Jackson County IA Archives Biographies.....Brandt, J. M. November 17, 1871 - 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Ken Wright wright@prestontel.com January 4, 2011, 6:42 pm

Source: History of Jackson County, Iowa, 1910
Author: J. W. Ellis

J. M. BRANDT. 

The life record of J. M. Brandt is another exemplification of the truth that 
success awaits the man who has the ability to discern and utilize the 
opportunities that others pass by heedlessly. He is the sole owner of the Iowa 
Marine Engine & Launch Works, and in this connection is not only obtaining a 
conspicuous success for himself but is also advancing the business interests of 
Jackson county and of Bellevue, which is his home. 
He was born in Grant county, Wisconsin, November 17, 1871, his parents being 
Clements and Mary Brandt. The former was born in Prussia, Germany, and came to 
America with his parents when he was a year old. He was married in Dubuque, 
Iowa, and died in this state in 1902, when sixty-two years of age. His wife, 
who was a native of Bavaria, Germany, died when her son J. M. Brandt was three 
years old and is survived by three children: Lona, who is the wife of Bruno 
Teal, of Montana; J. M., the subject of this review; and Verona, the wife of G. 
C. Schneuer, of Kansas City, Missouri. There were twelve children, however, by 
the father's second marriage. 
J. M. Brandt lived in the county of his birth until he was ten years of age, 
when he accompanied his parents on their removal to Dubuque, Iowa, which 
remained his home until about eleven years ago. The public schools afforded him 
his educational opportunities, although he did not spend much time in the 
pursuit of lessons, for at the age of twelve he began to provide for his own 
support. In 1885 he started to work for C. Z. Pritchard and was employed in his 
buggy-top factory for four and a half years. Subsequently he obtained a 
position with A. Y. McDonald, a manufacturer of all kinds of brass goods and 
pumps, and later was associated with the Excelsior Brass Works for a year, 
after which he was employed by Schriber & Conchar, hardware manufacturers, for 
twenty months and for the next year and a half was connected with the Smedley 
Steam Pump Company. As a result of the experience gained through those years, 
Mr. Brandt had become a first class mechanic, and he had the distinction of 
having built the first two cycle marine engines in Du- buque. As an employee, 
however, the field of his activity was too narrow to satisfy his ambitions or 
afford wide enough scope for the full exercise of his abilities, and so on the 
22d of October, 1898, he came to Bellevue and formed a partnership with Horace 
N. Brandt, under the firm style of Brandt & Brandt, which association lasted 
for one year. Since 1899 he has been in business alone and the growth and 
success which have come to his undertaking are a tribute to his energy, 
perseverance and far-reaching enterprise. At first he did job work and built an 
engine occasionally, but now the Iowa Marine Engine & Launch Works, of which he 
is the sole owner, builds engines and launches exclusively, many of the 
pleasure boats plying on the Mississippi river coming from his plant. For the 
past two years he has been giving considerable attention to making speed boats, 
Red Top and Red Top No. 2, being notable examples of his product. The latter is 
the fastest launch on the river, having a record of thirty-six miles an hour 
for a single hour. It is owned by W. E. Hughey, is a boat forty feet by four 
feet, eight inches in size, and has eight engines of two hundred and thirty-one 
horsepower. All of its parts were manufactured in the Brandt shops. Last year, 
in addition to other work, Mr. Brandt built three racers. He owns the plant, 
which includes an adequate number of suitable buildings, as follows: a machine 
shop on the corner of Second and Chestnut street, twenty-two by seventy-one 
feet; a building adjoining on Chestnut street, fifty-one by sixty-six feet, 
which is used as a boat shop; and a blacksmith shop, twenty-two by twenty feet. 
Ten men are employed as boat builders and machinists. The business is conducted 
on sound principles and has proved its right to be numbered among the 
profitable enterprises of Jackson county. 
It was in 1904 that Mr. Brandt was united in marriage to Miss Lena Kamp, a 
native of Bellevue and a daughter of Antonio Kamp, of that city, and they have 
one son, Edward. Mr. Brandt belongs to the Bellevue Boat Club, thus keeping in 
touch with the social interests of the city as well as with its business 
opportunities. He has been notably successful, due largely no doubt to the fact 
that he has continued in the line of activity for which as a young man he 
showed especial skill, winning his advancement by reason of his good work, his 
perseverance and his honorable business methods. 
J. W. Ellis, History 


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