John Streit

STREIT, STRAUT, SINGEN, SHENT, BOOR, BECKER, WABRICH

Posted By: Volunteer Transcriber
Date: 3/6/2007 at 11:48:31

Biographies from the 1914 "Past and Present of O'Brien and Osceola Counties of Iowa"

JOHN STREIT.

The Prussians have always been known as people of courage and tact; they refuse to be downed by untoward circumstances, but push onward when once a course has been determined upon until the coveted goal is reached. Innumerable instances of rare gifts in these lines might be mentioned, one of the best known in history occurring in the wars with Napoleon. Once he thought he had utterly crushed them, but a few days later they were routing his army at the great battle of Waterloo, joining the English at the proper crisis. Such people win in all walks of life, for they have not been trained to fail, or at least to admit their defeat if they do not succeed. Thus we are not surprised that one of their number, John Streit, should come to so favored a county as Gilman Township, Osceola County, Iowa, and become well established.

John Streit, pioneer settler of Osceola County, Iowa, and one of the heroes of the "grasshopper war," was born January 27, 1844, in Prussia, and is the son of Michael and Lena (Straut) Streit. His parents came to this country when he was thirteen years of age and first settled in Kenosha County, Wisconsin. In 1873 they came to Osceola County, Iowa, and homesteaded on section 4, in Gilman Township, where they lived for several years, then moved to Ashton, where their deaths occurred in 1900. Michael Streit served the three years in the Prussian army which is required of all German citizens before he came to this country, and to him and his wife were born five children: Mrs. Anna Singen, a widow now living in Ashton, this county; John, whose history is here presented; Mrs. Katie Shent, of Minnesota; Mrs. Eva Boor, of Ashton, and Andrew, a grain dealer of Ashton.

John Streit received his elementary education in the schools of his native land and when twenty-seven years of age left the paternal home in Kenosha County, Wisconsin, and homesteaded on section 4, in the northeastern part of Gilman Township, in Osceola County, Iowa. He erected a small house and he and Nick Boor broke up thirty acres of this raw prairie land in the spring of 1871, and planted their first crop. They had plenty of work to do from the beginning in the county, using all of his spare time in breaking land for his neighbors. In fact, for the first two years most of his revenue was derived from his services to his neighbors in the capacity of a plowman. He was one of a very few of these early settlers who raised a good crop during the grasshopper years and saved it from the ravages of those voracious insects. He prospered as a farmer in this county and gradually added to his original land holdings until he had three hundred and fifty acres in Gilman and Hoiman Townships. In 1903 he retired from active farm life and moved to Ashton, where he is now living a retired life, surrounded by the comforts and conveniences of modern society.

Mr. Streit was married August 28, 1876, to Mary Becker, of Minnesota, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Ferdinand Becker. Mrs. Streit had come to Minnesota with her brothers, having been born in Prussia December 8, 1853. Mr. and Mrs. Streit are the parents of seven children: Helena, who is still at home; Michael, who is living on the old homestead: Mrs. Anna Wabrich of this county, who is the mother of two children, Regina and Gregson; Nicholas, of Marshall, Minnesota; George, on the home farm, and Mary and Otto, who are still at home with their parents in Ashton.

Politically, Mr. Streit is a stanch Democrat, but has never felt inclined to take an active part in political affairs. However, he has always been interested in the civic welfare of his community and has never refused to give his support to such measures as he felt would benefit the community. He was a young man at the opening of the Civil War and tried to enlist in the Union army in Wisconsin, but was refused on account of an injured wrist. Religiously, he and the members of his family are earnest and faithful members of the Catholic Church, and give to it their earnest and zealous support at all times. He has been a director of the Farmers' Co-operative Insurance Company, of Osceola County, for the past seventeen years, and takes an active interest in this association. His career since coming to this country has been all that could be desired, and his life in this county has been as an open book, wherein his neighbors might see the record of his daily life. He has always so conducted himself that he has merited the esteem of all who know him, and for this reason is eminently entitled to representation in this volume.

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