Fred C. Hess

HESS, KLEIN

Posted By: Tammy (email)
Date: 11/12/2011 at 17:30:16

FRED C. HESS, one of the enterprising and successful farmers and stock-raisers of Melrose Township, Grundy County, residing on section 26, is a native of Wurtemberg, Germany. He was born April 29, 1838, and is a son of Lewis Hess. The father spent his entire life in Germany and was a knitter by trade. Our subject was reared in the land of his birth and there learned the trade of shoemaking, which he followed about two years. In 1854, when a youth of sixteen, he came to America with his brothers, John and Lewis. The former is now living in Carroll County, Ill., and the later resides in Melrose Township.

After coming to this country Fred C. Hess spent six months in New York City, where he worked at his trade, and then removed to Carroll County, Ill., following shoemaking for a year and a-half in Mt. Carroll. Subsequently he engaged at farm work until the spring of 1860, when he went to La Salle County, Ill., there working as a farm hand for a year and a-half, when on the 9th of August, 1862, he enlisted in Company C, One Hundred and Fourth Illinois Infantry, for a three years’ service in the late war. He participated in the battles of Lookout Mountain, Missionary Ridge, Buzzard’s Roost, Kenesaw Mountain, Chickamauga and the memorable march to the sea under General Sherman. When the war was over he was mustered out, in June, 1865.

Returning to his home, Mr. Hess continued to reside in La Salle County until the spring 1866, when he came to Grundy County, locating on the farm which he has since made his home. He purchased eighty acres at $3.50 per acre and at once began the development of the then wild tract. He was married in La Salle County, August 12, 1862, to Miss Tabitha, daughter of J. M. Klein, who was a native of Pennsylvania and came to Grundy County in 1866. Twenty years later he removed to Kansas, and from there he went to Missouri, where his death occurred in April, 1891. Mrs. Hess was born in Pennsylvania and is one of six children, all of whom are living. Six children have been born unto our subject and his wife, as follows: Lewis, who is married and lives in Melrose Township; Charles, who is married and occupies a farm adjoining the old homestead; John, Nancy Ann, Grace L. and Mary May, who are still with their parents. They also lost two children: Tabitha, who died at the age of four and a-half years, and Ernest, who died at the age of seventeen and a-half years.

Mr. Hess now carries on farming and stock-raising. He owns four hundred acres of valuable land located on sections 25 and 26, Melrose Township, and the entire amount is under a high state of cultivation. The place is well drained and well watered; there is a good house and splendid barns, and in fact all of the improvements of a model farm are there found, the place being complete in all its appointments. In his political views Mr. Hess is a Republican and does all in his power to promote the growth and insure the success of his party. He has been a member of the Board of School Directors for about fifteen years, and the cause of education finds in him a warm friend. Socially he is connected with the Grand Army of the Republic. He holds membership with the Church of God and is serving as one of its Trustees. He is a valued citizen, who is as true to his country and her best interests in the hours of peace as when he followed the Stars and Stripes.

Source:
Portrait and Biographical Record
of Jasper, Marshall and Grundy Counties, Iowa
1894

Grundy Biographies maintained by Tammy D. Mount.
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