My Genealogy Hound

JOSEPH LEUTE, a well-known farmer and fruit-grower of Berrien County, resides upon section 35, St. Joseph Township. Mr. Leute was born in Baden, Germany, on the 17th of January, 1835, and is the son of John and Martha (Zily) Leute, natives of Baden, Germany, the father having been a farmer during the entire period of his active life, with the exception of two years when he was in the military service. He was an industrious and energetic man, and, although he never accumulated a competency, he nevertheless was enabled to give his children fair advantages.

In a comparatively uneventful manner the subject of this sketch passed the days of his childhood and youth upon his father’s farm in Germany. In his boyhood he enjoyed the advantages offered by the excellent public schools of Germany and acquired a thorough knowledge of the language of his countrymen. Having heard of the wonderful opportunities offered to those who settled in the United States, he resolved upon crossing the broad Atlantic and seeking his fortune in the unknown world. Accordingly, at the age of nineteen years, he emigrated to America and first located in Syracuse, N. Y., where he worked for a time in a lime-quarry, and afterward secured employment in a salt mine.

After having resided in Syracuse for about three years, Mr. Leute came West to Wisconsin, where he located in Clarke County, and for five months was engaged in the lumber business in the pineries. Thence he went to La Crosse, Wis., where he worked at logging, and from there proceeded to Illinois and settled in St. Clair County. During his residence in St. Clair County he was married, in 1865, to Miss Catherine Herzog, who was born and reared in Germany and emigrated to America in company with her parents, locating in St. Clair County, Ill. After his marriage Mr. Leute engaged in farming in that county until 1867, when he removed to Berrien County and purchased land in Bainbridge Township, engaging in farming pursuits for one year. He removed thence to St. Joseph and engaged in business in that city for one year. In 1875 his wife purchased the place in St. Joseph Township where they have since resided.

Ten children have been born of the union of Mr. and Mrs. Leute, eight of whom are now living, namely: Joseph, who went West in 1890 and has not been heard from since, although it is thought that he is in the United States army; Catherine, who is the wife of Jacob Snyder and a resident of St. Joseph; Caroline, Louis and Rosa, who reside in Chicago, Louis being in the hardware business there; Mary, Sophia and Martha, who are at home with their parents. Where he now lives Mr. Leute has nine acres, and this he devotes to the cultivation of fruits, in which he has met with success. He has found fruit-growing a profitable business, and raises fruit of every variety on his place. In his political preferences he is a Democrat, and is stanch in his allegiance to his chosen party. Religiously, he is identified with the Catholic Church.