AUGUST LAUBER.

AUGUST LAUBER is familiar with pioneer experiences and environments in Kansas for he came to Woodson county forty-three years ago when the work of improvement and progress seemed scarcely begun. He was born June 30, 1827, in Westphalia, Germany, a son of Otto and Amelia (Maier) Lauber. The father was a farmer whose people had resided in that locality for many generations and the mother's family were also farmers. By her marriage she had the following children: Henry; Minnie, deceased wife of Frederick Mischer, of La Grange, Texas, and August.

When our subject was young he worked upon the home farm and pursued his education in the common schools. Thinking to benefit his financial condition in the New World he bade adieu to friends and native land, and on the 12th. of September, 1853, took passage at Bremen on the sailing vessel, Jule, which on that voyage was six weeks in reaching New York. Having friends in Illinois, Mr. Lauber at once made his way to Stephenson county, in that state, where he engaged in farming, in teaming and in other labor that would yield to him an honest living. With capital he acquired through his own efforts he purchased one hundred and twenty acres of land. The year 1857 witnessed his removal from Freeport, Illinois, to Kansas. He was in hearty sympathy with the free state movement and

gave his support to the efforts being made to keep slavery out of the territory. He became identified with farming interests here, securing one hundred and sixty acres of land on section 1, Yates Center township. It was then covered with wild prairie grass and native timber, but his labors have wrought a great change in its appearance. It has continuously been his home for forty-three years and is now a very valuable property, improved with all modern accessories and conveniences. The boundaries of the place, however, have been greatly extended, and to-day Mr. Lauber is the owner of eleven hundred acres of the rich farming land of Kansas. At the time of the Civil war he served in the state militia and while in Germany he had served in the war in Schleswig.

On the 23d of November, 1860, Mr. Lauber was united in marriage to Louisa Stockebrand, who came to the United States in 1859. She was born July 5, 1830 and their marriage has been blessed with six children: William, who married Augusta Harder and is now living in Yates Center; August; Herman; Henry; Matilda, wife of John Ropp, of Harper county, Kansas, and John E. Mr. Lauber and his family are all members of the German Evangelical Church and he and his sons are stalwart Republicans, his support having been given to the party since he cast his first presidential vote for Abraham Lincoln in 1864. In a land where are no class conditions and opportunity is open to all Mr. Lauber has steadily worked his way upward, winning a high measure of success, having a handsome competence for the evening of life. He is well known and is popular with his many friends and in the history of his adopted county he well deserves representation.

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