Jenner, Alexander

JENNER

Posted By: Karon Velau (email)
Date: 6/29/2021 at 12:39:03

History of Warren County, Iowa; Containing a History of the County, Its Cities, Towns & Etc., by Union Historical Company, 1879, p.653

JENNER, ALEXANDER, farmer, Sec. 17, P. O. Indianola; is a native of Germany, born January 11, 1842, and emigrated to the United States with his parents in 1852, and first lived in Adams county, Ohio; his mother died in 1852, and his father two years later, and he was left in a strange land without home or friends; at fifteen years of age, he managed to get a place to work on a farm at sixteen dollars per year, and two months schooling, and failed to get but twenty days out of the two months; the following year his wages was increased to thirty dollars, and this continued till 1863, when he enlisted at the age of twenty-one, in the 129th Ohio Infantry, and served six months, and was mustered out at Cleveland, Ohio, March 8, 1864, and returned to Adams county, Ohio, and attended school for three winters; he removed to Warren county, Illinois, in 1865, and remained there for three years; came to this county, with twelve hundred and fifty dollars in 1868, and now owns a farm of eighty acres, under fine improvements; was married March 13, 1869, to Margaret Schimelfeny, a native of Germany; have four children: Edwin A., Franklin N., Lilly and Annie M.

History of Warren County, Iowa from Its Earliest Settlement to 1908, by Rev. W. C. Martin, Clarke Publishing Co., Chicago, Illinois, 1908, p.585

ALEXANDER JENNER
Alexander Jenner is a retired farmer now living in Indianola. For a long period he was closely associated with the work of the fields and found in that pursuit opportunity for the attainment of success. His business methods have ever been honorable and upright and the policy that he has pursued has won for him the respect of those who know him. While he now leaves the active work of the farm to others, he is still the owner of two hundred and twenty acres of productive land in Warren County.
Mr. Jenner claims Germany as the land of his birth, his natal year being 1842, while the place of his nativity is Wittenberg. It was there that his father, George Jacob Jenner, was born on the 30th of January 1798. He served as a soldier in the German army and made farming his life occupation. Having reached years of maturity he was wedded to Miss Eliza Baldrich, who was born in Germany in 1801. In the year 1852 Mr. Jenner brought his family to the United States, crossing the Atlantic in the month of June. They made their way from New York City to Cincinnati, Ohio, where Mrs. Jenner died just three weeks after their arrival in the new world. Nor was Mr. Jenner long permitted to enjoy his new home, for he passed away August 15, 1855. Both were members of the Lutheran Church. Their family numbered seven children, of whom the subject of this review is the youngest.
Alexander Jenner was a lad of ten years when the family came to the new world and was left an orphan at the ageof thirteen. He attended school in Germany until the emigration to the United States but his educational op­portunities were very meager. Thrown upon his own resources at an early age he took up farm work as a means of livelihood and was thus employed by the month until the time of the Civil War. During the first year he received only a dollar and a half per month, while during the second year he was paid thirty dollars for ten month's labor. His employers found him diligent, per­severing and faithful and though his lot was one of earnest and unremitting toil he soon learned the value of industry and perseverance and became self-reliant and energetic. On the 14th of July, 1863, with patriotic ardor he responded to the country's call and enlisted in Adams County, Ohio, as a member of Company G, One Hundred and Twenty-ninth' Ohio Volunteer In­fantry. He served until March 8, 1864, and was then mustered out at Cleve­land, Ohio. He was captured at Tasso, Tennessee, but was recaptured within twenty minutes as the battle surged back and forth. He took part in the engagements at Cumberland Gap, and at Finch River and was also in numer­ous skirmishes.
When his military service was ended Mr. Jenner became a resident of Dayton, Ohio, and in 1866 removed to Monmouth, Illinois, in the vicinity of which city he engaged in farming for two years. In 1868 he arrived in Indianola and through the succeeding twenty-eight years was closely, actively and honorably associated with the farming interests of White Oak Township. Year by year he carried on the work of the fields, cultivating large crops and keeping his land in good condition by the judicious use of fertilizers and the rotation of crops. He also placed substantial improvements upon his farm and transformed a tract of two hundred and twenty acres into a valuable property. He has also raised considerable stock, for which he finds a ready sale on the market, but during the past seven years he has lived retired, his former activity bringing him capital sufficient to enable him to put aside further business cares and yet enjoy the comforts and some of the luxuries of life.
In 1869 Mr. Jenner was united in marriage to Miss Margaret Schimel­pfenig, who was born in Germany in 1849. She came to the United States in 1863 when a maiden of fourteen years, with her mother. She is a sister of Adam and Jacob Schimelpfenig of Indianola. As the years passed children were added to the Jenner household to the number of eight, as follows: Edwin, a teacher in Simpson College; Frank M., a resident farmer of White Oak Township, Warren County; Lillie, who became the wife of James Nichols, a farmer and stockman, and died in August, 1904, leaving a daughter, Eloise, who is living with Mr. and Mrs. Jenner; Anna, the wife of E. T. White, a farmer of Colorado; Oscar, who has departed this life; Clarence, who is a student in Simpson College, at Indianola; Leslie, who is a high school student; and Laura, also in school.
Mr. Jenner maintains pleasant relations with his old army comrades through his membership in James Randolph Post, G. A. R., where around the campfires are recalled the scenes and events which occurred upon the southern battlefields. In politics he is a Republican, has served as school director, has also been justice of the peace and was supervisor of White Oak Township. His official duties have been promptly and capably performed and in fact in every relation of life his salient qualities have won him high regard and good will. Both he and his wife belong to the Methodist Episcopal Church and are much esteemed in the county, where for forty years they have made their home.