Nicholas J. Rusch

Nicholas J. Rusch (February 16, 1822 – September 22, 1864) was an American tutor, farmer, member of the Iowa Senate (1858–1860), the Lieutenant Governor of Iowa (1860–1862), Iowa's Commissioner of Immigration, and a captain in the Union Army during the American Civil War.

Biography Nicholas Johann Rusch was born on February 16, 1822, in Sankt Michaelisdonn, Holstein. He attended elementary school at Marne, the gymnasium at Meldorf, the Segeberg Seminary and the University of Kiel. He immigrated to the United States in 1847 and while en route he tutored the children in a family. He settled on a farm in Scott County, Iowa near the city of Davenport. He was part of the first wave of immigrants who settled in the area from Schleswig-Holstein.

After serving his term, Rusch was appointed by Governor Kirkwood to be Iowa's Commissioner of Immigration. He spent his time in New York where he distributed promotional information about the state. He returned to Iowa ten months later as immigration nearly came to a halt during the Civil War. Rusch joined the Union Army when Kirkwood appointed him to the Commissary Department with the rank of captain. In Vicksburg, Mississippi, he developed a plan to protect Union steamboats on the Mississippi River from guerilla attacks by positioning lumberjacks along the river to provide steamboats with fuel and to interfere in case the boats were attacked.