BELL, HENRY
BELL, VARKENTINE, KRUGER, ANDERT
Posted By: Jean Kramer (email)
Date: 5/24/2004 at 16:50:34
Biography reproduced from page 467 of the History of Kossuth and Humboldt Counties, Iowa published in 1884:
Henry Bell, son of John and Dora (Warkentien) Bell, was born Jan. 18, 1842, in Mecklenburg. When he was twenty-six years old he came to Chicago, settling on a farm sixteen miles west of the city. In the fall of 1882 he came to Kossuth Co., Iowa, and bought 248 acres of land on section 5, 140 acres of which is under cultivation, where he raises grain and stock. He has just built a new stock barn, 28x74 feet, and his buildings are all in good repair, looking neat and clean. Lott’s creek runs through the farm near the house. He was married Nov. 4, 1868, to Anna Kroger, of Holstein. They have two children—Ferdinand and Ada Wilhelmina Maria. The family all attend the Lutheran Church. In politics he is a republican.
-----------------------------Biography reproduced from page 438 of Volume II of the History of Kossuth County written by Benjamin F. Reed and published in 1913:
Henry Bell has for thirty years been actively identified with the agricultural development of Garfield township, where he owns a highly cultivated and well improved farm of two hundred and forty acres. He was born in Germany, January 18, 1841, and is a son of John and Dorothea (Varkentine) Bell. The parents were also natives of Germany and there the father, who was a laborer, passed away in 1862. He was survived by the mother who emigrated to the United States in 1869, and made her home with a daughter in Illinois until she died in 1896.
Henry Bell was reared in his native land and after leaving school worked in various hotels in Germany until he was twenty-six years of age. In 1868, he came to the United States, settling in Illinois. During the first year of his residence in this country he worked out as a farm hand, but at the end of that time he rented land which he cultivated until 1882. He was thrifty and enterprising and during that period he succeeded in accumulating sufficient money to buy a farm, so he came to Kossuth county and bought two hundred and forty acres of land in Garfield township. He immediately set about improving his place and during the intervening years he has brought his fields to a high state of productivity, erected a comfortable residence, substantial barns and outbuildings and effected many minor improvements, making it one of the valuable properties of the township. Mr. Bell is practical in his ideas, and directs his undertakings with much foresight and excellent judgment and is numbered among the substantial farmers of his community. In addition to his valuable reality holdings, he has acquired stock in both of the banks at West Bend.
On the 12th of December, 1868, Mr. Bell was married to Miss Anna Kruger, a daughter of Claus and Margaret Kruger, natives of Germany, where the father, who was a shoemaker by trade, passed his entire life. The mother died in 1870. Two children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Bell: Ferdinand, who was drowned in a creek near home in June, 1894; and Ida, the wife of Tony Andert, who is operating the Bell farm.
The parents are members of the German Lutheran church, and in politics Mr. Bell is independent. He served for fifteen years as trustee of Garfield township, and he has also discharged the duties of road supervisor and school director. The success that has come to Mr. Bell is the result of well directed efforts, as he began life in America empty-handed and entirely dependent upon his own resources. The early years were fraught with many hardships and privations but his labors were ultimately rewarded, and he is now able to spend the evening of his life in well earned comfort and ease.
(Photo of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Bell accompany this biography.)
Kossuth Biographies maintained by Linda Ziemann.
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