Augustus C Heynen, b 8 Jan 1849

HEYNEN, RAY

Posted By: Donna Moldt Walker (email)
Date: 5/8/2004 at 21:00:38

Augustus C. Heynen, the younger brother of O.W. Heynen, well known within the mercantile community of Miles and vicinity, is a worthy representative of the family, and conducts a successful general hardware business in the above mentioned town. He established himself here in the fall of 1878, and has become widely and favorably known to a large proportion of the residents of this section. He was born in the city of Ronsdorf, Prussia, Jan. 8, 1849, and is consequently in the prime of life. He possesses a well-balanced head for business, and the same principles of morality which have distinguished the elder Heynen. He came with his parents to America in 1848*, when a mere child, and the scenes of his first recollections are at Naperville, Ill., where he spent his boyhood and attended the commons schools. Young Heynen left home at the early age of fifteen years, being a bright and ambitious boy, and anxious to start in life for himself. We should state that he completed his studies in the academy at Naperville, making a specialty of book-keeping. When leaving home he repaired to Chicago, and commenced an apprenticeship at the tinner's trade, which he followed two years. He then engaged with the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad Company, and was given charge of the ventilating apparatus of their passenger coaches, and of the work in which the tinner's art was made use of. This proved to him a valuable experience, when he not only learned many new things in connection with his trade, but the opportunity for travel was equally of service.

Mr. Heynen, after leaving the railroad, engaged for a short time at steam and gas fitting in Chicago. Next he changed his occupation somewhat, and became a general salesman for the wholesale and retail millinery house of Stark Bros. After two years thus occupied he, in 1878, joined his brother in Miles, this county, and purchased the hardware stock of J.C. Day, now of Sabula. The spring following he associated himself with a partner, Mr. Hammersmith, and they prosecuted a thriving trade in hardware and agricultural implements, under the firm name of A. C. Heynen & Co. In 1885 they disposed of the agricultural implement branch to Henry Dunn, and replaced it with a stock of furniture. This and the hardware department they conducted as two stores until the spring of 1887, when they separated, Mr. Heynen taking the hardware department and his partner the furniture. The well-known probity and reliability of Mr. Heynen have made the task of establishing a good patronage comparatively easy, and he is now numbered among the rising and solid business men of the place. He is liberal and public-spirited like his brother, and, politically, a Republican to the backbone, having also a warm interest in the temperance movement. He was elected Township Collector in 1887, and still holds the office. He owns and occupies a neat and comfortable residence in the eastern part of the village, and which forms one of its most attractive homes. Both he and his estimable wife are members in good standing of the Congregational Church, in which Mr. Heynen is one of the pillars, and officiates as Clerk.

The year 1881 witnessed the marriage of our subject with Miss Sarah Ray, at the home of the bride in Miles. Mrs. Heynen was born in Pennsylvania, and came to Iowa with her parents, they settling first in Andrew. The household circle of Mr. and Mrs. Heynen includes four bright children, three sons and a daughter, namely: Frank, Nettie, Ray, and George.

* This date and the date of his birth are exactly as printed in the original volume.

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