Silwold, Henry

SILWOLD, DEPPING, CLAUSSEN, KELLY

Posted By: Volunteer Transcriber
Date: 10/21/2009 at 07:44:07

Silwold, Henry

Henry Silwold, well known attorney and substantial citizen of Newton, Jasper County, was born in Sheboygan County, Wisconsin, January 12, 1860. He is the son of Henry and Charlotte (Depping) Silwold, both natives of Germany where they spent their childhood, emigrating to America when young. The elder Silwold devoted his life to farming and by hard work and good management became well established. He came to Iowa in 1866, located in Malaka Township, Jasper County, where he bought land, which he placed under excellent improvements and a high state of cultivation and where he continued to live until his death, in October, 1901, his wife surviving until March 1908. They were highly respected in their community and had a host of friends wherever they were known. Six children were born to them, five of whom are living, namely: Henry, of this review. Mrs. Herman Claussen, who lives four miles north of Newton; Mrs. W. J. Kelly, of Grovont, Wyoming; Fred is living on the old home farm in this county; Mary is also living on the old homestead.

Henry Silwold was six years of age when his parents brought him to Jasper County; here he grew to maturity on the home farm which he worked during the crop seasons, attending the common schools in the wintertime; after which he took a preparatory course at Hazel Dell Academy at Newton before entering Drake University, in 1885, at Des Moines, from which institution he was graduated in 1890, having completed the collegiate course. He remained under his parental rooftree, with the exception of the time spent in school, until he was twenty-five years of age. He had long entertained a laudable ambition to study law, and after leaving college he plunged into Blackstone and other authorities in earnest and made rapid progress With W. O. McElroy, of Newton, and he was admitted to the bar in October 1892, and soon thereafter began active practice at Baxter, Iowa, where he gained a good foothold at once, remaining there three years. Seeking a wider field for the exercise of his talents, he moved to Newton in May 1898, and has remained in the practice here to the present, proving himself to be a painstaking and careful advocate, and he is regarded as a logical and earnest pleader at the bar. He keeps fully abreast of the times in all matters pertaining to his profession, such as the latest decisions in important cases, new codes and revised statutes, and, judging from his past worthy and eminently honorable and satisfactory career, he bids fair to become one of the leading attorneys of the state in due course of time.

Mr. Silwold has never assumed the responsibilities of the married state. Politically, he is a Republican and has been more or less active in politic; affairs for a number of years, always lending his support to any movement having for its object the general development of his locality. He was count attorney from April 1900, to January 1, 1902, holding this important office in a manner that reflected much credit upon himself and to the entire satisfaction of all concerned. Fraternally, he is a member of the Masonic order and in religious matters he belongs to the Congregational Church. Past and Present of Jasper County Iowa B. F. Bowden & Company, Indianapolis, IN, 1912 Page 470.