"Fayette county has been the home and the scene of
labor of many men who have not only led lives which should serve as a lesson and
inspiration to those who follow them on the stage of life's activities, but who
have also been of inestimable service through important avenues of usefulness in
various lines.
The honored and highly esteemed pastor of the Lutheran
church at Eldorado, the Rev. Gustav Edward Blessin, is one of those who have
labored long and unceasingly for the amelioration of conditions in this county
and whose services have been richly crowned. He is known to all classes as a
man of well-rounded character, devoted and loyal, so that there are many salient
points which render consonant a tribute to his commendable career. He was born
on February 1, 1847, in Berlin, Germany, of an excellent old family, and there
he attended school until ten years of age; then entered the Cadet school in
Potsdam. He was confirmed there in 1861, in the Garrison church. In 1865 he
entered the normal school in Drossen, Germany, finished the prescribed course
with credit, and then began the study of theology under Loche, Rauer, and I.
Deinzer, in the theological school at Neuendettelsan.
Thus well
equipped for his high calling, he sought a proper field for the exercise of his
talents and where he believed he could accomplish the greatest good as an humble
follower of the lowly Nazarene, so he set sail for America, for the purpose of
serving in the Lutheran church, in the fall of the year 1871. He became the
assistant of the late Rev. I. Hoertein, in Iowa City, Iowa. In the spring of
1872 he followed a call to Crane Creek, Bremer county, Iowa, and he remained
there four and one-half years where he did a great work in strengthening the
congregation and raising the general moral status of the community and elevating
the spiritual tone of the people; this has been his record wherever his lot has
been cast. While at Crake Creek he accepted a call from the congregations at
Eldorado and Fort Atkinson, in Fayette county, where he is well known, honored
and admired by all classes, everybody recognizing his genuine worth and his
fidelity to his trust. He says he has worked nearly thirty-four years in
sunshine and rain, and that the Lord has guided and provided, and will guide and
provide after his promise.
Rev. Blessin is a thoroughly accomplished
musician and a teacher of music, renowned for his success and efficiency. He is
a thorough scholar, versed in many languages, talented, versatile, a forceful,
earnest and eloquent speaker, a deep theologian, a wise but conservative pastor,
an excellent church financier and a man who would accomplish great good in any
field. He has a beautiful home in Eldorado, and possesses a large and very
valuable private library where he delights to spend much of his time perusing
the world's best literature, "losing himself in other men's minds," as
Charles Lamb wrote. His home life is simple and unpretentious.
The
acts of Rev. Blessin, both spiritual and temporal, have met with the united
approval of his own people and all others as well, the good he has done being
deeply engraven on the hearts of the people whom he has served, and the approval
of his own conscience and that of the divine master are all the reward he wishes
for his labors in behalf of the church."