from Johnson County, Iowa – Biographies

CHARLES PROBST

Among the old settlers of Monroe Township, Johnson County, Charles Probst deserves prominent mention.  He has been successful in his farming operations and is well known as a veteran of the Civil War.  He was born at Saxe-Weimar, Eisenach, Germany, in 1836, and is the son of Ludwig and Mary (Leser) Probst.  The father died when Charles Probst was but five years old, and he early learned to depend upon himself.  When in his eighteenth year he came to America (in 1854), accompanied by his sister, Amelia Florentine, now the wife of Henry Hertz, of Solon, Iowa.  They landed in New York City and soon afterward came west to Chicago, where Mr. Probst worked for four years.  In 1858 he came to Johnson County, being his home ever since.  For the first two years he lived in Big Grove township, and in 1860, came to Monroe township, where he has carried on farming ever since.  He purchased his first farm in 1861 and sold the same in 1864.

From October 17, 1864, until July 25, 1865, Mr. Probst served in the Union Army, as a member of Company D Fifteenth Iowa Volunteer Infantry, and participated in Sherman’s famous “March to the Sea.”  Returning to Johnson County at the close of his term of service, in 1865, he purchased his present home.  He has been an influential and public-spirited citizen and has held many local offices.  He is a democrat in politics and is a member of the German Lutheran church, in which he is useful and active.  He has served many years as township trustee, for four years was township clerk, and for thirty years has been secretary of the school board.

Mr. Probst has been married twice, the first time in 1880 when he was united with Miss Martha Jane Blalock, by whom he had four children:  Laura, wife of A. D. Thomas, of Cedar Rapids; William Henry, also of Cedar Rapids; Elizabeth Jane, wife of Albert Berry, of Missouri; Sarah, Mrs. Coleman Putnam, on a farm near Strawberry Point.  The mother of these children died November 7, 1872, and on May 14, 1879, Mr. Probst married Annie Mary Svoboda, a native of Bohemia, who came with her parents to America when she was about 16 years old, in 1874, and lived in Monroe Township before her marriage.  Four children were born to this union:  Selena Sophia, Mrs. W. M. Dussil, on a farm in Linnn County; Charles A., married and living near his father in Monroe township; Mary Annie, Mrs. Michael Nunn, of Cedar Rapids; Adam Jacob, who died October 21, 1909, a promising youth of nineteen years, eleven months and five days, and who is deeply mourned by his sorrowing family and many friends.