| Other People | Frank J. Bradley | Olive Rambo Cook | Jerry Litton | | |||
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Past and Present of Livingston County Volume 2. Biographies by Major A. J. Roof. 1913 |
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Page 251-252
William B. Diegelman occupies a leading position in agricultural circles of Livingston county, where for some years he has successfully operated a farm of one hundred and forty-five acres in section 31, Cream Ridge township. He has lived in this section of Missouri since 1877 and was born in Pittston, Pennsylvania, April 14, 1852 a son of Benedict and Catherine (Giesel) Diegelman. The father was a cabinet-maker and carpenter by trade, following this occupation until 1865, when he came to Livingston county and purchased the farm now owned by the subject of this review, dying upon the property one year later. The mother afterward sold the tract and returned to Pennsylvania with her family. She survived her husband until 1872 and is buried by his side in the May cemetery.
William B. Diegelman acquired his education in the public schools of Scranton, Pennsylvania, laying aside his books at the age of eighteen, when he secured a position as clerk in a grocery store. Later, however, he learned the carpentering trade, which he has followed for the past thirty years, being today an expect and accomplished workman. He came to Livingston county in 1877 and purchased the farm in Cream Ridge township formerly owned by his father and since that time has divided his attention between his agricultural pursuits and his work as a carpenter and builder, both activities being extremely profitable to him. He has erected over four hundred residences in Livingston county and seven churches and, in addition, has ably carried forward the work of improving and developing his property, which is supplied with a modern dwelling, good barns and outbuildings and all of the necessary labor-saving machinery. Mr. Diegelman raises fine crops of grain and is in addition an extensive raiser of high-grade stock. He attributes his success in a large measure to the assistance of his wife, who has not only aided in every department of the farm but who also carries on poultry raising successfully.
Mr. Diegelman was married on August 31, 1877, in Scranton, Pennsylvania, to Miss Florence Rozelle, a daughter of Samuel and Delight (Ross) Rozelle, the former a farmer by occupation and a veteran of the Civil war. He died during the Civil war when the wife of our subject was still an infant and his wife has also passed away since and is buried near Clarks Summit, Pennsylvania. Mrs. Diegelman is a native of Wisconsin, her birth occurring near Fond du Lac, on January 11, 1858. To Mr. and Mrs. Diegelman were born seven children, one of whom died in infancy. Those living are: Annie M., the wife of Adolph Bergman, a farmer in Oklahoma; Zeffie, who married Robert Carter, a farmer in Livingston county; William C., a graduate of Chillicothe College and now a salesman in the Jones department store of Kansas City; Earl, who carries on general farming in Livingston county; Ella, the wife of Ira Blue, clerk in a general store in Chula, Missouri; and Benedict, who has left the district school, to enter upon a high-school course.
Mr. Diegelman gives his political allegiance to the republican party and has done able work in the cause of education as a director of the school board. Throughout the thirty-six years of his residence here he has gained that success which always follows earnest and well directed labor and is accounted one of the leading agriculturists and progressive business men of this locality.