My Great grandparents on the Kloewer side came over to the U.S. in the 1880's. They came from luxemburg. They wanted to get away from the German War Machine. They didnt travel by themselves, in fact they rarely travel in groups less than 20. When people arived here they had to find jobs to support there family. Inorder to go west you had to have money and lots of it to move. My great grand parents came over and started working in the cole mines out by Pittsburgh. My family wanted to move west as soon as they got enough money.
They wanted to move west to so they could have there own land and wanted a homestead. They got enough money to move west and only had enough to go present day Shelby County. When they got here they moved to Westphalia because thats where there Catholic group settled. They came here and named it this because of the town in germany where some were from was the same. Most settled here cause it was Church oriented and Westphalia was Catholic. Alot of people became farmers when they came over. My great grandfather worked as a farmer in 1899. He also worked at alot of other jobs of and on threw the years to ake enough money to raise there family.
My Great grandfather Started his own buisness in 1937 and it was called Kloewer Plumbing. As the years went on they added Heating and Air to there Buisness so its now Kloewer Plumbing Heating and Air. This buisness was so successful that it still is going on today. This buisness has been running for 70+ years. Currently my grandpa Bob owns it now, my father Pat and my uncle Mark work for him. My Grandpa was born in 1940 and he was the 9th of 13 children. My great Grandpa died when he was 62 years old. his name was Aloys Kloewer and his wife eva kloewer lived to be 82 she died in 1992. She came over and Grew up in Manning iowa. Also my grandma Kloewer told me that her mom came over when she was seven years old. She came over with three of her friends no parents and met her aunt in New York and lived there for a while. My Grandmas mom is still living she is 91 years old and lives in Manilla iowa. Her husband passed away this month.
Sources: Grandpa Bob Kloewer, Grandma Karen Kloewer
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