DORWEILER, HARRY J.

DORWEILER, BARTH, DASEN, BEHNKE

Posted By: Jean Kramer (email)
Date: 4/29/2004 at 12:02:42

Biography reproduced from page 469 of Volume II of the History of Kossuth County written by Benjamin F. Reed and published in 1913:

Harry J. Dorweiler, who is engaged in the cultivation of his father’s farm in Garfield township, represents the third generation of his family to have been engaged in agricultural pursuits in Kossuth county. He was born on the place where he now resides on October 8, 1882, and is a son of Paul and Justina (Barth) Dorweiler, natives of Germany, who are mentioned at greater length elsewhere in this work.

The greater part of the life of Harry J. Dorweiler has been passed amid the scenes with which he is familiar. In common with the majority of boys who are reared in the country, he was early trained to assist with the work of the fields and care of the crops, and obtained his elementary education in the district schools of Garfield township. He later supplemented the knowledge there acquired by three terms of study at Highland Park College, Des Moines, at the expiration of which time he terminated his student days. During the succeeding eight years he assisted his father with the work of the farm in the summer and taught in the district schools of Iowa during the winter months, with the exception of one year when he had a school in South Dakota. When his father retired in 1908, he leased the farm, which he has ever since been cultivating with very good success, and is numbered among the capable and promising young farmers of his township.

In April, 1906, Mr. Dorweiler was united in marriage to Miss Anna Dasen, a daughter of Carl and Caroline (Behnke) Dasen, natives of Germany. They emigrated to America in early life, first locating in Kankakee, Illinois, where the father, who was a blacksmith, conducted a shop until 1894. He then disposed of his business and turned his attention to farming which he followed for three years. In 1907, he entirely withdrew from active work and removed to Union Hill, Illinois, where he is now living retired. Three children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Dorweiler, as follows: Dasen D., who is three years of age, Cornelius O., who has passed the second anniversary of his birth; and Harriet A., who is a babe of three months.

Mr. and Mrs. Dorweiler are members of the German Lutheran church and he votes with the democratic party. He is a most estimable young man of broad intelligence and laudable ambition, who is making for himself a creditable position in business circles of his community, where for more than forty years his family has been held in high esteem.