HENRY THIESEN

Henry Thiesen, who died at his home in Farmington township on the 13th of September, 1909, was identified with general agricultural pursuits in this part of the state throughout his entire business career and gained a large degree of prosperity in this connection. He was sixty-five years of age when called to his final rest, his birth having occurred in Germany on the 25th of July, 1844. He acquired his education in the fatherland and there spent the first twenty-two years of his life. In 1866, having determined to establish his home on this side of the Atlantic, he emigrated to the United States and located in Davenport, Iowa, where he worked as a farm hand for three years. On the expiration of that period he rented a tract of three hundred and twenty acres in Scott county and subsequently operated a rented farm of four hundred acres in Muscatine county.

In 1881 Mr. Thiesen purchased the place on which his widow and daughters now reside in Farmington township, Cedar county, first buying two hundred and forty acres and later adding an adjoining tract of eighty acres. In 1903, however, he disposed of one hundred and sixty acres of his farm. He remodeled the house, erected new barns and outbuildings for the shelter of grain and stock and brought his fields under a high state of cultivation. His labors both as a farmer and stock-raiser were crowned with success, and when he passed away the community mourned the loss of one of its most substantial and esteemed citizens.

On the 3d of May, 1871, in Davenport, Mr. Thiesen was joined in wedlock to Miss Maria Rosenberg, whose parents spent their entire lives in Germany. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Thiesen were born eight children, as follows: Julius, who is now a resident of O’Brien county; Lena, living in Davenport; Henry, of Muscatine county; Amanda, at home; Adelia, the widow of Benjamin Lunschen; Ella, who is the wife of Otto Meyhaus, of Sunbury; Elizabeth, likewise at home; and Amelia, who died in infancy.

Mr. Thiesen gave his political allegiance to the democracy for many years but late in life became a supporter of the republican party. He ably served his fellow townsmen in the offices of township trustee, road supervisor and school director, ever discharging his public duties in a most prompt and satisfactory manner. In religious faith he was a Lutheran and his widow and children like-wise belong to the church of that denomination. Taking up his abode in the new world in early manhood, he wisely utilized the opportunities which came to him and eventually won the prosperity which is ever the reward of earnest, persistent effort when guided by sound judgment. Mrs. Thiesen, who still resides on the old home place in Farmington township, is well known and highly esteemed throughout the community for her many excellent traits of heart and mind.