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Formatted by U.S. Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott
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Biographical History of Cherokee County, Iowa
W. S. Dunbar & Co., Chigago - 1889

[page 526-527]

    JACOB MAYER, one of the successful and progressive agriculturists
    of Amherst Township, was born in Würtemberg, Germany, September 15,
    1845, and is a son of CONRAD and KATIE MAYER.  He was left an orphan
    at an early age, his father dying when he was five years old, and
    his mother when he was only one year of age.  He and one sister are
    the only children, and she still lives in their native country.
    JACOB made his home with an uncle until he was fourteen years old,
    working on the farm and attending the common schools.  From his
    fourteenth until his twenty-first year he worked by the month. He
    was then drafted into the war between Prussia and Austria in 1866,
    and was in the regular service for two years; he was held almost
    another year, when he could no longer endure the restraint, and
    ran away, coming to America.  He landed about the middle of August,
    and settled in Seneca County, Ohio, where he had an uncle living;
    there he remained only a short time, when he went to Baltimore, and
    in the spring of 1870 he came as far west as St. Louis; he spent one
    year in that city engaged as a carriage driver, and then removed to
    Illinois, where he worked by the month until he came to Cherokee
    County in 1876.  For the first three years he made his home with
    ADAM DORR.  In 1875, previous to his coming to the county, he had
    purchased a tract of eighty acres of land in Amherst Township; as
    soon as he came to the county he began to improve this land, which
    was raw prairie, and he now has one of the finest homes in the town-
    ship.  He has erected a fine two-story residence, and has added to
    his first purchase until he now owns 120 acres of land in one tract,
    and eighty-six acres in another in Tilden Township.  He has had a
    hard struggle since coming to the county, meeting all the trials
    and privations incident to pioneer life with that courage for which
    the early settlers of this section are justly noted.  Mr. MAYER'S
    home is surrounded by three acres of beautiful grove, and he has
    substantial buildings for stock and grain.  He is identified with
    the Republican party, and has represented his township officially
    as road supervisor.  Mr. MAYER was married February 14, 1876, to
    Miss AMELIA STAKE, who was born in Prussia, December 13, 1851, and
    came to America in 1874.  They are the parents of four children:
    MINNIE, EMMA, AMELIA and JOHN.  They are members of the German
    Lutheran Church, and Mr. MAYER is steward and class-leader of the
    same.

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