Cerro Gordo County Deaths:
Brentner, George Germany M 1885 Apr 9 81y
[Following bio by John J. Long, #47619262]
George Brentner, along with family member John B. Long, Sr., co-founded Mason City, Iowa on Nov. 21, 1855.
George reached American shores as a 13-year-old stowaway on a transatlantic ship from his native Germany. Unable to read or write, he nonetheless became a successful business man.
Long first laid eyes on the virgin prairie land of Cerro Gordo Co. while visiting in 1853. He returned to his family in Rockford, Illinois where George and his family also lived.
Inspired by Long's vision, both families moved to Cerro Gordo Co. in the spring of 1854. In this same year, after completing the surveys, the Federal Gov't put the county land up for sale to private owners. After George purchased 1,836 acres and John B. purchased 300 acres, they developed a plat for a future city.
How did George, an uneducated stowaway have the means to buy this quantity of land? After hearing about the discovery of gold in Calif in 1849, George left Illinois with his second eldest son for the gold fields near Sacramento. According to family members, his pockets were lined with gold nuggets when he returned. True or not, what is fact is that he returned a much wealthier man than when he left.
After founding the city, George and Julia continued to live in Mason City proper where they would eventually live out their lives. For many years the couple lived in a house at the corner of 4th St. and Washington Avenue while he continued to manage his land holdings.
Julia was almost 73 at the time of her passing in 1879. George died six years later at age 81.
Following bio by Timothy H. Parker:
I left Wabash township, Jay Co., Ind., Sept., 10, 1855, with two teams, to come to Iowa. We were five weeks getting ten miles west of Dubuque. It got very cold and as I had no claim picked out in Cerro Gordo county, the place toward which I was making, I concluded to leave my family and go ahead alone to find a location. So I rented a house, got my family comfortably domiciled and came to Mason City, purchasing the farm on which I now live. I then returned to my family, and in the following April started to my land in Cerro Gordo county. When I got to the Shell Rock river, the ice was running and we couldn't cross with the wagons, so I got Enoch Wiltfong to help swim the horses over and take the family, beds, stoves, etc., across, giving him one dollar for his trouble. After paying Wiltfong I had thirty cents left to begin the summer.
The next winter I went to Cedar Rapids and hauled a load of mill irons for George Brentner, receiving for the job seventy dollars, with which I bought stuff that was called flour, at five dollars per hundred. We had bad luck with the first two crops of corn we planted, as the early frosts killed both, and we had almost nothing to feed our cattle. We had six cows, however, that we had brought with us, and these helped us weather the storm all right.
One day, in 1856, we were visited by an Indian squaw, who wanted to trade us her papoose for a bushel of potatoes, because the little thing was sick, and she didn't want to take care of it; but we didn't care about dealing in that kind of goods, and so didn't make a trade. When we first came to Cerro Gordo we didn't have very good religious privileges, and it was very seldom that we got the benefit of hearing a good sermon. I remember the first Sabbath I spent in this county. I went to Mason City, to see if there was any meeting; all I found was a Sunday school, and there was but little satisfaction in that, as there wasn't a man to open the school by prayer.
Brentner, George Germany M 1885 Apr 9 81y
[Following bio by John J. Long, #47619262]
George Brentner, along with family member John B. Long, Sr., co-founded Mason City, Iowa on Nov. 21, 1855.
George reached American shores as a 13-year-old stowaway on a transatlantic ship from his native Germany. Unable to read or write, he nonetheless became a successful business man.
Long first laid eyes on the virgin prairie land of Cerro Gordo Co. while visiting in 1853. He returned to his family in Rockford, Illinois where George and his family also lived.
Inspired by Long's vision, both families moved to Cerro Gordo Co. in the spring of 1854. In this same year, after completing the surveys, the Federal Gov't put the county land up for sale to private owners. After George purchased 1,836 acres and John B. purchased 300 acres, they developed a plat for a future city.
How did George, an uneducated stowaway have the means to buy this quantity of land? After hearing about the discovery of gold in Calif in 1849, George left Illinois with his second eldest son for the gold fields near Sacramento. According to family members, his pockets were lined with gold nuggets when he returned. True or not, what is fact is that he returned a much wealthier man than when he left.
