Heyer, Warner Henry

FROEHLICH, MUELLER, EMMONS

Posted By: BCGS
Date: 11/22/2009 at 20:09:06

Among the many active industrious and progressive citizens whom Germany has given to America is Warner Henry Heyer, who has worked his own way upward from poverty to affluence and is now prominently connected with business interests of Sumner as a member of the firm of W.H. Heyer & Son. He was born in Hanover, February 8, 1859, and acquired a limited education in the public schools of that province. When he was fifteen years of age he emigrated to America and came directly to Iowa, settling in Cedar county, where he went to school for two winters in order to learn the English language. During this time he also worked for one year on a farm near Louden and when he resigned this position came to Bremer county, afterward working on a farm near Waverly for three years. He spent a similar period of time in Butler county and then came to Sumner, where he secured a position in a lumber yard operated by T.P. Emmons. He later associated himself with L.S. Cass and continued at the lumber business in the employ of others for seven or eight years. At the end of that time he established himself in business, beginning in a humble way and gradually building up the large and important enterprise. It is operated under the name of W.H. Heyer & Son and the firm deals in lumber, coal, lime and cement, and all kinds of building material. Mr. Heyer is a director in the First National Bank, the First Trust & Savings Bank, and is a member of the firm of Koeberle-Heyer Company, and his ability is recognized and respected in business circles.

Mr. Heyer married Miss Augusta Froehlich, a native of Germany and six children were born to their union: Ella, the wife of J.G. Mueller of Charles City, Iowa; Walter, assistant cashier of the First National Bank; Erwin, in business with his father; and Leo, Orlinda and Claude, at home.

Mr. Heyer is a member of the German Lutheran church and a democrat in his political views. He has served as a member of the city council and proved himself a capable and conscientious public official. He is justly accounted one of the self-made men of Sumner, for he started out a poor boy with no resources beyond his ability and courage and he founded upon these qualities a success which places him among the most prominent men in the community.

History of Bremer County, Iowa Vol II 1914