Henry Haafke

HAAFKE COUCH

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 8/26/2010 at 20:47:09

History of Woodbury County, Iowa 1984

Henry Haafke
By Charles and Peggy Haafke, Barbara Haafke Thompson and Karen Haafke Jacobs

Henry Haafke was born on December 24, 1874. He was the third surviving child to be born in the Edward Haafke family and the first child to be born in the United States. He was born at the time his parents still lived in Sioux City before they moved to their Bronson farm.

Henry attended Elliot Creek Grade School. He was a farmer all of his life and lived on the same farm southeast of Bronson. Henry became a church member of the Bronson Presbyterian Church on February 16, 1898.

He married Maude Couch on December 31, 1910. As Maude was Sunday School Superintendent for a period of time, they sometimes held social gatherings in their home for the young people of the church. They were also Ladies Aid and Farm Bureau meetings held in the home.

Henry’s hobbies were attending auction sales, fishing, and visiting with his friends; and he liked to do good things for people. Henry was generous, and his nieces and nephews can remember his buying them gifts at different times.

Henry and Maude had two boys born to them. They were: Edward, born August 15, 1915, and Wallace, born March 15, 1919.

Edward ‘Ed’ and William II ‘Bill’ Haafke were good friends and used to attend short courses in agriculture at Ames in the 1930’s. He was also in the service during World War II. Edward was a successful farmer. He married Dorothy Alexander from Orchard, Nebraska, on April 29, 1950. They lived on the Henry Haafke farm and Dorothy remained living thre after Ed’s death. Maude moved into Bronson when Edward and Dorothy moved to the farm.

Edward and Dorothy had three chidlren: Charles, who was born February 23, 1952; Barbara, born June 12, 1953; and Karen, born August 10, 1954.

Charles married Peggy Martin on August 4, 1974. They had a son, Bryce, born December 18, 1979; he died February 18, 1980, of a heart defect. They have a daughter, Erin, born May 25, 1981. Charles and Peggy live on the same farm where Henry and Maude and Edward and Dorothy lived.

Barbara Haafke married Mike Thompson on August 29, 1977. They live in St Louis, Missouri. Karen married David Jacobs on August 8, 1874. They live at Jackson, Mississippi.

Edward died April 20, 1955, of cancer at the age of thirty-nine. Dorothy died of cancer on July 17, 1982. She was sixty-two years of age.

Wallace, the second son born to Henry and Maude, attended one year in the service during World War II. He attended one year at Ames. He never married. He was active in the Bronson Presbyterian Church. He died on February 2, 1976, of a heart attack.

Henry died June 28, 1947, of aploplepyarteriosclersosis. He was seventy-two years of age. Maude died of cancer on January 20, 1961. She was seventy-six years old at the time of her death.