My Genealogy Hound

AUGUSTUS HAAG, a prominent and successful farmer of Sharon township, Buffalo county, is a native of Germany, having been born in the kingdom of Wurtemburg, August 15, 1837. His father, Frederick Haag, and his mother, Eva B. Hagelstein, were both natives also of Wurtemburg, the father having been born in 1800 and dying there in 1850; the mother was born in 1801, and died in 1857. They were plain, substantial people, the father following the trade of a tanner and vine grower, at which he was fairly successful. These were the parents of five children, of whom the subject of this notice is next to the youngest, the others being George (now deceased). Christian H., John G. and Earnest.

Our subject grew up in his native place to the age of fifteen, and then, with an ambition and an amount of self-reliance not often met with in one of his years, he decided to come to America to try his fortunes. He made his first permanent stop in Indiana, and was variously engaged there till the opening of the Civil war. When the call was made for volunteers, he entered the Union army, enlisting in the fall of 1861, in Company E, Fifty-first Indiana infantry, and served one year, when he was discharged on account of physical disabilities contracted in the service. Returning to Indiana, he remained there only a short time and then went to New York City, but leaving there shortly afterwards he went to Newark, N. J. At that place he entered the grocery business, and was the proprietor of a grocery store for three years, and subsequently entered business as an insurance broker, which he followed up to 1877. Having married in the meantime and knowing the limited opportunities for getting on in the world, for one with a growing family, Mr. Haag made up his mind to come West in 1877, and that year he moved to Nebraska and settled in Buffalo county, taking a claim in Sharon township, where he located and has since lived, having a most pleasant home. He has become one of the most enterprising and successful farmers of his community, having thoroughly identified himself with the farming interests of his locality. He has filled the usual number of local offices, having been a member of the school board of his district and justice of the peace, and holds the position of director in the Farmer’s Union Insurance Company, of the State of Nebraska. He married in June, 1873 — the lady whom he selected for a companion being Miss Elizabeth K. Storr, daughter of Rev. Isaac and Mary S. (Ancelien) Storr, then of Newark, N. J., being natives of that state, but having moved to Pennsylvania, Mrs. Haag having been born in Strausburgh, Sullivan county, that state. Her father being transferred back into New Jersey by the conference, he removed again to that state, where he died in 1866. The mother moved to Kossuth, Iowa, 1876, where she lived with the rest of her family and where she married Mr. J. L. Yost; they finally moved to Hastings, Nebr., from which place Mrs. Yost went to visit her daughter, Mrs. Haag, at Shelton, Buffalo county, where she was suddenly taken sick of pneumonia, and died in January, 1889. Three children born to Mr. and Mrs. Haag yet abide with them — Mary E., Grace C. and Homer A.

In politics, Mr. Haag is a republican. He is a zealous member of the Farmers’ Alliance, and has been of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.