Arthur Louis Hennings

HENNINGS RONFELDT

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 9/21/2010 at 22:34:34

History of Woodbury County, Iowa 1984

Arthur Louis Hennings
By Alma Hill Hennings

Arthur Louis Hennings, the fourth child of Friedrich Graves Hennings and Anna Catherine Ronfeldt, was born April 24, 1900, at Persia, Harrison County, Iowa. His brothers and sisters were William, Mae, Clara, Fred, George and Malode. His schooling began in Hornick, Iowa, in 1905.

Alma Hill, daughter of Joseph and Lottie Hill, became his bride on February 14, 1931. She was born in Giffordsville, Iowa, in Woodbury County.

The Hills rented and farmed the ‘Hennings Farm’. Once they watched a five-foot wall of water, from a heavy rain at Kingsley, move down the West Fork and wash away their crops. In the spring of 1939, when farming the A B Smith farm, no rain fell until late June; there then came a cloudburst that resulted in poor, uneven crops.

They purchased and lived on a farm in Moville Township which was known as the Lawn Turner Cherry Farm. (All the trees were killed in the famous Armistice Day blizzard of 1940.)

Mr Hennings worked for some time on the A S Wendel farm, herding cattle in winter. He also ran trap lines on the Wolf Creek and West Fork for extra money.

At seventeen he helped tend a threshing machine separator and eventually owned and operated his own custom threshing machine until combines became popular.

In the early 1920’s he played third base on the Arnolds Park Baseball Team. For several years he worked as a grain buyer for a Sioux City grain company. He eventually began to buy, raise, and feed cattle and hogs.

His hobby was raising and exhibiting grain, fruits and vegetables at fairs. In the years 1950 to 1956, he won second Award on corn at the Interstate Livestock Exposition, in Chicago. From the years 1960 to 1964, he was awarded Sweepstakes Banners at the Iowa State Fair. He has also won many ribbons at the Clay and Woodbury County Fair.

The children of Arthur and Alma Hennings are: Marilyn (Mrs Jack Erp of Plymouth, Michigan, born June 6, 1936); Donald, of Moville (born February 27, 1945, and married to Carole Twohey); and David, of Moville (born September 3, 1947, and married to Theresa Uhl). The grandchildren are: Robert and Stephen Erp; Donald’s Christie; and David’s Mark, Bryan, Eric, Jason and Scott.

Mr and Mrs Hennings are presently living on the ‘Cherry Farm”.

WCGS note: Alma lived to be 100 years old. She was a member of the Martha Washington Chapter NSDAR.