Rapp, Henry

RAPP

Posted By: Joyce Hickman (email)
Date: 8/21/2008 at 13:54:21

Henry Rapp

(From the 1883 History of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, by J. H. Keatley, p.122, James Twp.)
Henry Rapp, farmer, P. O. Minden, was born in Germany September 14, 1831, son of Johannes and Magdalena Rapp, both natives of Germany, he born April 17, 1806, and she in 1806. Her father is still living in his native town, where the mother died. They had nine children - five sons and four daughters - of whom three boys and two girls are now living. Our subject received his education in his native place, and began life as a farmer. He came to the United States in 1851, landing in Baltimore, Md. He went to Frederick, Md., where he learned the tanner's trade. He then went to Uniontown, Fayette Co., Penn. In 1854, he came to Ottawa, La Salle Co., Ill., where he was married, January 31, 1856, to Eva Maier, born in Germany December 24, 1833. She is the daughter of Johannes and Maria (Hellstern) Maier, both natives of Germany, he born in 1789, and she died in 1844, in her native town. In 1878, our subject came to James Township, this county, and purchased eighty acres of wild land at $8 per acre. He improved it, and, in 1880, bought forty acres more at $10 per acre. Mr. Rapp has filled several township offices. He has had nine children, of whom there are living John C., Lena, Mary C., Henry and Louisa. Our subject is a member of the German Evangelican Association. He was a Mason, and a member of the German Benevolent Association of Ottawa, Ill. In politics, he is an Independent. One of Mr. Rapp's sons has just finished a course of study in the German Church at Mt. Pleasnt, preparatory to entering the ministry of the Methodist Church.