Franklin Francis Lutz

A hint on FamilySearch.org about an obituary for Cleva Florene Lutz Burrell led me in roundabout ways to this gem about her father. I downloaded the PDF, but here is the transcription.

History of Fort Dodge and Webster County Iowa
Volume II
Chicago
The Pioneer Publishing Company
1913

http://iagenweb.org/webster/history-ft-dodge/historyoffortdod02prat.pdf
PDF pages 179-180

Francis Franklin Lutz
Francis F. Lutz follows the trade of tiling in Duncombe, Iowa, and also conducts a pool hall in that city. His career has come to final success after a long period of vicissitudes and the prosperity which he has attained in a credit to his native sagacity and industry. He was born in New York city, December 25, 1858, and was left an orphan when only four years of age, being too young to remember even the names of his parents. He was put in the Soldiers' Home in his native city and after a short time was adopted by George Gilmore, of Brownstown, Illinois, who for five years reared and educated his charge. At the end of that time Mr. Lutz was taken from his guardian by the Illinois courts on account of the latter's cruelty. He then entered the home of Frank Steinhowe, a farmer and brewer of Vandalia, Illinois, and here he remained for fourteen years. He was seized with yellow fever and was ordered to another climate, going eventually to the Black hills of South Dakota. Here he learned ditching and when he had fully recovered his health went to Clinton, Illinois, where he resided for eight years, following railroading the greater portion of the time. Subsequently in 1895, he came to Duncombe, where he worked at his trade of tiling, in which he has been successful in all for twenty-five years. In the last year he had laid eight hundred rods of tile upon the farms around Duncombe and expects to continue this business after the harvest of 1912. In 1905 he opened a pool hall in the city in which he resides and this he has since conducted successfully.
On January 10, 1886, Mr. Lutz was united in marriage to Miss Anna G. Brown, a daughter of Miles and Mary Etta Brown, natives of Harristown, Illinois. Mr. and Mrs. Lutz became the parents of fifteen children, olf whom the following are deceased, Roy, Minnie Belle, Walter E., Lily and Lincoln. Those who survive are, Arthur, Mary, Earl, Printhia, Bea, Libby, Anna Rose, Miles, Robert and Franklin.
In his political views Mr. Lutz is republican and has served as marshal of Duncombe for five years. He belongs to the Methodist church, and is a member of the local lodge of Modern Woodmen of America. He has a comfortable home in the city where he has resided for seventeen years, gaining the respect and esteem of his friends by reason of a life which has been made successful through his own efforts and by reason of straightforward principles which have been retained through unusual hardships.

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