John C. Huglin

HENNINGER, HUGLIN

Posted By: Judy Wight Branson (email)
Date: 10/16/2004 at 15:52:08

John G. Huglin is a retired farmer and stockman, now residing at 1834 Mondamin avenue in Des Moines. He was born in Baden, Germany, in February, 1847, and was there reared to the age of eighteen years. In December, 1865, he landed at New York and afterward went to Pittston, Pennsylvania, where he worked in a hotel for four months. In April, 1866, he came to Iowa and made his way to Madison county, where he was employed on a farm owned by his cousin. After a year he entered the employ of a Mr. Mosier and for three years continued to work for him by the month as a farm hand. He then purchased teams and broke prairie in Madison and Warren counties for about four years and was thus identified with the pioneer development of those regions. In 1872 he built a house in Bevington, where he conducted a hotel and butcher shop and also dealt in stock, actively carrying on business there until January, 1914, when he sold out and purchased his present home in Des Moines. Here he has since lived retired. At one time he was the owner of four hundred acres of rich and arable land in Madison county.

In 1871 Mr. Huglin was united in marriage to Miss Lena Henninger, a native of Baden, Germany, who had been one of his early schoolmates. She came to the United States in 1871 and soon afterward they were married. They became the parents of five children, all of whom are now deceased.

In his political views Mr. Huglin is a democrat. He has never sought nor held political office but while in Madison county served as school director. Fraternally he is connected with the Masonic lodge at St. Charles, Iowa, and his religious faith is that of the Lutheran church. Mr. Huglin arrived in Iowa a poor boy and worked by the month for some time as a farm hand in order to gain a start. As the years went on, however, he prospered and today is the possessor of a handsome competence. He occupies a pleasant, comfortable home in Des Moines, having retired from all business cares and now at the age of sixty-eight years he is enjoying well earned and well merited rest.

Taken from the book, “The History of Madison County, Iowa, 1915”