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John W. Lange
Born May 15, 1868 |
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| Handicapped though he was by a poverty stricken youth and the fact that he was a foreigner in a strange land, John W. Lange has become one of the representative farmers of Madison township and one of the substantial men of Jones county. He was born in Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Germany, May 15, 1868, and is the son of John and Frederica (Strubing) Lange, both natives of the same province. While still a young man the father was taken from this world, leaving his widow to rear and educate their son unaided. In 1883 she came to the United States and, reaching Iowa took up her home in Wyoming. There she was able to secure domestic work in the family of Judge Ellison and after four years, as the result of her own and her son's savings, was able to go into partnership with the latter in his agricultural undertaking. She died in October, 1894, having been a noble, loving and hard-working mother.
John W. Lange received his substantial training for life at home and acquired his education in the public schools of Germany, supplemented after his arrival here by two years spent in the public institutions of instruction at Wyoming. He began life as a tiller of the soil by working by the month as a farm hand. In four years' time his savings, united with those of his mother, were sufficient to enable him to rent a tract of land and gain the profits of his own efforts. For seven years all told, three during the life of his mother, and for four years after her death, subsequent to his own marriage, he operated what is known in Madison township as the Augusta L. Simpson farm. In March, 1899, he bought his present home, which is a fine tract of one hundred and twenty acres devoted to general farming. In 1909 he purchased the John Gorman farm of two hundred acres, reported to be one of the richest tracts in Jones county, but he has since sold it.
On the 22d of March, 1895, Mr. Lange married Miss Pauline M. Hansen, a native of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, and a daughter of John V. and Caroline (Hansen) Hansen. Her father has passed away, but her mother and a brother, Bernhart, are still living in the old country. To Mr. and Mrs. Lange have been born three children: Bernhart J., Gladius F. and Meinhart H. Husband and wife are members of the Lutheran church, of which Mr. Lange is trustee, and they are rearing their family in that faith. Fraternally Mr. Lange is connected with the Modern Woodmen of America and is an active member of the Wyoming Camp, No. 183, and sincerely interested in the welfare of the brothers. His political affiliations are with the republicans, but he has not sought public preferment from the people, who would loyally give them their support in recognition of the sterling qualities of the man and in admiration of his almost phenomenal success.
Source: History of Jones County, Iowa, Past and Present, R. M. Corbitt, S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., Chicago, 1910, p. 549. |
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