LIFE WAS GOOD IN 1915. Copyright 2020 by John C. Engel.
Life was good in rural Linn County, Iowa for great granddad Geo. J. Engel back in 1915.
He and Johanna were raising their still-growing family of seven kids on the 200 acre family homestead they rented from his father. He raised Aberdeen Angus cattle and Shropshire sheep.
George served as town clerk and election clerk, ran the township's telephone association, was the buyer for the Jackson Grain Co., headed the local farm bureau, ran the Community Club, wrote the local gossip column for the Cedar Rapids Evening Gazette, and held positions in the local Woodman's lodge. For years he organized the Covington Short Course - an agricultural fair that featured educational programs.
One of his children joked that it seemed that about the last thing George wanted to do was work on the farm!
A listing in the 1915 Marion, Iowa Directory shows George bought a brand new 1916 Overland that year, He didn't drive cars, so my Grandpa Jack, the oldest son, had that duty.
Things went bad five years later. George's father got mad and booted his son and then 8 grandchildren off the farm. They settled down in Clear Lake, Wisconsin in 1921, but there were hard times there. Post-war real estate prices were high and George had to pay a local record price for a farm - $40,000. Agricultural prices plummeted within a few years and they lost the farm. They bought a cheaper farm and started to recover but five years later the stock market collapsed, starting the Great Depression. The family made do but when George died in 1943 the farm was still mortgaged for more than it was worth.
George and Johanna were still happy through all this, He had stayed active in civic affairs, serving on the school board, village board, and as assessor, He headed the Four County Corners National Farm Loan Association which arranged loans for farmer/members from the Federal Land Bank. George also served as a director of Farmers Cooperative Creamery.
George's obituary In the Clear Lake Star noted that he was held in high esteem in the community.
*****
A STROKE ON CHRISTMAS NIGHT. Copyright 2022 by John C. Engel.
Great-grandfather George J. Engel suffered a stroke on Christmas night in 1936. He recovered, resumed his farming and his post as town assessor in Black Brook, Wis., and lived nearly seven more years. When he was taken to the hospital after the stroke, X-rays revealed that he'd broken his neck many years before,
This ties in with newspaper accounts from a lifetime earlier in 1937, living in Minnesota with his first wife and no kids. He was loading a cow into a sleigh and it slipped and fell on him. In those days before X-ray machines, George was treated for what they thought was a broken arm and collar bone. One newspaper mentioned a dislocated shoulder blade, but not a broken neck.
Robert Engel told me years later that this injury was why his father could not lift his arm well enough to shave himself. Instead, George would go into town for a shave, once per week
*****
Life was good in rural Linn County, Iowa for great granddad Geo. J. Engel back in 1915.
He and Johanna were raising their still-growing family of seven kids on the 200 acre family homestead they rented from his father. He raised Aberdeen Angus cattle and Shropshire sheep.
George served as town clerk and election clerk, ran the township's telephone association, was the buyer for the Jackson Grain Co., headed the local farm bureau, ran the Community Club, wrote the local gossip column for the Cedar Rapids Evening Gazette, and held positions in the local Woodman's lodge. For years he organized the Covington Short Course - an agricultural fair that featured educational programs.
One of his children joked that it seemed that about the last thing George wanted to do was work on the farm!
A listing in the 1915 Marion, Iowa Directory shows George bought a brand new 1916 Overland that year, He didn't drive cars, so my Grandpa Jack, the oldest son, had that duty.
Things went bad five years later. George's father got mad and booted his son and then 8 grandchildren off the farm. They settled down in Clear Lake, Wisconsin in 1921, but there were hard times there. Post-war real estate prices were high and George had to pay a local record price for a farm - $40,000. Agricultural prices plummeted within a few years and they lost the farm. They bought a cheaper farm and started to recover but five years later the stock market collapsed, starting the Great Depression. The family made do but when George died in 1943 the farm was still mortgaged for more than it was worth.
George and Johanna were still happy through all this, He had stayed active in civic affairs, serving on the school board, village board, and as assessor, He headed the Four County Corners National Farm Loan Association which arranged loans for farmer/members from the Federal Land Bank. George also served as a director of Farmers Cooperative Creamery.
George's obituary In the Clear Lake Star noted that he was held in high esteem in the community.
*****
A STROKE ON CHRISTMAS NIGHT. Copyright 2022 by John C. Engel.
Great-grandfather George J. Engel suffered a stroke on Christmas night in 1936. He recovered, resumed his farming and his post as town assessor in Black Brook, Wis., and lived nearly seven more years. When he was taken to the hospital after the stroke, X-rays revealed that he'd broken his neck many years before,
This ties in with newspaper accounts from a lifetime earlier in 1937, living in Minnesota with his first wife and no kids. He was loading a cow into a sleigh and it slipped and fell on him. In those days before X-ray machines, George was treated for what they thought was a broken arm and collar bone. One newspaper mentioned a dislocated shoulder blade, but not a broken neck.
Robert Engel told me years later that this injury was why his father could not lift his arm well enough to shave himself. Instead, George would go into town for a shave, once per week
*****
LIFE WAS GOOD IN 1915. Copyright 2020 by John C. Engel.
Life was good in rural Linn County, Iowa for great granddad Geo. J. Engel back in 1915.
He and Johanna were raising their still-growing family of seven kids on the 200 acre family homestead they rented from his father. He raised Aberdeen Angus cattle and Shropshire sheep.
