HENRY WILKENING

Henry Wilkening, a well known and successful farmer and stock-raiser of Springfield township, is the owner of a productive tract of land comprising two hundred acres, which has been in his possession for the past three decades. His birth occurred in Hanover, Germany, on the 21st of May, 1854, his parents being Conrad and Sophia (Emme) Wilkening, who spent their entire lives in that country. The father was a butcher by trade.

Henry Wilkening obtained his education in the schools of his native land and there made his home until a youth of eighteen. In 1872, wishing to test the truth of the many favorable reports which he had heard concerning the opportunities of the new world, he crossed the Atlantic to the United States, coming direct to Cedar county, Iowa. Here he worked as a farm hand for eight years, when, having carefully hoarded his earnings, he was enabled to buy land of his own, coming into possession of his present farm of two hundred acres in Springfield township. On this place he has carried on his agricultural interests continuously since, raising high grade stock in addition to cultivating cereals and making a specialty of shorthorn cattle. He erected a substantial barn and good outbuildings and has brought his fields under a high state of cultivation. Alert, energetic and enterprising, he has won success in his undertakings and has long been numbered among the representative and respected citizens of his community.

On the 6th of March, 1880, Mr. Wilkening was united in marriage to Miss Louisa Miller, a daughter of Louis and Dora (White) Miller, both of whom are deceased. Unto our subject and his wife were born four sons and a daughter, as follows: Julius, whose birth occurred on the 22d of January, 1882; Edward, whose natal day was September 13, 1886; Martha, born June 5, 1888, who gave her hand in marriage to George Miller, of this county; Paul, whose birth occurred on the 16th of January, 1891; and Hugo, who was born January 14, 1893. All are still at home with the exception of Martha. The wife and mother was called to her final rest on the 1st of March, 1893, her demise being the occasion of deep and widespread regret.

Mr. Wilkening is a stanch republican in politics but has had neither time nor inclination for public office. His religious faith is indicated by his membership in the Evangelical church at Lowden. While he still maintains a love for the land of his birth, his interest centers in the United States and he is in hearty sympathy with its institutions, its purposes and its governmental policy.