 The family emigrated to America in 1843, settling first in New York and later in the Amana Colonies in Iowa.His father, known in America as Joseph Prestele, was also a painter and lithographer of flowers and fruits and prior to emigrating had been head gardener for King Ludwig I of Bavaria as well as a staff artist for a time at the Royal Botanical Garden in Munich.From his father he learned the arts of watercolor and lithography.