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Henry Denzel

DENZEL, SUMNER, STEINHOFF

Posted By: Peter Gausmann (email)
Date: 1/23/2010 at 06:06:28

HENRY DENZEL

For a long period Henry Denzel has been connected with the grain and live stock business at Forest City, and while he disposed of his grain elevator in 1916, he is still active as a live stock dealer and is regarded as one of the representative business men of Winnebago county. A native of Ohio, he was born in Vermilion on the 18th of August, 1871, a son of John and Margaret (Sumner) Denzel, both of whom were natives of Germany. In early manhood and womanhood they crossed the Atlantic and for some years after their marriage resided in Ohio, while about 1877 they came to Iowa, settling on a farm three and one-half miles south of Forest City. The father died about 1910 and the mother, who still survives, makes her home with her son Henry.

Reared under the parental roof, Henry Denzel acquired a common school education and on attaining his majority became a wage earner. He was employed the first year as a farm hand and for his twelve months' service received one hundred and forty dollars, of which sum he saved one hundred dollars. He continued farm work another year and then took up his abode in Forest City, where he entered the employ of Seibert Brothers, general merchants, for whom he engaged in clerking for five or six years. He was anxious to carry on business on his own account and on the expiration of that period he purchased the Pevee elevator and turned his attention to the grain trade. He continued to operate that elevator for four or five years and two months after his insurance expired it was burned to the ground, causing a total loss. This was a great blow to his business, but with resolute spirit he set to work to retrieve his losses and soon afterward purchased the elevator of the Kingsbury Company, which he continued to operate until August, 1916, when he sold out to the Farmers Elevator Company. He was for many years a well known figure in the grain trade and his business was of a character that constituted an asset in commercial development and prosperity here, furnishing a market for the grain raisers. Through all these years he also engaged in dealing in live stock, which lie still handles. He is likewise the owner of a farm of one hundred and twenty acres five miles east of Forest City and gives personal supervision to its cultivation and improvement.

In 1900 Mr. Denzel was united in marriage to Miss Etta Steinhoff, of Newman Grove, Nebraska. He is a member of the American Yeomen, of the Mystic Toilers and of Albert Lea Lodge, No. 813, B. P. 0. E. His political allegiance is given to the democratic party and he and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal church. He is esteemed as a progressive and thoroughly reliable business man, as a public-spirited citizen and one who in social relations has ever commanded and won the confidence and good will of all with whom he has been brought in contact.

Source: History of Winnebago County and Hancock County, Iowa: A Record of Settlement, Organization, Progress and Achievement, Vol. II. Pioneer Publishing Company (Chicago), 1917. pp. 240-241.


 

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