~Page 957~

ERNEST L. NUS

A man who has made a success of farming and stock raising because he has worked consistently and along proper lines and relied upon his own judgment rather than seeking the opinions of others and waiting for someone else to do his work, is Ernest L. Nus, a well established farmer in Fairfield township, Fayette county, who was born September 12, 1869, in this county. He is the son of Hugo and Henreicka NUS, a well known and highly respected family of this county, the elder Nus being a wealthy farmer who came to the United States from Germany, locating in Fayette county, in 1853, without a dollar, but who, by characteristic German energy and thrift, has accumulated one of the most valuable and best improved farms in the county. He and his wife perhaps have the largest family of children, there being seventeen in number, of any family in the county.

Ernest Nus remained on the home farm, assisting with the general work about the place until he was of age. He received a good common school education, and began life for himself as a laborer; he saved his earnings and when he had a sufficient capital purchased a Percheron-Norman horse for breeding purposes. This investment proved very successful and in a few years he had other valuable imported horses. The Percheron-Normans have always been his favorites, although he has kept various grades of the equine family, and, being by nature an exceptionally good judge of a horse, he has been unusually successful in this respect, those he desired to place on the market finding ready sales, and his stock has long been greatly admired throughout this locality. He has favored Belgian horses and at the present time he has a number of excellent stallions of different ages, also a number of thoroughbred mares, all of which are valued at several thousand dollars. He also has a fine herd of Aberdeen-Angus cattle, and is a breeder of Duroc-Jersey hogs. In fact, no man is better known as a stock breeder in Fayette county. He is the owner of one of the county's choice farms, well improved and carefully tilled, and he has a very pleasant home and has built large and convenient farms for the care of his different lines of livestock.

Mr. Nus has never assumed the responsibilities of the married state. His brother, Richard Nus and wife, keeping house for him in his residence and assisting him with the general farm work and handling the livestock. In view of the fact that he started in life empty handed, he is certainly deserving of the large success that has attended his efforts. Religiously, he belongs to the German Evangelical Lutheran church, to which he contributes liberally, while in politics he votes for the best man irrespective of party.

~transcribed for the Fayette Co IAGenWeb Project by Chuck Taylor