HENRY NIENSTEDT, b 21 Jul 1842

NIENSTEDT, HELMICK, FELDERMAN

Posted By: Donna Moldt Walker (email)
Date: 7/14/2004 at 09:17:46

There is no more important trade or industry in the world than that of carpenter and builder, of which our subject is a master and able to exhibit the evidences of his skill and taste in the erection of some of the handsomest business houses and residences in Bellevue and Tete des Morts Townships. He is a gentleman in the prime of life, having been born July 21, 1842, and is a native of the Province of Omtedding Hausen, Braunzweich, Germany, from which he emigrated in the spring of 1869, when a man of twenty-seven years.

Mr. Nienstedt, the subject of this sketch, is sprung from a long-lived family, his father, Kasson Nienstedt, dying at the advanced age of eighty-three years. The mother still survives at the good old age of ninety-three years. The venerable people were man and wife for a period of sixty-two years. They were the parents of ten children, eight boys and two girls, whose names were as follows: Frederick, Kasson, Otto, Dietrich, John, John Henry, Henry and Adelaide. One boy and one girl died in infancy. Those remaining give promise of living to an advanced age, as the oldest is seventy-one years of age, and the youngest forty-seven.

Mr. Nienstedt was reared and educated in his native Province, and when a youth of fifteen years, soon after leaving school, commenced his apprenticeship at the trade of carpenter to which he seemed from the first naturally adapted. He was successful from the outset, and in due time became a contractor and builder, which business he pursued in his native province for a number of years before coming to America. He made the passage across the ocean, embarking from the port of Bremen and landing fourteen days later in the city of Baltimore. Thence shortly afterward he proceeed to the city of Cincinnati, Ohio, where he followed his trade for a few months, but finally decided to push on west of the Mississippi. Coming to this county he located in Tete des Morts Township, where, when not occupied in carpentering he engaged as a farm laborer. In the fall of 1877 he took up his residence in Bellevue, and embarked in a new business, brewing, at which he was occupied for some time.

That same year, March 15, 1877, Mr. Nienstedt was married to Miss Anna E. Helmick. This lady was born in Tete des Morts Township, April 5, 1856, and is the daughter of Henry and Elizabeth (Felderman) Helmick, the former of whom departed this life in 1875. The mother is still living, and makes her home with her children in Crookston, Minn. Mr. and Mrs. Helmick were the parents of eight children, whose names are as follows: Mary, Anna Elizabeth, John, Rosy, Albert, Herman, Addie and George. They were natives of Germany, whence they emigrated to America and settled in the northeastern part of this county during its pioneer days. The father engaged in agricultural pursuits and built up a good homestead where he remained for some time, then removed to Reedsland, Minn., where he died.

The subject of this sketch may most properly be classed with the self-made men of this county, one who, thrown on his own resources early in life, has by his perseverance and industry attained to a good position, socially and financially. Politically, he votes the Democratic ticket, and socially is of that genial and companionable disposition which makes him a favorite, both in business circles and amid the kindlier elements which relieve men from the cares of life and bring out the qualities of their better nature.

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