Lemuel J. Waltz

Lemuel Jacob Waltz was born in Dayton Township, Iowa County, Iowa, on January 14, 1872, the son of Jacob Michael Waltz and Angela Mary Wagner.

The year before he was born, his family from from Chest Springs, Cambria County, Pa. His parents were encouraged to move to Iowa by his maternal grandparents, Jacob and Jane Wagner.

He received his primary education in the district schools and at the Shendoh Normal, completing his education with a course at Highland Park Academy of Des Moines.

Lemuel lived in many different places and engaged in several lines of work before settling down in Yellow Medicine county and engaging in farming:

	In 1890, when twenty years old, he went to Gresham, Nebraska, and began working at the printer's trade, employed on the Gresham Review one year
	Then for a year he was bookkeeper for C.F. Bristol, a dealer in implements.
	Returning to Iowa, Lemuel took a course in a business college at Des Moines and then he farmed for a year.
	Next, he took a six months course in a school of telegraphy at Janesville, Wisconsin
	Then secured the position of station agent at Fulda, Minnesota, on the Milwaukee road, where he worked for thirteen months.
	For a while after that, he worked in telegraph and railroad work--three months at Elk Point, South Dakota, nine months on the Oregon Short Line at Salt Lake City.
	Next, he farmed rented land near New Hampton, Iowa four years, and near Earling, Shelby county, Iowa for one year.
	Then he worked for short periods of times in different states until he returned to Shelby county

Lemuel married Mary Michaels at New Hampton, Iowa, on January 17, 1899. She was born in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, August 23, 1874, a daughter of Peter and Gertrude Michaels of Panama, Iowa. Lemuel and Mary had nine children:

	Leo Francis, born Jan. 19, 1900
	Gertrude Mary, born Aug. 16, 1902
	Angela Mary, born July 21, 1904
	John Joseph, born Jan. 28, 1906
	Jacob Peter, born Jan. 15, 1908
	Andrew Lemuel, born May 20, 1910
	Agnes Mary, born Oct. 11, 1912
	Nicholas Anthony, born Aug. 10, 1915
	Cecilia Marie, born Apr. 9, 1918

In 1904 he settled his family in Yellow Medicine county. The first season he worked in the harvest fields and then bought his farm. He owned and farmed 112 acres on section 2, Hammer township, and raised Holstein cattle, Poland China hogs, and Barred Plymouth Rock chickens.

Lemuel served as justice of the peace, clerk of the school board and road overseer. He was a member of the Catholic church and of Yeoman lodge No. 209, New Hampton, Iowa.

Lemuel died on May 31, 1945 in Canby, Yellow Medicine County, Minnesota, Mary died on Feb. 12, 1960 in Morris, Minnesota.

(The information that I have on Lemuel was obtained from a 1904 article supplied by his granddaughter, Marlene Waltz Fanton.)

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