Henry C. Bothmer Henry C. Bothmer is able and gratified to pay to the Hawkeye state the allegiance and loyalty of a native son and he has been a resident of Clayton county since his childhood, being one of the six surviving children of a family of seven born to Henry and Caroline (Lozier) Bothmer, both of whom were born and reared in Germany, whence they immigrated to America in 1852 and were married in Pennsylvania. The parents first established their home in Pennsylvania, but a few years later they came to Iowa and numbered themselves among the pioneers of Fayette county. At Westfield, that county, as a practical miller by trade, the father operated one of the pioneer flour mills of northeastern Iowa, and a few years later he came with his family to Clayton county and assumed charge of the mill in the village of Clayton, where he passed the residue of his life, his wife having died here also. He whose name introduces this article was reared to manhood in Clayton county, availed himself consistently of the privileges afforded in the public schools of the locality and period, and as a youth he initiated his independent career by assuming a position as clerk in a general store at Clayton. Here he later engaged independently in the farm implement business, and since about 1885 he has given the major part of his time and attention to the buying and shipping of live stock, of which important line of industrial enterprise he is one of the prominent, successful and popular representatives in this section of the state, his operations involving the shipping of an average of sixty carloads of live stock each year. In addition to owning a fine modern residence at Clayton and a farm of thirty acres in Clayton township, this county, Mr. Bothmer has a valuable tract of seven hundred and forty acres of land in the State of Michigan and a well improved farm of one hundred and sixty acres in South Dakota. He has manifested no desire for public office or political activity, but gives his support in national and state affairs to the Democratic party. At Garnavillo he is affiliated with Garnavillo Lodge, No. 90, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and his wife is a communicant of the Lutheran church, which he attends and supports. In 1888 Mr. Bothmer wedded Miss Kate Specht, who was born in Grant county, Wisconsin, and who is a daughter of Herman and Sarah (Spiese) Specht, both now deceased. Of the three children of Mr. and Mrs. Bothmer the second child, a daughter, died in infancy; Benjamin H. is now a resident of Montana; and Clyde H. is employed as a clerk in a Clayton mercantile establishment. source: History of Clayton
County, Iowa; From The Earliest Historical Times Down to
the Present; by Realto E. Price, Vol. II; page 53-54 |