Wehrmacher, William H.

MEYER, WAHLMAN, WEIDEMANN

Posted By: BCGS
Date: 1/22/2010 at 10:25:57

William H. Wehrmacher, a prominent and able representative of the legal fraternity in Bremer county, is a junior member of the law firm of Dawson & Wehrmacher of Waverly. He now holds the important position of county attorney, having been first elected to that office idn the fall of 1910 and reelected two years later. His birth occurred in Franklin township, Bremer county, on the 15th of September, 1875, his parents being John H. and Emma (Meyer) Wehrmacher, the former born in the province of Hanover, Germany, on the 25th of May, 1852, and the latter in Indiana on the 3d of February, 1855. John H. Wehrmacher devoted his attention to general agricultural pursuits until about 1900 and then embarked in the immplement business at Sumner, Iowa. After some years he turned his attention to the real-estate business, handling his own property. He is a director in the First National Bank of Sumner, is likewise connected with the Savings Bank at that place and has extensive property holdings in this county and also in Texas. The public offices he has held include those of township assessor and school director. The prosperity which has crowned his efforts is well merited, and he has long been numbered among the leading and esteemed citizens of his community. To him and his wife were born children, of whom our subject is the oldest.

William H. Wehrmacher began his education in the schools of his native township and later attended the high school at Sumner, while subsequently he pursued a preparatory course of study in the Upper Iowa University at Fayette. When a youth of seventeen he secured employment as bookkeeper in what was then the Bank of Sumner and remained in that position for two and a half years, on the expiration of which period he entered Drake University of Des Moines to prepare for the practice of law. On the 1st of June, 1898, he opened an office at Sumner and there remained as a general law practitioner until October 1, 1907, when he came to Waverly and formed a partnership with Edward A. Dawson. The firm of Dawson & Wehrmacher has since been accorded a liberal and lucrative clientage and enjoys an enviable reputation in professional ranks. In the fall of 1910 Mr. Wehrmacher was elected county attorney and still remains the incumbent in that position, having been honored by reelection in the fall of 1912. In this connection he has made a most creditable and commendable record, proving his fitness for the office in the able and conscientious discharge of his important duties.

On the 3d of January, 1899, Mr. Wehrmacher was joined in wedlock to Miss Lulu Wahlman, who was born at Sumner, this county, on the 8th of May, 1876, and is the only child of Henry and Mary (Wiedemann) Wahlman, natives of Germany. The father was first engaged in the general merchandise business at Sumner but subsequently embarked in the furniture business and is now living retired at that place. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Wehrmacher has been born one child, Selma B., whose natal day was November 22, 1901.

Since age conferred upon him the right of franchise Mr. Wehrmacher has supported the men and measures of the democracy. He has served as school director at Sumner and the cause of education has ever found in him a stalwart champion. His religious faith is indicated by his membership in the Lutheran church, while fraternally he is identified with the Woodmen. Both he and his wife have spent their entire lives in Bremer county and enjoy an extensive and favorable acquaintance within its borders. His individual worth has gained him the friendship and warm personal regard which in every land and clime are accorded in recognition of those characteristics which work for honorable manhood and citizenship. He possesses that quality which for want of a better term has been called personal magnetism, having the happy faculty of drawing men to him by reason of his sterling character, his geniality, his kindly spirit and his hospitality.

History of Bremer County, Iowa Vol II 1914