Hoogewoning, Abraham

HOOGEWONING

Posted By: Karon Velau (email)
Date: 9/22/2019 at 23:29:46

Abraham Hoogewoning

(From the 1891 Biographical History of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, p.436)
ABRAHAM HOOGEWONING, one of the prominent business men of Avoca, was born in Rysburg, Province of South Holland, March 24, 1851, the son of Peter HOOGEWONING, a native of the same place. He was married in the same town, and was the father of five children: Abraham, William, Catharina, Charles and John. He lived to the age of seventy-two years, and was killed by an accident on the railroad at Ottumwa, Iowa. He came to America in 1868, and settled at Pella, Marion County, where he bacame a popular man.

Abraham HOOGEWONING, our subject, came to Pella, Iowa, when seventeen years of age, and engaged in farm work six months. He attended school one month and evening school two winters, and was at first placed with the small scholars on account of not understanding the language, but his natural scholarship was such that after one day he was advanced to the higher classes. December 31, 1876, he came to Avoca, and has since been engaged in the real-estate business, house renting and money lending. He was married in Des Moines, Iowa, January 16, 1877 to Cornelia VAN De PEPPEL, youngest daughter of Cornelius and Mariya VAN De PEPPEL, a native of Holland, and they are the parents of four children: Peter, Cornelius, Abraham and Henry. It is gratifying to note that while our subject began life as a vegetable peddler when a mere boy from thirteen to sixteen years of age, in the Hague, the capital of Holland, he has, by his own unaided efforts and with great perseverance, become a reliable citizen. He has never been above earning an honest dollar in any legitimate manner, and it may well be said that he has come by his property honestly. It is needless to state of Mr. HOOGEWONING, that he is rated high in the commercial reports and that he is regarded as a straight-forward and reliable man. He is also a man of excellent natural ability, and, as he is still a young man, should take a high rank in the future. Coming from Holland, England and Germany, and speaking foreign languages, he has, by his force of character alone, overcome obstacles which would have been insurmountable by many others.