(Source: “As Time Goes By”, Odebolt, Iowa 1877-1977,
printed by The Odebolt Chronicle May, 1977)
The Weitzel farm located northeast of Odebolt was purchased by Peter Carl Weitzel in 1874 from Iowa Railroad Land Company for six dollars an acre.
Peter Carl Weitzel was born 1821, at Nieder, Engleheim, Rhinehessen, Germany.
In 1869 Peter, his wife Mary and their son George Philip, born 1851 at Nieder, Engleheim, Germany came to America, settling first in Mendota, Illinois. In 1879 they came to Clinton Township, Sac County, Iowa where they lived on the farm purchased by Peter in 1874. The original house on the Weitzel farm consisted of only four rooms, which are still part of the present house. It is estimated eighteen babies have been born in this house. Three were children of Mr. and Mrs. Chris Wetzstein with whom the Weitzels, in the true pioneer spirit, shared their home, until the Wetzsteins could build their own. In 1882 George Weitzel married Katherine Wetzstein, born in 1859 in Eisenach, Germany.
Mr. and Mrs. George Weitzel were parents of Oscar, married Marie Wollenson; Bertha, Mrs. John Nuetzman; Gustav, married Bertha Weber; Louis, married Anna Dobbert; Katherina (Mrs. William Lange); Herbert, married Ida Schade; Olivia (Mrs. Herman Wedeking); Olga (Mrs. Henry Stock); and Albert, married Mae Kolbe.
[Information on more recent generations has been removed.] Eugene Weitzel is the fourth generation to live on and operate this farm.
Click photo for enlargement
(Transcribed by Kim Tholl, Dec.2002. Photos scanned by B. Horak.)