Sedgwick County KSGenWeb

Portrait And Biographical Album of Sedgwick County, Kan.

Chapman Brothers 1888

Page 485  

GEORGE LAUTERBACH. Many of the most enterprising and prosperous farmers of Sedgwick County have come from the land beyond the sea, and especially is this true of the many who have left their homes in the German Empire and sought in this land of freedom a refuge from the military despotism and the penury and poverty that so rule their native land. Among these quite a prominent figure is the gentleman whose name heads this sketch, and who makes his home on section 35, in Ohio Township.

            Mr. Lauterback was born Sept. 15, 1844, amid the beautiful scenery that adorns his native Bavaria. A sketch of his parents is given in that of his brother, John G. Lauterbach, of Ohio Township, elsewhere in the pages of this ALBUM, and it were needless to repeat it here. He was reared to man's estate in the fatherland, and received a fair education in his native town, so characteristic of the German youth. Since leaving school he has been quite a reader, and has thus acquired quite a tolerable amount of information upon general subjects. In 1868, with a laudable intention of bettering his fortunes in life, he made up his mind to emigrate to the New World. and taking passage at Bremen on one of the great steamers that ply from that port, after an ocean voyage that lasted some thirteen days, landed in the city of New York. He at once started for Illinois, and for more than a year was employed as a farm hand in Will County. From that place he came to Kansas, and for a short time made his home in Franklin and Wilson Counties, but in 1871 came to Sedgwick County. He pre-empted the southwest quarter of section 35, in Ohio Township, where he was one of the first settlers, and upon which he located before there was a furrow turned on his land, and in the development of his place has had to undergo the usual hardships incident to pioneer life.

            Our subject was united in marriage, Aug. 27, 1883, with Miss Barbara Kolb, who is also a native of Bavaria, and was born April 14, 1864. They have been the parents of three children, as follows: Louisa M., who was born Oct. 28, 1884; John R., Nov. 3, 1885, and William C., Feb. 20, 1887. Mr. Lauterbach is the owner of 320 acres of land in Ohio Township, all of which he has made by industry, perseverance and frugality, being the architect of his own fortunes. For a number of years after he had first settled upon this place he kept bachelor's hall, doing his own work, including the cooking, etc., in order that he might get a start in life.

            Mr. Lauterbach is entirely independent of party lines in his politics, considering, in the exercise of his elective franchise, rather the fitness of the man for the office than the party who placed him in nomination. He is a member of the Christian Church, and rules his life by the doctrines taught by the Holy Scriptures. Public-spirited to a great degree, he takes great interest in every measure which is calculated to benefit the community, or to accrue to the good of society in general.

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