Henry J. Bolander (1840-1934)

BOLANDER

Posted By: Karon Velau (email)
Date: 9/23/2022 at 23:35:00

Henry J. Bolander
(December 31, 1840 – August 31, 1934)

One of the most highly respected and energetic farmers of Calhoun County is Henry J. Bolander, who resides in Union township. The qualities of an upright manhood as manifest in his career have gained for him the confidence and regard of all with whom he has been brought in contact, and he well deserves mention in this volume. A native of Ohio, he was born December 31, 1840, his
parents being Henry and Susanna (Betzer) Bolander. The father was born in Berks County, Pennsylvania, in 1803, while the mother's birth occurred in Ross County, Ohio, in 1801. He was a wheelwright by trade and followed that pursuit for many years. In 1830 he left Ross county and removed to Marion County, Ohio, where he resumed
work at his trade. He also owned land in that county and carried on general farming, making his home in Marion County until his
death, which occurred in March, 1867, while his wife passed away in 1870. He was a hard-working man and his diligence and enterprise enabled him to acquire a comfortable property. He served as township clerk and trustee and in other minor offices, and in the discharge of his duties was ever prompt and faithful. In his political affiliations he was a Democrat, and in his religious faith was a Lutheran. In his family were four sons and one daughter who reached years of maturity, and the sons are yet living, namely: John, a resident of Huntington, Indiana; Samuel, who is living
in Marion county; William, also a resident of that county; and Henry J., of this review. The daughter, Mary Ann, died at the age of twenty-six years. Henry J. Bolander spent his boyhood days in Marion County, Ohio, and at the usual age entered the public schools, acquiring a good knowledge of the branches of English learning usually taught in such institutions. He worked in the fields or amid verdant meadows through the summer months, but when the country became involved in civil war he responded to the president's call for aid, enlisting on the 30th of November, 1861, as a member of Company D, Eighty-second Ohio Infantry. He was in the engagement at Bull Pasture Mountain, at McDowell and at Petersburg, and continued at the front until honorably discharged for disability in 1863. After the close of the war Mr. Bolander made a trip to the west, but did not purchase land at that time and returned to his home in Ohio. After his parents died, however, he once more crossed the Mississippi and this time settled in Calhoun County, Iowa, having some time before purchased his present farm in Union township, just east of the village of Lohrville, — a tract of wild land on which no improvements had been made, but soon his labors wrought a great change in the appearance of the place, and well tilled fields began to yield to him abundant harvests. The place comprises three hundred and twenty acres, upon which he has placed splendid improvements, including substantial buildings. Gowrie was then the nearest railroad market, with Manson on the north and Jefferson and Lake City on the west. Calhoun County was yet a frontier district at the time of his arrival and on one occasion he saw eleven deer. Steadily the star of empire was moving westward, however, and in its path came all the accessories of the older civilization of the east. Mr. Bolander has kept in touch with the progress made along the lines of farming and today has a very valuable farm property. He has seventy acres planted to corn and an equal amount to small grain, while his meadows yield a large amount of hay, and green pastures make excellent feeding grounds for his stock through the summer months. He has about forty head of cattle, preferring the short-horns, and those which he keeps are of a high grade. He also raises hogs and his stock as well as his fields shows the care and attention bestowed by the enterprising owner.
On the 8th of May, 1872, occurred an important event in the life of Mr. Bolander — his marriage to Miss Lydia A. Hulett, who was born in Morrison, Illinois, July 23, 1850, a daughter of William L. and Laura E. (Farrington) Hulett. Mrs. Bolander is numbered among the pioneer school teachers of Calhoun county and during her last term in the schoolroom she took her little eight-months-old daughter with her, the scholars caring for the baby while the mother gave instruction in the branches of learning taught in those schools. Unto our subject and his wife have been born five children: Bessie B., born January 18, 1874; Ernest B., born March 27, 1879; William H., born April 28, 1881; Albert A., born October 23, 1882: and Ralph S., born November 23, 1884. The children have all received good educations and have been in every way fitted for the battle of life. Mr. and Mrs. Bolander have a very pleasant home in Union Township and are numbered among the early pioneer settlers of the county. His has been a busy and useful career, and his labors, supplemented by the assistance of his estimable wife, have brought to him gratifying success. He has served as roadmaster, assessor and in other offices in this township, and in his political views is a Republican with firm faith in the principles of the party. In religious faith he is a Baptist, and is well known in the county for his sterling worth. [Source – Biographical Record of Calhoun County, Iowa, by S. J. Clarke, 1902, p.348]