Christoph August Conrad Gottlieb Bartels, who went by "August", was the 6th of 7 children born to Hans Heinrich Christoph and Engel Maria Dorothea (Hahn) Bartels, at their home in #30 Horsten, Schaumburg District, Lower Saxony (Niedersachsen), Germany. His mother grew up in Lauenhagen, a few kilometers to the northwest.

Born February 5, 1857, he was baptized on February 15, 1857 at the family's home church in Bad Nenndorf. The number 30 indicates that his parents probably did not own land, and undoubtedly it was difficult for them financially (to say nothing of the other problems facing the population in that day). Immigration to America started in 1865 when his older brother Hans Christoph ("Christ") made the journey. His brothers Heinrich Christoph and Heinrich Conrad were next, in 1868. The brothers were finally able to send for him and his parents, and they arrived in New York City on 17 Jan 1871. They may have lived for a time in the German settlements south of Chicago, but by 1880 they had settled in Saline County, Nebraska, one of the first residents, and charter members of the Zion Lutheran Church south of Tobias. There were other Bartels relation in the area.

On 11 Jun 1882, he married Engel Marie Karolin "Lena" Bartels, one of those relatives in the area; she was the daughter of Ernst Heinrich Gottlieb and Engle Maria Ernestine (Krömer) Bartels, also immigrants from Meerbeck, Germany which was just only perhaps 5 miles from Lauenhagen.

All eleven of August's children were born in Saline County, Nebraska: August Henry, Marie, Sophia, Fredrich Conrad, Paulina, Ida, Anna Marie, Albert John, Martin William, Herman, and Lydia. Marie died shortly after birth.

Sometime betweeen 1905 and 1910 the Bartels again moved, this time north to Alpena South Dakota, where they spent their remaining years.