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Biographical History of Northern Michigan
B. F. Bowen & Co., Indianapolis - 1905
[804-805]
RUDOLPH DUELTGEN
The name of RUDOLPH DUELTGEN, the subject of this sketch, suggests
one of the best known citizens of Presque Isle county, Michigan. He
was born at Flint, Michigan, in 1863, and when only a boy of eight
years removed with his parents to Crawford's Quarry, then a bustling
but rude village on the shore of Lake Huron, but which has now fallen
into decay. Here he grew to young manhood, with a rather meager
chance to obtain an education so far as the school-room was concerned,
but, actively engaged in a great variety of the industries by which he
was surrounded, he unconciously acquired a wide and accurate knowledge
of the real things about him which have been of practical value to
him, fitting him for the career which was opening before him. He be-
came an expert woodsman, and having exceptionally good judgment in th
estimation of land and timber values he recognized the opportunities
around him for profitable investment in such properties and early
invested therein his savings, a moderate sum, which has demonstrated
the good judgment of the investor. In a very marked degree MR. DUELT-
GEN has enjoyed the confidence of the people of his county, and while
he is as far as possible from being a self-seeking politician, he has
been called upon to assume many important trusts and hold a variety of
official positions which have rather sought the man than been sought
by him. In 1886, when he had only just attained his majority, he was
chosen to the important office of sheriff; succeeding himself, he was
retained in that position until 1890, when he became register of
deeds. Retiring from that office after a single term, he gave his
attention wholly to his lumbering interests for a period of four
years, when he was elected, in 1896, to the office of judge of
probate, which he still holds, having been elected for the third time
to that position in 1904. In politics an earnest Republican, he has
always been elected by such majorities as evidence his popularity with
all parties.
JUDGE DUELTGEN was married while still a young man to THERESA
HOEFT, a daughter of HERMAN HOEFT, a prominent citizen of Presque Isle
county for many years, but now a resident of San Jose, California, and
his domestic relations have ever been most happy.
Taken all in all, his career affords the rare spectacle of an
unusually modest and retiring man, whose merits have found the recog-
nition and reward which they so richly deserve, and forced him into
positions of prominence, which he has accepted with a certain modesty
of manner which, united with his kindness of heart and inflexible
honesty of purpose, have so fortified him in the regard and esteem of
the people of his chosen county that, in the expressive language of
one of the opposition papers during a recent campaign: "He couldn't be
pried loose with a crow bar." an unconcious admission of his popular-
ity, which his friends made good at the polls.
The Judge is an active member and worker in several fraternal
organizations and prominent in all public measures for the advancement
of his home town. He has for many years occupied a seat in the coun-
cil hall and has been recognized as a conservative and yet progressive
member of that body of village solons. Of simple tastes and habits,
fond of such rural sports as forest and stream afford, devoted to his
family and surrounded by his friends, he lives the ideal life of the
contented country gentleman. His residence, situated in the midst of
spacious grounds in which the beauties of nature are carefully pre-
served, is one of the pleasantest homes in the village. Of a rather
retiring disposition, JUDGE DUELTGEN is slow to assume positions of
prominence, but has grown to be recoginzed as a man who succeeds,
whose judgment is rarely at fault, and who can always be relied upon
to act with fidelity to the trust confided to him.
Others may have a greater number of friends, but not more devoted,
and none can have fewer enemies; and without being himself aware of
it, he has made and is still making himself a potent factor for good
in his community.
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