Henry Gosch

FEYERBANK, BLACK

Posted By: Donna Moldt Walker (email)
Date: 4/23/2004 at 07:16:14

Among the prosperous land-owners of Van Buren Township a prominent place belongs to the subject of this biography, who is the proprietor of 450 acres of land, occupying portions of section 4, 9, 7 and 8. His homestead is the abode of comfort and plenty, where, without pretentions to elegance, there is everything to make life desirable and pleasant.

The improvements effected upon this place have been altogether superintended, and many of them brought about, by the hands of the present owner. During the past twelve years he estimates that he has expended fully $12,000 in the erection of buildings, the placing of fences and adding the other conveniences and appliances, which readily suggest themselves to the mind of the progressive modern farmer. He has been a resident of this county since a lad twelve years of age, when he crossed the Atlantic with his parents and settled in Washington Township, after a residence of three months in Davenport. In this township he was reared to man's estate, and at an early age became familiar with hard work, beginning to follow the plow when he had to reach up in order to hold the handles. His education was obtained in the public school, which he attended during the winter season, and he remained under the home roof until his marriage, Sept. 27, 1868.

The wife of our subject was in her girlhood Miss Amelia Feyerbank. She was born in Illinois, Nov. 18, 1851, and is the daughter of Henry and Dora Feyerbank, natives of Germany and now deceased; to Mr. and Mrs. Gosch there were born seven children, namely: Amelia, Henry, Dora, Frank, Otto, Ella and Josephine. The eldest of these is nineteen years of age, and the youngest six months, and they are all at home with their parents. Mr. Gosch belongs to the German Lutheran Church at Spragueville. Politically, he is a stanch Democrat, has served as School Director, and is at present School Treasurer of his district. The labors and sacrifices of the early years of his residence in this county have been amply rewarded in the accumulation of a fine property, which will secure himself and his family from want. In thus bringing to a state of cultivation a large area of the best land in Van Buren Township, he has contributed materially to its agricultural interets. As a citizen and a member of the community he is highly esteemed. He learned the English language by degrees, and is able to speak it quite fluently. Mrs. Gosch, however, still clings to the patois of the Fatherland.

Our subject is the son of Henry and Ella (Black) Gosch, also natives of Schleswig. Their family consisted of five children, four of whom were born in Germany, and the fifth in Washington Township, this county. They crossed the Atlantic in 1858, and the mother lived only a few years thereafter, passing away at the homestead in the above named township at the age of forty-three years. The father was subsequently married, but there were born no children of that union. About 1886 he removed to Boone County, where he is now living in good circumstances at the advanced age of seventy-nine years. In starting on the long voyage to America the family embarked at Hamburg on the sailing vessel "Hermonia," which landed them in New York City. Our subject had attended school in his native Province for some time before coming to America, and while speaking English easily and plainly, he very wisely has not allowed himself to forget his mother tongue.

("Portrait and Biographical Album of Jackson County, Iowa", originally published in 1889, by the Chapman Brothers, of Chicago, Illinois.)