My Genealogy Hound

DEIMAN, HENRY, farmer and stock-grower, Sec. 17; P. O. Fort Madison; born in Hanover, Germany, 1817; his parents were very poor, and at the age of 7, he was turned out to shift for himself; at 26, having accumulated about $400, he emigrated to America; arrived in Clinton Co., Ill., where he settled, in 1843; on the vessel in which he crossed the ocean was Miss Elizabeth Johnson, who was born in the same place and was of the same age as himself; she was also coming to this country to seek her fortune; being alone, a friendship, naturally sprang up between them, which ripened into love and a promise of marriage; Miss Johnson accompanied Deiman to Clinton Co., where they were married soon after their arrival; they invested their united fortunes in a small farm of 120 acres, and engaged in farming for seven years; at the end of that time they sold the farm, stock, etc., and removed to Quincy, Ill., where he formed a co-partnership with a brother-in-law, who was engaged in buying hides and pelts; subsequently, he engaged in the grain trade, and lost everything. After this misfortune, he removed to Fort Madison, in 1852, and, almost penniless, recommenced the battle of life as a laborer and teamster; in two years he bought a tract of bottom-land below Fort Madison, which he occupied for five years, then returned to Fort Madison and purchased twelve acres in Trustees’ Addition to city, where he built a fine brick residence, and engaged in pork-packing; in the fall of 1878, bought his present farm, consisting of 255 acres, now valued at $55 per acre, all in a high state of cultivation, and well stocked; and supplied with all kinds of modern labor-saving farm machinery. They have two children — Joseph, born in Fort Madison, and Elizabeth (now the wife of Lawrence Figgen), born in Fort Madison, in 1855. At the age of 14, Joseph entered the First National Bank, at Fort Madison; at a salary equivalent to his board; at the ensuing Christmas the President of the Bank, as a reward for his faithfulness and industry in discharging the duties assigned him, made him a present of $300; he remained in the employ of this Bank for eight years, after which he became a partner with Henry McCown and Henry Cattermole, in the organization of the German Savings Bank, and became one of its principal managers. In 1875, he was granted a vacation and visited Europe, where for six months, he traveled through Germany, Holland and England.