My Genealogy Hound

DANIEL MUELLER, an enterprising general agriculturist, raising a superior grade of stock upon his valuable homestead, is widely known and has been a highly esteemed resident of his present locality, upon section 10, New Buffalo Township, Berrien County, since 1865. Mr. Mueller is a native of Germany and was born October 18, 1838. His parents, upright and hard-working residents of the Empire, born, reared and married in Germany, passed their peaceful days among the associations of tiieir youth. They trained up their children to habits of thrift and fitted them as well as their limited opportunities would permit to make their way in life. The father and mother, Jacob and Mary Louisa (Wieshaupt) Mueller, were respected by all who knew them, and in their humble home welcomed five children, four sons and one daughter. Three of the family are yet surviving: Jacob, who lives in Germany; and Frederick and our subject, both of whom crossed the broad Atlantic to America many years ago.

Mr. Mueller received his education in the common schools of Germany, and when only a young lad appreciated the broader opportunities offered by the United States to its citizens and early resolved to seek his fortune in America. At sixteen years of age he left his native country and made his way to New York State, and at first located near Niagara Falls, where he remained a a year and a-half employed upon a farm as a hired man. He managed with care and self-sacrificing economy to increase his little stock of money, and at the expiration of the eighteen months, journeyed to Berrien County, Mich., where he again hired out by the month and busily engaged in the cultivation of the soil until 1860. At this period of time, our subject, in common with thousands of others, became smitten with the Western fever and went to Colorado and Montana, where he mined, dug for gold and was variously employed for the succeeding five years. In the fall of 1865, returning to Michigan, he purchased one hundred and sixty acres of the valuable homestead, to whose extent he has since added other acres, now owning a two hundred and forty acre tract of land.

When Mr. Mueller bought the quarter-section, there were only about twenty-seven acres of the land cleared. The farm, most of it in a highly productive state, has been brought up to its present attractive appearance and commercial value by hard work, and our subject may well congratulate himself upon the result of his persistent and self-reliant toil. In 1866, Daniel Mueller and Miss Mary Stumpf were united in marriage. Mrs. Mueller, a most estimable woman, survived her marriage only three years and died in 1869. She became the mother of one child, now deceased. Her parents were old settlers of Three Oaks, Mich., and some time after her death our subject wedded her sister, Miss Lena Stumpf, born in the village of Three Oaks. The second marriage has been blessed by the birth of five children: Jacob, Mary, Hattie, Henry and Emma.

Mr. and Mrs. Mueller are valued members of the Lutheran Church. They have given to their children an opportunity to acquire a good education and are worthily training them to become intelligent and useful citizens. Politically, our subject is a Democrat. He cast his first Presidential vote for Greeley, and, actively interested in local and national issues, has held with able service the important position of Township Treasurer, discharging the duties involved to the great satisfaction of his fellow-townsmen. Mr. Mueller is highly regarded by his friends and neighbors and is numbered among the substantial farmers of the county.