My Genealogy Hound

Adolph Wittenbach, justice of the peace and a farmer and stock-raiser of Benton Township, Osage County, Mo., was born in the County of Berne, Switzerland, in 1840, and is the second in the family of eight children born to Christian and Rosena (Suter) Wittenbach, also natives of Switzerland, the former born in 1804 and the latter in 1807. The parents were married in 1838, and ten years later immigrated to this country, locating near Cincinnati, Ohio, from which place they removed to Osage County, Mo., in May, 1851, where the father died in 1873 and the mother in 1877. Christian Wittenbach was a stone-cutter by trade, at which he worked many years. Of the eight children in this family our subject is the only survivor. George, Rosena and Gottleib died in Ohio; George the second, Mary and Louisa E. died in Osage County, Mo., and Charles died at Fort Henry while serving in the Fifth Iowa Cavalry, Union Army, in which he enlisted in October, 1861; his death occurred March 6, 1862. Adolph Wittenbach received a limited common school education, and in August, 1861, enlisted in Company M, Fifth Iowa Cavalry, which operated in most of the Southern States; he took part in the battles of Forts Henry and Donelson, Shiloh, Corinth, Paris, Chattanooga, and many severe skirmishes. Mr. Wittenbach was captured at Fort Donelson in the spring of 1863, but was allowed to rejoin his command after forty-eight hours; in May, 1864, he was captured in Georgia, spent three months in Andersonville prison, a short time in Charleston, S. C., four months at Florence, S. C., and then the Confederates hid him in a swamp near Goldsboro, N. C.; thence he was taken to his troops near Wilmington and sent to St. Louis for parole, receiving his discharge at Davenport, Iowa, in March, 1865. In January, 1866, Mr. Wittenbach married Julia Apal, a daughter of Henry Apal, both natives of Saxony. Mrs. Wittenbach died in 1868, leaving one son, Christian H. Wittenbach. Mr. Wittenbach subsequently married Fredericka, daughter of Gotlieb and Mina Toedtman, natives of Germany, who were among the pioneers of Gasconade County, where the father died in 1874; the mother’s death occurred in February, 1889, at the advanced age of seventy-seven years. The children born to Mr. and Mrs. Wittenbach are Bertha, Charles, Lydia, Mary, Mina, Julia and Adolph. Mr. Wittenbach has always lived on the old farm, which contains 280 acres, 125 acres of which he has under cultivation. He devotes considerable attention to stock raising, at which he is very successful. In 1882 he was elected justice of the peace of Benton Township, which position he still holds and creditably fills. He is a Republican in politics, and is an enterprising citizen of the township. He takes an active interest in the general welfare of the country, and spares no pains to educate his children.