Borchers, Henry

BORCHERS, RICKLOSS, TOEL

Posted By: Linda Ziemann, Plym. CC (email)
Date: 2/21/2005 at 17:14:49

Henry Borchers

Henry Borchers, a well-to-do and progressive farmer of Johnson township, this county, is a native of Germany, but has lived in this country since he was three years of age and in Plymouth county since he was seventeen. He was born on February 18, 1864, son of Ben and Anna Borchers, natives of Germany and residents of Oldenburg, who came to the United States in 1867, later coming to Iowa and settling in Plymouth County, where their last days were spent.

Ben Borchers was a laborer in his native Oldenburg and some years after his marriage determined to seek his fortune in the land across the sea. With that end in view he came with his family to the United States and settled in Will county, Illinois, where for a year he and his wife worked at such employment as their hands could find to do and then he rented a bit of land there and began farming in a small way, continuing thus engaged there for about thirteen years, or until the spring of 1881 when he moved to Iowa and began farming in this county. Upon his arrival here Mr. Borchers rented a farm of eighty acres in Preston township and there established his home. He presently bought a quarter of a section of unimproved land in that township, erected a good frame house thereon and there spent the rest of his life. He improved the place and brought it up to a high standard of cultivation and as he prospered in his operations bought other land, presently becoming recognized as one of the substantial farmers of that neighborhood. There Ben Borchers died in 1901, at the age of sixty-three years. His widow survived him fourteen years, her death occurring in October, 1915, she then being seventy-three years of age. They were the parents of eleven children, all of whom grew to maturity save two, one who died and was buried in the ocean while the family was en route to this country, and Gerhart, who died in Illinois. Of the surviving children the subject of this sketch is the eldest, the others being as follow Ben, who is farming in Preston township, this county; Mary, now deceased, who was the wife of J. Dirks, of Brunsville, this county; August, Louis, Will and John, all of whom are farming in Preston township; Anna, who married Charles Mammer, of Grant township, and Minnie, who married Michael Eilers, of Preston township.

Henry Borchers was about three years of age when his parents came to this country and his boyhood was spent on the farm in Will county, Illinois. He was about seventeen when the family came to Plymouth county and his schooling was completed in the schools in the neighborhood of the family home in Preston township. Being the eldest son he was a valued assistant to his father in the labors of developing and improving the home farm and remained at home thus engaged until his marriage in 1891, when he started farming on his own account, renting a quarter of a section of land from his father in section 9 of Johnson township. Two years later he bought that place from his father and ever since has made his home there. Mr. Borchers has been successful in his farming operations and has one of the best-improved farms in that part of the county. In 1906 he supplanted his old house by a fine new modern house, equipped with a gas-lighting plant and modern conveniences and there he and his family are very comfortably and very pleasantly situated. He has a grove of three or four acres and an excellent orchard, a commodious barn and general farm buildings in keeping with the same and up-to-date provisions for the care of live stock. He keeps from thirty-five to fifty head of cattle and from eighty to one hundred head of hogs and has done very well as a stock man. In 1914 Mr. Borchers increased his land holdings by the purchase of a quarter section in Westfield township, which he is at present renting.

Henry Borchers has been twice married. In 1891 he was united in marriage to Kate Rickloss, who died, leaving one child, a daughter, Anna, who married Ben Toel, a farmer, of Johnson township, this county. Mr. Borchers then married Helen Toel and to this union three children had been born, Ben, Alma and Freda. The Borchers are members of the German Lutheran church and take a proper interest in the general beneficences of the same, as well as in the general social activities of the community in which the live.

BOOK SOURCE:
History of Plymouth County, Iowa
Indianapolis, Ind.: B. F. Bowen, 1917