TIENAN, FRANK A.

TIENAN, WOODS, CARNAHAN, ERICKSON, THOMPSON, GRAHAM, BROWN

Posted By: Jean Kramer (email)
Date: 7/13/2003 at 14:39:53

Biography reproduced from page 679 of Volume II of the History of Kossuth County written by Benjamin F. Reed and published in 1913:

Among the younger residents of Harrison township few occupy a more conspicuous place than does Frank A. Tienan, a progressive farmer and stock-raiser, whose interests also extend to various important business enterprises of that locality. The great commonwealth of Iowa claims him as a native son, his birth having occurred in Iowa county, on the 23rd of September 1874. His parents, August F. and Elizabeth (Woods) Tienan, are natives of Cologne, Germany, and are mentioned at length on another page of this volume.

Frank A. Tienan was the fourth in order of birth in a family of seven children born to his parents, and in the public schools of Story county, Iowa, acquired a good education. He remained at home, giving his father the benefit of his assistance on the farm, until twenty-six years of age, when he entered upon an independent career. He subsequently came to Kossuth county in 1902 and purchased a farm of one hundred and sixty acres five miles north and one mile east of Swea City, in Grant county, which he operated for two years, and then, in 1904, he disposed of that property and came to Harrison township. Here he purchased his present farm of one hundred and sixty acres located on section 32, and in 1909 acquired another tract of one hundred and sixty acres located on section 28, Grant township, which he leases, receiving good rental therefore. His home place is one of the valuable farming properties of Harrison township, being well improved and well tiled, and upon it he engages in general farming and also gives much attention to stock-raising, buying, feeding and raising a large number of horses, cattle, hogs and sheep. The latter is proving an important branch of his enterprise, something of the extent of his operations in that direction being indicated by the fact that he ships on an average of thirty-five car loads of stock to Chicago annually. He is recognized as one of the most progressive young farmers of the township and as he has prospered in his agricultural pursuits he has taken up other interests, being now a member of the Bankers Life Insurance Company. He is also a stockholder in the Farmers Elevator Company of Cylinder, Iowa, and in the Swea City Opera House Company, interests which connect him with some of the important business enterprises of this part of the county.

It was on the 14th of October, 1900, that Mr. Tienan was united in marriage to Miss Elizabeth Erickson, a daughter of Paul and Inger (Thompson) Erickson, both natives of Norway. The father, who was a sailor, came to America in 1881, making his way direct to Iowa, where he located in Nevada and there took up agricultural pursuits. In the spring of 1897 he removed to Palo Alto county and purchased a farm two miles north of Rodman, upon which he and his wife still reside. While living in Nevada he was married to Miss Inger Thompson, who had come to America at the same time her husband crossed the Atlantic, and to them were born four children, of whom Mrs. Tienan is the eldest. The others are as follows: Minnie, the wife of Roy Graham, a farmer of Palo Alto county; Mollie, who married Leland Brown, a real-estate dealer of Sioux Falls, Iowa; and Elmer, living at home with is parents. Mr. and Mrs. Tienan have become the parents of five children, namely: Homer, who was born October 9, 1901, and is attending district school No. 9, of Harrison township; Mary, born in December, 1903, who died when three months old; Henry, who was born in 1904 and passed away at the age of three months; Frank A., Jr., born in December, 1906, at home; Elizabeth on the 18th of September, 1909; and Paul, whose birth occurred in February, 1912.

Mrs. Tienan holds membership in the Baptist church of Swea City, while fraternally Mr. Tienan belongs to the Modern Woodmen of America camp at Swea City. He has never been deeply interested in political questions and issues, and is identified with the progressive faction of the republican party. For several terms he served as director for school district No. 9, Harrison township, and is now filling the position of road supervisor, in which he is giving capable and efficient service. He has ever been a champion of progress, where in political, intellectual, material or business lines, and his labors have been an element of growth along those lines during the period of his residence in Harrison township.