My Genealogy Hound

Judge William Toedtmann, another successful farmer and stock-raiser of Richland Township, was born in Lippe-Detmold, Germany, in 1831, and is the third of seven children born to Gottlieb and Mary (Siker) Toedtmann, who came to the United States about 1843, settling in Boulware Township, where the father took up a claim on Gasconade River, but one year later moved back in the valley, where he improved a good farm. He was a farmer and carpenter by occupation, and died in 1869, at the age of sixty-eight. The mother is still living on the old farm, and is about seventy-eight years old. William attended school in his native country until he came to the United States, when he attended the English schools for about four months. He assisted in improving the farm until August, 1862, when he enlisted in Company C, Thirty-first Missouri Volunteer Infantry, served in the Fifteenth Army Corps, operated in Missouri, Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama, Kentucky and South Carolina, was in fourteen engagements, Chickasaw Bayou, Arkansas Post, through the Siege of Vicksburg, Lookout Mountain, Missionary Ridge, Ringgold’s Point, Resaca, and through the Georgia and Atlanta campaigns without being wounded or captured. He was mustered out of service at Nashville, Tenn., about May, 1865. He enlisted first as a private, but was immediately made corporal, and afterward sergeant. He then returned home, purchased his present farm of 160 acres, situated fifteen miles west of Hermann, and in 1867 married Miss Katie, daughter of George Meyer, a native of Pennsylvania, but one of the first settlers of Gasconade County, where Mrs. Toedtmann was born. She died in 1868, and in 1870 our subject took for his second wife Miss Louisa Meyer, a native of Gasconade County, and the daughter of William Meyer. Of the nine children born to Judge Toedtmann and wife, only three are now living: Charlie, Lizzie and Hulda. Judge Toedtmann is extensively engaged in the breeding of short-horn cattle, and Berkshire and Suffolk hogs. The Judge is a prominent man in the county. In 1878 he was elected county judge for the Ninth District, re-elected in 1880, and served four years with satisfaction. He was formerly a member of the school board, and is a public-spirited man. He was formerly a Republican in his political views, and his first presidential vote was for J. C. Fremont, in 1856. He is now a Democrat and a member of the Reformed Church.