My Genealogy Hound

AUGUSTUS HOLSTEIN, justice of the peace of Dunkirk, was born in the manufacturing city of Cassel, the capital of the province of Hesse-Nassau, Prussia, March 4, 1828, and was a son of Peter and Elizabeth (Burger) Holstein. His father, Peter Holstein, was an educated military man, who had accumulated a snug fortune, married Elizabeth Burger, in 1800, by whom he had six children, and spent seventeen years in the military service of Germany, being colonel of the Fifth Prussian regiment under Gen. Blucher at the battle of Waterloo which practically ended the career of the Emperor, Napoleon Bonaparte, of France. The battle of Leipsic and the burning of Moscow had also seen him an active participant and for his gallant conduct he had bestowed upon him the gold medal and iron cross, the most honorable and distinguished decorations won by army officers in Germany. In religious matters he was a protestant as was also his wife. He died at his home in Cassel, in his native country, in 1858, aged seventy-nine years; his wife, a native of the same place, passing away three years previously, at the age of sixty-five years.

Augustus Holstein was reared in Cassel and graduated from the Polytechnic institute there. He spent a year in traveling over Europe, and in 1847 came to America, landing in Quebec but left that city in a week on account of the epidemic of cholera and smallpox, which was carrying off hundreds of victims, and by steam and rail journeyed until he reached Carbondale, Pa., where he remained five years during which time he learned the carpentering business. In 1852 he came to Dunkirk and entered into partnership with Joseph P. Rider under the firm name of Rider & Holstein, and engaged in carpentering and contracting, in which business they continued until 1867 when he lost his right hand in an accident. In the latter year he was elected a member of the board of education and in 1876 justice of the peace and has held the last named office ever since. In his political principles he was a republican and takes an active part in politics. Mr. Holstein was a member of the Methodist church and a member of Lake Erie lodge, No. 85, A. O. U. W.

On July 9, 1851, Mr. Holstein united in marriage with Mary J. Earl, a daughter of Beecher Earl, of Carbondale, Pa. To this marriage were born six children, four of whom died young: James A., who married Julia J. Draper, has one son and resides in Dunkirk; James, Augusta, Charles E., George, Charles B., and Joseph E., who died July 15, 1887, at the age of twenty-eight years, leaving a widow and three children, who now reside in Dunkirk. Mrs. Holstein died January 12, 1865, aged thirty-seven years, and her husband, the subject of this sketch, followed her to his eternal rest February 16, 1891, aged sixty-three years.