[page 483] JOSEPH AURACHER. Few men in recent years have figured more prominently in grain and live-stock interests in Page county than Joseph Auracher, being the owner of some of the finest cattle in the United States. A native of Pennsylvania, he was born in Northampton county on the 9th of March, 1862, a son of Christian and Mary (Buzzard) Auracher. The father was a native of Germany, while the mother was born in America of French extraction. The parents were married in Northampton county, Pennsylvania, and in 1869 came with their family to Iowa, locating on a farm in Louisa county, where their remaining days were spent. The father passed away in September, 1879, at the age of sixty-three years, while the mother's death occurred in 1899, when she had reached her seventy-third year.

On the home farm Joseph Auracher was reared to manhood, acquiring his early education in the public schools, while later he pursued a business course at the Eastern Normal College at Columbus Junction, Iowa. During the meantime he had devoted the hours not spent in study to assisting his father in the work of the farm, and he remained under the parental roof until the fall of 1885, when he went to Shenandoah, Iowa, and engaged in business on his own account, forming a partnership with O.H. Schenck in the grain business. They operated at Shenandoah and Bingham under the firm name of Schenck & Auracher, the relationship existing for about eighteen months. At the expiration of that period Mr Auracher purchased his partner's interest in the business which he has since conducted indepenently. The enterprise, which has been most successful from the first, has enjoyed a rapid andcontinuous growth and now has branches at Bingham and Summit, Mr Auracher being considered one of the leading grain men in this section of the state. He has also found time to devote his attention to other lines of activity and for the past six years he has been engaged in raising and breeding registered polled Angus cattle, and in this latter branch of his business he has been remarkably successful. He now owns some of the finest cattle of this breed in the United States and has taken premiums at all of the fairs of Page county and the surrounding counties. At Lincoln, Nebraska, he exhibited three animals and was awarded three premiums, and also exhibited at the Iowa state fair. His stock farm is located in Walnut township, Fremont county, and is known throughout [page 484] the state for its fine cattle. Preeminently a man of business, he conducts his activities in an energetic and determined manner and is a man who brings things to pass, never doing anything by halves. These characteristics have proved the salient elements in a prosperity which is now ranking him among the successful and substantial business men of Page county.

Mr Auracher laid the foundation for a happy home life by his marriage, on the 9th of March, 1893, to Miss May Scholl, of Shenandoah, Iowa, the couple being prominent among a large circle of warm friends. Fraternally Mr Auracher holds membership in Nishna Lodge, No 300, F. & A.M., and is likewise a member of the Modern Woodmen of America and of the Ancient Order of United Workmen, while along the line of his business he is the president of the Aberdeen Angus Cattle Association of the state of Iowa. His political allegiance is given to the republican party, in the affairs of which he is deeply and helpfully interested, and he has served on the city council for about seven years. Public-spirited, his influence has at all times been upon the side of progress, improvement, reform and advancement. His has been a life of continuous activity, inspired by laudable ambition, and his enterprise and aggressivenness have stood him well in the battle of life, winning him the prosperity which he now enjoys and placing him in the foremost rank as a representative citizen of Page county.