F. H. Voss Biography

F. H. Voss

F. H. Voss is engaged in the grain and live-stock business at Clarksville and close application and energy are constituting the foundation upon which he is building his success. Like many substantial citizens of the county, he is of German birth, the place of his nativity being Nienberg, Hanover, while the date is April 27, 1876. His parents, Fritz and Wilhelmina (Nordmann) Voss, were also natives of Hanover, the former born January 27, 1854, and the latter on the 4th of February, 1853. They came to Butler county, Iowa, in 1882, and settled on a farm six miles northeast of Clarksville, in Fremont township, where they resided until they retired about five years ago, taking up their abode in Clarksville. The father is a carpenter by trade, following that pursuit in his native land, but after coming to America he devoted his energies to farming. The family numbered four children : F. H. ; Louise, who is the widow of H. W. Miller, of Fremont township ; Millosine, the wife of F. A. Nordmann, of Butler township ; and William J., who is living on the old homestead in Fremont township. The two eldest came with their parents to the United States and the two youngest were born in this county.

F. H. Voss remained under the parental roof until the time of his marriage, when he began farming on his own account,
establishing his home five miles northeast of Clarksville, in Butler township. After devoting three years to the tilling of the soil he removed to the town and opened a meat market, which he conducted for a year. He then began buying and shipping stock, which business he has followed for the past decade. He conducted a dairy for five years which he sold out in 1910. He owns a half interest in the Rock Island grain elevator at Clarksville in connection with a partner, C. P. Christensen, under the firm style of Voss & Ohristensen, the partnership having been in existence for two years. His property interests likewise include two farms in this county, one of two hundred and forty acres and the other of one hundred and sixty acres. He also has two farms in Minnesota, one of eighty acres in Chippewa county, together with a
tract of land of two hundred acres in Yellow Medicine county. In all of his business affairs he seems to prosper. His judgment is sound, his sagacity keen and his enterprise unfaltering. He seems ever to recognize the possibility for success and discriminates readily between the essential and the non-essential in all business transactions. His father had only enough to buy furniture and two cows when the family arrived in America and F. H. Voss has made all that he has with little assistance from his father. His determined purpose has enabled him to carry forward to successful completion whatever he undertakes and in managing his private business interests he has also contributed to the
general prosperity.

On the 4th of October, 1900, Mr. Voss was united in marriage to Miss Millosine Nordmann, who was born in Hanover, Germany, February 4, 1880, and in 1892 was brought to Butler county by her parents, Henry A. and Caroline (Frietag) Nordmann, who are now living retired in Clarksville. Mr. and Mrs. Voss are members of the German Evangelical church and this is also the faith of the family. Throughout his entire life Mr. Voss has displayed the sterling traits of character of the German race and has made himself a valued citizen, contributing largely to the commercial enterprise and agricultural development of this part of the state. He has a circle of friends almost coextensive with the circle of his acquaintance and no history of Clarksville would be complete without mention of him.