After founding the city, George and Julia continued to live in Mason City proper where they would eventually live out their lives. For many years the couple lived in a house at the corner of 4th St. and Washington Avenue while he continued to manage his land holdings.
Julia was almost 73 at the time of her passing in 1879. George died six years later at age 81.
Following bio by Timothy H. Parker:
I left Wabash township, Jay Co., Ind., Sept., 10, 1855, with two teams, to come to Iowa. We were five weeks getting ten miles west of Dubuque. It got very cold and as I had no claim picked out in Cerro Gordo county, the place toward which I was making, I concluded to leave my family and go ahead alone to find a location. So I rented a house, got my family comfortably domiciled and came to Mason City, purchasing the farm on which I now live. I then returned to my family, and in the following April started to my land in Cerro Gordo county. When I got to the Shell Rock river, the ice was running and we couldn't cross with the wagons, so I got Enoch Wiltfong to help swim the horses over and take the family, beds, stoves, etc., across, giving him one dollar for his trouble. After paying Wiltfong I had thirty cents left to begin the summer.
The next winter I went to Cedar Rapids and hauled a load of mill irons for George Brentner, receiving for the job seventy dollars, with which I bought stuff that was called flour, at five dollars per hundred. We had bad luck with the first two crops of corn we planted, as the early frosts killed both, and we had almost nothing to feed our cattle. We had six cows, however, that we had brought with us, and these helped us weather the storm all right.
One day, in 1856, we were visited by an Indian squaw, who wanted to trade us her papoose for a bushel of potatoes, because the little thing was sick, and she didn't want to take care of it; but we didn't care about dealing in that kind of goods, and so didn't make a trade. When we first came to Cerro Gordo we didn't have very good religious privileges, and it was very seldom that we got the benefit of hearing a good sermon. I remember the first Sabbath I spent in this county. I went to Mason City, to see if there was any meeting; all I found was a Sunday school, and there was but little satisfaction in that, as there wasn't a man to open the school by prayer.
Cerro Gordo County Deaths:
Brentner, George Germany M 1885 Apr 9 81y
[Following bio by John J. Long, #47619262]
George Brentner, along with family member John B. Long, Sr., co-founded Mason City, Iowa on Nov. 21, 1855.
George reached American shores as a 13-year-old stowaway on a transatlantic ship from his native Germany. Unable to read or write, he nonetheless became a successful business man.
Long first laid eyes on the virgin prairie land of Cerro Gordo Co. while visiting in 1853. He returned to his family in Rockford, Illinois where George and his family also lived.
Inspired by Long's vision, both families moved to Cerro Gordo Co. in the spring of 1854. In this same year, after completing the surveys, the Federal Gov't put the county land up for sale to private owners. After George purchased 1,836 acres and John B. purchased 300 acres, they developed a plat for a future city.
How did George, an uneducated stowaway have the means to buy this quantity of land? After hearing about the discovery of gold in Calif in 1849, George left Illinois with his second eldest son for the gold fields near Sacramento. According to family members, his pockets were lined with gold nuggets when he returned. True or not, what is fact is that he returned a much wealthier man than when he left.
After founding the city, George and Julia continued to live in Mason City proper where they would eventually live out their lives. For many years the couple lived in a house at the corner of 4th St. and Washington Avenue while he continued to manage his land holdings.
Julia was almost 73 at the time of her passing in 1879. George died six years later at age 81.
Following bio by Timothy H. Parker:
I left Wabash township, Jay Co., Ind., Sept., 10, 1855, with two teams, to come to Iowa. We were five weeks getting ten miles west of Dubuque. It got very cold and as I had no claim picked out in Cerro Gordo county, the place toward which I was making, I concluded to leave my family and go ahead alone to find a location. So I rented a house, got my family comfortably domiciled and came to Mason City, purchasing the farm on which I now live. I then returned to my family, and in the following April started to my land in Cerro Gordo county. When I got to the Shell Rock river, the ice was running and we couldn't cross with the wagons, so I got Enoch Wiltfong to help swim the horses over and take the family, beds, stoves, etc., across, giving him one dollar for his trouble. After paying Wiltfong I had thirty cents left to begin the summer.
