Henry Duesenberg

DUESENBERG, POTTHOFF, HERTZ, BYER, KATTERHENRY, HICKS, REUTZEL

Posted By: Peter Gausmann (email)
Date: 1/23/2010 at 06:10:10

HENRY DUESENBERG

Henry Duesenberg, now successfully engaged in general farming on section 28, Concord township, Hancock county, has been a resident of Iowa since 1884 but his early home was on the other side of the Atlantic, for he was born in Germany, September 16, 1863, his parents being Conrad and Conradine (Potthoff) Duesenberg. The father died in Germany, and in 1885 the mother came to the United States, where she is still living at the age of seventy-eight years. She purchased a farm of one hundred and sixty acres in Floyd county, Iowa, for which she paid twenty-three dollars per acre, and in that county she still makes her home. She was again married, her second husband being Christian Hertz, of Charles City, Iowa.

Henry Duesenberg was reared and educated in his native land, where he remained until 1884, when he resolved to try his fortune in the new world. For three years after coming to this country he worked as a farm hand and then rented a farm in Floyd county, Iowa, which he operated for two years. At the end of that time he turned his attention to shoemaking and harnessmaking in Klemme, Hancock county, where he worked at these trades for five years. The following two years were again devoted to agricultural pursuits, but on the 7th of August, 1897, a hail storm destroyed his crops, leaving him only fifteen bushels of potatoes, worth twenty cents per bushel, for his year's work. On settling up his affairs he found that he was six hundred dollars in debt. Mr. Duesenberg then returned to Floyd county and lived with his mother for a time while working in a harness shop. In April, 1898, he began working for the Fatten nursery at Charles City as traveling salesman, and remained with that house for three years. He was engaged in the nursery business at Rockford, Iowa, until his removal to Garner in 1905. He put in a nursery stock but on the 3d of July, 1908, the hail completely ruined thirty thousand apple trees and all of his strawberries, covering an acre and a half. Since then he has engaged in general farming, having purchased in 1905 a tract of one hundred and fifty acres on section 28, Concord township, Hancock county, for which he paid sixty-five dollars per acre.

On the 21st of December, 1887, Mr. Duesenberg was united in marriage to Miss Margaret Byer, a native of Germany, of which country her parents were lifelong residents. To this union were born two children: Hulda, now the wife of Edward Katterhenry; and Wesley, a resident of Jersey City, New Jersey. Mr. Duesenberg was again married October 13, 1898, his second union being with Miss Eva Hicks, a daughter of John and Margaret (Reutzel) Hicks, natives of Germany, who came to this country and settled near Mendota, Illinois, in the fall of 1868. In that locality Mrs. Duesenberg was born October 18, 1869, and there her parents still reside.

Mr. and Mrs. Duesenberg are earnest and consistent members of the German Methodist Episcopal church and are people of the highest respectability. In politics Mr. Duesenberg is a republican. He is a man of good business ability and is regarded as one of the representative citizens of the community in which he lives.

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. 173-174.