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Herman Henry Pieper

After a life of honor and industry, fraught with good deeds to his fellow men, Hermann Henry Pieper, late of Windsor township, Fayette county, closed his earthly accounts and took up his work anew in the unseen world, leaving behind him an ample competence for his family, a host of warm friends and , what is to be admired most of all, a good name. Although an American by adoption only, he was loyal to our flag and institutions, just the same as he was in his native country, Germany, having been born in Hanover, September 29, 1835. He was reared on a farm and in June, 1879, when thirty-five years of age, he was married. The following year he gratified an ambition of long standing and came to America to try his fortune, going direct to Grant county, Wisconsin, where he spent ten years. In March, 1881, he came to Iowa, locating on the farm now owned by his heirs in Windsor township, Fayette county, one mile south of Hawkeye. He purchased one hundred and sixty acres at thirty-four dollars per acre, including crops, etc. It was owned by Mary Probst. He went in debt for most of the place and he had but little property when he first came; however, he brought a team from Wisconsin, and he had about five hundred dollars in German money to start on. This was worth only about seventy-five cents on the dollar in our money, but he was a man of great courage, good management and was not afraid of hard work, so he soon transformed the old and inadequate buildings on the place to new and substantial ones, improved the farm in every way and soon had it paid for and making a nice living by general farming. He and his wife were both members of the Lutheran church. Mr. Pieper had served as a soldier in Hanover under King George before leaving German, having been in the army eighteen months. Two of his brothers served in the Franco-Prussian war. Hermann H. Pieper passed to his rest on May 17, 1889, leaving a widow and six children, the oldest of whom was John Henry, then nineteen years of age. From the age of fourteen he had assisted in caring for the family, which consisted of the following children: John Henry; Hermann F., a farmer in Windsor township; William H., who lives in Hawkeye, being a contractor and builder; Maria Louisa, who married C. A. Bruilhelmina, who died May 16, 1908, at the age of twenty-two years and six months, a student at the Cedar Rapids Business College. John Henry Piper was born October 20, 1871, in Germany, being but an infant when his parents brought him to America. He has remained with his mother and has devoted his attention to the farm since a mere lad and he has been very successful in farming and stock raising. He began plowing when so small that it was necessary for him to reach up to hold the handles. He has made numerous improvements on the place and erected the present comfortable and substantial home some ten years ago and in 1909 he erected a large and well arranged barn Besides general farming, he is carrying on dairying, milking about fourteen cows, keeping a excellent grade of shorthorn stock. Mr. Pieper has very ably served as secretary of the local school board for several years. He is also secretary of the threshing association, being a stockholder in the Mutual Threshing Company, composed of eleven farmers. Politically, he is a Democrat, and , religiously, a member of the Lutheran church. His mother lives with him and he has always been very attentive to her every want, preferring to be free to care for her in her declining years rather than assume the responsibilities of the married state.

~transcribed for the Fayette Co IAGenWeb Project by Mary Aldrich