Nicholas Neu, 1850

NEU, RODESCH, FÜNFSINN, PETRY, TILL, HEIMAN, DUNCK

Posted By: Mona Sarratt Knight
Date: 10/25/2015 at 09:54:11

NICHOLAS NEU, a retired agriculturist residing at No. 914 North Court Street in Carroll, was long and successfully identified with agricultural interests and is still quite an extensive landowner of this county. He is a stockholder and director in the Carroll Trust & Savings Bank and is likewise active in the control of other business institutions. His birth occurred in Luxemburg, Germany, on the 27th of March, 1850, his parents being Philip and Kathrine (Rodesch) Neu, who were likewise natives of that country. His paternal grandfather, Philip Neu, followed farming as a life work and passed away in Germany when well advanced in years. Unto him and his wife, who bore the maiden name of Kathrina Petry, were born two sons and two daughters, namely: Philip, Theodore, Kathrina and Margaret. The maternal grandfather of our subject, who was a farmer and hotel keeper, passed away in Germany at a ripe old age. He was the father of eleven children, all deceased.

Philip Neu, the father of Nicholas Neu, was successfully engaged in business as a farmer and stock dealer and passed away in Germany when forty-seven years of age. His wife, surviving him, emigrated to America in the early '80s and died at Templeton, Iowa, when eighty-two years of age. Both were Catholics in religious faith. They were the parents of five sons and one daughter, as follows: Peter D., who came to the United States during the Civil war and was never heard from again; Theodore, who is deceased; Margaret, the deceased wife of John Till, of Bellevue, Iowa; Charles, who has also passed away; Nicholas, of this review; and Peter, deceased.

Nicholas Neu was reared in Luxemburg, Germany, and there acquired his education. He grew to manhood on his father's farm and became familiar with the business of stock-raising and grain buying. In the fall of 1867, having determined to establish his home on this side the Atlantic, he emigrated to the United States and settled in Troy Grove, La Salle county, Illinois, where he continued to reside until 1880. In that year he came to Carroll county, Iowa, purchasing and locating on a farm of three hundred and twenty acres in Arcadia township. He brought the fields under a high state of cultivation and improvement and extended the boundaries of the place by an additional purchase of one hundred and twenty acres. Subsequently he disposed of the property and, putting aside the active work of the fields, took up his abode in Carroll. He now owns three quarter sections in Richland township, Carroll County, and also has large tracts of land in Nebraska and South Dakota. Financial interests have also claimed his attention. He is a stockholder and director in the Carroll Trust & Savings Bank and is active in the control of other business institutions.

On the 6th of April 1869, Mr. Neu was joined in wedlock to Miss Mary Fünfsinn, who was born in Troy Grove, La Salle county, Illinois, on the 16th of November, 1851, her parents being Henry and Kathrina (Rodesch) Fünfsinn, the former a native of Prussia and the latter of Luxemburg, Germany. Emigrating to America, they settled in La Salle county, Illinois, on the 3d of March, 1850. Henry Fünfsinn there passed away in 1891, when seventy years of age, while the demise of his wife occurred in 1909, when she had attained the age of eighty-one. They were the parents of the following children: August, Peter, Mary, John, Katie, Anna, Henry, Rosa and Maggie. Mr. and Mrs. Neu have six children, namely: Katie, who is at home; Peter H., an agriculturist by occupation; Maggie Margaret, living in Carroll, who is the wife of William Heiman and has one son, Walter; Philip D., a merchant of Templeton, Iowa, who wedded Miss Agnes Dunck, who followed the profession of teaching in Carroll county for eight years and who is now the mother of two children, Harold N. and Ruth Ida; August H., living in Templeton; and Ida, who is still under the parental roof.

In politics Mr. Neu has always been a stanch republican. He served as secretary of the school board in Arcadia township for fourteen years and while residing in Illinois held the office of tax collector. He belongs to the Roman Catholic Protective Society and is also a faithful communicant of SS. Peter and Paul's Catholic church, of which his wife is likewise a member. Coming to the United States in early manhood and wisely utilizing the opportunities offered in a land unhampered by caste or class, he has since worked his way steadily upward from a position of comparative obscurity to one of prominence and prosperity, being now numbered among the most substantial and esteemed citizens of Carroll county.

Source: History of Carroll County Iowa, by Paul MacLean, Illustrated, The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company (1912) Chicago, Volume II, page 212.