HISTORY OF MANITOWOC COUNTY


years. Mrs. Otto was the only child born to her parents, her birth occurring
March I3, I870. Five children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Otto, namely:
Esther, a teacher in the Reedsville public schools; and Reuben, Adina, Law-
rence and Adeline, all at home.
In politics Mr. Otto is a republican, and has served acceptably on the school
'board for the past twelve years. Both he and his family are members of the
Evangelical association of Reedsville.  What Mr. Otto has accomplished,
others can, if they are willing to work as steadily as he, and invest their
savings
as carefully.
JOHN BOEGE.
John Boege follows farming in Schleswig township and also deals in agri-
cultural implements. He fully realizes that there is no royal road to wealth
and is placing his dependence upon the safe substantial qualities of industry,
perseverance and determination. His birth occurred November 15, i862, in
the township which is still his home, his parents being Jacob and Christina
(Reimers) Boege. The father was born in i827 at Beidenfleth near Itzehoe,
in
Prussia, and was a son of Wilhelm Boege, who was an old German soldier,
serving in the Franco-Prussian wars of the Napoleonic era. Jacob Boege came
to America when a young man of twenty-five years and after a year spent at
Holstein, this state, moved to Illinois, where he worked on the railroad
near
Joliet. He afterward came to what is known as the old farm in Schleswig
township and it was here that he married Christina Reimers, a daughter of
Johann Reimers, who was also a native of Prussia, in which country his
daughter was born and reared. Mrs. Boege died at the age of thirty years
when her son John was but seven years of age. He was one of two brothers,
the other being Jacob Boege, a resident farmer of Schleswig township.
John Boege spent his youthful days as a pupil in the public school near his
father's home and began earning his own living by working as a farm hand.
For eighteen years he was employed in that way, after which he settled at
Brooklyn Corner, where he opened a saloon and farm implement business in
i9oi. There he sold out in i908 to his son-in-law and at the same time he
is
engaged in general farming and also deals to some extent in agricultural
im-
plements. He has sixty acres of land which he carefully cultivates accord-
ing to modern, progressive methods, so that his place presents a neat and
at-
tractive appearance and gives every indication of careful supervision on
the
part of the owner.
On the iith of October, i883, Mr. Boege was united in marriage to Miss
Mary Balz, who was born in Schleswig township, Manitowoc county, in i86i,
and is a daughter of Nicholas and Henrietta Balz, natives of Germany, the
former now deceased. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Boege have been born four chil-
dren. Anna, the eldest, is the wife of Fritz Duerwaechter, a blacksmith of
Holstein, by whom she has two children, Reuben and Veiler. Mary is the
wife of Luedwig Duerwaechter, a brother of her sister's husband, who is now
living retired in Schleswig township. William is at home. Ella, the youngest


365