Funk, William H.

FUNK

Posted By: Karon Velau (email)
Date: 6/29/2021 at 00:14:51

History of Warren County, Iowa from Its Earliest Settlement to 1908, by Rev. W. C. Martin, Clarke Publishing Co., Chicago, Illinois, 1908, p.931

WILLIAM H. FUNK
A well developed and highly improved farm of one hundred and sixty acres, eighty acres of which is located in White Breast Township and eighty in Liberty Township. is the property of W. H. Funk, who has spent his entire life in Iowa. He was born in Wapello County, July 17, 1853, a son of Elisha and Harriet (Cole) Funk, the latter a native of Ohio where she was reared. The father was born in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania in 1825, and was there reared. He was a carpenter and millwright by trade and when a young man came to the west hoping to improve his financial condition. He located in Iowa in 1845 before it had been admitted to the Union. He entered a claim in Des Moines and thereon built a log cabin. He later left the place which was taken up by other parties. Mr. Funk then settled in Wapello County, where he likewise entered land and opened up and improved a farm which he later sold and invested his capital in another farm seven miles north of Ottumwa. This was a well improved property and Mr. Funk there spent his last days passing away February 27, 1894. His wife still survives and resides on the old home place.
William H. Funk, the immediate subject of this review, was reared in his native county and there began his education in the common schools, completing his studies in the Iowa State Normal at Bloomfield. He remained with his father until he had reached the age of twenty-three, during which time he assisted in the operation of the home farm. He was then married to Miss Carrie Edgar, the ceremony being performed in Wapello County, February 27, 1876. Mrs. Funk was reared in the latter county, a daughter of R. C. Edgar, one of the early settlers of that section, going thence from the Buckeye state.
Following his marriage Mr. Funk located on a farm in Wapello County, operating the same for six years. In 1882, however, he took up his abode in Warren County, locating on the farm which has since been his home. He, however, began here with a tract of forty acres, on which there were no build­ings. He erected a house and outbuildings and brought his fields under a good state of cultivation. As time passed and he prospered in his undertakings he added to his original holdings, purchasing an additional forty acre tract in Liberty Township, this being located on section 25, while he bought eighty acres adjoining, in White Breast Twnship. He has divided his farm into fields of convenient size by well kept fences, has set out fruit and shade trees, built a good country residence and now has a valuable property. He is engaged in general agricultural pursuits and also raises stock, feeding about two carloads of cattle and the same amount of hogs annually and he also raises some horses. He is methodical in carrying on his business affairs and is therefore suc­cessful.
The marriage of Mr and Mrs. Funk has been blessed with one son, Claud E., who wedded Essie Oxenreider, a daughter of Samuel Oxenreider, of Lacona, whose sketch appears elsewhere in this volume. They have two chil­dren, Herman H. and Vurryl M.. Mr. and Mrs. Funk also reared a nephew of the latter, Robert McGee, who became a member of their household when a lad of ten years. He was reared and educated by them and given all the advantages that could be bestowed through parental affection.
Mr. Funk has been a lifelong Republican and has served in various pub­lic offices. He was elected and served for twelve years as justice of the peace in Warren County and later filled the office of supervisor and for six con­secutive years through reelection he served on the county board, being chair­man for two years. Since filling the office of supervisor he has been again elected to the office of justice of the peace and is now serving in that capacity, his decisions ever being made with a sense of justice and impartiality.
He has served as a delegate to numerous judicial and congressional conventions. His fraternal relations are with the Masonic Lodge. No. 152. at Lacona, in which he has filled all of the chairs and is now past master. He has also acted as a delegate to the grand lodge several times. He and his estimable wife are identified with the Eastern Star lodge in which she is serving as worthy matron. They are also members of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Lacona, in which Mr. Funk has served as steward and leader of the choir. He has also been superintendent of the Sunday school for the past sixteen years and has served as president of the County Sunday School Association for some six years, while for many years his wife has been a teacher in the Sunday school. They are well known in Lacona and in various other sections of the county and Mr. Funk has been identified with the development and improve­ment of this section throughout a long period and is still numbered among its active farmers, while socially both he and his wife stand high in the community.