George J. Rothmeyer George J. Rothmeyer - In
sections 28 and 29, Boardman township, is situated the
well improved farm of one hundred and sixty acres that is
owned and operated by Mr. Rothmeyer, and as one of the
popular native sons and progressive agriculturists of
Clayton county, he is entitled to specific recognition in
this history of the county and its people. He was born in
Boardman township, this county, on the fifth of April,
1872, and is a son of Matthias and Josephine (Thein)
Rothmeyer, the former of whom was born in Germany and the
latter in Wisconsin, in which state her parents settled
in the pioneer days. Matthias Rothmeyer was reared to
manhood in his native land, where his father was a
substantial farmer, and he was twenty-nine years of age
when he severed the ties that bound him to home and
fatherland and set forth to seek his fortune in America.
He was fortified by strong mind and body and by dauntless
courage and determination, and thus he was well equipped
for winning independence and prosperity without relying
on fortuitous financial influences, his monetary
resources having been but nominal when he came to
America. He came to Iowa and established his permanent
home in Clayton county, where he eventually became the
owner of a tract of raw land, which he developed into one
of the productive and well-improved farms of Boardman
township. He became one of the prosperous farmers and
substantial and honored citizens of that township, where
he continued his earnest and well-ordered activities
until his financial status justified him in retiring from
the labors and responsibilities that had long engrossed
his attention, and he removed to Elkader, the county
seat, where he is now living in well merited comfort and
prosperity, his political allegiance being given to the
Democratic party and his religious faith being that of
the Catholic church, of which his wife likewise was a
devout communicant, her death having occurred on the 25th
of August, 1914. Of their children, George J., of this
review, is the eldest; the second son died in infancy;
Catherine was a child at the time of her death; Clara is
the wife of Barney Muench, of Elkader; Charles resides
upon and has charge of his father's old homestead farm,
in Boardman township; and Ella remains with her father
and has supervision of the domestic economies of their
pleasant home at Elkader. George J. Rothmeyer is indebted
to the public schools of his native township for his
early educational training, and in the meanwhile he did
well his part in connection with the activities of the
home farm, in the management of which he continued to be
associated until he had attained to the age of twenty-six
years. He then initiated his independent career as a
farmer on a rented place of one hundred and eighty-five
acres. On this farm he continued operations two years and
for the ensuing three years he continued his activities
under similar conditions on a farm of one hundred and
seventy-seven acres, likewise in his native township. He
had applied himself with diligence and good judgment, had
carefully conserved his financial resources, and at the
expiration of the three years, in 1902, he was enabled to
purchase his present fine farm, to the improvement and
cultivation of which he is now giving his time and
attention, with characteristic vigor and good judgment,
the farm being a center of progressive operations along
the lines of diversified agriculture and the raising of
good grades of livestock. Mr. Rothmeyer has had no
ambition for the honors or emoluments of public office or
to enter the arena of practical politics, but he is
liberal and loyal in his civic attitude and is affiliated
with the Democratic party, both he and his wife being
communicants of the Catholic church. Their home is
eligibly situated and receives mail service on rural
route No.2 from Elkader. November 27, 1900, was the date
on which was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Rothmeyer to
Miss Margaret McGee, who was both [sic] in the city of
Boston, Mass., and who is a daughter of James and Mary
(Fitzgerald) McGee, both natives of Ireland and both now
deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Rothmeyer have three children,
whose names and respective dates of birth are here noted:
Josephine Catherine, September 17, 1901; Mary Frances,
December 31, 1904; and Karl Finton, October 12, 1906. source: History of Clayton
County, Iowa; From The Earliest Historical Times Down to
the Present; by Realto E. Price, Vol. II; pg.
357-359 |