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GUSTAV HEINRICH, a substantial and successful farmer in section 32, Eldorado township, Benton county, Iowa, was born May 7, 1854, in South Australia. He is a son of Frederick William and Friederike (Krause) Heinrich, both natives of Germany. Frederick W. Heinrich was born in 1823 in the providence of Saxony, and died in Germany at the age of sixty-five years. Mrs. Heinrich was born in 1825, and died at the age of fifty-five years. They were parents of eight children, six of whom are living, namely: August, of Blairstown, Iowa; Fred, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Gustav, of Eldorado township, Benton county; Friederike, in Germany; Paulina, in Germany; and William, also in Germany. Mr. Heinrich, Sr., was by trade a stonemason, and moved to Australia in 1849. He worked at his trade and at farming, and in 1867 returned to Germany. In 1869 he came to the United States and located at Milwaukee, Wisconsin. After remaining there one year he returned to Germany and died there.
Gustav Heinrich received a common school education in Australia, and when thirteen years of age went with his parents to Germany and after two years to Milwaukee. He remained in Wisconsin until his parents returned to Germany, and then began working on a farm. In 1873 he came to Benton county, Iowa, where he worked at farming by the month until the time of his marriage. He then purchased eighty acres of land in Union township, which was partly improved, and in 1882 he traded in this eighty acres towards two hundred and forty acres in section 32, Eldorado township, to which he moved, and he has since made this his home. He now owns six hundred and thirty acres of land, his farm being well improved and fitted with modern conveniences and he has a beautiful home. He has rented his farms to his sons and removed to Vinton, Iowa, to retire from active life. He is considered a representative, useful citizen, and stands well in the community, He has the confidence and esteem of his neighbors, and is actively interested in public affairs.
Mr. Heinrich married, January 8, 1878, Matilda Becker, born in Lyon county, Ohio, February 22, 1860, daughter of Charles and Sabina (Druschel) Becker. Her father died when she was eight months old, in 1860, and her mother subsequently married Charles Kropf, who died in 1904. Mrs. Heinrich is one of a family of four daughters by her mother's first marriage; by her second marriage the mother had six sons. In 1862 Mr. Kropf and his wife came to Illinois from Ohio, and in 1870 they located in Benton county, Iowa, on the farm now owned by Mr. Heinrich; they rented it two years and then removed to Calhoun county, Iowa, where Mrs. Kropf now lives, at the age of seventy-seven years. Mr. Heinrich and his wife became parents of eleven children, all living at home except the two oldest and one deceased. They are: Arthur, Lawrence, Frank, Jennie, Elsie, Charley,- Laura, Myrtle, Raymond, Edith and Ida (deceased). Arthur and Lawrence live in Eldorado township.
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