JOHN HENRY SPECHT

SPECHT, PITHANN, PORT, FREY

Posted By: Donna Moldt Walker (email)
Date: 12/25/2004 at 21:07:38

John Henry Specht, proprietor of the well-known Specht's Hotel of Preston is recognized as the man who probably more than any other one individual has been the most largely concerned in the building up of the town. He has invested $20,000 worth of capital in the erection of buildings, putting up the first public hall in the village, and the brick store owned by Jenkins & Sons after the disastrous fire of 1878. The first brick store in the place was erected by Mr. Specht in 1874, and prior to this he had erected a livery barn. He also put up the agricultural implement warehouse, now occupied by John Purington, and the meat market building, occupied by Martin McLaughlin, besides a number of the first-class dwellings of Preston and vicinity. Specht's Hotel was the first structure of its kind in the town, and still continues to be the principal public house in the city. After the town was laid out numbers of the countryment of Mr. Specht repaired hither and placed their funds with him for safe keeping. An enemy invaded the camp, and for a time caused Mr. Specht considerable trouble and uneasiness by malicious charges but he happily proved their falsity, exonerating himself completely, and the fact that he has been time and time again honored by his fellow-citizens in more ways than one, is sufficient vindication of his character.

Our subject was born in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, March 4, 1836, received a good education in the public schools, and was carefully trained in the doctrines of the Lutheran Church. His father was a mason by trade, and he was the only child of his parents who came to America in 1854, and settled in Sabula, this county. The elder Specht followed his trade for some time, then purchased a farm three miles north of the town, and followed agriculture a number of years. He finally retired from active labor and took up his abode in Preston where he died in 1878 at the age of sixty-six years. The mother had died prior to this in Sabula in 1855, aged forty-five years. Mr. Specht was married a second time, but there were no children by that union.

Our subject learned the trade of shoemaker in his native Germany, but after coming to America soon abandoned it for the more congenial pursuit of farming. He worked for his father at the homestead until reaching his majority, then purchased a small tract of land, and in 1865 was married to Miss Minnie Pithann. This lady was born near the city of Vesal, on the Rhine, Prussia, and came to America with her parents when a child of four years. Her mother died on the ocean during the voyage hither, and the father came with his children to Scott County, this State, where they lived two years, then changed their residence to this county, settling on a farm along Deep Creek. Mr. Pithann was married a second time but there were no more children; he is still living, making his home with his daughter, Mrs. Specht, and has arrived to the advanced age of eighty-one years.

After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Specht settled on a farm in Van Buren Township, where our subject prosecuted agriculture quite successfully. Soon after the laying out of Preston, he removed thither and became one of its principal business men. He first conducted a hotel successfully, then began dealing in lumber, and finally in grain and livestock, making a specialty of swine. At one time he conducted the Mitchell house, named in honor of the President of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad Company, and this latter was merged into Specht's Hotel, by which name it is now known. The present proprietor has effected many improvements in the house, and exerts himself for the comfort of his guests. Up to the fall of 1883 he was interested in the bank, the building of which he assisted in erecting. Through a robbery, which occurred in 1881, he and his partner suffered the loss of $10,000.

Mr. Specht at one time invested heavily in Colorado gold mines, and lost nearly everything so that he became bankrupted. He managed to outride the storm, however, and the fact shoUld be prominently recorded that his commercial creditors sustained not one cent of loss. Mr. Specht, politically, is a strong Republican. He has served as Justice of the Peace two terms, and has been a School Director in his district. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity in Preston, also a member of Tancred Commandery at Maquoketa and the Consistory at Lyons, having attained the thirty-second degree in masonry, and also belongs to the I.O.O.F. He is in the habit of contributing liberally to the various educational and religious institutions in his vicinity, and takes a genuine interest in the enterprises effecting the welfare of the people around him. A road running north from Preston to the LaFayette bridge was laid out at his expense, and has proven a great convenience to the citizens of that part of the township. Mr. and Mrs. Specht have no children of their own, but legally adopted four little girls, one of whom is Miss Anna Port of Vinton, and the other Mrs. Louisa (Frey) Moore of Preston. The other two are Kattie Frey and Minnie Specht.

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