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Johnson County
<< 1893 Index Portrait and Biographical Record of Johnson, Poweshiek and Iowa
counties, Iowa K-L Unless otherwise noted, biographies submitted by Dick Barton. JOSEPH
KOLDA, an able, energetic and enterprising general farmer and
stock-raiser, whose fine homestead of two hundred and ninety-six acres is
pleasantly located on section 13, Big Grove Township, Johnson County, Iowa, is
a public-spirited and upright citizen, widely known and highly esteemed. Our subject was born in the mountainous
country of Bohemia, in southeastern Germany, October 15, 1837. His parents, honest, hard-working and
industrious citizens, were Joseph and Anna Kolda,
natives of Bohemia and there, reared to habits of thrifty labor, grew up to
maturity. Marrying, they founded
the home in which their son Joseph received a ready welcome. He was tenderly cared for through
helpless infancy, and in early boyhood enjoyed the privilege of daily instruction
in the excellent schools of the Fatherland. At twelve years of age our subject began to engage in the
labor of life, then leaving school and assisting his father in the daily round
of toil. He was the only son in
the small family of three children, and as the daughters were trained in the
ways of quiet Bohemian household, the son was instructed in agricultural duties
upon the farm, which yielded but a meagre income.
The parents, assured that America
was the land of promise, with their family and belongings finally embarked for
the United states in 1855, and sailing from Bremen were five weeks and two days
reaching the longed-for port of New York. Remaining but a very brief time in the great metropolis of the Empire
State, the emigrants were soon speeding Westward, and
were not long in reaching their destination in Iowa. Father Kolda bought a farm in Cedar Township, Johnson County, which was entirely unimproved,
and energetically built his family a rude log house and ambitiously set about
the cultivation of the unbroken prairie land. the mother died at sixty-five years
of age in 1876, but the father, surviving until 1878, completed his
seventy-third year. They had both
lived to witness the rapid changes of more than a score of years, and enjoyed in
their American home the prosperity their cheerful and unremitting industry had
secured. In political affiliations
the father was a strong Democrat and thoroughly appreciated the freedom of our
republican institutions. the parents were born and bred in the Catholic faith and
died blessed with the religious consolations of their church.
Our subject was a youth of seventeen years when he came to
his Iowa home. He remained with his parents until he had attained his majority,
when he began farming on his own account in Cedar Township, subsequently
removing to Big Grove Township. He
bought the Pratt Farm in 1890, one-half mile from Solon, and a most excellent
piece of outside property. Mr. Kolda was married November 1, 1860, to Miss Jane Fiala, a native Bohemian, whose parents had early emigrated to America.
Out subject and his worthy wife are the parents of five
children, John, Joseph, George, Mary and Anna, who have all enjoyed the
excellent educational advantages of their locality. The eldest son is a prominent business man of Solon and handles extensively agricultural implements. The second son id his father's
assistant in the management of the valuable farm, and each son and daughter now worthily enjoys a position of usefulness and influence. The handsome and commodious brick
residence of the homestead, the well-built barns and outhouses, betoken
progressive thrift and abundant prosperity. The family are Catholics in religious convictions, and politically both father and sons are
sturdy Democrats. Having
self-reliantly won his way upward, our subject if a prominent factor in local
enterprises and takes rank among the leading and substantial citizens of
Johnson County.
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