Julius Duerst is proprietor
and manager of the Franklin Hotel at Strawberry Point
and is proving himself a most successful and popular
hotel man in his native village, where he is
maintaining his hotel at such a standard as to gain
the appreciative supporting patronage of the
traveling public and also of the local trade.
He was born in the village
that is now his home and the date of his nativity was
August 20, 1869. He is one of the six surviving
children of George and Mary (Brader) Duerst, who
immigrated to America from Germany in the early '50s
and who established their home in the city of
Dubuque, Iowa, which then had little of metropolitan
pretensions. In 1855, they came to Clayton county and
established their residence at Strawberry Point, and
here the father engaged in the work of his trade,
that of tinner. Later he turned his attention to the
selling of agricultural implements and machinery, and
finally he became a traveling salesman for a
wholesale shoe house. After having made a successful
record of several years in this vocation he engaged
in the general merchandise business at Strawberry
Point, where he built up a prosperous enterprise and
where he continued his active association with the
same until 1890, since which time he has here lived
virtually retired, his devoted wife having passed to
eternal rest in 1890 and both having become
communicants of the Lutheran church before leaving
their native land.
To the public schools of his
native village Julius Duerst is indebted for his
early educational advantages, and here he was
employed as a salesman in mercantile establishments
from his youth until April 1, 1916, when he became
proprietor of the Franklin Hotel, to the management
of which he and his wife have since given their
effective attention, their house being the best hotel
in Strawberry Point and receiving a substantial and
profitable supporting patronage.
Mr. Duerst has shown himself
loyal and liberal as a citizen, is a staunch
supporter of the cause of the Republican party but
has never sought or held public office. He is
affiliated with the local lodge of the Independent
Order of Odd Fellows, as well as its adjunct
organization, the Daughters of Rebekah, and holds
membership also in the Modern Woodmen of America and
the Brotherhood of American Yeomen. He and his wife
hold membership in the Lutheran church.
The year 1911 recorded the
marriage of Mr. Duerst to Mrs. Emma (Baluff) Brink,
who was born and reared in this county and who is a
daughter of John and Mary Jane (Nace) Baluff, both
now deceased, the father having been a boy at the
time of his parents' immigration from Germany and his
wife having been born in Virginia. They became the
parents of four children, of whom three are living.
Mr. and Mrs. Duerst have no children but Mrs. Duerst
has one son by her former marriage, Bert Lee Brink,
who is married and now resides in the city of St.
Paul, Minnesota.
source: History of
Clayton County, Iowa; From The Earliest Historical
Times Down to the Present; by Realto E. Price,
Vol. II, 1916; pg. 96-97
-OCR scanned by S. Ferrall
