Henry F. Dammeier, the son of Sophia Prasse and Henry Dammeier was born somewhere in Germany on August 4, 1827. At some time before his 28th birthday, he emigrated from Germany to the United States, settling in Shannon, Carroll county, Illinois. Dorothea Marie Brockmayer, was also born in Germany in 1830. She, too, emigrated to Illinois and married Henry F. Dammeier on October 20, 1855. The couple would remain in Shannon, Illinois producing at least five living children. They had three daughters, Louisa (1857), Elizabeth (1858) and Mildred (1871). They also had two sons, Henry Lewis, born June 3, 1860; and Charles Frederik, born May 12, 1866. Shannon, Carroll County, Illinois was home to a number of Dammeiers, probably related cousins of Henry and Dorothea.
When Charles F. was 24 and Henry L. was 29, they went west to find their own land. They ended up in Jasper County, Iowa, and together they purchased 163 acres from William and Frank Carrier. This was the same 163 acres the Carriers had bought two years earlier from Lewis A. Woodruff. The Dammeier brothers paid $5,100 for the 163 acres, or just over $30 an acre.
The Dammeiers had come to stay. By 1901 the brothers were listed as leading farmers in Jasper County. During the 36 years from 1854 to 1890, the land that constituted the east half of the northwest quarter of Section 7 where Owl Acres sits today had been converted from virgin prairie to Iowa farmland. A farmstead had been established at the southern border of the land, with a house and outbuildings as early as 1871. The farmstead was located where Owl Acres is today, with a house built close to the road that forms the south border of the property. A second farmstead was also established a quarter of a mile to the east on the other half of the land that the Dammeiers bought from the Carriers in 1890.
Over the next 110 years, Dammeiers would farm the land, raising corn, oats, hay, soybeans, beef and dairy cattle, hogs and chickens. At a time when farming was becoming more mechanized and innovation was strong in the farming communities, the Dammeiers were busy creating and innovating. In 1903, Charles F. Dammeier filed a patent for a pneumatic straw stacker, searching for a better way to handle loose straw in the barn. No records indicate whether he ever took his patent to production.
U.S Patent No. 719308, issued to Charles F. Dammeier in 1903. Looking like the jointed abdomen of a giant metal insect, the gadget would help a thresherman control the size and shape of the stack as straw was blown out the pipe of a threshing machine. Image from United States Patent Office, Washington D.C.
Although the Dammeiers’ post office address was Newton, the little town of Metz was actually closer, just a couple miles to the west. This is where Charles found his bride, Hilma Lind. In 1880, the S. P. Lind family left their home in Sweden and emigrated to Iowa. The Linds had cousins who had already settled in the Metz area. The family planned to take the train to Metz and join the cousins settled there. None of the Linds spoke English however, and the Rock Island train they were traveling on did not stop at Metz unless a passenger requested the stop. The Linds were at a loss as to how to communicate their need to stop in Metz as the conductors did not speak Swedish. Fortunately for the family, a Swedish minister happened to be on the same train and was able to translate for them. The family settled in Metz, at first working for the cousin who was a section foreman on the railroad. They built a house in the village of Metz, and later bought a small farm about half a mile west of Metz.
Hilma Lind was born in Sweden on the 28th of September, 1876. She was four years old when her family came to Jasper County. She grew up on the farm raising a couple of cattle and a large garden of vegetables. She attended the Reed Schoolhouse, which was situated at the top of a hill east of Metz. This schoolhouse, shown on a plat map dated 1871, stood about half a mile west of the Dammeier homestead.
Hilma Lind married Charles Frederik Dammeier in 1904. Together they raised three sons: Lewis, Clarence, and George. Hilma Lind Dammeier died at the age of 95 in January of 1971. Her husband Charles F. Dammeier passed away on May 17, 1933.
Henry L. Dammeier, Charles’ brother, never married. At his death in 1934, Charles’ son George inherited the Dammeier land. It would pass to his wife and then to his daughter Marilyn in subsequent years. In 2001, I bought the eight acres comprising the farmstead from Marilyn Dammeier Willemsen and John Willemsen, George’s daughter and son-in-law.
Feature photo alt text: This land record in the Jasper County, Iowa, Recorder’s Office, completes the chain of custody that connects previous owners to the current tenant upon the 8 acres that today are Owl Acres. “Owner” seems a bit less less appropriate these days. “Steward,” perhaps.
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