The admirable agricultural
resources of Clayton county have constituted the
secure basis of its progress and prosperity, and as
exponents of the great fundamental industry of
farming there are found at the present time a goodly
number of alert and valued representatives of the
second generation of families whose names have been
prominently and worthily linked with the development
and advancement of this section of the state.
Frederick W. Bauer is one of the native sons of
Clayton county, who holds prestige as one of the
substantial agriculturists and representative
citizens of Boardman township, where he owns and
operates a well improved farm of one hundred and
eighty acres.
Mr. Bauer was born in
Garnavillo township, this county, on the 31st of
August, 1869, and is a son of William and Emma
(Hochhause) Bauer, both of whom were born in Germany.
William Bauer was a child when he accompanied his
parents on their immigration to America, and the
family home was established in the State of Ohio,
where he was reared to adult age and received a good
common school education. As a young man he came to
Iowa and numbered himself among the pioneers of
Clayton county. He purchased a tract of land in
Garnavillo township and reclaimed the same into a
productive farm. In the late '80s he sold this
property advantageously and soon afterward purchased
the farm now occupied by his son, Frederick W., the
immediate subject of this sketch. Here he continued
his successful activities as a thrifty and
progressive agriculturist and stock-grower until
about 1906, since which time he and his wife have
maintained their residence in the city of Dubuque,
where he is living virtually retired, in the
enjoyment of the tangible rewards of former years of
earnest toil and endeavor. He contributed his quota
to the development of Clayton county along both civic
and industrial lines and both he and his wife have a
wide circle of friends in this county. They are
zealous communicants of the Catholic church and his
political affiliation is with the Democratic party.
Of the children the eldest is he whose name
introduces this article; Elizabeth is the wife of Max
Ovitz and they maintain their home at Elkader, the
judicial center of this county; Otilla is the wife of
Joseph Schiltz, of Dubuque; Agnes is the wife of Paul
Schammel, of Waterloo, this state; Charles and Irma
are with their parents in Dubuque; and Amelia died in
childhood.
Frederick W. Bauer reverts
to the excellent public schools of his native county
as the medium through which he acquired his early
education, and his initial experience in connection
with the practical affairs of life was that gained in
his early association with the work of the home farm.
This discipline, continued through the period of his
youth, well fitted him for the responsibilities which
he assumed when he engaged in farming and
stock-growing in an independent way and has
contributed materially to his winning of precedence
as one of the thorough-going, ambitious and
successful farmers of his native county. He continued
his association with his father in the work and
management of the farm until his parents left the
homestead to enjoy urban life, and thereafter he
rented the place of his father until 1906, when he
purchased the property, which now comprises a farm of
one hundred and forty acres, equipped with a
substantial and attractive modern house of two
stories, and with excellent barns, fences and other
accessories of a model farmstead. With much of
discrimination and enterprise Mr. Bauer carries
forward his operations along the line of properly
diversified agriculture, and he likewise gives
attention to the breeding and raising of high-grade
live stock. As a publicspirited citizen of well
reinforced political convictions, he is aligned as a
staunch supporter of the Democratic party, both he
and his wife being communicants of the Catholic
church, in the faith of which they were reared.
On the 16th of November,
1900, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Bauer to
Miss Eva Fryetich, who likewise was born in Clayton
county, where her father has long been a prosperous
farmer, and the five children of this union are:
Florence, Evaline, Clarence, Helen and Marian.
source: History of
Clayton County, Iowa; From The Earliest Historical
Times Down to the Present; by Realto E. Price,
Vol. II; pg. 30-31
-OCR scanned by S. Ferrall
