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1943: Welzenbach used to work as cigar maker in Iowa

Subhead
Bits By Betty
Lead Summary
By
Betty Mann, Rock County Historian

The following article is part of the Diamond Club Member group that began in the January 7, 1943, issue of the Rock County Star Herald. Members of this group consist of persons of age 75 and older.
The following appeared in The Rock County Herald on October 14, 1943.
 
John Welzenbach, Luverne…was Early Day Cigar Maker
     
         Old time cigar smokers well remember the famous “Brown Beauty” and “Speckled Trout” cigars, but it may be a surprise to many of them to know that a Luverne man, John Welzenbach, once helped make them in a Davenport, Iowa, cigar factory.
         A carpenter’s son, Mr. Welzenbach had little choice but to learn a trade of some kind. As there was an opening in the cigar factory, he served his apprenticeship, and continued in that line of work for 15 years. Then, his health was endangered so he quit and moved to Rock county where he started farming.
         Mr. Welzenbach was born in Bavaria, Germany, October 18, 1868, the son of Anton and Barbara Welzenbach. At the age of three, he came with them to the United States and grew to young manhood in Davenoort, Iowa. He attended the public schools, but because he belonged to what he terms the “proletariat,” he had to begin earning his own money early in life.
Weeded Onions
         One of his first salary jobs as a boy was weeding onions in the big onion fields near Davenport. He was about 12 or 13 years old at the time. Anyone who has done any weed pulling at all can well imagine how difficult a task he had. “We’d work on our hands and knees 10 hours a day for 25 cents a day,” Mr. Welzenbach states, “and man, would the backs of our ears be sunburned and blistered!” Later, he was promoted from weed pulling to “topping” the onions. This was a more specialized job, and carried with it a salary increase of 75 cents a day, boosting his total earnings to $1.00 a day.
         One summer, he hired out to a farmer to herd cows, and if he had his way about it, he’d have been a farmer from the start, because he always liked working in the open so well. But at the insistence of his parents, he began learning the cigar making trade, and although he didn’t make it his life’s work, it did provide him with experience that he perhaps never would have had otherwise.
         For instance, in the fall of 1895, when the work was slack, he together with his brother and a friend pooled their resources and bought a cabin boat and travelled down the Mississippi river from Davenport to St. Louis. “We had all the comforts of home,” Mr. Welzenbach states, “and as long as we were not pressed for time, we were in no hurry to reach our destination. The current of the river and the wind was all the power we had. All we had to do was to guide the boat to keep it in the center of the channel. Once in a while, we’d use our sweeps (a form of an oar) to go to shore where we would do a little hunting, we’d anchor occasionally if the weather was rough. It took us six weeks to get to St. Louis, and we really had a dandy trip. After we got there, we sold our boat and came back by train, just in time to go back to work again.”
Came Here in 1900
         When he was advised to get out of the cigar factory to protect his health, he immediately decided to begin farming. Being unable to rent a place in Iowa, he came to Minnesota, where his brother-in-law lived. Here, he found, he was able to buy a farm out of his savings, so he made a deal for the purchase of the southwest quarter of section 14 in Mound township. He moved there in March, 1900, and since then, has been a Rock county resident.
(Welzenbach's story continues next week.)

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