George served as town clerk and election clerk, ran the township's telephone association, was the buyer for the Jackson Grain Co., headed the local farm bureau, ran the Community Club, wrote the local gossip column for the Cedar Rapids Evening Gazette, and held positions in the local Woodman's lodge. For years he organized the Covington Short Course - an agricultural fair that featured educational programs.
One of his children joked that it seemed that about the last thing George wanted to do was work on the farm!
A listing in the 1915 Marion, Iowa Directory shows George bought a brand new 1916 Overland that year, He didn't drive cars, so my Grandpa Jack, the oldest son, had that duty.
Things went bad five years later. George's father got mad and booted his son and then 8 grandchildren off the farm. They settled down in Clear Lake, Wisconsin in 1921, but there were hard times there. Post-war real estate prices were high and George had to pay a local record price for a farm - $40,000. Agricultural prices plummeted within a few years and they lost the farm. They bought a cheaper farm and started to recover but five years later the stock market collapsed, starting the Great Depression. The family made do but when George died in 1943 the farm was still mortgaged for more than it was worth.
George and Johanna were still happy through all this, He had stayed active in civic affairs, serving on the school board, village board, and as assessor, He headed the Four County Corners National Farm Loan Association which arranged loans for farmer/members from the Federal Land Bank. George also served as a director of Farmers Cooperative Creamery.
George's obituary In the Clear Lake Star noted that he was held in high esteem in the community.
*****
A STROKE ON CHRISTMAS NIGHT. Copyright 2022 by John C. Engel.
Great-grandfather George J. Engel suffered a stroke on Christmas night in 1936. He recovered, resumed his farming and his post as town assessor in Black Brook, Wis., and lived nearly seven more years. When he was taken to the hospital after the stroke, X-rays revealed that he'd broken his neck many years before,
This ties in with newspaper accounts from a lifetime earlier in 1937, living in Minnesota with his first wife and no kids. He was loading a cow into a sleigh and it slipped and fell on him. In those days before X-ray machines, George was treated for what they thought was a broken arm and collar bone. One newspaper mentioned a dislocated shoulder blade, but not a broken neck.
Robert Engel told me years later that this injury was why his father could not lift his arm well enough to shave himself. Instead, George would go into town for a shave, once per week
*****
Life was good in rural Linn County, Iowa for great granddad Geo. J. Engel back in 1915.
He and Johanna were raising their still-growing family of seven kids on the 200 acre family homestead they rented from his father. He raised Aberdeen Angus cattle and Shropshire sheep.
George served as town clerk and election clerk, ran the township's telephone association, was the buyer for the Jackson Grain Co., headed the local farm bureau, ran the Community Club, wrote the local gossip column for the Cedar Rapids Evening Gazette, and held positions in the local Woodman's lodge. For years he organized the Covington Short Course - an agricultural fair that featured educational programs.
One of his children joked that it seemed that about the last thing George wanted to do was work on the farm!
A listing in the 1915 Marion, Iowa Directory shows George bought a brand new 1916 Overland that year, He didn't drive cars, so my Grandpa Jack, the oldest son, had that duty.
Things went bad five years later. George's father got mad and booted his son and then 8 grandchildren off the farm. They settled down in Clear Lake, Wisconsin in 1921, but there were hard times there. Post-war real estate prices were high and George had to pay a local record price for a farm - $40,000. Agricultural prices plummeted within a few years and they lost the farm. They bought a cheaper farm and started to recover but five years later the stock market collapsed, starting the Great Depression. The family made do but when George died in 1943 the farm was still mortgaged for more than it was worth.
George and Johanna were still happy through all this, He had stayed active in civic affairs, serving on the school board, village board, and as assessor, He headed the Four County Corners National Farm Loan Association which arranged loans for farmer/members from the Federal Land Bank. George also served as a director of Farmers Cooperative Creamery.
George's obituary In the Clear Lake Star noted that he was held in high esteem in the community.
*****
A STROKE ON CHRISTMAS NIGHT. Copyright 2022 by John C. Engel.
Great-grandfather George J. Engel suffered a stroke on Christmas night in 1936. He recovered, resumed his farming and his post as town assessor in Black Brook, Wis., and lived nearly seven more years. When he was taken to the hospital after the stroke, X-rays revealed that he'd broken his neck many years before,
This ties in with newspaper accounts from a lifetime earlier in 1937, living in Minnesota with his first wife and no kids. He was loading a cow into a sleigh and it slipped and fell on him. In those days before X-ray machines, George was treated for what they thought was a broken arm and collar bone. One newspaper mentioned a dislocated shoulder blade, but not a broken neck.
Robert Engel told me years later that this injury was why his father could not lift his arm well enough to shave himself. Instead, George would go into town for a shave, once per week
*****
Family Members
Children
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John George "Jack" Engel
1899–1964
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William Jennings "Willie" Engel
1903–1903
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Walter Julius "Walt" Engel
1904–1968
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Bertha Katherine Engel Brown
1906–1978
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Wilbert Herman "Dude" Engel
1907–1989
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Clifford David "Kip" Engel
1910–1977
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Evelyn Mary Engel Wilson
1912–2000
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Elsa Louise Engel Delastrada
1914–2006
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Robert Louis Engel
1917–1981
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Irene Grace Engel Hahn
1922–2011
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George Edward "Bud" Engel
1924–1967
