Source: "History of Sheboygan County Wisconsin, Vol II, Carl Zillier, Editor S.J. Clarke Publishing Company, Chicago, 1912" Page 278

August Herbst resides on a farm located on section 20, Wilson township, which has been in the possession of his family for sixty-four years. He was born in Hanover, Germany, on the 2d day of May, 1845, and is a son of Henry and Dorothea Herbst, likewise natives of Hanover, whence they emigrated to the United States in 1848. They came direct to Sheboygan county and the father purchased forty acres of timber land in Wilson township which he immediately set about clearing and improving. There the mother passed away on the 11th of October, 1876, at the age of seventy years. The father survived her for nearly ten years, his death occurring on January 7, 1886. They were the parents of five children.

The eldest child in a family of limited circumstances, naturally August Herbst was given the advantages of but a meager education. During his early youth there were practically but two occupations open to lads living in the rural districts, cutting wood and fishing, both of which he followed the greater part of the time when his services were not required about the farm. He remained at home until his marriage, following which he purchased a farm adjoining his father’s place and continued to reside there until March, 1876, when he and his wife moved back to the old homestead and here he even since resided. Mr. Herbst enlisted and went to the front as a member of Company I, Thirty-seventh Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry in 1864, and remained in the service until the close of hostilities. He was a member of the first brigade of the Army of the Potomac under the command of General Grant and was mustered out at Washington, D. C., July 27, 1865.

Mr. Herbst was married on the 21st of November, 1869, to Miss Johanna Gotter, a daughter of Frederick and Johanna Gotter, pioneer settlers of Sheboygan township, who came here from Silesia, Germany, in 1858 and located on a farm. The parents are both deceased, the mother having passed away in 1885 and the father in 1887. Mr. and Mrs. Herbst are the parents of the following children: Henry, who is a resident of Wilson township; Lizzie, the wife of Henry Bussert, of Sheboygan; William, who is living on the old homestead; Ida, the wife of August Thielman, of Sheboygan; Emma, who married Frank DeMuth, also of Sheboygan; and Clara, the wife of Otto Menz, of Sheboygan.

Mr. Herbst accords his political support to the men and measures of the republican party and he has served for two terms as township supervisor and a like period as treasurer. He maintains relations with his old comrades of the field through the medium of his membership in Wintermeyer Post, No. 187, G.A.R., with which he has been affiliated since its organization in 1885. Mr. Herbst has always led a diligent, active life and such success as has come to him is the well merited reward of persistent effort and unceasing application.

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