Otto Gustave Ahlers, son of Hinrick Ahlers and Catherine Thieson, was born on October 22, 1859 in Mildorf, Germany. His wife, Emma Jacobsen, was born September 4, 1868 in Marne, Germany. They bought the Ahlers farm northwest of Clearwater and settled there in 1902.
Otto Sr., not wishing to remain in Germany where his father was a farmer and mill owner, came to the United States in 1881, in a boat that could not be controlled, therefore it took months to reach the United States.
He worked for several years as a farm laborer near Schribner, Nebraska, then on a farm near Tama, Iowa and lastly on the farm near Clearwater. He returned to Tama and married Emma who had come with her family from Germany in 1883. They farmed in Iowa until 1903 when they moved to the farm northeast of Clearwater. This has been the family home ever since. There were eleven children: Theodore, Dorothea, Henry, Otto Jr., Wilhelm, Carl Rudolph, Emil, Herman, Klara, Hugo, and Rose. The three oldest died of diptheria in Iowa. William and Henry were invalids and died in early manhood. Hugo and Rose died in childhood. The children all attended the Frenchtown school. The farm is now owned by Otto Jr. Rudy lives west of Tilden. Emil married and had four children. Klara married Ernest Loeske and has six children.
Source Unknown: Originally submitted for this website in June 2007