kistory on July 28, 1864. The campaign was over by 1865 and then the regiment was discharged, whereupon Mr. Weise [sic Wiese] returned to his Clinton county home.

Mr. Wiese remained in Clinton county until 1870, when he came to Cass county and bought the farm on which he now lives. It was all virgin prairie and without the suggestion of a human habitation. But he went to work vigorously and applied his industry persistently until he converted his 160 acres of untamed land into a well cultivated and highly improved farm.

In 1867 Mr. Wiese was married to Mary Schell, a native of Holstein, Germany, born in 1847. Of their eight children five are living, Nannie (Mrs. Stafford), Emma (Mrs. Kushel of Shelby county), Dora (Mrs. Graves), and Tina and Ella, at home. They have also an adopted son, William. The father belongs to the Grand Army of the Republic, and both parents and children are members of the Lutheran Church.


From "Compendium and History of Cass County, Iowa." Chicago: Henry and Taylor & Co., 1906, pp. 548-549.

Paul Wiese, one of the original proprietors of the town, was German born, emigrated to America in 1852, and was a farmer of Scott and Clinton counties until 1870, when he removed to Cass county and settled upon a farm of 160 acres on section 33, Brighton township. He was there engaged in general farming when he became interested in the town of Marne. Mr. Wiese served three years in the sixth Iowa Cavalry during the Civil War, and was prominent in organizing the Grand Army Post at Marne, in 1884.


From "Compendium and History of Cass County, Iowa." Chicago: Henry and Taylor & Co., 1906, pg. 133.