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HENRY REISSER, a prominent farmer of section 3, Leroy township, was born near Frankfort, Germany, August 13, 1831, a son of Carl and Elizabeth (Reisser) Reisser. Carl Reisser and his wife had two children, Henry and Charles; the latter lives at Blairstown, Iowa. Mr. Reisser died in Germany and his widow married for her second husband Ernest Grunewald, by whom she had three children, of whom but one survives, W. J. Grunewald, of LeRoy township.
In 1851 Henry Reisser came to the United States, spending twenty-nine days on the ocean; he went from New York to Baltimore by rail, the trip taking a day and a half on the old wooden rails with a strip of iron on the top. He worked two years in Baltimore, and then with his brother, half-brother and mother, who had come to this country one year after his arrival, went into market gardening in New Jersey, remaining eleven years. In 1864 they all removed to Iowa, and after spending two months in Clayton county, located in Benton county. Here Henry Reisser purchased his present farm of one hundred and sixty acres, at that time the country was sparsely settled and his farm was unimproved. Mr. Reisser could drive from his farm across the prairie to Vinton, with no fences to interfere with the journey. Mr. Reisser's farm now contains all modern improvements, and is in a high state of cultivation; he also owns three hundred and twenty acres in Charles Mix county, South Dakota, well improved. Mr. Reisser is one of the most successful and highly respected citizens of Benton county. He is independent in politics and takes an active interest in public affairs.
Mr. Reisser married (first) in 1857, Mrs. Mary Miller, born in Saxony, Germany, and who came to Wisconsin in 1848. She died in Clayton county, Iowa, in August, 1864, at 26 years of age. They were parents of two sons, of whom one survives, William, of St. Glair township. Mr. Reisser married on December 6, 1868, Margaret Rupp, born June 17, 1844, in Frankfort-on-the-Rhine, Germany, a daughter of John and Madgalena (Weber) Rupp. Mr. Rupp was born November 22, 1806, and died in 1883; he was a vineyard man in Germany. In 1849 he came to the United States and in 1850 his family joined him here. Mr. Rupp located in Canton, Ohio, where he lived twenty-three years, and came to Benton county from there, locating in Eldorado township. He retired and settled in Blairstown, where he died at the age of seventy-six years, His wife, who was born in 1806, died in 1880. They had four children, of whom three survive, namely: John, of Ohio ; Margaret, Mrs. Reisser; and Mary M., who married W. J. Grunewald, of Leroy township. By his second marriage Mr. Reisser had nine children, namely: Harry, living at home; Mary, wife of John Blahanvietz; Margaret, at home; Elinor, wife of Alfred L. Vogelgesang, of Charles Mix county, South Dakota; Arthur, also in South Dakota; Christian, living at home; Martha, a school teacher; Dak and Otto, farming the home farm.
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