My Genealogy Hound

John Lauffer, who in his farm work is both practical and progressive, is living on Section 35, Jones township, where he owns three hundred and sixty acres of land. The soil is very rich and productive and his care and improvement of the farm has resulted in making it one of the excellent properties of this portion of the state. The history of Iowa has largely been recorded since Mr. Lauffer took up his abode within its borders. Prior to that time the great area now embraced in Iowa was the hunting ground of the Indians or else it was a wild district, unsettled by white people.

Mr. Lauffer arrived in Burlington on the 1st of April, 1854, at which time he was a little lad of six years, his birth having occurred in Alsace, France, March 31, 1848. His father, John Lauffer, Sr., was born, reared and married in France and, wishing to benefit by the business conditions which he heard existed on this side of the Atlantic, he crossed the broad ocean to the new world and at once proceeded into the interior of the country, settling at Burlington in 1854. He had sailed from Havre to New Orleans on a sailing vessel, which was seventy days in completing that trip, owing to severe storms which carried away masts and rigging until the ship seemed in imminent peril of destruction. At length, however, they reached the New Orleans harbor in safety and the father with his family proceeded up the Mississippi to Burlington. He was a cooper and carpenter by trade and followed those pursuits in Burlington, where he erected some of the first houses, building sixty-four of the dwellings in that city. He later located on a farm in Des Moines county, turning his attention to agricultural pursuits in 1861. His time and energies were then given to the tilling of the soil up to the time of his death, which occurred in 1899. His wife died two years later, passing away in 1901.

The region into which the family came on crossing the Atlantic to America was far different from the district in which our subject was reared, for France had been settled for hundreds of years and the work of cultivation had been carried forward for centuries. In Iowa there were great tracts of land of which the sod had never been broken. Mr. Lauffer was reared to manhood in Des Moines county amid conditions and environments which made a deep impress upon his mind. Early in life he learned the trades of coopering and carpentering with his father and was thus employed in Burlington for a number of years. He remained with his father until twenty-five years of age and gave ample assistance to him in mechanical and agricultural lines.

While still living in Des Moines county, Mr. Lauffer was married on the 4th of November, 1876, the lady of his choice being Miss Ellen B. Buxton, a native of Missouri, where she spent her girlhood days. The young couple began their domestic life in Des Moines county, where Mr. Lauffer followed farming for a few years, but in 1880 removed to Union county, where he invested in eighty acres of land that constituted the nucleus of his present fine farm. There was a little house on the place and twenty-five acres had been placed under the plow but with characteristic energy Mr. Lauffer began the further development and improvement of the farm and has since added to and remodeled the house, making it a comfortable dwelling, while in the erection of substantial barns and outbuildings he has provided shelter for crops and stock. He has also set out fruit and has otherwise improved the place. Most of the carpenter and repair work he has done himself, his mechanical ingenuity and ability resulting in good work of this character. Year by year he has added to his success and as his financial resources have increased he has extended the boundaries of his farm until he now owns three hundred and sixty acres in Jones township, with two hundred acres of field and meadow lands. In his pastures are found high grades of cattle and hogs. He makes a specialty of Poland China hogs, having a pure blooded male and raising only high grade stock.

Unto Mr. and Mrs. Lauffer have been born six children, of whom Samuel, the eldest, is married and resides on a farm in Jones township and has one son. Yona is engaged in business in this county. Almon is assisting in the operation of the home farm. Lolo is the wife of A. P. Cooper, a farmer of this county. Effie is the wife of Ed Lipsitt, a resident farmer of Clarke county, Iowa. Marsaline is the wife of Harry McClester, a railroad man of Creston.

Politically Mr. Lauffer is a democrat, supporting the party since casting his first presidential ballot for Horace Greeley in 1872. He has served as highway commissioner, was for four years a member of the school board and is interested in community affairs, desiring the welfare and progress of the county. Almost his entire life has been passed in this state and he is imbued with the spirit of enterprise characteristic of the middle west. He has prospered as the years have gone by and this is owing not to any fortunate combination of circumstances that have favored him but has resulted from his untiring diligence and his labors intelligently applied. His many good traits of character have won for him the respect of his fellowmen and he well deserves mention among the representative farmers of Jones township.