Welle, Henry

WELLE, NOLLEN, VAN SPANCKEREN

Posted By: Volunteer Transcriber
Date: 10/24/2009 at 08:43:49

Welle, Henry

In the constant and laborious struggle for an honorable competence and a creditable name on the part of business or professional men there is little to attract the reader in search of a sensational chapter, but to a mind thoroughly awake to the true meaning of life and its responsibilities there are noble and imperishable lessons in the career of an individual who, early thrown upon his own resources and without other means than a sound mind, fertile perceptive faculty and a true heart, conquers adversity and wins not only a position in the industrial world, but what is equally as great, the deserved esteem and confidence of his fellow men. Such a man is the prominent business man of Sully, Jasper County, whom the biographer treats in this connection, and whose name is so intimately associated with the material and civic interests of Lynn Grove Township as to reflect much credit upon the town and vicinity, at the same time gaining the undivided respect of all who know him for his well directed life, which has been along paths of honor.

Henry Welle was born in Marion County, Iowa, June 24, 1867, the son of Cornelius and Sarah (Nollen) Welle, both natives of Holland, the father having emigrated to America in 1847 with his parents, Peter and Dirkie Welle, and located in Marion County, Iowa, two and one-half miles from Pella, and there they spent the rest of their lives, having established a very pleasant home in the new world, and there the father of our subject was reared, he having been but a boy when he was brought to this state. The maternal grandparents, Henry and Sarah Nollen, also natives of Holland who emigrated to America in 1854, located in Marion County, Iowa, also and there the mother of the subject was reared.

Cornelius Welle devoted his life to agricultural pursuits and became the owner of about two hundred acres of valuable land. His death occurred on September 20, 1907, his widow is still living at the town of Pella, being now about seventy-five years of age. Their family consisted of two sons and two daughters, all living. Mr. Welle was a quiet, home man, a member of the Dutch Reformed Church, to which his widow also belongs.

Henry Welle was educated in the common schools of Marion County and reared on the farm, and he engaged in the various phases of agricultural pursuits until he was twenty-eight years of age, then he spent a year in Pella and in 1895 came to Sully, Jasper County, and entered the general mercantile business in partnership with B. H. Van Spanckeren, which continued successfully for a period of five years, during which time they built up an extensive trade with the town and surrounding country. At the end of that time Mr. Welle bought out his partner and conducted the business alone for ten years, enjoying a liberal and growing patronage all the while, then sold out in the fall of 1910 to Mr. Haan, and soon entered a partnership with Frank Sherman in the automobile and garage business, in which they are still engaged, having been successful from the first. They built a modern, substantial cement building, thirty by sixty feet, on Main Street. They handle the popular Ford, Hudson and Mitchell cars and their business is constantly growing.

Mr. Welle is a Democrat in politics and while he has never sought public leadership he has always stood ready to do his part in furthering any laudable undertaking having for its object the up building of the community in any way. Religiously, he belongs to the Congregational Church.

Mr. Welle was married on September 2, 1896, to Dora Van Spanckeren, daughter of B. H. Van Spanckeren, Sr., who located in Marion County, Iowa, in 1847. He now lives in Pella and is eighty-four years of age. One son has been born to Mr. and Mrs. Welle, named Cornelius. Past and Present of Jasper County Iowa B. F. Bowden & Company, Indianapolis, IN, 1912 Page 745.