The next winter I went to Cedar Rapids and hauled a load of mill irons for George Brentner, receiving for the job seventy dollars, with which I bought stuff that was called flour, at five dollars per hundred. We had bad luck with the first two crops of corn we planted, as the early frosts killed both, and we had almost nothing to feed our cattle. We had six cows, however, that we had brought with us, and these helped us weather the storm all right.
One day, in 1856, we were visited by an Indian squaw, who wanted to trade us her papoose for a bushel of potatoes, because the little thing was sick, and she didn't want to take care of it; but we didn't care about dealing in that kind of goods, and so didn't make a trade. When we first came to Cerro Gordo we didn't have very good religious privileges, and it was very seldom that we got the benefit of hearing a good sermon. I remember the first Sabbath I spent in this county. I went to Mason City, to see if there was any meeting; all I found was a Sunday school, and there was but little satisfaction in that, as there wasn't a man to open the school by prayer.
Brentner, George Germany M 1885 Apr 9 81y
[Following bio by John J. Long, #47619262]
George Brentner, along with family member John B. Long, Sr., co-founded Mason City, Iowa on Nov. 21, 1855.
George reached American shores as a 13-year-old stowaway on a transatlantic ship from his native Germany. Unable to read or write, he nonetheless became a successful business man.
Long first laid eyes on the virgin prairie land of Cerro Gordo Co. while visiting in 1853. He returned to his family in Rockford, Illinois where George and his family also lived.
Inspired by Long's vision, both families moved to Cerro Gordo Co. in the spring of 1854. In this same year, after completing the surveys, the Federal Gov't put the county land up for sale to private owners. After George purchased 1,836 acres and John B. purchased 300 acres, they developed a plat for a future city.
How did George, an uneducated stowaway have the means to buy this quantity of land? After hearing about the discovery of gold in Calif in 1849, George left Illinois with his second eldest son for the gold fields near Sacramento. According to family members, his pockets were lined with gold nuggets when he returned. True or not, what is fact is that he returned a much wealthier man than when he left.
After founding the city, George and Julia continued to live in Mason City proper where they would eventually live out their lives. For many years the couple lived in a house at the corner of 4th St. and Washington Avenue while he continued to manage his land holdings.
Julia was almost 73 at the time of her passing in 1879. George died six years later at age 81.
Following bio by Timothy H. Parker:
I left Wabash township, Jay Co., Ind., Sept., 10, 1855, with two teams, to come to Iowa. We were five weeks getting ten miles west of Dubuque. It got very cold and as I had no claim picked out in Cerro Gordo county, the place toward which I was making, I concluded to leave my family and go ahead alone to find a location. So I rented a house, got my family comfortably domiciled and came to Mason City, purchasing the farm on which I now live. I then returned to my family, and in the following April started to my land in Cerro Gordo county. When I got to the Shell Rock river, the ice was running and we couldn't cross with the wagons, so I got Enoch Wiltfong to help swim the horses over and take the family, beds, stoves, etc., across, giving him one dollar for his trouble. After paying Wiltfong I had thirty cents left to begin the summer.
The next winter I went to Cedar Rapids and hauled a load of mill irons for George Brentner, receiving for the job seventy dollars, with which I bought stuff that was called flour, at five dollars per hundred. We had bad luck with the first two crops of corn we planted, as the early frosts killed both, and we had almost nothing to feed our cattle. We had six cows, however, that we had brought with us, and these helped us weather the storm all right.
One day, in 1856, we were visited by an Indian squaw, who wanted to trade us her papoose for a bushel of potatoes, because the little thing was sick, and she didn't want to take care of it; but we didn't care about dealing in that kind of goods, and so didn't make a trade. When we first came to Cerro Gordo we didn't have very good religious privileges, and it was very seldom that we got the benefit of hearing a good sermon. I remember the first Sabbath I spent in this county. I went to Mason City, to see if there was any meeting; all I found was a Sunday school, and there was but little satisfaction in that, as there wasn't a man to open the school by prayer.
Family Members
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