Henry Webb

Henry Webb and Rozilla (Dresser) Webb

Henry Webb will long be remembered as one of the most successful farmers Allamakee county has known and as a man of remarkable ability whose judgment was seldom at fault and whose fidelity to trust and sincerity in anything which he undertook were never questioned. For forty-one years he was a resident of this section of Iowa and here he spent and active, useful and honorable life, terminating in his death on the 27th of March, 1905. He was born in Livingston, New York, September 26, 1839, and was a son of John and Elizabeth (Webb) Webb, of Irish descent, who resided on a farm near Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for a number of years. In the fall of 1864 they came to Iowa and in this state spent the remainder of their lives. The father was born in 1803 and died in 1870, while the mother was born in 1797 and died in 1887. Henry Webb acquired his education in the public schools of Wisconsin and there grew to manhood. In the spring of 1864 he came to Iowa, settling near Postville, where he obtained a position in a grain elevator but was later employed at the depot. In the year of his arrival here he was married and he made his home with his wife's parents until the following spring, when he rented a farm one mile east of Postville, upon which he continued to reside for one year. At the end of that time he purchased the property, which comprised one hundred and twenty acres, and upon this he carried forward the work of cultivation for ten years finally selling the farm and buying another, upon which his widow now resides. Mr. Webb turned his attention with characteristic energy to the improvement and development of his land, carrying on the work along progressive and modern lines, success steadily rewarding his well directed labor. The property became a valuable one, equipped with fine buildings and labor saving machinery and reflecting everywhere the care and supervision of a practical and able agriculturist. Mr. Webb built his home in the midst of a beautiful evergreen grove and here he resided until his death, which occurred March 27, 1905.

On the 29th of November, 1864, Mr. Webb was united in marriage to Miss Rozilla Dresser, who was born in Champaign county, Ohio, on the 18th of February, 1845. She is a daughter of Calvin and Sallie (Hawkins) Dresser, the former a native of Canada and the latter of New Hampshire. The father, who spent his entire active life engaged in farming, remained a resident of Ohio, until 1855, when he located on a farm just north of Postville, which he cleared and improved, developing and excellent and valuable farm. There he died May 14, 1892, when he was seventy-eight years of age. His wife survived him only a short time, dying when she was eighty-one. In their family were twelve children, of whom Mrs. Webb was the eighth in order of birth. Mr. and Mrs. Webb became the parents of six children: Lucy Augusta, who was born July 16, 1869, and married C.P. Smith, a farmer living in the vicinity of Postville; Melissa Arvilla, who was born on the 1st of December, 1870, and is now the wife of Jean Owen, a farmer in Winneshiek county; Ida Jane, whose birth occurred on the 29th of November, 1872, and who became the wife of John Staadt, engaged in farming near Ottawa, Kansas; Herman D., who was born January 14, 1875, and resides at home; Bertha May, who was born July 3, 1877, and married Adolph Thias, a clerk in Portland, Oregon; and Eva Blanche, who was born April 24, 1879, and married George Fay, a druggist in Postville. Since the death of her husband Mrs. Webb has added forty acres to the homestead and manages the property in an able and successful manner. She is a woman of high ideals and lovable character and holds the respect, confidence and high regard of all with whom she comes in contact.

Mr. Webb gave his allegiance to the republican party but never desired political honors, his interests centering in his home and his farming operations. He was a kind parent, a true friend and firm upholder of the law, a citizen whose work made a lasting impression upon those with whom he came into contact and upon the region where he made his home.

pgs 282-283

-transcribed by Cathy Joynt-Labath

Return to index